What is your Thanksgiving Menu like??

[piratesmate]

Wow! Everyone seems to have their own special recipes for the holidays - many of them I've never heard of before!

TN Traveler - Would you share the recipes for Dirty Rice (if you have it) and Pink Panther Frozen Salad?

TinkerPixxie - I'm so sorry about your father's passing. I know it makes the upcoming holidays hard. Hopefully you will be able to start some new traditions with your children to add to their store of memories and ease the ache in your heart.

Also, thanks for sharing the artichoke recipes. The first one sounds good to me.

 

[TN Traveler]

Pirate's Mate--I'm sorry but I don't have the Dirty Rice receipe.
My cousin makes it and I thought I had it but can't find it. I'll be happy to share the Pink Panther Salad.

PINK PANTHER SALAD....aka Frozen Cherry Salad

1 can cherry pie filling
1 can Eagle brand sweetend condensed milk (NOT EVAPORATED)
1 LG can crushed pineapple, drained
1 Cup chopped pecans
12 oz tub of Cool Whip

Mix together all ingredients in large bowl. Pour into a jello mold
or freezer safe bowl and freeze over night. If using a jello mold, run under warm water about 15 mins before serving and then flip onto plate.

This is so good you can use it as a dessert!

Enjoy!

Karen aka TN Traveler

 

[TinkerPixxie]

DO you serve the pink panther salad frozen? It sounds like a fun yummy desert for the kids on any day of the week actualy.

Ill be trying this one thankyou for the recipe.

 

[TinkerPixxie]

Piratesmate,
Thank you for the message. Im going to try very hard to do this for my kids. As you say, I do want to make wonderful memories for them.

Tink

 

[TN Traveler]

Tinker--Actually it's semi-frozen. By the time you soften it up enough to get it out of the mold, it gets pretty soft on the outside.

This is a great salad for Christmas (red cherries) and Easter (pink for cherry pie filling and cool whip). It's a nice change from the cakes, cookies and pies that are always in abudance. It's very light so doesn't fill you up as much. You can use lite pie filling as well as the cool whip to cut calories.

ENJOY!
Karen

 

[Beanie]

This thread is making me so hungry for Thanksgiving! LOL Our menu is basically the same each year. We all go to MIL's house for T-Day and it consists of:

Roast Turkey
Stuffing
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Butternut Squash
Cranberry Sauce
Peas
Rolls
Green bean Casserole
Deviled Eggs (my favorite! My MIL makes the best, but I would never tell her that! )
Assorted meat and cheese tray
Vegetable tray (Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, celery, radishes, green & red peppers and cucumber slices) with Ranch dressing
Beringer White Zinfandel (by my request! )
Pumpkin Pie
Banana Bread with nuts
Chocolate Cream Pie

This is usually for about 25 family members!

 

[Mamu]

I host Thanksgiving. It looks like their will be 14.

Ravioli's (filled w/swiss chard & pork)
Antipasti
Rolls & Flavored butters
Braciole

Roasted Turkey
Sausage & Bread Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Baked candied Yams
Whipped Turnip
Baked Creamed Onions
Maple Baked Squash
Green Bean Casserole
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Gravy

Apple Pie
Squash Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pear Pie
Bread Pudding
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Cranberry Bread
Pumpkin Bread
Cranberry Tollhouse Cookies

 

[QuiltTeddy]

Beanie....would you mind posting your Chocolate Cream Pie recipe?

 

[Beanie]

Quilt Teddy, I would, except it is not mine! My SIL makes this each year and brings it over, but I will try to find out the recipe from her and post it! It is so good!! (shhh don't tell, I am supposed to be on Atkins! )

 

[piratesmate]

I'm loving this thread! It's so interesting to see the different things you all make.

Mamu - I love pears, but I've never heard of pear pie. Would you share the recipe? Also, I'd love the hear what you put in your antipasti and what kind of flavored butters you make.

TN Traveler - Don't worry about the recipe for the Dirty Rice. I would be interested in hearing what is in it though. I like hearing about differentthings.

The Pink Panther Salad sounds so good! I'm wondering if substituting sugar-free/low sugar things would work? Sometimes things freeze harder w/o sugar. I'm going to try though. (I'm diabetic, so I don't do that much sugar.)

This reminded me of something my father's mother used to make us. She wasn't much of a cook...everything she made was from store-bought cans....but we loved this! It makes a good "any time" snack or dessert.

G-Gram’s Frozen Junk
2 c crushed pineapple
2 ripe bananas
½ c maraschino cherries
Slice bananas in circles. Cut cherries into halves. Dump all ingredients into a shallow pan. Include juice with both pineapple & cherries. Freeze. This is best when allowed to defrost slightly before serving.

[NOTE: I use pineapple in its own juice, but the heavy syrup kind is what it originally called for. I usually skip the cherry juice, but WOW is it good with it! ]

 

[Mamu]

Pear pie: I use brown pears and follow an apple recipe, and use half the sugar the recipe calls for.

Flavored butters: Heavy cream whipped till separated. A little salt to taste. Strain liquid, I add cooked pumpkin to one and cranberry sauce to the other. About 1-2 teaspoons. Or you can use marmalade's or jam'

Almost like an antipasto, but I don't layer it. Some of ingredients I make up a few days ahead. Broil red peppers till skin turns black, cover till cool, remove skin, layer in container with a few cloves of garlic and extra virgin olive oil. Also I grill eggplant, in another container do the same. Marinate mushrooms.

In the morning I arrange the platters. A bed of romaine, over the lettuce, a vegtable, beside that a cheese (Mozzarella balls, sharp provolone, fontina or asiago) beside that a meat ( mortadella, prosciutto or salami)

Some other veggies, braised endive or leeks or braised fresh fennel.

 

[piratesmate]

Thanks for sharing! That sounds incredible! I never realized there was so much work to the antipasto though.

And you make your own butter?!?!? I'm so impressed! I would have just softened store-bought stuff.

 

[jacksmom]

5-Cup Salad

1 c. crushed pineapple (drained)
1 c. mandarin oranges
1 c. mini marshmallows
1 c. coconut
1 c. sour cream

Mix and refrigerate several hours or overnight. It is really good! Better than it may sound! You can also dress it up for serving by adding a cherry or pecan on top!

 

[TmnsnMD]

My parents will be out of town this year so it will be up to DH and myself. We will be serving approx 15-20.

Our menu is:

fried turkey
baked ham
dumplins
mashed potatoes
gravy
baked sweet potatoes
fried corn / corn pudding
greens (turnip, kale & mustard mix)
cranberry sauce
mac & cheese
corn bread
rolls
dressing / stuffing
mac salad
potato salad
cole slaw
deviled eggs
fudge (choc & peanut butter - DH great-grandma's)
pies (pumpkin, choc., sweet potato)

I think that is everything but you just never know (I'm sure I will leave something either in the fridge or micro and find it after everyone has eaten).

Hope everyone has a great T-day!
TmnsnMD

 

[Lesley]

I'll vouch for the 5 cup salad....delicious. I always liked maraschino cherries in it too....but my kids can't eat food dyes so that's out for us.

I'm cooking for just the 5 of us this year....and the baby is really barely eating. So far I'm pretty sure I'll be doing:

Brined roasted turkey (possibly just a breast as none of us are big dark meat eaters)
Stuffing (probably doctored Pepperidge farm...I'll add andouille sausage, not sure what else...I'm up for suggestions!)
Canned cranberries (I'm the only one who really likes them...)
Baked corn

I'd like to add a green vegetable of some sort and maybe sweet potatoes (but again, I'm probably the only person who'd eat the sweet potatoes...unless I make them unadulterated enough to give to the baby). I make yummy sauteed garlic green beans...but I do those enough for dinner that it doesn't seem like a treat....maybe if I just stop making them until Thanksgiving they'll seem new again. I'm also open to suggestions! I need stuff to be easy or make ahead by a few days....as dinner will never get finished if I have too many complex things to make.

Hmmm...perhaps some sort of warm artichoke dip? Anyone have a recipe? Instead of having this with dinner I could have it as a snack while the food is cooking and/or for later. I think I once had a very good Pampered Chef artichoke crab dip....might be more special and get my family to actually try it....anyone have a recipe like that? For how much my dh watches all these gourmet cooking shows he's generally not really open to trying new things.

Oh, I'll probably just do a pumpkin pie for dessert....w/ fresh whipped cream. If we decide to decorate our tree that evening (way early for us...but we'll be at WDW at about the time we'd normally put it up) I might have eggnog or mulled cider. Probably depends on the weather here...if its warm, eggnog....if its cool, cider. I'm new enough to the south that I'm still a bit confused by our weather. I'm not used to sweating while out trick or treating on Halloween!

Oh, hmmm....I'll either do brown and serve rolls or make a Hawaiian Sweet Bread in the bread machine (a mix....). Those flavored butters sound divine....but I think that may be a bit too much for me this year.

Looking at all I'm going to be doing I think perhaps I need to go find a good bottle of spiced apple wine or something equally yummy and relaxing to get through the day!

And I will not set the oven on fire! (oh, no...that was Christmas...not Thanksgiving....a bit of a yorkshire pudding mishap)

 

[piratesmate]

Would someone explain "fried turkey" to me? I've seen that several times now but have never heard of it! We always just "roast" them here. I've read about doing it on the grill, but don't think it would work on ours. Because turkeys are so cheap, we often have it during the year. But then I rub it with all sorts of spices & herbs, shred it & store it in the broth so it stays moist. We serve it on hard rolls with horseradish sauce. Mmmm!

Lesley - Have you tried baking your sweet potatoes? You can do them in the microwave if you don't have room in the oven. That's a winter staple around here. Serve them with butter & cinnamon/sugar to sprinkle on them. (I use Splenda with the cinnamon for me.) That way you could just pull part of it out for the baby. They get sloppy though - so you want to bake them in/on a dish. Or ... you could just buy a box of Mrs Pauls if you want them candied. You could just keep one or two pieces out for the baby.

For green veggies - What about green beans with slivered almonds or french fried onions tossed in? Will your kids eat broccoli? If so, how about broccoli salad - the kind with raisins or craisins with a mayo sauce? That can be made the day ahead.

If you don't want to stir fry green beans, how about snow peas? I have a recipe for those that's good! Do you think you could get away with serving creamed spinach? (I don't care for spinach usually, but love Boston Market's.) I have a copy cat recipe for Boston's. It's not super easy though & we always eat it right away so I don't know about making it the day before.

Edited for spelling

 

[Miniefan]

Oh my goodness look how far my thread has gone!! It is pretty plain to see the diversity of everyones meal although it still seemes to be centered around the turkey. I can't believe you haven't had fried turkey it is great! Well, first off fried turkey is something that has to be cooked outside with a propane burner. It is a dangerous fire hazard because of the temp. and the amount of hot oil, then you get your turkey ready and fry him up. I don't have the exact amount or recipe perse, my dh usually handles this part, but I prepare the turkey by seasoning and injecting him with cajun seasonings, it is my fave type of turkey. The big plus is that it takes barely no time compared to traditional oven roasting. If you do this, you can get lots of recipes off of foodnetwork.com just type in Fried turkey, I have learned that larger turkeys do not do well this way, ideally you want to fry around a 10-13 lb. turkey, or else you will be like us and learn that the hard way. Hope this explained a little for you.
Kim

Oh yea, it is best to use peanut oil to fry it in, unless there is an allergy.
BTW, the whole entire turkey is fried, you put it on a stand and lower it into the oil, there is no cutting or anything, it is fried whole, sorry for not saying that in the first place...

 

[piratesmate]

That's about what I pictured in my mind, but couldn't believe you'd deep fry a whole turkey?!?!? Where do you get a pan big enough? Of course I was thinking about a big bird - 20 to 25 pounds.

Thanks for explaining it!

 

[Epcotgal8]

I am sooo jealous! We have Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at my in laws house and have for the last 18 years. The menu is pretty much the EXACT same thing for both meals. I love to cook and want to try new things here and there but mil turns her nose up. So our menu is very boring and basic:

turkey
ham
mashed potatoes and gravy
bread and sausage dressing
broccoli casserole (I've made it so many times I can do it in my sleep but that's what they request!)
green beans
salad
deviled eggs occasionally
rolls
lots of pies

I keep wanting to add a corn dish of some type. I'm always hesitant to try new things though because one time at Christmas I brought gumbo (thought a soup course would add something to the menu) and a lot of my bil's ate so much gumbo there was leftover turkey and mil was not pleased.

 

[piratesmate]

I know what you mean, Epcotgal8! My older sister has the meal & she calls to "assign" what we are to bring...and she's not thrilled it we substitute something else. (She's a bit of a control freak.) If you want to try something different, why don't you just limit it to a smaller amount so the BILs can't "fill up" on it?

You could always volunteer to bring home the leftovers. I'll bet there's someone elderly in your area who would love to get them.

If you want a "tried & true" recipe for corn I have one that we love. We call it Corn Pudding - others call it Corn Soufflé. I wouldn't think an extra veggie dish would fill people up.

Corn Pudding

2 c grated corn
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 Tbl sugar
2 Tbl butter
1 Tbl flour
1 c milk

The original says "fresh corn preferred" but I always use frozen & use the blender to "grate". I only grate until it is sort of like creamed corn - not totally mush. It screws up the baking time if you don't defrost the corn first though. (I know, I've tried it!) Doubling the recipe also extends the baking time - if you use one dish.

Grate corn & add salt, sugar, pepper, flour & melted butter. Add beaten eggs & milk. Pour into a greased baking dish & bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Serves 6.

It is done when the center is "set" - like any custard - & a knife comes out clean.