Just to clean out as much as possible from the refrigerator.... to make room for the bird and all those delectable left overs... YUMMM

As little as possible :-)

Togo's sandwiches and Baskin Robbins/31 Flavors Mint Chocolate Chip milkshakes. VDH will pick up on his way home from work.

In the 30+ years we've been married Thanksgiving has always been in our home. I've never made dinner the night before and don't plan on changing that tradition ever. Besides, it's in our marriage contract. :)

With the exception of condiments, I make everything that is served. So when he walks in the door I'll be in my comfy grubbies and look like a frazzled bag lady. But oh my, the house will already be smelling good.

Jenna

Vegetable soup and cornbread. Cleaning out the refrigerator before we go away for the long weekend. I'm not cooking this year. I'm glad lol.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

seagrass

a Lean Cuisine frozen entree .....not of the poultry variety!
It will just be me so I can do as I please!! :)

My DS will be coming home college Wednesday evening. He has class until 2pm and then a 4 hour drive so he'll be starved by the time he gets here. I think I'm going to do lasagna with a big salad and garlic bread. Something as far removed from turkey as I can get!

Stuffed green peppers. No meat! Today, I'm going to do the bread for cornbread dressing and cook the cranberries. Picking up the turkey breast this morning.

Hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving! Enjoy!

We usually have some sort of soup or stew for dinner because at 7 P.M., we always go to a multi-church Thanksgiving service.

It started about 20 years ago when the Lutheran and Catholic congregations in our semi-rural neighborhood decided to get together and then over the years, the UCC. and Methodist ones joined in. All the churches are within a couple of miles of each other and it's beautiful to hear members of the four choirs singing together.

The host church (UCC this year) provides beverages and sweet or savory snacks at a short social hour in the church hall after the service. The host church also selects a charity and we all bring items to donate to it.

I am always amazed at how many people attend. It really gives meaning to the word fellowship and reminds us that the holiday is not just about our turkeys.

Hmm. . . leftover pie filling and vodka?

My husband's family had a tradition of clam chowder on Christmas eve, so I asked him if they had any tradition for Thanksgiving eve...yeah, cleaning and moving furniture etc in the living room to get ready. :D

This year, my MIL really isn't able to handle 2 hours in my BIL's van to get here, so we're driving out her way and Thanksgiving will be at a restaurant. :( But, I bought a turkey anyway, so that my husband and I can have OUR Thanksgiving dinner another night...I just can't face NOT having all the yummy leftovers, which are my favorite part anyway!!

I tend to do a lot of prep before the actual day, so pulling it all together isn't a huge undertaking. So, I don't really have any special tradition regarding dinner the night before, with the exception that it has to be something without leftovers as there is no room in the fridge!

I'm with those of you who say no to cooking the night before -- my mom is coming here for Thanksgiving, and she'll take us out to dinner on Wednesday...

We don't typically do a ''traditional'' menu for Thanksgiving. After being in the Navy, my dad was served some very nasty poultry and couldn't bear the thought of eating it. Ever. He thought fowl was foul. (I like it since we never had it, so it seemed exotic to me.)

I'm having some family preferred menu items before Thanksgiving, which include twice baked potatoes, smoked brisket and a simple chicken and dressing casserole, all of which are ready to POOF. I also made my Grandmother's Cinnamon Rolls to have for breakfast, and we're serving ham on Thanksgiving, with her dinner rolls as part of the menu.

Our Christmas gift to us this year is a smoker, which is ready and waiting for us to break in when things slow down around here. I'll be getting my turkey on sale after Thanksgiving, and trying out the smoker! I'm really looking forward to some new traditions, post Holiday this year.

We're going out for Chinese with a couple of other families, it may be the start of a new tradition. Anyway, no cooking and no leftovers to have to store! Sounds like a winner to me!

Alexa

For us here we are all off!!! YAY!!!

Since we all work in supermarkets that alone is a feat in itself. So I got some cold cuts to make sammys and prob make some roasted tomato soup.

DD is only home a few day and has to do ALL her holiday shopping....since there is no way in hello your gonna see my arse at a store on Friday we are going to start early tomorrow and do some blast shopping. Alas soup and sammys will fit the bill!!

Cheers!
Susie

I'll be baking bread, making cranberry jezebel and any other prep I can do, so dinner the night before will be whatever I can grab...

Annie

Costco Food Court. Yes, I know it isn't pretty. But we are finishing our Christmas shopping tomorrow in an effort to expose ourselves to the minimum of holiday madness. So we're running to Reno and will be hitting Costco around suppertime. We are going to friends for Thanksgiving supper and I know she will be sending us home with yummy leftovers and am planning accordingly:)

Kate

Um, pizza and salad sound perfect to me.

I made a pot of Baked Potato Soup tonight....for dinner tomorrow night since I agreed to work a 10 hour day.

I am not cooking for T-Day for a change, so it's really a non-issue here. I am making a quart of homemade Vanilla Ice Cream to top the pumpkin pie, however.

Gotta say...it'll be weird not to make turkey dinner.

Linda

I am going to Jessicavanderhoff's house.
Lisa

I'm continuing to POOF all meals in order to make room in both refrigerators. DH is on board with this strategy even though it has necessitated some interesting (not in a good way) menus this last week.

Usually in years past, traditional Wed night before T-day the kids have gone to a miniature golf course/arcade place with a bunch of other kids, organized by our synagogue. They get pizza while a few of us adults straggled out to the nearby killer Korean places to grab better fare, grin.

This year the kids are done with the program, so we'll have to find something else. My fridge is pretty cleaned out. I think I'll talk DH into our favorite pizza joint, it's aways a bit, but makes the BEST Neapolitan pies in LA.

It will either be leftover chili or take-out pizza. I'll be making my rolls, pea salad and waldorf congealed salad today.

ruthanna, we do something like that here for Easter with the local churches, with the churches taking turns "hosting". Our District Judge, who is a staunch Catholic, came in to the office a few years ago and told me that even he had to admit that the Methodist women were the best cooks in the county. (grin)

I considered that a very high compliment.

Annie

When my brother-in-law was alive, we'd go to m sister's the night before and have a wonderful dinner with good wine and lots of laughs. In between festivities we'd prepare for the next day.

DH and I were just talking about how we miss that.

Sis lives around the corner from us now and with so much prep for tomorrow at our mutual friend's house, we're having dinner separately...something light.

Sue

Pork Steaks and asparagus, cooked by DH, who will only be peeling potatoes and washing dishes tomorrow.

Lisa,

Looking forward to it.

Jess

For quite a few years we hosted a big cocktail party...invitations said 5:30 to 7:30...so we could all go home and prepare for the next day. I made enough food so that it could be called supper...then started I on the pies and rolls!
Oy! I was younger then!!
Linda C

Crock pot lasagna! I just posted the recipe.

Tami

We are doing Tex Mex this year. Make your own tacos, burritos, and nachos. Chips with salsa and queso.

David

Monday I used the trimmings from a tenderloin roast to make a beef curry. Will make some brown rice, reduce the gravy and add a bit of coconut milk, then add some veggies to round everything out.

I made a totally off-the-cuff, I-think-this-will-work-together pumpkin/cheesecake layered bar dessert for TDay. Just to be on the safe side, I made a big one to take to the potluck and a smaller one we could try, once cooled, to see if my improvisation worked.

It did....so we need to eat up the little pan tonight. It'll be hard, but somebody's got to eat it up [wink].

Ah well, our houseguests are arriving this afternoon so we can't do a pre-Thanksgiving fast after all.

We're going to have braised chicken. Picked up a pack of 12 thighs and deboned them. Roasted the bones, cracked each one, and those bones are now in the pressure cooker with some previously-made stock, red wine, onions, carrots and whatnot. They'll cook for an hour, then we'll strain to get a wine-y double-stock. The deboned thighs are brining away. When I get home from the airport, we'll braise the meat in the stock while I figure out a side dish. Something of carrots. Due to a shopping list miscommunication, we have 7 pounds of carrots in the refrigerator. Just a bit more than we actually planned.

Let's see. According to my iPhone calorie counter app, I have 600 calories left that I can eat today. Got to stop nibbling if I want dinner.