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We started with jalapeno popper dip for the appetizer

Martha Stewart's recipe for cheese cloth covered turkey -cooked to perfection - mashed potatoes - gravy - carrot souffle - corn pudding - stuffing - green beans/bacon -devil eggs & applesauce - pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pie and chocolate cake for dessert and many bottles of wine.

Life is good, many thanks.

I was helping out with a friend... With about 20 people, one big turkey wasn't going to cut it. I slow smoked a pork loin and leg of lamb out on the BBQ grill and cooked a bunch of asparagus over the remaining coals.

Fortunately we had tons of casseroles contributed by the various guests, and somehow--the same magic that makes a theatre production happen despite various disasters--it all came together beautifully and everyone left the table full and happy.

Sausage and sage stuffing and mushroom stuffed cornish hens baked in the oven while I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Plus green bean and mushroom casserole, cornbread and creme brulee. Everything made from scratch and cooked in under 3 hours.

I made Pioneer Woman's sweet potatoes, which she had posted on Serious Eats. Thank you, Ree. Delicious. And mashed potatoes made with skin-on Yukon gold potatoes and lots of butter and heavy cream.
My wife made the Silver Palate's cornbread stuffing with sausage, pecans, and granny smith apples. I have to admit we make it by doctoring Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing. My wife also made a Silver Palate broccoli souffle with creme fraiche. Many fine storebought pies for dessert. Judy,my sister-in-law by marriage, made a fabulous chocolate praline pie. All in all, a seriously delicious feast

Nothing b/c I'm alone (and, hungry!) in France. A friend and I did go out to this little Italian place. I had chicken b/c it was the closest thing to Turkey I could fine.

A couple of friends and I made dinner for 78 at a local shelter here in Iowa. We stuck to the basics...Turkey, dressing, mashed and sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, and pumpkin and apple pies. The one thing different was that I decided this year would be the year I finally ate - and enjoyed - Brussels sprouts, so I ad-libbed a recipe. I took diced bacon and sauteed it til nearly crisp, drained off most of the fat and added quartered Brussels sprout and brown sugar (and a splash of olive oil, as it looked dry). I let that caramelize for awhile, until there was some good color on the sprouts, then added heavy cream and let it simmer until reduced and thick. One little girl of about 5 told me they were "the best bussel spouts ever," and I had to agree.

@Alex-- I feel your pain, but at least you had something! I'm going to make some dressing (stuffing...) next week. I just bought a hot plate for my room, so I don't have to use the communal kitchen anymore... this will give me more time and freedom to cook what I please.

Tenga un buen dia!

@cybercita--you're the other OT, right? I'm a COTA and had dinner with my OTR and her family.

She made the turkey (sooo juicy and delicious) per AB's directions, homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams with pecans and sultanas, pumpkin bread, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Her husband made mulled wine. Her daughter brought chocolate turkeys.

I made creamed pearl onions, blanched green beans tossed with sauteed garlic & sliced almonds, pecan tarts, and the most awesome gravy ever. We all ate until we could barely move.

Smoked turkey, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato spoonbread, brussel sprouts & parsnips w/pecans roasted with maple syrup & olive oil, steamed carrots, roasted potatoes, green beans w/almonds, cranberry relish. The starter was strawberry fields salad. I served syrah and chardonnay with the meal, as some of my guests prefer red and others white wine.

Desserts included pumpkin cake w/whipped cream, chocolate cream pie, mince tartlets and apple pie.

Rhetor, you're an angel for spending your holiday helping the hungry and homeless as you did. Thank you.

Ungh... the "after" photos of the table didn't do what we ate justice. There were only the boyfriend and I at the table, but I made a ton of food anyhow. Here's the menu (we haven't even touched the pie yet):
Brined and slow-roasted turkey
Roasted Garlic Mashed potatoes with turkey-onion gravy
Andouille sausage and mushroom dressing
Roasted squash and yams with maple pralines
Champagne and currant cranberry sauce (from Serious Eats!)
Beets (pickled from mom)
Pumpkin Pie-layered Cheesecake

We feasted on the best turkey I think we've ever had. I've always wondered if those fancy turkeys are worth the money spent... I daresay, that next year I will most likely be ordering my turkey online. Thanks SE for the turkey giveaway- it was truly spectacular and definitely worth it.

I made the Corn Bread Dressing with Pecans and Bacon that was listed here and it was a big success!

Chicken with Thyme
Roasted Asparagus
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Candied Yams (yes, with the mini marshmallows.... it's not horrible)
Chicken Gravy
Biscuits

It was all old-skool glory with a great mixture of family and personal recipes. Thanksgiving hasn't tasted like this for years.

It was wonderful having a group effort for the first year in a long time. It seems so much easier when one isn't doing it alone.

Friggin' Bird (like everyone else)
Dressing (funny, housemate and I had the "in the bird or out of the bird" debate, so we had both)
Sweet potato casserole (this one never gets away)
Mashies/Wicked ass gravy
Cranberry sauce (and I do like to think that mike is much superior to others)
Homemade rolls
Red jalapeno poppers because the better half only likes red ones
Deviled eggs
And a grip of wine, pineapple upside-down cake shots, and bromos!!!!

Pecan and Pumpkin pie (that I am still to bloated to eat)

I thought that we would do something different this Thanksgiving and try Edna Lewis recipe for fried chicken. I had been thinking and anticipating this chicken all week. With all due respect to Edna Lewis, we were all surprised to find that the chicken turned out to be merely southern fried chicken that we have had all our lives. There just was nothing special about it. (But I did use Vegetable shortening instead of Lard which may have been why the chicken was so average).

My mother's dressing was again delicious however. Her collard greens were equally good. Her potatoe pies were good but she wasn't pleased with them. "They needed to stay a little while longer in the oven," she said.

But the biggest surprise and the winner of the afternoon was the Pepperidge Farm lime cake that I had purchased from a freezer at the local Krogers grocery store. (I refused to buy one of those Kroger cakes that everybody seem to bring to office parties and pot lucks nowadays).
That lime cake was great.

Duck/Pork Belly Rillettes
Fancy Crudites w/ green smoosh dip
Kosher turkey w/clemetine glaze
Wild mushroom gravy (made with duck stock)
Haricot verts w/ tarragon vinagrette & toasted pine nuts
Saged sausage stuffing
Roasted sweet potato wedges with rosemary and garlic
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls - yup, the posh Poulaine bread went into the stuffing ; )
Cranberry & fresh quince sauce
2005 Sanford Santa Rita Hills Reserve Pinot Noir
2006 Edna Valley Chardonnay
Apple Struesel Pie with vanilla whipped cream
Decaf Ethiopian Harrar French Press Coffee

And I forgot the glazed pecans from last month's Saveur - a very big hit with everyone, which surprised me a little because they had a lot of *zing*, and rosemary!

Duck confit and pommes Anna. And a salad tossed with balsamic vinegar and duck fat. Mmmm...duck fat...

We went to Pizza Hut. Seriously.

oooh...these menus all look deeee-vine!

I made a bacon-sage-shallot turkey and a seriously awesome gravy, roasted cauliflower & brussels sprouts in dijon butter, sausage-apple bread stuffing and cranberry-orange relish. A guest brought an insane potato gratin and pear tart with caramel sauce.

Breakfast is poached eggs on a fried stuffing pancake!

@buffy, yes, i'm the other OT.

It was just us two newlyweds with a paella pan we received as a wedding gift. We produced a Spanish feast. The first course was shrimp balls with cilantro aioli, followed by a traditional paella (meat only). We finished the meal with almond milk custards. Delicious! Though, at some point, I was homesick and craving my aunt's sausage stuffing.

I did our turkey on our new Big Green Egg grill this year. It was amazingly good. I threw in a handful of dry apple woodchips so it had a light smoke to it. I'll definitely do it again next year. To round out our meal we had stuffing, dinner rolls, and a really good sweet potato, corn, edamame salad that had a lime/cumin vinaigrette. We had a couple of Bloody Marys while dinner was cooking and a Michigan Cabernet Franc with dinner. Dessert was homemade pecan pie and a glass of 20 yr old tawny port. It was just my husband, myself and the dog and we had a lovely day.

Roasted Duck - Simple spice rub of salt pepper and paprika stuffed with quartered oranges. It was so rich and wonderful with perfectly crispy skin.

Homade Gravy with giblets from the duck.

Cranberry Orange Relish - My own recipe using orange extract to give it extra orange burst.

Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes - Cream Cheese, sour cream AND butter are in these bad boys.

Sweet Potatoes with Chipolte Peppers (Rachel Ray)

Pecan, Apple and Cornbread Dressing

Cauliflower in Mornay Sauce

Buttered Rolls

Pumpkin Pudding - I took creative license with the pumpkin pie this year. I basically took the banana pudding recipe with Nilla wafers and replaced the bananas with pumpkin pie filling. It was so rich and good! As an added bonus it was quick and easy to make and didn't require baking. This is definitly making an appearance at my Thanksgiving table from now on.

All told I used more the a pound of butter for everything and everything was made from scratch. I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite, and it was worth it!

I'm spending the Thanksgiving holiday w/my uncle and aunt in their new house in the 'burbs. It was the first Turkey Day Dinner they ever hosted, so they had a potluck. My job was to make the garlic mashed potatoes. We had to feed forty, so it took ten pounds of them to do the trick. We had (forgive me if I forget anything):

1 20 lb and 1 12 lb turkey
White bread stuffing
Garlic mashed potatoes
Mixed greens (turnip, collard and mustard)
Green beans with ham hocks
Homemade candied yams with apples and raisins
Beef and turkey lasagna (weird, I know, but it was one of the first things to disappear)
Baked rice casserole with chicken livers (a West Indian recipe)
Cheddar cheese biscuits
Devilled eggs with crabmeat
Cheese tray (cheddar, jalapeno, brie, provolone, beef smoked sausages)
Hot artichoke dip w/pita chips and crackers
Spiral ham with honey pecan glaze (picked up from a caterer)
Sweet potato cheesecake
Pineapple cheesecake
Drunken rum cupcakes (lol, the kids ate them ALL)

Wednseday night, I cooked with friends. We made:

Roast Pheasant
Brussels sprouts braised in cream
cornbread & sage stuffing
creamed spinach
scalloped potatoes.

Then on actual Turkey day, I went to family friends and had a more traditional spread. It was a lot of fun doing this because I got to experiment a bit on Wednesday night, but still got to enjoy all my favorites on Thanksgiving (and of course make my famous sweet potato casserole like grandma used to make).

This year there were only three of us....but I started cooking at 9 in the morning and we ate around 3. Best turkey I have ever made...Butterball...candied yams....old recipe from a southern friend...cranberry relish....package recipe, the rice/broccoli/shitaki mushroom casserole from TV Food network, great pumpkin pie using Emeril's pecan pie crust and a mushroom soup I have made for 35 years...got the recipe from a friend we spent Christmas with in a monastery in New Mexico. I have made these recipes for over 30 years and occasionally add a new vegetable casserole. Best part of the dinner was being with family.

Thanksgiving Disaster!!! My SIL made her stuffing and put it in a zip loc bag, ala Grant Achetz, and then put her creamed onions in a zip loc too and put both bags in boiling water to heat/steam the contents. The stuffing bag got water in it and was soupy; and the onion bag had a small melted hole that released all the contents into the boiling water.

What kind of zip loc bags did he use that would have withstood a boiling water bath???

@kdjmom- I don't think the water was boiling... anytime I've seen it done on TV or anyting the water isn't boiling... and in the video it just looks like regular everday storage bags!

7 layer mexican dip and hot atichoke spinach dip to start
Almond, date and chickpea couscous
Scalloped potato gratin (Tyler Florence recipe)
Brussels sprout hash with shallots (Bon Apetit recipe)
Candies yams with marshmallows
Cornbread, apple and chestnut dressing
Lemon-herb butter Turkey
Apple pie
Chocolate Mousse Dome Cake
Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

Couldn't wait to have another plate full of each when I woke up this morning!

We tried to get most of our food locally and from farms this year.

Roasted turkey, cider-braised pork butt w caramelized onions, mashed potatoes with bacon and gorgonzola cheddar and fontina cheeses, cornbread stuffing with sausage and chestnuts, spinach pear and avocado salad, cheddar scallion biscuits, fresh cranberry sauce, duck gravy, turkey drippings gravy, roasted root vegetables, mashed and candied yams, homemade and store-bought pumpkin pie, apple pie, homemade whipped cream, homemade pumpkin cheesecake brownies.

Everything came out delicious and we were all very full afterward.

Pistachios, Cashews, Raisins, Dried Cherries

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Pomegranate, Toasted Hazelnuts and Cocktail Grapefruit with Sunflower Seed-Meyer Lemon Dressing

Cornbread socca with roasted garlic, agave nectar and sea salt

Main Dish:
Braised Curly Mustard Greens
Caramelized Pearl Onions
Black Lentils in Zinfandel Mushroom Sauce
Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Coconut Milk and Garam Masala
Trio of Phyllo Purses; pumpkin, walnut, sage; truffled sunchoke; christmas lima beans with "thanksgiving flavors"
Mashed Potatoes
Deep Fried Craberries

Vegan Pecan Pie in Almond-Corn-Flax Crust
Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Homemade Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream

Sweet Potato Baklava.

Starters:
- cheese plate (Humboldt Fog, Fromage D'affinois, Cypress Grove Midnight Moon, Rogue River Blue)
- pickled okra (the last jar left from this summer)
- rosemary roasted nuts (Union Square Cafe cookbook)
Dinner:
- wonderfully moist & delicious Earl Grey-brined grilled turkey (epicurious)
- salad of baby greens, mixed citrus, picholine olives, and chevre
- oyster dressing (Dad's family tradition, Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing as base)
- roasted brussels sprouts, carrots, golden beets, pearl onions with bacon vinaigrette
- mashed potatoes
- cranberry-apricot chutney
- parker house rolls with cranberry butter (NY Times)
Dessert:
- Kahlua pecan pie (my parent's specialty, from the Kahlua recipe book!)
- tart tatin
- homemade vanilla-ginger ice cream

My husband & I hosted our families for the first time - managed a delicious meal and a lovely day with family!

Appetizers
Cured salmon (homemade, based on the recipe in Charcuterie), served with whipped chive cream cheese, red onions, and capers
Cheese & Crackers

Dinner
Butternut squash ravioli with sage cream sauce
Herb and Mustard Turkey (epicurious)
Yukon gold mash with buttermilk and lots of butter
Bread dressing with onion/celery/green pepper
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Sauteed green beans with shallots
Turkey Gravy
Cranberry sauce with bourbon (friend brought)
Whole wheat dinner rolls

Dessert
Brownies with port-poached pears and vanilla bean ice cream (friend brought)

Sam Adams Winter Sampler beers
Apple Cider with Jameson
grenache/syrah red blend
sauvignon blanc/semillion white blend

Great dinner, great company, and the Eagles won. :)

Based on the response here, you definitely asked the right question!

Italian cured meats and cured green beans
Anchovy, Parsley, and black olive tapanade

Cauliflower and almond soup
Onion tartlets

Dry brined, roasted turkey
Chestnut, apple and leek stuffing
gravy
Sweet yam and maple puree
potato gratin
Brussels sprout leaves with pistachio nuts and lemon

cheese course (Stilton, Sottocenere, Pecorino)

Torta della Nonna, Apple Pie, and Double chip (potato and chocolate chip) cookies

With drinks: raw almonds roasted with e.v. olive oil, sprinkled with fleur de sel; gougeres (from Roses Bakery); tiny empanadas filled with ground beef and apple chutney and celery with creamed cheese (Janis).
At the table: Naragansett turkey, salted the day before, 10 minutes after FedEx dropped him off, brought from the fridge about 2 hours before going into a 400' preheated oven, slathered in Delittia buttered cheese cloth, oven temp. reduced to 350' after an hour (thanks Alice W. & Julia C). A dressing made with cubed, stale rustic bread, sauteed onions & celery, thyme and parsley from the garden, and sausage (I made J. C. recipe). Make-ahead mashed potatoes (Pioneer Woman, potatoes from our CSA farmer). Gravy made from the drippings of a previously roasted free-range turkey, using turkey stock and stock from a roasted capon (wow, what a flavor boost, and thanks to Brooke29 for the post that inspired me to buy slow cooker!). Riced yams and a molded salad with raw cranberries & vegetables (Anna). Roasted vegetables (Beth). Creamed onions (Janis). There were bowls of cranberry-currant-walnut sauce (M. Stewart) with Gran Marnier added, cranberry, shallot, dried cherry compote, cranberry, quince chutney (SE, Lidia B), and pickled peaches. There were a number of bottles of white and red wine brought by our eight guests.
After a pause, there were pies from Roses: Bramley apple, pumpkin, and pecan along with the pint of cream mentioned elsewhere (almost ran out!). There was Billecart-Salmon Rose and coffee, later.

I made:
2 sweet potato pies
2 pecan pies
1 derby pie
1 large pumpkin cake
1 large cornbread
2 whole wheat challahs
1 almond poppy seed loaf

My mother made:
More turkey than I could have imagined (1 20-some lb turkey and two large breasts) and gravy
Massive amounts of stuffing
Roasted root vegetables
Green salad with apples and fennel
Mashed potatoes with carrots

We shared duty on:
sauteed zucchini, mushrooms, and onions
carmelized brussels sprouts

Started with guo tie and xi jiang tiao before the main meal. As an antipasto, there was a spicy mound of thinly shaved fuqi feipian followed by the pasta course of liang pi. Gluttonous, I snacked on zi ran chao yang rou jia mo on the side. In lieu of turkey, I had a bit of Peking Duck, finishing up the meal with samples of fruit-flavored jerky, red bean cake and scallion pancakes. Thanksgiving doesn't end after the first meal, of course, so I ended up having seconds of besan and kaju barfi followed by cocktails and vegetarian sushi. Thanks to Serious Eats, I was able to turn what was to be a solitary Thanksgiving into a culinary adventure in Flushing.