I have a nice raisin sauce for ham if you'd like the recipe.

It will be only 3 of us so I will do a cranberry chicken recipe instead turkey. DH only care about marshmallow yams!

Eld6161, sure, will try it!

2 of 3 grown kids coming. SO has a Tues colonoscopy ... so everything should be copacetic.

Turkey and sweet potatoes for sure. Homemade cranberry sauce and likely something else along with homemade rolls. Maybe a strawberry pie and punpkin pie.

seagrass_gw Cape Cod

Just the two of us this year. Neither one of us is operating at 100%. We have duck legs in the freezer. DH has a recipe for red wine braised duck legs with dried fruit in the sauce. I like to serve them on wide Amish egg noodles with lots of butter and parsley. Haven't decided on a green veg yet. Our regional grocery store chain, Stop & Shop, hasn't had much in the way of vegetables for over a week. Their computer systems got hacked and their supply chain has been disrupted. We can shop at smaller markets, though. I might pick up a pumpkin pie from a local farm stand.

Well just found DH is going to rehab to recover from his back surgery. It may be a week, so, I may be baching it. I'll just go to my favorite Hof Brau for a turkey dinner a few days before Thanksgiving if I feel like having turkey. Maybe I'll do a Charlie Brown TG for myself on the actual day. ;-)

Traditionally we do at longish trail ride on holidays at the stables. This year I think it may be the day before TG but probably depends on the weather system coming though. I ride rain or shine but not everyone does, so we'll see.

Thanksgiving is not something we worry about celebrating or not.

Kath, I do this one. I just noticed the other recipe on the back.

DH and I are flying to Michigan for the Thanksgiving week to spend it celebrating with my huge sibling clan. DD & her fiancé will be staying here to watch the house and our two fur kids, along with their threehere. Two Dobermans in their smaller house would be waaay too many fur kids!!! DD, DF, DS and a few of their friends will be celebrating it here.

We will probably go to Otori Sushi, which is just a few blocks from our house, as we will not have a kitchen. This is one of the best sushi restaurants in Coachella Valley, and we really like it. They give large portions, and so it works out not to be expensive, compared to other sushi restaurants in the Valley.

Otherwise, my other choices are Oceans Restaurant in Cathedral City or Fisherman's Market Restaurant in Palm Springs, although it has branches in Palm Desert and La Quinta that are less crowded. We've been to the one in La Quinta, and it was good but is a lot smaller than the one in Palm Springs. We might go to Shanghai Red's.

Another option is Elmer's Palm Springs, which is closer. It gets crowded for breakfast and lunch/brunch but is never crowded in the evening, although it has a great menu for dinner. I really like their Cobb Salad, but they will close at 2 PM on Thanksgiving, and so they might not have a special Thanksgiving menu and will not be open for dinner.

Eld, thanks for the recipe!

Family is far too widespread for us all to gather at Thanksgiving. Most of the time we can't even manage that at Christmas!!

This year it will just be seven of us - the immediate family still left in town :-) As we did last year, dinner will be catered by a small local firm that works out of a commercial kitchen in my sister's building. The menu is superb and the portions very generous - we are all looking forward to a no-hassle evening. And maybe even a doggie bag!

Kath, eld, ladypat, Lars, Lynn and others — sounds good!

We will have a simple turkey dinner here, then go to a friend’s dinner

party a few days later. Low key, relaxing and fun.

I want to wish all of you a happy, warm Thanksgiving.

We'll be going to daughter's house four miles away and I'll bring probably grilled veggies. Son and DIL will also be there as well as son-in-law's widowed mom. Grandson will also be there minus his girlfriend of five/ six years who will be at her family's dinner. Even though they have lived together for over two years, they do this separate thing.

I am working, but I will still cook for SO and myself. I will do the same thing I have been doing. A bacon wrapped turkey tenderloin, chicken dressing, canned cranberry sauce, mac and cheese and a veggie of some sort. I will let SO pick which one, as I think that veggies ruin the celebration vibe. I am hoping he will want the collard greens that I grew this spring, because they are already cooked and in the freezer. It will either be those, cabbage or green beans. The dressing is already in the freezer from the last batch I made. The only thing left to decide is dessert. He sent me some tiktoks a few weeks ago of some cake recipes. He did not ask me to make them, but why else would he send them to me? One was a strawberry cake, the other a butter rum pound cake. I had planned to make an apple pie, but now I will do one of those. And I will make myself a pumpkin pie, and I'm going to eat the WHOLE THING. I will be training the new hire on night shift procedures and stuff that whole week, despite me asserting that it is DUMB to train on a holiday week, as it will be weird and not like normal nights at all, but of course, they scheduled it anyway. So whatever. No one from my family has asked me to cook anything yet, as I have already stocked my sisters freezer with dressing and other things. They all know how much I have been having to work. 25 12 hour nights in September, 28 in October plus a training day, and this month I am working 25. So maybe they will refrain from asking this year.

I will be putting my Christmas display up at work this Friday, so I suspect that myself and the new hire will spend Thanksgiving night watching various Christmas movies on the projector and chit chatting. By then, we will have covered everything she needs to know and there will likely be no one coming in here for her to practice on so.....

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I know so many who are not doing the big turkey thing anymore. I think that some of the tradtiions are changing as the generations progress and as we blend so many different cultures into America.

Lifestyles change. Family structures change. I think also that there are more people who are alone now. The big lot of boomers have moved through and many have lost friends and family to old age or lost mobiltiy to travel. The kids and grandkids have moved across the country.

Also there are more working women who dont want to spend the holiday in the kitchen monitoring a large turkey . My working daughter is getting a smoked turkey and I am bringing other things. But no big turkeys in the oven.

I dont want to put a turkey in my oven. It is .new and clean and I dont want it sullied with meat juices and fat splatters.

I think that more are looking for something a bit different.

Last year was just hubs and I and I made a turkey gumbo and dirty rice and sweet potato pie.

For years I started early in the morning and cooked for hours. I cant do that kind of thing anymore and would not even want to.

This year is hard to find joy.

This is our 'off' Thanksgiving meaning my son celebrates with his wife's family, and now #2DD has a 'special friend' she will celebrate with before coming home. DH, #1DD and I will work our churches' free Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Then Friday when #2DD arrives we will have our traditional FEAST--grilled/smoked turkey ala DH and all the fixings. Saturday we have tickets to "White Christmas" at MNs premier professional theatre and Sunday we travel north to Fargo for our the grand daughter's baptism. A 'quieter' holiday turned into a whirlwind I wasn't expecting. We are just thankful #1DD doesn't' have a performance of her own balling up plans!! In and around all the coming and going we will be creating our holiday porch pots. I can't wait!!

A few of last year's creations.

DIL is cooking, and they live only 5 minutes away.

Oh...WE LOVE Thanksgiving! Bring it on! I have a 22.75lb turkey I'll stuff with a sage-bacon filling.

Cranberry sauce

Mashed potatoes & gravy

Pumpkin Cheesecake / I baked it yesterday, had a piece for breakfast. Getting an early start.

Just the two of us. Then @ 4AM the next morning, we drive over to JCP for their Black Friday $10 coupon give away. It's a tradition. We often meet up with friends or DH's coworkers to hang out with. Running around the store...It's a nice way to burn off calories.

Newlyweds DD2 and her husband are coming, and so will DD1. I bought a 9 1/2 pound turkey breast and just found out he is a dark meat lover. I am sure he will eat whatever I put in front of him. I would buy a leg for him, but there is no way it will fit in the oven. Mother-in-law problems!

I will be getting new double ovens for my kitchen soon, and I would not hesitate to cook a large turkey in one of them - that's what they are for. I love roasting a large turkey, and I use the dry salt method, which takes some planning, but the results are worth it, and everyone who has eaten it has told me so.

I very much enjoy cooking for Thanksgiving, but I have never hosted myself. When I would visit my parents, I would do most of the cooking for my mother, and I would make the desserts a day or two in advance. She liked having family crowds for Thanksgiving but did not want to do much of the work.

This year my sister wanted the relatives in Texas to visit her, but they had other plans. Now she wants to visit Kevin and me for Christmas, but I don't think my kitchen will be finished by then. She can come anyway if she wants, but we have set up a temporary kitchen in the guest room, and so she might have to sleep in Kevin's office, which is open to the dining room.

I really dislike how open our floor plan is here, as noises travel from one end of the house to the other, and noises in the kitchen frequently prevent me from hearing the TV. I like for kitchens to have doors so that they can be closed off, and I do not mean barn doors. Our kitchen in Venice had pocket doors, which I think are ideal.

I used to host Thanksgiving, pre-covid. For at least 15 years, except the year my brother died. Once we could get together again after covid, I had no desire to host anymore. There were all sorts of offers made. The favorite was that they would pay for the premade dinner from publix and all I had to do was heat it up. I couldn’t even imagine wasting the effort to reheat someone elses recipes. I refused to do it. My MIL then volunteered to host one. I said great! What can I bring? Dessert, no problem. When I got to her house I was surprised that I didn’t smell any food cooking. That is when I found out that she cooked the entire meal the day before and then wrapped it in foil. And then she wanted me to tell her how to heat it all up now. LOL You can’t make this stuff up.

Anyway, I am still not feeling this holiday the way I once did. This year DH and his Mom are in Costa Rica until Wed so I knew she wouldn’t want to do it. SIL is flying out on Friday for a trip so they made plans to just go to a restaurant without even consulting me this year. Yay! New traditions, just like that.

This year I am making a prime rib for Thanksgiving. I almost added baked potatoes to make it special but then remembered that I prefer roasted potatoes. So roasted it is. This thread did inspire to do a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on the weekend. I picked up a turkey breast and I will make stuffing and cranberries from the can while I decorate the tree.

I guess I will have to stop saying Happy Turkey Day!

Meeting the family at a Longhorn restaurant tomorrow for our Thanksgiving. Definitely not my idea of a TG dinner, but my sister-in-law cooked for us for years and finally got tired. I don't really blame her. Plus it seems more family members are able to get together on another day besides the actual holiday. My house is too small to host. I don't even have a dining room - or an oven right now.

It will be just the 3 of us, and also Nala the dog. Mixing in a tiny bit of turkey in her kibble.

DH will have to do it all since I am still recovering from a broken hip. It will be 10lb turkey cooked in a bag, instant mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes microwaved, can green beans, can cranberry sauce, frozen pumpkin pie baked first thing so can have the oven for the turkey.

I tried to make it easy since he will be doing the whole meal and I won't be much of a help. For 47 years I have done it all from scratch, now it's his turn. I would have skipped it this year but he wanted it.

Schoolhouse, I love Longhorn!

I'm getting ready to start making some of my dishes for tomorrow. I haven't even managed to get out of my nightgown yet. ( :

November is a busy month here !

A 13 pound local Turkey is thawing. Ours will be a small gathering, hoping a couple friends who we've shared Thanksgiving with for many years can come, that will make 5 . As the week moves on if others want to come we often make last minute plans, that's our way. It might just be 3, my son, my husband and I (our daughter out of town this year)

I haven't been back to Michigan for Turkey day with Mom and the clan in quite a few years,

Upon request of friends, we hosted a potluck for 20 people last Saturday, we did a brisket point and a pork shoulder and others brought excellent food

Then came our neighbors for a 2nd brisket on Sunday because they were the guests of honor for Saturday and they had come unavoidably late and missed the meat altogether - So it was very enjoyable having them for a small gathering and more brisket

Then our 34th wedding anniversary was on Tuesday where we roasted a chicken outside Jim Dohrman (formerly of LePichet restaurant in Seattle) style, 500 F for an hour +, basted in butter - it was delicious!

Next, my birthday is Monday and we'll roast a duck Chinese style (because I'm tired of blowing off my birthday to make way for thanksgiving, hahaha).

So much food! And I don't have the appetite I used to

And on the the 26th we get a new furnace installed, which will be great but the timing not so great, oh well :)

Enjoy everybody! It's so fun to see all of the thoughts and plans

We're having VqQn's sister and hubby over for Thxgiving dinner this year. The 4 of us will have the usual food fare, most of which other than the turkey and stuffing will be from our garden. I'll be thankful that we're all on the same political page. Happy Thanksgiving to the rest of you and good luck ;-)

The one downside for me, being single, having TG on a different day is that I end up with no turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day. The other family members go to in-laws and grandparents. Most years I'd actually cook my own turkey (not a whole bird) and sides and then of course have all that clean up (how do I manage to use every pan in the cupboard for just one person?). Now I get carry-out from like Bob Evans. I do need my pumpkin pie and whipped cream tho and usually buy one of those from the bakery.

Yes, Longhorn is pretty good.

I am hosting, and this year will be 12, including 4 children. It's a perfect manageable number. I used to host large gatherings when we were in our house, but since we've downsized I really don't have crowd space. One year we did have a crowd here, and it was fun, but also kind of out of control.

So 8 adults and 4 kids. I should add that 2 of the adults have strict dietary practice and will not eat any of my food. So I keep kind of counting them but realistically have to remind miyself that other than providing a chair and some beverages, I should not figure on them actually eating.

As I type this, I realize I'm making food for 12 because we love leftovers and so does SIL, but really.... it's going to a lot of food.

Having Turkey of course, stuffing, health salad, roasted veggies ( sweet potato brussel sprouts with pomegranate seeds- new recipe for me), sweet potato, and regular for us- green salad with lots of stuff in it--- and daughter is making and bringing bread,. For desert, we'll have pumpkin pie, applie pie, and pecan pie. (I am making pecan pie, daugher is bringing pumpkin and apple).

I just read the stories on this thread - thank you @Kathsgrdn for posting the question! I enjoyed reading all of the posts but I have to say that the one that touched my heart & made me think of the meaning of Thanksgiving is @caflowerluver post. Her husband is a treasure of a partner! He is so thankful to have her home & recovering that he’s doing something for her that it sounds like is definitely not in his wheelhouse! She said ” I would have skipped it this year but he wanted it.” I love it! caflowerluver, I wish you a speedy recovery.

My daughter, boyfriend and dogs just left. They took most of the leftover food, which I had asked them to do. We had a nice time, played Catan and Monopoly Deal after we ate. I did make mashed potatoes and picked some kohlrabi leaves out of the garden and made "greens" with them.

Hope you all have a wonderful day, whatever day you do it.

DH made the health salad yesterday, and I figured out a bit more timing for some of the sides. Now the 2 who will not be eating the regular food called and said they'd love to bring a salad and a dessert and possibly an appetizer or another side for everyone.

Very nice! I asked what kind of salad and they seemed taken aback. I tried to explain that of course no obligation but I'd love whatever they'd bring but I was only asking so as not to duplicate anything I am preparing. They weren't sure.

So I'm delighted of course but now I think we'll likely end up with food for about 20 ...in typical Thanksgiving fashion. I know , I know, if there has to be a glitch, this is certainly a good one to have.

Yesterday at Longhorn I had the Parmesan chicken breast, bkd. sweet potato with cinn, asparagus. It was delicious. Some people complained their baked potatoes weren't done enough but mine was perfect. I'm always the last one left eating, the others have already had their plates taken away and eaten dessert. So I hurried. No dessert.

Just taste testing DH's health salad. It's yum.

Well, I spoke too soon. I got THE text: "Are you working on Thanksgiving?" As if the answer matters. My sister and her family put up a HUGE Christmas display for people to enjoy, and they are all super busy trying to finish it by Thanksgiving. So I told her that I will make her chicken dressing, mac and cheese, olive bread, hashbrown casserole. And since she made me a custom Christmas outfit with a matching bag, I will add on her and her husband favorite, my sausage stuffed mushrooms as a surprise. She never knows how many people will be at her house to celebrate, as some families forgo their own celebrations entirely to go to her house and eat and see the Christmas display officially lit up for the first time. I told her I will make it the day before if she comes to pick it up, which she agreed to. Luckily I will not be busy that night at work so I wont need all my brain cells.

The outfit that warranted such thanks. Can't go wrong with overalls!

oh that is adorable! so talented.

Amy lou- you have a wonderful attitude.

salonva...Do you have a recipe for your roasted veggies you could share? I have Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, cut up squash, onions and asparagus. I usually toss them in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Longhorn is great which is weird coming from a person who hasn't eaten red meat in 40 years. But their parmesan crusted chicken and their huge baked potatoes crusted with salt and everything on top... scallions ,sour cream, and their mixed green salad...yum.

Lily- this is the recipe I'm going to make for the first time...Roasted Brussel Sprouts Sweet Potato

For some reason although I saved this before, it's not letting me do so.

Ok here it is- this serves 4.