[425lisamarie]

I start thinking about thanksgiving meal MONTHS in advance

. I am going to start making my pumpkin mousse tart to make sure it's great for the big day! (Though more of an excuse to eat extra sugar with my kids

) and I'm trying to get together an entire meal plan. There are so many dishes I want to make and only so many people to eat them!

So what are you all planning? or am I the only one with a list going already

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[tinybutterfly]

Glad you enjoy cooking/baking for the holiday so much!

I don't enjoy cooking/baking at all...it stresses me OUT! I plan the menus, but dh does most of the cooking. We have a working routine in the kitchen where he does the real cooking and I do a fair amount of the prep work, table setting, meal planning, decorating, etc.

ANYWAY, I am interested to see what everyone else is planning to make.

Ds#1's girlfriend may be coming this year for T-giving and she is a vegetarian. I want to make sure we have something good and satisfying for her to eat besides just the usual veggie portion of the meal that surrounds the turkey we have.

Pumpkin mousse sounds yummy...I've never had it.

We usually just have turkey, mashed potatoes ( some years real, some years boxed) sometimes gravy ( jar or package...my dh is terrified of fat

) broccoli, rolls, salad, cranberry stuff from a can, store bought pumpkin pie and store bought pecan pie.

Oh, and I know jar or package gravy both have plenty of fat in them, but it's not worth arguing about with dh.

As you can see our menu is REALLY basic.

I grew up in an extended family that had a HUGE country-style Thanksgiving where everyone brought food, my aunt who hosted made the turkey, homemade egg noodles, homemade gravy, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, homecanned green beans, homecanned peaches, homemade candies, cakes, pies, etc. There was SO MUCH food and such a variety...

I stopped trying to reproduce that years ago. But oh, it was wonderful when I was growing up!

I have been thinking about what else to add to our usual menu to accomodate K...maybe a squash casserole? Baked squash?

Interested to see what everyone else has.

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[fek&fuzz]

oooooh, I love love love cooking for Thanksgiving. And since my parents are divorced, we always have 2 of them! We go to my dad's the weekend before (back to our childhood home with partners and kids and pets in tow) and then to my mom's on the actual day (or sometimes the weekend after.)

I'm usually in charge of pies. I make a sour cream pumpkin pie from Joy of Cooking which is to die for. It is so light and fluffy. Then I make a vegan apple pie for my brother (and other people.) I usually make him a vegan veggie and biscuit casserole, too.

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[tinybutterfly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fek&fuzz oooooh, I love love love cooking for Thanksgiving. And since my parents are divorced, we always have 2 of them! We go to my dad's the weekend before (back to our childhood home with partners and kids and pets in tow) and then to my mom's on the actual day (or sometimes the weekend after.) I'm usually in charge of pies. I make a sour cream pumpkin pie from Joy of Cooking which is to die for. It is so light and fluffy. Then I make a vegan apple pie for my brother (and other people.) I usually make him a vegan veggie and biscuit casserole, too. :

What is in the veggie and biscut casserole?

I'll be back eventually to check on this thread, but am getting ready to take an MDC break. I spend too much time here.

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[fek&fuzz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinybutterfly What is in the veggie and biscut casserole? I'll be back eventually to check on this thread, but am getting ready to take an MDC break. I spend too much time here. :

From Veganomicon.

 

[Arduinna]

I'm not sure what the entire menu will be yet, but I know we are smoking a turkey like we do every year and I'll be making homemade cranberry sauce, not sure which recipe though. I tend to wait till the Nov cooking magazines come out to choose my side recipes.

 

[Norasmomma]

tinybutterfly-you could make some beautiful stuffed squashes for her, my friends are vegan and they always make wild rice stuffed squash. I don't even really like squash and that sounds delish to me.

I love making pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust, I'd like to try to make it from my own pumpkin and gingersnaps this year.

I love making Thanksgiving dinner, but my grandma says I make things too fancy. WTF?

: She just likes stovetop stuffing, jello salad and dried out turkey

, plus she cannot cook. I make orange glazed turkey stuffed with apple and cranberry dressing and I think it's perfect.

 

[Sydnee]

Oohh, I'm lovin this thread! I *think* I'm making the dinner this year, and I love trying new recipes! I'll be hanging our her a lot.

One thing I love is a recipe for brandied sweet potatoes from Martha Stewart. They are to DIE for.

 

[BetsyS]

My mom hosts Thanksgiving, but I help out a lot. I love cooking and baking for the holiday, too!

We start with the basics:
turkey
dressing, both plain and oyster
giblet gravy
cranberry--homemade sauce, can sauce, and congealed salad
relish plate--olives, pickles, stuffed celery
sweet potato casserole
green bean casserole
butter beans
sweet potato pie
pecan pie
rolls

Then, every year we try some new stuff. I haven't picked my new dish to make yet. My aunt brings cheese straws and a dessert.

Oh, yum. I get excited just thinking about it. LOL

 

[425lisamarie]

Oh great I'm not the only one!! I'll be back sometime later in the week with my pumpkin mousse tart recipe after I make it. I am alreayd baking extra bread to make the bread cubes for stuffing. We literally eat pounds of this stuff

 

[wild fire child]

Thanksgiving this year will be a little odd for us. Normally we (my fiance and I and his parents) go to San Fransisco and spend thanksgiving with my fiance's sister, but this year I'll be really really pregnant (I'm due december 5th but expecting to go late). So we won't be going to california and neither will the in-laws. So me and MIL will be cooking everything, which we both really enjoy, but this year she was diagnosed with MS and I'll be huge, so we'll see how much we can realistically do.
The two things I insist on making are mashed sweet potatoes (I don't like the gross syrupy marshmallow thing that is traditional) with orange zest, orange juice concentrate, fresh ginger, honey, and a touch of molasses...and a swirled pumpkin cheesecake.
We'll have a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (a pan of homemade and a can), that gross sweet potato marshmallow thing, three or four types of pie, and who knows what else.

 

[cristeen]

We haven't discussed whether or not we're going to do Thanksgiving this year, but we've done it the last few years for all our detached bachelor friends. I don't do the traditional turkey thing, mostly because I'm not fond of turkey, so we wind up going for a gourmet meal using the fall flavors instead.

I'll have to talk to DH about whether or not he wants to do it again this year.

 

[KristyDi]

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday

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We have the whole huge extended family dinner at my cousin's house. We normally have between 40 and 50 people there and everyone brings something.

I bring mac and cheese and pumpkin bread. (I replace 3/4 of the oil with applesauce and sometimes add dried cranberries)

My favorite dish is the sweet potato casserole. It's not the gross one with marshmallows on top, but it is sweet. Here's the recipe. It's copied from a recipe my grandmother copied out of her mother's recipe file. The sweet milk means fresh not soured milk. They were dairy farmers.

4 cups baked cubed sw potatoes
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 sweet milk
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tsp vanilla

Beat till smooth bake at 350 for 45 min.

topping
2 tbls cornstarch
1 8oz chopped maraschino cherries
1 sm can crushed pineapple
1 cup white sugar
1/2 chopped pecans
little red food coloring

mix and cook till thick

spread on top after potatoes are done

We have both ham and turkey, gravy, dressing, oyster dressing, green bean casserole, assorted roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, hot fruit compote, cranberry orange salad, pumpkin and pecan pie and whatever else anyone felt like cooking. It's a giant buffet.

Then for dinner we make a cheese sauce and use the leftover ham and turkey for hot browns.

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