Thanksgiving Menu

[ladyebug]

Niece Nancy and I share cooking duties. She sticks to the traditional part - turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes.

I do things a little different, but always include rolls, mashed potatoes, another vegetable, a fruit salad, and dessert. This year she wants a pumpkin pie, so I am trying a Paula Deen recipe I found online.

[Punkin]

I have no idea what I will do. I really want to stay home and rest, but I don't want to make turkey dinner for one. I have gotten invitations, but I don't want to deal with undisciplined kids, etc. IF I was going to cook dinner, I am a true traditionalist - turkey, stuffing cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and corn. Coffee and pie to finish it off. I really miss not having leftovers!!! Last year, I went to IHOP and their turkey dinner sucked.

[JoGee]

Another year I won't be cooking. I did buy a ham for E, and I bought a turkey for December, though.
Hey, why is the "spiral cut ham only cut through about half way?

SD plans on both turkey and ham, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. She asked me about side dishes, which I will apparently will be in charge of. So I sent her several to choose from. Simple recipes, as the meats will be garnering the attention.
And if she wants to begin with soup, there's a corn chowder recipe that tastes a lot like Mimi's, only 3 ingredients. An equal number of cans of potato soup and creamed corn, and use chicken broth in place of the water. How easy is that?!

[Paula A]

We have a pretty traditional dinner. Turkey, gravy, dressing,( I started making a cornbread dressing last year), homemade cranberry relish.
Sides are a vegetable dish with steamed fresh broccoli, cauliflower and carrots baked in a cream cheese garlic sauce. I don't make it except for holidays. Fruit salad, and rolls.
Dessert is pumpkin pie cake, and we drink sparkling cider.
Always too much food!

[JoGee]

??? QUESTION:

Re: succotash or mixed veggies. It's more or less traditional at this holiday time, but nobody seems to want them hardly at all.
I was wondering, if I cooked cranberries and mixed them into the veggies, would that make it more appealing or tasty?

[Pat B]

Chris's entire family and Erin will be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner and I'm cooking EVERYTHING except for Dirty Rice dressing which his Mom will bring. That brings the total to nine people.

We're having roasted turkey, ham, dressing, mashed taters & gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and homemade rolls. Pumpkin pie and pecan pie. The totally traditional menu.

[BarbCA]

We will be having the traditional, Turkey, bread dressing, potatoes and gravy, Green beans with bacon and onion (Niece), salad (Kare), shrimp and chicken puffs (Joyce), and pumpkin pie (myself). There will probably be much more as we all bring something.

[JoGee]

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions to my question above?

[Paula A]

If you want to add cranberries to a side, I would google and find a recipe. And dried cranberries would be my first thought to add to something, but it is hard for me to think of putting them in succotash. I do not think outside the box, sorry! I will check my Pinterest recipes, Jo.

[Paula A]

ok, Jo, I just saw a couple of good looking dishes. One is green beans with something and cranberries (very short memory skills here!), and the one that I thought looked really good is Brussels sprouts with dried cranberries and walnuts. There was an acorn squash recipe that also had dried cranberries. And one with asparagus and feta and pecans and cranberries. Any of these sound good? I will copy the recipe if you tell me which ones you might use. We are not squash people....

[JoGee]

Thanks, Paula.

[Pat B]

Jo, I'm not a fan of cranberries at ALL, so I wouldn't add them. But like Paula said, just Google and you will find a multitude of recipes they could be added to.

[JoGee]

Okay, I was browsing --- how frustrating --- you ask for something, and get a number of totally unrelated things!
But, a picture I could not retrieve, went past ---- perfect. It looked like a pilaf of mixed veggies and rice and it sure looked like cranberries dotted it.
I used to hate cranberries/sauce....then I discovered the sweet-tart flavor of cranberries with orange zest. Nth at changed my mind. So, many way, I have a good idea of how to do what I want!
Many thanks!