Thanksgiving Planning

Archive for November, 2009

my sisters and i grew up in different homes.my husband and i moved away when we were first married .this will be our first Thanksgiving with both his family and my sisters and their families .they are all coming to our home this yr .i would love to have something for us all to do together.kind of bring our 2 families together …i was thinking i could ask everyone to help put up and decorate our tree .any other ideas ?

How about a ‘giving basket’ where everyone brings a non-perishable food item that can then be donated to your local Food Bank? Your idea of the tree thing is good, but go one step further and have each family bring a special ornament for the tree. When you take the tree down, make sure you put those ornaments in a special place and bring them again next year to whoever is hosting Thanksgiving to put on That tree, and to add any others that might become appropriate (say for a new member, etc.)

My brother and I are fairly competitive. For Thanksgiving he has challenged me to a competition to see who can cook the best side dish. My family, including all of our children, will be the judges.
There will be a turkey so the sides need to go well with that.
I believe my brother is doing something with potatoes so I would like to avoid that.
Any recipes or ideas would be appreciated.

Mashed parsnips with butter. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

I am cooking for my boyfriends family of about 10-12 people, my family always does seafood for Thanksgiving so I never have made a traditional Thanksgiving dinner till this year… PLEASE HELP WITH SOME IDEAS!

Make a schedule for the day of. That way you can figure out what’s going in the oven, on the burners, on the grill at what time and you don’t run out of burners or forget to cook something and if you get behind you can grab someone to help!

Besides the turkey (figure about 14 lbs for 12 people, 1 per person and 2 just in case), make another meat – ham’s probably most common, but you can do beef, fish, chicken, whatever. Also, you don’t need as much of your secondary meat since most people will take turkey, but for example I’d say 6 lbs of ham. Or you could ask people what they want 🙂 but I like to surprise!

To make things easier, throw some frozen veggies – corn, peas, broccoli – on the table. They taste so much better than canned with less work. Since some people don’t like naked veg, put out an au gratin sauce – could be as easy as melted Velveeta, or make one yourself. *One serving* 2 T margarine melted (med heat) in a pot on the stove, whisk in 1 T flour. Slowly stir in 1 c milk, and keep stirring until sauce starts to thicken. Add 3/4 c shredded cheese, and keep stirring until sauce has a smooth consistency.
You might want to at least double that recipe for 12 though.

Green bean casserole is a generally beloved Thanksgiving dish. I use the recipe on the bag of French’s French Fried Onions, but the link is here ( http://www.frenchs.com/recipe/rds/frenchs/?id=9374 ). This goes fast, so make at least two.

Mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and possibly an acorn squash (cut it in half, gut it, add about 1/2 c marshmallows, 3 T brown sugar, and as many raisins as you can cram in after that stuff – it will depend on size of squash – then bake in the oven) round out your veggies.

Serve fresh bread from a bakery, put butter, salt, and pepper on the table.

Deviled eggs.

And at least 3 kinds of dessert!

GL

I want DETAILS! Why? Because this year I will be in a new town (I move next week) where I don’t know a soul. I will most likely cook a nice little meal for myself (if I can find all of my cooking utensils!).

I would love to be going to a wonderful family and friend-filled delicious dinner. But, that’s not going to happen.

So, I want to live vicariously through you…tell me about your “Martha Stewart” Thanksgiving plans. The details are; what type of food, people, activities planned, etc.

Well, since we are spending money to travel and visit family for Christmas, we all voted for Jack in the Box and the movies.

I did cook a chicken, some gravy, rice, green beans, rolls, corn, spinach, fruit salad and pumpkin pie today out of guilt and surprise them. I started off cooking chicken and rice and thought what they heck, they deserve it.

Sometimes chucking tradition and seeing where the day takes you is more fun that the traditional stuff your gut and veg out and hang with family.

One year we got up super early and drove to surprise family. The only restaurant open for breakfast on our route was a little Mexican Restaurant and the only food they had was Chorizo and eggs. Then for lunch we ate sandwiches on the side of the road and watched rattlesnakes crossing the road.
We passed a Zoo that was open so we went in and it was so small, they actually had cows as an exhibit. So we didn’t make it to family, but we laughed more that day than in a while.

Another year, my grandma proudly made stuffed flounder from a new recipe and hot dr pepper. The flounder had the head on so no one wanted to eat it (including her) so she fed it to the cats in the alley and ordered pizza and then we went for a drive to the beach and picked up shells.

On my first holiday alone, I got so homesick I started baking cookies from a recipe book that has been passed down for years. I made so many cookies that I didn’t know what to do with them, so I called the shelter and asked could I bring them. They happily accepted and I confess, selfishly it made me feel better about being alone.

My second Turkey day on my own, I went to a casino, and played the nickel slots. I spent 2 bucks and won 180 and considering I was a struggling student, I thought I was the shizzle. I ended up getting a free buffet meal out of that too and sat with a lady and man that were from KY. They insisted I sit with them. They were cool. They argued like they had been married 100 years but still held hands and giggled too.

Well, I guess I shared enough. Hope you Have a Gobbly good Day!

Garlands are great decorations for harvest time or Thanksgiving. Make a harvest garland Thanksgiving craft with a scrapbooking craftswoman in this free video on gifts and crafts.

Expert: Janet Casto
Contact: www.janetcasto.stampinup.net
Bio: Janet Casto is an independent Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. She offers classes and home parties to teach her decorating techniques. She’s also able to sell both stamp and scrapbook supplies.
Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz

Duration : 0:1:28

Read the rest of this entry »

Learn how to garnish traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner recipes in this free cooking video.

Expert: Lori Schneider
Contact: www.figscatering.com
Bio: Lori Schneider is a chef and owner of Figs Catering in Austin, Texas.
Filmmaker: Drew Noah

Duration : 0:1:25

Read the rest of this entry »

Learn how to mix ingredients for a sage butter rub for Thanksgiving turkey in this free cooking video.

Expert: Lori Schneider
Contact: www.figscatering.com
Bio: Lori Schneider is a chef and owner of Figs Catering in Austin, Texas.
Filmmaker: Drew Noah

Duration : 0:1:29

Read the rest of this entry »

CaitlinCookshttp://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/caitlincooksHowtohalloween cookies, halloween recipe, thanksgiving recipes, thanksgiving tutorial, foodwishes, the food network, thanksgiving planning, kids recipesPumpkin Cake Cookies w/ a Dark Chocolate Glaze

Duration : 0:7:17

Read the rest of this entry »

For us, we are going to my husband’s parents house for Thanksgiving. Us girl are going to cook and the guys are going to split fire wood for a camp fire later on. We also make Thanksgiving cookies (ginger bread cookies cut out in the shape of leaves, acorns and turkeys!) and decorate them.

What unique things do you do?

We will just be staying home that is a tradition that we started years ago. Instead of arguing about where we are going for the day, we just eat at home.

Very peaceful around our house.

Cheese ball…
2 -cream cheese
6-green onions
1-jar dried beef
2-teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1-sm bag of chopped nuts
cut the green onions and dried beef in sm pieces add all but the nuts and roll into a lg ball and then open bag of nuts and roll the cheese ball in the nuts.Serve with Crackers.

Buy some cream puffs they have a couple of different kinds.