Oh, I also made that crazy cranberry mustard horseradish nuttiness i read in another posting, with half my cranberries....crazy good and will be on our t-day sandwiches this afternoon.

Made my usual bourbon cranberry with the other half.

Our son and his fiance made the dinner and brought it to our house.. It was delicious. So nothing new for me to make or clean up. This was our best Thanksgiving ever just our sons and their fiances.

Oh, I also made that crazy cranberry mustard horseradish nuttiness i
read in another posting, with half my cranberries....crazy good and will
be on our t-day sandwiches this afternoon.

Love that stuff! I use less sugar and sub fresh squeezed orange juice for the water.

Your dinner sounds great! The warm pumpkin dip came out well, though the candle in the ramekin warmer burned too hot and scorched it, even though I kept stirring, and blowing out the flame. It was really rich though (cream cheese) and a little went a long way. I'm now trying to figure out if I can make choux puffs with the rest (adapting a cheese puff recipe). :)

My avocados were pretty and not squishy, but I didn't think they were as flavorful as I could wish for, but the guacamole went and people complimented it as usual (which always puzzles me because I don't do anything special other than choose the best of the avocados).

A cousin's new girlfriend made a very nice appetizer as well.

The turkey chef made a lovely turkey as usual, with a dark gravy (dark roux?) which tasted good. The sides looked normal but were really salty without any other flavor, including the dreaded green bean casserole much discussed here, which we usually don't have. Sigh.

I am thankful for the family and friends around the table, and thankful for the abundance of food when so many have little to eat at all.

New hit recipes this Thanksgiving:
Candied Sweet Yams (Joy of Cooking)
Jello cranberry (sour cream) mold posted by Leslie (lilacsandviolets) in 2006
Cornbread Sausage stuffing
Walnut Cranberry pie

New and not so great:
Brussel sprouts with bacon and pecans

Best turkey ever - farm raised by a friend, butchered a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

Made this recipe of Brussels sprouts with cranberries and pistachios and parmesan. They were delicious and a big hit at our dinner

Shredded Brussels Sprouts

Olychick, those Brussels sprouts sound delicious!

That looks really good. I shredded my brussels the same. I'm making similar tomorrow with some leftover veg. I only used half the escarole it was so huge. I'll use what i have and probably toasted pecans and pomegranate but i plan to pick up a few bags of cranberry and freeze. Such a good 'berry' all winter...not just for holidays.

(leftovers meaning fresh, not cooked, leftovers). I only used half of what i bought so the holidays keeps on giving.

Our turkey turned out quite well this year--moist and tasty. The best new dish was the mushroom gravy, which I made up as I went, and the result was outstanding.

Well, the turkey was delicious and the gluten free cornbread stuffing was enjoyed by at least three of us. I made the "all from scratch" green bean casserole and no one ate any of it, go figure. I tasted it, it wasn't bad, but I don't like my vegetables swimming in gunk, so I didn't eat them and no one wanted to take the leftovers home. I suppose the chickens will eat them. Maybe.

The dark chocolate and raspberry pie was well received and Elery had a slice of the sweet potato/cream cheese pie, but everyone really wanted the pumpkin, in spite of the gluten free crust. No one touched the pecan pie, so that's off the menu from now on. None of the kids wanted pie, they were busy eating the chocolate Santas out of the candy dish.

Elery and I greatly enjoyed CindyMac's chipotle sweet potatoes, and happily kept the leftovers too. Everyone else ate the marshmallow topped version, there were none left.

In other words, my family ate the same things they eat every year, and left the "new and improved" dishes like the Cranberry Jezebel, Chipotle Sweet Potatoes, cornbread stuffing, homemade green bean casserole and sweet potato pie. Fine with me, I got to keep the really good leftovers while they took home the mashed potatoes, white bread stuffing and fruit salad! There was enough turkey left over to share with everyone.

Annie

My success this year was making a delicious turkey frame soup for the first time. Previously, all efforts were as dull as dish water. But I thought to check the copy of the cookbook given me by a friend as it was the same one my mother had. Her turkey soup was delish and I liked it better than the roast turkey. The secret, I learned, is to save the left over drippings and gravy and add them to the soup pot. I am in heaven, lots of delicious turkey soup!

Glade to see everyone had a wonderful turkey. I entered my turkey in a cooking competition, so I can't post pictures until the competition is over.

dcarch

I didn't host this year so I made dishes to bring; all I thought were successes:

Spinach Madeleine, Raspberry Schnapps Cranberry Sauce, Insalata Caprese

The unsuccessful part was that I left them ALL at home and didn't realise it until we arrived at our destination. I was distracted by Raymond's 491 blood glucose reading and my efforts to convince him to go to the hospital.

DH said this year's cranberry sauce was the best: cranberries, sugar, orange zest, segments and juice, crushed candied ginger, good cinnamon and a big splash of Banyuls.

Thanksgiving dinner was pretty doggone good if I say so myself. Two successful experiments worth mentioning. First, an extra tsp of ground ginger in the pumpkin pie. Excellent. Second, an onion experiment. I usually do an Italian sweet/sour onion dish from an old Lynn Rosetto Casper book which is tomato based. This year, I browned the onions (boilers - hate peeling pearls) in butter with salt and pepper as usual. Then, I added about 1/4 cup of sherry vinegar, 2-3 heaping tablespoons of honey (I'm a bee keeper and have lots of honey around the house), 2 sprigs of rosemary, two frozen fresh chile de arbol and about a cup of water and simmered them until they were done. I had to had a bit more water from time to time. Made them the day before and reheated them for dinner on Thursday. They were the hit of Thanksgiving. Every last one gone with people looking for more.

I hope Raymond made it to the hospital and is getting the care he needs.

Kevin and I successfully made it to Alpine Village in Torrance and had a German buffet Thanksgiving dinner. I did remind me of my family, and I was not up for doing a lot of cooking, although we had a guest visit us Friday who stayed until Monday morning, when I took him to the airport. He was my roommate in San Francisco from 1974 to 1979, and we have remained close friends. He is also an artist, and so he and Kevin had a lot to talk about. It was a very low key visit, but I enjoyed it very much. Sunday we had another buffet (as a surprise) at a Turkish restaurant in Culver City/ Palms.

On another note, someone in East Hampton, NY set their table using chairs I designed, and it looks like they were expecting a crowd.

My sweet success was teaching my 50-something new DIL how to make challah bread for Thanksgiving. She is a cake decorator extraordinaire and son makes the best tasting cakes but neither had baked bread. Used the recipe from "Baking with Julia" (Child, that is) book that is perfect every time. Gave her a big jar of my mix of 7 seeds to sprinkle on top (flax, sesame, caraway, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, fennel) to keep in her fridge, along with an instant read thermometer (for 200F internal for all breads), a big package of Red Star yeast for the freezer, and prints of my recipes for no-knead bread (from 1970), everyday sandwich loaf (Julia's), and gluten free French bread. The loaves came out perfectly and she was very happy with her success as I was to gift her with something no money can buy.

Nancy

Cathy, I hope Raymond's blood sugar has stabilized and he's feeling better.

Annie

Annie, I am sending an email.

Thanks, Cathy, I got it and you know I'm thinking of you and Raymond....

Annie