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Your Thanksgiving Menu?

jglass

jglass

New member
Have you planned what you are making yet?

I am making a small 10 pound ham and 10 pound turkey for my brother. Gonna do my usual herb roast on the turkey and some brown sugar & honey glaze on the ham. I plan to make him dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls and cake for dessert. He has MS and gets tired easy plus they have a baby due on the 20th of Nov. His wife is scheduled for a c-section and she doesnt cook anyway.

Jon and I are having orange glazed duck with oyster dressing. I am making baked mac and cheese, roasted vegetables and rolls. I have gotten some woderful dessert recipes recently so I havent decided yet on what to make. Bread pudding and custard pie are Jon's all time favs so I will probably make one of them.

Jon and I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! :D
 
Right now I'm planning on a crockpot Turkey leg, but that will depend on the store and what is available since my freezer is full. I'm cooking for one so that final menu is not critical or absolute. Perhaps I will surprise myself. :)

Having a full freezer makes my life fairly simple since everything is repackaged in to single serve FoodSaver bags. The food lasts forever and allows me to pick and choose what I'm in the mood for and without playing with big bags or having waste.

I would hope, however, that at least one family out there will make a pregnant turkey or a Turducken.
 
CanMan said:
Having a full freezer makes my life fairly simple since everything is repackaged in to single serve FoodSaver bags. The food lasts forever and allows me to pick and choose what I'm in the mood for and without playing with big bags or having waste.
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Thats my life in a nutshell. I'm on a low sodium diet and my family informs me they are not. Soooo, I divide all my low sodium purchases into single servings and repack into sandwich bags and put in the freezer.
 
Janie you are such an angel I am sure they will appreciate your wonderful meal!

JP and CanMan I wish more people were as apt as you guys are with your meal prep., pre-planning and making it work for one! I see so many folks who are single just eat out and eat out and never make it a priority to eat right, and whine and claim they just can't manage to cook for one. I have taught my daughter to be like you guys and shop and prepare meals for herself and pkg. things convieniently for herself. It makes life much easier and healthier!
 
Actually it is my "lack" of meal planning that causes me to do what I do -- leftovers getting moldy in the frig because you are tired of eating it and going to the freezer only to find these big bags of meat or vegetables, some of which are so freezer burned and full of ice crystals, which got tossed back in and I just got in to the car and went to McD's.

First I learned never to get more than 1 serving of leftovers in the frig at any time. Anything more got bagged, marked, and put in the freezer as a future meal. That cut down on a lot of the strange growths in the frig.

I then learned to vacuum-seal everything with a FoodSaver. Expensive, yes, but much less than the food I was wasting from freezer burn. Then I learned to take those big bags of meat pieces and vegetables and vacuum seal them too, into smaller bags since that was the size I had.

Later I realized it was very easy to prepare a meal because everything was in individual portions, meats and veggies. I just grabbed what I was in the mood for. Yup, absolute laziness in meal planning. :) And the vacuum sealing allowed stuff to be buried in the freezer for a year or long without any loss.

Of course then I got even lazier by precooking those chicken pieces, the ground beef, the rice, and even the oatmeal and freezing them so I could just reheat in the microwave or make a casserole without all the work.
 
Hi Cathy - Like CanMan my separation of single portions is more of a process of survival. Mostly it's chicken, salmon and hamburger patties. My veggies are usually from fresh produce. I can do a 6 or 8" skillet of squash, green beans, potato wedges and now even asparagus on the grill when I'm grilling the meat. Just put it on when you light the grill (gas) and start the meat 10 minutes later. Most of that will be seasoned with olive oil, onion and maybe bell pepper or something and finally sprinkle it heavy with Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy or Southwest Chipolti.
 
My sister in law did a seafood fry one year for their Thanksgiving. They all enjoyed it.
On the holidays I like holiday food.
 
Maybe it's the Italian in me but I can't cook unless it's a large meal. We do eat leftovers a lot and since we got the food saver whatever we know we won't want to eat a lot of, at least we can save it for the future. The only thing I never tire of is gravy, macaroni, meatballs, and sometimes a nice piece of pork thrown in the gravy too.

Back to the original thread question..........................

We've got a turkey w/stuffing, a ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, some other veggies, and maybe a lasagna planned. Who knows where or when we'll eat it because our daughter is due the 27th with our newest grandaughter.
 
Congratulations Rick! You may have a baby turkey that day!

I have several friends that were turkey babies.

If that is the case - you can celebrate anytime! and get a "Welcome home cake and a "0" birthday cake, etc.
 
Congrats! My brother has a little girl scheduled for the 20th.
They are gonna call her Khloe Grace.
 
Now that creates an image....
s-SMOKING-DUCK-large.jpg
 
I need two loaves of french bread for my dressing so I got one loaf baked tonight and I plan to make the second loaf today. I will go ahead and cube them up and dry them out so they will be good to go when Im ready. I like to use 1/2 cornbread and 1/2 roasted garlic french bread in my dressing.
 
ricksrealpitbbq said:
Maybe it's the Italian in me but I can't cook unless it's a large meal. QUOTE]

I have no problem cooking a small meal, Rick- MY PROBLEM is not cooking as though I'm doing it for an ARMY! I cooked for crowds for so many years that I swear- even making a slice of toast, before all is said and done, I've got a heaping platter of the damned stuff! :)
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janie,

I work a double-shift Thanksgiving Day and my family will celebrate together TWICE the weekend after the holiday- once w/ Dad and his wife- and another time w/ Mom. Then Saturday night I will eat-out ITALIAN w/ a few out-of-town high school friends.

But the Tuesday before the holiday I'm hosting about 12-15 friends. First- it's a Christmas gift shower for another friend who's going thru tough times and who we're attempting to gather presents to give her kids a good Christmas- so rather than host a pot-louck where everyone brings a dish to pass, which is what I normally like to do w/ friends- this year the "cover charge" of the big feed is a wrapped present fit for 2 boys and a girl aged 6, 7 and 9.

My menu is pretty traditional: a relish tray and a cheese-ball w/ crackers, turkey and ham, dressing, mashed spuds/gravy and sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn pudding, orange-glazed carrots w/ dill, cranberry sauce, mandarin orange/cottage cheese jello mold, clover-leaf rolls, and 4 pies: a no-bake pumpkin, pecan, cranberry-eggnog custard, and a mincemeat slab-pie.
 
What a wonderful idea with the presents! You are such a thoughtful person Kev.
Your menu sounds super yummy.
 
Kevin - What a thoughtful thing to do. We should all do more of this during Thankgiving and Christmas. You are a good person.
 
jglass said:
He has MS and gets tired easy plus they have a baby due on the 20th of Nov.
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My daughters birthday is 11/27 and she was due 11/28. Her first birthday fell on Thanksgiving last year and is Black Friday this year. Thanksgiving babies are great! Best of luck to them!

My mom is hosting Thanksgiving. She will make a turkey, stuffing, some veggies, and rolls. Everyone else brings a dish to share.

I'm in charge of appetizers and dessert. I'm doing various dips, breads, and crackers for appetizers. For dessert I'm making a combination brownie/chocolate chip cookie dish and a pumpkin trifle using an almond pound cake. I also plan in mulling some red wine.
 
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