Recipes

[songbird]

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@zitawins wrote:

@songbird   I read your post three times and finally got it! 

"Guests were my family & my husbands.  About 7 of them." 

 First time around I read it as your having all 7 of your husbands there.  And then I said, nah, she's not Elizabeth Taylor. I think you forgot an apostrophe -- husband's (family).

Must be my post-turkey haze! Gave me a laugh, anyway.  

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Me too.  I fell asleep after I washed the dishes.  I was out of it.

[Biftu]

My jeweler has a large Irish family and she told me her aunt was hosting this year, she does it every five years.  I asked how many people and she said 90!  Everyone brings an assigned dish.  Seems she does have a big house but removes the furniture and has tables throughout even at the top of the stair landing.  Kids eat in the finished basement.  When they enter they are given assigned seats and eating times.  They eat on paper plates, they would have to!  I didn't dare ask how many turkey's were served or how they would cook them all.  I can't imagine this.

[kittyloo]

@wagirl  i personally like being told what to bring. such as, bring a veggie, dessert, finger food, or tray of deviled eggs. 

Takes all the guess work out of things.  

i am a pretty good cook, and can do most thing pretty well, so my mind keeps rabbit trailing off, if given a open ended request. 

[SaveTheTurtles]

@zitawins  I did the same thing.  I was like wow, she's got 6 ex husbands a current one and they all get together for thanksgiving??? LOL

[AuntG]

Our niece hosted 29 family members.  She provided the main dishes. Everyone else brought potluck, although she asked some aunties to bring specific things. I counted 11 main course foods, 7 appetizers and three desserts. My BIL provided wine.

[JeanLouiseFinch]

DH and I hosted, we do every year.  Sometimes our entire family comes, sometimes we have to miss a few due to their work schedules or in consideration of their other families.  It's impossible to get things to align for every holiday.  My mom was terrible about that.  She had to have everyone for every holiday, no matter how much it inconvenienced any of us, or she'd have a big fit and threaten to call the whole thing off.  Learning from that experience, I refuse to put that kind of pressure on our kids.  We're grateful for any chance we can see them.  Truth be told, my favorite days are family days and especially when they're all with us on the same day.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We ended up adding a couple of extra last minute guests and our son who didn't think he could make it, drove straight here from work and showed up just as we were beginning to pack up the food.  We got him a plate and he was able to eat.  We were so glad he came.  He got to play with his niece and meet his new nephew!

I do all of the cooking.  We had:

Turkey

Homemade Gravy

Deviled Eggs

Mashed Potatoes 

Mashed Cauliflower

Mashed Sweet Potatoes 

Stuffing

Crockpot Mac & Cheese

Green Beans

Homemade SF Cranberry-Orange Relish

Homemade SF Cranberry Sauce

SF Sweet & Sour Cucumbers

Croissants (Costco's) w/ Kerrygold butter

Keto alternative for Strawberry Pretzel Jello Salad

Pumpkin Pie (Costco's)

SF Homemade Fresh Whipped Cream

Keto Cheesecake 

I made a huge turkey (25 lb. turkey) for our small group, but it was well worth it  It gives me great joy to see others enjoy my food. Some of them even went back for seconds.  All gladly took leftovers home - another thing that makes me happy. The turkey was moist and delicious. My homemade gravy was delicious too.  Last year, my keto pumpkin pie was a great disappointment to our grandson.  With keto baking, things can go bad quickly if you don't live by a timer.   I had gotten distracted and a couple extra minutes in the oven did the damage.  He politely ate it but was convinced it was bad because it was keto, not because it was over baked.  This year I promised a Costco pie to make up for it.  The pie eaters raved - LOL.  DGS was with his mom this year but DSIL brought the leftover pie home. Those eating my cheesecake loved it and were shocked that it was a keto recipe.  My alternative sweetener in the whipped cream caused it to not remain stiff, but the flavor was great, so I don't consider it a real fail.  DH and I are using the leftovers in our coffee.  The only true miss I had was an attempt at a keto stuffing.  It was expensive, which makes me mad.  The dried bread pieces wouldn't absorb the liquid, so it looked like bits of bread floating in a lake with a grease slick of butter floating on top - aka "soup"  It was disgusting.  I didn't want anyone to see it so I set my baking dish outside our patio door.  Later, it was still soupy. Not even a random dog or wild animal wanted it!  🤦‍♀️  Otherwise it was a truly excellent meal and a wonderful, memorable day. 🥰

[JeanLouiseFinch]

@wagirl  - If you have people you can count on, I think it's perfectly fine to be specific in your requests. The signup list is a good option too. Otherwise you could end up with a totally lopsided meal.  I'm definitely a planner when it comes to occasions and I take great pride in paying attention to every detail whether it's something at church, school, or a home party. I have a sister who is an OK cook, but she is very cavalier about the whole thing.  If there's a mishap or something goes awry, her famous last words are always "Meh, it's not their last meal".  Learning from past experiences when our kids were small, I eventually found it easier to just do everything myself because some people would often drop the ball.  When someone would ask what they could bring, I'd first say "your appetite".  If they pressed it, I'd ask them for something that I knew would go with the meal or a dessert and they would choose and tell me then and there.  My problem with certain people is that they would commit, but then not follow through.  If someone commits to potato casserole, showing up with a bag of chips isn't going to cut it.  If you say you'll bake something, don't drop a package of Oreos on the table.  KWIM?  So now, it's "your appetite and anything you want to drink" and I stick with that. 

[sandy53]

I hosted for 12 of us.  My DIL and her mother both asked what to bring, so yes, I assigned them.  My SIL asked if I wanted her to bring the potatoes and I said that would be wonderful.  I have a great family!

This side dish was kind of a miss---  I made Trader Joes Turkey Sausage Fried Rice Dressing.  It's a frozen product.  The flavor was good, but it just didn't seem like dressing and it was a little dry.

[SoCal Bred]

I don't think it's out of line if you tell people what to bring, it helps make the meal more organized with a combo of side dishes to go with the main dish. If you say bring whatever most people in general will bring a dessert, it's much easier to manage than to actually prepare something and you end up with more desserts than actual food.

[LizzieInSRQ]

@JeanLouiseFinch would you share your sugar- free cranberry recipe? I love it but really bad for diabetics. I would love to try the SF. I noticed you had two different kinds.

Wow what a feast! You must be echausted! 25lb turkeys is long time committment!