Pages

11.17.2006

Let's Talk Turkey

So what are your plans for Thanksgiving? What’s on your menu? Do you go the traditional route or do you try something new and different each year? Or do you mix it up a bit? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory and what do you like most about the holiday? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food? What would make the perfect Thanksgiving for you?

18 comments :

  1. It’s just Beau and I this year, so I am not sure what the menu will be like. I still want a big ol’ honkin' turkey (leftovers rule) but probably just do small amounts of spuds, corn and of course the obligatory green bean casserole. Maybe a pie.

    My best memories of Thanksgiving were the ones we had at my Grandma’s house. I remember the first time I got to sit at the grownups table. LOL I think I was a little disappointed. The kids table was way more fun.

    When I was about 9 or 10, my great grandfather was with us, and I remember him telling my grandma that her turkey was “Drier than a popcorn fart”. I think mashed potatoes shot out of my nose I was laughing so hard. Grandma was not quite so amused.

    My fave Thanksgiving food is the turkey. Turkey sammiches, turkey soup, creamed turkey, turkey tetrazzini (I am sure I spelled that wrong.) Anyway, you get the idea.

    The perfect Thanksgiving? Probably to be able to be home with mom and dad again. Mom is a killer cook and a proficient baker. Though neither her nor I are supposed to eat that stuff anymore. :-) Bah! I am sure she would be cheating right along with me. Hehehe. Maybe next year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We’ve been getting meals from Designed Dinners and they have a turkey thing this month, so we’re going to give it a try. It’s a turkey breast and they make the gravy. Also they have a “complete a meal” thing that includes squash soup (not sure about that) a rice pilaf and dried cherry cobbler. We’ll take all that (still not sure about the soup), along with some stovetop stuffing, jellied cranberry sauce and some sort of veggie over to my mother-in-law’s house. She broke her hip and can’t get around very well. Besides, it means I don’t have to clean my apartment in addition to cooking the meal.

    The only negative about this is that there’ll be no pumpkin pie. Having both pie and cobbler for three people seemed a bit excessive. I may break down and do something in December which includes pumpkin pie, just because I have to have it once a year.

    In the past I have kept pretty much to tradition, although my favorite turkeys were when I could get boneless ones. I hate dealing with the skeleton after it’s over. One year we picked up the whole meal at Boston Market, but they’ve closed now, so we don’t have that option. Last year I did a roast, just for something different.

    The Thanksgiving memory that makes me smile is remembering Nicki as a little one — 4, 5, 6 — sitting at the table, eating olives. She loved to put pitted black olives on the ends of her fingers and eat them that way. :-) I was a little disappointed when she declared that she was too big for such nonsense. Fortunately, she grew up enough later on at age 16 and 17 that she realized that having fun didn’t mean being immature.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember doing the olive on the fingers thing. I used to pretend I was some kind of giant Japanese robot and I would *shoot them off of my fingers at my brother like little rockets.

    *Flicking them.

    LOL what a Stu!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We’re going up to Williamsburg, this year, where we’ll spend Thanksgiving with my aunt, two cousins, and their families. I know that it will be a great time and we get along wonderfully. I also imagine that my cousin, Mike, will throw a lot of parties on the verandah while we are there. I’m thinking of nights sitting, on that verandah, with a glass of wine in front of the fireplace. I’m just hoping my aunt breaks down and allows K and I to stay with them instead of trying to squeeze all of us into her place.

    This year, I’m in charge of hors d’oevres. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to make until I check out the grocery stores and the farmer’s market to see what is looking good there.

    As for squash soup, that is one of my favorites and I get quite a few requests for mine. I’ve even let it thicken made it into a curry sauce. YUM, YUM. I will say, though, I knew someone who tried to make a creamed squash soup using summer squash (she knew no better) and it was just foul.

    My favorite Thanksgivings are spent with this very group of people. I’m just so grateful to have them and I am grateful for our life right now. While it has its stresses, we’re really enjoying ourselves.

    Oh, Steph, wish me luck. We’ve just put our flat on the market. We’re hoping to sell it and move into a townhouse that is, literally, around the corner. The floor plan is here, if you’re into that sort of thing. I think we’re most excited to have a balcony that will overlook the pond and park! I sincerely hope we get it, but if we don’t I still love my little flat.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is Lauren’s last year with us, because she graduates from HS next May and will be off to France for a year, then on to university, probably on the east coast. Next year will be Heather’s.

    Nathan will be spending the holiday with us, and this is my first Thanksgiving with Micah since 1975. All of our kids will be home at one time! We’ve only had one holiday like that in the past six years. The last one was Christmas 2000.

    We’re planning a fairly traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, dressing, sour cream mashed potatoes, twice-baked sweet potatoes, Waldorf salad, and apple and pumpkin pies. I decided that, instead of wine, we’ll serve hard cider with dinner.

    *hic!*

    ReplyDelete
  6. “cidah!”

    Usually Thanksgiving involves wondering which family members have to work, which ones can come by long enough to grab a plate before work, and which will have the whole day off. Everyone brings a dish. Seldom the full-fledged typical turkey on a platter, often a large ham that Grandpa made, but always stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a pie or two of some sort.

    My favorite must-have item is without a doubt pumpkin pie. There’s never enough either (I could easily claim one whole pie for myself). So, I’ve decided to provide the pies this year, lol.

    Thanksgiving was bittersweet for me for a few years after my senior year of high school. It was the day before my sweetheart got yanked back up to Alaska by her vindictive, selfish mother, and with only 3 days warning (I didn’t see her again for another 5 years). So that Thanksgiving I had 2 dinners, one with her and her grandparents and then another at home (well, home was my fellow bandmate and his mother’s house). The next morning I took my girl to the airport. Her uncle and his fiance afterwards dragged me with them to a jeweler where they picked out wedding rings and then I got to listen to their gushy, dreamy banter throughout the 2 hour drive home. I came home to an empty house, which remained empty for 3 more days. No one left a note saying they were just up the street at a friend’s house. I was in utter hell. I finally got over it but it still tinges the day just a little. Stupid adolescent dram anyway, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, my favorite food for the meal is oyster stuffing. I think the best day I could imagine would be to have all of my family and friends together for one meal, perhaps combining that with a wedding or something.

    ReplyDelete
  8. WASPs that we are, my family is pretty traditional when it comes to Thanksgiving: huge turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, etc. My mom also always makes a lasagna or stuffed shells for my vegetarian sister. Pies are usually pumpkin, apple and chocolate mousse, but we’ll probably be cutting one of those out now that there are fewer of us here.

    :) All the past Thanksgivings have kinda blended together for me, but they’re always nice - everyone home, laughing, together. Those of us who don’t succumb to an tryptophan-induced coma usually play board games or something, and then I turn on the History Channel and shriek unprintable things at my pilgrim ancestors while my mom and sisters plan out Black Friday. I’m sitting that one out, as usual; it’s the seventh circle of hell for the socially-anxious. :)

    My favorite thing, aside from the togetherness, is the food - so many things I love! Of course, the highlight is always seeing whether or not my sister Heather will break her record of most pieces of corn on the cob eaten in one sitting. Her current record is eight, I believe.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Micah: No you’re not buying the pies. I’m making 4 because, like you, I can eat one a by myself. Nettl’s making 2 apple pies.

    Athlynne: My oldest son doesn’t eat turkey, so I think I’m going to sear some scallops for him. Also, I could join your sister in that corn-on-the-cob! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

    Yikes! I forgot to add the cranberry sauce…

    ReplyDelete
  10. ok, can I spot the cool whip then? :D

    Love the corn story, Athlynne, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Corn? Did someone say corn!? Oh, I am so there. :-D

    ReplyDelete
  12. I shall save some corn for all of you…what of it I can pry out of Heather’s hands, I mean. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Micah: No, no Cool-Whip. I make my own whipped cream.

    Ville: LOL!

    Athlynne: Your sister wouldn’t stand a chance with Ville around. She’s the Corn Cween!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Maybe we all need to get together for a “Corn Off”!

    ReplyDelete
  15. LOLOL!!!! You know we missed "Alice Corn Days" again this year.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I forgot about "Alice Corn Days"!

    What was that about now? I can’t remember… Wasn’t it one of our “Chicken Slats” things?

    ReplyDelete
  17. ok, can I spot the cool whip then? :D

    Love the corn story, Athlynne, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  18. We’ve been getting meals from Designed Dinners and they have a turkey thing this month, so we’re going to give it a try. It’s a turkey breast and they make the gravy. Also they have a “complete a meal” thing that includes squash soup (not sure about that) a rice pilaf and dried cherry cobbler. We’ll take all that (still not sure about the soup), along with some stovetop stuffing, jellied cranberry sauce and some sort of veggie over to my mother-in-law’s house. She broke her hip and can’t get around very well. Besides, it means I don’t have to clean my apartment in addition to cooking the meal.

    The only negative about this is that there’ll be no pumpkin pie. Having both pie and cobbler for three people seemed a bit excessive. I may break down and do something in December which includes pumpkin pie, just because I have to have it once a year.

    In the past I have kept pretty much to tradition, although my favorite turkeys were when I could get boneless ones. I hate dealing with the skeleton after it’s over. One year we picked up the whole meal at Boston Market, but they’ve closed now, so we don’t have that option. Last year I did a roast, just for something different.

    The Thanksgiving memory that makes me smile is remembering Nicki as a little one — 4, 5, 6 — sitting at the table, eating olives. She loved to put pitted black olives on the ends of her fingers and eat them that way. :-) I was a little disappointed when she declared that she was too big for such nonsense. Fortunately, she grew up enough later on at age 16 and 17 that she realized that having fun didn’t mean being immature.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.