Jump to content

Menu

Thanksgiving dishes - Raves and rants


Granny_Weatherwax
 Share

Recommended Posts

Did you have any stand out dishes?  Good and bad?

 

Rave - We ordered a smoked turkey breast from a local butcher and it was wonderful. This was the first year I haven't cooked a whole bird and I was a tad nervous about it.  Oh my, it was the best.

 

Rant - I overcooked the gluten free pumpkin pie and it was inedible.  I had to throw it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made dairy free creamed corn for my allergic kiddos. It was surprisingly good!!!

 

My gluten and dairy free chocolate pie was also yummy!!

 

Overall it was a success!

 

We also ordered a smoked turkey which was delicious and so easy. One less thing to worry about!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pastured turkey cooked beautifully and was delicious!

I undercooked the pumpkin pie a tad so it wasn't as firm as I like, but it still tastes great.

Kale salad was so-so, though the dressing was good, with fresh oj in it.

 

Half of our guests couldn't come at the last minute so we have loads of leftovers. I am sorry they are sick and sorry they could not come, but not sad to have more turkey and dressing for us! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We tried a lot of new dishes. A favorite was the savory cranberry sauce with shallots, ginger, figs and red wine. We did the turkey the same way we always do -- brined, seasoned with lots of herbs inside and under the skin, cooked at high heat breast side down, then right side up at lowere heat. Only 2 1/2 hours for a 17 lb bird, and it was perfect!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spatchcocked the turkey and it was done in one hour. Most moist turkey I've ever made, and it was easy to carve. Thanks to whoever posted about that because it was definitely a hit.

A lot of people were picking these up from our butcher. I was wondering if I'd miss the look of the classic turkey. But maybe I'll try next year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are going out to dinner later, so i expect all the food will be a win.

 

DD13's first year with pies - Amazing results!  Smashingly delicious pumpkin - creamy and rich with a little bite from the pepper.  but her crowning glory was the Mile High Lemon pie (Martha Stewart's recipe).  Tart and sweet and the meringue ended up about 3 inches thick.  DH and DS18 ate 3/4ths of the pie last night by themselves.  Gingerbread cookies came out good too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We smoked a turkey breast here. 2nd year to do so and the only way I'll ever do turkey. It was tender and not at all dry. All my growing up years I suffered through DRY turkey meat. Overcooked, anyone?

 

Ds did fantastic garlic mashed potatoes. He fried the chopped garlic in butter until it was brown and crispy, then dumped both the garlic and butter into the potatoes with a bit of cream. Oh my.

 

My pumpkin pie is tasty. Still haven't dug into the apple, but it's mighty pretty.

 

We have two large pots of chili simmering on the stove for a large family gathering tomorrow night. We are blessed to have so many lovely things to eat and so many nice relatives to eat it with.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rave - my sweet potato casserole was great

 

Rant - I can steam six different vegetables without any seasoning and open some per packaged rolls any day, mil. I'd love something a little more for Thanksgiving. The gravy was watery. The dressing was meh and seemed way too sage influenced or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roasted the turkey breast side down and then flipped it. It was awesome.

 

Yorkshire pudding fell completely. I threw it out and skipped it.

 

How do you flip a hot turkey? I wanted to do it, looked at dh asking how to flip it, we couldn't figure how without jabbing a fork in and whatnot, so we just put it in breast side up. I do cover most of the cooking time with some water in the bottom to steam it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried the herb brine from last weekend's Wall Street Journal and even though I only brined the meat for 24 hours rather than the 48 the recipe called for, the meat wound up WAAAAAAAY too salty. It's just as well that I chose not to make gravy because the LAST thing the turkey needed would be more salt.

 

So this year is not going to go down in family history as "the time mom didn't make gravy" but rather "the time mom made the turkey too salty".

 

At least I don't have that much in the way of leftovers since I bought legs rather than a whole bird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rave - tried a new recipe for glazed carrots - cooked them with ginger and maple syrup.  I loved the ginger addition.

 

Rant - my cranberry jello didn't set!!  Still hasn't as a matter of fact.  I added pomegranate and oranges so maybe the fruit kept it from jelling?  I had only heard that pineapple would do that.  I have no idea what to do with a big bowl of half set jello??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rave: brined the turkey for the first time, and for the first time ever, the white meat was moist, yes, moist!

 

Rant: poor dd tried to do our apple pie with the butter crust. She forgot to peel the Macintosh apples and couldn't remember whether she had used 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 c flour for the crust. She added some water, then decided to add some more flour. We didn't have apple pie.'

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first gluten free mostly dairy free thanksgiving. Other than the turkey being a little overdone and discovering you can't freeze heavy cream and make whipped cream, all is wonderful. I successfully converted recipes, and thickened gravy with....... cauliflower, then a stick blender. I can really tell the difference avoiding gluten.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds fabulous. Do you have a recipe to share??? :) (Thanks!)

I got it from the Food Network. It's called Cranberry Sauce with Pinot and Figs, Bobby Flay recipe. The recipe is on the Food Network app and on their website. I will attempt to link.

 

ETA I went to the website, but the IRL just says fooodnetwork.com. But it will come up if you search there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's it. The link did not show on my iPad. Maybe I should have copied anyway.

 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/cranberry-sauce-with-pinot-and-figs-recipe.html

 

Oh, I am dumb. When I pressed my finger on the url bar, the whole address popped up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raves: I made my grandmother's cranberry relish - my favorite flavor of the year. And I tried Smitten Kitchen's Baked Pumpkin and Sour Cream Puddings, which were delicious, easy, and satisfied my pumpkin pie craving without having to make a crust.

 

Rants: none, really. My stuffing could have used more seasoning, but it wasn't in dire shape.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raves: I made my grandmother's cranberry relish - my favorite flavor of the year. And I tried Smitten Kitchen's Baked Pumpkin and Sour Cream Puddings, which were delicious, easy, and satisfied my pumpkin pie craving without having to make a crust.

 

Rants: none, really. My stuffing could have used more seasoning, but it wasn't in dire shape.

Why have I never heard of the Smitten Kitchen? (Rhetorical question, obviously.) the pudding recipe looks luscious. Thx!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How do you flip a hot turkey? I wanted to do it, looked at dh asking how to flip it, we couldn't figure how without jabbing a fork in and whatnot, so we just put it in breast side up. I do cover most of the cooking time with some water in the bottom to steam it.

 

I just wrapped my hands in cloths (not getting my oven mitts dirty for this) and grabbed it by the drumsticks.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first gluten free mostly dairy free thanksgiving. Other than the turkey being a little overdone and discovering you can't freeze heavy cream and make whipped cream, all is wonderful. I successfully converted recipes, and thickened gravy with....... cauliflower, then a stick blender. I can really tell the difference avoiding gluten.

I would love to hear more about how you made the cauliflower-thickened gravy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spatchcocked the turkey and it was done in one hour. Most moist turkey I've ever made, and it was easy to carve.  Thanks to whoever posted about that because it was definitely a hit. 

 

We were going to try this but opted for the smoked breast instead.  I may try spatchcocking at a later date.  If nothing else, I want to be able to say I spatchcocked something.

My first gluten free mostly dairy free thanksgiving. Other than the turkey being a little overdone and discovering you can't freeze heavy cream and make whipped cream, all is wonderful. I successfully converted recipes, and thickened gravy with....... cauliflower, then a stick blender. I can really tell the difference avoiding gluten.

It gets easier.  My first GF thanksgiving was full of tears and tantrums.  I'm much better now and have tried foods and recipes I never thought possible.  It's actually quite fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raves - sweet potato casserole and cranberry sausage stuffing. The same recipes I've been using for years. The stuffing is great even with GF bread.

 

Rant - GF pie crust, it just irritates me. I've tried making it from scratch, using a mix, and now the pillsbury prepared dough. It sticks to everything, falls apart, and it's just...blah. I think I'm going to make crust less pie for Christmas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were going to try this but opted for the smoked breast instead.  I may try spatchcocking at a later date.  If nothing else, I want to be able to say I spatchcocked something.

It gets easier.  My first GF thanksgiving was full of tears and tantrums.  I'm much better now and have tried foods and recipes I never thought possible.  It's actually quite fun.

 

I am going to have to spatchcock as well :D

 

Actually the tears were if we had to find different things to make. We make the same things every year and really look forward to eating them, a few of the recipes were very dairy/wheat heavy. When I finally figured substitutes to use, it came together very well.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rant - GF pie crust, it just irritates me. I've tried making it from scratch, using a mix, and now the pillsbury prepared dough. It sticks to everything, falls apart, and it's just...blah. I think I'm going to make crust less pie for Christmas.

 

Just eat the pie filling with a spoon :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spatchcocked the turkey and it was done in one hour. Most moist turkey I've ever made, and it was easy to carve.  Thanks to whoever posted about that because it was definitely a hit. 

 

Adding my thanks for the spatchcock thread as well! I wound up splitting my turkey in two because of size--the half I salted first and did on top of a bed of celery, onions, rosemary and parsely was fantastic!

 

Rants--the salad dressing we made following recipe directions was not good. The combination of dijon mustard and apple cider vinager didn't just bite--it burned!

 

Raves--My old standby hot spiced fruit recipe. I rarely make it outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it just works and is so eary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got to stay at home for a change and make my own food. Best idea ever! 

No turkey. Awesome. We had pan seared steaks with shallot sauce, steamed broccoli, roasted potatoes, simple homemade cranberry sauce and a choice of custards and/or wine poached pears. Turned out that the pears and the custards paired perfectly, so most of us ended up eating both. It was all good.

No rants at all. Best ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rave: I spatchcocked the turkey for the first time this year. Yummy! My difficulties with this technique resulted from dull knives/shears as well as not properly breaking the breastbone so it didn't lay as flat as it should have. It took an extra 10 minutes to cook but it came out better than any other method I've tried (traditional, brown bag, wet brine, etc).

 

I spatchcocked first, getting distracted by turkey anatomy (I was a Biology major, after all), then applied a dry brine between the skin & meat. It sat overnight in the fridge uncovered which resulted in the crispiest skin ever and moist, flavorful meat. Much thanks to the original poster on this technique because I'd never heard of it before reading it here.

 

Rant: "Healthy" pumpkin pie brought by a guest. Can we go just one day out of the year without being so health conscious that the food tastes like cardboard?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The power went out everywhere other than my house, so with 1 hour notice before the 1st guests/cooks arrived I became the Thanksgiving hostess to a group of 24.  Thankfully my husband is a super-hero and he whipped the house into shape while I made room in the fridge and dug out all of the tablecloths, dishes, extra chairs, and whatnot from the basement.

 

Rave - Somehow we got everything ready on time and the turkey came out perfect.  

 

Rant - Jello is not a salad.  It just isn't.  And it tastes nasty with all that gunk you put in it.  So there  :tongue_smilie:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Rant - Jello is not a salad.  It just isn't.  And it tastes nasty with all that gunk you put in it.  So there  :tongue_smilie:

 

 

 

Rant: "Healthy" pumpkin pie brought by a guest. Can we go just one day out of the year without being so health conscious that the food tastes like cardboard?!

 

I talked to my mom last night on the phone, she made three jello salads I know with "gunk", a casserole dish with cream of mushroom soup, and white sauce/lots of mayo hollandaise... no wonder I had a stomach ache my entire childhood (dairy intolerant, food additive intolerant and soy products are not digestable)... I don't know what I'd do if I lived locally... 

 

And the poor pumpkin pie, we should have a moment of silence... It takes a lot to ruin a pumpkin pie! Do you want my curdled whipped cream to put on it? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...