Recipes

[Brooklynny]

We're having a small turkey (7-8 lbs), and I'll use my mother's secret brine recipe.  We've been makining Kathie Lee Gifford's mother's dressing recipe for years ever since she gave the recipe on Regis & Kathie Lee so many years ago.  Last year I tossed in some dried cranberries, and it was a nice sweet-tart addition.  

I make fresh butternut squash soup every year, puréed sweet potatoes, and mushrooms sautéed in olive oil, garlic & parsley (our Italian touch).  And, of course, cranberry apple relish, pumpkin and apple pies.  I make everything fresh and from scratch and usually start on Tuesday night with foods that can be prepared in advance.  

This is an ambitious menu for only two people, but last year I collected several recipes to use up all the left over turkey (two of which were Cape Cod turkey salad and turkey pot pies).  The only thing we threw away last year were the turkey bones,  I'll so the same this year.  Now I'm hungry just thinking of it.

[Qshopper1991]

@Tinkrbl44

Hi Tink!  Every yam that I've had was stringy (yuck).  Never had a stringy sweet potato

As for me, I'm making a turkey breast, homemade stuffing/gravy, cranberry sauce, corn, and a homemade pumpkin pie, homemade whipped cream.  All for me  

I have to say - I love my stuffing!  I use fresh bread (I toast it in the oven), fresh mushrooms, celery, onion, sausage, butter, chicken broth, fresh parsley and seasonings).  One of my "seasonings" is using 1 box of Trader Joe's stuffing mix.  It just gives it an added kick

Your prime rib sounds yummy!  You could always serve pasta - like lasagna or ravioli.  Not sure where you live, but in my area (I live in South Jersey), we can get some of the BEST homemade ravioli.  It's made by P&S.  Sooo good   You could always throw together a lasagna made with ravioli to save time :

[Qshopper1991]

@Tinkrbl44

I was never a fan of the sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  Ugh....way too sweet for my taste!

Now that you posted this, I think I'm gonna try your recipe for sweet potatoes.  That sounds delish!  Noted

[rrpell]

@IamMrsG

Thank you for posting a link to your cranberry/cherry/clove suace.  I have never thought of adding dried cherries (which I love) to cranberry sauce.  I will be sure to try this

[rrpell]

For my whole cooking lifetime, I have been on a quest to refine and simplify Thanksgiving Dinner.  I enjoy this holiday and I try to find ways to limit my stress

My potatoes will be my aunt's.  She  boiled 6-8  medium in their jackets (until tender), the day before, and stuck them in the refrigerator  Thanksgiving morning she would peel and grate them with a wire grater, into a big bowl.   2 cups Cheddar cheese would be barely melted in a saucepan with 1/2 stick butter and then a whole lb carton of sour cream, added to the melted mixture.  This would be dumped into the potatoes along with 1/3 cup chopped green onions, salt and pepper, stirred and then put into a flat casserole dish to bake when she was ready (350 for 1/2 hour). 

I love the Sweet Potato/Carrot Puree from the  "Silver Palate Cookbook".  It is a recipe that can be made a couple of days in advance and then reheated. 

 I know this is going to sound crazy, but I prefer to cut my turkey up before I cook it.

I do this, the day before.  I save the nice leg/thighs and the breast and put them back in the fridge.  I take everything else (the back, neck) and roast it with onions carrots, a little cerely, and then when it is nicely browned, dump it all into my stock pot with seasonings and 1/2 packaged chicken broth and 1/2 water to cover. (I cook the liver separately and will add it to the gravy.)   I will cook this down and use it to make my gravy.   All I  have to do is reheat on Thanksgiving.

I make a traditional "Good Housekeeping Cookbook" stuffing.  Some of it cooks under the turkey breast.  (The rest is cooked in the oven so it has a "crunchy, buttery" top.) The turkey legs/thighs cook in a separate pan as I think they take longer to cook than the breast.

My husband makes his cranberry sauce a couple of days in advance.

Guests are asked to bring something, usually a vegetable or a dessert.

I'm getting hungry

[momtochloe]

---

@rrpell wrote:

For my whole cooking lifetime, I have been on a quest to refine and simplify Thanksgiving Dinner.  I enjoy this holiday and I try to find ways to limit my stress

My potatoes will be my aunt's.  She  boiled 6-8  medium in their jackets (until tender), the day before, and stuck them in the refrigerator  Thanksgiving morning she would peel and grate them with a wire grater, into a big bowl.   2 cups Cheddar cheese would be barely melted in a saucepan with 1/2 stick butter and then a whole lb carton of sour cream, added to the melted mixture.  This would be dumped into the potatoes along with 1/3 cup chopped green onions, salt and pepper, stirred and then put into a flat casserole dish to bake when she was ready (350 for 1/2 hour). 

I love the Sweet Potato/Carrot Puree from the  "Silver Palate Cookbook".  It is a recipe that can be made a couple of days in advance and then reheated. 

 I know this is going to sound crazy, but I prefer to cut my turkey up before I cook it.

I do this, the day before.  I save the nice leg/thighs and the breast and put them back in the fridge.  I take everything else (the back, neck) and roast it with onions carrots, a little cerely, and then when it is nicely browned, dump it all into my stock pot with seasonings and 1/2 packaged chicken broth and 1/2 water to cover. (I cook the liver separately and will add it to the gravy.)   I will cook this down and use it to make my gravy.   All I  have to do is reheat on Thanksgiving.

I make a traditional "Good Housekeeping Cookbook" stuffing.  Some of it cooks under the turkey breast.  (The rest is cooked in the oven so it has a "crunchy, buttery" top.) The turkey legs/thighs cook in a separate pan as I think they take longer to cook than the breast.

My husband makes his cranberry sauce a couple of days in advance.

Guests are asked to bring something, usually a vegetable or a dessert.

I'm getting hungry

---

Oh my goodness @rrpell this is genius!  As it's just me, I never thought of taking out the back bone and then placing some of the stuffing underneath the breast!  I have a toaster oven and have a hard time fitting even a small bone in breast in there but this may work . . . thank you so much for this . . . yay!  

I may even try to make turkey stock . . . tee hee!

[rrpell]

@momtochloe

 I think it will work very well in a toaster oven.  I use a big knife and kitchen scissors to take apart the turkey, but every year I think about getting a cleaver.  Then, I think about how much I like my fingers.  Oh...I just had a thought...I might be able to have the people behind the meat counter do this.   Never thought of that before...  Thank you mtc!

I hope you do make the stock😀 I think you can skip the oven for the making the stock and brown it all in your biggest pot before adding the liquid. 

You will be dining alone this Thanksgiving?  I will be thinking of you making your turkey as I make my turkey😀

[momtochloe]

---

@rrpell wrote:

@momtochloe

 I think it will work very well in a toaster oven.  I use a big knife and kitchen scissors to take apart the turkey, but every year I think about getting a cleaver.  Then, I think about how much I like my fingers.  Oh...I just had a thought...I might be able to have the people behind the meat counter do this.   Never thought of that before...  Thank you mtc!

I hope you do make the stock😀 I think you can skip the oven for the making the stock and brown it all in your biggest pot before adding the liquid. 

You will be dining alone this Thanksgiving?  I will be thinking of you making your turkey as I make my turkey😀

---

@rrpell I literally laughed out loud when you mentioned getting a cleaver as I so want one but as you say I am rather attached to my fingers so I will make due with my knives and kitchen shears . . . .

I am alone on Thanksgiving (no worries I am comfortable with that) but the great news is I just got a full time job after being unemployed for a very long time so hopefully next year I will have a furball sharing my cuisine . . . squee!  

Thank you my friend, I appreciate your kind words! . . . 

[chickenbutt]

I agree with others that yams are just not as good as sweet potatoes.  They are more mushy and less flavor. I guess that might be why some people load them up with sugary stuff.

I like sweet potatoes, but I only do them as a savory dish (either baked or a mash).

But I don't do them for Thanksgiving.  I do the same meal each year because it's just the two of us and it is exactly what he loves.  I do ask each time if there is anything he wants me to make.  He always wants the same dishes.

I do a turkey (brined and then a dry rub), dressing (my own recipe and I don't stuff cuz - well, that's gross), mashed potatoes, gravy, a green bean/mushroom/almondine type of veg dish (NO cream of anything soup!), and I think that's it except for the pumpkin pie (unless he requests something different, which he does every now and then).

I don't make cream, as I don't even know where one would start with that.  How does one do that?  Do you make it out of milk?  I would just whip some heavy cream, from a carton, with a smidge of sweet and vanilla.  But since only he likes whipped cream on the pie I usually get a nice quality spray can one.   I like the no carb Land O' Lakes one.  Then the rest of it I use with hot chocolate for the rest of the winter.  

For two people, that's more than enough food and now that I have some health challenges, it takes me 4 days from the shopping through all the prep and cooking.  I used to do it all in one day, except pumpkin pie which needs to be done the day before to set up properly.   I'm pretty sure that if I tried to do it all in one day now I would either die or wish I were dead!  

[RedTop]

In this house, you do not mess with our traditional Thanksgiving meal.   It is etched in stone that we must have 2 turkey breasts, homemade dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce.   I usually add deviled eggs, green beans and rolls, which is acceptable, just don't mess with the basics.    Pumpkin roll is usually our dessert, if we have one.

Our Christmas meal varies to what everyone's in the mood for.   In past years we've grilled hamburgers on Christmas Day, had tacos and fajitas, lasagna, prime rib, chili, and sub sandwiches.   My family tires very quickly of ham, which was ALWAYS on my MIL's holiday table, and continues to be on my mother's holiday table.   We got tired of eating ham everywhere we went on Christmas Day, and decided we wanted to eat something different at home.