What in your opinion makes up the perfect Thanksgiving meal?
This year in the LIONsob/Ayesha household we are having
Smoked Turkey
Cornbread Dressing
broccoli rice cassarol
dirty rice
candied yams
corn
green beans
tropical fruit salad
rolls
pumpkin pie
homemade orange cake
chocolte cream pie
coke/diet coke/iced tea
I really do know how to spell Casserole and chocolate ::sigh::
This year’s Thanksgiving menu:
Microwaved chicken breast with 50-cent poultry seasoning and butter on it
Canned corn
Wheat bread with strawberry jam
Potatoes, I can’t decide whether to make “Self-mashers” or fry them
Puddin’ Pie
The Thanksgiving Dinner I Used To Eat At Home:
Roast turkey
Homemade stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes made with lots of milk and butter
Arnold’s (no other brand!) dinner rolls
Pickles (sweet baby gherkins)
Sweet potatoes
Peas/carrots/corn
Puddin’ and Puddin’ Pie
Some kind of cake or pie from Grandma (she brings a different one every year)
My mom’s standard menu:
Appetizers-
shrimp
stuffed celery (stuffed with creamcheese and green olives)
fried mozzarella
fried artichoke hearts
various cheeses, pepperoni, and such
Main course-
turkey w homemade gravy
mashed potatoes
mashed turnips (frozen, they just taste better)
stuffing (my BIL’s sausage stuffing)
cranberry sauce
green beans
creamed onions (for my dad, nobody else eats it)
candied yams
rolls
homemade bread (maybe)
Dessert-
Apple Pie (that’s my responsibility)
pumpkin pie
cherry pie
coconut custard pie
other assorted pies
Note- We are not Cake People[sup]tm[/sup]
cookies
icecream
coffee
drinks-
sodas of all types
beer
wine
sparkling apple cider (its in a champagne-like bottle)
Well, one year I had to cook it (because my mom got REALLY sick and went to the emergency care, so I thought it would be cool if I cooked the dinner.) I basically used what she had to make my version of the perfect Thanksgiving dinner…
I made–
Turkey
Dressing (Mrs. Cubbinsons dressing… mmm yum.)
Cranberry Sauce
Fruit Salad (I forget what my mom calls it has a bunch of fruits w/cool whip)
Sweet Potatoes (Mainly for tradition)
Brown and Serve Rolls
Mashed Potatoes (My favorite!!)
Green Beans (No Corn… ich)
Olives and stuffed celery (Somehow the celery has become tradition around our house… <shrug>)
It was pretty stinkin’ good. Especially for my first thanksgiving dinner. 
Ack ! How could I have forgotten the cranberry sauce !? Bouth whole berry and jellied will be on the table.
Racinchikki, if you were here I’d get you to have dinner with me.
Well, I know snacks and drinks for sure. Many snacks, many drinks. Repeated many times until somebody lurches out of their chair and decides it’s time to have dinner. Turkey for sure.
Beyond that, who can tell? My sister is a hobbyist “gourmet” cook, so we get to eat a lot of her experiments whenever we come over. Usually it’s pretty good.
Not sure what the family is doing but I am taking the veggie tray. Here’s my favorite items on the TGiving menu:
[ul]
[li]Dark meat turkey with gravy[/li][li]Homemade stuffing from day old bread with celery and sage with gravy[/li][li]My mashed potatoes with gravy[/li][li]Green bean casserole[/li][li]Butter rolls – dip in the gravy[/li][li]Raw broccoli, cherry tomatoes and carrots[/li][li]Rasberry Wheat Ale (I’m not a big wine fan)[/li][/ul]
I think I like gravy 
but I don’t much like white meat. Not much for desserts so everyone else gets to chow on more of the pies. If there’s a cherry or apple pie I might have a sliver.
I love the “food holidays”, the only thing better than Thanksgiving is X-Mas, which features a 2 day orgy of culinary creations. Let’s see, this year it’ll probably be something like this…
Stuffed Mushrooms
Celery with cream cheese & olive spread
Shrimp cocktail
Scallops wrapped in bacon (my fav)
Turkey
Homemade stuffing
Homemade gravy
Mashed potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Homemade biscuits
Corn
Peas
Beats
Green beans
Boiled onions
Sweet potatoes
Coffee cake
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Assorted cookies & cupcakes
Cheese cake with mango topping (oh, god, I Love that)
Gravy. Really thick fattening gravy.
Besides that I guess turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and that brocolli dish. Whatever. I’m just going to smother it all in gravy anyway.
I’m tempted to say that the gravy level should be at least twice that of actual food on the table.
Gravy is the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
“Now wait a minute, you doctors have been telling us to drink eight glasses of gravy a day!”
-Homer Simpson
Pumpkin-Pear Soup
Turkey
Stuffing
Oyster Dressing
Cranberry-Orange-Walnut Compote
Cranberry Jelly
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Sweet Potatoes
Deviled Eggs
Waldorf Salad
Homemade Egg Noodles
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
I’m daunted now that I see this written out…there are only four of us! :eek:
shrimp dip
hot crab dip
fresh Butterball turkey
stuffing w/spicy sausage and raisens
creamed onions (it’s a tradition)
cranberry sauce (canned & homemade)
mashed potatoes
gravy
biscuits
candied yams
carrot puree
broccoli casserole
pumpkin pie
sour cream apple pie
eggnog w/brandy (hey, it’s not just for xmas)
It may not be perfect, but if I can find some bleepin’ pumpkin, this is what we’re having this year:
Turkey
gravy
bread stuffing
“lightly candied” sweet potatoes
mashed potatoes
maple syrup cornbread with butter
relish tray
tossed salad
whortleberry jam
drinks: rose wine and orange juice punch
For dessert, pumpkin cheesecake, shoo-fly pie, whipped cream, and ice cream for the little ones who turn up their noses at the better desserts. Coffee and tea, soda for the kids, cognac on hand if anyone wants it.
If I can’t find the pumpkin I guess we’ll end up with either chocolate cheesecake, or something like a carrot cake.
I call them “lightly candied” sweet potatoes because I only add butter, spices and brown sugar. No marshmallows or anything like that. I think the natural sweetness and a little sprinking of brown sugar makes 'em plenty sweet.
mouse.
oh, human food?
uh… turkey.
stomach rumble
geez, you guys really love torturing me, don’t you?
rumble, rumble, rumble
Stuffing w/spicy sausage and raisens is exactly that way it sounds. I simply add Parks’ hot-n-sagey frozen sausage [sub](cook it first, silly)[/sub] and raisens to the stuffing. I like the spicy/sweet combo.
As for the sour cream apple pie, I must confess this will be my first time making it. I like to try new things out. I found the recipe at:
And for my own curiousity, that scallops wrapped in bacon appetizer sounds really tasty.
** My cornbread dressing recipe.**
(this makes a huge pan so you may want to half the recipe)
4 packages of cornbread mix (bake according to direction adding 1/8 cup of sugar, do this the day before, crumble it up and put it in a bag in the fridge)
about a half loaf of day old bread
4 eggs
4 chicken thighs (boiled in lots of water)
1/4 cup vegtable oil
1/2 cup celery chopped
1 onion chopped
green onion tops chopped
1/2 tablespoon poultry seasoning
teaspoon sage
teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste
boil chicken thighs until they are falling apart drain (reserve water you boiled it in) take all the meat off the bones and shred it.
cut the bread into small cubes
put everything in a large roasting pan, pour the water/stock (if you skim the fat off the top you will need to increase the oil to 1/2 cup) you have from boiling the chichen. When everything is nice and wet, use your hand squish all the ingredients into one nice pudding like mess adding more liquid as you go (if you run out of the chicken stock add water). It is right when it shakes like pudding when you jiggle the pan.
Bake in the oven for until firm in the center NOT HARD firm (usually 1 1/2 to 2 hours). If you make a smaller pan it won’t take as long to cook. If you don’t want the shredded chicken in it use canned chicken broth.
** Dirty Rice **
Go to the store buy dirty rice mix (Tony Sacherie’s (sp?) and hamburger. Brown hamburger, drain well, add dirty rice mix and cook according to directions.
** Orange cake **
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1-1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons
butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round cake pans. In a measuring cup, mix milk, 1/2 cup orange juice, oil, beaten eggs and 1 1/2
teaspoon orange zest. Set aside.
Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Mix in sugar. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined.
Divide batter into 2 - 8 inch pans. Bake in the for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.
Orange Butter Frosting: Cream butter until
smooth. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar. Beat until
light and fluffy. Beat in 2 tablespoons orange juice to
bring to spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla and 1
teaspoon orange zest.
Appetisers:
Meal:
Dessert:
Hey Aye, If I bring the mashed potatos and gravy, can I come to your house for Thanksgiving?
In our household, we cook two turkeys. (My wife and her best friends family always celabrate Thanksgiving together.) A regular turkey, and what we still call the experimental turkey. (Even though we have been cooking this turkey for ten years now.)
The experimental turkey is wonderful.
You take a regular turkey. And using a hyperdermic needle, inject apple (or your favorite flavor) brandy into the meat. Do this in lots of places on the turkey. You then cook it as you normally would. Makes for a very juicy turkey.
I had originally planned to forego cooking this year. I’ve been the sole chef in the family for the past thirteen years, and I sort of wanted a break.
I got voted down. Loudly. :sigh:
This year (as every year, tradition dictates) we will chow down on:
Turkey
Cornbread dressing
Giblet gravy (made for and by Mr.Silky…it makes me want to hurl to look at it)
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli cheese casserole
Green bean casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Home made macaroni and cheese
Deviled eggs (appetizer)
Cream cheese and chive celery sticks (appetizer)
Rolls
Iced tea
Dessert will be about the only thing I don’t make. I’m getting my son to bring a banana nut bread from the restaurant in which he works, and we’ll probably get a pecan pie, a chocolate pie and an apple pie to round things off.
Then we’ll all groan and watch football and swill beer and wine.
Hopefully the kids will conk out from all the turkey and I will get to take a nap, too!
Nah…won’t ever happen. I delude myself the same way every year.