Silenus- I have spent many a Thanksgiving in Glamis! A tradition I miss dearly! We usually deep fry as well, but have done the pit too. Its awesome! There’s just nothing that smells more like thanksgiving to me than the aromas of Turkey and 2 stroke fuel! 
Unfortunately its been a few years since ive been out… but I think we’re due to go soon enough!
I once slept in a tent in my parents’ back yard.
Ours will be:
Turkey breast roulade (filled with a wild rice/mushroom/bacon/onion mix. I detest regular stuffing)
Beef roast with spicy tomato sauce
Sweet potato souffle <=== quite possibly the only savory sweet potato side dish in existence, and quite awesome.
green beans amandine
scalloped potatoes
homemade bread
apple pie with caramel ice cream
Champagne
Thanks for posting this. I’ve spent hours of my life searching for sweet potato dishes that don’t contain any added sugar or sweet spices and until now only had one recipe for my efforts. You’ve doubled my list! 
Cornbread stuffing. If you hate mushy stuffing then you want cornbread stuffing.
Actually, no matter what you think you want, you actually want cornbread stuffing.
For the marshallows/sweet potato combo haters:
Last year, the Other Shoe and I brought bacon sweet potatoes, and they were a monster hit. Peel sweets and cut into big chunks, season thoroughly, then roast on a sheet pan in a decent amount of bacon fat. About halfway through, stir/flip, and add quartered onions.
No sweetness needed, and I assume based on last year’s reception that we’ll be bringing this again this year. 
<slight hijack>
Well, heck, romans, I didn’t even see your post until I already posted. Enjoy! But if you just want non-sweetened sweet potato recipes, try baking them in the oven like a regular baked potato, and then halve, and smother the insides with shredded cheese and (I kid you not) barbecue sauce. Delicious!
</slight hijack>
We now return you to your Thanksgiving conversation, since baked potatoes are kind of an everyday thing and not holiday food …
For the last three years, I’ve been shopping, transporting, prepping, cooking, washing up, putting away for TWO Thanksgiving dinners. The Big Day one at my mother’s (she has a hard time even with a microwave oven at this point), drag husband and daughter over, and there we sit staring at each other wishing it was all over. The next day, I cook OUR Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Enough! Enough! I put my foot down and this year Mr. Sali is going to stay home Thanksgiving day with a pizza and wings, and me, mom, and daughter and disabled brother are off to the Chinese buffet. My heart is soaring like a hawk! (If Mr. Sali wants turkey, etc. I will cook a turkey breast and he can make turkey sandwiches on marble rye till they come out of his ears.)
My sweet potato recipe is from epicurious.com and it’s absolutely addictive – I’m appalled by the idea of adding sugar to sweet potatoes, and these are just so tasty and savory. I’m going to change the recipe only by cutting them into bite-sized chunks instead of wedges so that they cook more quickly and can be served more easily.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Dope, I give you: Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes
Yay (not so) sweet potato recipes!!
salinqmind, you do so much for your family - I’m glad you’re cutting back for your sake
Whole Foods has yukon golds for $1/pound, woohoo!
I’m doing the assist on Thanksgiving, not the main meal. I am, however, making a soup. Sort of a cross between vegetable noodle and fasolada. I want to use the flavor profile of the fasolada without using the beans (since we’re already having beans). The rest of it is standard for our family–baked spaghetti, green beans, ham, baked beans, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake for dessert.
For Christmas, though, I’m taking a more substantial role. I’m going to do a lamb roast, probably with some sort of orange/rosemary/maybe-mint marinade or glaze, lemon-dill squash, and kourabiedes for dessert. My mom’s going to do spanakopita, twice-baked potatoes, and coconut pie.
I think we’ll be going like this:
Turkey stuffed with bread stuffing
Cornbread stuffing made on the side
Mashed sweet potatoes
Two or three hot vegetable dishes, likely corn, carrots, and green beans
Rolls and butter if I’m feeling ambitious
Pumpkin pie
Shoo-fly pie
Apple pie
Blueberry buckle
Vanilla ice cream
The “two kinds of stuffing” is because I’ve promised one of my sons, who does not care for sweet potatoes nor regular bread stuffing, that I’d try cornbread stuffing this year, as he loves stuffing. But then the other son protested that stuffing cooked inside the bird is the Very Best Part Of Thanksgiving, and I could hear every capital letter, so this seemed like a reasonable compromise.
Does anyone know when it’s possible to buy a fresh turkey? Can I buy it as early as Sunday? Last year I went to pick up a turkey and they were out of fresh, just had frozen.
I was going to go with a Trader Joe’s all natural bird which is fresh. Sunday or Monday - last year on Tuesday they were definitely out of all the fresh birds. It just strikes me as odd to buy meat and not use or freeze it within two days.
Argh, Christmas dinner. That one I have to do. Last year I did it with strep throat and a sinus infection. No, no one else got sick from it, grrrr.
I’m torn between asking my mom to help me make her traditional holiday spread, because I don’t get her cornbread stuffing at Thanksgiving anymore and really miss it… or doing something more different and interesting, which I think my parents would appreciate.
My idea for “different and interesting” last year was a full-on English roast dinner, with Yorkshire pudding and everything. This year I think I’d go for a more Middle Eastern theme… pulled lamb with mint leaves and pomegranate seeds (oooh! seasonal colors!), I don’t know what for veg and sides (saffron rice seems called for), syllabub and pastries for dessert. Hmmmm.
If I bought a fresh turkey on Sunday with the plan to roast it on Thursday, I would not worry about it.
i’ve heard a ton about cornbread stuffing but i have never seen it in person, much less tasted it (and i grew up in the South too).
is it good? i worry that it’d be too sweet for my liking.
Whether cornbread stuffing is sweet depends on a number of factors. One is the cornbread you start with. I’ve had cornbread that was really more like cake without frosting, but I’ve had cornbread that was barely sweet at all, certainly no sweeter than most white breads. You can make your own or you can get it at a bakery. Also, if you’re worried about it being too sweet, you can always add “savories” to it, like plenty of onions, celery, peppers, even some browned bacon is good in cornbread stuffing! If you go with bacon (or browned up bits of salty ham), brown some extra to sprinkle over the top. Mmmmm. I like ham or bacon in the Thanksgiving stuffing, because both meats pair so well with turkey!
Turkey+Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Turnip
Squash
Stuffing
Broccoli
Apple Pie
It makes me sad that there are people in the world who don’t know these things.
To whit: cornbread isn’t supposed to be sweet. My family’s recipe is:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
1/2 c oil
1 c milk
Mix everything together, pour into a greased pie plate, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. It makes a rich, crumbly stuffing that can’t be pasty because the bread has such a robust structure to start with.