So, Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching.

What's your traditional dinner? What sides do you fix to go with the big bird? Do you stick with traditional dishes, try old favorites with a new twist, or go for something completely different? Which desserts will you be making?

We'll be brining 2 birds (so that guests can take home leftovers, something they BEGGED for last year--they'd never had a brined turkey before). Confirmed side dishes will include cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, sweet potatoes (still undecided how I want to fix them this year), green beans, fresh brussels sprouts, and my mom's yeast roll recipe. Want to add one more non-starch dish, but I haven't decided on anything that sounds good yet.

Desserts will be apple pie and probably a pumpkin cheesecake.

Y'all?

Roasted turkey, bread stuffing, mushroom gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry relish, olives, rolls.
Dessert's usually an afterthought.

I want to bring a pie this year, and my dad said, "who's going to eat it?" He has a point (although I still want to make a pie this year).

Wine selections vary from very good to sucky. We'll see.

when it's just us two we do appetizers and turkey sandwiches

his thinking is "Why spend all day in the kitchen when all we really like are the deviled eggs, the leftover sandwiches on rolls and the dessert?"

he had a point, so I make deviled eggs, a veggie tray, chips and dips, buy a smoked turkey breast and good rolls. we graze munchies all day, I get the day off and can relax and watch football.

I probably will do some baking that weekend (pies and rolls) but no pressure on "The Meal" for me!

it works for us :shrug:

The ONLY thing the jellied (it retains the shape of the can!) cranberry sauce is good for is to spread it on leftover turkey sandwiches--and it's GOOD that way!

I think I feel compelled to do the whole spread because of the home/family connections I feel when I cook. That, and we've actually had a house full of people last year and will again this year.

Leftovers may be the best part of Thanksgiving. :-)

for putting on sandwiches. It just sounds weird, doesn't it?

I can't imagine what they are putting into the sauce.

If I want squeezable sauce, I'll put my homemade stuff into a ziplock baggie, cut one bottom corner and squeeze!

Roast Turkey, Wild Rice, Sourdough and Sausage stuffing, Potatoes and Gravy, some kind of veggie. Fresh bakes WW Sourdough rolls. My wife will insist on Sweet Potatoes and Cranberries sauce (can't stand either myself). Possible other items not yet decided. No desert planned.

Unless family is coming I never do the traditional turkey thing. First, I really don't care for turkey & then with just the two of us we would end up with tons of leftovers & I'd be figuring out how to use it up for days.

I usually do something I've always wanted to try. A lobster or shrimp dish, or anything else that interests me & I've never made before. I usually try to do 3 or 4 courses.

Here's our menu

Pumpkin/Peanut Butter Bisque
Turkey---Free Range--Organic Fed----Worth the extra money IMO
Sausage/Apple/Nut stuffing
Cranberry/Orange Relish (I buy this at Trader Joe's--Its very good)
Yam/Apple/Pecan casserole
Spinach Pie (See the Demopedia)
Cheese Pierogi with fried onions
Asparagus (Prepared in the tradition of Green bean Casserole)
Braised Artichokes
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
Mushroom Ragout

Assorted Italian Cheese Tray

Caramel Apple Pie, Daughters Ice Cream Cake


I'll be serving a Montepulciano (Because it's my SO's favorite and goes well with Italian Cheeses) I also will probably open a simple Chardonnay and a few bottles of Asti during the meal because I think it goes well with Turkey. Sparkling cider for the kids of course.

DH's side... well... his mom would probably want shrimp and grits or cheese and grits. His sister would probably add macaroni and cheese.

I'd add either a green salad with spinach and maybe a cranberry-citrus vinagrette and some toasted nuts, or steamed broccoli with just a hint of tarragon butter. Or both. Neither dish is terribly difficult, and they're both excellent palate cleansers.

Perhaps a ginger sorbet somewhere in the middle?

Are you serving it as courses?

I am cooking for an assortment of utterly unadventurous eaters (I'm not included in that category), including the pickiest of all--my 16-year-old stepdaughter. So nothing too wild (trying the fresh brussels sprouts and the pumpkin cheesecake are about as adventurous as I can get them to be).

Kinda/sorta serving in courses....we'll have appetizers (of which kind I have not yet decided) in the early part of the day, along with a cheese plate and some nice wine, then the big meal. After recovering from the food coma (and watching some football), the group will then move on to dessert.....

My husband's really good about trying new things, so I save my non-traditional goodies for the two of us. This meal's gotta be ultra-traditional. And for this meal, I don't mind so much.

non adventurous, need a veg. (Wheels in the head turn).

As an appetizer, how about bloody marys on a stick?

Blanch a box of cherry or grape tomatoes and remove the skin. Skewer with toothpicks. Season with garlic powder, a hint of tabasco and celery salt. Arrange the tomatoes around a bowl of frozen vodka on an ice pack with kosher salt handy. Dip tomatoes into the vodka, then in the salt as desired. Non drinkers can dip in lemon juice or highly seasoned beef broth. (This may not be true in your family, but in mine, getting the major players swinishly drunk is a good idea.)

With dinner... peas with pearled onions? And I have a great recipe for sweet potato croquettes that work as appetizers.

We always have turkey, cornbread stuffing (has to be Mrs. Cubbison's which I can't get in FL so my sister mails it to be from AZ), mashed potatoes, green beans and homemade cranberry orange relish. We usually don't bother with dessert cuz hubby says if it isn't chocolate, it isn't dessert and he is diabetic so he doesn't get chocolate very often.

Maybe too much fat with the mayo. But I love the crunch of c/s with turkey and chicken.

Otherwise, I'm going to do the traditional thing. Just two of us but I like to make a smallish turkey, celery stuffing made with soda crackers and lots of giblets in it. Plain baked sweet potatoes, cole slaw and apple sauce. I like a variety of textures but fairly plain sides.

Can you please share your brine ingredients? I do mine very plain and would like to try something new. I do what mom always did and just use kosher salt. There's such a difference even with a plain salt brine.

I've used this several times (it's from the SF Chronicle), and have always had a tremendously good turkey:

BEST WAY BRINED TURKEY
Several years ago, we roasted nearly 40 turkeys in our test kitchen, and found a brined turkey to be the best. This year, we cooked another half-dozen to refine the brine, lessening the salt.


INGREDIENTS:
1 turkey, about 12 pounds

Brine

1 cup sugar

1 1/2-1 3/4 cups kosher salt

2 1/2 gallons cold water

2 bay leaves, torn into pieces

1 bunch fresh thyme

1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled

5 whole allspice berries, crushed

4 juniper berries, smashed (see Note)

Roasting

2 tablespoons softened butter + butter for basting

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

1 cup chicken stock, or more as needed

INSTRUCTIONS: Brining: Clean the turkey by removing the giblet bag, any extra internal fat and any pin feathers. Rinse well under cold tap water.

Combine the sugar, salt and 3 to 4 quarts of water in a large bowl. Stir until the sugar and salt dissolve, then add the remainder of the brine ingredients except for the remaining 1 1/2 gallons water.

Double-bag two heavy-duty, unscented trash bags (not made of recycled materials), then put them in an ice chest that is large enough to hold the turkey. Place the turkey in the doubled bags, pour in the brine, then the remaining 1 1/2 gallons of water -- there should be enough liquid to completely submerge the bird. Press out all the air in the bags, then tightly close each bag separately. Keep the turkey cold with bags of ice, which will also help keep it submerged in the brine. Brine for 12 to 24 hours.

Alternate method: Instead of using an ice chest, place the turkey and brine in a large pan or bowl and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. If the turkey floats to the top, weight it down with a plate and cans to keep it completely submerged in the brine.

Roasting: Preheat the oven to 400°. Remove the turkey from the brine, rinse and dry well. Spread 2 tablespoons softened butter over the skin and sprinkle the pepper over the skin and in the cavity.

Tuck the wing tips under, loosely truss the legs and place the turkey on a V-shaped rack in a roasting pan. Tent the breast with foil and place the turkey in the oven.

Roasting note: To assure that the bird cooks evenly, rotate the roasting pan 180° every 30 minutes while the turkey is in the oven.

Roast for about 1 hour, remove the foil and baste the turkey with 1/2 cup stock. Return to the oven and roast, basting with pan drippings and more stock (if desired) every 20 minutes. Start checking the internal temperature after about 1 hour of roasting time. If the legs begin to get too brown, cover them loosely with foil. Roast the turkey until the internal thigh temperature reaches 165°. Total roasting time should be about 2 to 2 3/4 hours.

Let rest for at least 20 to 30 minutes before carving.

Serves 6 to 8, with leftovers

Note: Juniper berries are available in the spice section of some supermarkets and specialty grocers.

The calories and other nutrients absorbed from marinades vary and are difficult to estimate. Variables include the type of food, marinating time and amount of surface area. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/17/FDGIQ9RTLC1.DTL&hw=brine&sn=001&sc=1000

Edited to add: my guests last year were new to the concept of a brined turkey, and as luck would have it, Alton Brown's show on brining a turkey (which goes into the science behind why brining works) aired early in the day while everyone was waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Everyone watched & had a ball (anyone who's ever watched Brown's Good Eats shows knows what I mean). Very educational!

I'll make my turkey like this and let you now how it turned out. I'm sure that I can find some juniper berries at our local coffee roaster place. They have a spice section that's really great. This is going to be fun!

Funny about the simple things. I have never rotated any roast in the oven for even baking. But I will from now on. A V-8 moment, here.

& cooked it breast down to begin with. She thought it made the juices run the breast & kept it moister. I have no idea if it's true, but I always do it that way too. Funny how I sometimes do things with no idea why.

:hi:

turned out juicy & delicious! :thumbsup:

so I do too. This is my first Thanksgiving doing Weight Watchers, so it's a bit of a challenge. A friend who doesn't want to pig out excessively is joining me. I'm making an free-range turkey breast (I usually go with kosher so that I don't have to brine but I'm trying free range and skipping the brining), giblet gravy, some cranberry-orange compote I picked up at Zabar's, and my friend is bringing something with yams. I might serve some curried squash soup to begin. I wish I could include some cornbread stuffing but I'll be better off if I don't. We'll do something very modest for dessert; maybe some fruit.

If, on the day before Thanksgiving, you have a frozen-rock-solid bird, brining is a GREAT way to safely quick-thaw it. That happened to us last year (long story, don't ask), so the day before (noon-ish), I put the bird into the plastic-lined ice chest as per usual (closing the bags up after the bird's in, of course), packed a couple of unopened bags of ice on top of that, and then stacked a few thick, folded towels on top of that (which worked as a kind of insulation and held the cold in). The next morning, the turkey was completely thawed and perfectly brined.

Thanksgiving for us has always been a great big Chinese lunch - in Chinatown - and a movie.

No one, me included, likes turkey or any of the food associated with the holiday.

We be Commies ......

(I grew up Jewish.)

food. We do different things each year. One of the better dinners my son-in-law and I prepared was a middle eastern dinner found in Fine Cooking magazine with a lamb dish as the centerpiece. It was so delicious. I am not a turkey fan, but love the dressing.

but don't always go for Chinese.

...and didn't want to cook turkey, I think I would head to that Greek place on King Street in Alexandria, if it's still there. I'd have some of everything, and then I would drive home by way of the Samadi Sweet Shop (if it's still there) and buy a dozen different kinds of filo pastries.

Or maybe I'd just go to the Old Ebbitt Grill. Everything there is good. Well, everything is good at Clydes in Reston or Georgetown, too.

Gee! I miss Washington.

Not the stuff with marshmallows, which should have another name entirely.

Apples, sliced or diced (I use two different colors)
Celery, sliced
Walnuts, chopped
Golden raisins (or dried cranberries?)
Best Foods/Hellman's
a bit of lemon juice
a bit of sugar

Seedless grapes make a good addition, too, but are not traditional.

My Connecticut grandmother would have a pot of New England baked beans bubbling all night in the oven for every holiday, and parkerhouse yeast rolls baked just after the turkey came out of the oven. Oh, the fragrance!

And I really like Waldorf Salad.