Thanksgiving here....what?
This year we are having Thanksgiving at our house. Michael's sister and family are going to her husbands Mom's for dinner. We have a TINY house so I've never offered to have the dinner here. We would be eating at TV trays in the livingroom, lol!
For some crazy reason we are having Michael's parents over. I am excited to have them over, but not so excited about cooking a turkey and trying to plan so that dishes are done at the same time. I've NEVER cooked a turkey or anything similar. I am sure I'll be calling or texting Lisa (SIL) a million times to get advice. She made the YUMMIEST turkey last year for us all! I was worried about Lani's allergies, but I know she wont eat anything anyway. Too darn picky!
Our menu is pretty traditional so far. I would love to hear what some of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes and recipes are. Also any tips, ideas, suggestions for this Thanksgiving dinner virgin.
PRETTY PLEASE!!!
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We are having family over for Thanksgiving as well. For the past few years, we have been cooking the Turkey on our gas grill. It takes no longer than in a conventional stove and it frees up your oven for other foods. It also helps keep the kitchen from becoming roasting hot. Cook the turkey in a roasting pan just like you would in an oven and make sure you use a meat thermometer. So far the turkey has been awesome when cooked this way. You really should try it if you have a gas grill. Just make sure your propane tank is full. Happy Thanksgiving!
I can give you a delicious cranberry sauce alternative!!
It is called 3 fruit relish and is so YUM...cranberries, granny smith apples, raspberries...I can't wait!
Never cooked a turkey, did a ham, that was easy, turkey's scare me.
The biggest TurkeyDay I hosted was in college, for about 10 people. This was also the scene of my infamous TurkeyDayShitFit, witnessed by my sister and a few friends. Not my finest moment, but I was provoked, I swear! That said, I have a few tips for you, since you asked. ;)
1. BRINE THE TURKEY ... if you do nothing else, BRINE THE TURKEY. It makes an *awesome* bird. Here are instructions: http://justjennrecipes.com/?p=52 . The hubby would say to deep fry it, but he is wrong. And from TN.
2. Do as much as you can ahead of time. Boil the potatoes. Make up the stuffing and pies.
3. Write a table of cooking times and temps figure out when things need to go in ... remember that stuff from the fridge takes longer to cook than stuff assembled at room temp, usually about 15 min more.
4. Do you have an double oven? If not, see if you can find/borrow/buy a turkey roaster. It helps so much in the oven capacity dept.
5. Don't forget the rolls! :)
I have a few recipes on my site ... but these days I'm just generally roped into bringing whatever to our very traditional (and slightly boring - at least in the eats dept.) family affair ... without brined turkey.
Have fun cooking your first Thanksgiving dinner!
This will be my second year cooking. My husband has to have a green bean casserole every Thanksgiving, that's his family tradition. We also have a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, carrot casserole, corn, cranberry sauce (from a can), rolls, pumpkin pie (store bought), apple pie (store bought), & chocolate pie. I think that's about everything!
TIP: Buy a turkey with a pop-up temp. thing in it. When the turkey's done it pops-up. Also, buy one of those throw away turkey pans. It's one less dish to clean!
I hope this helps :)
We are having it here at our house this year, with our immediate families and then some friends who aren't going home. It's looking to be about 25 people and everyone that's coming is bringing a dish! I think we got lucky on that but they all know me and my cooking abilities so it's probably better that way! The only thing we are responsible for is the turkey and the ham, both of which I have ordered to be ready when I pick them up. I really wanted to cook a turkey, but I'm TERRIFIED I will mess it up. Even though everyone tells me it's hard to mess up a turkey, I would be the one to do it! I'm sure everything at your house will be wonderful!
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