Turkey Day preparations

MarieIG said:
I will admit I was interested in the recipe for that pumpkin cheesecake pie.
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It is our own invention. It is essentially about a 1-1.5" cheesecake with graham cracker crust. Cook it most of the way through. Then pour pumpkin pie on the top and bake. I like it when the pumpkin pie falls a little into the cheesecake. Then add the crumble topping (flour, butter, brown sugar, pecans) and finish cooking.
 
The young wife made pumpkin pie today using one of the sugar pumpkins from our garden*. She makes the crust with her grandmother's recipe from long, long ago. Then she puts down a slim bottom layer of rindless orange marmalade and puts the pumpkin filling on top of that. I'm not sure of all the spices that go into the pumpkin filling, but it tastes great.

*I saved a few of the seeds for next year's planting and she roasted the rest.
 
Well, this year it's our turn to have Thanksgiving here at our house. Supposed to be my sister and her husband, our older son, our younger son and his wife and 2 kids. That makes 9 in all.

But BIL is out of town to visit his kids and our younger son, DIL and the 2 grandsons got invited to spend it with some friends so that leaves just 4 of us. When I told my sister that we're down to just 4 people she asked if she could have it at her house instead and when I said "sure!" she was thrilled.

It's about a 35 minute drive on the freeway and she didn't want to do that drive by herself, so we will drive to her place instead. Her husband keeps kosher so anytime he is included and there is meat we have to be dairy free. With him out of town we have no dairy restrictions which makes it all easier for everyone. We're bring stuffing and pie.

When all these changes happened we hadn't already bought all the food so this works out really well. Except for tomorrow's weather - high winds and possible lake effect snow in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland where my sister lives.

I've learned to be flexible and accept change when possible. And it makes my sister very happy.

I'm thankful for a Happy Sister!
 
Jerry1 said:
Thanksgiving is at our house this year. DD’s will be bringing some things so that lightens the load. I’m in charge of the turkey, dressing and gravy. I also just made the cranberry sauce. There’s not much you can do ahead of time, but the cranberry sauce is one. The other thing I’m doing early is the gravy. I’m going to roast the neck and some vegetables as the base for the gravy and make that tomorrow.

As for the turkey, I’m going to try something a bit different. I’m going to break it down into pieces (breast, thigh, drum sticks and wings) and cook them on my grill - basically like a big chicken. I got a Butterball so no brining but I’ll spice it up and throw it on the grill.

I’ll make the dressing on Thursday and try to get that timed to come out of the oven just in time for dinner.

DD’s are bringing mashed and sweet potatoes along with a veggie tray and some deviled eggs. DW is going to make some green beans that we canned using some bacon grease and bacon bits for flavor.

It will be busy the next few days but I think we’ll do fine. There will be ten of us in total so not too big of a gathering. Wishing everyone a good next few days as the busyness of the holidays kicks into gear.
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Let us know how grill method comes out.i wanted to do that but wife said she needs the drippings for gravy.
 
DD1 made a cherry pie. It is really good. I had a slice after dinner. My DW made a chocolate cream pie. In her eyes, if it doesn't have chocolate, it is not a dessert.

We usually just buy a turkey breast. This year we could only get a whole turkey. I butchered it today. I removed the breast and legs. I'll cook them tomorrow.
 
No Thanksgiving celebration over here in Europe so it’s straight into Christmas season. I put up the tree and decorated my condo last weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!
 
Our T-day prep took a slight detour yesterday. Got a text from a local shrimper so drove down to meet him and get 23# of 16/20 count shrimp. Got them peeled and put up then DW got started on my aunt's cornbread dressing and her sweet potato crunch. Finishing putting it together now and then go to my son's for lunch today with them and his in-laws.
Interesting how traditional food is so different. His in-laws are bringing mashed potatoes and Mac and cheese. Our T-day has always been food that we only do at holidays: cornbread dressing, sweet potato crunch, green bean artichoke casserole, mirlliton dressing, etc.
Our son is doing his spatchcock turkey. I'll steal the carcass to make a gumbo tomorrow.
 
We like to mix it up - we're grilling a leg of lamb. We purchased a pecan pie from my absolute favorite source in a smalltown nearby. Sides will include mashed potatoes, our daughter's special mac&cheese, sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts. Making me hungry already.

Cheers.
 
folivier said:
Our T-day prep took a slight detour yesterday. Got a text from a local shrimper so drove down to meet him and get 23# of 16/20 count shrimp. Got them peeled and put up then DW got started on my aunt's cornbread dressing and her sweet potato crunch. Finishing putting it together now and then go to my son's for lunch today with them and his in-laws.
Interesting how traditional food is so different. His in-laws are bringing mashed potatoes and Mac and cheese. Our T-day has always been food that we only do at holidays: cornbread dressing, sweet potato crunch, green bean artichoke casserole, mirlliton dressing, etc.
Our son is doing his spatchcock turkey. I'll steal the carcass to make a gumbo tomorrow.
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Awesome - I'm originally from Louisiana and my sister who still lives there makes the best leftover turkey gumbo ever... Man I miss that.
 
MarieIG said:
I will admit I was interested in the recipe for that pumpkin cheesecake pie.
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Here is the recipe for my Moms "Paradise Pumpkin Pie", might be somewhat similar

Cream: 1 package 8 oz cream cheese, 1/4 C sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 egg. Spread on bottom of unbaked pie crust
Combine: 1 1/4 C pumpkin, 1/2 C sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1 C evaporated milk, 2 eggs. Mix well.
Pour on top of cream cheese mixture.
Bake 350 1 hour or until done

It was one of our favorites, along with her homemade chocolate cream pie.
 
Only one guest coming to our place this Thanksgiving: DD's fur baby, a little Basenji mix that will keep us busy most of the day.

DD is going to her partner's family for dinner and overnight, then to see a matinee performance of Phantom in downtown Minneapolis tomorrow. The puppy will be with us until Friday evening.

My parents and only sister are all deceased, and DW's parents are gone, too. Her siblings are scattered far & wide, so we're just going to have a dinner for the two of us.

The menu is Italian Turkey Roulade, sausage gravy stuffing, and roasted Brussel sprouts. We splurged and got a $15 bottle of Pinot Noir instead of our usual box wine!

Final prep & cooking will start in a few hours. After dinner we may try to watch a movie but most likely we will fall asleep before the final credits, with the puppy snuggled up between us.

BrianB
 
BrianB said:
Only one guest coming to our place this Thanksgiving: DD's fur baby, a little Basenji mix that will keep us busy most of the day.

DD is going to her partner's family for dinner and overnight, then to see a matinee performance of Phantom in downtown Minneapolis tomorrow. The puppy will be with us until Friday evening.

My parents and only sister are all deceased, and DW's parents are gone, too. Her siblings are scattered far & wide, so we're just going to have a dinner for the two of us.

The menu is Italian Turkey Roulade, sausage gravy stuffing, and roasted Brussel sprouts. We splurged and got a $15 bottle of Pinot Noir instead of our usual box wine!

Final prep & cooking will start in a few hours. After dinner we may try to watch a movie but most likely we will fall asleep before the final credits, with the puppy snuggled up between us.

BrianB
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Sounds like a nice day! :)
 
DW has been working in the kitchen and cleaning the house for the past 3 days. I've eaten 2 practice pies. 10 people at our house soon. Ages 5 to 96. Niece is bringing the turkey. SIL1 stuffing, SIL2 mashed potatoes. DW making the rest.
 
Due to a couple of scheduling conflicts, we're having Thanksgiving on Saturday this year. 26 in all if everybody shows up, including kids, grandkids, siblings and their kids etc. House really isn't big enough for 26 but we'll figure it out. We do have a large dining room table, a kitchen table, and we're going to set up card tables in the living room. Have an 18 LB Turkey for the oven and an 8 LB Turkey breast for the grill weather permitting. Sides will be pretty traditional with mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, green beans and dinner rolls. DW's one brother is bringing homemade cheesecakes for desert.
 
EastWest Gal said:
Thanks for the idea for next year. I toyed with going to a restaurant buffet, but the only ones that looked good were the Hershey Hotel at $80/person-no thanks. Our local casino offers a turkey plate for $30.
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Update: It was a pretty decent Thanksgiving meal. The meal consisted of a full Thanksgiving feast, including:

"Chef Carved Ham, Roasted Turkey, Tuscan Meatballs, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Turkey Gravy, Candied Yams, Green Bean Casserole, Maple Bourbon Glazed Baby Carrots, Cranberry Sauce, Salad Bar, Dinner Roll and Butter, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie.

Adults 13 & Up: $29.95
Children 5-12: $16.95
Children 4 & Under: Free *with paying adult"

I'm stuffed.
 
We had a traditional turkey dinner with our son and DIL, SIL and one granddaughter. Our daughter and other 2 grandchildren are in TX. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, sausage dressing, deviled eggs, green beans, cranberry sauce and rolls. Dessert was nut rolls, pumpkin, apple and cherry pie. SIL made the gravy, DIL made the sausage dressing and the nut rolls. Son brought the cherry pie. DH helped me with the turkey and our granddaughter and DH made the sweet potato casserole. Everything was delicious and I am stuffed.
 
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