Turkey Poll!

All Important Turkey Poll

  • Turkey at home

    Votes: 101 71.6%

  • No turkey at home

    Votes: 16 11.3%

  • Dine out - turkey

    Votes: 21 14.9%

  • Dine out - no turkey

    Votes: 3 2.1%
  • Total voters
    141
  • Poll closed .
Making Turkey Osso Bucco using a whole turkey and cutting it up into pieces. With any luck, I won’t cut any digits off in the process.
 
Traditional turkey and sides at the in-law's house with a couple of friends. Kids and grandkids will gather at our house on Friday for leftovers and maybe spend the night, which would be fun. We're pretty strict low-carb, so Thanksgiving is always a challenge. DS always makes mashed sweet potatoes that are amazing.
 
I wasn't sure how to answer if I am dining out at someone else's home. I answered "at home" as opposed to dining out which I took to mean at a restaurant.


For the first time since 2014,my brother is hosting Thanksgiving at his house. My dad, my ladyfriend, and I will be making the drive to his place, about 180 miles away. Some years, he has undertaken the extra work of cooking the turkey a certain way (deep fry, I think) which made it come out really, really good. He knew that was a smash hit because several of the guests, including me, commended him on it but we all gave different reasons as to why each of us liked it so much. That's how he knew had literally cooked up a winner.


I have reminded him of that year's (not 2014) success and hoped he is willing and able to cook the turkey again that way. I don't yet know if that will be the case.


And some time in December, my ladyfriend will cook her turkey I bought it a few days ago) so we can have our own Thanksgiving meal. From 2015 through 2017, she did this on Thanksgiving itself because we didn't go out of town.
 
The extended family usually gets together for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas for a family dinner as my sister's place. Everyone seems to want to do a turkey at these dinners instead of like a roast or something else.
 
We are breaking our tradition of making unusual Thanksgiving meals and are going out for a traditional dinner. No fuss, no mess, no leftovers. I'll probably pick up some turkey legs after the holiday and do them in the Instant pot.

I'm seriously thinking of doing a Grandma Opel apple pie(not my grandma) for our enjoyment. It's a fantastic recipe and always turns out great. It calls for a half cup of butter for one pie! I'm thinking the butter is fat, other fats can be substituted. Cannibis based apple pie it is![emoji111]

I'm interested to see how the flavors blend.
 
I am cooking a turkey, with stuffing, in the old family roaster, then wrapping it up to take to my brother's house. I will carve it over there.
 
Family at home eating turkey breast and typical sides. DD is charged with bringing something pumpkin and we get a cherry pie from a local bakery. DW and I are gluten and dairy free and the cherry pie is from a bakery the specializes in GF/DF.

We’re thankful that we live close to our family, so, Thanksgiving is not a big deal where family gets together that hasn’t seen each other all year, but it’s still a nice meal and day to share together.
 
Turkey at home. DH cooks the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with lots of sides, including a few from his home country. :dance:
 
Love turkey. Sometimes it’s just us, sometimes with butterflying friends.

The community has a huge thanksgiving dinner with turkey supplied and folks bring sides. But we really do not enjoy large pot luck type gatherings.
 
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Jerry1 said:
Family at home eating turkey breast and typical sides. DD is charged with bringing something pumpkin and we get a cherry pie from a local bakery. DW and I are gluten and dairy free and the cherry pie is from a bakery the specializes in GF/DF.

We’re thankful that we live close to our family, so, Thanksgiving is not a big deal where family gets together that hasn’t seen each other all year, but it’s still a nice meal and day to share together.
Click to expand...

This is a challenge for me as well. No such bakery. I made a GF/DF pumpkin pie last year using coconut milk and a pre-made GF pie crust. Not bad, but I just don’t eat much baked stuff anymore.
 
Turkey-Yes. But it's all about "The Sides"����
 
Every year at Thanksgiving I say to myself, darn that turkey tastes good, why don't we have it more often! I really like turkey.

We are going to a neighbor's... they are cooking a turkey and we and other guests are bringing sides. Should be fun.
 
To be honest, I had to google it as I have not celebrated it in 20 years. I do not care for Turkey unless it is in a sandwich with a bit of gravy. We have a sandwich shop here "La Lucha" (famous among tourists) that roasts fresh turkey everyday. Instead of going to a cafe for breakfast with my expat friends, I will suggest we go there fo breakfast.
 
braumeister said:
I've cooked turkey just about every possible way, but realized I've never done it on a rotisserie so that's this year's method. I have a fairly small 14 pound bird that should just fit.



We both love turkey, and even love the leftovers, but in recent years we have often done a prime rib roast instead. It's all good.



For me the treat is DW's pumpkin pie.
Click to expand...



Braumeister, a quick tip on rotisserie turkey. Make sure to truss it really, really well. With the size of a turkey there can be a lot of shifting and moving on the rotisserie. If it moves too much the skin splits toward the end of cooking. Especially if it is a brined turkey with sugar in the brine.

You get a great turkey on the rotisserie but it took a couple of years of trial and error for myself. Enjoy!
 
We usually host Thanksgiving with friends and their family. We've been doing it for about 20 years. Kids started to grow and bring boyfriends/girlfriends, dinner grew to be quite large! This year our friends are traveling to visit their new grandson for this week. Other family commitments for our DS means it'll be DW and I only this year We can't decide on a small turkey breast or a couple of Cornish Hens for dinner, probably come down to a last minute choice.
 
SpinDr said:
Braumeister, a quick tip on rotisserie turkey. Make sure to truss it really, really well.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I figured that would be important. I'll also ice the breast down before putting it on the spit.
 
Turkey... Family... at home ... for the past 60 years. Most from out of state. Wednesday through Sunday. Our annual celebration. :)
 
My brother is hosting Thanksgiving this year. The tradition in the family is that the host will provide the turkey. As we have more than 20 people, other guests bring additional meat dishes such as roast beef or roast pork, and side dishes. It can also be grilled meat, chicken satay, etc... And we always have a smorgasbord.

This year, I will bring golumpki, and a canapé of duck prosciutto on fried polenta. Still thinking about how to decorate the canapé.

The OP talked of serving duck. This reminds me that one year when I hosted Thanksgiving, I skipped the turkey and served Duck à l'Orange. I was able to buy a big frozen box of duck legs. First time I made the dish, and have not made it since. It was not bad, as I recall. Maybe it was for Christmas, instead of Thanksgiving. Boy, it has been at least 15 or 20 years.
 
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For the last 29 years, our tradition has been to drive from CT down to the in-laws in NJ. We always went down the night before and stayed over. The young wife would get up at 4:00 am to start cooking the big turkey, the stuffing (two different kinds), cranberry sauce (also two kinds - sweet and savory) and a green bean dish. The rest of the family, who all live in NJ or just across the Delaware River in Bucks County, PA, would arrive in the early afternoon with the remaining side dishes and desserts. The normal complement was 17-18 people around the table, and we would feast well into the night, when everyone would pack up and go home. We usually stayed for another two days to visit.

This year, however, things will be different. The mother in law sold the family home last month and nobody down there has a house big enough to handle the crowd. We do, and have invited everyone up to CT. I'm not sure how many will want to make the drive, particularly since we can only sleep a few. So far, I know of only two, but that could change as the young wife and her sisters confer by phone. I just do whatever I'm told (and go get the wine).
 
Ours has past.

But it is not a big deal for us. Never was growing up either. A turkey once in a while. For us it is another day really. Sometimes a family gathering but not very often. DW's family on the other side of the country do celebrate. She was there there this year. I stayed home...joined her a week later. She had two family dinners, different days. Turkey, ham, the whole enchilada as it were. I was at home batching it-barbequed something or other along with a very nice bottle of red plonk.
 
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A TMI moment....

We have a bunch of friends coming for thanksgiving and staying the weekend. Most of them love to cook so we share the fun with everyone cooking something that is special to them. It seems that most folks find the t-day meal is laced in tradition. Seemingly reasonable folks who love gourmet food suddenly want traditional dishes or it's just not thanksgiving. Here's the menu and it's big... we have 11 coming to stay the weekend and this year no kids. There will be 3 additional dogs here, 1 vegetarian, 1 celiac and 1 diabetic - challenges.

Menu:
  • Turkeys: 2 @ 16 lbs cooked in the BIG Easy
  • Gravy: 3 kinds. vegetarian, regular and no gluten
  • Stuffing: 2 kinds. Vegetarian and regular
  • Cranberries: 3 kinds (yes, really) cooked, raw and canned with ridges. Really dreading this BTW - we've had some difficulty in past years with cranberry relish. Details here (cooking forum): Cranberries vs. Hubby - Round 1 - Discuss Cooking - Cooking Forums
  • Corn Puff: Gluten free corn casserole with chilies, eggs, cream and cheese
  • Hot green veggies: 2 ways. Green bean casserole and roasted Brussels Sprouts
  • Crunchy bits - Pickles, veggie sticks, olives, etc
  • Potatoes 2 ways: whipped and a yam-apple bake with maple syrup and pecans
  • Dessert 3 ways: Pumpkin pie w/ no gluten crust, chocolate Bourbon pie and a fruit crumble - all with whipped cream
  • Wine, beer, tea, water

The birds are in the freezer and I'm busy making shopping lists. The whole crew of guests arrives late Wednesday night and Thursday we will cook this together with bowls of popcorn, hot cider and cold beverages to keep us going until dinner is ready. Over the weekend we'll eat leftovers, play music and games, read, talk*, walk dogs and generally do not much of anything. I live in a rural area with no Black Friday shopping - it should be fun ;)

* we have rules: no politics, no religion, noaches&painsmydoctorsaysthis topics... helps us share space for a few days.

A moment of silence please for my septic system, my electric bill, my waistline and my liver :)
 
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An unusual Thanksgiving for us this year.

We are meeting and having DS1's fiancee's family for Thanksgiving but they won't be here until Friday. So, Thanksgiving dinner will be Friday, not Thursday.

Then DS2 is having a second Thanksgiving dinner with the same crowd on Sunday.

With two full dinners, I hope there are lots of leftovers! :)
 
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