This is what I am taking to the Friendsgiving we have been invited to tomorrow. I did 1.5 X the recipe and will use a 3-qt (rather than a 2-qt) casserole dish.
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It’s just the three of us this year but I’m cooking the whole shebang and happy about it ; )
We are doing an extended family FaceTime over apps and champagne. We are having caviar with all the traditional toppings, lobster salad, and a smoked sturgeon spread. Champagne is Pierre Paillard.
For dinner: roasted turkey (recipe courtesy of Alinea), green bean casserole, smoked gouda mashed potatoes, herbed bread stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy.
Wine: Beaux Frère Estate Pinot
Dessert: Apple blueberry pie and pumpkin loaf w/cream cheese frosting
After dinner: Whisky (Lagavulin for me)
(I’m feeling pretty organized - turkey is dry brining and has compound butter stuffed between breast/skin and is basically ready to go into the oven tomorrow; the desserts were baked this morning; and all the veggie prep is done so really I just need to assemble tomorrow).
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I’m very grateful for the cyber friendships and support! Ya’ll rock! 
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@humper I have the exact same Sweet Potato Soufflé recipe. We never had sweet potatoes growing up. Dh’s aunt made this soufflé many years ago when we visited her in Atlanta and she gave me the recipe. My mom, who’d never had it either until I started making it, says it’s now her favorite dish on Thanksgiving. I wonder where the recipe originated. I always use pecans (I assumed this was the Southern touch).
Our Thanksgiving meal is fairly traditional. H will be smoking the turkey in his smoker. He is also making the gravy.
Dishes I’m making:
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing (not in the bird, so dressing?)
Sweet Potato Soufflé
Soufflé is all prepped, just need to add the topping and bake. I have everything prepped for the stuffing, just need to assemble. Will prep the potatoes in the morning.
Cranberry sauce out of a can b/c that’s what everyone prefers (I don’t eat it so don’t care).
My dad loves to cook so he is making some sort of vegetable side dish. My mom is making pumpkin pie and chocolate dream pie. DH is making pumpkin chiffon pie.
I have it fairly easy when it comes to the cooking part. Dh likes to cook so we share that task. But I’m the one doing the majority of cleaning, getting the table set, etc. Only my parents and a college friend of Dh’s are coming so it will be fairly laid back day.
I have no idea. The recipe was given to me in 1976 or so by a fabulous friend in northern New Hampshire! I use pecans too.
Mine is all set and in the fridge. I’ll make the topping tomorrow and take it with me. It will go in the oven when the Turkey comes out. Host says…perfect timing!
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D is hosting, and MIL asked if she has the recipe for “our traditional asparagus casserole.” That’s a tradition for the part of the family that celebrates all holidays many miles from our part of the family … because they moved away years ago, and they have no interest in visiting us for the holidays. So the answer is no, WE don’t serve that. But the answer H gave his mom left out all of the editorializing!
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@thumper1 @4kids4us just some sweet potato trivia for ya — North Carolina leads the country in sweet potato growing and production. I have seen that recipe before too. In the south it often also has marshmallows on top, which is too much sweet for me. I also like my sweet potatoes as fries with spicy mayo, but I guess that’s not very Thanksgiving-y!
Only 5 of us this year and I do all the cooking due to multiple allergies and not trusting my mother after too many cross contamination issues. This is our gluten and dairy free menu.
Turkey breast with compound garlic butter (vegan butter) cooked in the convection oven.
Stuffing with sausage and sage.
Cranberry sauce (I usually do a cranberry jalapeno sauce, but decided to go traditional this year)
Mashed potatoes
Roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and garlic aoli
Apple cranberry spice dump cake.
My mother is bringing matzo ball soup and apple cinnamon kugel as requested by my kids.
We are going light this year as I don’t love traditional Thanksgiving fare and my kids will basically eat a roll and matzo ball soup.
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Re: Menus. We started making up menus when family members started being noisy about dietary restrictions. I’d send the menu ahead of time (traditional, no restrictions) with a note that said, “Attached is our Thanksgiving menu. Please feel free to bring any supplemental dishes to accommodate any dietary restrictions you may have.” I don’t believe accommodating restrictions is the job of the host. I’m not as nice as many of you. 
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Some are preferences, and some are life threatening. That said, as long as you are upfront I’m sure people with issues are fine.
I’m sensitive about it as a friend was cavalier about my need to eat gluten free. The result was that I just had to have surgery a week ago due to giving myself a hernia from all the violent dry heaves (among many other debilitating consequences).
I know you aren’t saying you are cavalier, but food issues can be really serious!
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Living with Vegetarians, Thanksgiving edition
Appetizers:
various cheeses w/ crackers, homemade kumquat preserves, crudités
Main dishes:
Roasted acorn squash stuffed with lentils & walnuts
Lentil cottage pie
Sides:
Roasted brussel sprouts with dried cranberries and toasted walnuts
Latkes (because the twins have been reading Latkes, Latkes Good To Eat and grandma promised she’d make them latkes)
Roasted carrots w/ maple glaze
Dessert:
Carrot cake w/ brown butter cream cheese frosting**
**Compromise dessert because the 3 adults in the household couldn’t agree on a pie flavor and we waited way too late to order a pie from the bakery.
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Only three of us, but we’ll make a full turkey dinner. Today I sautéed sausage and celery/onions ahead of time for stuffing (cooked outside the bird) that the whole family adores. Tis my mom’s recipe, and for many years she arrived with it pre-cooked, kept warm on a hot plate til dinner time. For leftovers, we’ve been known to debate who gets how much.
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Yeah, totally depends on the issue. For my vegan, well that’s a choice. They’re not going to die if something was sautéed in butter instead of margarine, but for our gluten-free relative it’s not a choice. It’s pretty serious. My spouse is dairy intolerant. It doesn’t send him to the hospital or anything, but it sends him to the bathroom all night and day, so that’s not fun. I have some friends with anaphylaxis to peanuts and tree nuts so I am always careful to avoid any nuts when sharing foods with them.
But I do not host and will not host. I’m allergic to that!
So we just take our vegan foods, but I don’t take food with nuts to my peanut allergic friends’ house and I don’t feel right taking glutenous foods to our host this year although I imagine they will have some there. Just felt weird to bring something that not everyone could enjoy. So on to risotto it is! Vegan, gluten free, chocolate silk pie is finished.
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There’s 9 of us for dinner tomorrow. We’re having turkey. H ordered a Heritage breed turkey from Heritage Foods. He’s uses an Ina Garten recipe. We’re making creamy buttermilk mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and a green bean casserole (this is the old standby but it’s made from scratch, e.g., we fried shallots for the topping today). Friends who are coming over will bring dressing, charcuterie, Parker House rolls, and pumpkin/apple pies. Wines are mostly from California (Dumol and Grgich Wineries). The young people (ages 30-32) all want to do whiskey sour cocktails. I had no clue what kinds of glasses to use for whiskey sour (I didn’t even know what it was). Anyway, I went in search of coupe glasses today. Found them at Williams Sonoma (left for the mall really early and was there when the store opened!!)
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Highball glasses for whiskey sours, based on what my parents used back in the day.
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When I read this thread title I thought we were going to talk about china and crystal :).
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Ohhh… we can definitely talk about that! 
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We stopped inviting noisy family members.
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I like the pairings too!
A couple of wine clubs have sent along wines, I’ll leave it up to DH to decide what we actually end up drinking.
We had a nice cocktail of apple cider punch while we were making Thanksgiving sides today. I had to make a lot of substitutions because we didn’t actually have half the ingredients of the original recipe. Mostly I was trying to use up apple cider that’s been open for a couple of weeks!
Per person:
4 oz. apple cider
2 oz. whiskey (supposed to be bourbon)
1 oz. thyme/honey simple syrup
2 tsp lemon juice
splash of ginger beer (supposed to be soda)
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My nephew was diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago. He’s not with us this year, but it definitely takes care to make sure what we cook is okay.
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