So Who's Cooking Thanksgiving and Whatcha Makin'?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I’m hosting what friends and I have dubbed our “We Ain’t From 'Round Here Dinner” on Thursday. It’s a bunch of us who are not native to the area.

I’m frying turkey, baking a ham, making the cornbread dressing, cooking collard greens and making the gravy cause I’m the only one that can do it right.

Others are bringing the rest of the fixin’s. We all agreed on no green bean casseroles or Hello-molds.

There will be asparagus, corn casserole, smashed taters, candied yams, cabbage casserole, rolls and cornbread.

Desserts will be homemade cheesecake, (helpful hint: date somebody who makes yummy cheesecakes. You won’t regret it. :smiley: ) sweet potato pie, chocolate pecan pie, and homemade chocolate mousse! I was gonna do the homemade mousse cause I’ve been jonesing for it, but a friend who happens to make an excellent mousse is coming over tomorrow morning to make it fresh. I gots me some good friends, I tell ya!

There will be plenty of wine, beer, assorted other spirits as well as iced tea and soft drinks.

It’s gonna be a good day!

Friday afternoon I’m going up to see my mother and sibs in my hometown and we’ll have a Thanksgiving meal together on Saturday.

I get lots and lots of Thanksgiving goodies this way.

22

Even more helpful hint: be the person who makes the yummy cheesecakes. You’ll be the most popular person in the office/school/party. People will love, admire, and respect you whereever you go. (Okay, they’re probably just saying they love, admire and respect me so I’ll make them cheesecake, but I’ll take whatever I can get.)

23

I’m cooking. My part(s) of the meal are

Paper thin sliced ham lunch meat with a cream chees spread on the slices then rolled up, cut into small pieces and place on tooth picks, some with green olives, some with sweet pickle chunks.

Maybe some deviled eggs

Turkey (21 lbs)
Cornbread dressing
giblet gravy
Whipped sweet potatos with brown sugar, pineapple bits and orange juice
Green beans
Corn
Rolls
2 sweet potato pies (made from scratch thank you very much LIONsob)
A large banana pudding
Extra large pineapple upside down cake
Coconut cream pie (Thanks again honey)

Son and future d-i-l are supposed to bring the fruit salad and maybe a pumpkin pie
I really wanted to skip the holiday this year because I miss my Mom so much but she wouldn’t want me to do that, ::sigh:: So I will try to make it happy for my family

24

I’m alone for Turkey day so I’m making a roast chicken with chorizo stuffing, and a Kahlua flan for dessert. Going to turn the leftovers into a refrigerator chicken/goat cheese/sun-dried tomato pie, chicken salad and (if there’s enough left) chicken soup.

Yum :slight_smile:

25

Turkey (duh)
Stuffing
Gravy
A lot of cranberry sauce
Fresh homemade rolls
Steamed broccoli
Devilled eggs
Pumpkin pie
Sugar Cream Pie
Persimmon pudding
For snacks:

Mulled wine
Nuts to crack (mucho fun)
Kisses with almonds

26

I forgot!

Sweet potato and apple casserole!

My favorite!

27

What I’m making for Thankgiving?

Reservations.

Kinda stupid to cook for 2…

28

Mom’s hosting. She’s already called me twice today to discuss logistics, etc. She goes a bit mad when she has family events at her house. Gotta love her…

Guest list:
Mom, my bro & his 3 kids. Aunt and uncle, my cousin and her boyfriend, and my cousin from Atlanta. Grandpa, my great aunt and uncle, me and the hubby. There may be other people showing up… I’ll find out tomorrow. At this point, we’re up to 15.

Menu:
2 full roasted turkey breasts
1/2 Honey Baked HamTM
roasted garlic mashed potatoes
some kind of sweet potato casserole
Apple and Onion Stuffin’ Muffins
regular stuffing
turkey gravy, courtesy of Knorr
green beans
fresh cranberry sauce
creamed spinach gratin (thank you Aunt Jane!)
other vegetable dishes
dinner rolls
pumpkin pies

Mom’s doing the meat, sweet potatoes and pies, my aunt is making the veggies and cranberry sauce. I’m on starch detail, with the garlic mashed potatoes and stuffings. I was asked to do a dish of regular stuffing for the less adventurous types who don’t want apples in their’s. My husband isn’t particularly fond of garlic so I’ll reserve some potatoes for him while doing the mashers.

Today I was coerced into making a sugar free banana cream pie by my cousin in town from Atlanta. So I’ll be making that tonight. I couldn’t say no… I don’t get to see him often enough, and he made a special trip to the store for ingredients. :slight_smile:

Plans:
The hubby and I will go to Mom’s around 9 to help get set up, and start cooking. Dinner is at 1. After we eat, we’ll take a dinner over to my grandmother’s house (dad’s mom) and visit with her for a while. No doubt, she’ll have made a chocolate pie for us to eat.

After that, I’m sure we’ll come home and sleep off a big carb buzz.

29

My mom is going to try making that too! Have you made it before? Is it good? It looked good on TV but you never know…

30

Nope. I’d never heard about it until I was watching food porn last week. Mom, Auntie and I agreed that it must be tried. I bet it’s yummy.

Hey, did you notice if Rachel peeled the apples? The recipe doesn’t say to peel, but I want to be sure. I’m sure it would be just as tasty with the peel, and ever so festive looking.

31

I don’t remember. I think it would be okay to leave it on. What kind of apples are you using?

32

The store didn’t have MacIntosh, so I’m using Fuji. They’re comparable cooking-wise.

33

I need a good recipe for sweet potato casserole. I thought I had a good one, but now I can’t remember where I’d seen it. The one I like is topped with a sort of pecan glaze (not marshmallows). Any suggestions?*
*I thought that I’d seen a T’day recipe thread here somewhere but now can’t find that, either. I’m thoroughly discombobulated.

34

Going to Mom’s, whereupon my sister’s new boyfriend will be subjected to the wonderment that is Thanksgiving at Mom’s.

Mom is making turkey, wild rice/almond/mushroom stuffing, homemade whole cranberry sauce, and gravy. She says that’s it, but she usually manages to sneak in another veggie or two.

My sister is making some kind of spinach dip, and her usual Stove Top Stuffing, because she swears it’s the only stuffing she likes. She usually also brings wine, because she never trusts Mom to buy enough. This is a good move, trust me.

I have no idea who else is coming - Mom usually invites a couple of friends last-minute, and I never know until I get there who is actually going to show up. But all her friends are fabulous cooks, and I always look forward to trying something new.

I’m in charge of the rest of the carbs: homemade onion/dill/rosemary bread, sweet potato casserole (I make mine with pineapple, ginger, molasses, cinnamon, and bourbon), and Derby pie.

35

We are invited to someones house but we are bringing banana pudding for dessert.

36

Don’t know how many you’re cooking for, but this might do. I’m required to bring it to family Thanksgiving dinners. This amount should work for about 6 people, with some leftovers. It’s my own recipe, so it’s not quite as scientific as you’ll find in a cookbook…

There are really only 2 things that can go wrong: overcooking the sweet potatoes and burning the topping. As for burning the topping…just watch them closely after they’ve been on the higher oven temperature for a couple minutes. If in doubt, it’s OK for the topping not to be browned at all.

SWEET POTATOES WITH ORANGE AND PECANS

Boil 2 lbs (about 3 large) sweet potatoes (I cut them in fourths, unpeeled;
I just looked at a recipe that says if you peel them and cut them into
1-inch pieces, it’ll take 15 minutes; that may be from the point where you
turn the heat on and not from when the water starts to boil.)

When the sweet potatoes are easy to pierce with a fork (not mushy), rinse
with cold water and let cool until you can handle them.

If you didn’t peel them, slip the peel off the potatoes and then mash or
knead them until they’re smooth. Add 4 tablespoons melted butter, 1/4
teaspoon grated orange peel, dash cloves, 1/8 teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon
ginger, 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, 4 tablespoons sugar, and the juice from one
orange. Beat thoroughly with a wooden spoon and then taste.

If there isn’t enough orange flavor, add more orange peel and a bit more
orange juice, if necessary.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter and mix with 1/2 cup sugar (you can use brown
sugar, if you like).

Spoon sweet potato mixture in baking dish (I use a 1 1/2 quart round
casserole dish). Cover with pecan halves (I use between 1/2 and 1 cup of
pecan halves). Spoon sugar mixture evenly over the pecans.

Bake at 350 degrees or microwave until heated through and then place in a
very hot oven (450 or so) or under broiler until the sugar just starts to
caramelize.

Mine’s already made and in the refrigerator…

37

I’m cooking for just our family here (and partial at that) - no visiting relatives this year.

18# turkey - cooked on charcoal Weber (main reason I still keep it around - been cooking our Thanksgiving turkey on it for the last 25 years)
cornbread/sausage stuffing
gravy
garlic mashed potato
corn
cranberries
fresh baked rolls
dutch apple crumb pie
pumpkin pie
cranberry nut bread

38

I’m cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner this year. It’ll be my husband, me and my neighbor with her two 14 month old boys.

No one really likes turkey that much so I’m making a ham.

The rest of the menu:
mashed potatoes
salad
deviled eggs
stuffing
macaroni and cheese (not boxed)
and some other things I can’t think of.

We’ll probably end up having the meal twice since my husband’s friend is stuck with duty all day. He’ll be over Friday instead.

39

To the best of my knowledge there are going to be 8 of us this year. We’re having a roast turkey (for my mother who, Jesus love her, cannot eat turkey unless it has the lowest moisture content possible and manage to be JUST edible) AND a cajun fried turkey (from my step-dad who is from Louisiana), a honeybaked Ham (for my sister, who is a certified ham maniac), cornbread dressing with plenty of chicken in it (I realise we now have technically 4 meat dishes… shuddap. ;>), Sweet potato casserole, Green Bean casserole, Squash of some kind, cranberry stuff, deviled eggs, giblet gravy and a spice cake… and then what I’m bringing.

I’m bringing a loaf of italian herbed bread, some brussel sprouts and maple praline bread pudding… and a pumpkin pie.
Yes… I know, we’re friggin nuts.

40

It will just be the hubby and the kids, 5 in all but then you never know who will drop by. We give out standing invtations to all and sundry. We were invited to the “family” dinner, but, hell, we don’t like 'em anyway, so why go?

Dinner Menu

Turkey cooked on the grill
One smaller smoked turkey
Ham
Sweet Potatoe Souffle with pecan & Brown Sugar Topping
Sweet Potatoe Souffle with Coconut
Sweet Potatoe Souffle with Marshmellow topping
Sweet Potatoe & Orange Souffle with Orange zest (I got a bit carried away)
Cornbread Dressing
Giblet Gravy
Corn on the cob
Homemade yeast rolls
Homemade Cranberry/Orange relish
English Peas
Steamed Broccoli and Cauliflower
Chocolate Pecan Torte
Pumpkin Pie

And all I have to do is warm everything up. I cooked all day Wednesday so I can sit my big butt on the couch and watch the parades.