Thanksgiving 2016!

Then why do you have to bring them at all? Would your family prefer something else?

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My brotherā€™s best friendā€™s new wife is hosting and itā€™s her first time, and she is doing very traditional. I donā€™t want to fluster her or interfere with her plans. She has enough going on. Though I may bring a pumpkin cheesecake that looks like pieā€¦ That would probably get eaten eventually.

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There will be 8 of us including 2 kids that eat like adults. Has to be somewhat traditional for them, mom and aunt. Of course, since my mother is involved, I will set a time to come over and she will be at least an hour late. When they finally get here my aunt and husband will be thoroughly irritated. So: braised and roasted turkey in cognac gravy, garden beets, cheddar scallion drop biscuits, holiday mashed potatoes, broccoli with lemon breadcrumbs, cranberry sauce. RRP puff pastry pinwheels plus fresh onion dip for nibbles. Brandied pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. The time plan and shopping list have been made.

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Looks like weā€™ll be five this year, so not too big a crowd. This is basically our menu every year, just a couple of vegetable swaps. The appetizers tend to get nibbled lightly in the morning before the feast, but are always welcome in the evening for a snack or the next day. My favorite Thanksgiving food is actually made of leftovers: open-faced chicken liver pate sandwich with cranberry sauce and melted cheese, screw the turkey!

Appetizers:
Chicken liver pate with sourdough toast points
Olive cheese balls
Sriracha-apricot meatballs

Dinner:
Roasted turkey breast and legs
Sous vide turkey thighs with kale, prune and gruyere stuffing
Ultra-buttery mashed potatoes
Turkey gravy (homemade stock)
Rustic sausage and roasted vegetable stuffing
Shredded Brussels sprouts with chiles and mint
Broccoli casserole cups (my husband saw these on Facebook and wanted to try them, so heā€™s making them himself - god knows what weā€™re in for)
Cranberry sauce with port and figs
Sweet potato casserole (a guest contribution)
Parker House rolls

Dessert:
Bourbon pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Salted pecan pie (another guest contribution. Last time she made it, she used an incredibly awful spelt-whole wheat frozen crust and burned the nuts, so weā€™ll see if itā€™s edible this year)

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Marie Calenderā€™s.

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That sounds wonderful, I love to use
prunes in stuffing with poultry especially gamier
birds

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I have a friend who is perpetually late. So now i just lie about when to arrive anywhereā€¦

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This will be the best Thanksgiving ever, I donā€™t have to go anywhere!!! The wife has requested chili rellenos, nopales, homemade salsa, refried beans from scratch and whatever else I can come up with. Did I mention that I donā€™t have to go anywhere.!!!

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I swear to god she can suss out a lie. Iā€™ll ask her to be here at 2:30 when I really want her to be here at 3 and sheā€™ll still show up at 4. In the past few years I have finally, finally resigned myself to chill and adjust the time schedule accordingly.

Well i guess she will just miss out on the good stuffā€¦! (Well, there waaaaasssss champagne, and of course the good appetizers are already doneā€¦ thereā€™s some bud light and celery sticks around here somewhereā€¦) haha

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First thing out of the oven for Thanksgiving, 2016. Two Pumpkin Cheesecake Pies.

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Beautiful! I rolled my crusts this morning, so theyā€™re waiting in the freezer to be baked off tonight. Two are my usual all-butter recipe and the one with the rope fluting is a new-to-me recipe with cream cheese as part of the fat - a baker friend raved, so I decided to try it.

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How sweet is that leaf crown!

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Thank you! Unfortunately I burned one side of it while blind baking - we just moved a few months ago and I still havenā€™t adjusted to this oven, which heats very unevenly. Iā€™ll take a picture of the non-burned side as soon as my husband eats the burnt part!

I did most of my prep today, so pies are baked, bread and rolls are rising overnight, all the vegetables are chopped/prepped, the stuffing components are cooked and ready to be tossed with bread, etc. I dismembered my turkey yesterday and used the wings, backbone and thigh bones to make three quarts of stock today. Iā€™ll roast the legs and breast and stuff and sous vide the thighs. Tomorrow is mostly just heating and assembly, although I also have to peel potatoes, ugh!

Weā€™re good like that. :yum:

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Iā€™m going to a friends. The first time in several years not cooking myself. I made a few things to take as asked. 2 lbs of carrots in plugra butter with muscovado sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Very light on the spices and sugar. Cooked sous vide at 188F for 3 hours. I also made a long, slow cooked cranberry sauce with zinfandel, muscovado sugar, and ginger juice, and honey crisp apples. And as a appetizer I cut up a package of Peter Luger super thick smoky bacon into lardons, fried to crispy, then added a chopped sweet onion and fried over high heat to brown. Let cool, made a bread dough, and rolled it out, stuffed and rolled it with the bacon/onion mixture, and coiled into a circle and baked.

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Your friends must worship you!

Turkey with giblet sauce.

Lingonberries.

Cornbread.

Apple Red Cabbage.

Asparagus.

Cauliflower.

Hollandaise.

St Clemens Bornholmer Blue.

Cabot Reserve Vermont Cheddar.

Bosc pears.

Cortland Apples.

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I usually do Venison & SpƤtzle, but I had a turkey I needed to use this year.

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Iā€™m not sure how my sisterā€™s doing the turkey, but I know Iā€™m supposed to bring dressing, and thatā€™s a good sign. Just my sister and nephew and his mate. As families get older, the attendees certainly dwindle, but thatā€™s not a bad thing.
The foodā€™s always good but the rigidity of our menu has lessened.
A traditional dish in our family for decades was a wild rice casserole made with roast beef, onions, mushrooms, and the (real) wild rice.
Just too involved and time consuming.
Maybe for Christmas.

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