Mine turned out pretty good, but as always there were last minute twists. The first one was when my wife told me at 11 this morning that she needed the oven for about 2 hours. Not a huge deal since I was smoking the turkey, but I also had stuffing and rolls on my list. Ended up firing up a grill and doing the stuffing and rolls on that. And of course the turkey got done about an hour before I was expecting it to. It all turned out great though.
So, we cooked, ate, napped, watched football, ate some more, and are enjoying a fire in the fireplace… so pretty much the standard Thanksgiving.
So, share how your well planned out day turned out.
Ten hours cooking, ten minutes eating. It was nice having family around, but I think this is the last year I’m doing this. Just as much fun could be had ordering pizza.
Real low key. Just the wife and I and our two kids (14 & 3).
I bought a pumpkin pie yesterday and my wife made an apple pie so desert was already taken care of. Did the turkey at about 12:30, started some potatoes to boil and my wife made some wild rice, almond, raisin dish. After a bit, started on the gravy, turkey was out of the oven by about 3:00ish (10lbs using the high heat method), heated some rolls… dinner was on the table by about 3:30, we were done eating by 4:15, had the leftovers put away and dishes washed before 5pm and have been relaxing ever since.
As you know I live in Mexico. Well, the Mexicans don’t do Thanksgiving. But there is a group of gabachos here and they put on a splendid feast. I had mashed potatoes and gravy! Been many a year since I had eaten them. And there was stuffing! And a cheese plate! It had bricks of edam, gouda, blue cheese, brie and some I didn’t know. And of course turkey! Desserts. Pumpkin pie! These things are unheard of here. Don’t get me wrong, Yucatan food is super! But enjoying this stuff of years gone by was heaven! Then there was live music! And dancing. And tequila! It was incredible! Maybe my best Thanksgiving ever!
I bought a Mary’s farm turkey, but it wasn’t for Thanksgiving. I got it two weeks ago and roasted it for myself. Once a year I cook a 12-15 pound bird to get the meat and then package it up and freeze for winter use is soup and such.
My family Thanksgiving was great. Plenty of food and no political discussions. My cousin from Nebraska, whose husband is of Danish ancestry, brought some pastry, with almond paste, that was to die for. Then there were pies, cakes, baklava, various casseroles, turkey, ham, salads, and bread. I’m the breads bringer in our clan. This time it was challah, James Beard’s recipe. I also do croissants at Ester,and onion rolls for other family feasts. I also brought a mince pie, and did my father’s chocolate birthday cake.
It went very well. I was the only cook this year, but I was actually organized enough that everything went according to plan. I made pies (cherry, apple, and two pumpkin), cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, iced tea, and lemonade yesterday and I brined the turkey overnight. The bird was stuffed and in the oven by 8 this morning, and I just worked on the rest until it was done. The dough for the rolls actually rose on schedule, so I was able to pop them into the oven right when the turkey came out to rest, and it was all on the table by 1:40, just ten minutes past my target time. Besides the above, we had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with apples, cucumber salad, vegetarian stuffing made outside the turkey, and Harvard beets. I even remembered to put a Quorn roast in the oven so that the meat-eaters wouldn’t feel sorry for me! Mr. Legend and the kids got the place dusted and vacuumed, moved furniture around to set up the big table, and cleaned the bathroom so I didn’t have to worry about anything but the cooking. And my father- and brother-in-law were on time, so we got to eat while the hot food was hot. All in all, a wonderful day, but I’m glad we only do this once a year.
It got blown all to Hell. We were on track (and pretty pleased with ourselves) with shopping finished, and starting some prep work yesterday afternoon. At 3:00pm or so I got the call that my 98 year-old Grandmother had fallen and was in the ER. Dropped everything and rushed there. She’d still been at home with my cousin and doing well, but when she fell she did a number on her knee. It’s very swollen, but not broken, thank goodness.
We got home from all that at about 11:00 last night. Collapsed. We went back to the hospital this morning/afternoon thinking we might do something tonight on a much smaller scale. However, when we got in the car to go home, we were exhausted and decided to just go to a restaurant.
I think we’ll probably do something with all this food over the weekend, but not sure what yet.
I’ve been lucky to have had some truly lovely Thanksgivings in my life, but this one stank!
It was really nice. The best one I’ve had in many years. Every bit of food was perfect, though I’d been concerned about my roommate’s turkey plans. He put crushed pineapple and white onion in it, on it, surrounding it. It sounded like it would be dreadful but it just tasted like a really moist roasted turkey. No odd flavor or texture.
I had a moment when my cake wouldn’t come out of the bundt pan, and then only came out in pieces. But I successfully patched it with extra frosting and everyone loved it.
My roommate’s family joined us, and they’re very sweet, gentle people. My only family there was my girls but I felt like I was really part of roommate’s family too. It’s a really good feeling.
The food was good but the ticket from the %%@%% cop for his claim that I violating Virginia’s “move over” law, and also the emergency car repair I needed earlier yesterday kind of ruined the fun of the day for me.
I got home from work around 7:00, had breakfast, and went to bed until 12:30. Assembledthe Waldorf salad I had prepped on Wednesday, showered, dressed, and drove to my dad’s house. Got introduced to my older brother’s girlfriend, got re-introduced to my brother, who I had not recognized. They brought the bread from Boudin’s in San Francisco on their way down. Oldest brother and his girlfriend brouhht the most awesome whipped yams I have ever tasted, and three from-scratch pumpkin pies. Also a couple of growlers of local craft beers.
Oldest sister and her husband brought the turkey. Next oldest brother, who lives with Dad most of the time made gravy, two kinds of rice-and-mushroom dressing, home made cranberry sauce, another growler, and provided wine.
Lots of stories told, largely for the benefit of the new girlfriend, lots of laughter, lots of fun. I suddenly remembered that I needed to be at work at 9 p.m. rather than 10, so we left at 7:00 so I could get a nap.
As we were leaving, my wife and daughter asked if I could roast a turkey next week, and serve it with mashed potatoes and a stuffing/dressing made with some kind of bread (and a can of Ocean Spray, with the ridges).
My husband and I agreed that this year was pretty much meh. We were at my mother’s with the rest of the family and a few extras. We arrived early, but most of them were still in the cooking mode, then as others arrived, it became too crowded in the kitchen, so some were watching football or hanging out in other rooms.
The meal was OK, but mostly boring. I keep forgetting that my mother’s idea of vegetables is to dump a can of something into a pan. The only fresh veggie she made was brussels sprouts (which I don’t like) and even tho my husband loves them, he said they weren’t very good. The meal lasted maybe 15 minutes, then all of a sudden, people were loading up containers with leftovers. I came home with a bag of bones to make soup, but nothing else - I guess I was slow out of the blocks. :rolleyes: To be fair, I didn’t want to bring anything home anyway.
Frankly, I wish we’d just stayed home. 4+ hours of driving for several hours of craziness and no real time to visit with anyone because no one sat down long enough to chat… so, *meh *is the kindest way I can sum it up. And today I get to boil a turkey carcass for soup. I’m beginning to think that going out for dinner is a much smarter option, except for the unfortunates who have to work in order for others to eat out.
We had a great meal – some prepared at out house (grandparents), taken to join the stuff fixed at the son’s house. We all six enjoyed some of the best tasting grub we’ve managed in years. The turkey, delicious, was called a ‘spiced’ turkey, whatever that is, and it was great.
One complaint about thanksgiving…we watched the Macy’s parade and found it even more commercial and banal than ever. One commercial after another, interspersed with floats and bands that didn’t seem to be much more than commercials for one company or another. The bands, well, my question is whether those bands from far away in the big parades, including Macy’s and, say, the Rose Bowl parade…do they get an appearance fee? Otherwise, what is the point of spending tens of thousands of dollars to create, train, transport, house, feed, etc. all those people?
Last observation. In the Marine band, one clarinet player must have been no taller than 5 feet. Can a person 5 feet tall get into the marines?
My dad’s new wife is a very lovely person. I like her very much. But her cooking sucks. For the second year in a row my Thanksgiving included a turkey basted in Kahlua. I thought last year was a failed experiment - I learned yesterday that she always makes turkey in Kahlua. Oh god, it is so gross. The skin is flabby and sweet, and the gravy!!! I cannot describe how awful turkey Kahlua gravy is on mashed potatoes. Her stuffing is cubes of bread. Just…cubes. Of bread. No onion. No celery. No butter. No seasoning. Seriously, it appears to be a bowl of croutons. And I would think it was croutons, but there was no salad. And they were mushy. Cubes of bread with broth drizzled on them.
I think I will host turkey day next year. I think I will do it every year.
You know, its funny. I think she was “selected” because she’s almost a doppelganger of my mother. They are very similar in appearance. Same profession, too. Same propensity to overdecorate. Same fondness for wine. Its eerie. The only difference is my mom was a Catholic-in-name-only and the new wife is rabid. And my mom was an amazing cook. I missed my mom yesterday.
Well, we ended up not heading up to my Mom’s for turkey day with my brother so we tossed the not yet thawed bird in the freeze, grabbed out a duck for the roomie and us [yes we did warn brother about us not showing up so he went to his favorite bar for pizza and wings. We will just use the turkey for Christmas instead]
So we did sweet potatoes baked, dressing outside the bird, cranberry relish, duck and pumpkin pie and watched Punkin Chunkin and a bunch of Mythbusters [quickly becoming the household way of celebrating, with Alice’s Restaurant playing while we do after eating cleanup.]
Low key. I planned just the three of us for Thanksgiving, but my daughter’s plush frog needed a place setting at the last minute. It was okay, he didn’t eat much.
It was a marathon, not a sprint. We just ate too much alllllll day. Took a walk. Watched football. Didn’t even get to the second pie, though.
Mine was good. Not the best I’ve had, but still good. Had Mom, Dad, and Sister as definites, and two maybes. Sister’s friend cancelled, but my former co-worker came.
The food came out good, except the stuffing. Despite the fantastic advice in the gluten free thread, I still tried a gluten free stuffing to make Mom feel included. (It’s her first hear doing gluten free.) It wasn’t very good, and was the only dish that I have way too much left over from. If I don’t find a better recipe, next year it’ll be back to normal stuffing. It doesn’t do any good to make something people can, but won’t, eat.
The GF berry crumble that I made to replace my traditional apple pie was a big hit.
My sister joked that she was missing out on a 6pm sale for a TV she wanted. She left my place around 9:30. Parking was bad, but she said there were no lines, and she was able to get in and out with the TV (and a few other things she wanted) in just a few minutes.
All in all…successful Thanksgiving. Now I just have to see how the leftovers will last for eight days.
We were on track (and pretty pleased with ourselves) with shopping finished, and starting some prep work yesterday afternoon. At 3:00pm or so I got the call that my 98 year-old Grandmother had fallen and was in the ER. Dropped everything and rushed there. She’d still been at home with my cousin and doing well, but when she fell she did a number on her knee. It’s very swollen, but not broken, thank goodness.
