I always like to hear about what everyone else is doing for their Thanksgiving and Holiday meals. Everyone, share your menu and if you like, even the recipes. Is there anything you do that is particular to your family? What quirky little food traditions have you developed over the years? Come on, dish!!! (okay, bad pun).


This year it is just going to be Joshua and myself for Thanksgiving dinner. It's our first year in a new place and all of our friends have family living in the area that they plan to visit. So, for dinner this year, we can afford to go all out using only the very best ingredients since we don't have to buy so much bulk to feed an army.

In our family, it is always tradition to have a meal the night before Thanksgiving and then to drink copious amounts of wine and cocktails while doing the prep work for the following day. On the menu for Thanksgiving Eve is:

Beef Tenderloin Roast braised in red wine and then simmered in a berry ragout
Parmesan and Tarragon Mashed Potatoes
Citrus stewed brussels sprouts
Roasted Apples, toasted walnuts, and goat cheese on a bed of field greens
White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse (sounds complicated but its really easy)

With this, of course we are going to have red wines over dinner and our traditional Vidal Eiswein for dessert. After dinner, while we are chopping and getting things ready for Thanksgiving Day (which this year will include decorating for Christmas), we will have Nutberry Martinis and Eggnog and Brandy. I imagine Joshua and I might be pretty damned sauced by the end of the night.

For Thanksgiving dinner, we are just doing a single turkey breast roasted over a bed of fresh herbs and citrus fruits. I'll be doing a new twist on my stuffing which is an orange-cranberry stuffing that I usally stuff the bird with but will be doing in a pan this year. Joshua demands a green bean casserole and I have to have a broccoli casserole (its just a tradition in my mom's house that I can't let go of). In the crockpot will be a fall stew with butternut squash and maple flavors (I haven't worked this one out yet so suggestions would be awesome!!!). With the turkey drippings, I'll make a plum gravy to put over the dressing and left over mashed potatoes from the night before. For dessert we'll have pears poached in red wine and sugar, then drizzled with dark chocolate and topped with Godiva white chocolate ice cream and toasted pralines.

Of course there will be lots more wine and cocktails throughout the day and, more than likely, several trips back to the fridge for left overs!

So what's for your Thanksgiving Dinner?

damn

you must be gay


we will spend the day watching movies in bed and then go out for a lunch/dinner around 4 - then come home and watch another movie.

there is no way I'm cleaning up the kitchen for four hours to cook a meal for two people.

and we don't decorate until the week/week-and-a-half before Christmas

Well both of us are far away from our families this thanksgiving and for Joshua it will be the first Thanksgiving he has ever spent away from his dear ole moms. I am doing everything I can to shake off the holiday blues he is already having. What's really hard this year is that normally we have a ton of friends who would come by for dinner but this year they are all either back home or the ones here have family already.

We need more strays. LOL

that's sweet of you

I'd slap Jon up side of the head and in my best Cher voice say 'snap out of it'



(not really, of course LOL)

Don't tempt me. I about threw in the towel yesterday when I went to find white truffles and got lost AND then the store wasn't even open.

Shopping is the worst part of the holiday season to me. I don't mind the cooking at all but when it comes to the shopping, count me out.

I like the planning

I like the shopping

I like the preparation

I like the eating

I hate the cleaning up

I hate the cleaning up MORE than the planning, shopping, prep and eating COMBINED.

So we eat out.

Before we got together, I ate out every meal of my life - three meals a day, seven days a week. I literally did not OWN a pot, pan or spatula. Jon isn't fond of eating out. So I learned to cook (as I am not crazy about alot of the Slavic food that his family taught him to make). But I still HATE cleaning. If we ever parted, I'd never cook again.

Mmmmm.....sounds awesome IP! I have it made. My brother takes on Thanksgiving every year. I just show up and pig out to a feast that is to die for.

We will have roast turkey with pumpernickle & sausage stuffing, candied sweet potatoes better than you've ever had, green beans & corn, rolls, cranberry sauce, crudites, mashed potatoes and gravy, jello salad--I'm sure I've forgotten a few items--and for dessert deliciously spiced pumpkin pie and cake or candy for dessert.

I absolutely hate the clean-up too! That's why I only decorate a little bit for Christmas. The more you put out the more you have to put away.

I only decorate a little because I don't like to mess up the house with a bunch of stuff around.

I have a tree (though it's not REALLY a tree - it's an antique metal ornament display stand from a department store circa 1930 which we hang our ornaments on); a gorgeous (if I say so myself LOL) 3' high modern metal sculpture of the three kings; and a series of 7 conical mirrored christmas tree shapes (also from an old department store that went out of business) that we sit in one of the front windows. Oh - and I hang a wreath on the front door.

That's IT. I can set up everything in about five minutes - and hanging the ornaments takes about an hour. It all comes down and gets packed away in about 30 minutes.

That's all I can take. Plus I don't like rearranging our house so that it doesn't look like our house anymore.

Sounds like you have some pretty cool decorations. I have a 3' tree out in the garage that has the lights and ornaments already on it, but I probably won't even pull it out. I'll put a small string of lights on my awning a spray on my door knob and a winter floral display on my gate. I also have an indoor winter floral display. I MIGHT get a poinsettia, but I always end up killing them so what's the point?