Stumbled on this thread looking for what folks did for turkey stock (which I will be working on today).
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I’m going to make a simple American Thanksgiving up here in Canada. I haven’t decided whether to do a turkey thigh or turkey schnitzel. Leaning towards turkey schnitzel.
I’m going to make stuffing, cranberry sauce, and cauliflower cheese.
Purchased pumpkin pie unless I become inspired.
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Would shaved celery, cut on extreme bias so it has some substance, work in your salad?
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It wouldn’t be the same. I really do like the flavor of fennel, and celery just tastes completely different. Sturdy, for sure.
If I have to go the green salad route I may add some for heft, and see if I can find stoopeed iceberg or romaine. Meh.
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I had a hard time finding fennel this week. I only need about 1/2 cup chopped, and so I bought the best looking unit I cound find…I think it will yield amount I need. It was expensive too, but no where as expensive as the Mary’s turkey I picked up yesterday. $96 for 10.6# of chilled Heritage bird. We’ve had so many turkey birds over the years, I thought I’d go with a “Heritage” bird this year because I could. We’ll see.
Now that salad sounds good…care to share the recipe?
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Haha, thanks! I decided to drop the cranberry pie since one adult is diabetic and we have more than enough sweets and carbs. Will save that for Christmas.
I started pickles last night. Today we prepped green beans, rolls, cranberries, mashers, butternut squash, and pumpkin pie. I’m gonna cube up some bread for dressing and make salad dressing, and I think that’s probably all that’s worth doing ahead.
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I’ve had a similar dinner-prep dilemma this week. Hot sandwich ideas: tuna melts. philly cheese steak, Italian beef, grilled ham & cheese, tortilla roll ups (cream cheese & lunchmeat of your choice). Soup ideas: Tomato basil, Tortellini & mixed vegetable in chicken broth w/ Italian seasoning. I just saw an appetizer idea of smoked salmon with avocado (sliced or mashed to spread) on party rye bread that looked small-meal worthy.
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I’m making this for my dinner, I’m using pine nuts and I don’t think I will add cheese.
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Jicama might be a not as good as fennel alternative.
If you do come up fennel-less, maybe riff on this roasted squash salad from Ina Garten.
I use the idea rather than follow her recipe as written: mine gets a simple balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette, candied walnuts or pepitas, pomegranate seeds instead of cranberries, and I may or may not use the Parmesan depending on what else is in the meal. So, extremely riffable.
For a potluck, the squash can be dressed in vinaigrette and then greens/ other ingredients layered on top to keep the green stuff from wilting for longer.
Though I hope that you get to stick with your Plan A of fennel salad, which sounds delicious.
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Good idea. I have the fixings needed for Ina’s chickpea and tomato soup. Maybe with some crudités and sandwich sliders.
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I love the smoked salmon on rye idea! Maybe for our New Year’s Eve spread
I’m thinking soup. With big girl still in a cast I’m missing my prep cook. She’s not fast but she was independent. Her sister not so much but very wanting to help
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I like quiche for low-key, make-ahead lunch, brunch, or snacking. I usually make it, but there are lots of good ones for purchase at grocery stores and the likes of Costco.
We usually do some selection of eggs, bagels, and smoked salmon for brunch on T-day, but this year my aunt wanted jambon beurre with ham she had bought just for that, so we used one of the plentiful baguettes to make those for the handful of us who were there early.
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Decided on this:
Glad for permission not to separate the pan drippings.
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My aunt forgot the Wondra in the last-minute havoc this year, and had to strain lumps (I didn’t realize until you posted this why she asked me for the strainer for the first time in forever).
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I don’t measure or tend to use recipes, but this is pretty simple: very thinly shaved fennel (a mandoline is recommended unless you have madder knife skillz than I do), as many pomegranate arils as you like, and the blue cheese of your choice, pre-crumbled or not.
For the dressing I use about half safflower (or other neutral veg oil of your choice), half toasted walnut oil, a finely diced shallot that I let mellow out a bit in champagne vinegar (or other vinegar of your choice) & salt, finely chopped fresh dill, walnut mustard, a tiny dash of sugar, lotsa fresh ground black pepper. Whisk together to emulsify, add a splash of warm water if it seems to tart/mustardy.
Instead of pomegranates you can also use grapefruit segments and walnuts.
PS: Thank you, @tomatotomato, @Vecchiouomo, and @BeefeaterRocks for your advice and suggestions! Looks like the Giant nearby got a fresh produce delivery, so I lucked out on about 6 lbs. of fennel bulbs 
On that note, I never used to remove the outer layers of the fennel bulb unless it looked grody, but several recipes I recently looked at for gratin/roasted fennel had you do that.
Does anyone? Seems terribly wasteful, given how thick some of those layers are…
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@ChristinaM, @Saregama, I braved the grocery store this morning after I vowed to stay away. Had forgotten that I was out of Wondra to thicken the gravy tomorrow. That is not permitted, LOL.
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All of those combinations and the vinaigrette sound truly stunning. I love fennel salads. I know this is a Thanksgiving thread, but I have a delicious riff on a Lidia B recipe…thinly sliced fennel, celery, and onion, matchsticks of hard salami, matchsticks of cheese (I like pepper jack), torn fennel fronds, a simple citronette of lemon and olive oil, and kosher salt. I can eat it any time. It might be a light last course for Thanksgiving! I love light, acidic things after heavy meals.
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Not me, unless like you said, they look grody.
ETA: Question, why do you use dill instead of fennel fronds?
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I should have mentioned we are doing eggs Benny for brunch on Friday so I was trying to avoid eggs 2 days in a row
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