Home » Happy day-before-Thanksgiving to you!

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Happy day-before-Thanksgiving to you! — 16 Comments

  1. I like turkey, even when it’s not as moist as it could be. But my sister-in-law (who always does the family turkey) brines it, which makes the bird very juicy and tender.

  2. Just hauled the turkey out of the fridge, drained it, salted it inside and out, and put it back in the fridge uncovered until noon tomorrow, when I will smear it with ghee, put a cut onion inside, and roast.

    Pandemonium here, with a small granddaughter and a new puppy along with several extra adults. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

  3. I have always used the Breast Side Down method of Jackie Olden who used to have a food show on the radio. The turkey is always moist and sweet.

    Now that we escaped California we usually have just the two of us and a turkey breast. Lots of college football.

  4. Was at an upscale kitchen shop. Saw an ad for free range, organic, probably Yale grad turkeys for $125. Complete with a sign so your guests would know you weren’t serving Butterball.

    Other than that sort of thing, Thanksgiving is also for lower-end foods. No prime rib, blackened salmon or Alaskan crab. Not sure everybody makes the connection, but the point is to have food on the table and be thankful.

  5. Leftover mashed potatoes to make potato “pancakes” with the next day!

    Just mix together some mashed potatoes (made from scratch, the pouch mashed potatoes don’t work as well), a touch of flour to help bind together (not too much or it has a raw flour taste), egg (about one egg per one or two “pancakes”), chopped scallions, and shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

    Form into patties (sort of like small hamburgers) and pan fry in butter until each side is brown.

    You could serve leftover gravy on top; but, I never have as they are good on their own.

    I always make extra mashed potatoes just so I will have left overs to make these. Yum!

    Happy Thanksgiving Neo and everyone!

  6. Here’s wishing everyone a beautiful, delicious, blessed Thanksgiving Day. I like a savory dressing, but for the first time I find myself curious about Neo’s sweet dressing to the point where I want to try it. Has anyone else made it in all these years? I’ve never seen this recipe anywhere else. Maybe I’ll try it after the holidays with a Cornish Game Hen.

  7. My maternal grandmother, Helen, was a great Hungarian cook (taking after her mother who worked in the kitchens for the Esterhazy family). My paternal grandmother, Esther, was neither, being a not very good Pennsylvania Dutch cook. We enjoyed Easter and Christmas suppers with my mother’s family, and suffered through Thanksgiving with my dad’s.
    Thanksgiving supper started with the horror that is a Jello-mold salad (http://yesterfood.blogspot.com/2013/05/classic-jello-salad.html). Then, the main course of dried-turkey (think National Lampoon Christmas vacation dry), lumpy mashed potatoes, dry stuffing, gravy that basically was salt mixed with flour and burnt drippings, canned green beans, sweet potatoes with a marshmallow topping (to this day I gag to think of it), carrot and raisin salad (be afraid of orange foods – be very afraid), and succotash. After supper my cousins, my sister, and I would go down to the basement to play some made-up game while the men (my socialist and atheist grandfather and my born-again Christian father and uncles) would argue politics and religion while the ladies cleaned the dishes. We soon were summoned back upstairs to have Pumpkin Pie (more orangey food) and pass the dish of assorted nuts (still in their shell) around the table (I believe these nuts were the same nuts set-out every year for 15 years or more; perhaps a few were taken – not necessarily eaten – for the use by my cousin or myself to try our hand with the nutcracker, the v-shaped metal type). Then coffee, or for my Grandmother just hot water, and it was time to go home.
    But this was almost 60 years ago. My sister and some of my cousins are still alive, only one aunt and uncle remain. Great meal? Hardly. But a wonderful memory that I am thankful for having. And I look forward to a future date in heaven where will can all sit together again. Hey, who knows, maybe the nut dish will make an appearance.

  8. We will have 7 neighbors over, making it a table of 9. Brined turkey, of course, and various traditional dishes, but we also had a big eggplant harvest this week, so there will be an eggplant soup, baba ganooj, and caponata.

    For me the primary point of turkey is to make turkey tetrazzini possible, though turkey soup and turkey sandwiches also are good.

  9. Daughter and her fiance got in last night. Will have them and a friend’s family (she’s originally from Germany) over for the feast. They are bringing their new English Cream puppy.
    Been cooking all day. Husband has already attacked one of the pies. Tried a new recipe as the creamed corn I got at Costco last year didn’t come in this year. Hope the home made will be as good!
    Happy Thanksgiving to all.

  10. Well, we always do Ina Garten’s roast turkey involving truffle butter slid between breast skin and meat and many herbs and onions in the cavity. We just don’t bother with the brining.

    In terms of side dishes we are vigorously low brow – mashed potatoes peeled, boiled, mashed then put on low heat in crockpot for hours with cream, butter, and S&P. Trust me it drives your guests out of their minds.

    Cranberries? Of course! Ocean Spray gelled in the can and sliced elegantly onto a pretty serving plate. I know. The fresh versions are lovely but none compare.

    Pumpkin pie – homemade crust, filling following the Libby’s canned pumpkin recipe. Real deal whip cream.

    Works for us. Some stuff I put on the table in honor of my mom … sweet gherkins, olives, sweet potato with marshmallows. Somehow it all gets eaten.

    Happy Thanksgiving to Neo and the wonderful commentators here.

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