Isabelle, I’m curious to know if you buy turkey substitute, or bacon substitute, would she be distressed by the smell, if it is similar to the real thing?
My mom is doing up the spread this year we should have on the menu:
Turkey 'n Gravy
Mashed potatoes (no lumps we use a ricer)
Mashed turnips (Southland brand frozen)
Stuffing
Green beans
Creamed onions (thx, dad… bleh!)
Sweet potato casserole, sweet enough to be dessert!
Rolls
Apple pie (my contribution)
Pumpkin pie
2-3 other kinds of pie
Antipasto spread with meats cheese olives, the works
shrimp cocktail
stuffed celery
fried mozzarella
fried artichoke hearts
To answer the OP, I’m making the whole dinner for my family and the in-laws. We’re having the usual Thanksgiving dinner:
Turkey (brined according to Alton Brown’s recipe on Good Eats)
Mashed Potatoes
Oyster Stuffing
The old standby Greenbean casserole
Corn Souffle (old family recipe)
Cornbread Pudding (Alton Brown’s recipe)
Scalloped Oysters (my grandmother’s recipe)
Cranberries (made with the lumpy kind from a can, orange marmalade and walnuts)
Sweet Potatoes (old family recipe, made with lot of bourbon, and with pecans sprinkled on top)
Sauerkraut (it’s a Baltimore thing; I hate the stuff)
Crescent rolls and dinner rolls
Pumpkin pie, apple pie, and chocolate-pecan pie
Our family is about as traditional as it gets for Thanksgiving: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry jelly, etc. For dessert it’s pumpkin pie along with a couple other pie choices offered. We have always drank iced tea with our family meals, including Thanksgiving.
We’re having my family and my in-laws. It’s also my one year anniversary. How in the world my husband managed to get out of taking me out by making me cook for 15 people is beyond me. :rolleyes:
We’re having:
Crab Dip Appetizers
Ham Roll Up Appetizers
Turkey (fresh - bought from our friends who own a Turkey Farm up by Island Lake)
Giblet Stuffing
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Corn
Glazed Carrots
Martha’s Cranberry Compote
Rolls
Huge Relish Tray
About eight thousand desserts, including wedding cake since we didn’t have one when we got married. Yeah, my Mother in law’s idea.
Mmmm…haven’t had an artichoke in a long long time. My grandmother taught me how to make them (she never used cheese, though), but I forgot. This was years ago.
It’s been a few Thanksgivings since she passed away. As a kid, she always had peppermint patty type thin mints on the table as part of the dinner. Since then, I’ve been sure to get some for the table every Thanksgiving. It cracks up my wife, but she understands why I do it.
We do the usual turkey, cranberries, potatoes and gravy and rolls. I make a sage sausage stuffing using locally baked breads and with a few chestnuts thrown in to satisfy the wifey. Crab-stuffed celery and deviled eggs for horsey doovers. Maybe I’ll do a raspberry sorbet for a desert option this year, or maybe a pumpkin creme brulee.
Actually, we go to my sister’s house for T-day, and I do the whole thing again on the weekend just for us.
<asks mother>
Ok, there’s no real recipe for the green beans, but the basic gist of making it is:
Take a bunch of cooked green beans (they should be fairly soft; this dish should end up with sort of a loaf consistency).
Add olive oil until they are uniformly covered with it.
Mix in extremely dry breadcrumbs until a decent texture has been achieved.
Mix in parmesan to the rough ratio of 1 part cheese to 4 parts green beans.
Mix in garlic, salt, and pepper to taste.
Bake in 400 deg. oven around 20 minutes, or until top is slightly browned.
In answer to what we are having for Thanksgiving …need I say more than my user name?!
My daughter and I went shopping tonight for the BIG dinner. I happened to look into the back seat after our last stop and it struck me very funny that we had enough food to feed at LEAST 20 people!! Her whole back seat was full of bags. I had to laugh because truthfully, my daughter, her husband, and I are the only adults that will be attending Thanksgiving dinner. The other guests are little boys. LOL It is absolutely ridiculous the way we cook cafeteria sized meals.
I guess it is not so bad, we do have plenty of left overs…
