Well, almost. I didn’t buy the green beans or the egg nog or the five-gallon bucket yet. I’ll buy those next week.
Every year, we rotate Thanksgiving between the three adult children on my husband’s side. This year, it’s Ivylad and my turn. The menu will consist of
Alton Brown’s Brined Turkey (Smash hit last time I made it…I don’t think we had leftovers!)
Country Ham (Ivylad’s making that the night before so people can nibble on it while the turkey is cooking)
Green Beans with chopped pecans (and maybe walnuts)
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes with roasted garlic
Ginger Carrots
Velvet Cream Biscuits
Cranberry Sauce from a Can (because I think that’s a law, even though out of the 13 people who will attend, only two will eat it)
For dessert, we will have
Pumpkin Pie
Egg Nog Pound Cake
And whatever else my SILs and MIL want to bring. I told them drinks and dessert.
I spent a lovely evening a few nights ago, perusing the cookbooks and making selections, then writing down the ingredients. I went on a scavenger hunt this morning and realized we already have some of the stuff, so the grocery bill wasn’t as high as I had budgeted for.
Next week, get the fresh green beans, the egg nog (if I bought it now, Ivylad would drink it all before Thanksgiving) and the five-gallon bucket to brine the turkey.
My friend Sandy and her neice are coming up from Oregon for Thanksgiving. I’m going to roast a turkey with stuffing, make mashed potatoes and giblet gravy, Brussels sprouts with butter, rolls, and a pie or two (pecan and apple). Sandy said she’s make that green bean casserole. Scotticher said she’d come and bring BBQ pork (Chinese style, I believe). Since it’s a long drive from Oregon, we’ll have the feast on Friday. I think I’ll make pasta for dinner Thursday. Maybe some of those cheese raviolis using the pierogi maker. And maybe some tilapia with Roma tomatoes, onion, garlic and capers. And salad annd garlic bread.
There might be a little snag though. Niece is said to be vegetarian. I’m told this might be for health reasons rather than ethical reasons, so she might eat turkey corpse as an exception. I do make giblet gravy, and I use pan drippings and stock; so if she’s adamant all I’ll have for her is the salad, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, rolls, green bean casserole and pie. Well, she knows what’s on the menu. Her choice, as I’m making a turkey.
Why not just ask her? A kind host cares if all his guests get fed. My sister, for example is an ovo-lacto-vegetarian, eats eggs and milk products like yogurt and cheese. She will gladly bring and make her own Mac&Cheese if she thinks you won’t mind.
My plans for this year involve a fresh turkey brined as per Alton Brown’s instructions (gives praise, for he has not let me down on Thanksgiving yet), then seasoned with lemon, oregano, and red onion, plus green beans with pine nuts, an Italian sausage and bread stuffing, roasted sweet potatoes with cheese and bacon, cranberry/grappa sauce (plus an apricot and cranberry sauce for those who don’t want alcohol) and for dessert a pumpkin cheesecake and a ricotta tart with dried figs, apricots, and cherries.
I just have to find a mold for the cranberry grappa sauce, and some dried Cal(i)myrna figs. The turkey is on order, I have sources for the soppressata sausage and everything else as well. If I can pull this off I’ll be a happy woman.
Overachiever! Seriously, that sounds awesome. Let us know how it turns out.
We’re doing the annual cop-out and going to the MiL’s for Thanksgiving. Since I plan to avoid Christmas this year, I think I can show up to Thanksgiving.
It’s for my (half-Italian) inlaws - I’m hosting up to 14 at my house this year! :eek: They talk about previous Thanksgiving dish “failures” so I’m aiming to impress. I might need a shoehorn to seat everyone, though.
I ordered a free-range, natural, fresh turkey through a local grocery store - they get them from a local independent turkey farmer that has a good reputation in the area. I wanted to be sure I’d get the size I wanted. (I’m also going to snag a frozen breast and roast that almost completely the night before, then finish the last 20 minutes or so the day of, then mix the meat slices in with the other turkey.)
I think your plan for the aromatics sounds fine, but I still have a microwave so I haven’t tried the stovetop method.
Being a homebrewer, I already had a ~6 gallon food-grade plastic bucket for the brining, so that’s one less item I had to buy.
I had a five gallon bucket from the last time I hosted Thanksgiving, but I think Ivylad’s appropriated it for the garage and is storing tools in it. I’ll get another one at Home Depot. They’re cheap, and I’m sure Ivylad wouldn’t mind another five gallon bucket.
Speaking of Thanksgiving disasters, two years ago we drove up to my MIL’s house where Ivylad’s younger sister was hosting Thanksgiving. As we walked into the garage to enter the house, we were overcome with a godawful stench and MIL and SIL were getting into the car, very tight lipped. I couldn’t even walk into the house, and I stayed in the garage, wondering how the hell I was going to get through dinner.
My BIL comes out with a large trash bag, the stench overcomes me, and I run for the bushes, gagging and trying not to vomit. Apparently, my SIL had started cooking the turkey the night before, and as per the Ivyclan family tradition, turned the turkey upside down to finish cooking. That’s when it started reeking.
My SIL and MIL come back with a fully cooked bird from Publix that was quite tasty, my BIL had a spatula thrown at his head by his wife for saying, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a turkey!” and we can only assume the turkey was bad. She can laugh about it now, but I can understand how distressing the situation was for my SIL.
We go to my aunt’s, so I don’t really have to make anything except dessert. This year I’m going try a Tres Leches cake- it looks pretty easy. Maybe I’ll work in some pumpkin somewhere around it. I usually make the gravy, too, but yesterday I found Trader Joe’s turkey gravy and I couldn’t resist. I also couldn’t resist a TJ’s organic turkey. I don’t know when I’ll make it, but I got one. I think I’ll do AB’s brining recipe again, too. It’s very tasty.
We have an out of town guest coming and she’s a good cook so there will be three of us competing for kitchen time. My husband, who used to be vegetarian, is now vegan, and so’s she, so it’ll be a big vegan spread. (I’m omni, but will get my fill of turkey at work, we have a badass cafeteria.)
So far I know there will be lots of stuffing on the menu, I live for mashed potatoes, there will be tofurkey because I need my meat analog, and I’m not sure what else. I do a really nice sweet potato/pecan thing which my husband said did not revolt him nearly as much as the kind with marshmallows, but neither of us actually like sweet potatoes, so “does not suck” is probably not good enough to get it on the menu.
Dessert? We’ll see. There have been pumpkin choc chip cupcakes this weekend, and threats of pumpkin cinnamon rolls so by the time we hit thanksgiving I may be all pumpkinned out.
Yeah, but will he trust YOU when he learns you let the cat out of the bag?
It looks like it will be just my husband, 12-y-o son, and me for Thanksgiving. (And since I really did not want to drive 3.5 hours to have T-day buffet with my 92-y-o MIL at her retirement community, that’s fine with me!)
I was thinking about buying a small turkey and having my husband smoke it on the grill, but I’m intrigued by the Alton Brown brining recipe now.
I occasionally get a turkey breast and roast it when the weather’s cool enough to turn on the oven. That’s always been more than enough for my husband, daughter, and our cats, with plenty of leftovers. This year, since our daughter has left the nest, we’ll probably roast a pork tenderloin (my husband loves pork, and is only meh about turkey). I will make dressing and gravy, and a couple of other dishes, but it’s just gonna be the two of us. Then he’s going out deer hunting and I’ll probably just work on my various projects.
I offer Cranberry Relish:
1 - 12-ounce can of whole cranberries
2 cups of sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Put berries in a 9x13 ovenproof dish. Stir sugar and lemon juice into berries. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 for one hour. While still hot, stir in marmalade and walnuts. Stir together well, and serve warm or chilled.
Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holiday. It’s the perfect holiday. Think about it! You eat and eat and eat, and you don’t have to buy present for anyone. It just doesn’t get any better than Thanksgiving.
I’ve turned the wife into a true Thanksgiving fan, too. And there are no shortages of Thanksgiving meals in Bangkok for the American expats here. Out favorite – and we’ll be going there again, already have reservations – is Bourbon Street Restaurant in Washington Square. American-owned and -operated, it has an absolutely fantastic buffet spread of turkeys and hams and stuffing and cranberry sauce and all the other usual Thanksgiving fare. The owner is from New Orleans and so always has a few Cajun Thanksgiving specialties thrown in, such as turkey gumbo, which the wife loves. Wonderful dessert table. 799 baht (US$23.50) per person for all you can eat. Every year, they always have to bring in a dolly to roll me out after I’ve finished. This is about the only time of year you can even find turkey in Bangkok.
My MIL was so funny the last time I did this. Soak the turkey for six hours in a salt bath! :eek: Start it off in the oven for 500 [sup]o[/sup] for 30 minutes! :eek: No stuffing inside the bird! :eek:
My mom is hosting again this year, and I asked early enough that I’m going to be bringing the pies. YAY! Pumpkin, peach streusel, and custard. There will be at least 14 for dinner, I think, and I know Mom will also bake some sort of dessert thing to go along with the bird, smashed taters, gravy, assorted veggies, kraut and Polish sausage, rolls, and whatever other folks bring.
I do wish my mother would do the low, slow roasting like I do rather than her usual, old-time, end-up-with-dry-bird method. But she’s a creature of habit and with gravy, the white meat isn’t quite a dry. For me, the worst part is the drive - it’s a tad over 2 hours to her place, and I’m the one coming from the farthest out. Oh well, that’s what I get for preferring the southern end of the state to the Baltimore-metro area.
Seriously, that sounds awesome. Let us know how it turns out.