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Thanksgiving recipes or where to buy food
grungebox
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This year my S.O. and I have to take care of Thanksgiving dinner ourselves. Um, yea?
There was a good thread a few weeks ago on how to cook a turkey, though to be honest I'm pretty scared of messing things up (I never learned how to cook meat, having spent my first 2 decades of existence a strict vegetarian; go religious upbringing).
Along those lines, I was hoping you could share Thanksgiving dinner menus and recipes. If possible post your menu and/or recipes here or copy/paste — and properly credit! — from whatever website (I'm guessing this'll turn into an Alton Brown lovefest in about four posts). If you buy food (turkey and stuffing in particular) from somewhere, where do you go? I went to La Madeleine last year, though this year I'll probably buy the turkey. I'm too scared to try it; I've seen too many sitcoms with blackened turkeys.
There was a good thread a few weeks ago on how to cook a turkey, though to be honest I'm pretty scared of messing things up (I never learned how to cook meat, having spent my first 2 decades of existence a strict vegetarian; go religious upbringing).
Along those lines, I was hoping you could share Thanksgiving dinner menus and recipes. If possible post your menu and/or recipes here or copy/paste — and properly credit! — from whatever website (I'm guessing this'll turn into an Alton Brown lovefest in about four posts). If you buy food (turkey and stuffing in particular) from somewhere, where do you go? I went to La Madeleine last year, though this year I'll probably buy the turkey. I'm too scared to try it; I've seen too many sitcoms with blackened turkeys.
Quail is just hipster chicken
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An alternative to turkey would be a ham; I've had a honeybaked spiral sliced ham several times and it's nice. Personally, for the week or so after Turkey day, I'd rather have leftover turkey than ham. Make sure if you're ordering a take out turkey/ham with all the fixings to put in your order sooner rather than later to ensure you can get one.
Good East Turkey Episode Pt. 1
Be sure to look at the other parts
The best part is that they're super easy to make. Just buy a package of cranberries in the grocery store and there's a generic recipe on them where all you add is sugar and water and boil it for a while.
Nothing else is needed, and in fact further ingredients just cheapen the experience.
Oh man, I'm going to have to buy some.
Also, what do people do for gravy? Gravy-in-a-can?
Has a quick calculator for thawing time, size of turkey you need, and cooking time.
Frequently, gravy is made using the flavorful drippings from the roasted turkey. Doing a quick google search should turn up dozens of recipes for this. It usually involves like chicken stock, flour, seasonings, and the turkey drippings.
If you need more drippings, add butter.
I use mushroom as an ingredient, and deglaze with a good white wine (this adds tang so don't add if you don't like that). You can use cornstarch to thicken, or flour, but make sure to cook the gravy a bit if you use flour.
Sometimes I can skip adding a thickener because I dump onions into the roasting pan halfway or earlier into the turkey bake. Once the turkey is fully cooked the onions will be transparent, soft and have no bite. Once I've added the mushroom and deglazed with wine, I dump the whole thing into a blender to smooth it. The onion totally breakes down and thickens the gravy. If the gravy won't hold that way, I return to pan and thicken with cornstarch. Finsih with some fresh parsley.
It takes longer to explain it then to actually do it. You don't even need ingredients like mushroom or onion, you could do fine with deglazing the pan with water and thickening; you don't even need to deglaze but it helps to get all the tasty brown bits stuck to the pan. Gravy is almost entirely fat, which is why it's delicious. :P
The stuff I made was:
Appetizers/Munchies - stuff to tide people over until the food is done and everyone arrives
Dates wrapped in bacon - super easy to make and you can do it in a toaster oven
Deviled Eggs - can be made ahead of time and shoved into the fridge
Crackers & Cheese - can be cut ahead of time, dumped, and put out
Bowls of veggies and dip - can be cut ahead of time and put out
Bowls of chips - can be dumped ahead of time and put out
Bowls of nuts - can be dumped ahead of time and put out
Meal
Iceberg wedge salad - you can make it ahead of time, get it onto the plates, then shove it into the fridge
Cranberry sauce - after making this from scratch last year, I say: go with the canned/pre-made
Turkey w/gravy - see that other thread
Cornbread stuffing - No recipe for this one because I had someone else bring it since she offered
Bread rolls - I made the bread but I'd say just buy it if you aren't into that sort of thing
Mashed potatoes
Green beans
Dessert
Sweet Potato Pecan Pie with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream - if you want the recipe PM me, I haven't got it here at work
This year I'm going to the boyfriend's family dinner so they're cooking but I'm bringing an English apple pie, a pumpkin pie and a peach cobbler. Pumpkin pie is so easy it can be made in your sleep and if it's bright orange you're doing it wrong (or bought the cheap store pie). For appetizers I prefer mini-quiches, clams casino, bacon wrapped scallops,that sort of thing.
Our Thanksgiving menu usually includes:
a turkey
mashed potatoes
broccoli and cheese casserole
sweet potato casserole
yeast roles
pumpkin pie
I made these last year and they turned out great, though watch out for the rosemary in the stuffing. I used dried rosemary, and I guess I put in too much and it was really strong. Also the pieces were too big. But other than that was delicious, and everyone loved the cranberry relish.
CORNBREAD DRESSING
One batch of 9 x 9 cornbread (one box of Jiffy cornbread mix)
Crumble into fine crumbs after cooled.
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
COMBINE the following in a saucepan or a microwavable bowl. Heat until melted. Stir well
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (or dried leaves). Use only
1/2-1 tsp if using ground rosemary
1/2 tsp ground thyme
3/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp butter
1 bouillon cube (vegetable or chicken)
2/3 cup water
ADD the liquid mixture to dry ingredients. Stir well until thoroughly moistened. Add additional melted butter, canned broth, or bouillon cube broth if desired. (I like my dressing a bit dry and then moistened with gravy. Some like a very moist dressing.)
You can add a bit of sage or poultry seasoning to the liquid if you wish. Add sage carefully. A little goes a long way.)
Put dressing in greased casserole dish or baking dish. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Covered baking dish or foil topping will make a moister dressing. If you like a crunchy top, leave uncovered for at least half of the time.
Serves about six
GRAVY
2 Tbsp butter or turkey grease in skillet
STIR IN
7/8 cup liquid (can be turkey broth, vegetable broth, or bouillon cube + water, or a combination)
MIX in a bowl until smooth paste
2 Tbsp flour or 1 Tbsp cornstarch
salt to taste
(None necessary if using bouillon or salted broth)
pepper to taste
1/8 cup cold milk or broth
ADD
1 Tbsp of hot liquid to paste mixture and stir in
THEN STIR in the paste mixture into the hot liquid in the skillet. Reduce heat and keep stirring. Add additional broth or thickening if necessary. Mixture will thicken when cooled. Try to serve when still hot.
Allow at least 1/3 cup gravy per person. If you want lots of gravy on turkey, potatoes, dressing, you will want to make more.
CRANBERRY RELISH
FINELY CHOP OR PUT IN FOOD PROCESSOR
(If you use food processor or a chopper, no more
than a cup at a time. You might want to invest in a
$9.95 Wal-Mart electric chopper).
1 pkg fresh cranberries (12 oz)
1 large apple, cut in eighths
1 orange, with peel, cut in eighths, seeded
1/2 c celery
COMBINE
1 3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
OPTIONAL
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
STIR
Mix everything together.
Refrigerate at least two hours, overnight is great.
(The apple and orange are cut in eighths just for ease in chopping. They do need to be finely chopped, as does the celery.)
It's all fairly easy to make.
It's harder to get an incredibly good tasting turkey, and it's easy to dry out the breasts. See, many turkeys nowadays are bred to have a large amount of breastmeat, which is lean meat. All that white meat takes longer to cook, so it's easier to dry it out. So baste it regularly, smother it with butter, and just keep an eye on it.
Worst case you have dry meat, so you just slather on gravy. See, even if you screw it up it's not bad.
Most people go heavy on the root veggies, both potatoes and sweet potatoes. I like sweet potatoes cooked up just like regular mashed potatoes -- mashed with salt and milk, no sweetener added. But yeah, the idea is just a harvest feast.
Yes, this. Orange pumpkin pie is kind of disgusting.
I've got recipes at home that I can post later (pumpkin pie, sweet potato casserole, butternut squash soup), but right now I'll just say make as much as you can ahead of time. Have your pie baked and in the fridge. Have your stuffing and sweet potatoes cooked and in casserole dishes, ready to be stuck in the oven to heat up. If you're having a salad, get it all in a bowl ahead of time, with the dressing separate.