s/o What's for Thanksgiving dinner?

[ChillyMcFreeze]

I've been reassured that it's not too early to talk holiday menus! So what are you having/ where are you going/ who do you have to tolerate to get at that beautiful bird?

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Thanksgiving is my mom's favorite holiday and I don't have the space or inclination to take it over, so we'll go home as usual. Our typical menu includes traditional turkey, cornbread stuffing with cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy (no giblets), green bean casserole, homemade cranberry sauce with pecans and whatever sides our houseful of guests brings. Then pumpkin and apple pie plus these amazing pumpkin squares (pumpkin pie filling topped with yellow cake mix and a shitton of butter) for dessert.

We'll have at least 15 people--my mom's sisters and their families plus all my parents' many single friends. Everyone is pleasant for the most part. No crazy family members unless my BIL makes an appearance. Unlikely, thank God.

[rugbywife]

It is thanksgiving for us!

Friday night's menu was:
- butternut squash soup (care of whole foods)
- beet and goat cheese salad (care of fine cooking magazine)
- tourtiere (Quebecois meat pie), roast fall root veggies, corn pie and stuffing (care of whole foods, again)
- caramilk brownies with chocolate ganache with ice cream

Tonight's dinner at the ILs
- turkey with stuffing and gravy, steamed carrots and corn, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole
- apple pie and pumpkin pie with butter pecan ice cream.

I liked the dinner we 'made' (I made the salad at least) on Friday night better than this evening's but I don't love turkey. I do love stuffing though.

[AJL]

Roasted Turkey
Orange-Cranberry relish
Mushroom Pecan stuffing
Jalapeno Cornbread stuffing
Sweet Potato and Pumpkin cazuela
Classic mashed potatoes
Scratch made yeast rolls
Salad of mixed greens with pomagranite seeds
Relish tray (dills, cornichons, variety of olives, etc.)

A selection of pies - pumpkin, apple, pecan, mince meat, berry tarts, chocolate cream

My father cooks everything except the pies and the cazuela (that one is my contribution.) My aunt and grandma do the pies. We usually have anywhere from 12 - 20 people over.

[darnkatz]

We will be at the ILs. I go way overboard because I am insane. I love Thanksgiving. There will probably only be five people. :-| Let me say again that I am insane. Also, I love leftovers.

Appetizers
Baked Brie bites
Cheddar mashed potato puffs
Winter squash bisque

Main dish
Alton Brown's turkey

Side dish
Blackberry cranberry sauce
Vegetable and herb dressing
Candied yams
Herbed dinner rolls
Mixed greens salad with raspberries, Stilton apricot cheese and toasted pecans

Dessert
Pumpkin pie
Double chocolate pecan pie
Caramel apple cheesecake pie

[osulori]

We have double dinner fun-1ish at J's aunt and uncle's house with FIL's side of the family, and 6ish at my parents' with potentially one or both of my sisters (likely neither this year though), MIL, and SIL (again, likely not this year thank you baby Jesus. I would like to avoid repeating last year's shitshow). Both have the Thanksgiving staples with a few differences to keep it interesting-namely, turkey and noodles and a dish that basically consists of butterscotch pudding, bananas, and nuts (omg drool) at aunt and uncle's, and jello salad (more drool) and MIL's corn casserole at my parents'. The double dinner is the main reason I run a race on Thanksgiving...gives me more of an appetite for both dinners!

[heightsyankee]

As a New Englander, Thanksgiving is **the holiday** to represent for my family.

We will have a sickeningly large Italian dinner Wednesday night as warm up. This will include homemade sauce, pork chops, Italian sausage, braciole, and meatballs. All my grandmother's recipes.

Thanksgiving:

Turkey
Cranberry (homemade)
mashed potatoes
mashed sweet potatoes
turnip
baby peas
gravy
my greatgrandmother's stuffing, which is 3 kinds meat with a crapton of Bell's seasoning and way too much butter. Soooo good!
Boiled onions (does anyone else eat these? Massholes?)
Carrots- probably with a honey/lemon glaze
Rolls
Chocolate Icebox pie, pecan pie, apple pie
Wine
Wine
Wine
Wine

[EloiseWeenie]

We'll be at my parents, on the eastern shore of MD. We usually have 5x the amount of food we actually need.

Our spread includes:
oysters rockefeller
crab dip
salad
turkey, stuffing & gravy
fresh green beans, and green bean casserole
asparagus
peas
sweet potatoes with sugary stuff, and without
cranberry sauce, homemade and canned
mashed potatoes
corn pudding (my fav)
sauerkraut
salad
sweet potato biscuits, croissants, and yeast rolls
many varieties of pies
my most favorite- Baskin Robbins ice cream turkeys

[osulori]

Oct 7, 2012 20:31:19 GMT -5 heightsyankee said:

As a New Englander, Thanksgiving is **the holiday** to represent for my family.

We will have a sickeningly large Italian dinner Wednesday night as warm up. This will include homemade sauce, pork chops, Italian sausage, braciole, and meatballs. All my grandmother's recipes.

Thanksgiving:

Turkey
Cranberry (homemade)
mashed potatoes
mashed sweet potatoes
turnip
baby peas
gravy
my greatgrandmother's stuffing, which is 3 kinds meat with a crapton of Bell's seasoning and way too much butter. Soooo good!
Boiled onions (does anyone else eat these? Massholes?)
Carrots- probably with a honey/lemon glaze
Rolls
Chocolate Icebox pie, pecan pie, apple pie
Wine
Wine
Wine
Wine

Your liberal amount of wine sounds like dinner at my parents'...they feel like we have to play catch up since J's aunt and uncle don't drink so there is no booze anywhere near Dinner #1. Which is a shame too, b/c lord only knows I'd have an easier time dealing with all of them if I had some. So instead, we crack open a bottle of wine when we get home to start putting up Christmas decorations (until MIL gets there and its time to go to my parents' that is).

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Happy Thanksgiving, rugby! I love the idea of a squash soup. If we didn't all binge on curry cheese ball and cranberry salsa (to compliment our Scarlett O'Haras) before dinner, I would totally try to do a multi-course meal. Yum.

We used to have this corn casserole made from dehydrated corn and milk and other good stuff... It comes in a box. I've only ever seen it in Pennsylvania. Anyone know what I'm talking about/where I could order it?

[rugbywife]

I do multi course meals all the time! But usually when I make thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter for my friends (I host a meal each big holiday for a group of close friends from church/work/life) our goal is to make the meal 'holiday-esque'...so last year for Easter I made a spiral cut ham, one time I make a roast beef. One year I did make a turkey but it seems so silly when everyone already has a turkey with their family. I just decided that next I will make beef Wellington. I always try to do a theme so my theme for Christmas might be foods involving pastry (if I can manage it without a double oven - questionable)

This was our table on Friday night.

[pescalita]

We're here with my family this year. We have 25-30 ppl and it's potluck (the only way you can do gatherings with a family of my size). This means there are probably 15 dishes easy, all of them tasty, and it is quite the challenge to sample everything without getting sick. Forget stuffing your face like you'd like to with the yummy stuffing/Mac n cheese/green beans/etc, eat more than a couple spoonfuls of anything and you're toast.

MrP defies this rule at Christmas, where he covers his plate in 50% cow, 40% mashed potatoes, and a pinch of salad.

And then there's dessert. My grandmother makes the best pies on the planet. Fact. She does pumpkin, apple and usually a third. Then we have a bunch of other good bakers who usually have something they want to try out. One year I fit 6 desserts on my plate. That hurt.

Plus wine and beer.

I want to find something to do with the butternut squash from my garden this year. I've done ravioli, lasagna and a salad. The lasagna's always a hit though, I might go with that.

[passthewine]

Thanksgiving is always at my my mom's and it's quite a crowd for her little house. It'll be Mom, Step-dad, Me, DH, my MIL, FIL, SIL, my Step-Bro, SIL, SIL's parents, and maybe my Bro & his GF, and possibly my other Step-Bro, and possibly my aunt and a cousin. Oh, any my nephew (first thanksgiving), and 2 dogs.

Dinner is usually Turkey, (sometimes a Roast Beef too), mashed potatoes, candied yams, lasagna, turnips, stuffed mushrooms, green bean casserole, corn, like 3 kinds of cranberry sauce, sometimes french fries, and a whole mess of other stuff. Mom makes most of it but my MIL likes to help by bringing as much as she can, and everybody else brings something and next think you know you have a real mixed up meal.
Then we usually have a ridiculous amount of desserts, like one cake/pie for each person. And lots of wine, thank goodness for the wine.

ETA: OMG, how did I forget the stuffing? I wait all year for that damn stuffing.

[wawa]

I'm not sure what the plan is for this year. I know we're doing thanksgiving with MH's family (we take turns. This year is turkey day with his folks and christmas with my peeps. Next year will switch. we've been doing this since before we got hitched.)

Usually it's a huge potluck thing with his mom's enourmous family at his grandmother's house, but his grandmother moved to assisted living and they sold the house and two of MIL's sister's aren't speaking to her so I have no idea what the plan is. I'm guessing that MIL and FIL will probably host the non-crazy side of the family at their house.

Maybe I should email her...

[orangeblossom]

Oct 7, 2012 20:47:31 GMT -5 @publius said:

This will be my first proper Thanksgiving in five years and I am beyond excited. I volunteered my mother to host it for the whole extended family, so all I know is what I'm in charge of--the pies. I'm going to make pumpkin, apple, and a banana meringue.

That banana meringue sounds delicious. Food Network Magazine had one for coconut banana meringue that sounds delicious. Unfortunately, the yumminess of it would be lost on my ILs, so I don't know when I'll make it.

[orangeblossom]

We're doing Thanksgiving at the ILs. Just being honest, I am not looking forward to any of the food served. It's all of the normal stuff, just not very tasty.

[sporky]

This year we'll probably have around 16 people for dinner. As both DH and I have issues with our families, there will be much wine consumed!

Our basic menu (that could have some slight changes):
Turkey
Ham
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Sweet potato casserole
Stuffing
Spiced applesauce
Cranberry sauce
Rolls
Roasted root veggies
Mac and cheese
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Spice cookies
... I feel like I'm forgetting a side dish, but you get the idea. All pretty traditional.

[secretlyevil]

Argh! It is too early to talk about the menu! I am trying not to host this year but H said if it was between us hosting and going to a restaurant (which is SMIL's idea), he wants to host. My sister is flying in to spend the week with me. I have a million other things I want to do.

But if I do host (which I probably will be), we do very traditional Tgiving. Except we grill the turkey. We just got a smoker, might do two turkeys.

[heightsyankee]

Oct 8, 2012 8:31:03 GMT -5 orangeblossom said:

We're doing Thanksgiving at the ILs. Just being honest, I am not looking forward to any of the food served. It's all of the normal stuff, just not very tasty.

I'm sorry. That is the worst. I remember the one Thanksgiving I spent with my old boyfriend's family. Standard fare but everything was bland, the turkey was tough, not enough quantity. After that, I would spend it with friends if I couldn't go home because it was too depressing being with his family and their sad trombone food.

[twotrue]

For the last four years we've celebrated with my bff and her husband. My bff lost her mom on Thanksgiving five years ago. Since then she hasn't wanted to do a family Thanksgiving and we look at each other as the family we choose so that's become the tradition. We usually have it at our house but she and her husband just bought a new, larger, home so perhaps we will have it there this year. We rotate who does the Turkey and who does the sides. DW likes to deep fry the turkey so we may do that this year. As long as I have some mashed potatoes, life is good.

[secretlyevil]

Oct 8, 2012 10:15:51 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

Argh! It is too early to talk about the menu! I am trying not to host this year but H said if it was between us hosting and going to a restaurant (which is SMIL's idea), he wants to host. My sister is flying in to spend the week with me. I have a million other things I want to do.

But if I do host (which I probably will be), we do very traditional Tgiving. Except we grill the turkey. We just got a smoker, might do two turkeys.

ETA: Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

[thinklikeajellyfish]

H and I live across the country from all of our family and can rarely afford to fly home for the holidays. Last year one of MH's coworkers was gracious enough to invite us over to their Thanksgiving dinner. It was so interesting to be immersed in someone's family dinner, but immediately feel and be treated as one of the family. There was a fascinating discussion about the family origins in Poland. The coworker's mother was there and it was so interesting to hear about her life growing up and all of the experiences that she has had. I love stuff like that.

This year we got a Thanksgiving invite from a different coworker. We went to this coworker's house last year for Christmas (His coworkers apparently take pity on us - the lonely couple with no family around ) and it was epic. This family is hilarious, high energy, and so much fun. We got there fairly early in the day and immediately had a cheesy Christmas champagne glass thrust in our hands. (I've been googling for 15 minutes and can't find a picture. They had Christmas figurines attached to the bottom inside of the glass. They were awesome!) It was like the never empty glass of champagne. I don't even want to know how many bottles of champagne we went through that day!! They had endless hilarious family Christmas traditions. It was an amazing Christmas. I can't wait to see what Thanksgiving has in store.

So to sum up: I'm not sure what's on the menu or what I'll be bringing yet, but it is guaranteed to be a good time!

[meshaliuknits]

Oct 7, 2012 20:47:31 GMT -5 @publius said:

This will be my first proper Thanksgiving in five years and I am beyond excited. I volunteered my mother to host it for the whole extended family, so all I know is what I'm in charge of--the pies. I'm going to make pumpkin, apple, and a banana meringue.

I need to know more about the banana meringue. Recipe or, better yet, the pie itself, would be appreciated.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Bland traditional stuff is the worst. It's just a terrible tease. We always take MIL out to Shoney's on T'giving Day. It was a sweet tradition when DH was little--his parents are divorced and he's the youngest, so he would save up to take her to lunch since she doesn't have any other family. It's just carried on for 20 years, so we still do it since she won't come to my parents' for the holidays. Anyway, Shoney's Thanksgiving buffet is pretty gross. You want to like it, but it's just not happening.

[JLN]

I'll be making my butternut squash and goat cheese gratin that I make every year. Everything else is the normal TG spread, turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc.

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Oct 8, 2012 11:54:20 GMT -5 JLN said:

I'll be making my butternut squash and goat cheese gratin that I make every year. Everything else is the normal TG spread, turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc.

Recipe, por favor?

[ESF]

I haven't figured this out yet. We know we are staying in town, and we don't have local family, so we'll have friends over. We just confirmed this weekend that one other couple will be joining us. Not sure if there will be anyone else yet. We'll still do a big spread because I love Thanksgiving and I love leftovers. All I know is that I will probably make this stuffing

www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/New-England-Sausage-Apple-and-Dried-Cranberry-Stuffing-812

It's the best stuffing ever. We took it out of the rotation the last couple years, but after two crappy stuffing recipes, it's coming back.

[JLN]

Oct 8, 2012 11:56:50 GMT -5 ChillyMcFreeze said:

Oct 8, 2012 11:54:20 GMT -5 JLN said:

I'll be making my butternut squash and goat cheese gratin that I make every year. Everything else is the normal TG spread, turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc.

Recipe, por favor?

This stuff is amazing! I'll be making some tonight (overnight) in the crockpot to snack on all week because it makes great leftovers.

www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Butternut-Squash-Gratin-with-Goat-Cheese-and-Hazelnuts-240412

[ESF]

Oct 8, 2012 12:08:20 GMT -5 JLN said:

Oct 8, 2012 11:56:50 GMT -5 ChillyMcFreeze said:

Recipe, por favor?

This stuff is amazing! I'll be making some tonight (overnight) in the crockpot to snack on all week because it makes great leftovers.

www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Butternut-Squash-Gratin-with-Goat-Cheese-and-Hazelnuts-240412

Wow, this looks really good. I just bought a butternut squash this weekend too. Maybe I'll make this for dinner soon with a salad.

[meshaliuknits]

IDK what we're going to do for the holidays, tho. The ILs moved to WA and we're not going up there for either holiday and I doubt they're coming down here. If they are, they need to say something quick fast in a hurry. Maybe we'll just have banana meringue pie on Thanksgiving.

H wants to go to Sizzler for xmas like we did last year and make it our "thing." I liked the xmas we got delivery Chinese better. Or better yet, the ones we spend in Hawaii.