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Thanksgiving Menu Planning
Yeah yeah it's early but for me, this is a huge deal. This is the first time I'm in charge of actually making what I want and how I want it. Typically my sister would host Thanksgiving but she never trusted me to cook the turkey because she believes that pop-up thermometer is correct when it isn't. Her turkey was ALWAYS dry because she didn't listen to me. She also cooks traditional southern Thanksgiving (collards, mac and cheese, cornbread etc) and it was always the same every single year. Last year my boyfriend wanted to smoke a turkey (which was amazing) so I just made regular traditional sides for it. This year is different. While it isn't completely finished yet, this are the ideas running through my head; Roasted herb (from our garden) Turkey with pan gravy Roasted root vegetables (purple fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots) Cornbread sausage stuffing Homemade Green Bean Casserole(fresh string beans and a homemade mushroom cream sauce) Roasted bourbon acorn squash Homemade cranberry sauce with orange, nutmeg and fresh ginger Homemade apple pie I'm thinking of making a soy/balsamic glaze for the root veggies just to make it different. I'm not 100% on this stuffing because it seems too traditional. And the only reason I'm making green bean casserole is my boyfriend has never had it before What are you guys having? The more non-traditional the better! Oct 19 14 10:00 am Link If your Turkey is dry drape some bacon over the top of the breast. My dad used to do it and his birds were great. I always stole the bacon and made bacon and turkey sandwiches later. Oct 19 14 10:48 am Link Stephen Fletcher wrote: My sister's turkey is dry, but I know how to cook meat perfectly. It's taken a bit to really get it down but I'll nail this one. Oct 19 14 10:49 am Link I once roasted a turkey in a charcoal grill. It was very good. It took less time than the oven. What time shall I arrive for your dinner?  Oct 19 14 10:53 am Link You cook turkey to make gravy and broth from. You make gravy to put on your mashed potatoes. If you want, you could possibly eat some of the turkey meat with your mashed potatoes and gravy if you really wanted to. Oct 19 14 11:13 am Link Schlake wrote: Quite true, but if you have corn bread dressing you don't need mashed potatoes. Oct 19 14 11:20 am Link Sounds good, Sarah. The only thing missing (IMO) is a pumpkin based dessert. I'm all for pumpkin pie, but others (e.g. pumpkin cheesecake) are good, too. Best of all -- these can be made a day or two in advance. Oct 19 14 11:43 am Link Sounds like a good dinner. We often do non-traditional, for both Thanksgiving and Xmas. For instance one year we had Ciopino (Italian seafood stew.) Usually, we only have traditional, if we go to relatives.......but, since the stores all open on Thanksgiving now......we doubt that is going to happen anymore, because they all want to hit the doorbuster sales. I think traditional Thanksgiving is going to die, over the next few years. I suspect, this year we will do Venison. Oct 19 14 11:45 am Link We usually do a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, beans of some sort, sometimes carrots or corn, cranberry sauce, gravy, and whatever I bake for desert. Leftover turkey goes to pot pie for christmas. My canadian family did a ham for thanksgiving, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, some more stuff I didn't eat  I actually really love the traditional thanksgiving. If I only get to have it once a year as is, then I fucking want it to be done right. I can have all the other random pork roasts and chicken and lasagna (my sister does lasagna for christmas) or whatever multiple times throughout the year and nobody complains. give me turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing. Oct 19 14 11:45 am Link If I were cool enough to not be cursed to die alone and have a family of my own..I really thinki I would knock it out of the park with holliday dishes/meals. so thisis my hypothetical That mythicly awesome first gf let me into her world and being 100% Itallian I would go something like her family's Thanksgiving(also did Christmas the same way) The wed before I would make my awesome homemade marinara ..simmering it for 6 hours.... Prepare lasagne overnight and let it settle in fridge while turkey is defrosted Wake up at 6 am..get turkey seasoned make stuffing...I have plug in turkey roaster that I have mastered keeping it juicy...while im roasting turkey I am also boiling drum sticks,turkey necks,to make gravy with...and baking lasagne... By noon family is here,first course is lasagne..while I finish the turkey in oven to brown the skin...make gravy,add pan drippings to stuffing and cook that.. Would also have pre roasted herb/garlic potatoes Various veggies would be steamed(corn,carrots,ect) By 2 first serving of turkey... Would be serving wine for adults,whatever for kids Everyone pass out We all wake upat 5,hopefully the Cowballs are getting destroyed..round 2 Pass out again Wake up at 8...verious deserts(hypothetcal other half would hypotheticly take care of this as I suck baking things...) Oct 19 14 12:08 pm Link Looknsee Photography wrote: Right but my whole idea is to go away from the traditions. I actually am not a big fan of pumpkin pie. Apple is my favorite so I want to make that this year. Cheesecake is just too heavy in addition to pie so I wanted to go with one dessert. Oct 19 14 01:16 pm Link Laura UnBound wrote: Yeah but my whole point was that I'm just so sick of it because my sister does the same shit every year. I'm very adventurous with food in general so it makes sense that I would stray away from solely traditional. I mean, as you can see I have turkey, root vegetables, stuffing, and cranberry sauce but I'm doing a different twist on them. I'm not trying to prepare salmon for Thanskgiving, though I do think it is awesome when people abandon traditions. Oct 19 14 01:20 pm Link Chris Rifkin wrote: There's only two of us and I'm still preparing a feast like there were 13 people coming over. Oct 19 14 01:21 pm Link Model Sarah wrote: Oct 19 14 01:22 pm Link Schlake wrote: Nah. A good roast bird is amazing but no one fucking knows how to prepare them so they dry the shit out of them. I just harvested the sage, thyme, and we still have fresh rosemary, basil, and parsley growing so fresh herb turkey sounds amazing to me. And to utilize the sage in two other dishes? Win. Oct 19 14 01:23 pm Link Cherrystone wrote: I live right down the street from them. Always wanted to try one of their pies...hmmm Oct 19 14 01:24 pm Link Model Sarah wrote: Seriously? I gave you this link years ago. Oct 19 14 01:27 pm Link Cherrystone wrote: I've had the ice cream and the fudge. Amazing stuff. And yes, I can absolutely do it better than them. I'm very good at making apple pie and I don't even go that traditional. I'm SO against buying anything pre-made for a dinner I'm making by scratch myself. But...I have to try one of their pies. Oct 19 14 01:31 pm Link Model Sarah wrote: Since I've started dragging those to family holiday dinners, events, etc. no one wants anything else. I've become the pie boy. Oct 19 14 01:33 pm Link I'll be having a 5th of Gin. By myself. That'll be all. When Bill (father in law) was alive and before the Fall of The House of A. T., I served up a 6-course Austrian Thanksgiving dinner. Now it'll be just me and the savages. They'll be having cat food. And maybe a can of tuna. Oct 19 14 01:37 pm Link Cherrystone wrote:
Oct 19 14 01:38 pm Link Thanksgiving is a huge deal for turkeys, too! Please consider having a Tofurky instead (or at least in addition if you insist). Oct 19 14 02:23 pm Link J Jessica wrote: I don't think you could pay me to eat Tofurky. Oct 19 14 02:56 pm Link For several years now I've had a goal of making turkey SPAM Wellington. It would be like Boeuf Wellington, the kind that Jackie Onasis made famous, but with a block of turkey SPAM in the middle. I don't know if I well ever get around to it though. Oct 19 14 03:02 pm Link Model Sarah wrote: I wouldn't eat it either! Oct 19 14 03:06 pm Link Model Sarah wrote: We make a juicy turkey at my house. Oct 19 14 03:10 pm Link Amadea T wrote: Please eat some food besides the Gin! Oct 19 14 03:13 pm Link The more non-traditional the better!
Oct 19 14 03:24 pm Link J Jessica wrote: I think I would rather eat what Charlie Brown served on his thansgiving special Oct 19 14 04:36 pm Link Model Sarah wrote: sadly I will probably be in my truck as usual as I make an extra $1000 to work over that holliday(and I get to hide from black friday).. Oct 19 14 04:40 pm Link Chris Rifkin wrote: You know what, that's not a bad fucking meal for being on the road. Oct 19 14 05:08 pm Link r T p wrote:
Oct 19 14 05:08 pm Link My family Thanksgiving has been at my parents for the past several years, with me being in charge of most of the cooking. Last year the menu was: Roast Turkey Rice dressing Roasted peppers, onions, and mushrooms Honey-glazed microwave carrots Roasted cauliflower & squash Bread (whole wheat oat-honey) Coleslaw Pickles (bread & butter and garden mix) Gravy Apple pie Pumpkin pie Wine The gravy was by my sister-in-law and brother, and the pumpkin pie was by my sister. The bread, pickles, and coleslaw were all home-made, as was the apple pie. The turkey was cooked in a roaster bag, with temperature monitored by one of those thermometers that stick a probe into the meat and run a cable out of the oven. Oct 19 14 06:20 pm Link Model Sarah wrote: Didnt take all that to figure out..its kinda a turkey stew in a way..if im on the road I will add potatoes as well...makes about 6 meals for myself(2 on thanksgviving,and 2 meals a day the next 2 days)...only thing missing is a desert,which I usually take care of by getting cupcakes at a walmart or something Oct 19 14 06:23 pm Link I want traditional Turkey and stuffing like my grandma used to make -- after all isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? I like wet and dry stuffing. Mashed potatoes. Gravy. Not much for the green bean casserole. Sweet potato pie is cool. Pumpkin pie. Apple pie. We usually don't have room for pie anyways. Nuts. Got to have walnuts. And wine. And of course it ain't Thanksgiving unless there is some sort of nuclear explosion at the dinner table. Mom's drunk -- dinner's ready! Can't wait for Christmas  Oct 19 14 06:26 pm Link the nuclear explosion at the dinner table(usually the remnants of my mothers side of my family,sister piling on telling me that Iim a failure for be a 45 year old unmarried guy with no girl in my life,to just get over myself and just find a christian woman regardless of looks and only procreate to make christian babies....or my step mom trying to hook me up with her perenially single and lonely 50 year old relatives/friends/whatever the story is).is why im looking to find a family with a cute daughter to adapt me for such occasions Oct 19 14 07:31 pm Link I'm not a a fan of turkey so a couple of years ago I made a lasagna. I think last year I made some empanadas. I don't know what I'll make this year. That apple pie sure sounds like a good idea to try out making. Oh, and I live alone and cook for myself. It's all mine, mine, mine! Oct 19 14 09:00 pm Link BlueMoonPics wrote:
Oct 19 14 09:07 pm Link I've never understood why people stopped brining whole birds before roasting them; if you want flavorful, tender meat that's not dry, you brine the bird. Oct 19 14 09:08 pm Link Ken Warren Photography wrote: Have you tried to buy a bird that isn't already factory brined? Oct 19 14 10:02 pm Link |
