Thanksgiving Questions

Hi, it's been a while since I've actually done my OWN Thanksgiving dinner. I have a great turkey recipe but I was wondering what everyone else makes to go with it.

I do not put stuffing in the turkey and I've used Stove Top in the past, any suggestions on something different?

My Mom used to make green beans with bacon and candied yams. One year I did sweet potatoes with brown sugar, butter and pecans on top (those are good), and other ideas?

As you can see, I want to make this special for hubby and son and me.

Thanks!

I use plain stuffing, then add your own things to make it yummy. I put diced mushrooms, raisins, and broth from the turkey to moisten it. Then you can just bake it if you don't want stuff the bird. You can also chop up some of the giblets from the bird, and add some garlic and chopped onion....it all goes well together and you'll end up w/ delicious stuffing!!!

The other big thing for me is I make homemade cranberry sauce. The can stuff is nasty in my opinion. Look in your produce section for bagged berries, and you make it w/ sugar and boiling water. Its soooo good, I make it year round w/ chicken and pork too. Easy, and delicious!

I make a pineapple casserole, greeen bean casserole, sweet potato pie and whipped fruit salad. I also do my homemade dinner rolls, a lot of work, but worth all the time it takes to make it.

For the stuffing I use carrots, celery, raisins, chopped pecans, onions and apples. I make the stuffing up the night before stick it in the :censor::censor::censor::censor:, and when Mike gets up early in the morning to do the bird, the stuffing is ready to pack into the cavity.

I received a wonderful recipe just after I married, for a homemade cranberry sauce that is exquisite.

12 oz. fresh cranberries
1/4 to 1/3 cup real maple syrup
grated rind and juice of one orange
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon

Wash and drain cranberries. Remove any soft or discolored berries, any leaves or stems. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and cook on medium heat fot 10 to 15 minutes, stirring, until the cranberries have popped and the sauce is thick.

Serve hot or cold. Given that I didn't like cranberry sauce or jelly or any form until this, it's a marvelous recipe!

I also make scalloped oyster casserole either for on Thanksgiving or for the day after...but that is an acquired taste <G>.

Homemade rolls, my gram's stuffing recipe (a simple bread,sage,onion and celery mix), turkey with gravy, huge tossed salad, mashed cauliflower (due to our diet), possibly asparagus spears or spinach sauteed with garlic, pie (thin slice) - probably my mil's secret (except for me!) fruit pie, coffee...this will be our main meal.

****If I weren't restricted on carbs**** I'd start the day either with a homemade strata (bread/egg/ham concoction) or dutch babies and scrambled eggs, bacon, and have real mashed yukon gold potatoes with our turkey <G> instead of mashed cauliflower, and would add mashed rutabaga's and a squash also as part of the main meal.

When my family gets together, here is the general menu. Perhaps some ideas here (my family is BIG):

Appetizers:
- Shrimp cocktail
- Celery with cheese
- Cheese and crackers
- Vegetable tray with dip
- Other chips and dips
- Relish tray (with black olives of course)

Main meal
- Turkey
- Ham
- Bread stuffing
- Mashed potatoes
- Gravy (often with mushrooms)
- Green bean casserole (the Durkee onion one)
- Mixed veggie casserole (carrots, peas, etc)
- Sweet potato casserole
- Rolls & butter
- Cranberry sauce

Desserts
- Pumpkin pie
- Other pie
- Ice cream
- Brownies
- Apple cake (sometimes)

Then we sit back in a food coma and catch the end of the football games.

I usually make cornbread stuffing, but in the south we call it dressing. I dont stuff the bird, I usually just make it separate.
I use a combination of Stovetop chicken or cornbread flavor and make some cornbread also and crumble and mix it up with a can of cream of chicken soup, some chicken or turkey broth and sauteed onions and celery and some sage.
Its really easy, and taste ok I guess, my family likes it.

mmmm all this talk is making me hungry! No Thanksgiving dinner here this year. It's 2 days after my surgery so I won't feel like cooking, I'm sure. Besides.... I'd be the only one here to eat it. I'm really kind of sad about it.

This is going to be my first Thanksgiving ever without my family around, it will be just me, Tybalt and the kitties. We're planning on maybe an oven stuffer roaster (chicken), stove top stuffings and some veggies. Nice quite night.

I haven't told my family yet that I'm not coming for dinner. It's a long story, mostly I am upset with my mother, who chose not to remember my birthday 6 weeks ago and hasn't called me since springtime (I called her twice a week) because she doesn't want to run up her phone bill. I told her 7-11 sells phone cards that are very inexpensive and you get 2 cents a minute talk time, she says she doesn't want to go to 7-11, it's out of the way. (It's one town away from her.) My feelings were hurt that she didn't call, email or even mail me a card. I couldn't care less about a gift. It's that she couldn't be bothered to make the effort to contact me. So I just can't see me sitting happily at the dinner table with her on Thanksgiving.

Well, I don't cook any Thanksgiving dinner, but I'll list what I like to eat
Turkey
Stovetop stuffing seperate from the turkey
Yams(mabye sweetpotatoes?) with marshmallows melted on them
Warm rolls <-- my favorite
Brownies
Any type of pie
Peas with carrots

Thats about all I can think of.

Later,
Brandon

One time I had this really wonderful savory sausage dressing (it wasn't corn bread and it didn't have fruit in it). Does anybody have recipes for something like this? Hubby doesn't like bread so I was thinking this would be a good substitute.

Thanks! Everybody's got some great menus!