Post your Thanksgiving Menu!

[vfem]

I would love to see what everyone is serving and feel free to share any family recipes you swear by for the holidays!

I'm just taking a break from prep work!

I am cooking the WHOLE meal for us. 12 people expected with company to follow later.

Our meal is 3 parts, the appetizers in the morning, afternoon meal then the dessert meal!

Apps are generally just cheese and crackers, shrimp cocktail and biscotti with coffee. (Like I wouldn't have biscotti available). I'm also adding in my creamcheese with hot pepper jelly spread.

Then comes lunch!

*Hickory Smoked Turkey
*Apple and Onion Goose
*Green Bean and Wild Mushroom Casserole
*Green Bean Onion and Celery Cassrole (my mom's insisting on her version or she won't eat it)
*Tangerine and Honey Cranberry sauce
*Garlic Mashed Potatoes
*Apple and Cranberry Whole Wheat Stuffing
*Goose Neck Gravy
*Veggie / mushroom Gravy
*Cresent rolls
*Cracked Wheat & Honey Dinner Rolls

Desert meal 2
*Pumpkin Pie
*Peach and Graham cracker crumble cobbler
*Spice Wined Pears
*Blueberry and cream cheese pastry roll
*Orange Pecan Bread


All of this is from scratch, but I make my mom do the potatoes and bring the dinner rolls over to throw in the oven. Everything else I am prepping and doing here. (I started prepping that goose on Monday! I'll let you know how it turns out, it was a lot of work so far.)

 

[Rosalind]

Wow, you're doing lots of cooking.

We are having (for just me, DH and my mother):

winter squash soup
home-grown roast chicken w/ giblet gravy
garlic green beans
sweet Yankee cornbread (you Southerners don't have to tell me, I know this is a sin)
cranberry sauce w/ walnuts
purple potato gratin
double ginger nut winter squash pie--fresh & candied ginger, hickory nuts and pecans in a sorta-kinda basic pumpkin pie with a cookie crust

Winter squash soup
1/2 pie pumpkin or other smallish winter squash, peeled & cut into chunks, about 3 c.
1 chopped onion
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 stick celery, chopped
3 fresh tomatoes (our neighbors run a hydroponic farm that supplies these year-round), cut into bite-size chunks
4 c. broth, chicken or veggie
1 tbsp Italian seasoning-type herbs, plus a bit of extra basil & thyme if you like
red pepper flakes to taste
salt & garlic to taste

Saute the onion, pepper and celery in a soup pot in 3 tbsp. oil until onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes and lower the heat on the pot to medium-low, and push the tomatoes around the pot until they half-collapse and the skins are starting to peel a bit. Add the broth and bring up to simmer. Put in half the Italian seasoning & herbs, then add the squash chunks. Simmer about 15-20 minutes, until squash is fork-tender, then add the rest of the seasonings. Mash the squash in the soup pot ever-so-slightly with a hand-held potato masher. Just to sorta break up the chunks a little without making mush.

This is one of those recipes that you know everything that goes into it, but it still tastes unaccountably awesome. One of my favorite fall soups.

 

[vfem]

Oh those sounds awesome!

I wish I was only cooking for a few, but I have at least 12 people coming, and 2 more coming just for desert.

Here's my cranberry sauce recipe:
http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Chunky-Cranberry-Tangerine-and-Wine-Sauce/45836/

 

[patandchickens]

I did the Big Feast thing a month and a half ago for Canadian thanksgiving; tomorrow it's just me and DH and the kids (5 and 2), so the menu is only:

-- roast chicken, the last of the cornishX I did last year [this year's smaller colored broilers or sussexes seem too small; our frozen turkeys are waaaay too large], unstuffed alas;

-- potato stuffing (actually a side dish not a stuffing, made with mashed potatoes and bread cubes and milk and egg all mixed up and baked til solid)

-- cranberry sauce, not homegrown but homemade;

-- last of the frozen greenbeans from last summer;

-- the one last tomato I have been nursing along on the window, atop a salad of lettuce from the coldframe;

-- probably squash pie (=pumpkin pie) or something apple-related for dessert, still deciding.


Pat

 

[desertcat]

Since I've got the only house big enough to hold everybody, the party's here! The menu is pretty standard this year. I got creative last year and was almost run out of town.

Turkey
Stuffing
Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry Chow Chow
Crescent Rolls (was going to make bread but I'm out of energy!)
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Harvest Apple Pie (from the neighbor)
and whatever people bring after I told them to just bring an appetite.

The chow chow is my favorite...does wonderful stuff for the bird.

1 sm head of cabbage 1 med onion
1 bell pepper 3 jalapenos
3 serrano chiles 2 12 oz bags cranberries
1/2 c pickling salt 3 c sugar
2 c vinegar 2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp each: cloves, ginger, dry mustard, black pepper

Chop veggies fine. Sprinkle with salt and let stand 15 min.
Mix the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil in a LARGE pot. Cook for 10 min, stirring often.
Rinse the veggies very well and drain. Add to syrup and bring back to a boil. Cook for 10 min. Put in hot jars and water bath for 15 min. Depending on size of veggies, makes between 4-6 pints.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

 

[wifezilla]

Turkey
cauliflower bake
sausage and squash stuffing
cucumber salad with sprouts
baked sweet potatoes
cheese and olive tray
veggies for munching with blue cheese dressing for a dip
low carb pumpkin cheese cake for dessert

 

[Lavender2]

I like this... thanks for sharing your traditions...

Rosalind ...your winter squash soup sounds great for a cold wintery day like we're having... can't wait to try it!
... thanks for the recipes everyone!

I feel so lazy... all I made was the pie crust ...

As usual we will go to grandma and papa Docs (my mom and dad).
My family is very large, but there will be enough food to feed most of the block! ...

2 - 20 pound Turkeys
stuffing - apple sage
applesauce - homemade
cranberry sauce
mashed potatoes n gravy
baked corn
vege platter of steamed cauliflower, carrots, french green beans
drunken sweet potatoes
homemade rolls

And PIES -

apple
pumpkin
blueberry
french silk (if my sis remembers to bring it )
and DH's famous pecan pie... Yum! ... (but I made the crust ... )
and cinnamon ice cream

Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!!

 

[journey11]

I don't have to do much cooking tomorrow, but I did have to clean until I thought my butt was going to drop off! My grandma nominated me to host dinner this year and I couldn't weazel my way out of it. On the brightside, I don't have to travel, and my toddler can go to her own bed for her afternoon nap (or else it wouldn't happen).

I've got 13 coming. We're doing a pretty standard thanksgiving turkey dinner. My grandpa is smoking the turkey with herbs, which will be good. I've had his turkey before and it's always good! We divided out everything so it's kind of potluck and everybody is bringing something. I am responsible for stuffing (from a box), gravy (from a packet), ww rolls (from the freezer) and the only real cooking I will be doing is Butternut Squash Pie (did a couple test runs last week and it was super good!)

For all the cleaning I had to do, I feel I deserve to take an easy out on the cooking!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving Day! And for those of you (like me) who will be visiting with contentious relatives just remember to be kind and hang in there for you won't always have them around.
(And whether that is an admonition or a promise, you decide!)

 

[HiDelight]

Hi there Happy Thanksgiving I had to stop by my favorite board to see how everyone was doing and wish you lots of wondeful hours today whatever folks do!

we are having a feast
a turkey (my friend brings it)
I made
green chile cheese enchiladas and red chile colorado with shredded beef enchiladas
friend is bringing tamales
then all the rest of the typical "American" side dishes made from scratch with lots of manic love

I made six beautiful pies last night ..pumpkin, pecan and hazelnut
people will bring stuff
ciders hard and soft to drink

and lots and lots of fresh cranberry sauces

enchiladas and cranberries sound funny but are a wondeful match!
I am a half Canadian Yankee and my girls are half Mexican so we always "represent" at the table ..with a big melting pot of great food!

I was considering making cranberry tamales for Christmas (we do a big batch one traditional type and a dessert tamale)

Christmas is a mix of Mexican and Italian for us

anyway have a wonderful day you guys and I am grateful for all you have shared to make my gardening and culinary life so much richer!!!

I have to get started doing stuff!

 

[rebbetzin]

I am making a fresh turkey, instead of frozen.

The menu willl be...

Green Salad (Greens picked fresh from the garden)
Marinated Bean Salad
Olives
Cranberry Sauce (Jellied)

Homemade breads
Plymouth Bread, a corn meal based bread
Five Grain Bread
White Bread
Cranberry Swirl Bread

Mashed Potatoes
Corn with butter and cream cheese!!
Candied Sweet Potatoes with Pineapple
Dressing/Stuffing
Gravy
Turkey

Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream
Molasses Crinkles (cookies for dessert for a non dairy eating friend)