Watching football doesn’t involve mayonnaise by any chance…
no I hate mayo it doesn’t belong on anything
It’s just the two of us this year, so no point cooking the customary spread. We’re still trying to figure out where we’re going, but it’s probably going to be Chinese (we’re debating between the buffet place we went to last year or the dim sum place).
My father and I will go to the truckstop again this year. All-you-can-eat turkey and trimmings, plus pie. 14.95. Yum. And no dirty dishes.
Don’t buy yours at Costco:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2012/11/a_very_costco_thanksgiving_fee.php
Most of that sounds disgusting.
Insert tasteless joke, possibly add part about getting hungry later.
I got a turkey breast (not that kit) there. The only part I’d worry about from there is the heaviness of the seasoning. Not precooked. Stuffing and gravy. I got it because I’ve never done turkey, but so far it seems like the only things brought are veggies or dairy. Thanksgiving needs dead animals! If people don’t like it, tough shit.
My SO is doing this for his extended family this year…ordered most of it from a grocery store named Festival, I think, and the pies he’s picking up today from Perkins. Usually he cooks, but a whole bunch of extra people got invited and he just doesn’t have time since he’s travelling, and the person who did the inviting does not cook.
I much prefer my own recipes to anything anyplace else would do for Thanksgiving (we do not use sage in anything) and I’m too cheap. But I have in the past eaten out for Thanksgiving. Depressing not to have leftovers.
So, what-all are we having for dinner, My Beloved? 
I have not had a store-made Thanksgiving dinner, but I can see how they would be popular. On the weekend I had to go to the market to get a few things, and they had samples of holiday foods throughout the store. I sampled their roasted turkey, stuffing, and gravy. (I’ve had their mashed potatoes before, when getting fried chicken meals.)
The turkey was good. Not great, and not as good as what I cook; but good. The stuffing was… bland. I almost always use a boxed stuffing, since I can’t be arsed to make it from scratch. (I have to say though, that when I do make it from scratch it’s better.) I don’t really ‘doctor’ it; I just add turkey broth (made from the neck and giblets), minced heart and gizzard (because I like them in the stuffing instead of the gravy, which gets the liver), celery, onions, and butter. Sometimes I’ll add cranberries or yellow raisins. Even though I don’t do anything to the stuffing, it’s much better than the store’s offering. Their gravy may have come out of a packet. I make mine from the drippings and add the liver. Mine is much better, but theirs is OK.
So if you don’t want to go to the trouble of cooking Thanksgiving dinner yourself, the convenience makes up for the difference in flavour. But I like to cook Thanksgiving dinner, and I’d rather give my taste buds a little more action.
Dear Czarcasm, we are having turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, beans, corn pudding, mashed rutabegas, apple and pumpkin pie whith whipped cream. If I left anything out you will find out tomorrow.
And the sugar-free custard?
Sister-in-law is providing carry out from the Der Dutchman. Generally pretty good in restaurant, so I expect at least decent brought to the house. It is a move I have advocated for a while. Given the numbers and ages and preferences of everybody involved, this is easier and we can all actually enjoy ourselves a little bit. I don’t mind cooking up a feast, it’s fun, but when you hit double digits of picky eaters - screw it.
Christmas is easier with this family. They do ham, and a warmed up honey-baked is fine, and a couple of easy to potluck sides. It is excellent and nap inducing.
Yep.
I picked it up today.
Oh, too obvious. Instead I’ll steal from the Simpsons and suggest that they’re too tough and stringy.
Yesterday’s Thanksgiving dinner for four was courtesy of Boston Market, pre-ordered by me.
For the past few years my mom and I have had an agreement that I spend Christmas with her and my brother but I get to spend Thanksgiving with my friends: however, in September she moved to assisted living and yesterday was her first holiday there. She’s not able to travel, and I couldn’t face the idea of her eating a sad little Thanksgiving lunch there alone, but I knew if I didn’t arrange something my brother never would…and I don’t cook…so, Boston Market to the rescue. I placed a custom catering order, and it worked out quite well!
Even though my parents have been divorced for 25 years my dad joined us for a 2:30pm meal of cornbread, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet corn, macaroni and cheese, apple pie, and chocolate chip cookies. The minimum number of people for catering is five, but there weren’t nearly as many leftovers as I’d feared there would be. The store even threw in serving utensils, plastic forks/spoons, and napkins, and the whole shebang cost $90. I’d definitely do it again.
A phony what? 
“Those people are all gristle!”
Not only is oven roasting not a Chinese cooking tradition (even in America most Chinese families I knew growing up used the oven for pot storage - and one college-aged friend used it for her SHOE storage), neither is eating turkey. Can you even get a whole roasting turkey in Nanjing?
The “cooked turkey/ham dinners” that you say are popular, is that like eating at a KFC for the locals?
I will rate my Thanksgiving dinners.
For lunch, I went to Golden Corral for their buffet. I paid ~$15 for what I normally pay ~$12, but I can accept that given it’s a holiday so they’re paying employees to work on a traditional day to be with family, and it’s a holiday centered on overeating. The buffet had all the normal stuff, but plenty of turkey and dressing and ham. I even passed on the steak, but it was available. The food was as expected. The dressing had a little too much something, I assume sage. It was tasty and filling.
For dinner, I hit up Cracker Barrel. They had a plate of Thanksgiving, with turkey, dressing, ham, sweet potato casserole, another side, cranberry sauce, plus a dessert and their bisquits and cornbread, and a beverage, for under $10. A reasonable sized plate of food - I took home half. Mostly still pretty full from lunch, but I wanted a second plate of stuff, which is why I went to dinner. So I have the basis for a second meal - I need to flesh it out with another side to replace the macaroni I polished off.
All in all, my food plan worked well for me.
Mine was a disaster!
Turkey like synthetic rubber, vile dressing.
Inedible.
I will return to the restaurant Monday & demand a refund.