<p>Our first year out of NYC, husband as the cook in my family, decided to deep fry a turykey for the first time. We had 20 people over to our new suburban house. It dawned on me on Thanksgiving morning that if it should turn out to be a bust, there would be no Chinese takeout as a backup, no grocery store open either. I tried very hard to talk him out of it. But it turned out to be the best turkey we’ve ever had.</p>
<p>I know 99cents is correct, it’s hard to ruin a turkey. However, my mom can and does often. Love her to death and will miss her when she is gone. We have had the Chevy Chase exploding turkey-my husband cut into it and poof-steam and it fell apart. We have had the pre cooked turkey roast that she cooked for 3 hrs, the smoked turkey that she insisted tasted like ham (I kept thinking Salmonella). The sides-hamburger meat browned w/raisins, canned green beans with can of cream something-cream of celery does not work if you ever wondered. </p>
<p>I bring a ham, pies and veggie trays. She refuses letting me cook, she refuses buying from the store or restaurant. She refuses looking at cook books. Getting together with family is important so we fill up on ham and pies. I sometimes pre medicate myself with a glass of wine.</p>
<p>LA</p>
<p>A glass of wine goes a long way.</p>
<p>Does anyone have a pumpkin cheesecake recipe? This will be my first Thanksgiving apart from my family, and I wanted to make one for my friends. I found this one, but I’d love a tried and tested one:</p>
<p>[alpineberry:</a> Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake w/ Ginger-Pecan Crust](<a href=“http://alpineberry.blogspot.com/2006/10/creamy-pumpkin-cheesecake-w-ginger.html]alpineberry:”>http://alpineberry.blogspot.com/2006/10/creamy-pumpkin-cheesecake-w-ginger.html)</p>
<p>I’ll be making fresh whipped cream for it. Also - does anyone know if I could successfully substitute brown sugar or honey for the white sugar? I’d like to get rid of the refined sugar.</p>
<p>I think I’ll also prepare butternut squash with wild rice (vegetarian here :))</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>How about the recipe for turkey salad? I always cook a turkey at home so that we can have left overs.</p>
<p>In my day I have done turkey, stuffing (go for Pepperidge farms), cranberry (go for Ocean Spray save the work for the side dishes…), homemade apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, salad with dried cranberries and red onions and spinach, butternut squash soup, roasted brussels sprouts with Meyer lemons and prosciutto, garlic mashed potatoes, creamed onions from scratch with nutmeg…</p>
<p>This year I will be at a friend’s house.</p>
<p>Okay, Alumother, I need that creamed onion from scratch with nutmeg recipe…puhleeeze (fingers crossed, and saying a silent prayer…). ;)</p>
<p>I have my parents, my neighbors and their kids, and my best friend from hs and whoever she brings (plus H and kids). I do a roast with carrots in the crock pot the night before. I do turkey in the oven, and someone brings some Honeybaked ham. The rest- stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, spinach casserole, corn, pumpkin and apple pie, tomatoes with feta, hmmm… wine, beer, pickle tray, rolls… I really would like some more people. Any takers?</p>
<p>As of today, I still don’t know where we’ll be Thanksgiving, though I just made reservations for DS to fly home to Oakland. We’re in the middle of completing the sale of our house & if all goes according to plan we close Nov 20, but I’m still searching for a house to move into. At the grocery store today I picked up a glossy magazine with lovely plans for turkey dinner, then thought to myself, “what am I thinking? I may not even have a kitchen on Thanksgiving” I guess I’d better make restaurant reservations! If you want all the gory details you have to make your way through <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/398024-drop-off-day-story-installments.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/398024-drop-off-day-story-installments.html</a> </p>
<p>doubleplay, how far are you from Oakland?</p>
<p>^^^LOL! I’m in Florida.
I think you can get some good deals into Orlando (nearest airport), though.</p>
<p>We will have about 16 at our home for dinner. My folks are braving the New England weather (they live in Florida) for the first time in many years and will be joining us. They finally broke down so they can see S#1 play in his first college hockey games…</p>
<p>We will pick up S#1 at 10am on Wednesday and get him back to school before 4pm on Friday for hockey practice—it will be a whirlwind, but it will be great to all be together</p>
<p>Our menu is traditional–turkey, dressing, mashed potatos (the silver palate ones with cream cheese and sour cream in them–we can only eat those once a year LOL), various veggies and pies</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and say a pray that it stays in the 40-50 degree range in New England for the Florida crowd who will be visitin!</p>
<p>Thanks for reminding me that I need to find out who is having Thanksgiving dinner this year! Sometimes I do it, others times my brother does it. Guess I should find out which one of us is “it” this year (no, we don’t actually alternate, so that’s why I don’t know who it’ll be). D flies home the Friday before … that is what I am thinking about, rather than the dinner! Of course, she’ll leave the next a.m. to visit friends at their schools for the weekend (lucky girl … her friends at U of MI got her a ticket to the UM/OSU game!!). She has to be back for a dentist appt. Monday afternoon, though. Thank heavens for those necessary appointments!</p>
<p>If I have to do Thanksgiving dinner, though, it will be easy. Another brother always cooks the turkey. He lives a mile from me & two miles from the other brother who alternates dinner with me. This bachelor brother enjoys contributing the turkey, and his twin & I enjoy only having to make sides!</p>
<p>momof2sons,
We go to New England about every year/other year for Christmas, and PRAY for cold weather/snow! Being Floridians, it’s the highlight of our year to be able to sled at grandma’s.</p>
<p>I like the cold weather too—that way I can build a nice fire in the fireplace but my 70-something parents hate the cold—if it is below freezing I may never convince them to head north for a visit anytime between October and April!</p>
<p>Easy:)</p>
<p>Get a bag of medium white onions. Make a roux, out of Joy of Cooking. I think the quantity in the book works. Use the bay leaf in the roux and also stud one of the little onions with cloves and cook it in the roux while it thickens. Discard the onion. Stir in some fresh grated nutmeg, um, about 4 grates worth but just stick your finger in and test at some point once it’s cool enough. Add a little bit of salt and pepper.</p>
<p>Take the skins off the white onions. Chop off a little bit of the ends. Boil them for a while (I sort of made this up so I don’t remember how long but 10-15 minutes could be right you want them to be softish but not squishy…). Put the onions into a squarish ceramic or glass baking dish. Pour the cream sauce over the onions.</p>
<p>Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top for a light crust that covers but very very sparsely. Dot with butter. Bake for um, I think it’s 20 minutes but check at that point. You want it to start simmering a little bit. Then at the last minute if the bread crumbs aren’t brown, use a little broiler.</p>
<p>Hmm. I said it was easy because it’s very little work and usually tastes very good and is a great side dish. But as I said I kind of made it up so I don’t have it written down and usually just look and taste.</p>
<p>If my directions seem too vague, look up creamed onions in Joy of Cooking. It is possible I got more of it from there than I now remember. Hehe. The joys of aging mean that if I say I made it up no one will mind if I am wrong.</p>
<p>alumuther - can I come to your house? I love B sprouts and nobody else will eat them.<br>
For those still looking for the right dish; I have never gone wrong with anything from the Southern Living magazine or website.
My favorite is a roasted sweet potato/onion thing you throw together and roast the day before in foil… then just warm up on turkey day. Yum and none of the gooyey marshmallow potatoes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the recipe Alumother. :)</p>
<p>You are welcome…I would be honored if you tried it.</p>
<p>And dragonmom I think you can find the brussels sprouts recipe in a cookbook from the restaurant in SF called Rose Pistola. When you roast them they are much nicer than when steamed or <em>shudder</em> boiled. Even long time haters can be converted.</p>
<p>Creamed onions are even easier if you use frozen pearl onions. I’m not a believer in frozen onions normally, but I don’t like peeling that many onions and with the cream sauce you can hardly taste the difference anyway.</p>
<p>My favorite way to eat brussel sprouts is from a Martha Stewart recipe - a warm winter salad with carrots and potatoes and a mustardy vinaigrette.</p>
<p>I second the shutter on the <em>boiled</em> brussel sprouts! I’d be willing to try them roasted, as long as they don’t smell up the whole house? I love almost every veggie, but I have bad memories of the way they smelled up the house when my mom made them as a kid. Just the thought of those and fried calves liver gives me the willies!</p>
<p>mathmom, those actually sound like something I’d really like.</p>