Thanksgiving dinner menu

[Elizabeth86]

We usually just have the traditional things, but I always like to see what others are having. What is your family having this year?
 

Also, I wanted to say how thankful I am to be able to have Thanksgiving with my parents this year. So sad and lonely last year. I never would have imagined anything could have kept us apart.  It won’t be extended family this year, but I’m just glad my parents won’t be alone. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Elizabeth86

[EmilyGF]

Our special dish is Persimmon Pudding (a steamed pudding with the pulp of 3 hachiya persimmons). This is very Californian, and buying persimmons in the midwest is expensive, but we love it and look forward to it every Thanksgiving and Christmas. When my grandmother died, I got her steamed pudding pot and I use it twice per yer. Very worth it. 🙂

Otherwise, our favorites are stuffing with lots of pork products and fresh orange cranberry sauce.

I, too, am so thrilled to be with family again. In 2019 we ate at a college dorm because our first floor had flooded and we couldn't use our kitchen, nor could we afford to travel given the costs of the house work. In 2020, we had a family Thanksgiving that was fun, but not the same. Now my parents live within an easy driving distance and I am looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with them and extended family for the first time since 2010.

Emily

[HomeAgain]

Our menu this year:

• Smoked turkey breast
• Cranberry sauce with shallot, orange, and rosemary
• Twice baked sweet potatoes with taleggio cheese & herbs, OR sweet potato gnocchi with a brown butter & sage sauce
• Roasted vegetables, sauteed green beans with almonds
• Spinach salad w/goat cheese, dried cranberries, walnuts, and an oil/vinegar dressing
• Rolls - straight up bought from the store because I don't make those 😄
• Wine & sparkling cider

 

Dessert:

• Cranberry-orange cheesecake with chocolate crust
• Pumpkin pie
• Eggnog
• Coffee

The next day will have the addition of a sourdough loaf, and leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, and cheddar will get tossed on slices with a fabulous aioli for grilled sandwiches.

 ETA: if you can't tell, we do Thanksgiving alone. 😄 Dh's family won't touch the menu with a ten foot pole and those on my side don't like the menu being messed with.  However, our oldest will be back right before T-day and he is thrilled to have dad cooking again. 🙂

Edited November 8, 2021 by HomeAgain

[Pawz4me]

20 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

Our special dish is Persimmon Pudding (a steamed pudding with the pulp of 3 hachiya persimmons). This is very Californian, and buying persimmons in the midwest is expensive

I know nothing of that variety of persimmon, but the American persimmon is native to NC and pudding is very much a thing here. Or at least it used to be. I'm not so sure it's as popular as it was when I was a kid. But our version is typically baked, not steamed.

[PeterPan]

49 minutes ago, Elizabeth86 said:

What is your family having this year?

Aw shucks, you already know noodles with mashed potatoes will probably be on the menu. 😄 

I'm having a meal brought in from the local smokehouse because I'm too tired to cook much. I'll throw in some sides and pies. 

[marbel]

We always have:

roast turkey

stuffing made with Italian sausage and fennel

mashed potatoes (this year we are making a recipe that includes Boursin cheese)

cranberry sauce (I make a basic kind most years)

3 corn casserole (jiffy cornbread based; this is a must for one of my kids)

rolls

green beans with almonds topped with friend onions from the can (though if Trader Joe's has their fried jalapenos I may use those instead)

greens in some form, either a brussels sprout/spinach/radicchio salad with goat cheese, or sauteed kale, or maybe something different this year

This year I am also thinking of adding in some beets, although the recipe that is most inspiring me includes goat cheese and this dinner is already pretty cheesy.

pumpkin pie

a cheesecake or chocolate something for my one who doesn't like pumpkin pie

 

I love reading what other people are making, though it ends up making me want to do more/different and I can't go too crazy - there are only 4 of us!

[Innisfree]

26 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I know nothing of that variety of persimmon, but the American persimmon is native to NC and pudding is very much a thing here. Or at least it used to be. I'm not so sure it's as popular as it was when I was a kid. But our version is typically baked, not steamed.

That festival sounds like fun--I'd love to go, in a post-Covid year. The list of foods makes me nostalgic, especially the ham biscuits! 

[marbel]

52 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

those on my side don't like the menu being messed with. 

This cracked me up. My sister has made the exact same Thanksgiving menu since she became an adult with her own household; it's the menu mom made every year. Nothing can be changed, ever. She even objected when I mentioned that I don't put celery in my dressing - my husband despises the taste, smell, and texture and can detect even a little bit. So I just add more onions and fennel. Oh, but don't mention the fennel! "That's so weird." 🙄

Edited November 8, 2021 by marbel

[Innisfree]

Thanksgiving for us is always roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans with butter and almonds, probably a family jello salad with cranberries, regular cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie.

48 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

those on my side don't like the menu being messed with.

This is dh, and now our kids also. Christmas also has a Meal Which May Not Be Varied. I'm trying hard to have a little variety, but it has to be extras around the edges, not the principal dishes. 

[Faith-manor]

With any luck, keeping my mother in law from insisting on twenty five dishes and then refusing to eat buffet style so all your food gets insanely cold while you spend 45 minutes passing dishes at an uncomfortably crowded table. Sigh.

What we want is just turkey, baked dressing (no stuffing the turkey because then my mom and I cannot eat it due to gluten issues), mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, baked buttercup squash, mixed fruit bowl, homemade rolls for those that can have them. Pumpkin pie and chocolate pie (the chocolate one having a GF crust). I might make some roasted carrots to take but nothing more than that if we can help it.

She is insisting on having it at her place and since this is probably the last year she will be in her home, we are letting it happen. But she has a tiny kitchen and almost no counter top. So I think everything except the turkey will be made elsewhere and brought to her home which she will NOT like because she is having control issues. Oh well. She can't be allowed to make us all crazy with her demands.

If I had it my way, T Day would be a laid back affair with a spiral sliced ham, fruit tray veggie tray with dip, spinach dip and corn chips, cheese ball and crackers. We would set up a buffet, and we would eat casually, visit, and play cards. Mark would have time to work on his Christmas woodworking, and kitchen clean up would be simpler. He and I, and my mom would take our trays and bowls home unwashed and then pop them into our dishwashers at home. But for the sake of this last year with his mom being mentally and physically fit enough to participate, we will endure something more traditional and by extensiom, exhausting.

We are not spending a lot of time planning however. Our big planning effort is going to our family Christmas celebration at the Alabama home, and our Danish/Norse celebrations of Yul. I have a smorgasbrod to put on, an Icelandic elf house to build and decorate, and a season of cookie making to do. However, while some of the cookies will be GF, many of the best recipes do not turn out at all well with alternative flours and I will get sick if I bake with them and get all that flour dust into the air. So Mark and Robin will be handling that, and they have to begin the day after TDay in order to get them done for the first week of December when we are going to share cookies with some of my former colleagues and with his current ones, and Robin is taking them around to the neighbors in Bama. Another reason I wish that Tday was going to be less back breaking.

[73349]

For the three of us, my tentative plan is the night before to do a nice snack board (crudites, spinach and artichoke dip, assorted cheeses and crackers, and I think I'll add roasted mushrooms), then for Thanksgiving lunch this amazing butternut squash, with some peas and cider and cranberry sauce, and then for dinner, leftovers and pumpkin pie and cornbread. I'm disinclined to bother roasting a chicken this year (we're already having one this week for DH's birthday) and certainly a whole turkey would be overkill. DH may buy a smoked turkey leg (if he can find one) or some deli turkey to add in, but I'm all about the pie.

[rutheart]

Ham

Reheated rotisserie chicken (for those who don't eat pork, aka me)

cranberry sauce

mashed potatoes

chicken gravy

butternut squash (cubed, then boiled and slightly drained, so it's really moist, finished with a tablespoon of butter)

green beans

these rolls (because my kids think it's not Thanksgiving without them)

pie -probably chocolate with shortbread crust, maybe a second one if I can figure out what would taste okay without cinnamon, eggs, strawberries, cherries, bananas, peanuts . . . maybe a rhubarb rasp/blackberry pie?

 

This year, I'm putting the kids in charge of lunch/appetizers (usually pickles, olives, cheese, salami, crackers, etc).

Even though it's a simpler menu than pre-pandemic years, it still feels like too many dishes for four people. Hopefully this will be the last holiday season with just the four of us. 

 

[Laura Corin]

We are hoping to get a smoked turkey crown - it will just be two of us.  Dressing, green beans with cheese sauce, mashed potatoes, maybe roast sprouts?, pumpkin pie.

[MEmama]

Takeout? 

It's just the two of now, and we've never really done the traditional thanksgiving anyway.
 

I’m embracing the realization that I don’t enjoy cooking and am releasing myself of the expectation. 🙂 

Edited November 8, 2021 by MEmama

[HomeAgain]

1 hour ago, marbel said:

This cracked me up. My sister has made the exact same Thanksgiving menu since she became an adult with her own household; it's the menu mom made every year. Nothing can be changed, ever. She even objected when I mentioned that I don't put celery in my dressing - my husband despises the taste, smell, and texture and can detect even a little bit. So I just add more onions and fennel. Oh, but don't mention the fennel! "That's so weird." 🙄

I'm the same way when it comes to parsley.  Yuck!

My niece is very sensory, and the only textures and tastes she tolerates are things she's known her whole life, and even those are very plain.  It drives her mother nuts.  LOL  But, with our two families eating very differently, it just doesn't make sense to make this a contention point.  We can celebrate other things together. 🙂

[Storygirl]

It will be the six of us, plus SIL and FIL, which is a small group for us.

Turkey
dressing
mashed potatoes and gravy
sweet potatoes
green beans (made by SIL)
cranberry rolls https://rhodesbakenserv.com/cranberry-cream-cheese-pull-aparts/
pumpkin pie (brought by SIL/FIL)
chocolate chip cookie pie (probably, unless I switch to another idea) https://www.melskitchencafe.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-pie/

I'll figure out some kind of appetizer to nibble on and maybe will make some hot cider punch.

We usually have more side dishes, but this will be more than enough and includes what our family requires for it to feel Thanksgivingy.

[Selkie]

I don't like the usual Thanksgiving foods and I never cook on holidays. Last year, we ordered some amazing Middle Eastern food, and it was so good that it is going to be on the menu again.

Shawarma with all the fixings

Mediterranean rice

Spanish eggplant

Tiramisu cheesecake

Chocolate layer cake

Dutch apple pie

All vegan.

[YaelAldrich]

I'm flippin' out.  Still have the vegan who doesn't eat added sugar, the vegetarian, and the low cholesterol people and two (or three if the young adult who currently isn't speaking to his parents somehow comes) people who eat all (kosher) food.  I have to make everything ahead of time in my kosher kitchen before taking it down to NC from MA.  My parents will make their food and I will heat mine up somehow.  My usual Thanksgiving dinner is:

roast turkey parts (since we won't eat a whole turkey in one weekend and I don't want to bring food back with me)

dressing (with turkey juices),

kale or green beans

sweet potato casserole

mashed potatoes (vegan because we keep kosher) and (turkey) gravy

sweet potato pie (with sugar)

Brownie Caramel Torte (from a kosher bakery)

rolls (with egg from another kosher bakery)

I'm contemplating the choices and am sad sad sad.  

We're going to try the Whole Foods version of the Tofurky with stuffing and vegan gravy this week to see if it will fly as an easy main for the non -turkey eaters.  I'm not convinced this will be it.  Makes me more sad.  I don't want to eat red beans and rice or tofu and broccoli for Thanksgiving.  I think there will be a lot of quiet gnashing of teeth on my part.  Let me whine here y'all.  I promise I'll try not to be (very) annoying.

[Loowit]

I'm not even sure what we are doing yet.  I have been discussing it with DH and the kids, but we haven't come to a decision.  We were invited to my parent's house but my 16 year old is refusing to go.  He has a lot of anxiety and doesn't want to get his grandparents sick.  He is saying that the rest of us should still go and just leave him some fried chicken.  I am tempted to take him up on it because my mom is in really poor health, and I haven't seen her much lately.

Either way we will be having turkey and the usual accompaniments: mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes w/ marshmallows, cranberry sauce (canned at my parents/homemade if at home), and rolls.

If we go to my parent's I will bring the rolls (homemade) and a couple pies (pumpkin and ?).  Mom will make dressing.  She doesn't stuff the turkey any more due to gluten issues with some family members.  We don't have dressing/stuffing at home because none of us eat it.

If we stay home, in addition to the rolls and pie, I will also make a stuffed mushroom casserole (DD and I love it), and some sort of veggie or salad.  There will be pumpkin pie either way (DH won't let me listen to Christmas music until he has had his Thanksgiving pumpkin pie).

[Farrar]

4 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

• Cranberry-orange cheesecake with chocolate crust

Oooh. I might need to do this. I've done a pumpkin cheesecake for the last several years, but this sounds divine. Maybe time to change it up. Have already searched up the recipe. Have you made it before?

[Farrar]

We're not doing anything unusual at all. Turkey, gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, sausage dressing. I'll do roasted carrots and brussels sprouts with maple. Slightly fancied up.

I do like to mix it up with the desserts a bit. But still pretty traditional. I tried to suggest some menu tweaks and the house tried to rebel. So... traditional it is.

So grateful my mother is coming!

[HomeAgain]

45 minutes ago, Farrar said:

Oooh. I might need to do this. I've done a pumpkin cheesecake for the last several years, but this sounds divine. Maybe time to change it up. Have already searched up the recipe. Have you made it before?

The Epicurious one?  Yep.  It's been in rotation at our house for the past couple years. 🙂  The main thing with it in our house is to lower the temp by about 15-25 degrees, let it cook longer, and then have it rest for the entire day.  The first year we did it exactly like the recipe said and it was gooey in the middle. 

[WildflowerMom]

We're going to Cracker Barrel.  Since we've moved here, it's become tradition, I guess.  It'll just be dh, ds, and I (and possibly his gf), unless he goes to her house for thanksgiving.  We'll come home and have dessert and watch Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.  

[WildflowerMom]

After reading thru this, I think I may grab a ham and have some ham sandwiches for anyone who wants it over the long weekend.   I'm not normally a pork person, but I think I'll make an exception.  Y'all got me hungry. 

[ScoutTN]

We are not hosting, but I will cook some anyway. Getting a pastured turkey from a local farm. 
 

Also:

cranberry sauce 

GF cornbread dressing

pies - pumpkin and probably apple

veggies - Brussels sprouts casserole for sure

 

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, WildflowerMom said:

We're going to Cracker Barrel.  Since we've moved here, it's become tradition, I guess.  It'll just be dh, ds, and I (and possibly his gf), unless he goes to her house for thanksgiving.  We'll come home and have dessert and watch Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.  

This sounds absolutely perfect.  I'd love to do something like this! 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

2 hours ago, YaelAldrich said:

I'm flippin' out.  Still have the vegan who doesn't eat added sugar, the vegetarian, and the low cholesterol people and two (or three if the young adult who currently isn't speaking to his parents somehow comes) people who eat all (kosher) food.  I have to make everything ahead of time in my kosher kitchen before taking it down to NC from MA.  My parents will make their food and I will heat mine up somehow.  My usual Thanksgiving dinner is:

roast turkey parts (since we won't eat a whole turkey in one weekend and I don't want to bring food back with me)

dressing (with turkey juices),

kale or green beans

sweet potato casserole

mashed potatoes (vegan because we keep kosher) and (turkey) gravy

sweet potato pie (with sugar)

Brownie Caramel Torte (from a kosher bakery)

rolls (with egg from another kosher bakery)

I'm contemplating the choices and am sad sad sad.  

We're going to try the Whole Foods version of the Tofurky with stuffing and vegan gravy this week to see if it will fly as an easy main for the non -turkey eaters.  I'm not convinced this will be it.  Makes me more sad.  I don't want to eat red beans and rice or tofu and broccoli for Thanksgiving.  I think there will be a lot of quiet gnashing of teeth on my part.  Let me whine here y'all.  I promise I'll try not to be (very) annoying.

Honestly? I wouldn’t make everyone change their Thanksgiving.  I would have a couple vegan dishes for those who don’t eat animal products; enough dishes to fill them up, and a dessert, but I wouldn’t change the entire Thanksgiving dinner.  

[mmasc]

very traditional & never changes from year-to-year. We are military so it’s always just the 5 of us, and I always cook the whole meal, and it’s always what we’d eat “back home” so it feels kind of comforting to us.

Turkey breast (I’d love to not cook this. I’m not any good at it and try a new recipe basically every year. Or better yet—anyone know where you can buy a good one already cooked??)

fried ham (again, don’t care much for this either, but my family loves it and it’s only made once a year. This is a tradition stemming from my in laws side of the family)

Dressing (aka stuffing 🙂)

mac-n-cheese

Corn

rolls

homemade cranberry sauce (I’m the only one who eats it though)

deviled eggs

green beans 

pecan pie

lemon meringue pie

[Annie G]

We’ll continue our tradition of having lasagna for Thanksgiving-I only make it about twice a year so it’s pretty special to us.

Thanksgiving week is Pie Week in our house. We make one a day, and invite people over most days so we have pie to share with folks. Only have three days of guests so far, but I’m sure I can fill in a few more.  The guests already invited have asked for chocolate chess, apple, and peanut butter pie. 

[QueenCat]

Turkey

Gravy

Mashed potatoes

Macaroni & Cheese

Stuffing

Glazed Carrots

Dessert: Chocolate Pie and something else (varies)

[Kassia]

26 minutes ago, mmasc said:

 

Turkey breast (I’d love to not cook this. I’m not any good at it and try a new recipe basically every year. Or better yet—anyone know where you can buy a good one already cooked??)

 

If you have Kentucky Legend products in your area, their turkey is very good (all their products are).  If you sign up for their newsletter, they will send you coupons too.  

[ScoutTN]

2 hours ago, WildflowerMom said:

We're going to Cracker Barrel.  Since we've moved here, it's become tradition, I guess.  It'll just be dh, ds, and I (and possibly his gf), unless he goes to her house for thanksgiving.  We'll come home and have dessert and watch Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.  

We are going to CB with my mom. Easy, wheelchair friendly, and not too pricey.

[lynn]

  My dil lives near all her family with their traditions so with 3 babies 3 and under I don't want to add the stress of having to do 2 Thanksgiving's and I'm good with that.  Its just 4 of us so I was thinking of getting a rotisserie chicken, make everyone's favorite side and apple pie.

[YaelAldrich]

1 hour ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

Honestly? I wouldn’t make everyone change their Thanksgiving.  I would have a couple vegan dishes for those who don’t eat animal products; enough dishes to fill them up, and a dessert, but I wouldn’t change the entire Thanksgiving dinner.  

My parents will have their normal Thanksgiving meal made by my mom.

Basically it's just me and my youngest and possibly my husband who are adversely affected because we want a normal, non-vegan/vegetarian/low cholesterol Thanksgiving. In other words a distinct minority.

My mom will be worried and upset if they don't have sufficient Thanksgiving-esque  food to eat. That was the case when we started going down because we all used to keep kosher and they see that as not normal. They thought we couldn't eat normal Thanksgiving food.  Now it's kosher, vegan (no sugar), vegetarian, and low cholesterol and their non-kosher regular food.

It's my enviable job to get something together to soothe my mom and feed everyone in a non-kosher kitchen. I can't let them hang by their own petard in this case as I would if we were at home.

[lynn]

25 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

We are going to CB with my mom. Easy, wheelchair friendly, and not too pricey.

We were considering  this also since its just 3 maybe 4 of us this year but I like the idea if having some leftovers for the weekend.

[WildflowerMom]

34 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

We are going to CB with my mom. Easy, wheelchair friendly, and not too pricey.

Last year we went in the mid afternoon and there was hardly anyone there.  Very nice and no cooking or dishes to clean!  

[Jenny in Florida]

I honestly haven't even had the emotional energy to consider that Thanksgiving is happening, let alone to decide what to serve to whoever might be around.

Typically, Thanksgiving for us is potato pancakes with home-made applesauce (and sour cream for the one non-vegan in the family), green beans sautéed with garlic and onions, cornbread with maple-margarine spread, sweet potato casserole, fresh cranberry sauce (which some of us put on the cornbread and others dollop on the potato pancakes) and some kind of rice/lentil dish. 

In previous years, when my son's ex-girlfriend was at the table, I made a fancy mac and cheese. 

I have experimented with various other things, but we usually have a very small group at the table, and the above is already too much food. We actually gave up on doing any kind of dessert years ago, because after eating dinner, none of us were ever interested in more food.

We haven't even talked to our son, though, about his/their schedule, and I am fairly sure the ex-girlfriend (who still lives with us for another few months) will be spending the holiday with her family. Our daughter isn't travelling yet (and wouldn't consent to be here if her brother were around, anyway). So, there is a possibility it will be just my husband and me, in which case we might just do takeout from Tijuana Flats or something. 

 

 

[MooCow]

3 hours ago, WildflowerMom said:

We're going to Cracker Barrel.  Since we've moved here, it's become tradition, I guess.  It'll just be dh, ds, and I (and possibly his gf), unless he goes to her house for thanksgiving.  We'll come home and have dessert and watch Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.  

We did cracker barrel for a year or two. Since dd used to work there, we usually avoid it for her sake. She hates going in there and always being offered her job back. She's like I have my big girl job now, lol.