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Stuffing(!), cranberry sauce-- don't hate me, I love the canned stuff--, pumpkin pie, pearl onions, and of course, a little turkey is mandatory.
Everything else is meh.

What I REALLY love is the leftover turkey/cranberry sauce sandwiches.
Godly.

Another creative leftover suggestion: pumpernickel bread, cream cheese on bread, avocado, mashed and spread, thin slices of breast, stacked and lettuce. This was the best sandwich I ever had. LA, 1978 at some restaurant. They had named it The" Martha Raye" , after the actress.

The first time I bought purple potatoes, I mashed them. And yup, it's muppet. I still buy them, but they look a lot better when they're in pieces. Or whole.

The other night, I followed a recipe for a crockpot concoction of sauerkraut, mushrooms, barley and split peas. Overnight, and the peas weren't cooked. Into a dutch oven and at a higher temp, peas still weren't cooked. Back in the crockpot the next day, and the peas still weren't cooked. The barley cooked fine, but the stupid split peas are still less cooked than I'd like them to be. I don't know if I bought peas that were harvested last century, or if it's yet another high altitude quirk, or if there's something in the mix that's keeping the peas so solid, but this is just ridiculous.

A couple days before I was testing a bean soup mix that included split peas, and they cooked just fine in the same crockpot.

I once made the most delicious and perfect looking omelette in the history of omelettes. I beat up the last eggs we had and sauteed some onions and mushrooms and sprinkled some cheese. They looked and smelled amazing. I served it up and bit into it and realize that the mushrooms in the omelette were rancid.

@bobbieAnn - I didn't know Meat guy's explanation, but I've seen this with meat I was quite sure was adequately cooked. I'm thinking it happens more when it'd cooked hot like this. I now just roast chicken at 350 until the leg bones are loose and I've not had it pink, nor dry either.

@ BobbieAnn, if the chicken was frozen in transport to the store (fresh chicken is shipped in the mid 20 degree range), the bones can get hairline cracks and the marrow leaks out into the meat. The meat may be well done, but the marrow blood color doesn't fade until 175 sometimes. In the industrial cooked poultry world they call it blood bone, it is usually found in wings and legs, usually at the joint, but i have seen it in the breast and body cavity as well.

Tried my hand at butternut raviolis last night - filling is great but I tried to shortcut with wonton wrappers and they were not great. I only made a few test ones though - most of the filling is in my fridge for tonight when I will actually take the time to make pasta dough.
A couple of weeks ago I was super excited to make fennel dusted tilapia served over mashed potatoes with a tomato-saffron broth and lump crabmeat. The broth was not a success - I was too heavy handed with the saffron and it overpowered everything else on the plate. Totally bummed.

I had a grand idea last week to make acorn squash stuffed with ground turkey seasoned like italian sausage.

The main problem was that I used way too much meat, so it looked like Mojo Jojo's head when he takes off his turban. It took way longer to cook all that meat than it did to cook the squash, so the squash came out dry. Also, I used too much fennel and it tasted bitter.

It was horrendous. Horrendous. :p

agree with @Cary - it is the only thing that makes sense

I attempted to cook my first ever pork roast and it took twice as long as I thought, had a totally strange texture and tasted slimy. Went directly into the trash.

Then I burned sweet potato chips I tried to bake in the oven and oversalted some other dish I was making.

Sometimes things like that just happen :)

My own favorite thing about Thanksgiving is seeing most of the people that I love. As the oldest sister of a family of eight children, it is the one day of the year that almost all of us are together, along with assorted friends and satellite family. We always eat at my youngest sister's house and last year there were forty-eight people there. There was a roast turkey, a deep-fried turkey, a whole ham, and a whole huge brisket, along with side dishes too numerous to mention. My personal favorite(s): GRAVY - made by me, and a strange creamed corn casserole that is very sweet and was actually my grandmother's original recipe. Oh yeah, I almost forget the praline pecan cheesecake. That's not too bad to end a huge meal with. Then we all play "Guitar Hero" after consuming immoderate amounts of wine and beer. Great! My favorite day of the year. PlanetChaos, the dog fart reminder is hilarious. Thanks for making me laugh on a Monday morning.

Creative left-overs--- A pizza crust, thin sliced turkey, cranberry sauce, peas, small slices of sweet potatoes, maybe a little bit of ham chunks and mozzarella cheese all over the top. - Bake and enjoy! Dave