So what're you cooking for Thanksgiving dinner?

[reyd reid reed]

I went shopping on Saturday and got everything except the milk, the bananas and the cider. I think. I'll probably remember something else that morning, though -- I always do.

I'm making:

Turkey (bought a 24.5 bird and a 8.5 turkey breast...think that'll be enough?)
cornbread stuffing
mashed 'taters
green beans
sweet potatoes
pistachio pudding thingie
home made dinner rolls
deviled eggs
stuffed celery
olive-stuffed cheese balls
sausage balls
cranberry-orange bread
lemon-poppyseed bread
apricot-banana bread

and, for dessert (mmmmm...pie):
3 chocolate cream pies
banana cream pie
cherry cheese pie
key lime pie
pumpkin pie
pumpkin chiffon pie
cheesecake
lemon meringue pie
pecan pie

And it seems like I'm forgetting something. Besides the cranberry sauce, but I'm not making that -- just opening the can. If I remember.





And then the Christmas baking begins...

[crim son]

1. Are you kidding me?

How many people will you be feeding? I thought I tended to overdo the holiday cooking! This year I'm going down to my MIL's to face the divorce music. She's the worst cook in the universe and if she can find a turkey at 10 cents a pound she'll do it, even if it's left over from last Thanksgiving. :scared: I do Christmas.

[reyd reid reed]

7. There will be seven of us, plus

my oldest son's SO and probably my brothers -- at least one of them -- and various other family members. Probably about 11 or 12. But I like to have the leftovers.

[Katina]

56. Holy crap! I thought I cooked a lot on Thanksgiving!

I don't do that many desserts... gotta cut the calories out somewhere! :rofl:

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who cooks a Turkey AND a Turkey breast.

I make:
Turkey
Cranberry sauce
sweet potato pie
creamed onions
Lots of stuffing
Lots of gibblet gravey
mashed potatoes
backed macaroni
green beans
corn
cole slaw
butternut squash

Pecan pie
cherry pie
apple pie
Ice cream
nuts & fresh fruit

and LOTS of wine, cider, cordials

and this doesn't even include the "hors d'overers (however you spell that!)
of shrimp, antipasto platter & baked artichoke dip.

God, my arteries are SCREAMING already!

[lizziegrace]

2. You weren't kidding were you?

:wow:

I'm not cooking anything. Lelapin's at her father's this year. :(

[reyd reid reed]

8. Heh...nope.

And I remember what I forgot...my cheese ball. God, it's soooooooo good.

:9

[Midlodemocrat]

3. Not cooking this year - going to my brother's

But, I'll bring two pumpkin cheesecakes, two-three pumpkin pies, two apple pies and some quick breads like pumpkin, banana, etc.

Christmas dinner looks a lot like your menu.

Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli casserole
Sweet potatoes
rolls
cranberry and orange sauce
stuffing


and desserts.

I love this time of year. I love the cooking and all the commotion. I even love to Christmas shop.

[reyd reid reed]

5. I cook for both holidays

Christmas dinner looks a lot like Thanksgiving, except I add a ham and stuffed potatoes. And asparagus. And I make cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve, put them in the fridge to rise and then finish them on Christmas morning.

The Christmas baking makes Thanksgiving look like a warmup, though. For Christmas, I have to start the day after Thanksgiving (usually the gingerbread house) and literally schedule stuff. And #1 son's birthday comes right in the middle of it and his meal of choice is always tamales, so three days of tamale-making and a birthday cake to bake.

I wouldn't trade a minute of it, though.

[fizzgig]

4. it's going to be toned down a bit

just dad and i this year but we're still doing a whole turkey. we'll also have
*stuffing
*mashed sweet taters
*green bean cassarole
*rolls
*mandarin orange salad
*pecan pie

we're going to be eating left overs for a long time

[reyd reid reed]

9. The leftovers are the best part.

I try and make enough so that we'll have leftovers and I can send a bunch home with my oldest son.

[azmouse]

6. I smoked my turkey yesterday.

Boy does it look good!!

We'll also have stuffing, potatoes, gravy, roasted green beans and carrots, and pumpkin pie for dessert.
Beverages will be a Gewertztriner wine and port and cognac with dessert.

Simple but tasty.

[reyd reid reed]

10. Sounds good.

:9

[LeftyMom]

11. I haven't decided.

I'll probably make lentil loaf and mashed potatoes and stuff, I'm more up in the air about where we're going.

[reyd reid reed]

12. I keep saying that I wish we could go somewhere...

but with all my kids it just isn't practical...plus, it's quite an imposition on anyone. Besides, I've been the place everyone gravitates to for so long, I wouldn't know how to act if I didn't spend the holiday in the kitchen.

[LeftyMom]

13. Well, it's just going to be me, leftykid and hopefully flvegan

So it'd be silly to do a really huge thing. As long as I get pumpkin pie and stuffing, I'm cool.

[reyd reid reed]

14. The pie's the important part.

The rest is just an excuse for dessert.

I'm baking cookies this afternoon...I love when the weather cools off and the baking starts.

[LeftyMom]

17. And the stuffing. And gravy.

Gravy. :9

[reyd reid reed]

19. Mmmm...gravy.

Yup. I love it. Smashed taters and gravy. Cornbread stuffing and gravy. I even like it when the gravy touches the green beans and the sweet potatoes.

Two of my kids don't like gravy, though. One of 'em doesn't even like smashed taters.

Strange child.

[Shine]

15. Holy shit, girl!! Exactly how many are you planning to feed????

:wow:
that's quite a list ya got there.

I haven't even ordered our turkey yet, but I will later today. I'll do the actual food shopping next Monday or Tuesday.

We'll have 13 or 14 around our table this year.

[reyd reid reed]

16. Heh...I tend to overdo it...

but I like leftovers. Makes the first few days of the Christmas baking easier when I don't have to worry about what I'm feeding the kids. I'm probably feeding 11 or 12.

[Shine]

22. Dang. I'm impressed. You sound like the total Earth Mama, cookin' in the kitchen

and baking goodies to warm the heart and home. :hug: How do you keep your girlish figure? :D

Do you end up freezing certain things, like the breads, ahead of time? That probably helps.

You will have plenty of leftovers!!

[reyd reid reed]

25. I freeze stuff for Christmas...but not so much for Thanksgiving.

I'll make the cheese ball ahead of time and freeze that and the sausage balls...but from Tuesday night until I sit down to eat on Thursday, I'm not out of the kitchen much.

Thing of it is...after all that cooking, by the time I sit down to eat it, I don't want it anymore.

Christmas kills me, though. For Christmas, besides dinner and all the pies and stuff, I make:

chocolate shortbread cookies
spritz cookies
sugar cookies
butter cookies (god...they melt in your mouth, literally)
lemon shortbread cookies
ginger cookies
sandies (those little powdered-sugar covered snowball-looking cookies)
ruby date bars
fudge (peanut butter, walnut, no-nut, and rocky-road)
chocolate covered cherries
chocolate-dipped peppermint patties
chocolate-dipped coconut patties
marzipan
a gingerbread house
peanut butter cups
peanut brittle
divinity
tamales (but those are for #1 son's birthday)
And whatever else catches my attention.

I'll see y'all in January....

[Shine]

34. I have a dear friend who bakes cookies like you do.

it's a big family tradition and she's been doing it for many years with her 2 adult daughters, and most recently her 5 yr old grddtr, too. They call it "Cookie Camp" and they basically bake hundreds and hundreds of many different types of cookies, over the course of one very full weekend. It's quite the production, as you can well imagine.

And we all go crazy for her cookies cuz they're THE BEST. It's good to have a friend like that nearby. :D

There's something so fulfilling about baking, isn't there? I love it, too....when I'm in the right mood, that is.

[reyd reid reed]

38. Yup...it's turned into a tradition here, too

I take more than a weekend to do it, but I love it. Each of the kids gets a turn to help so it's just the two of us and it's really nice.

By the time it's done, I've baked literally THOUSANDS of cookies. Have you ever done a cookie-swap? I did it one year and it was a lot of fun...great way to find new recipes!!

[Shine]

40. Speaking of cookies, my 4th grader recently did a cookie dough

fundraiser to help pay for her big trip to Sacramento in the spring. It's part of the 4th grade cirriculum of learning about CA state history. It's a really fun overnite trip and the main way the kids raise money, is by selling yummy Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough, all different flavors. She personally sold over 35 orders and between all the 4th graders at her school, 2,000 orders!! :thumbsup:

Each tub contains 3 dozen frozen cookie dough balls, conveniently formed so one can simply pop them on the sheet and throw in the oven. No scooping is involved. We bought 6 tubs!! LOL. Apparently, they can keep up to a year in our freezer. We'll probably work our way through them a lot faster than that, though. Nonetheless, we've made room in our freezer.

Word has come down from on high that the entire 4th grade class cookie dough order is being delivered to the school on Wed. morning. As you can imagine, it's a huge undertaking making sure each 4th grader parent gets matched up with their respective kid's order. They need lots of extra help from the parents, which is why I know what I'm doing on Wednesday...:D Then, after school, I'll be driving us all around the county, doing cookie dough deliveries!

What we go through for our children...:eyes: I KNOW you can relate.

[reyd reid reed]

42. Good for her!!!

And yup...I can DEFINITELY relate. #2 son sells cheesecake every year as a band fundraiser and the little kids do cookie stuff...chocolate...you name it.

Girl Scout cookies, though...AIIIIEEEEEEE...I had no living room for WEEKS. It was given over to cases and cases and cases of cookies waiting for me to deliver them.

:eyes:

[NewWaveChick1981]

18. Wow! I wanna come to your house...

:9 Sounds yummy!

We're going to my mother's house for Thanksgiving. My husband makes one hell of a smoked turkey breast, so we're going to take that. Mom will furnish the rest (at her insistence). There will be 12 people, so I expect no leftovers! :P

[reyd reid reed]

21. Moms have a way of doing that

it makes us feel...I dunno. It's weird. Most of the time I don't think about cooking so much but when a holiday rolls around...it's all about what I'm making.

Go figger.

[miss_american_pie]

20. I was just working on that

but all I really care about is dessert. :D

[reyd reid reed]

23. Heh...me too.

I do the rest of it...but it's all about the dessert.

Yummmmm....

:9

[miss_american_pie]

30. I turn the regular food into dessert too

Sweet potato casserole, cranberries with eight tons of brown sugar... :D

[reyd reid reed]

31. Yup...

sounds like me. When I make sweet potatoes, I smash 'em with butter and brown sugar and spices and milk and then put marshmallows on 'em. Tastes like sweet potato pie without the crust.

And the jello salad is either strawberry jello with bananas, mandarin oranges and strawberries and cool whip, or pistachio pudding mixed with pecans, a can of crushed pineapple, cool whip and marshmallows.

Yum.

[meegbear]

24. A herb brined turkey on the Weber kettle grill ...

corn bread dressing (that's stuffing cooked outside the bird)
mashed potatoes
veggies TBA
gravy
rolls

I'm going to my brother-in-law's family for T-Day. This will be for me (and anyone else who shows up) for the next couple days. Yum.

[reyd reid reed]

27. I've seen recipes for brined turkey

but never tried it...one of these days....

Sounds wonderful.

:9

[meegbear]

29. They are ...

I was in Philadelphia last month for a conference. A couple of us went out in the afternoon and at one point, found a gourmet food store. I saw the brine mix, with brining bag, and scoffed it up.

Here's the company; the brine mix is on the main page: http://www.fireandflavor.com

[BarenakedLady]

26. I have no idea

A Quorn roast for me and the kids. I'm having my two brother-in-laws over. I think they are planning on deep frying a turkey (blech). Mashed garlic potatoes, mushroom gravy for me and the kidlet, they'll probably bring their own, I may do something with sweet potatoes. There will also be two kinds of stuffing (theirs and mine). Cranberry sauce (has to be from a can, or so they say...whatever). Hmmmmm pumpkin pie? Not homemade. LoL.

Crap, I picked the wrong time of year to quit drinking. :banghead:

[reyd reid reed]

28. LOL!

Heh...nah.

I've never tried to deep-fry a turkey...seems just...I dunno. Not for me. I like to smash the sweet potatoes with lots of butter and some brown sugar and milk and cinnamon and cloves and nutmeg and ginger and an egg and then bake 'em with marshmallows on 'em for the last five minutes or so. More like a dessert. Which is the important part, anyway.

:9

[flvegan]

32. Soylent Green with a special "blood of the innocent" gravy.

Don't ask about the "stuffing" okay?

[reyd reid reed]

33. I promise

How many shopping days left, again?





:hide:

[flvegan]

35. FORTY ONE!!!!!11!!1 and ticking down...

[reyd reid reed]

39. Muahahahahahahaha!!!

Means forty baking days...

[Midlodemocrat]

77. This must be a hard time of year for you with all the ads

surrounding Thanksgiving. I know other folks here are vegans as well, but your animal rights and rescue just really touches me. You are a really good person.

[Left Is Write]

36. Here...

Turkey
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Stuffing with cranberries
Spiced cranberry sauce with zinfandel
Wax beans
Corn
Pumpkin bread
Cranberry walnut bread
Pumpkin pie

Beyond vegetables and dip, I have not planned munchies for beforehand. It'll just be my husband, our kids, and me.

[reyd reid reed]

37. I always think it's just going to be us...

and then at the last minute people start calling to ask what we're doing (they know darn well what we're doing), so I've learned to plan for a small army.

I usually cook like that anyway...what's a few more?

:shrug:

[Left Is Write]

52. There's nobody to call us last minute.

Our families are in another state, and our friends all have family here.

[Broken_Hero]

41. wow, thats a lot...

For us,

1. Turkey

2. BBQ ham

3. mashed potato's and gravy...

4. Rolls

5. corn

6. cranberry sauce(bleh)

7. pumpkin pie/french silk pie

8. Olives

9. Stuffing

10. hawaiian punch mixed with seven up...

hmm....thats about it...

[reyd reid reed]

44. Heh...no one here especially likes the cranberry sauce, either...

but it's just not Thanksgiving without it. And BBQ ham? Yummmmmmm....

Eat a piece of the french silk pie for me!!!

:hi:

[Broken_Hero]

46. I know what you mean about the

cranberry sauce..my wife likes it, so...its for her...:) We have one of those rotiserrie doo hickey's, and thats what we use for the ham...I whip a mixture of bbq sauce, garlic/onion salt, and pineapple chunks(plus the juice), and inject it into the ham, and spread it all over the surface...its rather good...

What I want to try, is grilling bbq ham, out on the grill....a bud of mine does this for xmas dinner...and I had some in 2002...and my god, it was...the best ham I ever had...

[Goblinmonger]

43. Tofurky, baby, oh yeah

Course I am going home to my mom's house in ND so I have to bring my own since it is "all animal flesh all the time" at the homestead.

[reyd reid reed]

45. In ND?

Yup. Alllll the time. SD and Nebraska, too, I'd imagine.

:hi:

[flvegan]

48. Mmmm...have you tried Unturkey, per chance?

Both are very good.

[Goblinmonger]

49. I like Unturkey

but my son love Tofurky, so we go with his like as I can eat either.

[trackfan]

47. So far, on this year's menu:

Turkey
Stuffing
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Lasagne
Ham
Corn
Peas
Yet-to-be-determined Green Bean dish.
Mashed Potatoes
Salad
Chips & Dip
Cheeseburger balls
Several more appetizer dishes - TBD
Rolls
Pecan Pie
Ice Cream
More desserts TBD

[Arugula Latte]

51. Turkey AND Lasagne AND Ham?

Dang!

:wow:

[Auggie]

50. Something vegetarian, I think. With good wine.

[Avalux]

54. Stuffed acorn squash is very good -

along with a nice hearty bean soup and cranberry bread. My favorite vegetarian Thanksgiving menu. :hi:

[Auggie]

57. Great idea. I will forward to the executive chef.

[cwydro]

53. I love to cook

Used to make turkey every year for me and the s.o.. No s.o. anymore but I still have cooked for friends. Since I live in Florida, friends and I are trying to decide on traditional or a seafood feast...but damn, yours sure sounds good...except, um, what is a pistachio pudding thingie?

[reyd reid reed]

69. Heh...it's this horribly sweet (but tasty) pudding concoction...

it's instant pistachio pudding, finely chopped pecans, you throw in a can of crushed pineapple (juice and all), mix in some miniature marshmallows and fold in a carton of cool whip.

Kids love it (except for #3 son who doesn't like anything with nuts in it -- but sometimes even he'll eat this anyway and just suffer through the nuts).

Wonder why?

:eyes:

[pitohui]

55. turducken

i keed, i will order the turducken from the turducken expert

[femmocrat]

58. Turkey with all the trimmings!

Not as elaborate as your feast, though! Wow... when will you find time to prepare all of that?

I make a 12 lb. turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, corn pudding, crescent rolls, cran. sauce, a relish dish, and some pies: apple, pumpkin, pecan, and cranberry bread.

My son is a vegetarian, so I make a veggie stuffing for him. He'll eat all the other stuff except the turkey and gravy, of course.

[reyd reid reed]

70. Oh, yum...that sounds good.

I've wanted to make corn pudding...spoon bread, too...for a long time but just -- I've got so much other stuff that I make that it's hard to squeeze new stuff in. Every once in a while I do, when I'm feeling industrious...but usually there's so little time. I usually make Parker House rolls only, instead of making them round, I roll the dough to about 1/8", cut it lengthwise into strips, brush melted butter on them and then stack the strips and cut them into squares that I stand on end in muffin tins. They come out like butterflake rolls. WONDERFUL.

And I hit the kitchen on Tuesday night and really don't come out except to sleep until I put dinner on the table.

[graywarrior]

59. Zero, 0, nada, nothing, zilch, cipher, goose egg, the big O...

I'm sleeping all day, every day til Jan 2.

[reyd reid reed]

71. But you'll miss all the fun!!!

Lucky you.

:D

[RevolutionaryActs]

60. Um, can I swing by for dessert?

:wow: :9

[graywarrior]

61. Yabut, you can't have any of my $2.59 Publix sleeping tablets.

16 to a pack.

[RevolutionaryActs]

62. LMFAO!

:rofl:

[bridgit]

63. organic turkey from Taylor's here in town...

http://www.taylorsmarket.com from my theater boss, he's so good to us :hug:

a bunch of stuff on your list i.e. mashed taters, that cranberry-orange bread looks cool :thumbsup:
hubby's stuffing however he covets the recipe (he fawns over the entire process like a black helicopter along with the gravy prep all very secret hush-hush)
beets
yams
peas
corn
string beans ala Betsy
carrots
dinner rolls as well
and various pies also :9
some other items too but we're working out the details

it prolly seems like allot but we make up servings in microwavable plates & give them to folks :7

[bumblebee1]

64. At the bumblebee household, we'll be eating

turkey
stuffing
mashed potatoes
gravy
green beans
corn
pumpkin pie
fresh fruit
macaroni salad
rolls

Hubby makes the turkey, I make the sides. I will probably take him out for breakfast Thanksgiving morning. We may be having his brother over to join us for dinner.

[u4ic]

65. I'm taking invitations for Thanksgiving, rrr

:P



Actually, we've already had ours up here, a month ago. I think 2 months in between turkeys is sufficient. :D

[begin_within]

66. 11 pies for 12 people? Sounds like you're going to have a food fight.

[reyd reid reed]

68. Hmmmmm...you're right.

Maybe I oughta figure out one more. The cheesecake's a big one, though...10". And rich...five packages of cream cheese, a couple of cups of sugar, a half dozen eggs, a container of sour cream plus another to sweeten for the topping, unless I do the raspberry glaze.

I suppose I could always make an apple pie, too. Too bad peaches are out of season -- I love peach pie. And strawberry rhubarb. But strawberries are out of season. So's rhubarb.


Or I could just tell them to share.

[China_cat]

67. Nothing

We're going out.

It's just the 2 of us, all family is at least 300 miles away and travel is out. I like cooking but, as my husband says, it seems a waste to spend all that time fixing something that'll be eaten in less than a half hour and leave 3 hours worth of cleanup.

[noonwitch]

72. I'm bringing spinach pie to my sister's in-laws

The SIL is making the turkey. She asked specifically for my spinach pie, which is a crowd-pleaser. Also, a greek coworker described my spinach pie as "perfect", so that also feeds my cooking ego.

[reyd reid reed]

74. Spinach pie?

Oh my...any way I could wheedle the recipe out of you? I love spinach...one of my favorites. Kids love it, too.

:9

[clyrc]

73. There will be about 14 of us

And I'm making turkey, cornbread dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, fresh green beans, cranberry sauce, macaroni and cheese, cranberry punch, homemade rolls, and cinnamon pecans. My husband is making the pumpkin pies..... and some Sri Lankan chicken curry for our Pakistani guests who think the rest of the food is simply too bland.

[reyd reid reed]

75. That sounds delicious...

Are those the pecans that you brush with butter and cinnamon sugar and bake and they're crusty and crunchy and warm and wonderful?

[lukasahero]

76. Glad you asked - care to weigh in on a debate?

Mashed potatoes or roasted? My family will wig out if there aren't mashed potatoes on the table to dollop their gravy on but I make awesome roast potatoes (and my husband hates mashed).

So I was up at 4 am this morning sweating over this. I'm open to DU's vote on the subject. :)

Here's the rest of the menu:
Turkey
Sausage stuffing
Gravy
Popovers
Sweet potatoes with garlic, coconut milk and cilantro
Corn
"Butter baked" carrots
Broccoli Gratin
Brussel Sprouts Lardons
2 cranberry sauces - 1) the can and 2) cranberry/orange relish
Pickles, olives, celery...
(Not to mention the appetizers...)

Desserts:
Chocolate mousse
Raspberry crumble
Cafluti
(My mom will bring most of the regular pies: apple, pecan, pumpkin, squash...)

FTR, this is the first year my mom has relinquished the Thanksgiving dinner rights. I think I "own" it now. :|

[yellowdogintexas]

78. Taking to my Sister In Law's house:

fresh home made dinner rolls (my specialty and I have to bake 2 dozen just for my husband's 2 nephews)

steamed asparagus
a dessert of some kind
maybe another vegetable dish

There will be nearly 20 of us, and everybody brings something. My SIL is doing the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and beverages. My niece in law and her sister are Mexican and always bring some type of lovely exotic dish.

Haven't decided on the dessert. The family favorite is chocolate pound cake which is easy and can be done early, wrapped and stored. It ages well if wrapped well. If I can find room in my freezer I will freeze it; it actually improves the cake.

At Christmas I bake two cakes to take to my Sunday School class auction party for the silent auction, and something for the family Christmas party. I used to bake all kinds of stuff between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but don't so much anymore. When I was a kid my mom and I made German Chocolate Cake, fresh Coconut cake and Jam cake every Christmas, to have stuff to take to the family get togethers.