(American) Thanksgiving 2015

Gared

Gared

We have a general What's For Dinner thread, but how about specifically Thanksgiving? I'll be starting my cooking and prep work this weekend, so I don't have to stay up all night Wednesday night to get things done for Thursday afternoon. The menu this year is:

Prime rib with a red wine demi-glace
Mushroom ragout
Roasted brussels sprouts with maple-balsamic vinaigrette
Mediterranean spiced butternut squash
Noni Afghani bread
Pumpkin and pomegranate risotto

And my MIL will be providing pies.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

This year everyone is going to southern Ohio for dinner, and we can't go, so we won't be doing anything for the first time in years, instead electing to let other people do our work for us.

We've earned it.

--Patrick
 
fade

fade

Staff member
We'll be just the nuclear here. We're doing our traveling at Christmas instead. So it'll just be your traditional spread. I like the traditional turkey+sides, because it's one meal out of 365. Well, 10 meals I guess.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

We're hosting as usual, so there should be 9 of us all together (Christmas tends to be bigger). It's probably good that I'm writing this out to make sure I didn't forget to pick something up:

Spatchcocked Turkey (best time saver ever!)
Roasted parsnip bread pudding
Candied Sweet Potatoes w/marshmallows
Roasted Cauliflower w/dates and pine nuts
Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and balsamic vingerette
Pumpkin soup

And for dessert we have apple, pumpkin or pecan pie with salted caramel ice cream.

Still trying to figure out what to make for hors d'oeuvres, though.
 
Denbrought

Denbrought

Having Thanksgiving at my in-laws, so I'm fairly sure the menu will be something like:

Handmade Bread Stuffing
Turkey/Ham/etc
Red Salad
So much cranberry sauce
Like two gallons of allioli (I'm in charge of that)
Surprise dishes?
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

We're going Italian this year. So it sounds like antipasto, cannelloni or manicotti, meatballs or sausage, salad, bread and I'm going to attempt ricotta cheesecake with apple topping.
 
Dei

Dei

My parents paid for airfare for us to visit them, so I least I get free food before I have an aneurism from keeping my mouth forcibly shut when they start talking about "politics."
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

fade said:
Whoa, that video.... the turkey looked like something from a horror movie. I guess that's actually not too far off the mark, though.
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Ha! I didn't watch the video, I was just linking for the instructions. However, every year when I rip out the spine, I do make Mortal Kombat jokes.
 
Squidleybits

Squidleybits

Gared said:
We have a general What's For Dinner thread, but how about specifically Thanksgiving? I'll be starting my cooking and prep work this weekend, so I don't have to stay up all night Wednesday night to get things done for Thursday afternoon. The menu this year is:

Prime rib with a red wine demi-glace
Mushroom ragout
Roasted brussels sprouts with maple-balsamic vinaigrette
Mediterranean spiced butternut squash
Noni Afghani bread
Pumpkin and pomegranate risotto

And my MIL will be providing pies.
Click to expand...
That sounds pretty fantastic! Is this next week?
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

PatrThom said:
This year everyone is going to southern Ohio for dinner, and we can't go, so we won't be doing anything for the first time in years, instead electing to let other people do our work for us.
We've earned it.
Click to expand...
Nope.
Our destination already has another destination in mind.
So I guess we'll be eating in this year.

--Patrick
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Nothing. I'm working both Wednesday and Thursday nights, mom can't do turkey, and there aren't any relatives within 200 miles. So the same as most other years. :(
 
Gared

Gared

Squidleybits said:
That sounds pretty fantastic! Is this next week?
Click to expand...
Next Thursday, yeah. I got off work a bit early today and have everything I need except for pomegranate arils, and they tend to go bad if you buy them too soon anyway. Tomorrow I'll start roasting beef bones and root veggies for the stock for the demi, and probably roast and puree the pumpkin for the risotto.
DarkAudit said:
Nothing. I'm working both Wednesday and Thursday nights, mom can't do turkey, and there aren't any relatives within 200 miles. So the same as most other years. :(
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I really wish we didn't live on opposite sides of the country. At the very least, you could have tasty left-overs when you got back from night shift.
 
strawman

strawman

blotsfan said:
But if you invite more people you'd have to rent out a full banquet hall. Thats gotta get expensive.
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We can seat 25 or so in the same area (dining room, kitchen, and front room connected by large arches), and last thanksgiving had a few more than that. This thanksgiving will be much smaller. As a bonus, anyone bringing kids will find there's a better than 85% chance there'll be another kid here within a year of their age. :)
 
strawman

strawman

Ravenpoe said:
Yeah, but that's just standard dinner for you.
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I'm just glad they aren't all teenagers yet. Like a plague of locusts, I'm told...

But yeah, when I hear other people talk about having 9 or more people over for thanksgiving and indicating that it's going to be packed, I just smile...
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

My niece and her kids are going to be here for Thanksgiving, so we've got 7 including my wife and son.

We're having:
Roast turkey breast. Everyone gets tired of Turkey by the 3rd day and I end up throwing some out every year, so just the breast this year.
Broccoli salad (which my aunt calls "ants in a tree")--florets cut tiny, sunflower seeds, bacon pieces, vidalia onion dressing.
Green bean casserole (which I've never tried..my wife is making)
sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows on top, of course)
roasted root vegetables (parsnips, celery root, carrots, etc)
9 heads of garlic mashed potatoes, though I'll probably only use 3-4 this year. Roasted garlic, yukon gold potatoes (for creaminess), neufchatel cheese (american style).
Ambrosia salad

My wife was going to make more, but I drew the line at having one dish for each guest. :p
Of course we have cherry and pumpkin pie, but they don't count as dishes ;)

Oh, and cranberry sauce. The jellied kind in the can. Because I can't get any of my philistine relatives to give real cranberry sauce a chance ;)

edit: and stuffing, and rolls. Damn, we're going to be eating this shit for a week.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

blotsfan said:
But if you invite more people you'd have to rent out a full banquet hall. Thats gotta get expensive.
Click to expand...
My parents used to invite enough people that they'd rent out the hall at the local volunteer fire company or the church I grew up attending. The first Thanksgiving we were married Aussie got to experience this. We had about 25 people including us.
 
strawman

strawman

PatrThom said:
She said no. Said she'd be uncomfortable in that intimate of a setting with so many people she doesn't know.

--Patrick
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I understand, thanks for considering it! We'll have to plan some other get together that has a lower set of expectations and intimacy.
 
Frank

Frank

There's a local burger joint in town that does an amazing turkey burger once a year on American Thanksgiving. It's a fresh in store made turkey patty with fried duck meat and skin with this cranberry mayo and stuffing on it. It sounds horrendous but it is literally the best tasting burger I've ever had. I will be having a couple of those and probably ordering a few more to go to last me a day or two afterwards.
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

We've got two Thanksgiving meals that we do, my wife's family and my family. They are fairly different from each other. Her family is usually rather tame, roast turkey, dressing (it's the south, we really don't do stuffing), assorted side dishes (sweet potato casserole, cranberry stuff, etc.) rather the more traditional stuff. My family goes a little more "country." Deep fried turkey, duck and goose, yes three different birds. Sides like cheesy potatoes (red potatoes boiled with crab boil, put into a casserole with cheese wiz, cream of mushroom and topped with bacon crumble), duck dressing (cornbread based dressing with duck meat added), deviled eggs, corn on the cob and even fried okra. I don't really eat desserts, but have been told that they are at both functions.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

Frank said:
There's a local burger joint in town that does an amazing turkey burger once a year on American Thanksgiving. It's a fresh in store made turkey patty with fried duck meat and skin with this cranberry mayo and stuffing on it. It sounds horrendous but it is literally the best tasting burger I've ever had. I will be having a couple of those and probably ordering a few more to go to last me a day or two afterwards.
Click to expand...
That sounds amazing. Add some cole slaw to it and it sounds almost like the sandwiches that I used to make when I was younger except it was leftover turkey instead of a turkey burger.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Ordering pizza the night before. Put it in the fridge.

Thanksgiving Day is wife and me eating pizza while watching MST3k Turkey Day marathon on Youtube.

No relatives.

Bliss.
 
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