Thanksgiving 2021

[prasantrin]

Yeah, it's early for a TG discussion for everyone else, but mine is 12 days away and I need help!

For the first time in years, I'm having Thanksgiving with people other than my mother. I offered to cook, but I'll be in someone else's kitchen, so I'm planning to keep things very very simple. There are only 5 of us, and it's all family, so it's not going to be formal in any way.

I have an idea of what I'm going to make, and the menu v.1 is:

Rib roast

Roasted brussels sprouts leaves (maybe with pumpkin seeds and dried figs, and I might just halve /the sprouts, but I really do prefer just the leaves)

Green beans and mushrooms (and maybe carrots) with thyme or dill

sweet potato casserole (made by someone else)

Mashed potatoes (my uncle likes them)

Gravy

Nam pla prik

Cranberry sauce (we probably won't eat it with the rib roast, but I'm planning on using it for chicken salad sandwiches after)

Macaroni salad (maybe, made by someone else)

Maybe Yorkshire puddings (made by presidents choice lol. It seems easy to make, but I've never made it before and my oven space will be limited. So will my baking pans, as my aunt has none).

Apple crisp, maybe with not homemade ice cream

What am I missing? Should I add a green salad? Or a spinach gratin? Or maybe some roasted broccoli? Or some kind of tomato salad?  Or roasted zucchini?

I also have no appetizers. Maybe I'll use the spot prawns I ordered and make gambas al ajillo served with some French bread. Or my mom will make spanakopita or I'll make sausage rolls, but maybe not. Or we might just put out a bowl of tortilla chips and make some pico de gallo. I'd be fine with that. 

I'm hoping to freeze lots of leftovers - one aunt lives on her own, and rarely cooks. And the other aunt and her husband also never cook anymore. They're all in their 70s, so it'll be nice to leave them with some pre-packed meals to freeze. So it's better to have too much food, I think.

Suggestions are welcome! Preferably simple ones that freeze well, please! 

 

 

 

[voyager]

I am exhausted after just reading your menu.    And depressed that our TG is so soon coming up.    I loved 2020 with its non-family meal.    I think the kids may have had their double vax by late November so I guess my holiday from holidays is over.   

 

[StephanieL]

I'm heading back East this year--yay!  It'll be nice to see family again.  Obviously, I won't be doing any cooking--I leave the menu up to my cousin, and maybe my mother.  I'll be bringing the usual 1-lb. box of See's dark chocolate assortment, and any other desserts or beverages my cousin might want.

[prasantrin]

I like to think everything I'm planning to make will be easy. I'm a lazy cook, and also a lazy eater, so I like to make only simple things. 

I don't think my mother and I have had Thanksgiving with anyone but the two of us in 20 years, and for at least 5-ish years prior to that, it was pretty much just my parents and me. It'll be different, that's for sure, and I'm fairly certain I'll be happy to be back to it being just the two of us next year.

[Diancecht]

not sure yet what it will be this year, other than turkey and pies.

we saw a vendor at this past weekend’s market that sells heritage turkey and we would need to pick it up at the farm the weekend before. looks like a road trip is in our near future.

our dinner guests are picky, so, uh, some of the sides and desserts will cater to them. 

to be continued…

[prasantrin]

So, Thanksgiving menu got whittled down. We ended up with 4 people instead of 5. There was no rib roast to be found, so I picked up a couple of thick rib steaks. Then no cranberries left (what kind of store removes cranberries from display the day before Thanksgiving, 5 hours before they close?) so no leftover cranberry sauce to use in chicken salad sandwiches. Also no green beans to be found except really big ones at the farmers market, and those are never tasty.  And I forgot to get limes, so nam pla prik. 

In the end, we had rib steak, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, macaroni salad, roasted asparagus, roasted broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, rice. No gravy because I was tired. And no apple crisp because we were gifted an apple pie from the Okanagan. My aunt had a couple of beets in the fridge, so I also made roasted beets with a balsamic and honey glaze and pumpkin seeds (with goat cheese dotted here and there). The beets were actually my favorite item, and I generally hate beets.

[Diancecht]

sounds great!

still not sure what to do yet; we usually make up our minds the week beforehand

having said that, we bought canned cranberry sauce and 🤮 stovetop stuffing for one of our guests who has a craving for those. the rest of us will have other options. so far i’m thinking of cranberry sauce with orange and almonds, and maybe sourdough stuffing with sausage or wild rice stuffing with chestnuts, onion and mushrooms.

one guest is from the uk and he isn’t a fan of and doesn’t quite understand the concept of “stuffing”. plus he has certain food likes and dislikes that i have to take into consideration.

[prasantrin]

Maybe you can make a strata in lieu of stuffing! It was on my list, but it was nixed in the end.    

I forgot my sauteed mushrooms - a combination of pine and cinnamon chanterelles. The pine mushrooms were the oddest mushrooms I've ever had. My mother loved them. 

[StephanieL]

I actually like canned jellied cranberry sauce.  For years, my mother also cooked a turkey on Passover, and she'd serve the canned stuff then.

[small h]

45 minutes ago, StephanieL said:

I actually like canned jellied cranberry sauce

Me, too. We always have both kinds - canned and "real."

[prasantrin]

I used to think I hated cranberry sauce because I had only ever had the canned jellied kind. Turns out I like chunky. I'm sure the canned is fine, but it was probably also the lines from the can embedded in the jelly, and the way it plopped out of the can, that made me dislike it (I had a lot of odd dislikes as a child).

Other Thanksgiving food I thought I hated because my first experiences with them were with convenience versions - stuffing and mashed potatoes. And pumpkin pie (which I still dislike).

[voyager]

I remember with fondness a Thanksgiving some decades ago which we were spending in the country.    Husband and son said they didn't want pumpkin pie, so I didn't plan one.    En route, as we drove through the last vestige of civilization, passing a diner, I told husband, "Pull in here."    I went in and asked the waitress for a slice of pumpkin pie to go, then told her my story.    She looked at me, at the pie, and cut a huge slice.   Handing it to me she smiled and said, "Happy Thanksgiving!"   I've never forgotten her.

[Sneakeater]

I have a feeling I’ve alienated enough people over the course of the Quarantine that I’ll be having another Thanksgiving Grouse alone at home.  

[Sneakeater]

5 hours ago, StephanieL said:

I actually like canned jellied cranberry sauce. 

Me three!

[hollywood]

3 hours ago, prasantrin said:

Other Thanksgiving food I thought I hated because my first experiences with them were with convenience versions - stuffing and mashed potatoes. And pumpkin pie (which I still dislike).

Maybe you should try sweet potato pie.