Who in your house/family is cooking thanksgiving dinner?

[dmm26]

And what are you/they cooking?

I'm only having a few people over at my place for dinner, mum, girlfriend, grandma, my foster kids and possibly my neighbors.

I'm gonna do up a turkey (brined first of course), mashed potatoes, veggies, gravy, caesar salad, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie with a few other desserts. I almost bought a nice ham too today but figured there was already enough food for all of us.
This is my second time cooking everything for thanksgiving and I find it's not as bad as mum made it out to be all those years!

Put the turkey in and coast till like 4:30 or 5 and then do the rest up and eat! I find that thanksgiving and christmas dinner is kind of like breakfast though. A lot of work to put in just for everyone to finish eating in a few minutes and then not want to do anything cause their too full

 

[pyrrhusmj]

This year I am cooking for about 8 folks. Most years we go out to eat since we have zero kids in the family and I am the youngest at 38....ie: no one wants to cook a long heavy dinner anymore except for me.

Start with cold pumpkin soup.
1 Locally raised Free Range Heritage Turkey (haven't decided if I will spatchcock on the grill or roast)
Giblet gravy
Lamb or fish for the chinese side of the family.
fresh green beans and green beans with fingernails
mashed potatoes
oyster stuffing (1 corn bread based and 1 white bread based)
homemade cranberry sauce (it is so easy, why buy the can..... although I am addicted to the can)
Deviled eggs
Apple Tarte Tartin
Pumpkin pie


andddddddd

plan to make some nice white bread on the primo for that evening

Michael

 

[Uncle Erik]

My wonderful cousin Donald, but we all pitch in.

Donald is a professional chef and we usually wind up with two or three other chefs at his place on Thanksgiving. He does some of the cooking, but since he knows how to run a kitchen, about a dozen of us are tasked to various things and it's teamwork.

Usually two or three birds cooked various ways, though we might roast a lamb this year. About ten sides and several desserts, too. There's intentionally too much so everyone takes home plenty. The only side there isn't enough of is the baked cauliflower. That's cauliflower broken up into a tray, covered in white sauce, topped with four or five cheeses, then baked. It disappears, fast.

We'll have 30-40 people over. All the extended family, several friends and we bring along stragglers (co-workers and others) with no local family. Thanksgiving is the holiday for my family. We celebrate all the others, but Christmas is usually a smaller affair. Fourth of July is sometimes a big party, but the food isn't as extensive.

 

[DFrancis]

Like all meat that needs roasting, it will be me doing it. I take care of the bird and stuffing and potatoes. SWMBO does up veg and the cranberries. We have friends coming over that will be doing up dessert. The only day I get off in a 2 week period will be turkey day so I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it.

 

[Masterkova]

I'm cooking for 12...

Chicken liver pate
Celery root soup with shiitake mushrooms
Salad with roquefort and pear
Turkey with prosciutto hazelnut crust and gravy
Chestnut, prune and pancetta stuffing
Kale with fried walnuts
Bourbon mashed sweet potatoes with candied pecans
Another side TBD...

Dessert I leave to my sisters...


Btw, what are green beans with fingernails????

 

[Sullybob]

I'll be cooking for 4, maybe more. With assistance from my wife and kids.

Other then turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy I don't have a plan yet. I will definitely be doing a soup. And my youngest son has requested my guilt free potatoes.

 

[Hawkeye5]

I'll fry the turkey, the wife and daughters, daughter-in-law, will do the rest.

 

[Jwolf24601]

We divy up the food duties a bit. My father cooks the Turkey, I cook mashed potatos and gravy, and my Second Cousin who hosts the dinner makes most other items, other relatives bring desert.

 

[pyrrhusmj]

I'll fry the turkey, the wife and daughters, daughter-in-law, will do the rest.

I so want to try a fried turkey sometime..... I just know I will end up at the hospital.


Michael

 

[ouch]

I so want to try a fried turkey sometime..... I just know I will end up at the hospital.


Michael

Last year, my friend was bemoaning the fact that he received a free turkey from the market, but spent $50 on oil.

 

[spindlecone]

DO NOT WEAR BERKINSTOCKS when you deep fry a turkey, I learned that
Also with that pricey oil, clarify it with sliced potatoes, good eats.
than back in the container the next day , than put it in the freezer, I use it at least 5 times.

 

[bob.e]

I will cook the dinner for 2

a small turkey with gravy and sage sausage stuffing, mashed potatos, and kale, homemade cranberry's I mix half cranberry's and half blue berrys pretty much following the directions on the cranberry bag but adding the blueberry's after cooking the cranberry's as they are already soft. it's a simple meal but a good one Storebought pies as dessert and Sara Lee dinner rolls

 

[jwhite]

I usually do two turkeys one in a honey brine and smoked, the other in a savory brine, stuffed loosely with onion, clove studded orange halves, celery, and a bouquet of sage,thyme, and marjoram and roasted. I also make oyster stuffing, and a port cranberry sauce with minced apple and walnut. Potatoes and veg. will be done by the wife. My dad and brother usually do the pies, last year they made 7.

 

[mouscacha]

I usually have 2 thanksgiving dinners. I've learned to pace myself =OP

My families usually do it pot luck style, but the host is always the one who cooks the turkey. The early afternoon is usually at my house, so I've been frying turkeys for the past few years. Last year I put the turkey and a few pork butts in an imu (hawaiian underground smoker). Unfortunately it had rained the night before and the food wasn't done when it came out in the morning. Try again this year!

 

[saf]

I will be doing my first Thanksgiving this year. Only 4 people so easy.

Cornish game hens stuffed with lemon orange garlic thyme and what ever inspires me at the time and finished by wrapping in bacon with a white wine pan gravy

cranberry and walnut stuffing

oyster stuffing

mushroom stuffing

my truckstop mashed potatoes

canned and homemade cranberries

Lyonnaise potatoes

greenbean casserole

I might be over doing it but I love Thanksgiving food

 

[alabamalawyer]

The Chinese restaurant down the street. It's actually become a tradition with the wife and kids that we have Chinese. We frequent the restaurant all year, but may be the only customers they have on Thanksgiving Day.

 

[Wendy]

I took over cooking a few years ago and I usually cook for 13.
I do have help with some sides.

On the menu:

Turkey
Ham
Mashed potatoes
stuffing - sometimes made by mother in law, She will not be joining this year
green bean casserole
corn casserole - usually my Mom
sweet potato pie - usually my Mom ( she adds extra pecans and brown sugar)
spinach casserole
rolls
and nasty can of cranberry sauce for my brother

for appetizers we usually have

artichoke dip
cheeze and crackers
a relish tray
shrimp dip
deviled eggs
and whatever else anyone wants to bring.

desert is pumpkin pie and pecan pie, sometimes apple too.

And last but not least wine and beer also coffe and baileys. The coffee and baileys is so I can stay awake to be at stores at midnight to shop.

We always start eating around noon and stop eating around 7pm, yes we are pigs.

 

[Monkeydad]

My wife is GREAT at cooking Thanksgiving meals, which is odd since the rest of the year...well....nevermind.


I've let her take it over. We have all of the traditional things...the one non-typical dish would be the fried mushrooms she makes just for her and her father...no one else, myself included likes them.

Since our son was born, she's told the family it will be at our house every year, which they love since they don't have to cook. She wants to make some nice family memories for our little expended family, or something like that.

Plus, I love it since I don't have to drive to New York any more.

 

[renoles]

I am but the number in the party is indefinite right now...something between two and ten (or so).

As to menu...

Smoked turkey breast and/or marmalade glazed ham
Potato and celeriac gratin
Roasted root vegetables
Sausage dressing
Mango chutney and/or Cumberland sauce

I'm not sure what I'll put out for dessert...thinking something simple...pound cake and lemon curd maybe.

 

[Beerman]

Glad to see I'm not the only one here that's fried a turkey. If you haven't tried it, you need to. You WON'T want to go back to cooking one in the oven.


Beerman