This is the beginning of my Thanksgiving preparations..... Turkey day shopping ( photo / image / picture from Ronni's Garden ) I make a ridiculous amount of food on Thanksgiving! I'll start out with shepherd's bread dip in a bread round for folks to nibble on while the main meal is being finished. Dinner, so far, is turkey, cranberry relish, dressing, gravy, rolls and cornbread. Sides are broccoli casserole, sunshine pudding, sweet potato casserole, southern green beans, candied carrots, and mashed potatoes. I might add one or two more sides, but these are my mainstays, the things everyone expects, the things that, if they were missing, there'd be an uprising! Desserts are cheesecake, pumpkin pie, apple pie, chocolate chip pie, pecan pie and a blackberry cobbler, with ice cream and fresh whipped cream as a garnish. Again, I might add one or two more, but these are what the family expects and I mustn't disappoint them! After dinner's cleared away and dessert is set out, we typically gather round and play a board game or card game. The current favorite is Pictionary, but over the years it's been everything from Charades to Monopoly to some esoteric card game that one of the boys discovered and enjoyed and so shared with everyone. How about you? Those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, what kinds of things do you make and what are your traditions? And those of you who don't, who are not in America, do you have an equivalent celebration?
Most years it has been just the three of us, this year our oldest daughter will come over after work (the grandsons will be with their dad at his folks house) One year we had sandwiches, other years we have had Cornish Game Hens or Duck and this year it will be Duck breast and Turkey breast. Our regular fixin's are candied yams, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cornbread dressing, Cranberry sauce (no skins at the oldest daughters request), rolls, Fudge Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Pear Mince Pie. We sometimes have a movie marathon but this year with both our daughters here we will probably just sit and talk. This has been a rough year on all of us and we do have a very special reason for being Thankful this year.
We used to fix a whole turkey, there is just the 3 of us. Then I would cut the turkey in half, half at Thanksgiving and 1/2 at Christmas. Last year we had a huge rotisserie chicken. This year we are doing a turkey breast.
I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving! First, I get to bake yeast rolls ahead of time, make cornbread for dressing, shop the grocery until I drop (or until they ask me to please leave!). Then there are two days of concentrated effort to get everything prepped for the BIG DAY! We have a small roasted turkey, cornbread and sausage dressing, whipped sweet potatoes (no marshmallows) and also mashed potatoes, fresh green beans with toasted pecans, cranberry/apple/orange relish, hot rolls with either butter or honey. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream to finish it off. I also get to roast two turkeys on Wednesday for the Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the food pantry in town.
This year we have Boy 1.0 with DIL and grandkids. Four friends and old neighbors that have no local family, and maybe a person or two from the missus' church. Two fresh dressed turkey's. Dressing galore. Green beans, broccoli, mashed potato's/turnips, all from the garden. Did I mention PIE? Coconut Cream, pumpkin, chocolate, butterscotch, and who knows what else. I almost forgot, yeast rolls that will make your tongue slap your brains out gettin' all the crumbs off'n your face. And gravy, I forgot about gravy! Sour Cream Cake! I'll need a wheelbarrow for me belly when I'm done.
We will have a turkey and all the fixins this year. My sister comes and stays overnight so she doesn't have to drive that day. She is only an hour away but our way is safer. So it's just her and my hubby and me now. It's a very quiet day for us.
Last couple years, I've done Thanksgiving by working *eyeroll* It sucks, but you gotta expect it when ya work retail, eh? Anyhoo, usually dinner will be at my sisters house since she's usually big on playing hostess But his year its at moms house (which is also my house ) We have turkey, sweet potatoes (not fond of em, but my uncle makes good ones), cranberry sauce (eww), green bean casserole (eww), yeast rolls (yum) and various other dishes, most of which I think "eww" haha...Im a picky eater O_O Our family is pretty small so its mom, me (when I'm not working!), Uncle John, Aunt Cathy, sisters Tiffany, Samantha and Kelsey, Tiffany's kids Robert and Thomas, he girlfriend Renee and sometimes Renee's sister Donna. Bob goes to dinner at his familys house. Im always invited, of course, buuut...work! Ugh.
This year going to my youngest Sister, She is 20 years younger then me. She's going to do what I did last year. 2 turkey breasts. And all the fixing. Going to bring 2 pies and devil eggs. And camera,
I got lucky this year. Daughter is cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Only draw back is it's at my house. (her oven broke). I'm doing breads and desserts tomorrow the rest is up to her. She's taking over my kitchen Wed. I might have to go play in the greenhouse. :-D
My husband is retired now, and I am a working Jane, so he has taken over the cooking. Much to the family's relief!! It will still be a family affair, all helping with the cooking. He is planning a turkey, stuffing, some kind of sweet potato, creamed spinach, brussel sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, & for appetizer a duck confit with pear, etc. I'll be making the pies. So far, mashed potatoes aren't on the menu & I think that will be a problem....(mental note to mention that to hubbie). Our kids with be with us and two other families & another friend. We will be 12 at table and we only have 10 chairs. One of our chairs is currently in pieces in the basement, hoping to be fixed in time. If I can manage that, we will then only be one chair short. Donna---Have fun playing in the greenhouse!! I wish everyone a tasty, warm & enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner.
Good luck getting that chair fixed! Want to borrow one of my folding chairs? I have a bunch of them for the table overflow that happens at family get togethers. I'll have to take a picture of my Thanksgiving table when it's all set up.....it's not pretty. If I put the leaf in, I can squeeze (and I do mean SQUEEZE) 10 people around it--4 on each side, one on each end. But we always have more than 10 on Thanksgiving, so I set up one, or sometimes two card tables and shove them at the end of the kitchen table, which extends the table all the way into the living room! It's quite a sight once it's set up, including the additional folding chairs we keep in the garage for times like this. Of course, once everything's set up, there are some people at the table who can't get out it's all such a tight squeeze. There have been moments of hysterical laughter as one of my sons (and my kids are all huge, tall and built like tree trunks!) either crawled under the table to escape from his corner, or stepped from chair to chair to get out! I try and make it at little less of an eyesore by covering everything with a couple of pretty table cloths. It's a good thing I don't do "guests" at my house, and have long since spurned the concept of "formal" when I have people over. You won't find anything LESS formal when you come to my house! You walk through my door, you become family, and are subject to the same rules and chores and treatment as everyone else.
Ronni, Sounds great! Very comfortable & homey. I'd like to come! My family should probably invest in some simple folding chairs. We have several leaves for our dining room table but it is not enough. I inherited from my parents & they had dubbed it the Last Supper table. It is still not long enough so we have added a plywood leaf that gets hidden by the table cloth. Here is to a fun holiday!
This year I am having my In-Laws traipse over from next door (unless they take a friend up on their offer) and I think my oldest sister is coming. Nobody else in my family mentioned doing a family meal and they really don't have the room to do it, so I guess it's not happening. I am making a pork roast, mashed potatoes, hot German potato salad, green beans maybe, broccoli from the garden, potato bread, sweet potato casserole and a dressing of some kind, applesauce, maybe even beets, if I still have some in the garden and a green salad since I still have lettuce from the garden.
