I was just noticing that usually by this point in time we have all discussed Thanksgiving menus, recipes, etc... Where is everyone?

Do yall realize that Turkey Day is less than one week away???

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*** Find A Need , Fill A Need ***

I noticed there is a lot less activity on this forum than there has been in the past. After hosting almost 40 Thanksgiving dinners,my daughter has taken over but I will be taking a second turkey breast,deviled eggs,sweet potato casserole and crescent rolls as well as a dessert to help feed the 11 family members.She is also cooking a turkey breast and ham as well as the regular green bean casserole,stuffing gravy(my job!) etc. I guess with the ecomony many families won't have as much to be thankful for this year,

I know.... if Catt was still here, we'd all have step-by-step plans on when to get started, what to make what day, etc.... It's changed.

However, I'll tell you what I'm doing - eating an my mom's!

I will make green bean casserole (with fresh green beans and mushrooms, though), homemade orange-scented cranberry sauce, and some sort of dessert - probably Catt's pumpkin dump cake and some sort of pie.

What's everyone else got planned?

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Kim

I haven't cooked Thanksgiving or much else in years. Will be going to my cousin's for Thanksgiving.

I went to Jon Donaire (their factory and outlet is not far from me so I can get their pies very cheap) I was disappointed that this year they had a sign up that they don't have any of the holiday pies. Evidentally they ran those all in Aug. and they have all been distributed.

So I picked up a Chocolate Mousse and a Tiramisu pie or cake (not sure what they are) Will bring one of those with me.

We are having Thanksgiving breakfast with DH’s family and Thanksgiving dinner with my family.
I’ve been assigned fruit salads/muffins for the breakfast and appetizers/desserts for dinner.

I hope everyone has a very safe and ‘Happy Thanksgiving’.

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We will have a house FULL this year as in every year.
I have cooked all holiday dinners since I was 17 years old (23 years now.... you do the math...LOL).so it is pretty routine here.

So here is what we have and tips on how I do it and have dinner on the table at 2PM each year.

On the Menu for this Thanksgiving will be:

Turkey 15-20lb (Clean and Remove Giblets the day before, wrap your turkey in saran wrap and store in the refrigerator then butter, season and put in the oven about 9 AM)
Ham Huge Bone in (Baste in Aprox. 8 oz of Pepsi and 3 Tbs Yellow Mustard. I will put this in the Roaster about 9AM also. Be sure to baste at least once an hour with the juices in the bottom of the pan.)
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy ( I peel and Cut up the night before and keep in bowl of water in the fridge until time to cook. I use Heinz jar Turkey gravy, so it only needs a quick warm up before serving)
Maccaroni & Cheese (Cook Maccaroni the day before, put in Aluminum Pan with Cubed Velveeta and store in the fridge until ready to cook, this is also when I will add the milk and cornstarch mix for thickening along with Salt and Pepper)
Corn (I use frozen extra sweet corn unless I have fresh in the freezer. I dont do anything with this until TG day)
Green Beans (I cook fresh Green Beans with Bacon, Onion, Butter and 1Tbs Bacon grease and cook down till green beans are done and there are no juices. Cooked on TG day)
Potato Salad ( I will prepare this the day before and store in the frig)
Stuffing (I make this the day before also and store in the frig)
Deviled Eggs (I make these the day before and store in the frig)
Bean Salad (I make this the day before and store in the frig)
Dumplings (I make Dumplings with the broth from boiling the giblets that I have removed from the turkey.....NOTE: I use the giblets in my dressing. Dumplings are made TG Day.)
Yeast Rolls (I use frozen Rolls, so take out of the freezer TG morning so they are ready to cook when the time comes)
Black Olives *The kids put these on their fingers eat them off*...LOL they get a kick out of it.
OMG lets not forget the Cranberry Sauce (Put this in the frig the day before so it is nice and cold.)

Dessert will consist of:
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Dream Pie
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Roll

All deserts are made the day before.

Doing all you can the day before the holiday will save you a lot of aggrivation from trying to get everything done within an alloted time, it will also allow you to spend more quality time with your family and friends.

*** MAKE SURE YOU TAKE YOUR HAM AND TURKEY OUT OF THE FREEZER NO LATER THAN MONDAY AND THAW IN THE BOTTOM OF YOUR REFRIGERATOR ***

If you need any advice or recipes (recipes will be aprox. as I dont measure anything) Please feel free to email me or post here.

Good Luck with all your dinners.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Someone stole my kitchen table......Oh wait..... there it is, impersonating a pile of coupons.

I miss having a full house for holidays. It's just the 4 of us anymore. But I still go all out.

Turkey (I have 5 in my freezer thanks to dh...he won one thru a radio contest and he won the other 4 at a turkey shoot )
Stuffing
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Deviled eggs
Southern style biscuits (that's what it says on the bag....LOL)
Not sure yet on the veggie, I may just steam some carrots or we can have corn

And then of course dessert:

Pumpkin pie
Cream puffs
Ice cream cake (leftover from celebrating dh's birthday)

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Friends are like butt cheeks.
Crap might separate them,
But they always come back together.

We are going to our DD's. She is doing turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans.
I am taking broccoli casserole, lots of pies and maybe a brussel sprouts casserole. And I am sure I will have to help with the turkey and definitely make the gravy. I am going to do a ham maybe Tuesday, but not for Thanksgiving dinner. I will slice some for sandwiches, cut some up for scrambled eggs, and cut some thick slices for ham steaks, so we don't have to eat turkey leftovers all week end. Oh and I am taking dressing too! And cranberry sauce!!!

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Square dancing is friendship set to music!

This reminds me of the first time I made a turkey. I was probably 19 and my parents had gone to visit my grandparents (I couldn't go because of work), so I decided to have Thanksgiving at my house for my friends. Since I was somewhat frugal, I got the biggest turkey I could find. When I opened the package, it was still a little frozen, extremely big and SO slippery! I read the directions and realized pretty quickly that you had to remove stuff from inside of it. At 19, no way was I sticking my hand in there to get the stuff.... So, I'm calling my mom at 3:00 in the morning (west coast time and I was on central) asking how I'm supposed to get the giblets and stuff out of the turkey (I used tongs). Then, it's still kind of frozen - what am I supposed to do? Where is a pan big enough for this turkey???? Holy cow - how long does this have to cook????? I probably called her 6-7 times at my grandparents' house before 5:00 their time. They were all good sports, but she still doesn't let me forget it.

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Kim

LOL I remember my first turkey, newly married and having his family over for dinner. Maybe 20 of us total?? I cooked the turkey, all the sides and stuff....even got it all on the table on time. Everyone told me how gorgeous the turkey looked, just like you'd see in a picture. So x-dh goes to cut it and the BAG of gizzards came rolling out...... right in front of everyone! I was moritifed! I heard about that until I divorced him.

Years ago my mom made pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, and she couldn't figure out why they were such an odd color. She called me and asked me all sorts of questions (now mind you she has made pies forever) so I ran down the list of ingredients....till I got to the evaporated milk. She gasped.....she completely forgot to add it. No one ate the odd green pumpkin pies, but to this day we still kid her about it.

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Friends are like butt cheeks.
Crap might separate them,
But they always come back together.

Ya'lls stories are so funny.

I wish I could remember my first turkey.... are you supposed to be so forgetful at 40

I guess I have been helping in the kitchen and doing it myself for so long that my first turkey was probably when I was 3.....LOL

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Someone stole my kitchen table......Oh wait..... there it is, impersonating a pile of coupons.

That's funny, janenga.

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Kim

So where is Cat and why isn't she here??

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*** Find A Need , Fill A Need ***

We just have a "small" gathering this year. Just the 10 of us.

We're having:

Appetizers (me):
Courtesy of Sam's Club- southwest trumpets, crab cakes, and brie and cranberry wraps
I'll also make a cheese/olive tray

Dinner:
Turkey (me)
Mashed potatoes w/ homemade gravy (me)
Stuffing (me)
Green beans w/ bacon and onions (me)
Sweet potato casserole (parents)
Cranberry sauce (parents get if from a specialty store...it's the best!)
Corn souffle (sister)
Rolls (sister)

Desserts:
Pumpkin roll (me)
Pumpkin pie (parents)
Pumpkin cheesecake (sister)

Drinks:
Homemade egg nog (DH...and it's OH, SO GOOD!) w/ rum for the adults
And, lots of others I haven't decided on yet

It will be just me and DH this year as he has to work on Friday so we can't go to in law's.

We'll be having deviled eggs for appetizers and then stuffing (probably spinach haven't made up my mind yet); sweet potatoes with pecans, brown sugar and marshmallow fluff; veggies not sure what kind yet; cranberry; rolls; gravy; and for the main dish....we haven't decided yet. He might want baked ham or game hen, I will have either salmon or ahi most likely.

And of course pie for dessert although what flavor? We haven't decided yet.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

I think I am going to mix it up a bit. I usually cook all the food except the turkey the day before. On Turkey Day, we set the table, put the turkey in the oven, and head to see a movie. When we come back, we have a few appetizers as we reheat the food in the microwave. I know this doesn't sound very appealing, but really, no one notices the difference.
I think this year, we will have sausage balls, deviled eggs, and crab legs for our apps. Our dinner will be very traditional-turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green been casserole, sweet potato crisp, jello salad, rolls, and a plain green veggie (maybe brussel sprouts or asparagus). For dessert, we will have a pumpkin cheesecake and some other pie. We are having 9ppl. around our table this year.

All of a sudden I'm thinking maybe stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

I am hosting again this year, as I have every year since we purchased our house. Our menu looks like :

Turkey
Ham
Mashed Potatoes/Gravy
Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Dinner Rolls
Jello Salad (my mom is bringing)
Cranberry Sauce (homemade)
Sweet Potatoes (MIL is bringing)

Appetizers - Deviled Eggs, Meat/Cheese/Crackers, Olives/Pickles, Truffles/Petit Fours (courtesy of an awesome Swiss Colony deal!)

Dessert - Angel Lush with Pineapple (angel food cake layered with cool whip and pineapple), Pumpkin Pie, Raspberry Ribbon Pie (my mom is bringing)

And I am making a punch to drink too : ginger ale, pineapple juice, and Hawaiian Punch mixture.

I am going to be in charge of dinner this year, as DH switched work schedules and is no longer off on Thursday.

I plan on making the Pumpkin Pie, boiling the eggs, and cranberry sauce the day before TG. I will make the mashed potatoes while the turkey is cooking and just microwave them when the turkey is done.

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"

We are having my boyfriends grandmother for Thanksgiving, which I am not looking forward to all she does is complain and lately all she has been telling everyone is she is coming here and she knows she is going to get stuck eating "white people food" she is puerto rican and keeps mentioning that she always had spanish dishes on thanksgiving and what I am making isn't a thanksgiving dinner.
Here is my menu:

Turkey
home made stuffing
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes
corn casserole
green beans
cranberry sauce
dinner rolls

apple pie
pumpkin pie

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~~~~**Maryann**~~~~

I just got a firm grip on reality....
Now I can strangle it

Hell's bells, offer her a chance to make one of her traditional favorites to bring to the dinner table.

I agree, ask her to bring a dish that she would typically have at thanksgiving maybe that will make your day a little more pleasant.

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Someone stole my kitchen table......Oh wait..... there it is, impersonating a pile of coupons.

I'm with ya'll on the grandma. You might get to try something new and it might make her feel more comfortable. It's got to be tough getting old and feeling like your ability to make choices (which you've successfully done your entire life) is slowly going away. Not saying that is the situation here, just a thought...

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Kim

I did offer and say that if she wanted to bring something she is more then welcome to. but she responded with "My cooking days are over. It is very rude to invite me to dinner and then ask me to bring something" I was thinking, since I have no idea what to make (or how to make it) that I would go to a local spanish restaraunt and get a few side dishes just for her.

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~~~~**Maryann**~~~~

I just got a firm grip on reality....
Now I can strangle it

OMG! How rude would she think it was if you didnt invite her at all? Just saying.

I do hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving in spite of the grandmother.

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Someone stole my kitchen table......Oh wait..... there it is, impersonating a pile of coupons.

Wow.... Sounds challenging...

However, if you wanted to try (not sure she would be appreciative, but you would know that you made the effort), I found a few recipes that looks super easy and don't look like they would take much time.

What is an easy puerto rican recipe to make? - Yahoo! Answers

El Boricua, a bilingual , cultural publication for Puerto Ricans

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Kim