Wow KSWL! You are on the ball! You are making good use of your sick time. : )

No, I have not thought much about the holidays yet. We have travel and other activities between now and then, so will get through that first. Also, I rarely host Thanksgiving. We are unsure of our plans yet, we may be going to relatives of my husbands (this would be my pick - hoping it works out), or meeting my sister and BIL somewhere in between (they live in Charleston, SC, we are in TN). We normally go to my MILs for Thanksgiving, but after last year's experience, that is OUT.

We host Christmas, but I have not thought about the meal yet.

My only thought about T-Day has been how happy I am that all the kids and their SOs will be here. I suppose I’ll have to feed them…

NO,

It is sunny and 82 all week here in Maine. It is summer.

I am sorry to hear delirium has set in.

No, have not started planning. But due to my MIL, we basically have the same Thanksgiving meal every year. When she hosted it was the exact same meal every Thanksgiving and Christmas. To keep peace we have kept with her Thanksgiving meal and I now do what I want at Christmas, despite her protests.

@Kswl - Wonderful menu, I may consider adding in a couple of extra items, the congac gravy is calling my name along with the gingerbread cupcakes.

Nooooooo!

It’s STILL triple digits here. 106 tomorrow, 107 Friday. This horrible, scorching heat we’ve dealt with since June (!!!) has rendered me nearly unable to function at this point.

It will never be November here, I don’t think. We’re just going to be on a continuous brutal summer loop.

Brb, going to put out my July 4th wreath again….

PS: Your menu sounds scrumptious!

Uh - no - not for me. I don't start thinking about TG before Halloween and I don't start thinking about Christmas before TG.

Love your menu choices! Delicious!

A local bakery/cafe was peddling pumpkin cheesecake. Let me enjoy.my.summer people! I got their mini passion fruit cheesecake instead.

Your menu sounds delightful, @Kswl! My kitchen will be under construction so we will be having take-out from our local upscale grocer. No guests are expected. OR, I will be joining friends in San Diego. I don’t know if they are hosting this year and I’ll be a little bit reluctant because all I can bring this year is ice. I suppose I can volunteer for dish duty instead of preparing food.

I planned to turn over Thanksgiving duties to someone else. I wonder if I did?

I’ll think about it November 1.

My Thanksgiving menu has been the same forever. The only change was I had to make dairy-free for the oldest grandson, who is 20 this year. That is actualy very easy to do. This is what my grandmother cooked and my Dad cooked.

Roast turkey and oyster cornbread dressing in a pan, not stuffing in the turkey

Gravy

Sweet potato casserole, no marshmallows

English peas

Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce, made from fresh berries

Rolls

Pickle and olive tray

Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream (Coconut whipped cream now)

It has been the Christmas menu also, except the dessert changes I keep trying to change Christmas, but it has not been working and I think I will give up for now. I only cook turkey and dressing for those two times a year and I guess it really shouldn't matter that the two meals are only 4 weeks apart????? There is after all months between Christmas and Thanksgiving, lol.

LOL, you're either feeling better or are intoxicated from your meds. Hope it's the first reason!

Also, I admit that I have thought about it. Wondering if vegetarian NC daughter will want to host again this year. She did a great job last year. I was frankly a little worried because her cooking is usually not great. She said YouTube was a big help. She's realized that she's a visual learner, good to know even if she's lready been through school.

Nope. Although summer is less fleeting in the Upper Midwest than it used to be, it's still pretty fleeting. Open windows, flowers to water, naps in the sun, I'm hanging on to summer.

Fortunately I don't have to give it much consideration - my children do not want any surprises with Thanksgiving. They consider it a comfort meal and just want their favorites. One year DH opted to add water chestnuts to the stuffing and they were so disappointed. Since then they always ask if I made the stuffing.

Nope! Not thinking about that!

Actually, I’m having foot and ankle surgery in October, and I’ll still be non-weight bearing for Thanksgiving, so we’ll be eating something that someone else prepares!

Your menu sounds delicious!

No. Come back in two months.

I have to have the same traditional Thanksgiving Dinner every year - so I have it down to a T. We do more fancy at Christmas.

I have started to think about it since Labour Day has passed but our Thanksgiving is only about 5 weeks away. I stopped doing a turkey for Thanksgiving about 10 years ago as I host the Christmas turkey dinner for our extended family and it just got too repetitive for me to feel inspired. I think I may do a crown roast of pork this year but that's about as far as I am with planning. There will be only be about 8 of us this year so it won't be a huge production. We always have pumpkin pie and either a banana cream or coconut cream pie for my pumpkin loathing daughter.

No, not any serious food planning yet, but ours is usually pretty traditional and full of everyone’s favorites.

I’m fairly certain I will end up hosting on Thanksgiving day again because several of the grandkids will be going to college football games on the weekend. Oldest grandson and his wife are not traveling from Dallas to Alabama for TG; oldest DGd is coming from Kansas City and wants to go big with TG with as many family as can make it. So for now we’re planning this to do the turkey, a smoked turkey breast, ham, dressing and sides.

Nothing wrong with planning!! Nutcracker is not a show I would take "the grands" to. We did that just before COVID and struggled not to sleep through it. We see a show the years my son and wife aren't with us. Last year it was Pentatonix this year we will all be together. My menu is set. TRADITIONS rule at this house. DH smokes the turkey...maybe he will try spatchcocking it this year. That will be the extent of our veering from the tried and true. Fall is in the air today for sure and that means the holidays are on their way!!!

Too soon! It's still summer...sunny, hot, temps in the 90s. No way can I think about t'giving yet! I'll check back come November...

It’s still summer here, too, but as long as I am stuck here recuperating I may as well use the time wisely, 🦉 I am also updating my Christmas playlist with any new music published in the last year, and shopping for a Christmas dress that will go well with my grands wearing the Tyrolean jackets we bought them in Austria. Around here ”Be Prepared” is not so much a credo as it is an obsession.

Traditional dinners as in the same thing every year are something I am just done with; as long as I am the one cooking — and I don’t see anyone else volunteering to take it over—- I will make what appeals to me and 100% of the time each new meal has been well received. I do make some kind of stuffing every year only because my mother pouts if she doesn’t get it. 😎 She may be going to my SIL’s this year and if so I can get creative with the stuffing recipe.

So….Thanksgiving crackers…..do you have them at your dinners? We love crackers and no holiday is complete without a picture of everyone around the table wearing their paper crown. Those of you who think it’s too early for Thanksgiving may be interested to know that on one site all the crackers are sold out already! I saw these ”turkey surprise balls” and thought they could do dual duty table decoration and place cards if I wrote names on one of the paper feathers. They are twice the price of crackers, but probably twice as cute.

Maybe they are sold out from LAST year and haven’t yet restocked for this year, lol?

We are already talking Thanksgiving and Christmas though not down to the menu just yet. When my dad was still living the Thanksgiving meal was set and if there were variations, they were very minor and usually just to ADD a vegetable. Now that he has died, we could change the menu but i think we're all very hesitant.. sister did add herbs to the gravy last year and it was a great treat. This was big progress. I still make the creamed onion recipe that my father made and his mother made before him. I think there would be an uprising if the stuffing recipe was changed! Still, the holidays are changing and while so much of the holiday menu links back to dad and his family, the younger generations are bringing their ideas and tastes to the table as they are as capable in the kitchen as the rest of us.

We have crackers some years but not all ... always for Thanksgiving. They don't fit into our Christmas Eve celebration. Oh but that is changing also as my sister who hosted Christmas Eve (our big celebration day) has downsized and moved further out of town. It isn't clear what we will do yet-- hence our discussions in August/Sept.

I would love to travel over Thanksgiving ... but I don't have the guts to tell my mom or my sisters that I won't be there. I would NEVER have bailed when my dad was alive because i wouldnt have had the heart to do it. In my 59 years, I have only missed family Thanksgiving once.

I do hope you are feeling better, KSWL ... and if there's IS a silver lining to having covid, I'd say getting a jump on shopping and planning would be it!

I have started thinking about Thanksgiving. I usually start appys and desserts in October, so it's getting to be that time. Thank goodness for freezers.

Our menu is pretty much set. We change up the veggie each year. And since we have some vegans and fishetarians, we usually change up their meal. But the main meal - turkey, stuffing, cajun sweet potato, cranberry sauce does not change. In fact, if we were to ever not make the sweet potatoes there would for sure be a mutiny. I do not even like sweet potatoes but I look forward to that dish all year long as does everyone in my family.

The other things that change are the appys and desserts. I make anywhere between 8-10 different desserts and almost all of them are made far in advance. There are a few staples that will never change and then a few new/different things each year.

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. It's the one we host every year and have since we got married. I refused to decide between visiting my or DH's family so declared we were hosting. We are Jewish and all our other holiday have multiple days. Easy to split the days between the families. Thanksgiving is one day and I wasn't choosing.

This is reminding me of our Thanksgiving last year, probably the least enjoyable one we've ever had. I'm sure your family will love whatever you prepare KSWL, but maybe get their input before hand. I will admit to having hard feelings toward my MIL last year. We swap out holidays in our families. Holidays are so different now that many are gone. My husband and I do enjoy a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. It's not something we eat much otherwise and I guess we are traditional. I don't mind changing up the sides, desserts, etc. but there must be turkey and dressing. I looooooveeeee dressing!! Last year my MIL hosted Thanksgiving and when we got ready to go into the dining room, she says "we're not having turkey and dressing". I asked why and she said "because I don't want it". To me she might as well have said she didn't care what we wanted/liked. This year we've decided our plans will not revolve around her for Thanksgiving. We already have been invited to another relative's home for dinner and we would have a wonderful time. We've also played around with the idea of meeting my sister and BIL halfway (they live in Charleston, SC - we are in TN) but I'm really doubtful about that. My MIL has a long time male friend and she often attends holiday and other dinners at his daughter or granddaughters home, so please don't think she will be alone. I will host Christmas and she will be here then.

I've never heard of crackers or crowns for Thanksgiving! To me the holidays are about family and my husband and I have never missed a family holiday save one year when we had a White Christmas - a huge snow!

We are dealing with getting our dining room repaired - right now the drywall is off of most of the walls and all of the ceiling. The estimator from the construction company came over yesterday to take photos and measurements, and I should have an answer from the insurance company in a week or 10 days. I hope everything will be finished in less than a couple of months, but we still have to get our furniture back from storage and then decide how to redecorate.

We are definitely non-traditional and do not distinguish Thanksgiving and Christmas from Memorial Day or Labor Day - they are just days off from work for my brother, as I am now retired.

We lost our parents in 2012 and have not spent any holidays with family after that, since we have no children. It is a huge relief not to have to travel for those holidays - I had always tried to get our mother to have family reunions on Texas Independence Day (March 2) when the weather is more reliably pleasant, although TG weather was usually good, despite travel being a nightmare.

When we did go to Texas for holidays, I did almost all of the cooking for our mother, including roasting a turkey and making cornbread dressing. The last time I was there, I used grits instead of cornbread, and no one could tell the difference. I gave the recipe to my SIL.

For the two of us, it is not practical to roast a whole turkey, and so if I cook, I will have to come up with something else. Recently we've been going to restaurants for holiday meals, and that takes a lot of pressure off, which is pleasant. If I cook Christmas dinner, I like to roast a duck. For Thanksgiving, we often have fish or king crab legs, depending on what we find at the market. I also like making deviled crab, if I only find Dungeness crab meat. I prefer to make things I like best instead of what is traditional.

Tina, same thing happened to us one year! MIL was hosting and we were so looking forward to turkey and dressing and all the good casseroles but once we got there she was so proud to announce no turkey this year & instead roast beef! We all pretended to be excited.

Arcy, nothing beats a smoked turkey. The taste can't be replicated no matter how it's cooked. The first time DH's late DGM saw it after it was carved she said it looks raw. lol It wasn't of course and she ended up loving it.

Kswl, do you cook everything? When I hosted which was almost every year until I passed the turkey to DS1, I was too exhausted to eat when I sat down, and when everyone left I put my jammies on and pigged out. Even though others did bring sides it was still a hard job.

Let me answer these in reverse order…..😁

Oakley, I do all the cooking although DS2 comes early to play sous chef. I prep and cook for about four days. Never fear, I send out the menu well in advance … no surprises!

Lars, if you can find a good holiday meal at a nice local restaurant, more power to you. We don’t have that luxury. I could actually pick it all up from the golf club restaurant but it would be turkey, plain stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, rolls and gravy, a real carb-fest ☹️ I am interested in your grits casserole cum stuffing.. would you share the recipe?

Tina I think you have the right idea to change up your venue this year. Your MIL may be saying—- ineffectively and passively aggressively—- that she wants to take a break from hosting.

Jsk, lol ….. wow, 8 to 10 desserts?? Impressive! That must be how you inject some variety in your meal!

Funky….”my sister did add herbs to the gravy last year and it was a great treat..” Whoa…you’re not kidding about cooking the exact same thing. Do you think your dad would disapprove of changes—-now—or are you all just reluctant to let that connection to him fade?

Olychick, good point! Maybe.

Ummm, not me.

KSWL, Dad never wanted to change the menu-- he prepared the entire meal and it was very similar to the meal he had growing up. There is a lot of options.. a lot of variety ... but typically the same meal and recipes. To dad, it was honoring family and tradition.

We still feel the loss ... and because dad cooked ALL our Sunday dinners growing up and all the holiday meals until his last few years, yes. We're reluctant to make changes. Not so much that he'd be upset .... but I think to honor him and to have a bit of him with us.

Big hugs to Funky.

JSK, love that meme. If I were one to wear an emblazoned t-shirt, that'd be it!

Funky ❤️

Funky, LOL LOL!

Kswl - your menu sounds delicious, especially the poached pear salad. While we don't change the main course we do experiment with different salads and side dishes. I hope you feel better soon but please don't post that you've completed all of your holiday shopping while recuperating.

DH does the turkey and gravy and I do all the rest. He follows Julia Child's method of partially boning the turkey before cooking which requires more prep but makes serving much easier. He cuts the turkey into segments - legs, thighs and wings, separates the back from the breast, removes the bones from the thighs and then ties them, repeating with the legs. He leaves the breast on the bone but the back and trimmings go into the stock pot. For roasting, the breast is placed on a bed of stuffing which is resting on large slices of onion that caramelize in the oven. Before coming to the table the breast, legs, and thighs (minus the butcher twine) are then reassembled on the platter. This way we still have the traditional carving of the turkey breast and he can slice the dark meat into medallions for plating - no bones to contend with.

Funky - " to have a bit of him with us." How true. We have a few foods that my adult children still call - Granddad's pancakes, Ollie's brisket or Granny's chop suey. These are meals that they remember from their childhood and it helps keep the memory and love for their grandparents alive.

Hat’s off to your DH for taking over the turkey and then going to all that trouble, Maire Cate. I spatchcocked our turkey in 2018 and even that was too much trouble for me!

Kswl, I'm impressed! We hosted until DS got married and back then I didn't have a dishwasher. There was space but I needed storage. If I hosted now my lower back would be dead by day 3 during prepping. I always made what I could early.

One of our best TG's was when both boys were gone to their girlfriends/wife's parents for the holiday leaving DH and I alone. Nine miles up the hwy was a catering service/restaurant & only cooked homestyle meals. I called to see if they did TG dinners to go and they did. When ordering I told them to make a lot extra so we could have leftovers. Ham, turkey, the usual southern casseroles, stuffing with no raisins, apples or nuts, lol. All of it. When I picked it up the meal came in two large and deep 9x13 pans. Fifty bucks.

They closed about a year ago. :( BTW, I deplore pumpkin pie but love pumpkin bread. I love pecan pie but only with my recipe. Some people put way too many pecans in their pies which ruins the center for me.

Kswl

Here is my quick recipe for stuffing:

Grits Faux Cornbread Stuffing

2 tbsp vegetable oil or grape seed oil
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 cups finely chopped celery

3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth (or water)
1 tbsp soup base, mushroom, chicken, vegetable, or a combination
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried sage (according to your taste)
3/4 cup quick grits (be sure not to use "instant") – can substitute polenta
2 eggs
2 tbsp water
2 cups dry bread, in small cubes

In a large saucepan, heat the vegetable oil and add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the onion, celery, and garlic, and sauté for a few minutes, or until the onions begin to be translucent. The celery must stay crunchy. Add the water (or broth, if you have it), soup base, cayenne, and herbs, and stir to combine. Take the pan off heat, and add the quick grits slowly while stirring. Stir for one minute off heat, and return to low heat. Cover and cook five minutes more (for a total of six minutes), stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat the eggs with the 2 tbsp water, and then combine with the bread cubes. Transfer the bread to a 9x13 baking dish, add the cooked grits, and stir to combine.

Bake covered for about 10 - 20 minutes – longer if the grits have been made ahead and have cooled. If you like it less moist, you can bake it uncovered.

I endorse non-traditional Thanksgiving dinners —especially when preparing dishes for vegan family members. However, they think tofurkey is great. They bring the tofurkey, I avoid eating it, and prepare the rest of the dinner — green salad with persimmons, roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes, roasted squash or roasted pumpkin soup with fried sage leaves. I’ll add one more vegetable dish. Baked apples with ginger and walnuts, and wine poached pears for dessert. I don’t enjoy cooking or baking with faux eggs, milk, or cheese.

If there were no vegans, I would be serving Cornish game hens. Or a turkey breast stuffed with fig tapenade. Possibly salmon.

Nope. Nada. Nuh-uh. Not even thinking about thinking about Thanksgiving dinner. The high temp today was down to ONLY 103 today, I won't be ready to think about those plans for about 2 more months. Those 2 months have a wedding and other events to worry about, so even without the heat and enjoying an extended watermelon season, I cannot even wrap my head around caring about a meal at the end of November right now. I'm hoping it will cool off enough that I will feel like caring when the fresh cranberries and turkeys show up at the markets. Sides will be somewhat influenced by what is in our farm share and what sounds good at the moment. That's how I cook most of the time. And it's all subject to change if DS and FDIL wind up moving around that time or we go to their place if they have already moved.

In the meantime, we're looking at 104 tomorrow and my 20 pound purchase will be another watermelon. Hope it's a juicy one.

Y'all carry on. Jilly and I will catch up with you later. We hope.

Our Thanksgivings are pretty set, although they rotate among different hosts. They are basic, and I think people would stroke out if the basics changed? Salad- depends on the hosts?, turkey, stuffing (dressing), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetable dish- at least one, many desserts- must include rum pudding and pumpkin pie. Hors d'oeurves are another whole thing!

I feel like I've prepped months ahead for Thanksgiving after reading all these menus and plans.

It is too early for me to start thinking about Thanksgiving, other than knowing who is coming to visit us that week. We all like the traditional TG meal, dessert is based on what DH is craving. I rarely eat one that day, but might eat more sweet potatoes later. I always buy turkey breasts, since no one really like dark meat. DH always wants a small spiral ham, and SIL prefers it over turkey too.

The only prep I do the week or days before is grocery shop. The day before I will get out ingrediants, pans, etc. and prepare everything Thanksgiving Day.

While we don't have much variation year to year, I do love the meal. We do our turkey on the grill and have for the last 20+ yr. It is amazingly moist and flavorful. No sweet potato casserole, just baked sweet potatoes (my preference). There is always green bean casserole though and roasted brussels sprouts (this recipe sometimes changes) .. also corn. I make creamed onions-- I can't really eat more than a bite because of the milk but it's a very old family recipe and it seems only I can get the thickness and garlic-white pepper-black pepper ratio just right. I don't care for our stuffing-- it's boring and just not worth the carbs/calories. I also usually pass on the mashed potatoes though they are delicious. I load up on the veggies. I am sure many of you will cringe but most of us like cranberry sauce from the can lol ... but we also have my Aunt Ruthie's cranberry walnut salad. The gravy has a wonderful taste from the charcoal grill .. and some of us like it with the roasted onions, carrots and celery included. It used to be a treat my dad would save just for me (the veggie lover) but now my sister and a few others love it too. Of course there are breads and rolls.

We don't do appetizers -- it's just too much food. We do start with bloody marys in the morning as I help sister prep and cook.. then move on to cocktails or champagne by afternoon when guests start arriving.

There are always MANY pies. I very much dislike pumpkin pie and rarely have room or desire for dessert but the selection is mind numbing. Always a peanut butter pie and usually a couple of apple pies, blueberry, raspberry .. I like a pumpkin roll but don't make one every year.

A very traditional, not-so-fancy meal.

If I could change it at all ... it wouldn't be much. I'd make a more interesting and flavorful stuffing and add something with wild rice. I'd love a soup too but logistically, it wouldn't work well.

PS. It is getting harder and harder to get the onions for the creamed onions. We have tried fresh pearl onions, frozen but the absolute best are Aunt Nellie's Holland-Style onions in a jar. I just ordered 6 jars! I don't know if the recipe is swedish or ukraine (i should research it) but it is from that side of the family. Dad loved them and some of the rest of us like them-- but they are a prized leftover because they are great to add to soups.

My DH does all the main meal items - turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato and whatever salad/veggie we decide on and the vegan meal (which also feeds the fishetarian). He's a better cook than me and does most of the cooking daily. He basically makes or preps everything other than the turkey the week of. We brine the turkey, so we also do that on Wednesday.

Speaking of making foods for tradition sake...I make 2 appetizers from DH's deceased grandmother's cookbook. One of them - borecas - are a real pain in the you know what to make. I mean, they're easy, they just take a lot of time to roll out each piece of dough and stuff. And I make about 100 of them, so it takes a long time. I do not enjoy that at all but I do love eating them. So delicious. And again, tradition! Thankfully, they freeze and reheat really well. Picture below. Mine are made with potato and cheese inside. Kind of like a perogie.

So you got me thinking. Last year, after polling my family, I decided not to do turkey. I started thinking, should I do turkey this year or do something different again…but I couldn’t actually remember what we had last year! (Menopause has made me stupid.) I had to ask my people. It was lasagna. Actually I think I used a recipe that kswl shared here!

No idea what I’ll do this year.

Jsk, that’s a labor of love, 100 pierogies(ish). Kudos to your hisband and all the other husbands who step up at Thanksgiving.

Sueb20, I remember, you did make that lasagne and said it was a big hit. I’m biased but it is definitively delicious!

Ok here’s the funny part. No one remembers anything right because lasagna was christmas. We did takeout BBQ for Thanksgiving because that was the week we had a shower for DS and now DIL.

In L.A., we like to go to Pann's Restaurant near our house in Westchester for holiday meals, but we used to go to The Warehouse in Marina Del Rey, which was close to our house in Venice when we lived there. Both restaurants were open for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we like them both.

If we are in Cathedral City, we can go to Elmer's Restaurant in Palm Springs. It is a chain that was started in Oregon, but it is still very good - except for Mexican food, which they do not make correctly. The problem with Elmer's in Palm Springs is that it is very popular and therefore often crowded, especially for weekend breakfast/brunch, especially during peak tourist season.

You’re fortunate to have so many good options! I’ll bet you are also never late for an appointment because you were stuck on a narrow road behind a tractor 😎

Jsk, those look delicious! Very similar to Bierrocks but different type dough. It's close to Bierrocks season here so I may make a large batch.