What's your unusual Thanksgiving dinner?

[Retired Expat]

Being an expat living in South America Thanksgiving is difficult. Frozen turkeys slaughtered years ago. Cook up dry as dust. But I can get baby pig or small lamb or just half of one. Also since it is coming on summer who wants to heat up the house roasting for 8 hours. Outside on the grill baby !

 

[KarenF]

I have made prime rib (we call it roast beast), yorkshire pudding and bearnaise sauce many times in the past. Maybe we will do that for Christmas. My daughter in law does not eat red meat, so I am making turkey this year. There will be 6 adults, a 2 year old and a baby. I got the Hello Fresh holiday meal - they send a turkey and all the ingredients for several side dishes. the food is good, and there is no waste. It came in 2 boxes today.

 

[Shardo]

Deep fried turkey, about 13 lbs. Being an ex-yankee, the thought of this repulsed me but I've come around, it's good!

 

[RobbieB]

I always do a traditional roast turkey with all the sides, but add a big casserole called "Lazy Lobster" for the pescaterians, but beware, this is such a delicious dish that the meat eaters at your table will want a serving of the lazy lobster.

Lazy lobster has three ingredients: cooked lobster meat, melted butter and a ground Ritz cracker crumb topping, baked in a casserole, easy peasy and scrumptuous.

Oh yeah! If there's lobster around, I'm not having any turkey.

Turkey - $1/lb
Lobster - $40/lb

Have some baked salmon for the fish crowd -

 

[aja8888]

Oh yeah! If there's lobster around, I'm not having any turkey.

Turkey - $1/lb
Lobster - $40/lb

Have some baked salmon for the fish crowd -

When we lived in Connecticut (39 years ago!), we used to have a 20+ pound lobster for T Day dinner main plate.

 

[Scuba]

I don’t like Turkey and for the first 15-20 years of our marriage, we either went to a high-end buffet where DH could get his traditional Thanksgiving meal and I could eat seafood, or we cooked something nice at home - beef tenderloin, rack of lamb, salmon or lobster stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat, prime rib, king crab legs, etc. For the last 5 years, I relented and we cooked a traditional turkey dinner at home.

This year, we are spending it with our adult niece and her husband for the first time ever. Imagine my delight when she said they didn’t need to have turkey! We agreed on rack of lamb with sausage stuffing, a green vegetable of their choosing, and a traditional green bean casserole (DH’s favorite). They are bringing dessert. We may add roasted potatoes but don’t really need them with the stuffing. The sausage stuffing and mashed potatoes are my two favorite Thanksgiving foods but one of the two is enough for me.

 

[folivier]

The only part of the turkey I like is the gumbo. We'll have our kids over on the weekend for our traditional gumbo.

 

[4legsgood]

Since I'm just serving an early lunch, and others go on for full T-day fixings, I'm making exactly what I want. Sliced chicken breast, mushroom gravy, cornbread hazelnut stuffing. Maybe a puff pastry pear thing.

 

[JP.mpls]

We make the classic turkey dinner with stuffing and mashed potatoes, but I always try to make rutabagas. They are cut up, boiled until tender, and served with butter, salt and pepper.
Awesome, and they go great with the turkey gravy.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
JP

 

[Walt34]

We're going over to DW's niece's house with apparently the rest of the family and everyone's bringing a side dish. They're doing the turkey, roast beef and potatoes. I haven't been informed yet of what we're bringing, DW is in charge of that. Going by past experience if anyone goes hungry it's their own fault. That will be DW - she gets to playing with the kids and talking to people and forgets to eat. Then on the way home she complains she's hungry, and it's one of the few times I can say "I told you so" and get away with it.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My unusual Thanksgiving dinner this year will be because of the view. My 2 best friends (who I have known for 52 years) and I will be dining in our AirBnb oceanfront condo in Ocean City, MD. We’re bringing a small Turkey with us and will buy some fixings once we get there. We drive in from NW PA tomorrow for the week.

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

3 racks of baby back ribs!

 

[RetiredHappy]

3 racks of baby back ribs!

HA! We have invited friends over for dinner tomorrow night and we are smoking 3 racks of baby back ribs. Let me guess... you got the baby back ribs from.... Costco.

 

[Kwirk]

Cornish hens from the grill. "Little turkeys" per the grandkids.

 

[CindyBlue]

We are just the two of us for the first time ever. We used to alternate it at my parent's house and my grandfather and grandmother's home...then mom got to where she couldn't cook so it was at our place or grandmother's place...then grandmother got to where she couldn't cook and mom passed away, and dad couldn't travel, so it was at our house (right next door) for years. Now grandmother and dad have passed away, and it's just us. Feels so weird.

We do a very traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and will do so this year even though it's only us, traditional except maybe for the celery root salad. My grandfather always made it, then after he passed, it was dad's dish, then after he passed, it was mine to make. It's so good I can't figure out why we only have it once a year!

Time to pass on the recipe, since there's no one left here to pass it on to:
Use two or three celery roots. Wash - (the hardest part! You'll need to scrub with a scrub brush!) - then peel (I peel it with a knife because it's tough to peel!) Cut into chunks about 2" square-ish, and boil like you are making mashed potatoes. When cooked (the consistency you'd use for mashed potatoes), mash roughly, leaving some chunks - you want it smooth with some chunks, not absolutely smooth. Add mayonnaise (start with one or two tablespoons and add to taste and to keep it creamy, but not too much) and lots of lemon. Serve on a lettuce leaf on a salad plate as a salad before dinner.

 

[Boose]

Cindy Blue, thanks for passing on your family's recipe! Thanksgiving may not feel quite the same this year, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Mom and DH are having turkey, but with vegetarian gravy (a concession to me). I'm having sides and saving room for Indian pudding, our family's tradition. It's cornmeal, molasses, butter and spices, baked with whole milk and topped with barely-sweetened whipped cream. Great for breakfast the next day, too.

 

[CindyBlue]

Cindy Blue, thanks for passing on your family's recipe! Thanksgiving may not feel quite the same this year, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Mom and DH are having turkey, but with vegetarian gravy (a concession to me). I'm having sides and saving room for Indian pudding, our family's tradition. It's cornmeal, molasses, butter and spices, baked with whole milk and topped with barely-sweetened whipped cream. Great for breakfast the next day, too.

Thank you...we will definitely make every effort to be thankful and enjoy my hubby's good cooking, strange is it is to be just the two of us...sigh...

Your Indian Pudding sounds wonderful! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family!

And...the celery root salad might sound strange, but it tastes so good! Might be a good thing for you to try, since you are a vegetarian...you can always say you got the recipe from some strange lady on the FIRE forum, for some scintillating table conversation

 

[teetee]

Some family drama at the reunion and then cold turkey dinner.

This year it is going to be some smoke turkey wings and legs likely alone. Finally some peace and quiet.

 

[Sanstar]

Mushroom Wellington, shallot and red wine gravy, roasted Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, stuffing, roasted cauliflower. 8 family members dining are plant eaters only. There will be a smoked turkey breast for the other 2 family members.

Usual desserts, just plant based.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I ended up hosting Thanksgiving this year. My husband graciously offered to fry the turkey outside, freeing up the oven for all the other stuff. If he hadn't wanted to cook the turkey outside, I was plotting something unusual like roasted suckling pig. We did that one year. It was delicious plus the guys all stood around the spit turning the pig and drinking beer. We need to do that again!

 

[braumeister]

I ended up hosting Thanksgiving this year. My husband graciously offered to fry the turkey outside, freeing up the oven for all the other stuff. If he hadn't wanted to cook the turkey outside, I was plotting something unusual like roasted suckling pig. We did that one year. It was delicious plus the guys all stood around the spit turning the pig and drinking beer. We need to do that again!

I will never forget the first time I was introduced to deep fried turkey, many years ago in Houston. A mind boggling experience for me, but my friends just thought it was the normal thing to do with a turkey. Definitely one of the best ways to cook one.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Oh yeah! If there's lobster around, I'm not having any turkey.



Turkey - $1/lb

Lobster - $40/lb



Have some baked salmon for the fish crowd -

[emoji857] Ha. Oh yeah. That lazy lobster casserole is one big casserole. And I could be mistaken, but this year picked lobster meat is $60/lb, not $40, and that's the price here, where lobster is caught.

Sent from my SM-T510 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[1242Vintage]

Since we have the biggest home, we historically host all holidays and extended family events, but not this year. Just going to be wife and I and FIL here for Thanksgiving.

Going very simple this year. Grill a tri-tip to a tasty med-rare and add a couple side dishes. That’s it.

 

[braumeister]

[emoji857] this year picked lobster meat is $60/lb, not $40, and that's the price here, where lobster is caught.

When we were in Maine a couple of months ago I happily paid as much as $35 for a 6-ounce lobstah roll. Worth every penny!

 

[silvor]

I told my wife to get a beef roast for Thanksgiving. She got a pork roast. So I guess that’s what we’re having.