It’s just the husband and me, so I’m roasting a turkey half breast, with potatoes and asparagus. If I get ambitious tonight I might make a pumpkin pie and some cranberry sauce - I have a lime tree in the back, and I found a good-sounding recipe for cranberry-lime sauce. If I get lazy, the cranberries go in the freezer for later.
This is the first year in a long time that I won’t be hosting Thanksgiving for my in-laws, as MIL passed away in January 2012 and FIL in March 2013. My good china will have to stay in the cupboard this year. On Friday and Saturday, I’ll be at their house, sorting and packing up their good china, among other things.
Just me at my mom’s house as the siblings are scattered; I’m a vegetarian and she’s nearly one, so no bird this year. Stuffing, dinner rolls from scratch, sweet potatoes, salad using the four varieties of lettuce growing in the backyard, wine, sparkling fruit juice, and Mom’s pumpkin pie with real whipped cream and freshly brewed coffee. And no carcass to deal with.
Mom and I are having steak, potatoes, crescent rolls, cranberry sauce, and pie.
A turkey isn’t really economical for us - It would probably dry out/go bad before we could use it all. And we’re not big turkey fans, so if we froze it we’d never use it.
I ordered a stuffed pizza last night for my Thanksgiving today. I live alone, and most of my friends are out of town. I live in a small studio apartment in a high rise, I don’t want to cook a Thanksgiving meal for just me and most of the restaurants that are open are charging $$ for their meals tonight. A case of beer and pizza works just as well for me.
That’s what I and my wife are having. Since it’s ridiculous for two people to cook a turkey, we splurge on lobster tail- which oddly enough is often on sale during the holiday season.
We’re having duck this year, as we only have two adults and three kids eating meat, and two adult pescetarians. We’re having normal sides with it though, like sweet potato casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes and some Bohemian staples like dumplings and sauerkraut.
The last few years after eating turkey for dinner, we’ve all admitted to not being very fond of it. We always vow that next year we’ll do something different and the next year we forget and eat turkey again.
Well, last year I forced myself to remember and kept bringing it up throughout the year. So, this year our Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic!
We had beef tenderloin with béarnaise sauce, prawns, baked potato, broccoli, rolls and apple strudel for dessert. Delish!
Now what to make next year.
We ended up with turkey, but not traditional turkey.
We had a turkey breast, which got cooked on the grill (using indirect heat, so it’s just like an oven, only outdoors). It was delicious. Juicy, smoky, highly flavorful.
We’ll do it again-- but not neccessarily on Thanksgiving.