How is or was your Thanksgiving?

[Vanessa]

Hi. Well my bird is in the oven. I made the cranberries, a pie, wild rice with mushrooms, stuffing, salad, sweet potato casserole. Since its only 2 of us it was so relaxing. We are just had some wine & cheese as our bird roasts.
So...how was everyone's Thanksgiving?
I hope great.

[Mamasue]

Hi Vanessa.....Our day was a good one and our tummies are full. You would be proud of me....I had half of glass of white wine...don't ask what because I am not wine educated. http://www.cateringnet.co.uk/clipart/winebotl.gif

The Banana Pudding was a flop. My mother tried it and said that it was good, but I think she was just being gracious because I am her daughter. Hehe http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif It could have been kicked up a notch with banana flavoring of some sort....whether liquer type or extract. The merigine topping caused it to be watery underneath too. Maybe sitting around at room temperature didn't help. Anyway, I wouldn't make it again.

Hope your day was a good one and the food outstanding. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Mamasue (edited 11-23-2000).]

[kwormann]

We had hot crab dip, chex mix, smoked turkey, honey ham, cranberry chutney, macaroni and cheese, praline sweet potato casserole, 2 types of green beans, rolls, fruit salad, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pumpkin log and 3 types of wine. There were 8 of us (if you want to know about THAT, look at my prior post). After we ate, we played TV trivial pursuit and charades! It was a really nice day!

Hope everyone else had a great day!

Kim http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[Kimba]

We had a great day. I was scheduled to work 7-3, but the hospital census is down and they cancelled my shift. Darn <g>

Had 10 people round the table, and it was lively.

Menu included roast turkey with sausage-chestnut stuffing (definitely NOT a CL item, but a long-standing family tradition). Also had mashed potatoes, turnip, squash, carrots, peas, boiled onions, cranberries and pie.

I've read what some others had, and I think I'd like to try some different things, but my mother would smite me on the spot. You know - tradition, tradition http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

Found a few moments to reflect on all that is good in my life today, and that is what it's all about, isn't it?

[HARRYET]

we had a good day, pretty laid back, not as many people as we usually have.

started off with the entire family in the kitchen helping to finish the dishes we were bringing to my MIL's, then hubby and I went for a walk. got to my MIL's and had turkey, stuffing, gravy, peas, boiled creamed onions, mashed potatoes, candied yams, broccoli casserole, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, rolls. Then for dessert, apple, pecan, pumpkin, chocolate cream, banana cream pies, cranberry and pumpkin breads and cheesecake. oooohhhh! I think I ate way to much http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif Ann

[kwormann]

Well ann, isnt that the point???

Kim

[lindrusso]

Our day was also very nice. It was just the four of us - my husband and two boys - so there were none of the worries about cleaning the house, etc. Good thing - the boys trashed the house with all their toys!

We had turkey, mashed potatoes, the bacon-balsamic green beans from CL, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. And I made my first attempt at making gravy and was pretty pleased.

I'll be hitting the gym tomorrow and Sunday, but I must say I exercised a fair amount of restraint considering all the food we had for just 4 of us! Hope everyone had a joyful holiday!

[This message has been edited by lindrusso (edited 11-24-2000).]

[Angel]

Hi. My Thanksgiving was small but went well. I tried the "Make-Ahead Turkey Breast with Herb Stuffing and Vanilla Sweet Potatoes" Recipies...The turkey I found to be a little dry (I might of done something wrong) but the potatoes and everything else were great! The gravy was to die for...I know it might not be too healthy but it's Thanksgiving and once I can get rid of all my left overs its back on the healthy food http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[AndreaU]

We had a very nice Thanksgiving... 10 adults, 7 kids, 3 dogs (my sil hosted). It was low key as we just sat around and talked, watched football & listened to Alice's restaurant on the radio. We started off with shrimp, cheese & crackers, fresh fruit, nuts, and chips & salsa- great nosh food. The main course: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn pudding, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, baby carrots and salad w/pecans, griled pears & onions. Wine: Chardonnay & Merlot. For dessert... my fudgy chocolate layer cake & apple crisp, 2 pumpkin pies, pecan pie, and dozens of cookies, as well as spiced wine cider (a local winery make Holiday spiced wine, which when mixed w/cider & warmed is a wonderful after-dinner drink w/dessert). All was delicious and the company was wonderful. We're spread out from PA to NH so it's nice to get together, catch up & see how big the kids have gotten.

[kltcarley]

Kim,
Glad to hear your Thanksgiving went well despite the "interesting" list of guests! Did you get a lot rain your way? We got a pretty good storm, but on the way home from my parents in Katy.

[Gail]

After dinner, I had to be transfered to our car with a hoist and crane. Only now am I able to move again. If any of you hear reports of an earthquake in Southern California, it wasn't. That was me last night, falling into bed!

[This message has been edited by Gail (edited 11-24-2000).]

[Ed]

Hi,

We had a fine Thanksgiving here at our place, and I'm glad to see that all of you enjoyed yourselves as well.

We were 18 here at the house, Sharon and I were up early to get a start on the day. We had Turkey and everything that goes with it.
Sharon is really good at Thanksgiving.

Of course there was Football on the TV, which some of us enjoyed.

Our Oldest Grand Daughter surprised us by Flying up from Austin Texas to be with us this year. (She's a Sophmore at U Texas at Austin)

I did something a little different in addition to the "normal" Thanksgiving Fare this year. It went over so well, I think I might just get to do it again.

Do you like Pig Roasts? I think they're really fine, and I will go for miles to be at a Pig Roast.

Well, some time ago I found a recipe for what's called an Easy Pig Roast. I liked the looks of the recipe, so I went and bought a piece of Pig, an 18 1/2 pound Fresh Ham, and I determined to cook it on Thanksgiving.

It turned out great.

So with the usual Turkey and Dressing and all that Sharon does such a fine job with, and with my small Pig Roast it was a fine combination. There was plenty for everyone to eat and to take some home with them too.

We sure do enjoy having everyone here.

If we didn't already have the Thanksgiving Holiday so that we could get together with friends and family just for the fun of it, we would need to invent it.

Ed

[Vanessa]

I am glad everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
I love turkey the day after thanksgiving too http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif After battling the Malls it was nice to know I just had to reheat food for dinner.

Ed: The pig roast sounds perfect!
Gail: Don't worry I am sure many of us felt
like we could not move http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif after dinner. But...its once a year right?
To all have a nice weekend!

[This message has been edited by Vanessa (edited 11-24-2000).]

[emily]

my pre-thanksgiving was very nerve racking as my parents flew in for me to cook my first thanksgiving meal. even more nerver racking because i was planning on telling them that after i graduate (from rice u in houston) i want to attend culinary school. the meal turned out excellent. we started out with stuffed mushrooms, the salad had a apple, walnut vinagrette with a roquefort cheese, the turkey was perfectly golden and the gravy was so good (i also used onions in my roasting pan), the stuffing moist, the mashed potatoes creamy. it was all so good. thus, i think my parents are handling the culinary school aspirations rather well.

[BeckyM]

Our Thanksgiving was very nice. I started it off by running a 10K race with my sister-in-law, which felt very good! It helped us not feel so guilty about the desserts later!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws, so my MIL did most of the cooking (she LOVES to do that and have the whole family). I contributed two pumpkin pies and an apple pie (with dried cranberries & a streusel topping). We had a pretty typical turkey (roasted in a Reynolds oven bag) with stuffing that included onions, celery, apples, and grapes (made by my brother-in-law). We also had sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, a wonderful carrot dish, and brussels sprouts (YUCK! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif ). Besides my three pies for dessert, we also had banana cream, lemon meringue, and pecan. There were seven adults and two kids for dinner, so we have LOTS of leftovers. Since my sister-in-law and her family will still be visiting (staying at my MIL's) for the weekend, the leftovers will be nice for keeping everyone fed. Then on Monday it's back to concentrating on healthy food!

[sneezles]

We had a great day! The weather held off (it was suppose to rain all day) and was still dool enough for wassail. We had little smokies in pastry, cheese and crackers to munch on since the bird was still frozen after 4 days in the fridge. He cooked up nicely and we had cornbread stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes casserole with praline topping, cranberries, baby carrots, English peas, roasted asparagus, gravy (perhaps my best yet-must have been the onion in the drippings and the turkey stock), pecan pie, apple struesel pie, chocolate chip cookie pie, and the praline pumkin pie that won Emeril's contest.
It is the most amazing pie! It was not too pumpkiny and the praline layer sort of melded in but remain a thin layer along the crust...had two pieces, myself! Definitely will not make plain pumpkin pie ever again!!!

[greta]

em,
i wish you the best of luck w/ your culinary school endeavors! i'm a firm believer that life is too short NOT to do what you love.
a friend of mine graduated from peter kump's culinary program in manhattan. she really enjoyed her experience.
keep us posted on the progress.
take care, greta

[laden]

My Thanksgiving was just the way it should be...great! My Mom and Dad make the turkey and dressing, gravy, green beans and bread.

I was feeling very ambitioius this year and brought several CL recipes:

The Spririted Cranberry-Apricot Sauce was excellent. (my sister and I started eating it with a spoon from the serving dish!). Also made the Classic Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust (both very, very good).

The Hashbrown Casserole was great and the Sweet Potato Casserole with Prailine Streusel was better than any sweet potato casserol I've ever had.

Can't wait till next year to do it all over again.

[hsvaughan]

Our Thanksgiving was awesome! I made the carrot cake from '99 and the classic pecan pie, nobody knew they were light and everyone loved them. Especially the carrot cake! The best part of course was being with family!

[Star]

Hi everyone! Besides my grandmother driving me nuts, my T-Day was splendid. Since I'm a vegetarian I made a vegetarian stuffing..I used the one from the November CL issue. Only, I used apples and diced them (by mistake) I also used white wine in place of the other liquor and added cranberries..ok. So I guess I kind of made my own stuffing, but CL supported me! It turned out pretty darn tasty. Oh yeah, I also used sourdough bread and of veggie broth (of course). Good stuff. Did anyone try the vanilla sweet potatoes? They sound a little strange, but I LOVE sweet potatoes! Happy Holidays : )
~Diona

[Pat58]

I tried the Herb-Roasted turkey from the Nov. issue (w/o the grits!). This is a fabulous method and I will use it again next year. I did not stuff the bird with dressing, I baked that on the side. After spreading the herb mix under the skin and all over the bird, I stuffed the cavity with an onion cut in eighths and a branch of thyme and sage from the garden. Also, I used an Empire kosher turkey. The gravy this recipe produced was wonderful and we're looking forward to the soup! On the side we had bread stuffing with apples and celery; mashed white and sweet potatoes; braised Brussels sprouts with shallots; steamed asparagus; fresh cranberry sauce; and the most delicious gravy.

[hhcowgirl]

Originally posted by emily:
my pre-thanksgiving was very nerve racking as my parents flew in for me to cook my first thanksgiving meal. even more nerver racking because i was planning on telling them that after i graduate (from rice u in houston) i want to attend culinary school. the meal turned out excellent. we started out with stuffed mushrooms, the salad had a apple, walnut vinagrette with a roquefort cheese, the turkey was perfectly golden and the gravy was so good (i also used onions in my roasting pan), the stuffing moist, the mashed potatoes creamy. it was all so good. thus, i think my parents are handling the culinary school aspirations rather well.

Emily--
Just a quick note of encouragement on the culinary school endeavor. I LOVE to cook but have put dreams of pursuing cooking career goals on hold for law school--I go to a top-20 school and did not feel like I could really pass up that opportunity. However, I ask myself every day how much happier/different my life would be had I just trusted my instincts and started a catering business or gourmet shop. I envy you for realizing your dreams--good luck and keep us posted!

[almiter]

Originally posted by Pat58:
I tried the Herb-Roasted turkey from the Nov. issue (w/o the grits!). This is a fabulous method and I will use it again next year. I did not stuff the bird with dressing, I baked that on the side. After spreading the herb mix under the skin and all over the bird, I stuffed the cavity with an onion cut in eighths and a branch of thyme and sage from the garden. Also, I used an Empire kosher turkey. The gravy this recipe produced was wonderful and we're looking forward to the soup! On the side we had bread stuffing with apples and celery; mashed white and sweet potatoes; braised Brussels sprouts with shallots; steamed asparagus; fresh cranberry sauce; and the most delicious gravy.


I made the herb roasted turkey also and everyone loved it. But to add to this delicious recipe- I first brined the turkey two days before T-day (soak in salt water with herbs and garlic) for 24 hours. Then the day before T-day I let the turkey sit uncovered in the fridge for another 24 hours. The brining creates a very tender flavorful turkey and letting it sit uncovered in the fridge overnight evaporates moisture out of the skin to make the skin very crispy. It was excellent! I got the techniques out of Cooks Illustrated and will use them every year.

[kltcarley]

Emily,
I also encourage you to go for your dreams. You will be so much happier if you do. I am from Houston, and by BIL went to Rice also.
Karen

[almiter]

oops- also meant to mention that I made the squash and rice casserole from the Nov 2000 issue and though it was good, everyone missed the the traditional broccoli/rice/velveeta casserole. I will save it for a dinner side dish for a regular night. I made the pumpkin cheesecake from the Dec 2000 issue and it was very good- even better two days later- I will make it two days ahead next time. I also made the Fruited Port Cranberry Salad from the Nov 2000 issue and it was also delicious.

[almiter]

Originally posted by laden:
My Thanksgiving was just the way it should be...great! My Mom and Dad make the turkey and dressing, gravy, green beans and bread.

I was feeling very ambitioius this year and brought several CL recipes:

The Spririted Cranberry-Apricot Sauce was excellent. (my sister and I started eating it with a spoon from the serving dish!). Also made the Classic Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust (both very, very good).

The Hashbrown Casserole was great and the Sweet Potato Casserole with Prailine Streusel was better than any sweet potato casserol I've ever had.

Can't wait till next year to do it all over again.

Would love it if you would post the recipes for the Cranberry-Apricot salad and the Sweet Potato casserole w/ Praline Streusel or could you tell me which issue they are from. Thanks!

[laden]

almiter--
The Sweet Potato Casserole with Praline Topping is originally from Nov/Dec 1997, it also appears in the Make it Ahead supplement.

The Spirited Cranberry-Apricot Sauce is from Nov 1999. If you don't have these issues I think you can find them by doing a search. If you are unable to find them I'll be glad to post them for you.

[KristaMB]

My Thanksgiving was great. Well, the actual day was okay, but the long weekend was great. We decided on Tuesday night to drive up to Sacramento for Thanksgiving instead of staying down in San Diego by ourselves. The most amazing part was that it only took 8 hours to get there, and we left on Wednesday afternoon! It was nice to surprise my grandparents.

There were 21 people at my parent's house for the holiday, so it was a little crazy. Sort of an odd mix, too...

We had the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin, apple and pecan pies, etc. and some not so usual dishes. I ended up making the baked vegetable risotto as a side dish, and we had some great home made rolls, and a spinach salad with almonds and cranberries.

My mom and I made three items from the December issue of CL yesterday. We made the cranberry hazelnut coffee cake, the clemtine tart and Sonora grilled cheese sandwiches.

The coffee cake was really tasty and easy. I finished the last of it driving up I-5 this morning. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

The tart was very labor intensive. It looked beautiful until we cut it, and then it fell apart. It tasted wonderful, and everybody loved it last night, but I don't know if I'll go through all the trouble of making it again anytime soon. I may modify it by not making the crust and just having the cream filling garnished with clementines and chocolate.

The grilled cheese sandwiches are super easy and a nice twist on the old standard sandwich. We made them for lunch yesterday and even the guys liked them. They suggested we put ham in them next time, though. I'll be making those again soon.

Hope everybody else enjoyed their day!

[LonormiManuel]

Originally posted by almiter:
everyone missed the the traditional broccoli/rice/velveeta casserole. I will save it for a dinner side dish for a regular night.

I made the light version of the broccoli/rice/Velveeta casserole for our Thanksgiving -- recipe is in the Nov 99 CL, also in the 2000 CL Cookbook. It was great!

[Margie]

We went to my SIL and she had a Free Range turkey. I sure cooked differently from the regular kind. By the time the legs were done the breast was dry. Weird.

[acorreia]

I know I'm on the tail end of this thread, but I did not touch the computer all weekend. It was great! Like I said last week, I had no plans of doing the traditional T-day dinner, since it is the first year away from family. My husband's brother did spend the weekend. We made turkey breasts on the grill. I steamed some TJ's green beans with some TJ's mushrooms. Then salad, and then some TJ's roasted potatoes. The whole thing took about 20 mins to prepare....just like any other meal.

Ed - I was tickled to see that your grand-daughter goes to UT (or as us Aggies call it....t.u.). My brother is also a Longhorn, and he went to the game in Austin last Friday. So, Sat morning, I get a lovely phone call concerning the A&M/t.u. game. What can I say, the Longhorns played well, and Simms did a great job.

Emily - How did your parents take the news concerning your culinary school plans?

-ac