Let's talk about Thanksgiving(s)!

[Fine Mind]

In view of the fact that many of us are interested in reading about others' Thanksgiving(s), I propose that we contribute to this thread and use it to recall/discuss favorite foods, most unusual/memorable Thanksgivings, traditions, etc.

I'll start with favorite filling/stuffing/dressing recipes. My mother made the simplest/best filling-- yes, we call it "filling" in THESE HERE PARTS-- . She's crumble up her homemade bread into the roaster and then take a big chunk of homemade butter in her hands and work it all through the bread. After that it was just salt and pepper to taste. She'd stuff the bird with part of it and bake the rest in a separate pan for those "snoopy" kids who didn't like WET filling. I remember watching her make the filling on many, many occasions because we often had roast chicken for Sunday lunch.

So what's your favorite filling/stuffing/dressing and what do YOU call it in your neck of the woods?

P.S. I would now like 6 slices of buttered toast . . .
Lin

[jezzie]

Let's talk about Thanksgiving(s)!

Great idea.

My mother used to get up in the wee hours and make a labor intensive stuffing that was pretty good.
My first few Thanksgivings (age 19 - 22) I didn't stuff the bird. Too intimidated by Mom's work.

Then I started making a modified version ... like skip the chopped celery and chopped 'inner organs'
(liver, stomach). Gizzards she called them.

When I started working nights in 1984 I had to go to work Thanksgiving night.
Due to my time constraints we switched the meal from 3pm to noon and I modified the stuffing again.

I mixed bagged Pepperidge Farm stuffing, boxed Minute Rice stuffing, tore up some white bread for
texture, added butter and three cans of mushrooms.

They didn't even notice and loved it.

After 37 Thanksgivings ... I passed the mantle to my oldest daughter. (in 1999)
My kids still rave about my great stuffing even though it was just a souped up version of store bought.

[Joplin38]

The first year that I roasted my own turkey, I called my Mother long distance to get all her Thanksgiving recipes. I was then living in the desert in California. I still have those written instructions in my recipe box and use them every year. I remember her saying, "just don't stuff the turkey too tight. When it came time to stuff, I wondered, just how tight is "too tight?" I found out about four hours later when the stuffing blew a hole in my turkey.

I also came up with a semi-homemade dressing that my Dad thinks to this day is my Mother's recipe. It is a combo of half herb cubes and half corn bread dressing mix. To this I add onions, celery, seasonings and chicken stock that makes it only moist enough to cling slightly together. Oh, and I never ever have tried to stuff a turkey again.

Gravy has always scared me.. When it comes time to make the gravy, I make everyone leave the kitchen. Mine has to have giblets in it. (livers and gizzards which have simmered for hours.) I am always sure that I will ruin the gravy but it usually is pretty good.

Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday.

[jezzie]

Originally Posted by Joplin38

I found out about four hours later when the stuffing blew a hole in my turkey.

My mother told me to sew each end. ..... I never did.
I always put the heel slices (from a loaf of bread) inside each cavity
covering the openings.

Leave it to me to find an easy way out.

[birdlady]

I never stuff my turkey except with whole onions,garlic,plus seasoning.We have rice dressing(dirty rice) or my DD make cornbread dressing.Sometimes we have both.I never know how many are coming,I just set the table and whom ever comes eats.I send most of the leftover home with the ones that want some.My DD wants as much as she can get.Her Dh will eat as long as there some left.Keep her from cooking for a couple of days.
T-day and Easter are my fav's.

[hdyhouse]

I always cram as much dressing into the turkey as I can and have never had one explode. In life before l/c, I used a combination of white bread, corn bread, onion, celery, and raisins. Now my first l/c Thanksgiving, I made my dressing but used l/c bread and corn bread and substituted unsweetened dried cranberries for the raisins. In subsequent years, because I could no longer get the good l/c bread, I found a nice substitute by using a combination of l/c corn bread and pork rinds. This year, I am seriously thinking about not fixing a turkey for the first time. Don't know what I will fix, but with just dw and me, a turkey is a lot of work and in our division of labor, dw does not like cleaning up when I do a turkey. She has readily agreed to a no turkey Thanksgiving, so I now have to figure out something else.

[Doug_H]

Originally Posted by hdyhouse

I always cram as much dressing into the turkey as I can and have never had one explode.

Henry, I have too and have never heard of an exploding turkey till now. I always thought it was a cooking time issue not an exploding turkey.

We will still go the turkey route even though it looks like it might just be the two of us this year.

Doug

[LoveMontana]

Lin, our mother's dressings sound about the same. Plain and oh so good. She got the recipe from her mom who was born in Germany but raised in central PA, not far from Amish country.

Henry, why don't you and your wife go out? That's what we do now, but we do put a turkey in the oven and make some guar gum gravy and sf cranberry sauce to have as "leftovers".

[mamagiff]

I never even cooked a whole turkey till I was in my 40's! We always went to my Aunt's for Thanksgiving dinner till my Mom remarried. Then she and her DH went to dinner with his family and we went to DH's sister's house with DH's whole family. We always did another dinner with Mom & her DH within a few days. So we had 2 turkey dinners for several years. When my Stepfather passed away, I took over making Thanksgiving dinner finally. It was also the year my sister divorced so we had her and her kids join us, too.

Now Mom is married again but his family really doesn't do much, I guess. We still do Thanksgiving dinner at our house. My sister is also remarried so she does her dinner with her family because they live 2 hours away.

I don't really have any good food stories although we've always had really good food no matter where we ate! Now I make the traditional foods as well as low carb sides and everyone loves it all! I cook the turkey and some of the other sides the day before so it isn't so chaotic on Thanksgiving day.

This year I'm doing it on one burner since my stove only has one usable burner! I'll also be using the oven, the crockpots and the Nesco roaster! It's going to be great!

[Joplin38]

Lin, this is a fun thread, thanks for starting.

[hdyhouse]

Linda, to me it just dosen't "feel" like Thanksgiving when you go out for dinner. I like to fix a special meal with the little touches that remind me of a holiday dinner, like a relish tray, a glass of wine, and a nice dessert. I am not sure if not having a turkey will diminish that special feeling or not because Thanksgiving and Christmas were the 2 times we had turkey when I was growing up and I always associate turkey with the holiday.

[LoveMontana]

Henry, that's the way I felt the first few years I did go out, but we got over that soon enough.

Maybe it's because we cook a turkey almost once a month year round.

[Fine Mind]

Good stories, Gang! An exploding turkey might have scarred me for life. On second thought .. .

The first time I attempted cooking a turkey "on me own" was probably 1973 or so and I did NOT know about the bits being stuffed inside the neck cavity. That was a mess. I cooked a wild/game turkey once and it was inedible--oh, and one Sunday in January of 1976 I roasted a "chicken" (turned out to be an old, old rooster my mom had frozen for soup) for my father for Sunday lunch that was so tough that even his hunting dog couldn't get the meat off the bone. What an idiot!

Did any of you see the features on the Food Network a couple years back when all their cooks did a Thanksgiving meal? Rachel Ray (whom I like but often want to assign a "time out") made a stuffed turkey breast and Schmuffin Stuffin' that I have always wanted to try. I'm just thinking that might be a direction to go for anyone who didn't want the BIG turkey.

I have enjoyed reading about your stuffing/filling/dressing. "Dirty rice" sounds intriguing and on occasions when I cook the bird, I always saute onion (LOTS!) and diced celery and sometimes add cooked "loose" sausage to the bread. The liquids are usually butter and canned chicken broth. Some folks around here always do oyster stuffing,too!

Please add your Thanksgiving stories and tell about an unusual or memorable Thanksgiving or any traditions unique to your family or region. For instance here in Pennsylvania Dutch country, you cannot have Thanksgiving without NOODLES! There is a type called Kluski that can bring me to my knees

I LOVE Thanksgiving!

[Fine Mind]

Here is the link to "Thanksgiving in 60 minutes" if asnyone is interested

TV : Food Network Specials : Rachael Ray's Thanksgiving in 60 : Food Network

[jezzie]

Did any of you see the features on the Food Network a couple years back when all their cooks
did a Thanksgiving meal? Rachel Ray (whom I like but often want to assign a "time out")

I'd like to look at her cookbooks but I have a low threshold for 'baby talk'. Yummers? Sammie?

I'll mention the first Thanksgiving that popped into my mind when you asked for Thanksgiving stories.

When my 2nd (not dear) husband moved out in 1982 the whole family was relieved and happy.
On Thanksgiving that year my older son (Jamie 17) asked his brother (Darren 16) to pass the rolls.
Darren threw one across the table which commenced a retaliatory food throwing while the rest of us
laughed so hard we cried.

A little background to appreciate the humor ... which was an expression of pure joy.
My kids have had near perfect table manners from the age of about three.
To my mother manners and grammar were of the utmost importance ... and I carried it on.

So tossing the roll was really a minor expression of freedom.

The Thanksgivings that are just our family always have a reminiscing period. Usually between dinner
and dessert. And the so-called 'food fight' is mentioned every year.

.

[jezzie]

Originally Posted by Fine Mind

Here is the link to "Thanksgiving in 60 minutes" if asnyone is interested

TV : Food Network Specials : Rachael Ray's Thanksgiving in 60 : Food Network

Thanks for the link Lin ...
I just copied (and modified) two of those recipes.

[nitenurse]

I am going to cook some chicken breasts in a crock pot earlier, for leftovers, sons are cooking dinner and send most of the leftovers home with guests. Going to make a small pan of lowcarb stuffing for leftovers, too. Gravy made with guar gum, I will survive. We all will lol
ElaineMT

[blboopsie]

DH and I will be at DD1 in CA. for this thanksgiving. It's been many a year since we have been together over this time. My stuffing recipe was modified from mom's. Over the years my DD and I have become allergic to onions so they are out. I get stuffing mix, cook several potatoes up to tender, use eggs, butter, the potatoes, stuffing mix and salt and pepper and roast in the neck cavity and big cavity. We may have stuffing that has to be cooked by itself. While we had low carb bread, I made that for DH and I. We like the bread stuffing the best but have had oysters in the stuffing, also rice and apples, cornbread and other stuff but usually our old family recipe is what is wanted. It should be a great time together.

[jezzie]

Hope you don't mind Lin ... I have a compulsion to add chuckles everywhere I go.

Another of my memorable Thanksgivings was the year Nurmal (orange tabby) pulled
a 23 pound defrosting turkey off the kitchen counter. He weighed about eleven pounds.

[Fine Mind]

Originally Posted by jezzie

:I'll mention the first Thanksgiving that popped into my mind when you asked for Thanksgiving stories.

When my 2nd (not dear) husband moved out in 1982 the whole family was relieved and happy.
On Thanksgiving that year my older son (Jamie 17) asked his brother (Darren 16) to pass the rolls.
Darren threw one across the table which commenced a retaliatory food throwing while the rest of us
laughed so hard we cried.

A little background to appreciate the humor ... which was an expression of pure joy.
My kids have had near perfect table manners from the age of about three.
To my mother manners and grammar were of the utmost importance ... and I carried it on.

So tossing the roll was really a minor expression of freedom.

The Thanksgivings that are just our family always have a reminiscing period. Usually between dinner
and dessert. And the so-called 'food fight' is mentioned every year.

.

Great story, Jezzie, and you know the old saying: No rain, no rainbows . And a little celebratory anarchy is a good thing

[Joplin38]

Lin, I think I will have that green bean recipe on Thanksgiving, thanks.

I posted this a couple of years ago and folks seemed to like. It is LC and made in a pie pan so easy.

Pumpkin Layered Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Filling:

2 pkg (8 oz each) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Dash each of ground cloves and nutmeg (I used Pumpkin Pie spice)

Crust:
(instead of a graham cracker crust)

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp Splenda

How to Prepare:

Crust:

Melt the butter and mix it with the Splenda and chopped pecans. Press the mixture into a 9 inch pie pan. I pressed it into the bottom and as far up the sides as I could. Bake the crust in a 350 degree oven for about 8-9 minutes.

Filling:

Mix softened cream cheese, Splenda, and vanilla until well blended. Add eggs and mix until smooth.

Set aside 1 cup of the batter, spoon the rest of the batter into the crust. (Be careful not to "disturb" the pecans too much!)

Mix the pumpkin, spices and 1 cup of batter together, spread on top of the plain batter (there's where you get your pumpkin layer.)

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 40 minutes until the center is almost set. Cool, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Carbs Per Serving: ECC: 5.2 grams
Freezes well.
I serve with whipped cream.

[nitenurse]

Thanks for the recipe, Janie, sounds great.
ElaineMT