Thanksgiving 2004 plans

I always enjoy hearing what people are going to do on Thanksgiving Day to celebrate. We are having our "at home" Thanksgivng dinner this Sunday as we leave the following Friday for a short cruise and stay at my place in Florida. On Thanksgiving day we will eat at a really old long time restaurant called Julians and located in Ormond Beach, Fla. They have turkey on the menu every day but I will opt for chateaubriand for two with my son while daughter in law, who thinks it is against the law to eat anything else on T day will have her beloved turkey dinner.

Our Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday will consist of

Jumbo shrimp cocktails
Roasted Mustard Glazed Turkey and stuffing (old fashion Bread and sage)
Mashed potatoes and gravy Maple pureed squash
Green peas and baby onions Cranberry and Apple Chutney
Homemade Crescent rolls
Apple Tart and Pumpkin pie
Champagne Cider Sangria


and the usual Sunday football games!

We will be eating at my sisters with a large crowd, and will have the usual turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, wild rice, sweet potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, Brunswick stew, and my special pumpkin pie.

The most important thing about Thanksgiving is my girlfriend and I will be announcing our engagement that day, however, to our respective families(!)

quote:

Originally posted by cedwin

We will be eating at my sisters with a large crowd, and will have the usual turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, wild rice, sweet potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, Brunswick stew, and my special pumpkin pie.

The most important thing about Thanksgiving is my girlfriend and I will be announcing our engagement that day, however, to our respective families(!)

Oh wow what a great day to make such a wonderful announcement. Congratulations to both of you and may it be a very special day!

quote:

Originally posted by pdxyyz

This Thanksgiving is the 10th anniversary of my arrival in the United States. So in honour of the occasion I will be travelling back to Canada to visit the family.

It would have also been my 10th wedding anniversary but..............

But???????????????????

Regardless, welcome to the USA.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I'm going to take Thanksgiving as a day to snooze... Mom threatned not to make dinner this year, and thats OK by me... But someone will have to make the family stuffing either way... IF thats all it comes down to, I'll make my own stash and be more than satisfied with it! (Being rated as high as the entire dinner!)... But literally being bombed with some sort of holiday every other week, I dont really care anymore.. Worse comes to worse, a Shepards Pie with Moms Stuffing Recipe and I'll be in my own personal heaven! (And having plenty of personal snooze time!)...

Probably go to my husband's grandma's house as usual (where my brother in law can be counted on to say something stupid and inappropriate) and have the usual stuff..

I will be bringing:

pumpkin gooey butter cake
cornbread stuffing
corn casserole
boston cream cheesecake

Our family (sort of) alternates hosting Thanksgiving each year. This year our niece will do it for the first time (in her new home that she's so proud of, and Linda & I will be seeing for the first time).
Linda & I took a fall leaf-gazing roadtrip through Southeast VA, Northwest North Carolina, and eastern Tenn. last week and bought two (hopefully great) country hams while "down there," and we'll be doing a Tenn. and Ky. Country Ham Tasting at our neice's house on T-giving. (In addition, of course, to enjoying all of the wonderful traditional fare that she and and our other relatives will bring!)

Frank

Each year Thanksgiving gets crazier at our house. My 2 girls are home from college with all their "stuff"(junk that clutters up the house). We invite a widower in our neighborhood along with another neighbor who runs a goat farm and lives alone. We have an employee from Brazil who has been with us for 10 years and has no family here, he speaks limited English and last year we added 2 Belarussian wrestling coaches with limited English as well. This year we add on my daughter's Scottish boyfriend and a father and son from our wrestling family-WHEW! The language issue alone makes for great silliness!
Menu
Our own farm raised roasted turkey (probably 2 this year)
Our own potatoes-mashed of course!
Our own butternut mashed squash (with fresh ginger and brown sugar)
Stuffing, gravy
Mashed turnips
Green Bean casserole( with the onions thingys)
cranberry sauce, homemade bread and butter pickles,celery w/ cream cheese
rolls
peas
pumpkin pie, apple pie (I live in Apple Country), vanilla ice cream
cranberry wine from a local vineyard
gonger ale, apple cider and cranberry juice
I will roll on home now...

quote:

Originally posted by acornlover

Each year Thanksgiving gets crazier at our house. My 2 girls are home from college with all their "stuff"(junk that clutters up the house). We invite a widower in our neighborhood along with another neighbor who runs a goat farm and lives alone. We have an employee from Brazil who has been with us for 10 years and has no family here, he speaks limited English and last year we added 2 Belarussian wrestling coaches with limited English as well. This year we add on my daughter's Scottish boyfriend and a father and son from our wrestling family-WHEW! The language issue alone makes for great silliness!
Menu
Our own farm raised roasted turkey (probably 2 this year)
Our own potatoes-mashed of course!
Our own butternut mashed squash (with fresh ginger and brown sugar)
Stuffing, gravy
Mashed turnips
Green Bean casserole( with the onions thingys)
cranberry sauce, homemade bread and butter pickles,celery w/ cream cheese
rolls
peas
pumpkin pie, apple pie (I live in Apple Country), vanilla ice cream
cranberry wine from a local vineyard
gonger ale, apple cider and cranberry juice
I will roll on home now...

I dont know about crazier, but sounds like your having a true and honest thanksgiving there... Need an extra guest from out of town???

quote:

Originally posted by acornlover

Each year Thanksgiving gets crazier at our house. My 2 girls are home from college with all their "stuff"(junk that clutters up the house). We invite a widower in our neighborhood along with another neighbor who runs a goat farm and lives alone. We have an employee from Brazil who has been with us for 10 years and has no family here, he speaks limited English and last year we added 2 Belarussian wrestling coaches with limited English as well. This year we add on my daughter's Scottish boyfriend and a father and son from our wrestling family-WHEW! The language issue alone makes for great silliness!

acornlover:

Your grand situation is just what it's all about! Sounds like you'll have a true Thanksgiving holiday experience!

Frank

I agree. You sound like you are going to have an outstanding Thanksgiving. Last year, we had young people from Germany, Austria, Norway, and Chile at our Thanksgiving table and it was a wonderful experience.

Another year, our family worked their heads off at a big city "soup kitchen" and helped served many people. The grandchildren loved it and the people eating there enjoyed visiting with them. We really feel the most blessed when we share.

I hope that we will do something outstanding again next year.

I honestly don't know where I'll end up for Thanksgiving this year. After having to split time (and my children) between my family and my wife's family for the past several years, I find myself in the midst of a divorce which has turned my life upside down (as it has for so many folks everywhere).

Overwhelmingly, I hope I'll be able to go out to Pennsylvania to see my kids (I live in Illinois). On the other side, I'm not so sure I want to have Thanksgiving dinner with my soon to be ex-wife and the fellow she left me for. Needless to say, some holidays are different than others.

It does me a lot of good to read about everyone's Thanksgiving plans on here. There are a lot of good people on here, probably why I felt comfortable saying what I said above. Sorry if I brought the mood down a bit.

Every year about 3 weeks before Thanksgiving rolls around I start looking through the cookbooks and the internet recipe sites for new ideas for Thanksgiving, however any deviation from previous menus is squelched by my husband and my kids so, once more we will be having:
Early in the day the following appetizers:
deviled eggs
celery stuffed with homemade pimento cheese
chili con queso and chips
shrimp dip and crackers
And then around 4 or so Dinner of
Roasted Turkey
Cornbread Dressing (homemade of course! My grandmother in law passed on her recipe and its the best)
Giblet Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Candied Yams
Jellied Cranberry Sauce (from a can, ocean spray blech)
Green Bean Casserole (yes the one from the label of campbells mushroom soup)
Broccili, rice and cheese casserole
Frog Eyed Salad (fruit salad)
Homemade yeast rolls
pumpkin pie and whipped cream
pecan pie
strawberry cake
banana cream pie
coconut cream pie

I have tried and tried and tried to interject changes into this menu over the 24 years we have been married and have had the dinner at our house, and anytime I try substituting something new you would think I was suggesting putting forth tv dinners for the big day. One year I decided to skip the ocean spray jellied cranberry sauce and made a beautiful molded cranberry salad and my husband and my daughter went and found a store that was open and had the stuff in the can left, brought it home and stuck it in the freezer so that it would be chilled in time for dinner I've finally given up and realized that what is most important to me for Thanksgiving is not that the food I serve be the latest "in vogue" thing, but that it be what makes my family and my guests happy and this is it. So as I fantasize about wrapping fresh green beans in proscuita (sp?) I'll be working the can-opener on the cut green beans and campbells cream of mushroom soup!

I hope everyone has a Thanksgiving day that brings them joy, whatever that is

This will be our first Thanksgiving without my wife's mother. Maxine did most of the cooking and my non cooking wife is going to step to the plate and give it a go I think. I'm sure I will end up helping and will have to see how things work out. If my wife has a recipe to follow she is pretty good, but baking is really her game.

We will have the tradtional items along with I hope my coconut cream pie in graham cracker crust.... yummy, nothing instant about it either.


Dennis in Cary

When I was in college at Miami Univ in Oxford, OH ( school motto "Miami was a university when Florida belonged to Spain") my friends and I always celebrated Turkey Day the weekend before Thanksgiving so we could all go home on that weekend.
We've continued to get together like this and this year will be our 30th anniversary get-together. We always cook a turkey or two on a charcoal grill and listen and/or play music, and catch up on each other's lives. People come from as far away now as Calif & Hawaii.

carl reitz

You could really insert just about any holiday's name here, as long as the show name was changed as well...

I'll be working the local stop of the tour of The Producers on wardrobe. They usually move the standard Thursday matinee to Sunday evening, though, so I should have plenty of time to cook if my mother decides I'm going to like she did last year (on Tuesday night).

quote:

Originally posted by Farfromhome

Every year about 3 weeks before Thanksgiving rolls around I start looking through the cookbooks and the internet recipe sites for new ideas for Thanksgiving, however any deviation from previous menus is squelched by my husband and my kids so, once more we will be having:
Early in the day the following appetizers:
deviled eggs
celery stuffed with homemade pimento cheese
chili con queso and chips
shrimp dip and crackers
And then around 4 or so Dinner of
Roasted Turkey
Cornbread Dressing (homemade of course! My grandmother in law passed on her recipe and its the best)
Giblet Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Candied Yams
Jellied Cranberry Sauce (from a can, ocean spray blech)
Green Bean Casserole (yes the one from the label of campbells mushroom soup)
Broccili, rice and cheese casserole
Frog Eyed Salad (fruit salad)
Homemade yeast rolls
pumpkin pie and whipped cream
pecan pie
strawberry cake
banana cream pie
coconut cream pie

I have tried and tried and tried to interject changes into this menu over the 24 years we have been married and have had the dinner at our house, and anytime I try substituting something new you would think I was suggesting putting forth tv dinners for the big day. One year I decided to skip the ocean spray jellied cranberry sauce and made a beautiful molded cranberry salad and my husband and my daughter went and found a store that was open and had the stuff in the can left, brought it home and stuck it in the freezer so that it would be chilled in time for dinner I've finally given up and realized that what is most important to me for Thanksgiving is not that the food I serve be the latest "in vogue" thing, but that it be what makes my family and my guests happy and this is it. So as I fantasize about wrapping fresh green beans in proscuita (sp?) I'll be working the can-opener on the cut green beans and campbells cream of mushroom soup!

I hope everyone has a Thanksgiving day that brings them joy, whatever that is

Farfromhome:

That's right out of a Norman Rockwell painting....beautiful!

Frank

Last Thanksgiving the theme at our abode was "Southern". This year, the theme shall be different, say "A Post-War (1940s) Thanksgiving." I'll be digging through the old, old, old cookbooks to see what I can come up with!

This all sounds yummy!! I will be in Raleigh,NC with my daughter's family. 3 fun grandkids and "our" ex-wife. We all have a good time and are good friends. There is life after divorce--sometimes it takes a while.
I love the idea of Cider Sangria with champagne--Can I get that recipe?
We do a pretty tradtional dinner. I try to get a local bird and cook it the Conch way. That is to stuff it with limes and lemons and sour oranges. Use the juice of those fruits to baste and cover the breasts with hollowed out pineapple halves. I make the stuffing separate as we have those who like theirs with cornbread and thosse who want bread/oyster version.
I'm hoping to help out at a local soup kitchen,as usual, and bring the grands to help.
Let us all be thankful--a little hard after 11/3 --but politics aside,I am grateful for all I have and all I have to give.Cheers to all!

quote:

Originally posted by cedwin

We will be eating at my sisters with a large crowd, and will have the usual turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, wild rice, sweet potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, Brunswick stew, and my special pumpkin pie.

The most important thing about Thanksgiving is my girlfriend and I will be announcing our engagement that day, however, to our respective families(!)

CONGRATS!!!!!thats another T-day memory for sure!! Best of luck to both of you---just remember-marriage is an active verb!!!! and one doesnt "fall" in love--one "grows" in love---the best really is yet to come!!! Wish you both a long and happy mnarriage!

After reading these i cant decide whether to go to Acornlovers or the Baldwins!

I get TWO chances at freshly cooked turkey,stuffing,etc...

1. A get together of a few friends and a cousin that lives here in town, the Sunday BEFORE Thanksgiving...a revival of a tradition that has lain fallow for a few years...

2. Taking my mom up to my sisters in Rochester,NY (about a six hour drive....sometimes five...and no,no garbage plates for Thanksgiving...lol)for a couple of days. And if I get my keister off the ground,will be doing a review of a GREAT neighborhood joint up there that my sister discovered about a year ago- a diner/coffee shop called Charlie Brown's....the most HUMUNGOUS portions of the BEST diner type food ever!Let's just say this: terrific HUBCAP sized pancakes...a 'small' coke is a small bathtub..[;O]..more to come...

I usually have two thanksgivings.

Thursday at my folks house, then the next day at the in laws. Each has friends and such come along and each make different things, so it works out well for us. One day we'll get together as a big group, but honestly I like have the two meals. If it happened all at once, i would never get to enjoy it all.

thanks to chezkatie and tiki for your kind sentiments and good advice!

Our entire Thanksgiving week is usually a full one. We will start on Tuesday by helping at a Community Thanksgiving Dinner, where we will help serve a meal to those who otherwise may not have one. Then on Thursday, we will have the traditional meal at my sisters house with my Mom, my sister and I preparing the food. Turkey,dressing, gravy,cranberry sauce and cranberry salad, creamed corn, sweet potatoes,
green peas or beans, broccoli casserole, tossed salad, deviled eggs and yeast rolls with sweet tea. For dessert we will have pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie and pecan pie. We will watch the Carolina Carousel Parade and then ride to see the Christmas lights at various places that traditionally turn them on on Thanksgiving night. Then on Friday, my Mom will have her traditional tree decorating with the Grandchildren-they are now 26 and 21.!! On Saturday, we will celebrate my daughters birthday with a spaghetti dinner.

Last year I spent Thanksgiving at the home of a friend who is a university professor. We had a wonderful international group people from South Africa, England, Italy, Slovinia, Germany, Sweden and me, the Native American. The food was traditional and the conversation around the table was how each spent a holiday in their native lands. This year, however, I get to spend my holiday with my MIL, lord knows what we're going to do because it's 150 miles away to her new apartment in assisted living. I do not enjoy the thought of spending a holiday in a hotel but I best get used to it because it will happen again at Christmas.

Adam goes with my ex hubby to his family gathering in Maryland, so it's me, the tv and the pc. Every year I roast a couple turkeys, and do stuffing, mashed taters and gravy the day before, and a representative from one of the shelters comes and picks them up early Thanksgiving morning. This year it will go to the Rape and domestic violence shelter.

Wow all of the plans sound great. And cedwin, congrats!!

Bob has been frying the turkey for the past couple of years and that's been deeeelishous! My mom always makes one in the oven as well, and we always feel bad because hers is the one that is leftover. Our family traditions include:

Broccoli casserole
Sausage Stuffing (grandma's recipe- it would not be Turkey day without it!!)
Canberry/Pear casserole, that is more like a dessert
Mashed Potatos (Real ones, of course)
Sweet Potato Casserole with crunchy pecan topping
Corn & Carrots
Creamed Onions (carried over from Bob's family traditions)

Dessert:

My coconut custard pie
Apple Pie
Cheesecake (this we get from BJ's believe it or not - it's really really good!!)
Pumpkin Pie
and something "experimental" - haven't decided on that one yet

Ok, now I'm starving!!

quote:

Originally posted by felix4067

You could really insert just about any holiday's name here, as long as the show name was changed as well...

I'll be working the local stop of the tour of The Producers on wardrobe. They usually move the standard Thursday matinee to Sunday evening, though, so I should have plenty of time to cook if my mother decides I'm going to like she did last year (on Tuesday night).

lucky you!! I took my sister to see that when it was in our town and loved it!

Good for you retressed! I would love to be able to spend my holidays giving to others but MIL sees it different.