D is hosting Thanksgiving. No turkey … she is serving chicken shawarma & rice and spiral sliced ham & mashed potatoes. SIL asked me to make my mom’s Asian Slaw recipe and an apple pie. Kind of an eclectic menu, but all food everyone who will be there likes. I am happy to be a guest, rather than the hostess!
Love Jenné Claiborne’s Sweet Potato Soul blog.
In DH’s tradition, black eyed peas are for New Years.
We do mashed potatoes and baked sweet potatoes. I sometimes make mashed canned yams to serve with the leftovers.
I have never eaten a green bean casserole in my entire life.
We serve both mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. We cut the sweet potatoes like french fries, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, butter, and heavy cream, and bake. We have never had the whipped ones with marshmallows.
I would love to be a guest for a change, but I’m the only one with enough space to handle everybody. Even before my parents moved to their tiny apartment six months ago, my mom never felt like her house was clean enough. Her definition of clean is uncluttered. Her house was always clean enough, just not neat and tidy.
Sweet potatoes here, with a brown sugar and orange juice glaze. One of my favorite foods. My kids have never liked mashed potatoes so I don’t usually make them at thanksgiving, although DH and I like them.
This year it was only going to be my mother, 2 brothers, me and football. My mother was all excited that she didn’t have to cook and thought about getting a chicken pot pie from Costco.
Another brother called and said he’s coming and expects the traditional Thanksgiving In his mind that means turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. It will be the first time he’s been at Thanksgiving in years because that is always opening day at the ski hill where he works, but this year they have so much snow they opened 2 weeks early so he’s taking the day off. Because he’s coming my sister is coming too, with her husband (Mr. Greenbean casserole) and daughter.
This means we are back to traditional Thanksgiving. My mother is thinking of ordering pies but other than that, she’s back to cooking.
So I’m planning for Christmas and not Thanksgiving - but I believe in starting the worrying process early.
I still need a salad option and maybe some honey-glazed carrots. Any suggestions?
@scout59 What else will you be serving for help in guiding a compatible salad?
Well, for Christmas day I’m thinking: butternut squash soup, beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, a spinach/cheese/prosciutto dish that’s a tradition in my house, rolls and dessert. I’m thinking that some kind of salad would be a nice green alternative…although I could do a green bean dish, too.
The Christmas Eve is also incomplete: ham, scalloped potatoes with cheese, some kind of Brussel sprouts (roasted? roasted with squash/pecans/cherries?), and maybe those glazed carrots. Plus bread. And dessert.
Sounds like great meals! With your tenderloin dinner, we do tenderloin for Christmas and I always serve a salad with:
leaf lettuce blend
candied pecans
dried cranberries, sliced apple or pomegranate seeds - or a combo of all three. Pear works as well but I’n not a pear fan.
crumbled blue cheese - can be on the side for those not loving blue cheese
thinly sliced red onion
either a raspberry vinaigrette or a cider vinaigrette
I like having a salad to contrast with the other rich foods and add something light and crispy.
Tell me more about the spinach/cheese/prosciutto dish. That sounds yummy!
A couple of my favorite fall salads:
https://www.aspicyperspective.com/roasted-root-vegetables-salad/
https://carlsbadcravings.com/pomegranate-pear-pistachio-salad-creamy-pomegranate-dressing/
https://www.cookingclassy.com/pear-bacon-and-brussels-sprout-salad/
Or just a kale salad with any of the fall fruits like pomegranate, pears, a toasted nut (or candied pecans) and fresh shaved parm or other sharp cheese.
Thanks @doschicos and @abasket! I keep seeing variations of the pear/cranberries/pomegranate salad - I may have to try that. I’m test-driving some recipes this weekend.
The spinach dish is really a casserole consisting of layers of mushrooms, steamed spinach, onions, a sour cream/mayo blend, chopped prosciutto, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and tomato. The prep takes a long time (mostly because you have to wring out all of the water from the steamed spinach) but it’s worth it. Hands down, it’s my favorite holiday side dish!
If you have time to share the recipe, would love to have it.
Do you ever use frozen spinach?
I find an extra pair of hands and a clean kitchen towel to be the quickest way.
For Thanksgiving we don’t have mashed potatoes OR sweet potatoes. I make two kinds of dressing (regular and cornbread for DH’s side), so that’s plenty of starches imo. But this year D2 is bringing her bf and his toddler from a former relationship. Toddler likes mac and cheese and her BF is used to having mashed potatoes, so SHE is cooking both.
@scout59 I would also love to see that spinach dish! And i do the same as @doschicos - use frozen spinach, dethaw and wring with an old but clean dish towel - works so well!
@scout59 Yes, please post a link to the recipe for the spinach casserole. Yum!
Thanks for the inspiration. As I posted on a different holiday thread, we travel for several hours on Thanksgiving, so aren’t really expected to bring anything substantial.
I assume we will end up eating a couple hours after the advertised time, as usual. For that reason, we usually bring a few appetizers that our kids will eat and that we enjoy to keep everyone less cranky. I’ll probably bring some meat and cheese, or other low carb friendly appetizer that I get from Safeway the night before. W has recently been placed on a medically necessary low carb diet. She has always been a big carb loader, so it’s a struggle. Getting her plenty of things to fill up on before the potatoes and stuffing come out is a good idea, especially since this is the first holiday season she will have to pass up eating some of her favorite foods.
I also will bring the ingredients for Thanksgiving Mules mentioned by @taverngirl, as modified by @doschicos. I regularly either omit or drastically cut down on the simple syrup, as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so I don’t miss the sugar. My first thought was that these look great but will be plenty sweet already. I’ll also just buy a bag of fresh cranberries and garnish with that instead. W doesn’t really like cranberries, so as long as I can find diet ginger beer, she will be happy with the regular Moscow Mules instead of the orange/cranberry version. Win-win!
Deviled eggs and veggies with dip are some good low carb nibbles.
Mandarin Tossed Salad is a big hit with kids and adults.
Boston Lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
1 11oz. can drained mandarin oranges
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup green grapes sliced in half
1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
Dressing
1/3 cup salad oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 T vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Amounts of all ingredients can be adjusted to taste/desires. We never toast the almonds; too much work. It is a very yummy salad, and pretty, too.
Two words about wringing spinach: salad spinner. I just treated myself to a new OXO, where you press a pump and it takes off.
Some dips have hidden carbs, sometimes taking you well over the daily goal.
A good recipe for mashed, creamed cauliflower can replace potatoes. Esp with good full fat sour cream. Maybe cook the cauliflower in broth.
When we have lots of parts to a dinner party, we often go very simple on the salad. Seems appreciated. When less will be on the table, we go fancier.
I still don’t know what we’ll do.