• Share:
  • Send to StumbleUpon
  • Send to Facebook
  • Send to del.icio.us
  • Send to digg

So, what did everyone have for Thanksgiving?

Well, after all the planning and shopping.....we've finished eating! There were four of us, so we couldn't go too wild with our menu. We had turkey (using a Tyler Florence recipe with maple syrup and bacon), dressing made with sausage, apricots and Grand Marnier, Mashed Yukons with buttermilk, roasted butternut squash with sauteed apples, green beans with lemon zest, brussel sprouts with chestnuts and cranberry sauce with port. We're taking a break from eating before dessert at the moment which is why I'm online.

For dessert, I took a few shortcuts: ordered a blueberry tart and pecan pie (both 6" in size) and we made an apple cranberry crisp with a polenta topping. Oh, and we have some artisan chocolates,

We had a bottle of Dreams (white wine) with dinner.

Gee, in reading what I'm writing...we sure seemed to have a lot of food, which is why I need a break.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

30 Comments:

MY friend had what I consider to be a brillant idea. He boned the turkey and then filled it with stuffing--when it came time to carve it was a no-brainer (and there was lots of stuffing for everyone). He did the same for the fried turkey (we have a village feast with ten-fifteen other families and have smokesd, roasted and fried turkey). Anyway, since you can't stuff a fried turkey he took the inside of an asparagus steamer and used it to form a removable "rib cage". It was so easy.

We started with shrimp cocktail, guacamole, scallops wrapped in bacon, Brie en croute. You know just a couple of things to pick on!!
Dinner was turkey, beautifully roasted, mashed potatoes, acorn squash, traditional stuffing, oyster stuffing, broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce and cranberry relish. Fantastic gravy from the turkey drippings, delicious.
Desert was a Kaos Pie from Alden Merrill and a delicious apple kind of tart, made with a soft yeast risen crust, made by my niece's roommate from Germany! It was great!

Our dinner was small - just the me, my brother, and our parents - and I'm surprised at how much we ate! We're also on our break between the meal and dinner. Here's my menu (for which I was solely responsible for creating)

Mixed greens with honey-roasted pears, red onion, toasted walnuts, gorgonzola dolce, and a honey-balsamic dressing

Orange cauliflower and Fuji apple soup with sage cream and cave-aged cheddar cheese tuiles

Roasted brussels sprouts with a soy-sriracha-mint dressing and spiced puffed rice

Pan-seared and baked acorn squash with a maple-pomegranate-coriander glaze and fresh pomegranate arils

Baked pumpkin stuffed with seitan, chanterelle and crimini mushrooms, carrots, shallots, and a red wine sauce (similar to the recipe that was in November's Gourmet)

Pumpkin cheesecake pie with a lime-walnut graham cracker crust and maple-ginger whipped cream

My parents and brother and I managed to take down two bottles of wine with dinner, a pinot noir roses and a dolcetto.

I am stuffed to the gills right now. No idea how I'm going to eat that pie!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

OK, seriously, I must be delirious from eating so much, because my first paragraph above makes no sense! I meant to say that we're on our break between the meal and dessert, and why did I write "the" before "me"????

I had Thanksgiving lunch with my mom and grandma, I made:

Butternut squash mac & cheese
Arugula Orange Salad with Citrus Curry Dressing
Cinammon Vanilla Plantains
Roasted Broccoli and Zucchini
Sweet Potato Flan

you can get the recipes and read all about it in www.karmafreecooking.wordpress.com

Hot Spiced Apple Cider
Deviled Eggs (provided by a guest)
Puff Pastry with Chanterelle Mushrooms and Gruyere Cheese ("winged" this one)
Cheese & Salumi with Crackers

Maple Brined Fresh Market Turkey
"Drippings" Gravy with Shallot & Giblets
Sweet Potato "Crisp"
Martin Potatobred & Chestnut Stuffing
Carrot Souffle
Biscuits (not the best but they were passable!)
Corn Pudding
Mashed Potatoes with Bacon (BF prepared these)
Green Beans with Mushrooms (threw this in last minute - we had nothing green!)

Dorie Greenspan's T-Giving Twofer Pie
Apple Crisp
Carrot Cake (purchased from Nature's Food Patch, a natural food market, provided by a guest)

DOH! I knew I'd forget something...

Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cheddar Pie Crust Cookies (which eventually got renamed Cheese People)

We had Honey Brined Smoked Turkey (Alton Brown's recipe), Mashed Potatoes, Gravy with the drippings from the turkey (slightly smoky and delicious) Sweet Potato Casserole,Green Bean Casserole, Apple Sausage Stuffing. Then we had the piesapple, pecan, and pumpkin. Oh and Buttermilk biscuit, Scalloped Corn and Homemade noodles.

I made:

Lentil-stuffed Pumpkin with roasted vegetables
Almond apple dressing with roasted vegetables
Cornbread dressing (I used homemade cornbread for both dressings)
Apple-honey-thyme mini pies ( http://www.threepotato.blogspot.com )
Pumpkin mini pies ( http://www.threepotato.blogspot.com )
Pumpkin pie
All-butter pie crust (which I used in all of the pies)

My mother made:

Turkey
Waldorf salad
Cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes
Apple pie

We also ate mashed squash, which we stole from my grandmother's freezer the last time we visited.

Oh, we drank apple cider (the kids) and mead (everyone else).

Parmesan crisps, olives, pickled carrots
West County sparkling cider for the adults, Martinelli for the kids

shrimp with oil and lemon
onion sourdough and raisin pecan rolls
Westerly Sauvignon Blanc

butterflied turkey, stuffed under the skin with mushrooms/ricotta/Parmesan and smoked
cipolline and Golden Nugget potatoes roasted with garlic and rosemary
Brussels sprout leaves braised with mirepoix and ham
Joel Gott Zinfandel

maple flan in a pecan crust
apple crisp
whipped crème fraîche

Compass Box Peat Monster whisky
Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal


I am enjoying reading about all the foods everyone had....they all sound wonderful. I would have been a happy guest at all these feasts!

I did manage to have a bit of dessert last night. The bakery purchased tarts were very good and the apple cranberry crisp with polenta topping turned out quite well. This was from the December issue of Bon Appetit. I would make this again.

My brother in law smoked a turkey with apple wood, then finished it in a roaster basting it with apple cider. The smokey-sweet gravy was the best gravy I've ever tasted. I contemplated forgoing everything else so I could set the gravy boat in front of myself and go to work on it with a bendy straw. Other than that, the usual suspects accompanied the big bird: stuffing, salad, canned cranberry sauce, asparagus, dinner rolls, garlic mashed potatoes, and a tasty creamed corn/cornbread concoction topped with cheddar cheese. After the table was cleared, the Sugar Fairy decorated the table with four pies, three cheesecakes, and several pecan tarts then punched the Insulin Fairy in the face.
Overall, it was a good day.

I didn't cook anything this year - recovering from surgery. However, I had two (count 'em!) Thanksgiving dinners yesterday, and the birds were cooked very differently - both tasted great. First was family and we had "our" traditional sides (It's not a holiday for us without mashed rutabagas .) Sis-in-law cooked the turkey in an appliance I think is called a roaster? Looks more like a huge pressure cooker. It basically steamed the meat and it was surprisingly delicious. No crispy skin, though. Second dinner was at my best friend's - she and her husband are gourmet cooks. Everything was fantastic and the turkey outstanding. She got the recipe from an Irish chef (I hear ya, I hear ya, but no sarcastic comments please - I happen to be Irish and am a pretty decent cook, my Irish mother, God Bless her Soul, was the best, most creative cook I've ever known.) Anyway, she wrapped the bird in butter soaked cheesecloth and filled it with lots of aromatics - citrus and herbs. 325 degrees whole time. Dressing on the side. Never had to baste. The white meat (my favorite part) was so tender, tasty and moist. I made the gravy and it didn't need a thing besides flour and water. (I did use a separator) I normally use at least some broth and seasonings. Everyone raved about how great it tasted - all the taste came directly from the bird. I cook breasts all year and I've tried dozens of methods, but I'm going to try wrapping a turkey breast and whole chickens. p.s. they sent me home with a care package, so I still get the best part - turkey sandwich the next day!

We had ham, Cornish game hens, greens, cornbread dressing, wild rice with portobello mushrooms, green beans, tea cakes, pumpkin pie, caramel cake, and curried butternut squash soup. Mmmm!

oh, and macaroni and cheese. Wow. We had a lot of food for just three people!

Fresh turkey brined ala Alton Brown
Challah stuffing with sage sausage, apples and craisins
Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic
Whipped Yams with lemon, maple and brown sugar
Green beans with tomatoes and caramelized garlic cloves
Cranberry and apple compote
Romaine salad with gorgonzola, bacon, gala apples, spiced walnuts and apple cider viniagrette

started with a white bean dip and cream cheese stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon.

finished with a caramel apple cobbler that was AWFUL.

There were nine of us and you can read about the chaos here:

http://www.izzyeats.blogspot.com

Spiced Nuts
Brebis Blanche Cheese and Crackers
Olives
Fried Cece (Chickpeas)

Main and Sides

Buttermilk/Thyme Biscuits

Brine Roasted Turkey with Chestnut/Cornbread/Apple Stuffing
Wine and Giblet Gravy

Squash/White Bean/Kale Ragout

Sweet Potato Mash w/Vanilla and Orange Zest

Brussels Sprouts with Glazed Cipollini Onions

Cranberry-Port Mold


Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Tarte Tatin


salad: roasted beets with pears, walnuts, and blue cheese

mains:
roast chicken
cornbread and broccoli rabe strata

sides:
maple butternut squash puree
mashed potatoes with asiago and parsley
sauteed chard with garlic
green lentils with mirepoix and sausage
herb-gruyere biscuits

desserts:
apple pie
flan

untraditional, i know, but so delicious!

My brother and I celebrate Thanksgiving separate from our family since we are both in the Pacific North West. We had a Mexican three day Thanksgiving. Which included- red chile rice, chile rellenos, roasted tomato poblano soup, masa rafts with queso and poblanos, mushroom tamales, chile citrus glazed sweet potatoes, lots of tortilla chips, ice cream and fresh ginger cake.

lola27: Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but......looks like your dogs and cats got the heaves, and the first dish looks like deceased frogs. Stomach was turning, so I couldn't read your blog, but I'm sure you enjoyed your meal and that's all that matters.

My family is Russian, and no holiday dinner is complete without a Russian-style appetizer spread. So we had homemade sauerkraut, marinated tomatoes and pickles, beet salad, smoked herring, smocked mackerel, smoked salmon and Uzbek carrot salad. (See my blog for a smocked fish canape write up).

The dinner was perfectly American: turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted butternut squash and sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts sauteed with garlic, and the famous no knead bread.

Dessert was a homemade apple pastry-like thing, and a Syrian pumpkin cake that I made (recipe on the blog Desert Candy).

Yulinka Cooks

THis year I brined the turkey for teh first time. We couldn't decide if we liked it better. I also made stuffing with a mix of french bread and cornbread and cooked it in teh bird. I had my kids in teh kitchen. They carefully followed my recipes and made cranberry sauce, cornbread casserole, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes. I also made rolls. My SIL brought a strawberry cake tha twas wonderful and my MIL made banana pudding. That was something I had never seen until I moved to the south!

We are still eating the leftovers. There are 8 in our family and we had 8 visitors and we still had way too much food. I wouldn't have it any other way, though!

lola27 - I've been puzzled for several days by the comment you received on your Thanksgiving dinner by PerkyMac. I must admit that I feel his comments were a bit rough, though perhaps meant humorously.

I looked back at the photos you took and find that I disagree with his critique of your dinner. I don't do a "traditional" T'gv dinner myself, though I used to, with all the trimmings.

As a matter of fact, I find that at this point my concept of what is "traditional" goes beyond what the magazines currently tell us is traditional, back to ideas of times before Godeys Ladies Magazine set up the idea in the public's mind that turkey and pumpkin pie were neccessary requisites for an All-American Thanksgiving. I don't however go out and kill a deer, some geese and ducks and bake a pumpkin with cream inside it and eat a variety of corn for dinner that today would be considered feed for animals. Instead, I create my own traditions of thanks through the food I choose to put on the table that day, just as you have.

Your meal looks lovely. If it matters, in terms of weight of opinion, I can tell you that as a chosen career before leaving it to be with my family I was a chef, an executive chef - in NYC - my job was to feed the very wealthy and powerful in a private corporation - the sorts of people who are accustomed to the best the world has to offer without worrying about cost or difficulty.

I enjoyed seeing your food blogged. Happy Thanksgiving. I raise a glass to you with your delightful and joyous Mexican New-World feast.

Karen

Thanks Karen, I really appreciate your comment (it has made my day) and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Savory Dishes:
- Deep-Fried Turkey
- Cranberry and Orange Relish
- Spicy Artichoke Dip
- Mashed Potatoes and Parsnips
- Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage
- Brussels Sprouts Lardons
- Chinese Sticky Rice
- Spanish Seafood Salad
- Three-Seed Dinner Rolls

Dessert:
- Fruit Salad
- Homemade Yogurt
- Apple Pie
- Pecan Pie
- Pumpkin Pie
- Chocolate Bouchons (brownies)

There were 14 of us this year at our annual Turkey Day celebration in San Francisco. It was pretty traditional, except for the sticky rice and seafood salad.

You can read about my early Thanksgiving eats here.

Hillary
Chew on That

Possibly the saltiest Thanksgiving... we went to Mimi's Cafe and got a plate of turkey, mush that was supposed to be dressing, I suppose, day old mashed potatoes (they tasted so old and were still a little cold!), mashed sweet potatoes, and hunks of steamed, bland broccoli and carrots... oh and cranberry compote that came only when we asked for it.
There's just no magic to Thanksgiving when you have to divide a check... next year...

PlasticSpoonTraveller.com

Add a comment:

Comments can take up to a minute to appear - please be patient!

Previewing your comment:

 

HTML Hints

Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>

Comment Guidelines

Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.

If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.

Start Talking!

Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!

Sign up to start a talk topic

Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.