I never carved a turkey tableside. I always did it in the kitchen and basically hacked the thing to bits. After my first try was not pretty and Mr. Pie's was just as bad, I asked my dad, an experienced carver, if he wanted to do the honors. He said no, it was my house so it's my job now. I was so proud that my daddy thought I was a big girl now and was passing the torch. My second thought was "shit."

I've since become better and learned why he filches the little bits out of the buttery juices in the bottom of the pan as he goes. I think this year I'll fish them out, drain them slightly, and eat my first course in the pantry.

On saveur.com, here's a hilarious Thanksgiving rant/recipe from Marc Maron, one of my favorite comedians.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/The-Angry-Chef

I'm off to the A&G to pick up my HoKa 13-pounder right now and I'll be dry-brining and roasting it with a fresh herb rub:

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/fres ... urkey.aspx

This bird is just for "us"-- my in-laws are a big family, so I never end up with the carcass for soup.

Thanks LTH for steering me off the Saveur Parker House rolls-- I am bringing bread to my in-laws for Thursday and was considering that one. Back to Abby Dodge's Classic Dinner Rolls (augmented with parmesan and cracked pepper) for me:
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/clas ... rolls.aspx

The in-laws wanted garlic bread, but they live in McHenry and I'm not driving 1.5 hours with fresh garlic bread in the car, no way.

Jen

Pie-love wrote:The in-laws wanted garlic bread, but they live in McHenry and I'm not driving 1.5 hours with fresh garlic bread in the car, no way.

That sounds like heaven!

I'm doing a small dinner with some non-American friends the Saturday after Thanksgiving as I'll be out of town for the day itself. So far the menu is looking to be:

Roast Turkey
Cider, sage, thyme

Sourdough Dressing
Pork sausage, dried cranberry, pecans

Cranberry Sauce
Citrus, rosemary, white wine

Mashed Red Potatoes
Roasted garlic, butter

Roasted Green Beans
Garlic and pepper infused olive oil

Fresh Bread
Dried cranberries, walnuts

Apple Pie
Granny smiths, streusel topping

Pumpkin Pie
Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg

On our table this year:

Appetizers (really more like "lunch"): toasted sweet-n-spicy nuts (pecans, most likely), a hazelnut/goat cheese ball, Satsumas Mandarins, and an assortment of goodies from the Whole Foods olive bar. If it's snowing, we'll do the mulled wine and hot spiced cider, or maybe some yet-to-be-discovered ale.

14 lb. Ho-Ka turkey
Usually I brine and flip an unstuffed bird for the Norman Rockwell Moment, but even though that has turned out well in the past, I'm going to give the spatchcocked bird a chance this year. I've been sad that I've had to toss most of the super-salty drippings with the brined birds, so I'm hoping that by cooking the splayed bird over veggies and herbs, I'll be able to corral all that yumminess for my gravy. I'll air-dry and put butter and herbs under the skin, too.

Gravy
In the past I've done stock with bird bits on the day of, but this year I'm going to pick up some tails and try making some stock ahead of time to augment the aforementioned yumminess. We never have enough gravy, so I'm aiming for several pints.

Sausage and barley dressing
A very basic bread-based dressing with Nottoli's sausage, tart Michigan apples, pecans and fresh herbs from my little windowsill garden. I snagged the recipe from the San Francisco Chronicle about eight years ago and it's too good to mess around with.

Mashed potatoes
The Cooks Illustrated way (boiled whole and unpeeled, then skinned and riced, and mixed with gobs of butter and cream).

Baked Ambercup squash
A friend gave me one of these a few weeks ago and it was SO GOOD (I stuffed it alá Dorie Greenspan) I asked her for more info on it. She had no idea what it was... a relative from Wisconsin had given a pile to her... so I asked Google, and figured out it was most likely an Ambercup. It's as sweet as a yam, very thick and bright orange flesh, really delicious. I saw her Sunday at a gathering, discovered she had another in the trunk of her car, and quickly talked her into handing it over to me. I have no shame, but now I have an Ambercup squash for Thanksgiving!

Sacaduros
These are absolutely fantastic little dinner rolls that Chouxfly found in Rose Levy Berenbaum's Bread Bible. They look like little floury flowers, crisp and brown on the outside but soft and chewy and buttery and salty on the inside.

Cranberry sauce
Probably made with a bit of orange zest, but otherwise very basic. Will try to find local cranberries but since I wussed out and didn't make it to the farmers market over the weekend, might have to settle for the National Brand.

Wine will probably be a nice German Reisling (so I'm predictable. Sue me) and Martinelli's for the kids.

The teenager wants to make the pumpkin pie this year; I've asked Chouxfly to spot him. This will be served with homemade egg nog and maybe more mulled wine/cider if we haven't finished it off yet.

I'm not even going to bother with anything green this year. It's always passed over and gets shoved in the back of the fridge, and I'll be nibbling on fresh veggies while I'm cooking, so I'm not going to stress on it.

I love reading what everyone else is doing, and would be happy to share any recipes if anyone is interested.

I love reading what everyone else is doing

Me too. It will help me get through Thanksgiving at my in-laws', where my m-i-l will overcook the turkey in a covered roaster till it tastes like steamed cardboard.

And I will sit there repeating silently to myself, "It's not about the food.... It's not about the food...."

Tur-Turkey-key. Aww man!!

jimswside wrote:taking it easy this year:

Doing a couple Ho-ka birds:

(1) whole turkey in the oven maybe 15 lbs.
(1) brined then smoked breast in the WSM.

basic sides(my family has to have certain dishes every year or they wont come):

- sausage stuffing(some in the bird some out of the bird)
- green bean casserole
- cranberry slices
- mashed potatoes
- plain gravy
- giblet gravy
- dinner rolls

Apps:

- thinking about a seafood tray(steamed shrimp & crab legs)

dessert:
- cookies
- homemade pumpkin pie

Ammended items:

Decided I didnt want to smoke a breast, so I grabbed a fresh 18# bird @ the Ho-Ka farm Saturday. Should be enough for 8 adults & one toddler.

Stuffing in the bird is a sausage & sage stuffing(classic, old school)

Scored some blue point oysters so I am going to do an oyster stuffing in a casserole dish.

Vangie & Shay knocked out some pumpkin cookies today, tomorrow after work I have to knock out a couple pumpkin pies & some chocolate chip cookies.

Apps will be chips and dip, some peanuts, some pretzles, and some brie cheese and crackers. Decided I didnt want folks to fill up on snacks/apps.

Really taking it easy this year, especially compared to what i tackle meun/food wise on a typical weekend.

Okay, since I asked the forum advice on roasting turkey "parts" (legs, thighs, breast, all separate), I'll concede the final menu.

- I pick up a 16 lb fresh from the farm bird tomorrow at the butcher shop and I'll have him "dismember" it for me. I'll dry brine it in the fridge overnight and roast it on a rack above a sheet pan lined with aromatics - carrot, celery, onion, fresh thyme.

- Juices from the bird will end up in the gravy. I'm making a stock tonight of turkey backs and necks. Simple gravy - butter roux with stock whisked in.

- By popular vote, the stuffing will be the most basic it can be. Dried out pain au levain with onion, carrot, celery, sage, and thyme made with turkey stock and baked until crusty on top.

- Green beans with shallots

- Riced (Mashed) potatoes with plenty of butter (I am now living in MN of course)

- Grandma's corn pudding (or as she incorrectly used to call it - scalloped corn). Love that creamed corn/corn/cracker mix, especially the crusty part on top.

- Red Garnet sweet potato casserole - half topped with pecan the other with marshmallows

- Crappy cranberry gel stuff out of a can (popular vote)

- Some White Mountain rolls my wife raves about. She'll pick those up at a local bakery.

- Pecan Pie

- Pumpkin Pie

Dinner is early for some of the elders - 12 noon. That means at about 5pm, I'll shred a bunch of leftover turkey, mix it with some leftover stock and gravy in a cast iron skillet and top it with biscuits - bake for 10-15 minutes or until the biscuits are done. Take a couple biscuits, scooping up the shredded turkey and gravy underneath and invert it onto a plate and enjoy dinner part two. Everyone else can have a cold turkey sandwich for all I care.

Our menu for 13 of us.

16lb Farm Fresh Organic Turkey locally grown, dry brined with herbs for 2 days and quartered. Will be cooked on a WSM.
Buttermilk mashed potatoes with parsley
Gravy from drippings of thigh/leg combo and 4 turkey necks, plus some fresh turkey stock.
A basic Midwestern stuffing, bread, stock, celery, onions, and a few herbs.
Pineapple stuffing (SIL bringing)
Green beans with a little bacon
Homemade Applesauce made with Northern Spy apples (99 y/o MIL makes)
Hungarian cucumber salad (MIL)
Canned cranberry sauce-what can I say its a tradition on both sides
Heirloom carrots
Various crudites, relish tray, deviled eggs
Sour cream and chive muffins
Pies brought by SIL's mother

I learned long ago to cook the basics as the masses desire. I usually make myself happy doing creative things with the leftovers. Anyway, dinner for 15:

What I am cooking
*24 lb turkey (my mom is worried it won't be enough )
*Basic in the pan stuffing
*Basic gravy
*Mashed potatoes....riced and loaded with butter and cream
*Corn (frozen from the summer)
* 2 homemade apple pies...homemade crusts!

What my guests are bringing
*Taffy Apple Salad (always)
*Sweet Potato Casserole with marshmallows (always)
*Green Bean Casserole (I requested brussel sprouts but got voted down)
*Brown and Serve rolls (a tradition/and a pretty damn easy
contribution...not that I'm bitter or anything )
*Homemade Cranberry Relish (Thanks to my mom. We are the only 2
to eat this. More for me!)
*Cranberry Jell "Log" ....a tradition
*2 Homemade pumpkin pies...with squirt whipped cream (a tradition)

I like to do just a few appetizers
* Cheese Straws
* Cheese Plate
* Sweet Spiced nuts
* Smoked Nuts
* A couple different types of olives

Since there are no big drinkers in the group I put out tiny aperitif glasses with some port and a chocolate red wine (just tried it...pretty good) as part of the dessert table.

Whalla...another Thanksgiving. Personally I think the hardest part is getting the house ready, table set, serving dishes organized, making sure the silverware is spotless and figuring out a time where everyone can come. I gave up on that last item. From now to eternity....HIGH NOON on Thanksgiving Day....hope you can make it!

Things I hate:
*When guests bring their food unprepared and want to use my kitchen
to prepare it while I'm trying to cook.
*Guests who stand in my tiny kitchen who offer nothing but their
magical presence.
*Old guests that constantly worry about when we are going to start to
eat. Then when they have finished the meal they are ready to leave.
*Guests who thinking passing gas is amusing (Is there one in every
family?)
*Guests who bring a bunch of crap (clippings, photos, etc) to share with
you during the time you are getting the food prepped and served
*Guests that will share with you that perhaps the turkey breast was a
bit too dry
*Guests that bring a bunch of crap with them and dump in right in the
middle of your entertaining space

Things I love
*Guests that never fight or argue about anything (this is my family!)
*Guests that are extremely appreciative that I did all the work
*Guests that help clean up
*The moment the food is served...my effort for the year has been
completed!

Just keeping it real!!!!

After years and years of wanting to do it, I am finally making it happen. My Ho-Ka will be stuffed with sliders this thanksgiving's go around. There's no reason this shouldn't be great. I took 20 sliders (no pickles) and broke them down into 9 pieces per and mixed them up with 3 cups of butter sauteed celery along with some fresh thyme and sage and chicken stock. Reedy to be stuffed up tomorrow morning.




White Castle stuffing ready to be inserted

Beef, I am dying to know how that works in the turkey, please do report. If I didn't have a proprietary essential stuffing recipe, I'd be doing this just to see what it's like (though I would leave in the pickles - even though the recipe calls for their removal)

After shoveling in the morning will be making
16lb Bell&Evans turkey that spent a coouple days in citrus brine--cooked on Big green egg
stuffing made with a yeast based corn bread
basic cooked cranberry sauce(all cranberries are local here)
roasted brussel sprouts
roasted squash
sweet potato casserole--maple flavored with pecans

will put together an an apple-cranberry pie(with nuts) in the morning--going for the rustic look---

for the pumpkin folks just made a sour cream pumpkin bundt cake---desserts served with fresh vanilla bean ice cream

Granddaughter and I will make dinner rolls also---

Too much wine will probably be consumed also

and think we are expecting about a dozen folks

stuffed bird just went in the oven, looking at it being done @ 2:00 so I can get the green bean casserole, and oyster dressing in the oven while the bird rests.

Is 10 AM too early to start drinking?

Honey, you're starting late!

teatpuller wrote:Is 10 AM too early to start drinking?

thats what I was wondering, that bottle of Buffalo Trace is calling me.

however Id like to make it til halftime of the 3rd football game today so ill wait til at least 11:30..

Cheers Everyone!! Hope everyones dishes come out great! Now open that wine.....

Da Beef wrote:I took 20 sliders (no pickles) and broke them down into 9 pieces per and mixed them up with 3 cups of butter sauteed celery along with some fresh thyme and sage and chicken stock.

20 sliders and Three Cups of Butter!

By the ghost of dear sweet Carol Channing that is a Lot of Butter! Even for a fat butter loving bastard like me over an ounce of butter per slider seems over the top.

Curious to hear how the slider stuffing turned out.

G Wiv wrote:

Da Beef wrote:I took 20 sliders (no pickles) and broke them down into 9 pieces per and mixed them up with 3 cups of butter sauteed celery along with some fresh thyme and sage and chicken stock.

20 sliders and Three Cups of Butter!

By the ghost of dear sweet Carol Channing that is a Lot of Butter! Even for a fat butter loving bastard like me over an ounce of butter per slider seems over the top.

I wonder if Da Beef's description should have stated "3 cup of butter-sauteed celery" (as in 3 cup of celery, sauteed in butter). I also am curious how it turned out, though.

All went well for our Thanksgiving. The only let-down was the stuffing - I guess it came out okay, but the work-to-pleasure ratio was unsatisfying. It's not very often (frankly, it's almost never) that I think, I wish I had my mom's recipe for this, but I remember consistently enjoying stuffing when I was a kid, and consistently being underwhelmed by it whenever I've tried to make it myself as an adult.

So I'd pretty much decided by 8 pm to not bother with making stuffing next year.

That was until I saw the photos of the White Castle stuffing mix. Now I have a new plan for next year.

Just got back from my brother's house. There were just four of us, but we had a splendid meal. My brother said he'd always dreamed of having an all-Asian Thanksgiving, and this was the year. He had to add a couple of leaves to the diningroom table to hold all the food. The centerpiece was Chinese hot pot, with a broth that my brother has been working on and perfecting for weeks. To cook in the hot pot, there was thin-sliced beef, king oyster mushrooms, noodles, dumplings, a variety of greens (everything you might expect from a pho place, plus dandelion greens), and veggies. In addition, there were fried dumplings, Chinese roast pork, sesame chicken, honey sesame wings, gomaae (Japanese spinach with sesame), pickled daikon, and bean sprouts with sesame oil. (I don't think I'm forgetting anything.) To drink, there was a glorious 1990 Vouvray and a lovely 2008 Malbec. Dessert was pumpkin angel food cake (had to have something that touched on tradition). Good conversation and lots of love and gratitude around this table.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Mhays wrote:Beef, I am dying to know how that works in the turkey, please do report. If I didn't have a proprietary essential stuffing recipe, I'd be doing this just to see what it's like (though I would leave in the pickles - even though the recipe calls for their removal)

Hey y'alls hope everyone's day was delicious, the White Castle stuffing sure as hell was. My mom is from da southside so we have always celebrated Thanksgiving out there with all my aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone on her side of the fam. They/we are all big White Castle fan's, who isn't that's from Chicago? We had three birds including the one that I made on the northside this morning with the WC stuffing.


Bird stuffed with sliders 'bout 3/4 of the way thru

Matt wrote:

G Wiv wrote:

Da Beef wrote:I took 20 sliders (no pickles) and broke them down into 9 pieces per and mixed them up with 3 cups of butter sauteed celery along with some fresh thyme and sage and chicken stock.

20 sliders and Three Cups of Butter!

By the ghost of dear sweet Carol Channing that is a Lot of Butter! Even for a fat butter loving bastard like me over an ounce of butter per slider seems over the top.

I wonder if Da Beef's description should have stated "3 cup of butter-sauteed celery" (as in 3 cup of celery, sauteed in butter). I also am curious how it turned out, though.

That is indeed the case, I used a half stick of butter to sautee the three cups of celery. It turned out great.


White Castle stuffing

It tasted like sliders but even more like stuffing if that makes any sense, some people think sliders taste like stuffing to begin with. It was a hit and I would for sure do it again. A very traditional stuffing taste with a hint of sliders. I also thought to use the pickles but instead just picked them off myself and ate them as a snack as I made the stuffing. White Castles burgers could always benefit from more pickles so I added some on to the ones I ate as I made the dressing. It was a great turkey day with the highlight being the turkey thrown on a slider roll topped with WC stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and some cranberry sauce. Chase with Wild Turkey.


2010 Thanksgiving dinner plate


Thanksgiving day slider

Everything turned out great at our place today except for the mashed potatoes. The potatoes were done early and they didn't hold well. They were also a little stiffer than I wanted. More butter and buttermilk next time. Dry brining a turkey sure is a great way to go. Good crispy skin and flavorful meat. Toasted heirloom carrots are a nice touch.

1,000 words:

Lunch by michelehays, on Flickr


Dinner by michelehays, on Flickr

For dessert we had pumpkin and pecan PODs. Worked out perfectly.

That Thanksgiving Day Slider looked fantastic. Now I'm off to start cooking Thanksgiving II.
Yesterday I brought the pies to Thanksgiving I. Wednesday night we went to see 127 Hours, and when I came home to find that my pumpkin cheesecake had a very similar looking crevice in it I was interested to see what the verdict would be. Turns out it was the favorite, compared with chocolate macadamia and pumpkin. I also found out that three pies and a batch of cupcakes is too much for 14 people (especially when someone brings another 2 pies ). Oh well. Leftovers are better anyway.

turkey day was a success(I can pretty much knock it out in my sleep).

finished bird:

thaiobsessed wrote:Queso fundido with chorizo appetizer (fromlast weeks NY times)
Dry brined turkey (Hoka hen from Treasure Island) with Chile rub
Gravy (standard but presumably the chile from the rub will spice it up a bit)
Mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup and chipotle (a Bobby Flay recipe I got from the NY times about 7 years ago and have been using since)
Corn bread stuffing with andouille, poblanos and pecans
Cranberry sauce with port and tangerine (Epicurious)
Spinach Gratin from Barefoot Contessa
Parker House rolls from the latest Saveur

I'm just realized I forgot to post the bones of the recipe for the stuffing (sorry, BR)--but actually that was the one thing I wasn't that crazy about. I think maybe cornbread stuffing isn't for me. It wasn't bad (I mean- cornbread, andouille, pecans--hard to go wrong). But, I think I like the texture better with bread stuffing. Previously, I have used a recipe (adopted as 'our family recipe' from a family friend) which involves making homemade croutons from a peasant-y type of bread, a typical mire poix, lots and lots of cashews, and some chicken stock (and a little cream) to bind. It always comes out great and when I have tried other stuffings, they seem to pale in comparison. We were really pleased with how everything else turned out. I ended up making the Lenora's yeast rolls from the Bernard Clayton cookbook (mashed potatoes were the secret ingredient). They turned out great and were very easy to make. I learned from making a trial batch that they needed a little salt so I ended up doubling the salt called for in the recipe--worked great.