Small scale Thanksgiving

[Elizabeth86]

This is the first Thanksgiving that I won't be with extended family.  Dh has to work.  It will just be me, dd 9, ds 7, dd 5 and dd2.  I'm not about to make a turkey because we don't like it.  I'm thinking of buying a rotisserie chicken.  I'm not sure what else, but it will be simple this year.  

If you are having Thanksgiving with just the people you live with, what will you be cooking this year? Also any fun things to do for the littles? There won't be cousins to play with this year.

[Katy]

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Rotisserie chicken. I haven’t thought through it more than that. Sometimes Sam’s club has this Gouda cheese dip (a white one, not the typical red pimento one), and if they bring it back this year I’ll use it to make my green bean casserole instead of cream of mushroom soup. Otherwise no thoughts, but I’m all ears. 

[theelfqueen]

I know someone who instead of doing traditional Thanksgivng fare lets each member of their family pick a favorite dish of any kind ... so maybe they have spaghetti and deviled eggs and pancakes... and that's their Thanksgiving.  

We have done Thanksgiving smaller the last few years, I do a ham in the Instant Pot. 

[fairfarmhand]

One of my mom's friends always went to 7-11 with the whole family for hot dogs on Thanksgiving. They NEVER did that except on Thanksgiving and the kids LOVED it. 

[MrsMommy]

Most years, our Thanksgiving is just the people in our house (there are seven of us). I always do a full Thanksgiving dinner, plus every member of our family gets to a pick a pie for me to make. Having so much pie means we always have pie for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving! We play parade bingo (not exactly sure what that will look like this year, but we're still going to try), and watch the National Dog Show and Holiday Inn. Oh, and the children make hand and footprint turkeys, which is my favorite annual craft. It's one of my favorite holidays!

[teachermom2834]

I usually host a big Thanksgiving for my side of the family and my two adult sons come in from out of town. This year it will just be dh, me, 17yo ds, and 12 yo dd. 22 yo ds might come in but considering we aren’t doing much I’m going to make sure he feels comfortable choosing to go to his gf’s family. It will be my first year without all my kids home for Thanksgiving. 
 

I don’t know what to do to make it special but I don’t feel like cooking for just us. I think we will get takeout from a kind of fancy catering place that is doing takeout family meals. I might make a special thing or two that is traditional for our family if the kids want it. But, honestly, I’m depressed about the whole thing and I don’t feel like cooking the meal will help. Not sure what we will do with the day. Maybe drive up through the mountains. 

[itsheresomewhere]

It is always just us for any holiday. For Thanksgiving- I make the turkey and everyone puts in what side and dessert they want. Then we eat it over the next few days . 
 

One year to make it different, I did a Cornish hen for each person.  My kids loved having their own miniature “turkey” and still talk about that year.

[SounderChick]

When it's just my parents and us we often do a less traditional meal.  We have done lobster, bison,  and game hens. Anything you don't normally have.

[Elizabeth86]

1 hour ago, theelfqueen said:

I know someone who instead of doing traditional Thanksgivng fare lets each member of their family pick a favorite dish of any kind ... so maybe they have spaghetti and deviled eggs and pancakes... and that's their Thanksgiving.  

We have done Thanksgiving smaller the last few years, I do a ham in the Instant Pot. 

That would be awesome for kids my age. My 9 year old is terribly traditional, so I don't think he will like that one bit. 

If asked my kids and they said

Sweet and sour chicken

Pancakes and Mac N Cheese

Pancakes

Sketti, Lettuce and a sandwich

[Junie]

We do a low-key Thanksgiving every year.  Sometimes it's just us, sometimes my family joins us.  Especially if my brother and/or sister are here, I don't want to spend all of my time in the kitchen.

Our menu:

rotisserie chickens

instant mashed potatoes

Stove-top

canned sweet potatoes w/ butter and brown sugar

random vegetable

canned cranberry sauce

Hawaiian sweet rolls

store-bought pies

 

[ScoutTN]

We have done a take-out meal from Fresh Market before and it was yummy. Salmon. 

We've also done Chinese food from P.F. Chang's. 

I do love the traditional meal and don't mind making it for just four or five (us with my mom is five). I just get a smaller turkey and make fewer sides, but all from scratch. Still lots of pie! Pie for breakfast for several days!! 

[Beth S]

I do "jiffy" Thanksgiving here when it's just our immediate family.
I bought a $10 frozen turkey breast today, which apparently you can take from the freezer to the oven.
Stove Top Stuffing
Cheesy Corn
Crescent Rolls
Fruit Salad
Dessert that everyone loves = like Key Lime Pie.

We'll all be stuffed, but it will take less than an hour to assemble.
My SIL is a whiz in the kitchen, and we will all miss our usual big family gathering at their house.
But with 3 octagenarians and 4 nephews with Finals . . . we need to keep everyone healthy this year.

[Ditto]

 Thanksgiving this year is going to be homemade chili.   Can't remember what else we decided to have with it.

[J-rap]

That will be us this year too -- first time not with extended family.  I think the rotisserie chicken sounds great!  I'd probably serve mashed sweet potatoes, a veggie that everyone likes, good rolls, and a pie.

OR, I might order a TG meal from a local restaurant.  That's what we did for Easter.  They provided an entire meal for a family, and all I had to do was drive by to pick it up, and reheat.

[PrincessMommy]

We're doing something simple.  It will probably be some kind of beef - boring I know.  I don't have any little kids though.

I do have friends who make a country theme out of Thanksgiving.   One year it was Greece, another year Germany, etc. etc.   Her husband loves to cook so it made planning a menu way more fun with help.   I'm not that create or energetic. 

[alisoncooks]

Well, this will be my first Thanksgiving at home in 20 years. I'm going *all out* for just the 4 of us. I'm ready to finally have a nice, yummy, fancy meal (which is not what we get when we are with the in-laws). 

Eta: and by "fancy" I mean actually sitting at a table, eating from "real" plates (which will be Corelle at our place) and everyone civil and happy. 

Edited October 31, 2020 by alisoncooks

[Bambam]

I've floated the rotisserie chicken idea before, because although I just cook a turkey breast, we still have a lot of leftovers. My kids have always acted like that is just evil. And they want the traditional same old stuff. I'm for something new and different, but I'm stuck with my immediate family that demands turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole ( which must be made with canned green beans), dressing, and rolls. No one really cares about dessert, so we've been known to skip that. 

I'll continue down our boring traditional path. It keeps the natives happy. 

[Susan in TX]

54 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

Eta: and by "fancy" I mean actually sitting at a table, eating from "real" plates (which will be Corelle at our place) and everyone civil and happy. 

Great idea! I think I will pull out my good china. Since there will only be six of us I will have enough place settings.

Susan in TX

[KungFuPanda]

3 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:

This is the first Thanksgiving that I won't be with extended family.  Dh has to work.  It will just be me, dd 9, ds 7, dd 5 and dd2.  I'm not about to make a turkey because we don't like it.  I'm thinking of buying a rotisserie chicken.  I'm not sure what else, but it will be simple this year.  

If you are having Thanksgiving with just the people you live with, what will you be cooking this year? Also any fun things to do for the littles? There won't be cousins to play with this year.

We've done a few holidays with just my immediate family.  To make it special without knocking myself out, I've either done one of the Rachel Ray one hour Thanksgiving menus (I like the original one with the pumpkin soup and herbed turkey breasts), OR I've ordered a holiday meal from Boston Market.  With the Boston Markey meal, you don't have to choose turkey as your main dish.  It was nice to have a big, special meal and all those leftovers without spending more than an hour in the kitchen.  

[Selkie]

We were just talking about this at dinner. Thanksgiving is usually just the five of us, and we're not into the traditional foods. Plus, I don't like to cook on holidays because so much of my day to day life is spent in the kitchen. So we voted and decided on a delicious mishmash of Indian food, shawarma, and Asian dumplings. All vegan and all ordered pre-made from goldbelly.com. We'll probably order dessert from Foxship Bakery.

 

[MercyA]

I offered to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal for my husband and daughter. They want pizza. 🙂

My mom is making a pie for each of her kids and delivering them to our doors. I told her it should be the other way around, but she is insisting. ❤️

[Bootsie]

We have often had only immediate family at Thanksgiving--we would have pumpkin pancakes for breakfast and turkey hot dogs for dinner

[Kareni]

Will your husband also  be working on Friday and Saturday? Sometimes we've celebrated a day or two later to include someone who can't come on Thanksgiving day.

Regards,

Kareni

[BakersDozen]

Since we decided many years ago to not do the big traditional Thanksgiving dinner (our kids thank us every year) we've let each of them choose something they want to make. Some years we have mashed potatoes, stuffing, hot chocolate, and pie. One year we had varieties of pizza. What our dc look forward to the most is our Snoopy/Woodstock Thanksgiving meal . Heaven help us if we don't have popcorn, pretzels, jelly beans, and (the food they devour the most) buttered toast. Even our older dc who are out of the house make sure they know what time the CB meal/movie will happen so they can be here.

We also have sparkling apple cider which we only have on holidays. The little kids are so excited to be able to use "real" glasses (I bought teeny tiny "wine" glasses for them at a thrift store).

Given the ages of OP's dc I'd go for the Charlie Brown thing for sure.

Edited October 31, 2020 by BakersDozen

[TravelingChris]

10 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:

This is the first Thanksgiving that I won't be with extended family.  Dh has to work.  It will just be me, dd 9, ds 7, dd 5 and dd2.  I'm not about to make a turkey because we don't like it.  I'm thinking of buying a rotisserie chicken.  I'm not sure what else, but it will be simple this year.  

If you are having Thanksgiving with just the people you live with, what will you be cooking this year? Also any fun things to do for the littles? There won't be cousins to play with this year.

We have always had Thanksgiving with our just our immediate family (plus dsil -sometimes, and a few times, old college classmates of my son). We always do a turkey unless we are eating out (like when we were moving cross country and spent it at the Grand Canyon, or traveling or even just at home), in which case, we also eat Turkey.

[Laura Corin]

We will have a ham and the side dishes we actually like. It will just be the two of us.

[Innisfree]

In recent years Thanksgiving is always just immediate family for us; additionally, dh always has to work on Thanksgiving (and Friday and Saturday).

Nevertheless, no one would be happy if we skipped the traditional meal. I've been stuffing and roasting turkeys long enough now that it's not actually that much trouble. We do enjoy the turkey, and the meals with leftovers, so I fix the largest one I can find. Mashed potatoes are easy, gravy is easy. Et cetera.

My favorite part of the ritual is being able to relax for days afterward, not having to think about fixing dinner, just having the fridge stuffed with food everyone likes.

I think the key part, though, is that we like that food, and we enjoy the tradition. Do what your family likes. No point in the effort otherwise.

[Calm37]

Dreamergal, I don't cook much at all, but turkey is really easy. Just buy the Reynolds Turkey-size oven bags, stick it in with an onion or two and carrots, and bake for the time on the instructions. Can't dry it out, really. The oven temp is 325, so timing is not crucial.

Now if you don't like turkey, that's a different thing.... 🙂

 

[athena1277]

We have been just us for Thanksgiving many years.  Dh often has only the one day off and family too far away for a day trip.

I usually cook a turkey breast (cook in large crockpot), sweet potato casserole, jello salad, rice-a-roni, cranberry sauce, and rolls.  Those are all of our “must haves.”

I don’t love doing all that cooking, but I do like not dealing with Thanksgiving traffic.

[Ali in OR]

When our kids were small and T-day was just us, we used to roast a chicken. For the last 10 years or so, dh's brother and family have lived in the state and have joined us. Dh learned how to do an excellent smoked turkey on the grill. We haven't told them yet, but we want to not meet up this year (we may be influenced by the year they gave us norovirus). But I think we'll still do the smoked turkey--just a smaller one. And our usual sides-mashed potatoes & jarred gravy, canned cranberry sauce, homemade rolls, and a green salad. We usually have a couple of pies and cheesecake because the inlaws love cheesecake. We don't want too much leftover dessert, so we're still negotiating what we want to have most this year.

[cjzimmer1]

I haven't discussed Thanksgiving with my extended family yet but then we don't normally discuss holiday food plans until just a few days before the event so plus with the COVID stuff it just feels way too soon to make any kind of decision.  But generally we can roll with things pretty well so even last minute changes aren't really going to stress anyone out.  That said, my dad hasn't let anyone inside their house for a few months.  My sister owns property nearby them and we regularly see each other outside there.  If we do anything, I will suggest we build a giant fire and we can all sit around outside.  I think my dad will feel more comfortable with that.  I've been helping cleaning up the property and have another 20-30 trees to cut down so there will be no shortage of wood if we decide to go that route.  If we can't get together, I'm not sure what we will do.  I've never cooked a traditional Thanksgiving meal. My kids aren't fans of it so I expect we'd end up doing something else but still try to keep it special.

[wintermom]

We had our Thanksgiving in October already in Canada. We made a spiral ham (from Costco), chipped potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and home-made apple crisp. We are 6 people in the immediate family, and we're used to having every Sunday dinner including holidays with 25+ people in the extended family.  Three of us went over to grandma's to for a short visit in the morning, as we couldn't all meet up as a big unit.

[itsheresomewhere]

2 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

We are usually invited out. I really don't know how to cook turkey in the oven. I will just dry it out. 

We love seafood so planning to make grilled crab legs, Garlic mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, some sort of salad. For dessert, my kids and I have been watching the master class of the BBC Bake off and making small things like biscotti, so probably something from that. 

Turkeys are easy.  I stuff mine with butter, herbs, whole apple cut in half and an orange cut in half.  I brush the bird with avocado oil and Herbs de Provence.  Put in the oven at 325 until it reaches the  temp 165. While it is cooking, I do put a piece of foil on top if it is getting too brown.  I don’t use roasting bags as I don’t like to cook with plastic.

[Annie G]

For the past 30 years it’s almost always been just our immediate family. We usually let everyone choose a favorite dish and I usually added a couple more to round it out (since we’d often have just carbs on their lists- dressing, mashed potatoes, fresh creamed corn, etc.).  The past decade or so we’ve moved to having lasagna or stuffed shells instead. Ds still wants fresh creamed corn on T’giving even if we have lasagna.   We almost never have turkey. 

[Sherry in OH]

It has been just the four of us for several years.  None of us care for turkey so dh will be having brisket and the rest of us Tofurky.   The children's favorite Thanksgiving dishes are mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry relish, and pumpkin pie.  I will also make a green vegetable, a side of dh's choice, and a second variety of pie. 

We like leftovers.  

 

[KungFuPanda]

5 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

Thanks @itsheresomewhere and @Calm37

I don't know my way around an oven much and have produced cardboard salmon in my time. I am also not good at figuring out how to thaw the turkey. We do cornish hens occasionally, but that's it. We like Thanksgiving Turkey though, fried ones especially. We have friends who do that every year and will surely miss that. We have been promised our portion of the thanksgiving feast driven by and dropped on the porch. 

You don't have to guess!  I have a thermometer that I put in the meat and it beeps when it's the correct temperature.  I use it for bread and even casseroles/leftovers.  It's great peace of mind to not worry about over or under cooking things in the oven.  They're pretty cheap too.

[ScoutTN]

OP, in your shoes, I'd go with the rotisserie chx, a starchy side, a green veggie, and pie! Maybe two kinds of pie! 

Watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and have a not-stressful day! 

Pumpkin pie and apple pie are standard breakfast fare here during holiday seasons! Feels festive and is quick and easy! 

Pumpkin pancakes! Yummmm. Easy and fun. 

 

I

[mom2scouts]

I usually host a big Thanksgiving dinner for my adult and minor kids, their SOs, and my parents. Sometimes my sister, BIL, nephew, or lonely friends of my adult kids will come too. This year it will probably just be the four of us still living here which will seem a bit sad and lonely. I think we'll go ahead and make a turkey and all the usual Thanksgiving dishes just to keep some tradition. DH will probably want to make the drive to deliver plates of Thanksgiving dinner to my elderly parents.

[theelfqueen]

So several of the BBQ restaurants around here offer smoked or fried Turkey or ham for pickup. Delicious. 

[Elizabeth86]

20 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

OP, in your shoes, I'd go with the rotisserie chx, a starchy side, a green veggie, and pie! Maybe two kinds of pie! 

Watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and have a not-stressful day! 

Pumpkin pie and apple pie are standard breakfast fare here during holiday seasons! Feels festive and is quick and easy! 

Pumpkin pancakes! Yummmm. Easy and fun. 

 

I

I think this is what I'm doing. Rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and dinner rolls.  My oldest ds and I insist on pumpkin pie, but my 2 middles never like homemade dessert so I think I'll make rice krispie treats or chocolate chip cookies.

[Elizabeth86]

On 10/31/2020 at 12:02 AM, Kareni said:

Will your husband also  be working on Friday and Saturday? Sometimes we've celebrated a day or two later to include someone who can't come on Thanksgiving day.

Regards,

Kareni

Yeah, his next day off will be Sunday.

[JustEm]

we'll have the traditional thanksgiving dinner of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mash potatoes, asparagus, and pies. And we'll make enough for tons of leftovers!

[Amethyst]

It will just be dh and my two youngest (the two oldest are away doing residencies many states away).
 

We’re vegetarian so we never make turkey for thanksgiving. Instead, do a meal that everyone likes. Have the kids join in with meal preparation as much as possible. Can the oldest make a dessert on her own? If not, this is a great time to teach her. You’ll have to do it together this time but then it will become “her dessert” which will give her a sense of pride and ownership. I suggest a pumpkin roll - surprisingly easy but visually spectacular, and bonus, it can be made days ahead. 
 

likewise, involve the other kids with cooking too. Even rolling up the Pillsbury crescent rolls. And setting the table with fancy china and cloth napkins if you have them. Just because it’s a small group doesn’t mean that you aren’t the most special people in each others lives - celebrate that!
 

when my kids were your kids ages, we had a large bulletin board in our house. Starting Nov 1, they each got a piece of paper (shapes like leaves, pilgrim hats, turkeys, etc) and they wrote something they were thankful for. As the month went on, it became a nice decoration, thoughtful expression, and writing practice!

Edited November 2, 2020 by Amethyst

[KungFuPanda]

On 11/1/2020 at 3:39 PM, Dreamergal said:

Oh ?? Link please. Thanks. I am doing sheet pan suppers now, but any big chunk of meat, poultry or fish I dry out.

Here you go. It’s the turkey breast recipe, as well as the pumpkin soup, that I’ve used over and over. I add walnuts to the relish for the soup. https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/food-network-specials/episodes/rachael-rays-thanksgiving-in-60