pumpkin pie with whipped cream
gingerbread cookies with cinnamon ice cream covered in caramel-bourbon sauce
whatever random dessert the MIL decides to bring (Og help us if she decides to try to cook something!)
To drink, we will have a choice of sparkling red or white grape juice, Chaucer’s mead, water, coffee, apple or cranberry juice.
Well, we decided (sort of at the last minute) to go to my sister’s house, so I’m not cooking. But most years I do. And when I thought I was going to be doing that, here was my menu:
Roasted turkey
Bread stuffing with sausage and chestnuts
sauerkraut
cold pea salad
creamed spinach topped with cheddar and jack cheese
cranberry-orange relish
crescent rolls (the refrigerator kind; I suck at baking!)
ginger glazed carrots
everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mashed potatoes (you add sour cream, cream cheese, crumbled bacon and chives to your standard mashed potato recipe)
gravy (duh)
vanilla bean mashed sweet potatoes
And for dessert:
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream
cherry pie with vanilla ice cream
Could you please share your stuffing recipe? It sounds divine!
Roasted turkey
Bread stuffing with fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme, sauted with giblets
Sweet potatoes with brown sugar, sour cream, and brandy
Whole berry cranberry sauce with candied ginger and orange peel
Fond gravy
Mince meat pie
No rolls or mashed potatoes this year. I’m watching my weight.
We’ll start the day with Bloody Mary’s and omelettes.
Later, while I start the Turkey will be various veggie/cheese/fruit plates
Dinner is:
Turkey
Ham
Green bean/cheese/broccoli casserole
Smooshed potatoes
Home made cranberry sauce
Brown Wild Rice stuffing
spinach/bacon thing I make with bacon drippings and flour (I have no other name for it)
Gravy
Buttered Corn
Sourdough rolls
Dessert will be various ice cream, pumpkin pie and whipped cream
Beverages will be reds or whites, followed by much coffee.
I missed the edit window to add that of course, I will be making gravy, but that seems kind of like a duh moment, ya know?
The recipe for the stuffing is found here. Yes, it is a Martha Stewart recipe – have I not mentioned I adore that woman? It actually calls for grapes, but we’re not much on grapes at our house and with the cranberries and black berries, I figured I would stick with cherries to keep my fingers stained red for the next 2 months!
My turkey recipe is also from Martha Stewart, but I swear, it is the best. We substitute mead for white wine to add a little extra flavour, but it makes the skin come out prefectly brown and crispy while the flesh is moist as all get out. It’s listed under Turkey 101 on her site, I think.
Hahaha, yeh, I have to stop by the liquor store for the bourbon, wal-mart for another ice cream maker, as my gf has lost mine, pizza for dinner for tonight, heavy cream, whole milk and shit…I need to make a list.
It’s nice to see that I am not the only one who does the various trays for munchies before the actual dinner. Our munchies will be:
crackers and various cheeses
veggie tray
crab cakes
deviled eggs
An old friend tried that once. The recipe called for the breast meat to be some certain temperature, 170 maybe? Well, she bought a meat thermometer just for the purpose. The bird never came up to temperature, and it was in the oven for something like 5 hours. We decided that it looked not only done, but maybe a little too done.
My friend never bothered to test the thermometer for accuracy. It read about 60 degrees too low.
I’m not doing any appetizers. A very light breakfast, and the main meal and late nightsandwich are more than enough.
Crackers and various cheeses? Fie!
Veggie tray? A pox on all your veggies.
Deviled eggs? To hell with 'em.
Crab cakes? Did someone say crab cakes? I need to add to my list. I may need to redefine Thanksgiving altogether. Can one actually put bread stuffing inside of a crab?
Hahaha, yeh. Thermometers are very handy this time of year – my oven runs hot so I have to use an in-oven thermometer as well as a meat thermometer. We like our skin to be almost “overdone” but if you follow Martha’s recipe, the flesh will still be moist (provided your thermometer works!). If you ever do the recipe, I recommend using the mead as your wine, even though she calls for a “dry white wine.” The honey in the mead helps to caramelise the skin and adds a little extra flavour for the turkey. I have tried the recipe with about 6 different wines and the mead is by far the favourite.
17 pound turkey (still partially frozen - hurry up and thaw would ya?)
Bread stuffing with fresh sage and thyme
corn casserole
grean beans
noodles with bread crumbs (a family fave that my cousin and i love - its just that, egg noodles boiled with buttered breadcrumbs put on top, then baked in a casserole dish until it’s crispy)
mashed potatoes
freshly baked bread (from my bread machine)
veggie tray
then pumpkin, cherry and french silk pies for dessert, all made from scratch by moi(except I cheat and use canned pumpkin, and canned cherries, but NOT cherry FILLING) with whipped cream and ice cream
plenty of wine, and a fully stocked bar in the dining room
coffee, tea … and ME!
The pies I’ll make tonight, but all the rest I will begin at 5am tomorrow. Weeee Im thankful I’ll have Friday off this year, I usually don’t
Roasted Turkey
His Stuffing
My Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Turkey gravy
Yams
Corn
Green beans (Mom can’t eat corn)
Cranberry Sauce (Jellied)
Brown and Serve Rolls
Apple Pie and Pumpkin Pie with Cool Whip or Reddi Whip
My Tofurkey
His herbed roasted turkey breast (there are just two of us, and he’s the only one eating the turkey!)
Stuffing (that he doesn’t put eggs or celery in, the heathen)
Chipotle mashed sweet potatoes
Green bean casserole (canned all the way!)
A roasted brussels sprouts/carrot/beet salad.
Cranberry sauce from the can (I made him some real cranberry sauce, and he doesn’t like it. The can’s traditional now. At least it’s organic.)
For dessert, he’s making one lonely pumpkin pie. I might go buy a pre-made pecan pie, because I don’t feel like fooling around with making one this year. (We’re doing Thanksgiving on Friday, because my birthday is on the 22nd, and we’re having birthday dinner that night. Take that, tradition!)
I note that a lot of people are doing cornbread stuffing – I always thought that was a Southern thing. Do we have a lot of Southern Dopers or am I incorrect?
I’m a Southerner. I had grown up and moved away from home before I found out that dressing/stuffing was made with anything other than cornbread.
And I have a question, too: in what region or culture do they put oysters in dressing? I’ve seen apples, nuts, sausage, and even prunes in dressing-- but oysters?
