<p>Thanks for the vegetarian recipes. They look great. My guests will be staying for a few days ( friends of my kids) so I plan to make a bunch of them for meals and they will love the leftovers. </p>
<p>@justforthis - have you made these and frozen them? I love this thread. It would also be good to know what recipes we can make ahead and freeze. I plan to do this with the cranberry sauce and some desserts if possible. There will be plenty of cooking on Turkey Day. </p>
<p>@Pennylane : have not frozen either before but actually made the “meatloaf” today and plan to. From the reviews of the recipe, one reader said it was freezable. I added diced yellow squash, grated zucchini, diced red and green pepper and red pepper flakes to the recipe…others have added grated carrots…it seems very forgiving.</p>
<p>One thing to note when making vegetarian meals - parmesan cheese is not vegetarian though most restaurants seem not to know this. Parmesan is made with calf rennet.</p>
<p>Here is one more very good vegetarian recipe if your guests like curry.
<a href=“Spinach, Red Lentil, and Bean Curry Recipe”>http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spinach-red-lentil-and-bean-curry/</a></p>
<p>Reservations. I hope- we’re visiting son in his city and I do not want to cook in his studio apt. I may have to figure that out as I don’t trust H or son to get around to it in a timely fashion. </p>
<p>Last year was the first time in many years there were just the two of us. We always had son plus relatives and or “strays” (last minute people around we found would not cook or be alone). I basically cook two meals worth- Indian vegetarian and traditional American except- never turkey (none of us are that fond of it). </p>
<p>Typical menu-</p>
<p>fowl (chicken or game hens)
green (whole) mung dal
basmati rice
kurdhi/kahdi (a yogurt sauce)
Stove Top stuffing, plus brown gravy-packaged
candied sweet potatoes (for H- I dislike them)
whole green beans
pumpkin pie with Cool Whip
crescent rolls
Indian style cauliflower/potatoes/tomatoes (I like a lot)
whole and jellied cranberry sauce (H and my preferences respectively)
black olives
various cold veggies- eg carrot sticks…
cooked mushrooms. </p>
<p>This list include favorites for each of us. Skip the mashed potatoes since there are enough other starches. No need to cook the rest of the week. I actively like to cook but do shortcuts and use packed foods. I happen to like Stove Top so include it. </p>
<p>There are some foods we ALWAYS had for Thanksgiving when I was a kid, but only that day. I do NOT have those now. One favorite tradition was the lemon meringue pie the night before- my mom’s pie crust recipe used one egg for 3 crusts- two went for pumpkin, the third …</p>
<p>That “curry” recipe reminds me of the half dozen or so different lentil/beans/dal recipes regularily cooked when there were more than the two of us.</p>
<p>One year we included two families where at least the wives were on call (and one was having her kitchen remodeled). The Indian family- covered, warned the other that there would not be turkey (she was going to have her H and kids meet her for a good hospital cafeteria dinner). Thawed and prepped extra game hens so meat eaters would all get enough. Son ran a 5K race T’day morning and won a fresh turkey. Had to figure out how long to cook that and added it to the menu. It turned out okay, eventually, and we encouraged the family to take the leftovers.</p>
<p>I make both stuffing and dressing because you can’t fit enough in a bird. But I think stuffing tastes better from the turkey juices. Sometimes I use corn bread, but mostly I don’t. I guess I’m a Yankee at heart. 
I like my corn bread plain.</p>
<p>For vegetarians you could make something like ratatouille in a pie crust, or quiche or sweet potato souffle like this one: <a href=“http://www.moosewoodcooks.com/annie-wades-sweet-potato-souffle/”>http://www.moosewoodcooks.com/annie-wades-sweet-potato-souffle/</a></p>
<p>Another thought is Gypsy Soup which was in one of the early Moosewood cookbooks Mollie Katzen put together. It’s really yummy and has fall ingredients: <a href=“http://www.food.com/recipe/gypsy-soup-46750”>http://www.food.com/recipe/gypsy-soup-46750</a></p>
<p>@justforthis- thanks. Everyone loves curry. I can make a ton of this and it will get eaten. Let us know how the meatloaf does frozen.</p>
<p>The curry looks like it will freeze well too. </p>
<p>@mathmom- thanks for the sweet potato recipe and the soup </p>
<p>Everything looks amazing. </p>
<p>So many yummy sounding ideas! @Veruca, thank you so much for that Vidalia onion recipe. We have a bunch of picky eaters, but every one of them loves both Vidalia onions and cheese. That will be a great replacement for scalloped or au gratin potatoes when we have ham at Easter, too.</p>
<p>Pre-treat your guests with some nice wites and reds… whatever you serve after that… they will rave about it! ;)</p>
<p>@dragonmom …I agree. I also mix in stuff like butter, sour cream with just a touch of milk the morning of. I put it in the crockpot still a bit lumpy so it doesn’t get soupy. </p>
<p>It’s looking like our Thanksgiving will be just my husband, youngest daughter and I this year. I won’t go out though since I love the food. I will just have to learn how to make it on a much smaller scale.
I will brine the turkey
Mashed potatoes
Stuffing with sausage and fresh herbs
roasted carrots with garlic and maple syrup
roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta
creamed pearl onions
haricot vert
cranberry sauce
apple pie
pumpkin pie</p>
<p>I would normally have a few other sides but I am the only one who will eat some of them, so I will pass on them
I think I will have a really good workout during the day so I can eat guilt free :)</p>
<p>Just make it traditonal the way its suposed to be.
- turkey and ham (with whole cloves)
- stuffing
- gravy
- cranberry sause
- mashed potatoes
- apple pie
- corn muffins
- hot apple cider</p>
<p>I think Tradition varies with geography and background. Right? I have never had the bird stuffed on Thanksgiving -we don’t do that as much in the South. I know some Italian -Americans have pasta or Anti-pasti along with the traditional stuff -I think the differences are fun.
Also I think sometimes the cook likes a change </p>
<p>@kollegekid1,</p>
<p>If we want to stick to tradition, why not add a little smallpox on the side? </p>
<p>I no longer cook a whole turkey. I get the brined breast from Wegmans, and make delicious soul food style turkey wings. No carcass to clean up and what an improvement in taste. Everybody’s been happy with this change. Well, maybe not the dog since there are no giblets to share now.</p>
<p>Traditional still varies from area to area, family to family. Corn muffins and apple cider and ham would not be on our menu. (sounds good, but not what we would include!)</p>
<p>I’d like to try some stuffed squash of some sort. Anyone have a good recipe for a squash or small pumpkin recipe with has sausage or stuffing or cheese, veggies in it??? A neighbor did this one recently - it looked amazing but I’d want to do it on a smaller scale: </p>
<p><a href=“Sweet Or Savory: Stuff, Bake And Devour A Pumpkin : NPR”>Sweet Or Savory: Stuff, Bake And Devour A Pumpkin : NPR;
<p>abasket, you need to head over to the squash thread. The link you posted looks amazing. I’m rapidly getting in over my head with wanting to do all of the recipes I’m reading about here. </p>
<p>@wis if your Indian cauliflower/tomatoes recipe is in a format that you could easily share I would love to have it
Thanks</p>
<p>Carving the turkey is a chore for me. Simple explanation and helpful demonstration:</p>
<p>abasket to the rescue again!..(I always seem to score great recipes from you!!!) </p>
<p>Made the recipe in post #55 tonight. Seriously good! House smelled wonderful. H Loved it and said it could go into the rotation…(high praise from him…).</p>
<p>I used a pie pumpkin (had trouble finding pumpkins post Halloween) about 2-3 lbs? It was only 6" high x 4" wide, so much smaller than in the picture. (Bonus: there were more seeds in this one than the huge pumpkin we carved a few days ago).<br>
SO easy! Only thing I would do differently next time would be to maybe cut cheese smaller or even shred. And based on some reviews, I only used 1 garlic clove.
I am going to try again and use some of the variations talked about: rice, sausage, apples, etc. </p>