Family Thanksgiving Dinner for Twelve

5 years ago

I am setting the menu for our evening family Thanksgiving dinner this year. Most of the dishes I serve have become traditional and expected. My sister makes the dessert and arrives after the turkey is in the oven. Otherwise, I would just not have refrigerator space enough. We get out the good silver and china for a formal table setting. I use a lot of my mother's wedding gifts for the holiday table.

Fresh turkey and stuffing

Glenda's corn pudding

Candied sweet potatoes

Twice baked potatoes

Fresh cranberry-orange sauce

Waldorf salad

Pumpkin bread

Minced meat peaches garnish

I think my sister will bake a couple of pies.

My husband tells me every year that I make too much food, but now that we have grown to 12 of us for some holidays, I remind him that we need to fill lots of tummies. In recent years, I have made the Waldorf salad that my mother used to make and we have skipped the cooked vegetables. My hundred year old Haviland Limoges dinner plates are not as big as modern dinner plates, so we really do load up our plates.

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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

5 years ago

Can you have too much food at Thanksgiving?? There are always to-go bags/containers filled with leftovers for those not hosting to take home with them with my family :-)

And we tend to do potlucks for Thanksgiving.......whoever is hosting (not yet determined so far this year) cooks the turkey and dressing but everything else is brought by whoever is attending....generally assigned by the host :-))

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Comments (42)

phoggie
5 years ago
It sounds like you are doing plenty for 12..I will also have that many. For me mashed potatoes and gravy would be a lot easier than twice baked .... I find they are time consuming. Since some do not like turkey, I do a small ham also. Enjoy your day!
Rose Pekelnicky
5 years ago
I will have about the same, people and menu.

Menu will be:

Roast turkey with gravy

Mashed potatoes

Stuffing

A vegetable, green beans or maybe California blend

Sweet potatoes (for my daughter)

Dinner rolls

Cranberry sauce

Olives and cut up veggies with dip

Pie

My daughter-in-law usually brings the dessert or dinner rolls(we always have homemade).

This year I am going to try a recipe for make ahead mashed potatoes that you heat in a casserole in the oven. I always cook my turkey in an ancient Nesco roaster so there is oven room.
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This year, the family is not going over the river and through the woods to my house. My daughter is doing it up and I'm thrilled. She's a good and creative cook. There'll be eight at the table. She'll be doing the turkey and stuffing. I like oyster stuffing, but since my father died, I am the only one in the family who will eat it. So, it'll be a seasoned bread stuffing. I'm assuming she'll do mashed potatoes, we always have that. She is also doing the green bean casserole. I think all of us prefer it in a non-casserole version, but we're doing it in remembrance of my mother, who always brought that, and this is the first Thanksgiving in our life-time she is not here to share or cook the meal. I know she'll bake bread, as she is the family's bread baker. She'll also do the cranberries and a pumpkin pie with real cream she'll whip herself. I'm bringing the candied yams since they make her gag to even look at them. I'll also bring the homemade noodles cooked in chicken brother. LOL. I'll bring deviled eggs thanks to the gals in the henhouse. I've turned several egg customers away today to make sure I have the raw materials. I'll bring the five cup salad a concoction of sour cream, mini marshmallows, coconut, mandarin oranges and pineapple, and another pie, likely pecan. I make a killer cheeseball so that too to snack on with wine before the meal. My new DIL is also a cook at heart, and I suspect even if told she needn't bring anything..........she will.
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imdrno, thank you for the pecan bars recipe. I am a pecan pie fanatic and I love the idea of being able to cut the bars into small/tiny servings and then freeze them. Adding making pecan bars to my list of things to do! Kathsgrdn, I think your menu is perfect and I wouldn't add or change anything except for offering another dessert. I love pumpkin pie but my hubby detests it. He's quite happy if an alternative such as apple or cherry pie is available, but he will also be perfectly satisfied with a brownie or cookies of the chocolate chip or oatmeal variety. I think you'd be perfectly fine to pick up another different type of pie or a dozen cookies from the bakery and call it done so that you don't have to do any additional work.
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https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/article_9243bb74-ecfa-11e8-8f73-0f42fb5dada2.html "The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is filled these days with people volunteering their time and sorting food donated for the hungry. But what this 170,000-square foot facility on Choctaw Drive doesn't have as the holidays start is food. The situation has gotten bad enough that the charity, which serves an 11-parish area, is putting out public calls for extra help, for extra donations of food, and especially for money to purchase additional food. High-profile disasters, including hurricanes Florence and Michael, as well as the ongoing wildfires in California, have diverted the supply of donated food as well as drawn away cash donations that might ordinarily have gone to help hungry people locally at Thanksgiving and Christmas. “You would ordinarily see all of these shelves full,” said Mike Manning, pointing to two tall, long and nearly empty stretches of metal shelving at the rear of the facility. These shelves is where the the charity normally stores its dry, canned and staple foods. Manning, president and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, said instead he is flush with candy, a relic of the Halloween holiday, pointing to a big box of M&M bags. “We’ve got a lot of candy,” Manning said. “That’s not what we need.” About 30 volunteers, several of them employees of ExxonMobil, were on hand Monday sorting donated canned food. Many people brought their families. The empty shelves are not visible from their work area. Katie Skiles volunteered on Monday with her father Joe and brother, James, but she said she has worked there by herself since she first volunteered more than a year ago. “My parents made me come,” Katie said. “Now I love it.” A senior at Lee High in Baton Rouge, Katie, 17, said she was not aware of the food shortage. She said she might talk to the National Honor Society at her high school about doing a food drive. The warehouse currently has about 1 million pound of food in its inventory, about half of the normal inventory, Manning said. One million pounds of food is also roughly what the food bank distributes each month to its 100-plus member agencies, he said. And to top it all off, this is normally a time of peak inventory, when the food banks stock up in order to have sufficient supply for the early months of the year. “I’ve never see it this bad going into the holidays,” Manning said. Besides recent disasters and the resulting “donor fatigue,” another food supply factor is the shrinking donations over time from commercial grocers who carry less excess inventory than they used to, Manning said. To help restock, the food bank has asked local schools to do special food drives. What would help most, though, are cash donations, which people can donate online on the charity’s website, Manning said. “We are kind of held hostage by the national situation, unless we can get sufficient money to purchase food,” he said. It doesn’t necessarily take much money to help. Manning pointed to palettes full of canned vegetables without labels on them. These cans, when they have commercial labels, cost 70 to 90 cents a can at the store, but without the labels, they cost the food bank between 5 and 10 cents a can. Manning said he’s talking about having a more formal fund drive around New Years to raise money, but he’s been too busy to pull together anything more formal sooner. “We’re in firefighting mode right now,” he said. “We’re just asking for help.”
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nicole___
5 years ago
Wow! Great menu Sheila!
wildchild2x2
5 years ago
4 people or 2 dozen people we stick to a very traditional and simple menu.
Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, a green vegetable, cranberry sauce, yams, rolls and butter.

Vegetables may vary as well as appetizers depending on number of people. Same with desserts.
User
5 years ago
Great menu and not too much food IMO. Toomuch food is another vegetable or two and 2 or three more salads so it's more like an AYCE Buffet restaurant than a family meal.
Zalco/bring back Sophie!
5 years ago
Haviland Limoges makes everything taste better.
Amazing Aunt Audrey
5 years ago
Yes. It's the food holidays. We all love them.

Here it's pretty traditional,

Roast Turkey

Sage Dressing

Giblet Gravy

Cranberry Relish

Fruit Salad

Mashed Potatoes: Regular (golds), and Sweet potato

Green Bean Bundles (family favorite)

Baked Onions

Rolls

Apple, Peach, Pecan and Pumpkin pies
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
5 years ago
It looks like we are gathering a crowd as the holiday gets closer. That means that the menu will lean towards the traditional but with my spin on it.

Roasted turkey (brined)

Pan gravy

Ham with honey-bourbon glaze cooked on the Weber

Cornbread dressing

Turnip or rutabaga puff

Mashed potatoes

Steamed green beans with butter and toasted almonds

Fresh garden salad with walnuts, apples, tangerine slices

Will start with a choice of creamy Portobello soup or butternut bisque

Cranberry/apple/orange relish

Yeast rolls, probably cloverleaf configuration (kids like it)

Others will bring something with sweet potatoes, probably with the dreaded marshmallows.

Who knows what kinds of desserts, appetizers, etc.
cooper8828
5 years ago
We have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, dressing, gravy, etc.

The main thing is this: after reading this whole thread I want it now!
User
5 years ago
Sherry, haven't had Five Cup Salad since I was a kid. I used to love it.

Our traditional dinner has changed over the years since it's just the 2 of us.

Herb roasted turkey breast (I do a dry brine)

Chipotle Sweet Potato Gratin

Spinach Madeleine

Cranberry Jezebel

I typically don't make a dessert, but dh requested a Mississippi Mud Pie, something I haven't made in ages.
amylou321
5 years ago
One of my sisters is hosting this year. I dont know how many shes having but ive already been asked to make a bunch of stuff for it, regardless of the fact that i am working that night, and the night before and wont be attending. She ALWAYS makes way too much food because shes got 6 kids, and they all love leftovers.

She is making:

Turkey

Ham

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Sweet Potatoes

Fried Okra (ICK!)

Corn

I am expected to make:

3 types of stuffing (One regular sausage, one turkey sausage because her husband is allergic to pork, beef and dairy, and one with fruit because its our moms favorite)

Macaroni and Cheese(Cant blame her there,i make the BEST)

My Cranberry/Orange/Apple/Pear/Cherry Compote

Olive Bread

Shrimp

Broccoli Casserole

Our "family chip dip"

Our mom, who hates cooking and is not good at it but loves baking and is great at it will be making homemade rolls and my FAVORITE: pumpkin pie.

Whenever my mom hosts it, me and my sister have to take charge because she would be content to serve a rotisserie chicken and some rolls to 40 people. It seems we are a family of extremes. Its either not NEARLY enough or WAY to much. But as i said,leftovers are never a problem, as that one sister will always take any unwanted leftovers home. This year, I will most likely go to her house sometime the day before and cook what she asks before i go to work. On the day itself, i may or may not go get a plate of food to take to work with me. That is the night i put up my Christmas display at work. There may be no time for eating. :) I already called dibs on a whole pie, and Lord help anyone who tries to interfere........
DawnInCal
5 years ago
There will be only the two of us and I have no idea what we will be doing or what we will be eating. For all I know, we'll end up having tacos.

If I could choose just one thing to have for Thanksgiving, it would be stuffing. Absolutely love the stuff (no pun intended) ;-)
Suzieque
5 years ago
Wait a minute, amylou. You're not intending but are still expected to make "a bunch of stuff"? That's nuts. Don't forget - you can always say no. Why in the world would your sister ask that and why in the world would you agree? Is there a history there?

We also have a pretty traditional Thanksgiving meal - turkey, stuffing (I don't eat that - yuck), mashed potatoes (eh - I'd rather have baked so will do a couple of baked whites and a couple of baked sweets), gravy (again, yuck), cranberry sauce (yum!), squash (yum!), some kind of green vegetable (yum). I'm not much of a dessert person, but we will have pecan, pumpkin, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream and whatever people choose to bring to share.
amylou321
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Suzieque, I am the family cook. Always have been and am happy to do it. She asks, I assume, because there are certain things that i make better than she does.(she does make a better turkey than me) I agree to do it, because i don't mind helping. In fact, I love to cook. Given the amount of food she likes to serve, plus the fact that shes got 6 children and a farm full of animals, I am happy to help her. It never really occurred to me to say no. Besides, its not like I am not invited, I am scheduled to work that night, so I wont be there for the whole gathering. I need to sleep. Had i been off, I would be there all day and would likely make the whole meal, rather than just a few sides. I NEVER host at my house. EVER. And never will. EVER. like...EVER!

When I cook for my moms gatherings, if I am not attending, she will send the groceries up to my house via my sister a few days before. I cook the food, then send it back via the same sister. Its something I have always done. I can show love through food and don't even have to be there.
socks
5 years ago
I'm in charge of the mashed potatoes, sometimes for 40. I used to bake the potatoes, and they fall out of the skins and mash up real easy. And they aren't waterlogged as sometimes with boiling. But it is quite a bit of work for a big group. My husband convinced me to stop doing it and get Costco's mashed potatoes, and I can tell you they are very good.
bpath
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Last year for Christmas we did a "Costco Christmas" and their mashed potatoes were really good! For Thanksgiving I had made Pioneer Woman's recipe for the first time, also really good! This year, with both my parents in senior care--skilled nursing for Dad, memory care for Mom--not sure what we will do. We do like Leanne Ely's green beans with nutmeg, yum!
Olychick
5 years ago
I join a very large (25-35 people), fun, wonderful Irish family (not mine, but I love them) as I have for many years. They cook the turkey, everyone else brings the sides and I always deep fry a turkey at their house to supplement their turkey. I use Emeril's Cajun Deep Fried Turkey recipe (dry rubbed and injected) and it's always a huge hit:
Deep Fried Turkey
Kathsgrdn
5 years ago
Just me and my daughter this year. Probably just doing a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, and a tray with celery, carrots and olives, oh, and canned cranberry sauce. For dessert some type of pie. Will see what she wants. I have to work on Thanksgiving day so probably having our dinner the Monday before...cause I then work 5 days in a row.
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Anglophilia
5 years ago
I’ll be at DD’s as usual. There will be her family of 4, her father (my ex) and me. She roasts the turkey (a 22 lb one - two teenage sons and her father there for a few days), makes my mother’s recipe for sage dressing (baked in a pan, not inside the bird), giblets gravy, and slivered Brussels sprouts with pancetta. I bring the sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows), the orange/cranberry relish, the Sister Schubert rolls, and a pumpkin pie. Ex brings a chess pie and sometimes DD also bakes a bourbon pecan pie. We’ve never done mashed potatoes- enough starch with the dressing and sweet potatoes. We will all be very full!

DD sets a gorgeous table - antique white linen damask cloth, my late mother’s sterling flatware, Herend china and Waterford crystal. Dessert is served on family heirloom hand painted Paris porcelain dessert plates - peach border with different fruits on each plate. They were made in Paris about 1810. They belonged to my late MIL’s aunt. DH inherited them and gave them to DD. There will also be two very large 3 branch silver candelabra, and various dessert stands that match the dessert plate, that DD fills with fruits, nuts and berries. It’s just gorgeous! And yes, she works full-time at a very demanding jib -COO of a small hotel chain. She just likes to do things properly - wNts her boys to grow up this way.
ljk1
5 years ago
Amylou, I love your attitude, fixing food even though you may not be attending. I bet they save that pie for you. We live with our son. He will have 22 for dinner. He will cater a lot of the food and guests are all generous in volunteering to bring a dish or two. I always do the centerpieces and decorate the tables.
Michael
5 years ago
Non-traditional for us. We'll be joining up with extended family in Canada for Lebanese Cuisine at an upscale restaurant; from there a house to house dessert tour. After that, back to our rooms at Caesar's Hotel for evening cocktails and maybe win a million or lose $20.
Annie Deighnaugh
5 years ago
Fortunately, t'giving is the one holiday I don't have to cook. I'll be making my traditional pumpkin chiffon pie and bringing it to dinner with cousins...he's a fabulous cook and always has knock-out food for us to enjoy.
User
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
We will be spending Thanksgiving at my SIL's aunts. But the SIL and DD and grands WON"T be there! It's nice they include us! I'm bringing a salad. But sometime that weekend, I will make a turkey dinner for us -- a small turkey (not breast -- they're just not the same), mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing outside the bird, fresh green beans and Sister Shubert rolls and fresh cranberry sauce. I may also make a pumpkin pie but, alas, we don't NEED the pie but it is so traditional! That way we can have leftovers! When I used to make Thanksgiving for the family, it was the same menu -- I'd rather do a lot of less food than some of a whole bunch of food. It's a full plate and who needs 3 more salads and a couple more vegetables to choose from?
shopping101
5 years ago
Anglo, you should take a picture of the table this year and share with us. It sounds beautiful.
sprtphntc7a
5 years ago
going to my sister's. it will be about 15 people....

very traditional dinner:

start with italian wedding soup -homemade,

roast turkey, meat stuffing-recipe handed down from 3generations, homemade cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, garlic bread, big salad

pumpkin pie, dutch apple pie, lemon meringue anything else that someone wants to bring.

all serve on my mother's wedding china
rob333 (zone 7b)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I want to make the sides and have my sister make the turkey. She always makes a good one.

I have six brothers and sisters. 12 would be small for us. One year, we went to get out the silver and it was all gone. Spent the first hour or two filling out a police report. Holidays are always "interesting" for us (the youngest (my sister) was born on Christmas, my mom went to rehab on Christmas, earthquake in California on Thanksgiving 1974...).
Suzieque
5 years ago
Very nice of you, Amylou!
LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
There will only be 6 of us this year and we decided against having the traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings. We will have that for Christmas when there will be a larger gathering but spread out thru the day

I've already placed an order at our butcher for a 7 pound Angus standing rib roast that I will pick up the day prior. With it we will have au jus, freshly prepared horseradish from my garden, loaded twice baked potatoes, garlic bread, fresh from the garden honey roasted Brussels Sprouts with bacon, and a roasted veggie medley with garden broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet peppers and zucchini (last 2 not from the garden). Probably some type of cheese cake for desert.

Now I'm hungry!
sheilajoyce_gw
Original Author
5 years ago
Jack, we often had a prime rolled beef rib roast and Yorkshire pudding for Thanksgiving or Christmas when I was growing up. We preferred prime rib above all. Loved those rib roasts when we lived in the Midwest and could find great beef.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
In my world, it is always a traditional turkey with all the trimmings for Thanksgiving. Otherwise, it would just be another family dinner!! Christmas is the holiday where we do not have a "traditional" meal. There is generally a post-stocking, pre-gift unwrapping brunch and then endless cookies, Christmas goodies and snacks throughout the day so dinner is often more or less unnecessary or unwanted :-) Sometimes leftovers from a big Christmas Eve dinner, sometimes lasagna, sometimes just soup and bread. Last year it was a Mexican fiesta....but then the entire family celebrated Christmas in Mexico!!

Depending on my holiday plans, I often cook a prime rib, usually for Christmas Eve. And always with Yorkshire pudding and fresh, hot horseradish sauce!! Last year, I did that for New Years Eve since we were away at Chrstmas. I look forward to that meal all year!
skibby (zone 4 Vermont)
5 years ago
sprtphntc - what a beautiful china pattern!
LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
5 years ago
Now you all made me add Yorkshire Pudding to our meal plans. I've never made it before but it looks easy enough. Thanks!
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years ago
It is pretty easy to make and absolutely delicious!! That and the horseradish sauce are the prmary reasons I bother to cook a rib roast in the first place!! I like them way better than the meat but ya gotta have the roast to have the others :-))
sprtphntc7a
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
thank you skibby!! we just love it and makes us feel closer to our mom (my 2 sisters, our kids and me!

we always start telling stories when the table gets set!! we miss her so much!!
sheilajoyce_gw
Original Author
5 years ago
Jack, the last step is usually not included in recipes. When it is fully baked, walk it to the sink where you have a jar or something to pour the excess fat into so that the pudding won't be greasy when you serve it. Pour off as much fat as you can.
LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
5 years ago
Thank you Sheila! I will make a note on the Allrecipes recipe that I printed off. You are correct that this step was not mentioned on any of the recipes I found..
User
5 years ago
A repost.

I will be using my grandmother's Theodore Haviland NY "Pink Spray" china. The menu is:

Turkey and oyster dressing (9x13 pan) with giblet gravy

English Peas

Sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows)

Fresh berry cranberry sauce

Rolls

Five cup salad

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream

I will probably have to add canned green beans and canned corn for the youngest two grandchildren. This a request from them. No extra seasoning and no frozen or fresh allowed, LOL.

Seasoned, injected, wet brine, or dry brine not wanted. Also no grilled, smoked, or fried turkey. The grilled, smoked, and fried is okay in the summer, but not for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Anything with added salt is not wanted at anytime. My husband is very sensitive to salt and does not like it (I don't like that much salt either).

Yes, it will be cooked in a covered roaster to 165* and allowed to rest. It will be carved before getting to the table. The mess will be in the garage frig before anyone gets here and saved for turkey stock.

I am not knocking anyone else's way of doing their bird (unlike someone on here), but this is the way we like it. We have lots of juicy turkey. Plenty for leftovers and enough to freeze for all the other turkey dishes we like.
User
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Five Cup Salad

1 small can crushed pineapple

1 can mandarin orange sections

1/2 can coconut (I can only find bagged coconut anymore about 4 oz.)

1 med can fruit cocktail (16oz)

1 carton sour cream (8oz)

1/2 pkg mini marshmallows (they used to be a lot bigger pkg.)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 small bottle maraschino cherries, halved

Drain all fruit well, and combine with rest of ingredients. Freeze for one hour or refrigerate overnight.

I don't get to make this much, because one grandson is allergic to dairy. We do enjoy it when we can. I wish they didn't keep changing the sizes of the cans and packages.
georgysmom2
5 years ago
Amylou, you are a "love"ly person! I wish you were my sister.

We're going to DD's for Thanksgiving. There will be just 5 of us. She's a great cook.......don't know what she's having other than turkey but whatever she has will be delicious. I'm bringing an apple pie and a tiny pumpkin pie. I bake half a pumpkin pie in a 6" pie plate because we don't like it but she and my SIL do. She's always watching her weight and wouldn't want a lot of leftover desserts.
Elizabeth
5 years ago
I remember helping to make 5 cup salad when I was a child. We didn't bother with package sizes. It was one cup of each ingredient. Often doubled the recipe.
dandyrandylou
5 years ago
We're from Maryland which has the Pennsylvania influence, and we always have sauerkraut and the very small white onions creamed. This year plan to add a corn dish, and would appreciate any suggestions.

Family Thanksgiving Dinner for Twelve

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