What's your Thanksgiving menu?
 

Sorry for such an unabashedly Yank-centric thread! :o
So, if you and yourn are planning a get-together on the 26th of November, what's on the menu? What are the family staples, what are the new adventures, and what causes the near-riots?

Here's our plan. My husband's extended family is coming (father, two sisters, their husbands, and one kid per couple, plus one SIL's MIL, FIL, BIL and grandmother-in-law.) Whew. The kids are 2 yrs and 8mos. One SIL is vegetarian.

Oh, and a largish dog and two cats.

Free-Range Turkey from Maple Lawn Farms, 14 lbs.
Gravy (turkey and vegetarian)
Roast pork loin stuffed with mushrooms(SIL's FIL hates turkey)
Cornbread, apple and sage stuffing (veg)
Green beans & almonds in butter
Sauteed sliced brussel sprouts with chestnuts
Roast Rosemary Veggies served w/ Truffle Aioli
Spicy butternut squash with raisins, nuts and fennel
Mashed Potatoes
Puerto Rican Potato Salad (SIL's MIL is bringing)
Cheddar biscuits
Cranberry sauce (homemade) + jelly (bought)
Wine (white & red)
Sodas, milk, juice.

Pies (BIL is bringing from Ohio)
Flan (SIL's MIL again)
Coffee
Scotch
Port

I wanted to nix the mashed potatoes and nearly had my head removed by my husband. I drew the line at any variant of candied yams. :shudder: I would just as soon get rid of the turkey as well, but I know how far that'll get.

Tuesday through Sunday. How hard can it be? :3eye: :thepain:

:crickets:

No stuffing?


Turkey
stuffing
mashed spuds
peas
creamed onions
cranberry sauce & jelly
nut bread
candied sweet potatoes
dinner rolls


pecan pie
pumpkin pie

How do you make creamed onions? That's a new one to me.

Don't know. Don't like them, but they're always there, disturbing my Thanksgiving.

They're pearl onions in some kind of cream sauce.

Last year we had a shrimp feast on Thanksgiving. We've had salmon baked in Filo dough a couple of times. Leg of lamb once. We'll probably go with the traditional turkey this year, since we haven't done one in a while. But I generally think turkey is overrated. It's good, but not good enough to warrant all the effort every year. There are so many better feasts out there that are easier to cook. And I have turkey all the time on my sandwiches for lunch.

I always prefer chicken to turkey. But that al sounds damn fine.


Goose makes a nice feast. We had that at my Bro's Christmas.

We're gonna eat Thanksgiving Dinner on Monday this year. Because we can.

The secret to enjoying turkey is the dark meat.

abso-friggin-lutely!

The dark meat is the best. Especial the next day on an open faced sandwich with lots of gravy.

What do they do with all the dark meat when they make deli turkey breast? Does it go in hot dogs?

The next days sandwiches are the whole point imo... I like mine with white meat, lots of black pepper, stuffing, cranberry sauce, a little slaw, and maybe even some mashed.

My mom was never into Tgiving at all, and hated cooking a turkey so we always had something else extravagant. We've been going to Jim's moms since we started dating, up until she asked me (thru Jim) to stop bringing food (usually a soup) to her Tgiving "because everyone just fills up on it". :right:

So we're doing our own this year and I'm pretty excited about it - going totally traditional with the kids full involvement as part of their cooking class. They've been picking recipes out of the food network magazine for stuffing and cranberries. I might brine the turkey and then cook it in a bag. We're going to have ours early in the week so we can live off of leftovers (and bbq from High Cotton of course).

So are you cooking the big meal before the trip, and taking leftovers with you on the road?

We're shopping and cooking there - don't want to transport food in either direction. We pack everything on the roof and put the 3rd row up, so each kid gets their own section to spread out and not be annoying and bitchy in. Throw a movie in the dvd and we all live thru the trip...

And are you bringing all your specialty cooking stuff for a big Thanksgiving meal? Like you'll need a big roasting pan. They won't have that in a beach house kitchen, will they? Have you stayed in this particular house before?

I think it will be fun doing the big meal there. You're on vacation anyway and it's an activity you can do together. Not to mention the education credit for the kids.