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Thank you so much for explaining in detail the process of brining. I brined my Thanksgiving turkey for the first time last year and had a great result- a flavorful juicy turkey!

PoorOldMama-
If you poke each one of those beans with a pin, it let's the gas out. ;oP

Caesar salad with chicken, beef and cheese ravioli with a marinara sauce, garlic/herb bread sticks and strawberries with cream for finally.

Chinese buffet with sushi and Mongolian bar-be-que included. 8)

Yum to everyone, and I second the request for @dbcurrie to share some more info about the bubble salad. Sounds like a must-do!

My meal will serve 10 people on Thursday, and then we traditionally do Second Thanksgiving on Friday for all of our friends who are required to spend time with family on actual Thanksgiving Day, but for whom we want to give thanks. That's looking like a group of 14 this year. All food for Second Thanksgiving is leftover from the original meal.

Main Meal:

• Dinner rolls - Cook's Illustrated recipe, the triangle-shaped ones


• Beet salad with feta and cardamom dressing


• Turkey - AB's Good Eats version like some others, but spatchcocked or butterflied - that oven time is too precious!


• Mashed potatoes


• Sweet potatoes with orange juice and Calvados


• Thyme-roasted apples and onions - from Epicurious/Bon Appetit


• Green beans with ginger and soya


• Apple raisin stuffing


• Classic stuffing


• Corn Casserole - a bizarre mix of canned, fresh, and ground corn products that my best friend can't go without on t-giving


• Whole cranberry sauce


• Lots of extra turkey gravy - Cook's Illustrated recipe

Dessert:

• Pumpkin Pie


• French Silk Pie


• Cranberry-Walnut Cobbler

• Spiced cranberry punch - MAKE THIS! http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cranberry-Vodka-Punch-200563 If you like mulled drinks and don't mind getting rather silly, make this sometime this season. It's very strong, but the spices mask the alcohol brilliantly. It's always a huge hit.


• Sparkling juices


• Beer & wine

Pan-cooked chicken breast, green beans with garlic and mashed potatos.
And a few beers.

Simple night.

We are traveling to TX for the holiday and there will be at least 15 people there. Besides the normal roast turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, there will be many sides, a few of which will be fruit type salads andlots of delicious vegetables, a few pies plus I will be taking pumpkin squares, cranberry nut bread and a pineapple zuchinni cake. One of our favorite recipes is Paula Deen's Tugboat turnips and another is our TX corn casserole. Someone will make the green bean casserole which I hate and won't eat. I much prefer fresh beans! I am thinking about taking a few new cookie recipes too! These are my grandchildren!

@lakeloverhh
"Something pumpkin-- not in the mood for pie. Don't want to make a cheesecake. I would love any suggestions from the SE crowd."

Well...
It's called pie, but is more custard in an unusual and lovely presentation...

Baked Whole Pumpkin Pie

4 to 6 lb (2 to 3 kg) pumpkin
6 eggs
2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream
1/2 cup (125 ml) brown sugar
2 tsp (10 ml) molasses
1/2 tsp (2 ml) freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp (5 ml) cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 ml) allspice
1/4 tsp (1 ml) powdered ginger
2 TBS (30 ml) butter

Remove the top of the pumpkin and scrape out the seeds and membranes as though you were making a jack-o'lantern. Mix the remaining ingredients together EXCEPT the butter and pour into the pumpkin. Top with the butter, put the lid of the pumpkin in place, and place in a large baking dish. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the mixture has set. Serve from the pumpkin at the table, scraping a little of the pumpkin flesh to accompany each serving. Serves 6 to 8.

Cooks' Illustrated Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Spatchcocked Turkey smoked or roasted haven't decided which
Gravy
Apple and Sausage stuffing in a crockpot
PW's Sweet Potato Casserole
Yeast rolls
Indiana noodles (MIL)
Green Bean Casserole (MIL)
Scalloped Corn (MIL)
Cranberry Sauce
Also thinking about Roasted Asparagus
Apple Pie
Banana Cream Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Sugar Cream pie (MIL)

We are having a pretty traditional Thanksgiving.

For appetizers:

Roasted spiced nuts
A cheese board
Roasted Vegetable tapenade served with toasted pita chips

For the main meal:

Roast turkey + an additional breast that I'll roast the day before
Amazing gravy (my favorite part of the meal ... everything tastes better with gravy!)
Mashed potatoes
Dressing with sage
Carmelized pearl onions
Broccoli cheese casserole
Corn that we cut off the cob and froze during the peak of corn season.
My great great grandmother's clover leaf rolls ( I made these this past weekend and froze them)
Brown sugar glazed sweet potatoes
Homemade cranberry sauce

For dessert:

Something pumpkin-- not in the mood for pie. Don't want to make a cheesecake. I would love any suggestions from the SE crowd.
Apple pie.

bareneed, I am surprised by the answers here too so far. Although I enjoy both, I thought lobster would turn out a clear winner...eat and learn.

I've brined and fried and the bird was great. Recently I've brined but added a little herb stock That is bay lea,f rosemary, basil, celery, onion and garlic simmered for 20 minutes then cooked and added to the brine along with half a cup of sugar. I brine over night in a big stock pot on the back porch when the nighttime temperature is in the high 30's or in a cooler if it is warmer (I replace some of the water with ice. It is melted but still cold by morning).
I cook the bird breast side down on a V rack with no stuffing (except an oinion and a celery stalk and maybe an apple) 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then down to 330 degrees. I use a convection oven . I turn the bird onto it's back (carefully) for the last 20 minutes to brown the breast skin.
The result is crispy skin all over, moist tender meat and because the exposed back cooks more quickly than the breast which is on the bottom, the white and dark meat are both cooked perfectly