Easy peasy...
I convection roasted my 19+lb turkey..Hubby's been buggin me that I never use the convection setting..so he went and found instructions online and had them printed off and on the counter when I came in the kitchen this morning..LOL
It was really tasty. I presalted it...

We had gravy from the pan drippings with a touch of cream added. Mashed potatoes (German Butterball, locally grown~they put Yukons to shame.) Steamed fresh broccoli, sweet potatoes, sausage dressing and honey wheat rolls.

Everything was good here; nothing bad at all.

My gravy came out especially good; Like you all said, there was plenty of drippings from the breast to make gravy!!

That lovely 12 lb turkey breast I expected morphed into a 12 lb. turkey. Hate it when that happens. Mistake at the butcher shop. Anyway, I was ... unhappy .... so everything thing seemed too well done, tasteless, etc. EXCEPT the cranberry sauce. Simple recipe from Joy of Cooking, but I used tangerines in it. Major yummmmmm factor!

Everything was really tasty this year with no major mishaps. I tried a new green bean recipe - with caramelized onions. I posted this recipe on the Recipe Exchange. I did have that moment of panic when I thought I didn't have enough fresh green beans, so I had a quick trip to the store on Wednesday to get more. But other than that, everything went very well.

I decided this year to get my grown sons in on the feast preparations and asked them to bring something. No major cooking, I just asked one to bring some cheeseballs and crackers and the other to bring a selection of beers. They both remembered and came through with flying colors.

Teresa

I wasn't planning on doing anything, but had a last mintue invite from a friend who I hadn't seen in a very long while so I accepted. She had her BIL and SIL there with their two kids and then her three, so I think they invited me so the kids wouldn't outnumber the adults! They all joked about "Who's idea was it NOT to have a kids table this year?!" but I used to be a camp director and eat every meal with 120 kids, so I guess I'm kind of immune to kids.

My friend is very laid back and so was the meal, which I loved. She made one of the best turkeys I have ever had, no particular "secret." Her SIL brought all the veggies and made a great green bean dish--a homeade variation on the casserole, except with fresh whole green beans, roasted onions and mushroom and a good white sauce with a bread crumb topping. Now I can see why this dish might be worth making! Also roasted orange peppers as a veggie, which I had never had plain, and they were very good. And homeade mashed potatoes, which I hardly ever have and really enjoyed. I made a salad with marinated ginger caraway beets and red peppers topped with feta cheese and sunflower seeds--served over romaine. It was good but probably wasn't necessary with all the other goodies at the table. The kids didn't eat it which is what I figured would happen. Thank goodness their parents didn't make them at least "try" it! There were roasted carrots for them. They almost set the roll basket on fire while passing it close to the candle centerpiece, and we had to spell out the rule that if you don't like something you should NOT take a bite and then put it back in the serving dish! But otherwise all went well. The best part was the piano and trumpet concert before dinner, they have a talented group!

I brought layered bean dip and corn chips and spiced apple wine which was nice before dinner. I'm going to pick some more of that wine up for additional holiday gifts.

Dessert was gluten free apple crumb cake for my friend, and chocolate chunk cookies. My friend's SIL discovered that the kids decided they "don't like dark chocolate," which we realized would be a good strategy to use in the future--"Oh no, you won't like this, it's made with DARK chocolate!"
:)

We had a great T-Day! We delivered dinners to shut-ins & picked up two women from New London that wanted to attend the Food Bank dinner but needed transport. We sat with them during dinner & made sure they each had lots of leftovers (including pie) to take & saw them safely home.

A young man (early 20s'ish), for some strange reason, sought out my company. He needed to talk to someone about his mother. She passed away March '08 & he was alone & clearly depressed. When I saw that he went through the food line 3 times...I made sure he also had leftovers to take home. Not too sure he's getting enough to eat??

Concern was high that we wouldn't have enough food to meet demand. Donations within the past two weeks were so high we not only gave about 2,300 people Thanksgiving dinner we were able to send home enough leftovers for another meal, or two including pies. So, I feel very good this morning. I was worried about the food...

In addition to the Food Bank every Church in town that has a kitchen pitched in & cooked turkeys & sides serving as many as their community rooms could hold. We made do with plywood tables & paper placemats at a few tables but nobody cared. The food was actually quite good (except for the mixed veggies...they were gross, IMO!).

Now, we have to gear up to do it again in 30 days!

Today, I'm cooking our special dinner but with a roast chicken instead of turkey. Tomorrow, we're going to our kids' house for a visit & a dessert buffet (I'm taking Dutch apple pie). Sunday, we're having brunch at the Floodtide for our 25th anniversary & Monday we're taking off for unknown destinations for a couple weeks get-a-way.

It was a wonderful T-Day! Everybody that wanted a meal was fed, most all of the volunteers actually showed up to help, GPS helped tremendously in locating all of the houses needing meals delivered, cell phones keep us all in touch, none of the ovens carped out in the middle of roasting a turkey, & I've never seen so many various types of homemade pies in my entire life! How great is that!?

/tricia

Hi All!

My day was very relaxing. I got to sleep in for a change.
DD had to work 9-1 at her store-DS worked 1-5 at his so I planned a later dinner time this year.

I guess maybe its the years of experience but everything went off as planned-no mishaps to speak of unless you count the old cat trying to get to the sliced turkey platter when no one was looking-thank heavens I had it covered with foil and no one was the wiser LOL (wink).

So for my starter I finally decided to go with bruscetta made from roasted tomatoes, garlic and basil.
Wasn't sure it would go over but it did!
No one even mentioned to salad LOL!

Today I am simmering the turkey breast carcasses but I havent really figured out what I am going to make. Usually its a turkey noodle or barley soup but I have a canister of black beans and I am thinking maybe a spice turkey and black bean soup. Any ideas??

I do have to go out today but I am going to wait till mid afternoon. Drew needs pants for work which I can get at K mart or Target...no malls for this gal!

On a personal note I was having a little trouble with gratitude this year. Its really been a bad year for me what with mom issues, drunk drivers, trips to the er with Drew, dying pets and neighbors and then there is the move...so as I said my Thanksgiving blessing I recited the Prayer of St Francis...I don't want to get too religious so if your inclined to do so you can google it.
We all shed a tear and all of a sudden I was overcome with peace and contentment...I really felt so much better and I know its all going to be ok...for that I am truly thankful.

PEACE!
Susie

I did it! I made my first turkey ever and it was beautiful! I tried the dry-brined turkey from the cover of Martha Stewart Living and it was delicious, moist, and just as pretty as the magazine cover! Luckily I have one of those gadgets where the temp probe goes in the turkey and the display outside the oven constantly displays the meat temp so it's hard to screw up.

The gravy that I made with the turkey drippings turned out very salty. I don't know if it was the juices from the dry-brining, the new brand of "low-sodium" chicken broth I used, or what. It was not good. Luckily I tasted it before serving and had a big batch of Make-Ahead Gravy in the fridge that I'd planned for leftovers. It was very delicious and there was still plenty to send home with everyone for leftovers.

Oh, and Texas won the football game, so all in all, the day was a huge success!

Chrissy

I did have one pretty big mishap. I decided to put the ingredients for the scalloped oysters (one of our family's major T-day dishes) together ahead of time -- minus the milk. Well, when I popped it in the oven to bake it, you can pretty well guess what happened.

About 45 minutes into the baking of it, I had this horrible thought that I didn't remember adding milk. I pulled it out and sure enough, no milk. (For those of you unfamiliar with scalloped oysters, if you delete the milk you have a dish of dry cracker crumbs and oysters.)

I scalded some milk so it would be nice and hot and tried to repair the damage, but I only had so much time to cook it at that point and it wasn't the same. Edible, but not something I would do deliberately.

Everything else was delish, except for a salad my SIL made that required a chopped onion. She pureed it in her food processor and dumped it on top of the salad. (As I was scraping plates, I couldn't help but notice that the one thing left on everybody's plate was the overnight salad. :) (She's an inexperienced cook, though, and really didn't know better.)

While none of us do these things on purpose, they make funny memories.

Judi

All went well though the bird was a bit dry. I'm not sure why. I usually cook a stuffed bird but this time it was unstuffed. Perhaps that's why. Or I untented it too soon? I can't brine as we all salt sensitive. My first dry bird. I planned a menu I could do mostly alone (Alice helped some) and in one morning with the oven in another house. The bird went into ex's oven 1 mile and a half away and I did everything else here either stove top or in the toaster oven. I only cooked for four and learned from last year's over-abundance to scale way back.

The menu:

Bird, cavities filled with a sachet of herbs, onions, and oranges

Stuffing with tart apples, dried peaches, onion, fresh sage, other herbs, celery, butter and drippings

Mashed potatoes with cream cheese, sour cream, and butter

Sweet potatoes with butter, brown sugar, molasses and spiced rum (son thought them too sweet but the rest of us liked them)

Chard with shallots and pine nuts

My killer gravy

Cranberry (everyone likes the canned jelly so I don't fuss over making it from scratch)

Pumpkin pie and whipped cream

Corn muffins (these would not have been missed)

Simple and plenty!

I still have bird to take apart today. I'm thinking I'll make turkey tamales with some of the turkey.

We had 3 families cooking together and it was so much fun. We made an apricot glazed turkey for the first time and it was fabulous. Everything turned out well -- turkey, two types of stuffing, gravy, brussel sprouts with pecans, homemade noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon, rolls, cranberries, apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate torte, wine -- thankful to be with good friends. Turkey tamales sound great!

lpinkmountain-kindly tell us about the spiced apple wine-I could definately use some good Xmas ideas!!

All your dinners sound so lovely. I figured out three of my kids don't like stuffing, so I can scaled way back on that next year.
The Cranberry Jezabel was delicious. Really a hit with DH and I.
The sweet potatoes were also very good, but DH and I are really the only ones who eat them.
I am really going to try hard to do this every year again. I quit for awhile because of having to find all the ingredients and because Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here, but it was really nice to do. Remind me I said this next year at this time. LOL
Lisa

My husband's legendary hard cider gravy, sausage/chestnut stuffing and mashed potato/parsnips were all great. My pumpkin pie (Libbey's can recipe, beefed up with better spice blends) was well received.

But my apple butter pie was dull, I think. I'd found a couple of recipes, played around with the proportions, and while it all worked, it didn't taste like the pie I had in my head. It tasted like apple butter, but I wanted more.

We had a lovely dinner with my parents, two brothers and one SIL (one stayed home "sick"), our two kids and my 3 year old niece.

I made the stuffed turkey roulade (basically stuffed turkey breast) from Ina Garten's new book and it was fantastic - great flavor, best turkey I've ever eaten. The only mishap was when I bent down to take a sniff of the dried cranberries & figs simmering in Calvados brandy for the stuffing and it flared up in my face - a bit of my hair got singed, I couldn't believe I did that! Danger averted, however, and I will never do that again! I had covered the pot and when I lifted the lid, whoosh!

The extra stuffing from the turkey recipe was delicious baked in the oven. I made roasted veggies - Sweet Meat pumpkin, fennel, red onions & sweet potatoes. One SIL made scalloped potatoes w/ mushrooms - delish. The other SIL made roasted brussel sprouts with pine nuts. I made Parker House-type rolls from the latest Martha Stewert Everyday Food mag. I also made gravy from broth I made from roasted turkey wings & legs the other day.

For dessert I bought a rustic apple tart and a chocolate cream pie from a local French bakery, Praline, which were delicious. We had great wines, and my mom made sausage rolls for appetizers (basically homemade pastry with reduced fat Jimmy Dean bulk sausage) - really tasty.

We have lots of leftovers to enjoy and sent everyone home with some! Lots to be thankful for...

I went to two Thanksgiving dinners yesterday.

The first was a potluck. I brought a sourdough bowl baked with melted brie and Cajun-spiced smoked salmon and I brought the usual cranberry sauce with orange and crystalized ginger.

There was 25 people at the event so there was plenty of food. Some of the outstanding foods included an Italian sausage and bread dressing and a "nut pudding" (walnuts, pineapple and secret ingredients; anybody know of this, from the forties-fifties).

Here was the funniest thing: the hostess made a 23-pound turkey. She coooked it in a roasting bag and it looked fantastic. It was perfecrtly cooked. Except she cooked it upside down; the whole time. I didn't know this when I was asked to carve the turkey.

I've carved a lot of turkeys in my life and I was truly stymied. Not knowing that it was upside-down (taking the bag off tore off some of the skin and side pieces that gave it at least some identity), I hadn't a clue where to start. I could not find the wings nor even the bulk of the drumsticks. I thought it was one of those trick procedures where you cram the wings and legs inside the skin so they're not visible. And I wasn't about to admit to the hostess (a cooking student of mine) that I didn't actually know which way was up. I finally took a chance and flipped the bird over (not easy at 23 pounds).

And then the issue became the cutting of the breast. Being that this monster-bird sat on it's chest for many hours, the breasts had become seriously flatted. That made it difficult to scallop out each half, for slicing neatly on the cutting board.

I was credited with the "save" with complements on it being the "best bird carving ever".

The poor hostess could only laugh red-faced and offer, non-stop, that she had NEVER cooked a bird upside down before. She's now afraid that I will offer the story in our next class come Tuesday.

I had dessert (actually, SECOND dessert) at another gathering later. The hostess had one of those aerosol canisters that turns real whipping cream into whipped cream at the table. Her son had never used it and promptly had whipped cream on the ceiling, the table and three windows (true). I've never used one -- I didn't know they were so powerful. No one was injured in the fray.

Joe

Had way too much food, as usual. Everyone pitches in. DD is manager of a bakery/deli in local store so she brought the turkey. Couldn't find any decent fresh green beans so I cooked soome of my precious canned ones, then we had garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry salad/relish, a lime jello/pineapple salad, cornbread dressing, Annie's deep dish layered salad, tossed green salad w/ feta cheese and pomegrante seeds, deviled eggs and I fixed a new recipe...pears and red onion casserole I got off cooking.com....everyone liked it. Apple pie, chocolate cream pie and an apple stack cake...oh, and homemade rolls. We were all stuffed and lots of take home left.

jude

Dinner for us was at our friend's home. She graciously hosts my entire family of 9 + her family of 3 and another two families of 4 each. It's a nice and congenial group. She's not a dynamite cook, but this year the turkey was moist LOL! The gravy wasn't homemade and looked pretty pale, so we skipped that one. Along with the stuffing there was steamed asparagus,mashed taters, a broccoli cheese casserole, a squash (green & yellow) casserole with chilies that was quite good, stuffing, homemade cranberries with nuts (darn!)cornbread and salad. I brought a yam souffle from the deli counter at Gelson's. it's so wonderful and no work. Why do anything else. I'd have loved to take home some leftovers, but unfortunately I spoke up after the kitchen crew left and she'd given a ton of the carb-y leftovers to them!
Desserts were plentiful, homemade cream puffs, homemade pecan pie, cupcakes, Costco's pumpkin pie, and I made a great Fall Fruit Crumble from Gourmet Magazine (I'll post the recipe on the RE). We had had it at a friend's home earlier in the month and just loved it. I'm not a crust person, so fruit with a crunch topping is right up my alley!

Everthing sound so nice! I'm glad to hear everyone had a good time yesterday.

Flowergirl, the spiced apple wine comes from a local winery--Clover Hill, in Breiningsville PA. I see on their Web site you can mail order. It is fab heated in a crockpot for a winter punch. It carries a nice kick too, and you can take it up a notch with apple brandy--just be sure and have a designated driver!! Their holiday wine is a spiced red wine, which is also good but not as mellow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clover Hill Winery

The only thing I screwed up was the new light dip that I tried. I was supposed to chop the roasted red peppers in the food processor and then stir in the sour cream. I read it too fast and put the sour cream in the food processor. It looked a little yucky. They ate it anyway so I guess the texture wasn't too bad. Glad I don't eat dip. LOL

The new recipes I tried turned out great. The green beens with onions were a hit. The pecan pie mini muffins and the apple gooey cake from this forum came out great. I also tried Paula Dean's lemon blossoms. Yum!

I made way to much turkey. I usually make 2 small birds but this year I made one big turkey and a 9 pound breast. Everyone took home huge plates and I just cut into the big bird today. So tonight I am making my very first pot pie. I bought the red box for the first time, very neat. I can't wait to see if it is edible. I think I will have to make some stuff to freeze. Anyone have a good turkey tetrazzini recipe? Anyone want a sandwich? LOL

Chrissy, I was happy about the Texas game, too!

We also had 2 dinners. We had the noon meal at a cousin's house with ham, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, etc.

We came home and had chicken fried steak, mac n cheese (homemade), gravy, Ann T's biscuits, green salad with cranberry goat cheese and rice. Lots of starches.

I made a lemon pudding cake for the first time and it was delicious. I think I'll post the recipe later. We also had virtually every kind of pie you can wish for.

It was a good day. Thank goodness I lost a little weight before the holidays so if I gain a little, my pants will still fit. :)

~Amanda

Tuesday I checked to make sure I had a turkey baking bag..yep. Turkey stuffed, trussed and ready for the oven at 12:00, pull out the bags and lo and behold I had three that were size small!!! ARGH. I had put spare chicken sized bags into a turkey sized box and didn't label it. Quick send my son to the store praying they'd still have the right size. They did, but now I'm behind schedule and feeling a bit panicky.
The phone is ringing off the hook, the doorbells ringing, friends "dropping by" for a quick hello...getting more behind schedule, more panic sets in...the silver lining? At least I'm not still in my pajamas as would have been the norm :)
I'd made a fresh green bean casserole, the recipe was convoluted and needn't be. The cooking time was 30 minutes at 425 and then 50 minutes at 350, so why bother using fresh green beans?!
Purchased an Organic Farm Turkey from Trader Joes (aren't they all grown on a farm?) Which was one of the cleanest birds I'd ever laid eyes on, so not wasted time spent tweezing those nasty pin feathers :) That 18 lb stuffed bird cooked in exactly 3 hrs, surprising the heck out of me. And I couldn't believe my good fortune for even checking so early, although I did know bagged turkey does cook faster.
I'd tried my hand at making a fresh pumpkin pie and for the extra work, I wasn't as impressed as I'd expected :( Plus the recipe I followed tasted more sweet than we like. But it could have been that I'd used 2 small sugar pumpkins and they were sweet enough on their own?
Dorie Greenspans Alsatian Apple Tart was phenomenal! That custard base really melds well with the apples.
One of my guests is from Alabama and brought two of her traditional dishes that were to die for, a fresh creamed corn and a beautifully browned pecan sweet potato casserole.
Even though our meal was later than planned, our food was outstanding, family and friends better :)

Our meal was great! Everyone raped my Antipasto Platter. The turkey was excellent and very moist. Super gravy. Wonderful cranberry sauce and on and on. No mishaps whatsoever and I was expecting some as I wasn't home in the morning and we were "striving" to all eat the main meal at 3:00. I didn't meet that exact time but with the Antipasto Platter & vegetables and dip, it was fine.

Ann, I did make your Chili Cheese Squares (I made the night before) and they came out very well to add along on the platter with corn casserole squares and rolls. I did use a smaller pan though (and had planned on doing that to make them a little bit thicker). I'm a quiche fan so these were very nice to add to the mix. Thank you!

I wish I had had time to take pictures of it all. I had the tables looking really pretty and the food really was good, but I just wanted to relax and enjoy everyones company after feeling pressed for time.

We had a good Thanksgiving. My dad got out of the hospital on Tues. He and Mom were tired, but the entire family, 21 of us, showed up with food and I know they enjoyed the company (and Really Good food!). My son offered to cook the turkey. (This from a 24 year old baseball player who doesn't cook!) He and my son-in-law cooked it "under" a trash can on the driveway. It was 18 lbs and took about 1 1/2 hours. It was very good, although there wasn't any gravy and the dressing was without the regular turkey broth. (One of my brothers brought a ham and the other one came with hot wings; just in case!) My dad requested some of my "good baked beans" (which was a Thanksgiving first!) and we had the usual mashed potatoes, green beans and corn. Our family's traditional cranberry relish with pineapple topping, and a strawberry jello dish (that my grandpa named "calf slobbers") were also on the menu. We had homemade French bread, pumpkin, apple and Tolle House pies. Decorated sugar cookies, French waffle cookies, biscotti and 2 kids of fudge finished the meal off. WHEW!

I cooked a 16 1/2 pound turkey this year and it turned out crispy on the outside and mosit on the inside! It was yummy! My sister and her DH are here visiting from Iowa and I also had my son and his partner to dinner along with my DH and Dad. everything turned out great. I made a suasage stuffing this year with dried Hallah bread. We also had PA Dutch dried corn, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy and just plain old jellied cranberry sauce. The only thing that looked kind of strange were the crescent rolls. We couldn't get them formed right and they looked kind of askew! They tasted fine though. They were the kind that come in a tube. I won't make them again. My son made a great pumpkin cheesecake and I made a low sugar pumpkin pie and both were great. I served them with whipped cream that somehow came out of the can sideways and squirted me in the face! It was a wonderful, fun meal. Today my sister and brother in law and my Dad and I are going to see the Garden Railroad exhibit at the Morris Arboretum.
Joann

The good:

the butternut squash that I roasted the day before, just had to re-heat in the micro.

The sliced sweet potatoes that were drizzled with melted butter and maple syrup and baked.

Homemade cranberry sauce.

Trader Joe's Gravy in a box. I don't do gravy, so this was great.

The eh:

dh brined the turkey. I'm not such a fan of turkey so I didn't notice the difference, it still tasted like turkey to me. (The best turkey I've ever had was a few weeks ago at Harpoon Brewery's Thanksgiving BeerBQ for charity. The New England BBQ Society did the meal and the smoked turkey was to die for!)

The bad:

2 kinds of stuffing. blecch.

dh made a Cornbread Pecan one and I made an Apple Sausage Cranberry one with reg bred. I think we didn't use enough stock/butter or the convection oven dried it out too much, but neither one was very good (my brother used the word "sawdust". lest you jump all over the ungrateful guy, I totally agreed with him!!!)

This was only my second time doing T-giving, but the crowd was 2x as big (17). I think I really like going somewhere else for Thanksgiving.

Joe can you describe the Nut Pudding? Was it served with a caramel sauce? If it wasn't a typical Christmas or Plum pudding could it have been a Date and Nut Pudding or Sticky Toffee Pudding?

Ann

The Bad: I wanted to do something different so I decided we would cook it on the grill rotisserie. It was looking perfect golden brown 15 minutes before the time was up. It looked like it could go on the cover of a food magazine. Absolutely gorgeous! Then we went to get it and it was a blackened carcass! Beyond Cajun! It had a very shallow drip pan underneath and the only thing we can think of is that it must have had one H3!! of a flare up! We got enough for dinner after scraping away the first layer. Almost burned the rolls because I was caught up in that disaster. DH said the Thanksgiving gods were punishing me because I strayed from the traditional.

The Good: Everything else came out ok, bland but alright. I wanted to make at least one thing differently but got a veto. And after the turkey disaster, I didn't really care anymore. I did make the dressing in muffin cups, saw it on an RR show, and I really liked the perfect portion size. And thought they were cute. Of course DH thought it was weird.

That's it, I quit and I really mean it! No more cooking Thanksgiving dinners! I told DH that, he can do it from now on since all I get is disasters and complaints. I wonder if anyone has ever got a divorce because of Thanksgiving dinner.
Clare

Clare, I am so sorry about your Thanksgiving. I know you were dreading it, anyway.
To tell you the truth, if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't do it anymore, either. Especially if you don't get any help, but then they feel free to complain about everything.
I hope Christmas is better.
Lisa

We had a very nice Thanksgiving.

Best: The turkey -- I did the kosher salt/brown sugar/juice from orange brine and for cooking stuffed with just oranges, herbed butter, and used my standard reisling wine poured on top. I really like the flavor the wine gives to the gravey especially. Joe, I also cooked the turkey upside down, but this was on purpose for 1 hour and then turned, it was supposed to make the breast more moist and it certainly was. I also had to only make turkey, dressing, gravy and apple pie, so that was perfect for me to cart to SIL's new house.

worst: red cinnamon candy, in which the cinnamon oil must have been old and by the time I tried to remedy it, it turned into hard playdough.

The very best -- thanksgiving remembrance, including, especially, the people here that offered their prayers and support for me while in the hospital during some pretty bleak times after my accident and those that continue to do so.

lisa_in_germany - Thanks for the kind words. Christmas is better because I like what we make. We follow DH's German tradition of sauerbraten, spaetzle, braised red cabbage and linzertorte. And that we only have once a year so it is special.
Clare

I have not been on in a while...but I love to see what works and what did not.

Our Thanksgiving was really a wonderful day...My db and his girlfriend came in from NC to NJ and it was great seeing them. My dad has been ill with dialysis and has had both kidneys removed....so this was a wonderful day with all family and friends.

As far as food goes...everything was great...especially the Ritz cracker stuffing...They were raving over it. I was not sure as I kept thinking....ritz crackers?? But it was sooo yummy and moist. A must do for every year. I did cut down on appetizers this year and it was fine. I had brie cheese with blackberry preserves poured over the top and goat cheese with dried cranberries. Shrimp with cocktail sauce...artichoke dip and salsa and chips. It never seems like enough, but it was and I did not stress this year.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays with thier loved ones

Marcy

It was all good here!! The best part for me was just hangin' out with my family and friends....the food was great the same thing we do every year with an addition or two. I'm tired, but it's a good tired for me...

David

Everything was great. This was my husband's and my first time hosting Thanksgiving for both sets of our parents (I'd hosted once before when we were engaged but did fewer dishes because his mother cooked at his house and brought a lot of things over).

The food was great, and everyone seemed happy with it (both of our mothers are good cooks so the bar was set pretty high). I did a large bone-in turkey breast using the pre-salt method that Ann T has posted, and it was great. I've tried turkey twice before, with so-so results, but my mom (who's a very picky eater) complimented this one, so I'll use it going forward. The make-ahead gravy turned out well too (though I forgot to buy carrots). The sweet potato pie was a hit, although I over-worked the crust and it was a little tough. My mom did the cornbread dressing, so I didn't have to master that myself. The other side dishes turned out well.

The only thing I wasn't totally satisfied with was my chocolate layer cake. It was a little too fudgy which made it hard to cut a clean slice; probably should have cooked it about 5 minutes longer.

Overall it was a really nice Thanksgiving, and I was glad to have everyone in town (neither set of parents lives in the DC area). I'm still totally exhausted, but it was well worth it.

Clare, sorry about that meal. Too bad you aren't close enough to just come and eat at my house, I made enough for about 20 people, I think.

Everything was good because I did the cooking. No, that's not true, but it sounds good. (grin)

the turkey was nicely done, moist and tender. I don't like stuffing, it's just greasy bread, but my family professes to love it. Eh, whatever, I still threw a bunch out because it didn't get eaten and no one wanted to take it home. Next year I'll do something new, cornbread stuffing or cranberry and wild rice, SOMETHING besides greasy white bread.

I did green bean casserole for those other people and plain green beans for Elery, Makayla and me. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar for the rest of those people and parmesan crusted sweet potatoes with a chipotle mayo for Elery and me. Homemade rolls, Woodie's 7 layer salad, mashed potatoes from my own homegrown Red Pontiacs and the ever present gravy. Amanda was happy to take the leftovers of that for hot turkey sandwiches.

I made Grandma's blueberry crisp for dessert, along with butterfinger cheesecake, vanilla ice cream to go with the crisp, sugar free butter pecan for Elery and Fatlester's espresso Brownie Chunk for ME. The Espresso stuff was the best, IMO, but David and Amanda took home the crisp and the vanilla ice cream.

As Susie mentioned, it's been a kind of tough year, and the first Thanksgiving without Dad. After Makayla said Grace I added my thanks for all the people I loved still at my table, including my new husband, and my loving thoughts for those who are gone.

All in all, it was fine, way too much food and leftovers for everyone to take home.

Annie

I'm laughing and crying - too many posts to respond to each one!

DH did a repeat performance of his grilled/smoked turkey - this is our 15 lb. kosher bird, butterflied. Sorry about the splotchy Poultry seasoning application, my bad. Delish. No gravy. It's the only way I can choke down turkey. That and Honeybaked or deli style.

I also howled when my guest brought a bottle of wine - I clinked to Nancy and Annie - she bought it at a local Ralphs supermarket. It wasn't a bad Reisling!

We pretty much made the rest of the dinner - DH made sure the kids and he were sous chefs and clean up crew to my efforts. Nice!

Demolished: stuffing (from kathleenca, thanks), Jezebel, AnnT's rosemary potato rolls.

Leftover: I had some turkey, the carcass and regular cranberry sauce left for the next day as well as plain steamed green beans, Terri's honey wheat rolls (not great without dairy), a bit of my friend's sweet potato and marshmallow. Pumpkin pie was made with coconut milk. I left out the cornstarch, dang, should have followed my recipe instead I followed a slightly different variant. It took a bit longer to bake and I think the crust suffered.

I have our guests round robin read 'Molly's Pilgrim' by Barbara Cohen, a children's book. Takes a few minutes to get through it and it always sends me bawling. Basic message is it takes all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving, even today we are seeing more and more folks looking to us for religious freedom.

The good: We had two dinners: one at my sister-in-law's sister-in-law's house (yes, that's correct), where it was a traditional/Cuban turkey dinner. My SIL's husband is Cuban, so we always have a mixture of black beans and rice, yucca, and flan along with mashed taters, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. We always have a blast with lot's of teasing and laughter that only family can get away with! We had a second dinner at our house on Saturday with some coworkers and the bird was delish!

I made Ann T's bread pudding with caramel sauce and cooked it while we were eating. Sublime! I also made a caramel streusel apple pie that was yummy, but my crust got soggy even with blind baking. :-(

The bad: I made my favorite, Cranberry Jezebel, but I got carried away with the horseradish. Yowza! I'll still eat it because I like spicey food. The gravy also came out salty as I used Penzey's Bicentenial Rub on the bird and didn't notice that it had a lot of salt.

Everything else was perfect!

Jessica, I have a bottle of that same wine sitting on my counter, leftover from the last trip Elery and I took to Traverse City this summer!

he also says it's not bad and I think it doesn't completely suck, so it must be ok, LOL. Michigan wine in California though, that seems just.....wrong.

Annie

Clare, do you have a recipe for linzertorte? I know how to do my great grandmother's red cabbage and her sauerbraten, but NOBODY in our family remembers how to do linzertorte. I would really appreciate it. Sorry about you had to listen to naysayers at your dinner, I went through the same thing last year. They did not appreciate my smoked turkey even though I made a traditional bird as well.

The bad, very bad, way over cooked turkey. I checked the temperature about an hour and a half before I thought it would be done and it was at 190 degrees. Funny thing was my guests commented about how much 'better' the bird was this year compared to last. I guess they expect dry. Green bean casserole, it's awful whether it's perfectly cooked or not.

The good, my best dish for the day was a deep fried shrimp thingy similar to crab rangoon. The cook didn't even get one, they wolfed down 3 dozen of those appetizers in minutes. Also, the stuffing was just like my dear old dad used to make. The pies was good too.

aug

We had a small gathering this year - no neices, nephews, or their children, and so it was mostly adults - except my sister brought her step-grandson who is 17. My SIL did not show up because she was not feeling well, but I don't think she has felt well in over two years.

The worst part of it was the travel. We had a three hour layover in Dallas and got into Austin at about midnight. My sister would have picked us up at the airport, but when we called her from Dallas, she told us we would have to take a cab. I asked her how much that would cost, knowing she was very far from the airport, and so I decided that we should rent a car for the day, if the rental car agencies were still open, since it would be about the same price as the cab ride. I thought about renting one for a week, but nothing affordable was available. We were unable to call the rental agencies from Dallas (we got stupid recordings), and so we took our chances at the Austin airport and got lucky! Very lucky!! Since DS had to work on Tuesday and we would have been otherwise stranded at her house, we really needed a car for the day. It was extremely cold Tuesday morning (lowever 40s), and there was no way we would have wanted to walk to the nearest place to get breakfast from her house.

As for Thanksgiving ... I bought much of the food at Central Market in Austin, including a free-range turkey breast. DM told me NOT to buy a whole turkey. I started the dry salt technique in Austin (not as early as I would have liked, but it worked anyway), and then started cooking on Wednesday as my parents' house. Wednesday, I removed the back and some excess skin from the breast so that I could make stock for gravy and dressing and also made two of my lime pies. I had brought nine limes from my yard. I also made some Chex mix snack, which DM loves and which I planned to use as a snack/appetizer the next day. I miscalculated how long the breast would take to cook, and so the meal was delayed by about 20 minutes, but it turned out okay. I didn't make that many dishes, and so it was very easy to manage. DS kept insisting on helping me prepare stuff, and so I let her slice the mushrooms for the gravy and prepare the lettuce for the Caesar salad. DM complained that I had bought anchovies for the salad, but she ate the salad anyway and liked it! I made my very easy grits faux cornbread stuffing, and that went over well. The next day DM reheated some of it in a plastic container, and I refused to eat any of that. For vegetable, we had broccoli. DS removed the florets and chopped the stems into small pieces, and I boiled the small pieces in a small amount of water with a bit of onion to make a sauce. I purd the stems/onions with the cooking water and a bit of cornstarch (normally I use potato starch) and S&P and then returned that to the pan with the florets to allow them to cook slowly. I guess I undercooked the florets because although they were hot, most of them were left on people's plates. I thought they were fine and could have been reheated, if necessary. The sauce came out the way I wanted it. DM insisted on opening a can of sweet potatoes, and most of that was left over. We also had canned cranberry sauce, which I really do not mind, and I didn't have time to make it myself. Besides that, cranberries are expensive in Texas! We had whole wheat rolls from HEB which everone but DM liked.

The worst part of the meal was the mushroom gravy I made because I added a bit too much salt, but I was the only one who didn't like it. I got a lot of teasing for my lime pies from those present who felt obligated to torture me (proabably for Amanda's sake), but I could not be insulted. I could always threaten not to allow them to have seconds, if they irritated me too much. DM thought I should have made only one pie, but we needed both of them, since that was the only dessert.

I'm in Austin now, and will be leaving for L.A. this evening. We got horrible flight times, since we are using DS's frequent flyer miles (She wanted to use them up before the airline went into chapter 11, which it hasnt'), and so next time we will buy our own tickets. We got these back in early June before I was working full time. Next visit we will allow ourselves more control and flexibility over our schedule and will probably rent a car for the entire visit so that we won't be stranded anywhere.

Lars