annak wrote:I love seeing everyone's ideas here!
Here's my menu (scaled down this year due to my full-term pregnancy).

Roast Turkey ala James Beard
Cognac Gravy
Brandied Cranberries
Oyster Stuffing (also James Beard; in the crop)
Scallion Tarragon Stuffing (also James Beard; in the cavity and extra on the side, so some "wet", some "dry")
Buttermilk Mashed Yukon Golds
Green Beans with lemon zest
Brussel Sprouts Amandine
Sweet Potato Mini Muffins (insanely good; a recipe from a tavern at Colonial Williamsburg I visited as a child and have made ever since)
Relish Tray (homemade pickled carrots, radishes, celery, cornichons)
Grapes
Pumpkin Chiffon Pie (my grandmother's; a fluffy pumpkin mousse in a graham cracker crust)
Pecan Tart (NYT; subtle and glop-free) with homemade Bourbon Ice Cream

Pretty fabulous menu for someone so pregnant--good luck! I am curious if you could share your sweet potato mini muffin recipe? I love sweet potatoes, but every Thanksgiving they seem to be an afterthought for us on the table. I was planning just to chunk and bake them with butter this year; I'm not a fan of sweetening them very much and I dislike marshmallows. Here's my menu:

Appetizers:
Mulled cider
Muhammara (or other dip) and pita chips, baby carrots
Nuts or spiced nuts

Main:
Roast turkey with gravy (roasted simply starting draped with bacon for first 2 - 2 1/2 hours)
Wild rice/rice/mushroom stuffing
Homemade whole berry cranberry sauce (I may also do a raw cranberry/orange relish; I bought 3 lbs. of Wisconsin cranberries
yesterday at Costco)
Lingonberries
Mashed rutabaga with crispy shallots
Roasted brussels sprouts with maple syrup
Mashed potatoes
Roasted sweet potato chunks with butter

Dessert:
Pumpkin bars
Door County cherry pie
Chocolate Something (SIL is bringing)

I always do a fruit and whole nut centerpiece for the harvest abundance look, and we always sit at the table long enough to start cracking the nuts and nibbling on the grapes and other fruit even though we have just finished a gigantic meal.

Here are the sweet potato mini muffins, from the Christiana Campbell's Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg, long ago:

½ cup butter
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups sweet potatoes, mashed (canned is fine, or home roasted)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking power
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk
¼ cup pecans, or walnuts, chopped
½ cup raisins, golden or regular, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Grease 1 ½ inch muffin tins.
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix well.
Blend in the sweet potatoes.
Sift the flour with the baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add alternately with the milk. Do not over mix.
Fold in the nuts and raisins.
Fill the greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. The muffins will be dark golden brown.
Note: Sweet potato muffins can be frozen and reheated.

One other thought for sweet potatoes: I agree it's not great to sweeten what's already sweet (ie marshmallows), so I've had lots of luck doing mashed with fresh ginger and fresh lime zest / lime juice and sea salt, or roasted baby sweet potatoes glazed with butter and cayenne.

annak wrote:Here are the sweet potato mini muffins, from the Christiana Campbell's Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg, long ago:

½ cup butter
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups sweet potatoes, mashed (canned is fine, or home roasted)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking power
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk
¼ cup pecans, or walnuts, chopped
½ cup raisins, golden or regular, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Grease 1 ½ inch muffin tins.
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix well.
Blend in the sweet potatoes.
Sift the flour with the baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add alternately with the milk. Do not over mix.
Fold in the nuts and raisins.
Fill the greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. The muffins will be dark golden brown.
Note: Sweet potato muffins can be frozen and reheated.

Thanks! I assume this makes one dozen?

annak wrote:One other thought for sweet potatoes: I agree it's not great to sweeten what's already sweet (ie marshmallows), so I've had lots of luck doing mashed with fresh ginger and fresh lime zest / lime juice and sea salt, or roasted baby sweet potatoes glazed with butter and cayenne.

Thanks. We've already got two purees on the plate; I don't want a third or we are all eating too much baby food. I like the ideas of cayenne added to the butter.

Thanks! I assume this makes one dozen?

I apologize for not having an exact count, but definitely more like 2 dozen (these are mini-muffins).

annak wrote:

Thanks! I assume this makes one dozen?

I apologize for not having an exact count, but definitely more like 2 dozen (these are mini-muffins).

Thanks. That makes sense.

For the second year in a row I get to relax. My father was in an assisted living place that did an ok but not great job on Thanksgiving, so in his small apartment I was cooking for 50 people who would be popping in and out. In any case, he passed away so things are calmer. not sure if we are doing festivities on thrusday or friday, but it looks like:

Breakfast:
Pancakes, omlets, maple sausages, country ham for the wife, good ham for the son and I, bagels/lox
Cats get fresh tuna that will be cooked, cooled and flaked. Breakfast served in bed to my better two thirds and kid.

Lunch:
Deep fried cornish hens, pulled pork, beef roast, cold shrimp, fruit salad,
cheesy mashed potatoes, mixed veggies.
Popeye's chicken for the cats (last thing to get. For some reason they kill
for popeye's and any other chicken is just "meh"). I'll get two pieces at
the drive through the day before. They will also be left in the car so that
I do not get dismembered over the smell.

Mid afternoon snack:
Smoked trout, smoked herring, herring in wine sauce, smoked salmon (cut of
fish that was smoked, not like lox). All bought locally in Port Washington.
Cold Smoked tongue with horseradish (for me, nobody else will touch it)
Cheese and sausage plate. Shrimp and crayfish. (To be shared with the cats)
Salmon dip, cheese dip, crab dip. Potato slices. (Thick) fried then topped with melted cheese, fried onion, put under the broiler and after cooled topped with smoked oysters.

Dinner (late)
Small Turkey (I'm not allowed to smoke it darn it!) with dressing and gravy.
A huge ham that was on deep discount. 15lbs for under $6! I will be glazing
it with a brown sugar mix and letting my teenager use the blowtorch to finish it
off. Dressing (normal and that horrid corn bread stuff The wife likes) Squash, Yams, Mac&cheese,
Wild rice mix , Garlic mashed potatoes with bacon. Dessert is store bought custard.
Magic shell (strawberry for me, chocolate for the kid, plain for the wife).
Cats get cold roast in clam juice.

Breakfast next day:
Seafood omlets with leftovers, pancakes with whipped cream. Everyone does their own with leftovers
For the rest of the weekend. I will slice up everything after breakfast, go back to bed and let everyone fend for themselves. Including the cats - they have a dry food dispenser. The cats get special treatment on Thanks giving and xmas.

Everything I can do will be done ahead and just heated. So not too much work the day of.

Wow that is a lot of food. I would weigh 300 lbs if I ate like that but good for you to put on such a spread. My day will look something like:

Breakfast - 2 pieces of toast or an english muffin and coffee
Late morning snack - fruit and or a few crackers with peanut butter or cheese.
2 pm - Family going to McCormick and Schmidt for late lunch or early dinner. I will order something and get half of it boxed up to take home so I do not eat it all....will not drink anything but water or ice tea. I am not even sure I will order turkey. Might have fish. I will certainly have a slice of pumpkin pie.
I will maybe have something as a snack later but it will be very small, maybe an apple or a protein bar, and some tea. I am eating like this on Thanksgiving owing to the fact no body wanted to cook this year and I am trying to keep my weight steady and not gain anything over the holidays.

My menu is finally planned:
Turkey: breast, legs
Ham
Corn Pudding
Herb Roasted Vegetables
Jules' Stuffing (with chestnuts, sausage, mushrooms and brandy)
Beet and Tangerine Salad
Asparagus with Savory
Biscuits (from Bang Bang)
Cranberries

Macadamia Nut Cream Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Orange-Chocolate St. Honore Tart
Sugar Free Pumpkin Pie

That is a lot of leftovers

I relax by cooking. I have been very stressed out recently. Doing mindless cooking is a good thing.
A number of the things I will be instructing the teenager the easy ways of doing things. Obviously not the breakfast since he will be sleeping until it gets delivered to him. However most of it will be pre-done depending on the schedule. I learned a lot about this trying to make Dad happy with his minimal cooking area. When I was cooking for his place, we had to run electrical cords to the serving table since there was so much to heat and choose from. But it was worth it due to the thanks I got from his staff and the residents.

Popovers were the worst. I had only two pans and they went quickly.

My menu is finally planned:
Turkey: breast, legs
Ham
Corn Pudding
Herb Roasted Vegetables
Jules' Stuffing (with chestnuts, sausage, mushrooms and brandy)
Beet and Tangerine Salad
Asparagus with Savory
Biscuits (from Bang Bang)
Cranberries

Hiya Pie Lady,
Do you have a favorite recipe for corn pudding? I always want to go for it, but worry about how it is without fresh corn.
Thanks.

Here's what's on the menu over at Chez Wildebeest :

Cosmos made with cranberry-lime zest granita
Toasted garlic Kobocha pumpkin seeds
Spicy-sweet nut mix
A tray of crackers, cheeses, olives, and homemade pickles for noshing
Hot artichoke dip and bread

A 16.5lb Ho-Ka turkey (dry-brining now, with lemon zest and rosemary)
Kobocha-portobello lasagna with homemade ricotta (for the vegetarian)
Traditional dressing with Nottoli sausage and steel-cut oats (because I'm gluten-free), plus a vegetarian version
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes (a guest is bringing this, so the form factor is as yet unknown)
Turkey and vegetarian gravy with homemade stocks
Cranberry-orange sauce (with a shot of Gran Marnier)
Baby kale salad with cranberries and pine nuts (with kale from my garden)
Sacaduros (probably not gluten-free, made by Chouxfly from a Rose Levy Berenbaum recipe)

Martinelli's cider for the kids
Yellowtail Riesling, Woodchuck hard cider or Mike's hard cranberry lemonade for the rest of us

Pumpkin cheesecake (made by the 18yo)
Oberweis egg nog (usually I make my own, but I'm feeling lazy this year)
Salted caramel and vanilla homemade ice creams

Your menus all sound wonderful, too! Pie Lady, those pies sound amazing. And exvaxman, if reincarnation is real, I want to come back as one of your cats, please.

annak wrote:

My menu is finally planned:
Turkey: breast, legs
Ham
Corn Pudding
Herb Roasted Vegetables
Jules' Stuffing (with chestnuts, sausage, mushrooms and brandy)
Beet and Tangerine Salad
Asparagus with Savory
Biscuits (from Bang Bang)
Cranberries

Hiya Pie Lady,
Do you have a favorite recipe for corn pudding? I always want to go for it, but worry about how it is without fresh corn.
Thanks.

This is the recipe I use. I was looking for one with fresh corn too, but those seem to be rare. Since you drain the can of whole kernel, I bet you could use an equal amount of fresh instead.
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Corn-Pudding

White House Recipes from the Washington Post

A Thanksgiving spread of recipes from the White House, from left, White House Thyme-Roasted Turkey, White House Turkey Gravy, Grover Cleveland Parsnip Fritters, Laura Bush’s Green Beans With Anchovy Butter, White House Kale Salad, and FDR Chestnut Stuffing.
Deb Lindsey / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Related Content
At a White House Thanksgiving, tradition is a presidential thing
Thanksgiving turkey prep primer
Taste Test: Heritage turkey breeds
First comes Fakesgiving
Holiday Guide 2012

Hi,

A non-canned creamed corn casserole is available at Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance. Third prize winner at the Illinois State Fair in 2010 can be found here.

I sometimes make creamed corn to freeze for later. When I do, I don't cut the corn off the cobs down to the nubs. I slice the kernels halfway, then scrape the milk. I do this on a day when I am doing cut corn and creamed corn. I will later add heavy cream and butter to the kernels and corn cream to bake in an oven until reduced a little. Cool, bag and freeze.

Regards,

This year we're doing:

Roast turkey with apple cider gravy
Potato gratin
Oyster dressing
Pan roasted brussel sprouts with bacon
Salted caramel pecan pie

The turkey is brining now. I'll probably take it out tonight and let it sit in the fridge overnight to try out. Trying to keep it simple so we don't overdo it

So far so good with my stuff...no failures so far. But the night is young.

I finally set the menu and have stuff moving along. The stock is made, the turkey will be coming out of the brine in a couple hours to dry overnight, and I think I've bought everything I need. In general I try to keep Thanksgiving dinner as simple as possible, the final menu is:

Breakfast:
Mimosas (with option for hefeweiss-mosas)

Brunch/Lunch/all day munchies:
Sliced baguettes
Cheese and cured meat selection
Grilled beets, tomatoes, and goat cheese baguettes
Fruit

Dinner:
Gunthorp Farm Turkey - brined with savory herbs and lemon zest, rotisseried over an applewood fire
Mashed potatoes
Brussel sprouts browned in bacon fat w/roasted chestnuts and Manchego
Stuffing balls
Cranberry/orange zest relish
Burnt carrots (from Seven Fires cookbook)
Pecan rolls

Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Sour cherry/Bourbon Pie
Pecan pie

I also muddled a couple cups of cranberries last week and have been letting them macerate in some Beefeater's Gin. I've got a few ideas for cocktails to make with those during the afternoon.

The thing I spent the most time on was building a new rotisserie for the turkey. For the last 10 years or so I've been using a spit rated for 8 lb.s for birds up to 18 lb.s, and I spent last night welding up a fully adjustable spit with holes for wiring things into it:

WOW Attrill! Here I was feeling all badass 'cause I made my own stock and ricotta... that's amazing!

I hope you all have a marvelous turkey day! Thank you for all the ideas and inspiration...

Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens!

Sounds so delicious!

lunch
Roasted carrot, apple, fennel soup with fried sage leaves and pumpernickel croutons.

Dinner

Ruhlman's roast/braised turkey
Traditional bread stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Sweet potato souffle with molasses sauce
Butternut squash mostarda
Applesauce
Traditional cranberry sauce
Crescent rolls from CI
Green bean and grapefruit salad

Dessert
Pumpkin custard profiteroles with cinnamon ice cream and caramel pecan sauce

So any post-mortem discussion on our holiday meals? Funny stories? Lessons learned?

When I was making the chocolate chip ice cream (using the technique for straciatella, the Italian gelato with tiny flecks of chocolate), I figured something out. The first time I tried making it, I just melted the chocolate and dripped it into the mix, resulting in thick ribbons and chunks of chocolate. The next time, I tried what a website suggested and added a little vegetable oil... better but still a bit chunky and not quite what I wanted. This time, I thought, hey! What about all those homemade "Magic Shell" recipes that call for chocolate and coconut oil? So I tried it, and it was just right!

Also, I found that, despite reading on multiple websites and cookbooks, my turkey was NOT done when the thigh was 165* (I took the reading at the thickest part, not touching the bone)... the breast was only 135*, and needed another hour to finish. However, I did find out that dark meat is a little less fragile than white, and can take heat longer, so it did not suffer from its extra time in the oven.

No family drama or poisonings... I'll call that a win!

Turkey: breast, legs - I honestly couldn't tell the difference between HoKa and anything else I've had. I received a package of 5 legs, not 4, and I covered three in basically the same herb blend as the turkey (just herbs, no coat of oil first) and after scrubbing the top rack in my oven, I placed the three naked legs directly on the rack above the breast. I don't know if there was enough fat dripping to really do anything to the breast but I liked that idea. The other two I covered in a thin layer of Vulcan Fire Salt and placed in a pan to cook; Mr. Pie thought these were fantastic.
Ham - Decent. I really wish I had purchased a spiral cut ham and will do so in the future.
Corn Pudding - always the hit of the party.
Herb Roasted Vegetables - fine. Wished I had added the potatoes and skipped making mashed.
Jules' Stuffing (with chestnuts, sausage, mushrooms and brandy) - mushy on the bottom of the pan but not bad.
Beet and Tangerine Salad - no room at the inn; this will be my lunch today.
Asparagus with Savory - got lazy; didn't make them.
Mashed Potatoes - rather nice using just cream, white pepper and salt, but they got stiff sitting out for awhile. Froze the leftovers (no room left in the fridge) and I'll fry them for breakfast one day.
Biscuits (from Bang Bang) - they were fluffier than I expected. They're very good, but I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Mr. Pie and my dad both agreed they would be perfect with sausage gravy.

Macadamia Nut Cream Pie - holy cow, this is freakin' awesome. I think the sliver I had was the last I'll get, since Mr. Pie's favorite thing is macadamia nuts.
Pumpkin Pie - Libby's is always reliably tasty.
Orange-Chocolate St. Honore Tart - another winner. I was very pleased with this one and I will make it again soon; I'll bet mother will be requesting this one.

After all that work, I was largely unimpressed. I have to stop working so hard when the results are less than stellar.
I think, if I choose to do Christmas at home (possibly for six this year), I'll make a rib roast (easy to carve) and more casseroles that I can do ahead.

These are not the slightest bit gourmet, but they were fun to make, and a hit with the kids.

mamagotcha wrote:So any post-mortem discussion on our holiday meals? Funny stories? Lessons learned?

Since moving to MN and building a house, I now am the host for pretty much every holiday. I'm trying to make my life easier with prepping ahead. I'll try to replicate a lot of what I did this year. We had 9 adults and 4 kids under the age of 8 but I also wanted some left overs since we had an early dinner time of 1pm. Here's what I did:

- 1 14lb Schultz Organic farm turkey: http://www.lindenhills.coop/node/383. This came frozen to our local co-op so I thawed it for three days before putting it into a buttermilk brine for 24 hours. I then oven roasted it using a variation of the Alton Brown method - rubbed with canola oil, in the cavity went an onion, lemon, fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme, cracked pepper over the outside of the bird. In the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes, then down to 350 for about 3 hours (12 min per pound is almost right on). One thing though - I had to cover the breast with foil after an hour because it was browning too fast. I removed it for the last 45 minutes. The bird was picture perfect coming out of the oven.
- 1 13lb Kadejan Turkey: http://www.kadejan.com/index.html. This one was delivered fresh to our Co-Op. I used a dry salt brine 24 hours before the bird was smoked on the WSM. It too, took about 3 hours and was perfect. I'd post a picture but posting pictures has gotten complicated, so I won't - sorry. Lesson learned here is that after you rinse it well, you have to dry it well which is close to impossible since you have to salt the bird under the skin. The water gets trapped and as much as you press the water out, there always seems to be more. Letting it sit on the counter for an hour helps most of the water drip out.
- Turkey stock. I made this two days before. I bought 5-6 lbs of turkey backs, necks and wings and roasted them at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. I then dumped them into cold water for an hour before throwing in an onion, celery, carrots, and black peppercorns for another hour. This yielded 10 cups of stock. It was great stock - gelatinous with a great turkey flavor. It made my life so much easier on Thanksgiving morning.
- Dressing (not stuffing into the turkey cavity). This is my wife's favorite so I made a double batch. Used two 1 lb rounds of country bread, cubed and dried in the oven the night before. I put the dried bread in a grocery bag overnight and it was ready to go. I mixed about 4 - 5 cups of the stock along with butter, onion, celery, dried and fresh, sage, rosemary, and thyme. It heaped into a 9 inch casserole dish and was baked for about an hour - 40 minutes covered and 20 minutes to get crunchy on top. Very good.
- Corn Pudding - wife made this day of and should have doubled the recipe. Lesson learned. It was a basic recipe with crushed saltines.
- Green Beans with shallots - I browned the shallots the night before and this was a good idea since they always take longer than you want and burn easily unattended. The beans are steamed in a wok, then uncovered and splashed with EVOO for a quick stir fry. The shallots are added last to heat through. Always a popular green side dish.
- Gravy. I made a roux the night before with some turkey fat (thanks stock!) and butter and flour. I got it to a peanut butter color, let it cool and put it in a tupperware container. Super easy the next day. I put the stock in a pot to heat up, in another pot I added the roux with some butter to get it started. Once warm, I added the hot stock and whisked away. It was perfect. Light brown, buttery, medium thickness, and flavorful. I may have to double the recipe next year. I did not use any turkey pan drippings. Not that I didn't want to but as I was assembling everything, it's one more thing to try to coordinate. The made-ahead stock had plenty of flavor and made my morning stress free.
- Mashed potatoes. Nothing fancy, just mashed with butter and whole milk. A staple.
- Sweet potato casserole - this was good but is never eaten as much as the other stuff. I roasted sweet potatoes the night before, peeled them and refrigerated them until Thanksgiving morning. After the turkeys were in the oven/smoker I mashed and whisked them together with some brown sugar, milk and butter. I topped them with marshmallows but I don't like that addition. I prefer pecans or walnuts and will probably go that route next year.
- dinner rolls - assigned to my mom who picked up white mountain rolls from the bakery. She'll get this assignment next year.
- orange jello with mandarin oranges. Wife's dish and a staple, especially for the kids.
- Pies - pumpkin and pecan - Mother in law duties. She can do it again next year.

Over all, it was a success. I will continue to try to carve out room the night before for anything I can prep. With so many dishes and running a smoker outside, then carving and finishing, the less I have to do the better. It was probably the less stressed I've been for any of the holidays so far. Biggest lesson learned - make the stock a couple days in advance. It's a life saver and makes the other dishes that much better.