Ahira's Hangar

Yes, it is that time already. Time to start planning a menu, and stocking up on baking supplies and the like at the time of year they all go on sale (and to special order Amish raised turkies, if that is you heart's desire. )

So I asked my younger son. What would you like for Thanksgiving this year?

Answer:
homemade mac & cheese
mashed potatoes
cornbread
biscuits and crescent rolls

I asked him what he wanted for dessert - whether it be cake, pie, cheesecake, etc. and HE SAID - COOKIES! COOKIES WITH REESES'S PIECES IN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!

None of the rest was a surprise - I only have to add turkey, dressing, gavy, some sort of vegetable dish, and cranberry sauce and I probably have my menu set - I already know the other two will want those more traditional items.

But the cookies were a surprise. cookies instead of key lime pie or cheesecake or fruit pie or cake?

The others said pretty much what I expected. So this year:

smallest turkey we could find
dressing
mashed potatoes
gravy
wild rice
cranberry jelly
macaroni & cheese
french cut green beans
corn bread
biscuits & crescent rolls
pumpkin pie
apple pie
cookies!

Well...
With my trip to Manhattan, I left the purchase of the holiday ingredients, including the bird, this weekend up to Paul...
And then Beorn had the problem right before I left.
So...nothing has been done and I will run around like a mad woman today making my purchases.
I only hope I can find a fresh bird at a reasonable price.
If not, it will have to be quick thaw method for me, so I can stick it in the brine tomorrow...

Good luck, Menolly!

We're doing the usual menu, which I already posted at the Watch but will recap here:
* BIG turkey
* Pepperidge Farm stuffing
* Mashed potatoes
* Sweet potatoes
* Crescent rolls
* Canned cranberry sauce (the kind you slice -- I know it's kinda gross, but it's tradition! )
* Steamed broccoli
* Individual pumpkin custards
* Chocolate pie

The girls stayed in Roanoke for this break, so I'm driving down there Thursday morning. This year, I'm going to teach them how to cook a turkey. Here's why. Several years ago, the mother of one of Magickmaker's friends called me about a week before Thanksgiving and asked me if I could do her a favor: "Could you cook my turkey for me?" Not "do you know a good recipe", not "can I borrow your oven", not even "we're inviting ourselves to your house for Thanksgiving" -- no, it was "could you cook my turkey for me". This from a grown woman with a 17-year-old daughter. Her rationale was that she'd never done it before and she didn't want to overcook it or undercook it. (To which I said, "Well, if it's undercooked, you put it back in the oven." ) Anyway, I said I was too busy and made her go away. But I vowed that my kids would *never* be that pathetic.

Edit: Oh! I was gonna explain about the BIG turkey. I always get a much bigger bird than we need. Then I pick the meat off the carcass and freeze it. That way I have a cheap supply of turkey meat all winter for soup, stew, etc., plus we're not spending the whole next week eating turkey. Frozen cooked turkey meat will last up to 6 months without getting too badly freezer-burned.

As long as there are yams, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce I'm happy-I don't even have to eat turkey to be happy!

But danlo, you can't have the post-turkey coma without the turkey!

Glad to see I'm not the only one who uses Pepperidge Farm stuffing. In the past, I've sometimes made a version out of Jane Brody's Good Food cookbook which calls for adding (I think) apples, celery and nuts. I might do something similar with the Pepperidge Farm bag this year. I think Magickmaker and I will have to make a Kroger run on the way to Shara_Lunison's apartment anyhow....

Throwing in dried cherries and/or blueberries and cashews into the premade stuffing mix always makes my husband and older son very happy.

We're having ham.

Since today is my last day off until after Christmas, I have been making goodies.

Made blueberry smoothies with my blender (took only four ingredients - frozen berries, seltzer water, plain yoghurt, and spiced apple cider mix)

double decker fudge (has a layer of peanut butter fudge and a layer of chocolate fudge)

rice krispie treats

I will be working Christmas Eve night and Christmas night, but the others will be having pork roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, cornbread, stuffing, crescent rolls, and some sort of vegetable on Christmas. With a lovely cherry cheesecake for dessert. And crackers with cheddar-chardonnay spread for appetizer.

For New Year's we will have a shrimp and cashew stir fry. Both shrimp and cashews were on sale at Kroger today when we did our holiday dinner shopping. We will probably have lots of muchies,too, as we watch the Red Wings play in the Winter Classic.

for Thanksgiving this year:
plenty of fresh fruit (organic bananas and clementines) to munch on all day

potato chips & dip for the football game munchies

dinner:
green salad
crescent rolls
mashed potatoes
gravy
stuffing (with dried cherries and cashews)
cranberry jelly
Cornish game hens
Macaroni & cheese (kids would have fits if we didn't have this)

dessert:
chocolate satin pie

2009 Thanksgiving menu

Appetizers

Black Diamond brand aged 4+ years Reserve White Cheddar
(I can only find this at Sam's Club. It's not even listed as a product on the Black Diamond web site)
green and red seedless grapes
sliced apples
Hebrew National salami (for Beorn)
various crackers

Soup

Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
(recipe in the thread)
*it was incredible! I served it with a choice of sour cream or whole milk plain Fage*

Salad

Spring greens with craisins, gorgonzola crumbles, chopped pecans (I got some fresh locally grown ones via our Freecycle group), diced jarred mango and simple syrup dressing

Entree

15 lb. turkey brined a la Emeril and roasted a la Alton Brown

Side Dishes


(Fist finally made this!!!)

Garlic mashed potatoes
Home made gravy from drippings
Cranberry-orange relish
Cranberry Fluff
Southern-style green beans (the real version with smoked ham hocks, instead of my olive oil cheater version)

Dessert

Home made Key Lime Pie

I'm excited, as this was my first time using the ceramic plaques I ordered from a friend on another forum to "label" the side dishes so father-of-love doesn't keep asking, "what is this?" They are the same as what my friend Amy used for her holiday table last year, shown here:



This year's Day After/Black Friday breakfast was mashed potato latkes (from some of the leftover mashed potatoes), served with sour cream. If I had thought ahead, I would have gotten some applesauce to also put out...