Post by secretlyevil on Oct 8, 2012 12:25:28 GMT -5
If I end up hosting, I am going to bug you all for some new recipes. Like this butternut squash and goat cheese gratin, H will never eat it but there are a lot of other people there so I can try out some different recipes.
I'm going to my in-laws, and MIL cooks. Last year my SIL made a pretty good cheese souffle. They make an extra, interesting side for my non-turkey-eating ways.
H and I usually have our own holiday meal before we leave. We might do a 20 mile hike the Saturday before Thanksgiving. In which case I will make Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Stuffed-with-Everything-Good-361169 and serve that with probably either a vegan "wellington" or a field roast celebration roast, which is way better than tofurkey.
A little part of me died inside at the words "shoneys" and "sizzler" in this thread. If you all lived closer, I would insist that you come to my house for the holiday.
We are going to MILs for thanksgiving this year, and my parents are coming up. Our bigger shebang is usually the week before, when we host a Thanksgiving dinner for our friends. I'm torn up this year though, because A) it will be way harder to throw this kind of feast with Andy around and B) our circle of friends has grown considerably and I don't know if I can reasonably host that number of people but can't leave anyone out either. I need to think on it.
A little part of me died inside at the words "shoneys" and "sizzler" in this thread. If you all lived closer, I would insist that you come to my house for the holiday.
We're going to my MIL's unfortunately. This usually means the menu is:
dried out turkey breast stuffing that is heavy, dense, and disgustingly weird wet bread sweet potatoes with some sort of nut topping corn with green peppers (this is the only thing that is actually decent tasting - it's not her recipe, shocker) cranberry jello nastiness pumpkin pie
All of the above is made in mass quantities and she expects us to eat it TWICE! in one day. Once at noon and once at 6.
It's fucking disgusting.
I only agreed to go there for Thanksgiving this year because MH and BIL insisted we get some input on the menu. Right now, it's looking like crazy (MIL) is going to make what she always makes (probably still in mass quantities) and BIL, BIL's wife, me (I will be drafted because I am the only one good at baking - I don't really enjoy this whole shitshow minus getting to eat something delicious vs. something horrible) and MH are making a separate Thanksgiving meal that will taste delicious. It will be interesting to see what FIL, MIL's brother and his wife, MH's sister and her husband eat. I know my MIL will sit there eating her shitty Thanksgiving dinner with a sad face because no one likes her terrible food.
If she wasn't such a miserable bitch about compromise and doing things her way, I might feel sorry for her. Since she brings it all on herself by being a stubborn, negative asshole, I really couldn't care less... in fact, I will probably take sick glee in watching it all go down.
I'm pretty sure my BIL and MIL will have a huge fight on Thanksgiving while trying to cook.
A little part of me died inside at the words "shoneys" and "sizzler" in this thread. If you all lived closer, I would insist that you come to my house for the holiday.
lol
Doing my part to class down the joint.
We have real Thanksgiving in addition to Shoney's! But MIL also orders pizza for Christmas, so....
The woman lives with 2 guys in their 30s (her son and her new husband!!!), and they eat like college kids. I am a good DIL, though, because I bring a plate of real food for her every holiday. That gives me license to grumble about Shoney's.
We have real Thanksgiving in addition to Shoney's! But MIL also orders pizza for Christmas, so....
The woman lives with 2 guys in their 30s (her son and her new husband!!!), and they eat like college kids. I am a good DIL, though, because I bring a plate of real food for her every holiday. That gives me license to grumble about Shoney's.
The first Christmas I spent at my ILs, I almost cried when I found out Christmas dinner was to be eaten at IHOP. It was yet another embarrassing dose of reality that not everyone's mother prepares a gourmet feast for every holiday. Thankfully, they come to us since having kids. They get to play with the kids, while I spend all day in the kitchen making a spread.
A little part of me died inside at the words "shoneys" and "sizzler" in this thread. If you all lived closer, I would insist that you come to my house for the holiday.
We are going to MILs for thanksgiving this year, and my parents are coming up. Our bigger shebang is usually the week before, when we host a Thanksgiving dinner for our friends. I'm torn up this year though, because A) it will be way harder to throw this kind of feast with Andy around and B) our circle of friends has grown considerably and I don't know if I can reasonably host that number of people but can't leave anyone out either. I need to think on it.
She is a contradiction... seriously she seems like the coldest woman alive, but is incredibly quick to cry and have hurt feelings. She's also really socially awkward and says some awesome things. No sense of humor either, which is fun. Everyone in H's family has J names, and except for me, they were all married to someone with J names (coincidence). I made a comment about changing my name to Juanita once and my MIL thought I was serious and said, "Well, I wouldn't choose Juanita."
These are the kinds of gems you can look forward to.
Post by basilosaurus on Oct 8, 2012 15:10:09 GMT -5
I wish I knew. We were going to host, probably just us, a friend whose husband and child will be away, and another few couples. Most of our friends don't have family here, and pretty much no one will travel off the island for this holiday.
But, just this weekend, another friend said she was going to have an orphan thanksgiving, and it was her deal, and we were all coming. So, um, I think my holiday just got thunderjacked. I'm sad. It's one of my favorites. And I don't trust this person's cooking.
We're going to the IL's for Thanksgiving. SIL and I have tried for about 5 years to take over the cooking because, a) we feel like we probably should since we're grown ups now and, b) more importantly, MIL can't cook for shit. She tries and there are a few things that she makes really well. Unfortunately, none of them are part of Thanksgiving dinner.
Two years ago SIL got an amazing fresh turkey and brined it and it was so good. Really incredibly delicious. It took a longer to cook than we planned, but it was completely worth the wait. Well, apparently, this was NOT okay with MIL and she never wants us to get off schedule again so this year we'll be back to a frozen turkey that she cooks until it's the consistency of sawdust.
And I just have to shut my eyes and not watch her cook because she tastes everything as she's cooking and then continues to stir/mix with whatever utensil she just put in her mouth. I'm not really a germ-phobe, but that just grosses me out. Plus, anytime we are at their house we have to do a close check of expiration dates on things like margarine, salad dressing or milk. Last winter DH went down to breakfast and FIL was putting partially transparent margarine on his toast. DH looked and saw the it expired 2 months earlier. He pointed it out to FIL and he just said "It tastes fine! Go ahead and eat it" +o(
I wish I knew. We were going to host, probably just us, a friend whose husband and child will be away, and another few couples. Most of our friends don't have family here, and pretty much no one will travel off the island for this holiday.
But, just this weekend, another friend said she was going to have an orphan thanksgiving, and it was her deal, and we were all coming. So, um, I think my holiday just got thunderjacked. I'm sad. It's one of my favorites. And I don't trust this person's cooking.
Oh, that's sucktastic. I could deal with everything, except that part.
Two years ago SIL got an amazing fresh turkey and brined it and it was so good. Really incredibly delicious. It took a longer to cook than we planned, but it was completely worth the wait. Well, apparently, this was NOT okay with MIL and she never wants us to get off schedule again so this year we'll be back to a frozen turkey that she cooks until it's the consistency of sawdust.
a) link please. I :heart: sweet potatoes b) I LOVE brined turkey. A coworker of mine used to have fake thanksgiving with all the work people and she does her turkey like that and it's AMAZING. c) link please
I'm pretty sure there will be a moment when my BIL starts screaming with "fuck" or "fucking" being every other word because he is super into cooking and HATES his mom's cooking. I'm convinced there will be a massive tearful breakdown in the kitchen.
I should bring my popcorn maker!
Oh and I look forward to my MIL and her SIL (H's aunt) cackling about a cousin's wife who is pregnant at 38 because they think it is too old. They are such judgmental harpies.
BIL just got remarried and his wife is 37, and they are probably trying for kids right now. Luckily for my new SIL, I love her very, very much, and even though she's nice, and won't say a word, I will make those two hags verrrrrrrrrrrrrry uncomfortable. I hate MH's aunt (more than my MIL even). She's childless (by choice) and likes to lecture me about how hard it is to have kids 4 years apart in age. Last time I said, "really? how would you know? I'm living it right now and it seems just fine." MH used to ask me to smile and nod, but after the last time when she was telling him we shouldn't have more kids (I wasn't in the room), he got really pissed and has said that he doesn't care if I unleash my not-so-inner bitch on her.
Oh and H's uncle is a racist. I LOVE HIS FAMILY SO MUCH. Maybe I will bring a secret video camera.
Oh, that's sucktastic. I could deal with everything, except that part. [/quote]Yeah, I'm rarely a control freak, but when it's a holiday to celebrate food, you'd better be a damn good cook. I'll of course bring a couple sides that meet my own (elitist snob) standards, which I've done for past orphan Tgivings, so I'm sure I'll be fine, but I'm still bitter about the announcement (more like a demand) a couple days ago.
I'm also worried that, since she grew up in Hawaii, spam and other weird shit will be involved.
Post by MixedBerryJam on Oct 8, 2012 15:48:47 GMT -5
I do all the holidays at my house, but it's down to me and the kids, my mom and my brother, so it's not too too big to handle alone (because, yeah, teenagers are useless when cooking, but this year, since they're both in hs, I thought I might enlist them to do some actual helpful cooking. We'll see.) We usually also invite ddh's best friend's family, another 4 people. We have a pretty straight-and-narrow Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, dressing, a couple of veggie dishes, etc. But I go a bit crazy with desserts: made from scratch lemon meringue pie, pumpkin pie from pumpkin I've grown (this year we grew white pumpkins, though, so I'm not sure how that will work out), pecan pie, and coooooookieeeeees (I said that in my Cookie Monster voice). We start the Christmas decorations Thanksgiving night, too. And the cookies are the Christmas cookie kickoff.
ETA: This is the Emeril Lagasse beer-brined turkey recipe I use every year (it takes about 24 hours to brine, but you can start with a partially-frozen turkey, so it's actually easier.)
ETA2: The leftover carcass makes the best turkey soup. Ohmyword, it's good.
Normally we go to my H's family for Thanksgiving. The food there is...meh. Dried out turkey, dried out ham, overcooked veggies, no mashed potatoes anywhere...personally, I never enjoy it. Then we come home and I make a small Thanksgiving feast for us so we can have turkey with moisture in it (seriously, my H didn't know turkey could be moist until we started dating).
This year, there is ALL sorts of family drama going on, so I have no idea what we're doing. H has been threatening to just stay home with just the two of us. I'd be fine with that.
Post by megalicious on Oct 8, 2012 18:48:59 GMT -5
I'm working 1/2 day on Thursday and a full day on Friday (my payment for a week off after Xmas). But I have the day before off to cook. I'm vegetarian and H is newly vegan. We usually do sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and maybe a vegetable medley if I'm up for making it. It's just me, H, and DD (who won't eat any of the above), so it's not a huge deal for us.
Post by StrawberryBlondie on Oct 8, 2012 19:39:26 GMT -5
We're going to my family's house, so probably dry turkey, stove top stuffing, lumpy gravy without any flavor, green bean casserole, and lefse.
For the Thanksgiving I host: 1. Turkey w/ apple bourbon gravy 2. Twice-baked sweet potatoes 3. Panetonne stuffing. Or maybe ciabatta stuffing 4. Pumpkin Cheesecake