I made ARs:

dry brined turkey with fennel seeds and cooked with fennel: excellent!

mashed potatoes: TDF!

sausage and kale stuffing: best ever!

green bean casserole: fabulous!

cranberry sauce: needed a bit of tweaking

kale salad with honeyed toasted walnuts: delicious!

I also made pumpkin mousse (Ina Garten) and served it with the NYT brandied fruit i make every year, a bit of whipped cream dusted with a hint of nutmeg and a ginger snap or biscoff cookie. Other desserts were plain cheesecake with blueberry compote with lemon and cardamom, and chocolate cheesecake with caramel sauce. i did not make the cheesecakes, just the toppings.

And homemade rolls, which I made in the Tovala oven and steamed for six minutes before baking and they came out perfectly crusty for once.

Nothing new, same traditional dishes for my sweet dad. :)

But my cornbread dressing (uses herb-seasoned stuffing, too) was especially good this year and I’m not sure why.

DH did an 8 lb turkey breast in the roaster oven and oh wow. It was amazing. He uses a mixture of EVOO, fresh rosemary from our garden, and garlic for on and under the skin.

We still have leftovers, it’ll be dinner tonight. As you said, we only eat like this once a year, and enjoy every minute. :D

Well, I am off to buy an Alison Roman cookbook…

Our dinner was elsewhere, and everything was delish. All the usual traditional stuff. I brought two pies (uhhh not made by me) and Ina Garten’s hermit bars which I have made 2x in the last 2 weeks. People loved them, again.

We had the most fun Thanksgiving we have had in years. We went to DH’s cousin’s house — five of us and five of them, and their kids are close in age to ours (all young adults). We played a rollicking game of Farkle between dinner and dessert.

I'm a traditionalist on Thanksgiving. I don't do new recipes. I made the herbiest stuffing I've ever made this year though and it was delicious. A nearby store sells fresh herbs in bulk, where I always get fresh sage and thyme. This time I bought rosemary too. For about eight cups of bread cubes, I used about three tablespoons of chopped sage, a tablespoon of thyme and a teaspoon of minced rosemary. The rosemary really made a difference.

As for how to make it moist--I save the ends of white and whole wheat bread in the freezer for stuffing and bread crumbs and slice off the brown part. I don't dry out the cubes of bread. I soften the celery and onion in butter and also saute a chopped apple for moistness. Try it instead of carrot. You could grate it or chop it finely if you want it to disappear. I simmer the turkey neck with onion and celery to make stock and use it to moisten the stuffing and to make gravy--moister for baked stuffing, drier for in the bird. I don't add an egg unless I'm making stuffing balls.

I might be the last person to learn this method, but instead of rolling the pumpkin roll on a dish cloth to cool, I left it in the pan and covered the pan with foil. It rolled beautifully after cooling and spreading the filling.

I wish I had known this method in May when my vanilla Swiss roll stuck to the dish towel and had to become a trifle in order to salvage it. The only part of Xmas dinner I’m looking forward to is gingerbread Swiss roll, and I’ll use this method.

Game nights are the best!

DH did an 8 lb turkey breast

So did we. In immediate family all of us prefer white meat. I dry brined it with salt and sugar and it was a gorgeous brown. The only downside to not making a whole turkey is you don't get enough drippings for homemade gravy. I like WF gravy, I add what dripping we do have, a little Madeira and a little light cream. Just so I can *feel* as if I made the gravy.

We still have leftovers, it’ll be dinner tonight.

The leftovers are better. On the everyday china in sweats!

The only new thing I made was a pumpkin dessert - kind of a dump cake type recipe. I love pumpkin but I don't like pie crust so thought I'd give this a try. It was good but not as much pumpkin flavor as I was expecting. Everyone liked it though - it's a must to have vanilla ice cream with it. I haven't made a full TG dinner in many years and thought I might be a little rusty but it all turned out well including the Ina Garten turkey roulade which always looks like a mess when you're making it. We had our also new in town next door neighbors over for dinner and had a great time. They'd never heard of rutabagas and surprisingly liked them including the Mr who mostly prefers meat and potatoes.

Mtn, roast a couple of turkey thighs for drippings. You can even do that a day ahead and make the gravy.

How long do you dry brine the breast?

About 36 hours, Eileen.

PSSSt don't tell but I actually like the WF gravy! it's a little overseasoned but that's where the "light" cream comes in!

Eileen, I add chopped apple to my stuffing, too. And rosemary makes all the difference. Finally it tastes like my long-gone nana's stuffing (we called it dressing even though it was stuffed inside the turkey).

Thanksgiving was a big success this year although I didnt try anything new or fancy. I roasted a nine lb turkey breast in the roaster. The directions that came with the roaster said to add a cup of water to the pan to prevent drying out and that made a lot of difference. I made my standard bread stuffing. I put what little I could in the neck cavity of the bird and under it. I baked the rest of it. but drizzled a cup of juices from the turkey over it near the end of the bake time. I also mixed in the very moist stuffing from the bird. It was so good!

I cheated and bought gravy from my grocery, which is excellent, so why struggle? That gave me plenty of turkey drippings to add to the stuffing. The turkey breast was moist and the stuffing yummy.

Son’s SO brought a delicious sweet potato dish with pecans on top and two yummy pies.

Since everything went so well this year, maybe Ill expand my repertoire next year, along with my belly!

I have been spatchcocking a 12lb turkey for the past few years and won't go back. This year I dry brined instead of buttermilk brined. It was much easier, less messy and I think the meat was flavorful and not dry at all. Spatchcocking provides hardly any drippings, so I make gravy the day before using the cut-out backbone and neck. It's nice to just pull out the gravy to heat up after the turkey comes out to rest.

Mtn you are not the only one - I always add grated carrots to my stuffing because my mother did. My guess is it's Russian heritage thing because grated carrot turned up in a lot of her foods, or her mother's who lived with us.

No turkey for us this year, did beef stew instead. I've made beef cheek tacos before but saw a recipe for beef cheek soup and decided to wing it and do more of a stew. Used a V8 base which is a great tenderizer for something like beef cheek, the usual potatoes, carrots but made a sofrito (sans cumin) first and holy moly it was good. DH ate 3 bowls on Thurs and we finished it last night. When I work without a net/recipe and come up with something DH loves, he always says 'you're never going to make this again, are you' and he's usually right Part remembering what I did and part having the specific ingredients on hand although there is nothing unusual here.

Mtn, my WF has a few different turkey gravies on their website. Do you buy a jarred gravy? Or this?

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/whole-foods-market-turkey-gravy-b09n3twqpf

How weird that it has cocoa powder. I guess that's for color.

I add a little Kitchen Bouquet to my purchased gravy to make it browner. I dont like pale gravy.

Mayflowers!

I think it is the one you linked; it is sold in the refrigerated section, but only seasonally I think.

Mtn you are not the only one - I always add grated carrots to my stuffing because my mother did.

I grew up with an even weirder stuffing recipe, that used saltine crackers instead of bread! My siblings still make that. The carrot stuffing recipe cmae from my BFF who made it, IIRC, from a Pepperidge Farm bread wrapper... in high school! She no longer makes it

I also roasted a turkey breast and made the gravy the day beforehand per AR’s suggestion. I bought a package of turkey legs (they are ridic enormous) and roasted them in the oven for drippings. I got enough for the gravy which I made with homemade chicken stock I had frozen. One thing I did differently this year with the gravy was to puree some of the turkey leg meat and add it to thicken the gravy— in addition to the roux base, of course. I used both stock and half and half and half (instead of heavy cream) along with sage, a little toasted fennel and marjoram and the pureed turkey. And the obligatory cognac (thanks, Ina!). The gravy was a huge hit— I did not disclose the method fearing it might put off some picky eater.

I went to a friend's house for dinner. There were some hits and misses, but the gravy! It was from Costco. It was fantastic. Gravy is really the unifying element for me.

I'm going to pick up a rotisserie chicken next week and make all the sides.

I made make-ahead all purpose gravy from Cooks Illustrated (I think). It doesn’t use any meat parts. Starts with a mirepoix, butter, I used GF flour, chicken and beef broths, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns. The turkey eaters like it. Since I don’t make the turkey, its easy to do the gravy here the day before and have one less task on Thursday.

We are doing ours today, at son’s house.

Tried to make a cranberry vinaigrette which called for hazelnut oil for the green salad. It tasted terrible so I washed down the drain and used fresh chopped cranberries mixed with a store-bought rose wine vinaigrette which was much better.

I wanted to make turkey stock with the turkey bones, but all the recipes called for hours and hours of simmering which I was not in the mood to do. So I stuck the bones in the freezer for the future or for the trash, decision postponed for a later date.

hhireno, can I ask what GF flour you use? I tried making gravy with mashed potatoes as a thickener, it was a bust.

I traditionally serve Yorkshire Pudding on TG, but this year made GWs Memphis Corn Pudding the night before since I wanted to spend more time with the babies. So glad I did, the littlest took his first steps on TG Day :)

Both Wegman's GF Cornbread mix and Krusteaz GF work well with the recipe—you can use half the package or double the ingredients. It was a hit, and the Brits didn't even notice the Yorkshire was missing (or they are too polite to say).

Absolutely no redeeming nutritional value, but it's so yummy.

Nothing new for us really, but like Sue, our Thanksgivings have changed for the better. Two years ago my MIL had roast beef for Thanksgiving dinner, without asking what we thought. SHE didn't want turkey. We love the traditional dinner and don't mind a few twists, but must have turkey and dressing. Last year, we went to my husband's cousins, the two sisters are very near us in age, they each have 1 child who both have children, two of which are boy/girl almost 3 year old twins, who are the best fun!! The other grandchild is almost 2. One of the guys deep fried the turkey and another cooked the ham. Both delish. The ladies (mostly me and the two sisters, we let the 2 daughters go easy since the have the little ones LOL), made the sides, ranging from deviled eggs, broccoli casserole, potatoes, cranberry sauce, a cold stuffed pepper dish, gravy, bread, dressing, etc., etc., etc. There was so much food! The dessert table included a death by chocolate cake, cream of coconut cake, banana pudding, fruit salad. I think there was a pie, also but not sure. I noticed there was no sweet potatoes and thought I would miss it, but no, too much other stuff! The best part was the fun we all have together. We participated in the drawing of names (adults) for Christmas gifts this year (and I thought I was through ha!), and the little ones get gifts from all. Also, my MIL was not invited. These cousins, their spouses and myself have all lost both our parents. My husband has his mother. So we have really created a close bond with each other. We've always been close, but in the years of children and grandchildren, didn't get together as much although we've always pulled together when needed. It is so nice to just have fun together!!

Everyone’s meals sound wonderful! There were just six of us. I made Once Upon a Chef’s Dry Brined Turkey, Rachel Ray’s Apple, celery and onion stuffing (very similar to my mom’s stuffing); Ina’s Green beans with Gremolata, and Citrus Glazed Sweet Potatoes from the NYT. Everything turned out well. I was going to try spatchcocking the turkey, but didn’t get around to it. Maybe next year!

The only new thing I made was apple sangria. It turned out really well. Sauvignon Blanc, fresh apple cider, apple brandy, chopped honey crisp apples, orange slices, and cranberries in a pitcher. People could top off their individual glasses wih a splash of ginger ale or club soda.

@gardener123

I currently have Cup4Cup brand all purpose GF flour. It was fine for the gravy and gf pumpkin roll.

I don’t have any brand loyalty to it. For the small amount I use, I buy whatever brand is available/on sale when I need to replace it. I only need gf a few times a year, it is not required in my everyday cooking.

Porkandham, I love sangria and variations of it … will try that, thank you for sharing!

Great thread! I love a good hotwash.

My menu included turkey, gravy, potatoes, cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, orange/cranberry relish, and red cabbage salad.

Some takeaways:

Like Czarinalex, I spatchcocked my turkey (11 lb) and dry brined. I roughly used Wyse Guide's recipe, including the cowboy butter for basting. It was the most flavorful turkey I've had. 10/10 highly recommend.

For the gravy, I roasted the turkey spine, neck and organs with salt/pepper and a few herbs, deglazed, and simmered everything to start a base. There were a few drippings from the roasted turkey that were added, a bit of stock, and flour to thicken. A pinch of sugar at the end. My grandmother taught me this process as a child. There is no recipe, just intuitive cooking. I have never failed a gravy.

This year, for the first time, I roasted the potatoes (vs boiling) for the mashed potatoes. The roasting produced so much flavor, I'll never go back to boiling. The price to pay is that there are lumps in the mashed potatoes, but my family didn't mind.

I'm getting lazy with the cornbread stuffing. No one complained, but I need to up my game next year. I'm taking notes on everyone's input above. Mine had too much sweet and not enough savory, even though my ratio of cornbread to sausage is 1/1. I think I need to cut the cornbread and add savory bread.

I made, for the first time, this Red Cabbage Salad with Orange Vinaigrette from NYT. It was easy, and the perfect, light salad to go with all the heaviness of the other dishes. I omitted the cranberries, and substituted roasted pecans for the almonds.

A friend gifted me a rosemary bush last week, and that, along with fresh sage and parsley, made such a difference in many of these dishes.

We are not big dessert eaters, so I had bought two flavors of ice cream (marionberry and a triple chocolate) from our local ice cream shop down the street earlier in the week.

OK, we must be piggies next to you all as we had a 28 lb turkey! I am white meat only but my sister's whole family eats dark meat only. i guess it evens out. I was on dog duty during the cooking hours, so I made only the creamed onions (as usual) .. otherwise it was basically the same meal we've been having since I was a kid. Dad liked stiking to the tried and true traditional dishes ... and now that he has passed, it feels like sticking to tradition is keeping him close.

One thing sis did this year was to put the carrots, onions and celery she removed from the strainer when making the gravy in a bowl to serve. I don't know that anyone else had them but I did... dad used to always save them for me. Thanksgiving has always been all about the turkey and veg for me -- and we always have 2-3 veggies (a tradition dad started when i went vegetarian in my 30s).

Our turkey is cooked on the grill -- used to be charcoal but now it is done on the traeger. Not as flavorful but still very good!

We went to a restaurant and had an excellent meal. DH and I have eaten at this restaurant for dinner with friends couple of times, but their Thanksgiving meal went beyond expectations. There was nothing we didn’t like. The turkey and dressing was not dry, they served truffle mashed potatoes (a hint of truffle which did not overpower), the creamiest mashed sweet potatoes I’ve ever had, green beans, a wonderful broccoli-rice dish (DD went back for seconds), & delicious cranberry relish. There was also an herbed roast pork tenderloin, but I just went for the turkey. DH did have some and said it was delicious. Dessert was pumpkin pie with vanilla bean cream on top and peach cobbler.

Nothing really new. We’ve been ordering the BBQ smoked turkey from a local place. It needs to be reheated for about two hours. Came with sides of Mac and cheese and collards. Trash pickup is the next day so we freeze at least half and get rid of the bones. I make the Dutch apple pie and Guy Fieri green bean casserole.

For those of you who are Alison Roman fans, this has been our go to Christmas cookie for a few years now; https://www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/salted-butter-chocolate-chunk-shortbread

I ate at Longhorn, reviewed that in a previous post, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving day I bought a TG dinner for me and one for my aunt: turkey, ham, msh.pot/gravy, dressing, corn, green beans, roll and a piece of pumpkin pie. Everything was too salty I thought. Except the pie of course, but my piece was upside down in its container. Oh, and the dab of cranberry sauce was not very sweet. My aunt didn't like hers either.

I baked an acorn squash, a butternut squash and a large sweet potatoe. When done I put them in my mixer added butter and maple syrup. Reheated in a casserole and it was a huge hit.

Sausage and potato stuffing is a staple at our house. My husband is from Boston and this is what his mother always had on the Thanksgiving table. The basic recipe is: Bob Evans/Jimmy Dean sausage, boiled potatoes, onion, butter and Bell’s Seasoning (special kind of poultry seasoning) mixed in. Mashed potatoes as another side seems like overkill, but why not?

hhiireno: I‘ve never heard of the pumpkin roll method of leaving it in the pan to cool. Sometimes, my roll cracks/splits when rolling and I have’t determined a cause Fortunately, a powdered sugar shake camouflages my messes.

I'm enjoying reading the reviews. That Red Cabbage Orange Vinagrette sounds really good. DH makes what we call health salad a lot more basic but still a cabbabe-y vinegar nice non carb addition.

I like the idea of roasting potatos and then mashing, feathers.

The only really new thing I tried was the roasted sweet potato-brussel sprouts-pomegranate seeds dish which came ou really good. I loved it, and people said it was good but they did not devour it. I may revert back to the brussel sprouts and grape recipe next year which seemed to be much better received.

My nephew's wife ended up bringing a few sides, one of which was stuffed grape leavess with apricots. That was amazing.

DH cooked the turkey this year ( just in the oven but really coated on the seasonings with avocado oil) and it was better than ever. We were delighted to have it for leftovers and our guests ( sis and bil who stayed over ) were also happy to have it on Friday.

@salonva

I use the Once Upon a Chef make ahead mashed potatoes recipe, and a ricer. It’s nice to do those a day or two ahead.

@ratherbesewing

I saw the aluminum method on The Loopy Whisk. I used my family recipe for the roll because hers didn’t have enough spices. The first time I made pumpkin roll, it was ugly looking. So I kept it out of sight and served it sliced on pretty plates. No one was the wiser.

eta: the two blog names are links.

thank you and that's an excellent tip about day ahead. That's one of my hangups re Thanksgiving- I prefer as much as possible made or prepped ahead.

Even with that, it still seems I forget to put something out in all the chaos :)

Dinner was great. Way too much food.

I go to cousins for t'giving so they did the big cooking. I brought my traditional pumpkin chiffon pie which came out great. I did try new vegan choc chip cookies for the vegans in the house. I thought they came out only ok, but they all went. The thing I liked about it was it was made with regular ingredients...though I did go for vegan butter instead of the oil and oat milk instead of real milk, but maybe the oil would've been better. I also appreciated that they were easy to make..flatten and refrigerate the dough, then cut into pieces, roll into a ball and bake.

I may revert back to the brussel sprouts and grape recipe next year which seemed to be much better received.

Can you post this, @salonva?

This seems to be the recipe- very few ingredients. I don't remember glaze but I bet it would be even better with it. I also don't think I bothered flipping them halfway. This serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts trimmed and halved
• 1/2 pound seedless red grapes halved
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon balsamic glaze

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 400F
• Combine brussels sprouts, grapes, and garlic in a large bowl. Drizzle with extra virgin olive and season with salt and pepper. Toss everything together until the brussels sprouts and grapes have a nice light coating of the olive oil and seasoning.
• Spread everything out a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 25-30 minutes, flipping half way through, until brussels sprouts are golden brown.
• Transfer to your favorite serving dish and drizzle with 1 tablespoon balsamic glaze. @mtnrdredux_gw

We had a non-traditional meal. Turkey breast en crocette, and roasted lamb breast, seasoned with a paste of fresh rosemary and thyme, garlic, dijon mustard and olive oil.

For sides, I roasted some sliced brussells sprouts in bacon-y goodness and served them with hot honey, and mashed up some sweet potatoes with lots of butter and some brown sugar.

For dessert, DS made his famous smoked cheesecake.

Our friend came up from Nashville and ate, then spent the night and we left EARLY for our Black Friday hike. A most delightful hike, although more challenging than the 3 mile length would suggest, but led by the adorable Ranger Hannah. THAT is a great tradition we picked up YEARS ago.

DS made brussell sprouts. I have never cared for them, but of course I took a serving. Not bad. They were thin-sliced, and I don’t know what all else he put in. I don’t make them, so I didn’t ask. But I’m happy he put in the effort and had a good outcome, and he brought it in the vintage serving dish I gave him a few years ago.

Hubby wants ONLY our traditional stuff. I will make that next year on the day and then we can go to son’s for whatever. (It is very good, just different.)

@bpath, that is very sweet!

Make a head EVERYTHING at my house if I'm cooking. I think I sauted up some green beans while DH finished the turkey, otherwise I cooked waaay ahead of time and foze a lot. I refuse to be trying to cook with a house full underfoot. I have a freezer and I use it!

I made a pecan galette for dessert, and it was fabulous. I mixed and matched filling and crust recipes.

Filling

https://bakefromscratch.com/bourbon-pecan-galette/

Crust from my America's Test Kitchen Family Baking book (apple galette recipe). Here's a link, but unfortunately they paywall.

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/3833-apple-galette