I'm not cooking this Thanksgiving. The truth is I've never cooked Thanksgiving dinner. I feel kind of guilty admitting that.I'm not a total slacker. I have brought side dishes to share on Thanksgiving -- I'm pretty good at Jello pretzel salad and green bean casserole. But I've never cooked a turkey. Never even bought a turkey. I have no secret family recipes that I slave over. Mike's grandmother once gave me her recipe for sausage stuffing and swore me to secrecy over its contents, but I don't think "Brown the sausage, mix it with Stove Top" is really mum-worthy.
This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's dad. He is taking care of all the food (and by "taking care" I mean "ordering and picking up from the country club") I feel guilty. If I were a good daughter-in-law, I probably would have offered to cook. Although, given my culinary history, perhaps not cooking is really more of a gift.
Having said that, next year, I am making Thanksgiving dinner. All of it. Well, most of it. At least the turkey. And the cranberries with orange zest. In fact, the menu for Turkey Day 2014 that is rolling around in my head is already making my mouth water:
- Turkey (duh) -- and I even know to take out those yucky inside parts
- The afore mentioned cranberries with orange zest
- Mashed potatoes and gravy (which might come from a jar. I don't think I can handle scratch gravy the first year)
- Green bean casserole (the Durkee French Fried Onions recipe, no fancified version)
- Mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top - Charlie's favorite
- King's Hawaiian Rolls
- Honeyed carrots (after I ask my friend Jane how to make them again)
- Fall fruit salad (another Jane creation that involves apples, pears, raisins, honey and ginger)
- Roasted root vegetable stew -- This one I might have to buy. I tasted it from Killer Tofu at the Edible Indy launch party 10 days ago and I'm still thinking about how good it was. Amazingly, it had beets in it and I loved it.
- Some lentil-pea-pebble crockpot something or other that I don't remember what it's called from U-Relish Farms, but that I tried at Edible Indy and is another one I'm still thinking about.
- Pumpkin pie (Robbie's favorite)
- Chocolate chip pecan pie. Not sure where that came from, but it just popped into my head and it sounds SO good, doesn't it?
Are you cooking for Thanksgiving? What's on the menu?
8 comments:
Nope. I've never cooked Thanksgiving dinner and I'm perfectly fine with that.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving! We obviously dont have it here in Oz but it all looks very yummy. I have a friend blogger "Fresh Eggs Farm" who raised her own turkeys this year and grew many of the ingredients for her meal for the first time. Its been an exciting journey right up to now where i am waiting to see some pictures of stuffed birds and an overloaded table (just like in the movies). Though there are some things i shake my head over. Marshmellows on top of sweet potato and Jello Pretzel Salad! Realy???? Some wacky combinations going on there.
Don't knock the Jello pretzel salad until you've tried it! It's my husband's grandmother's contribution to Thanksgiving, and every year there's a big scuffle to get the last piece. SO good.
Your future menu sounds delish! We r making traditional turkey and fixings today, but my favorite part of the meal is the appetizers: deviled eggs, cranberry salsa, hot pizza dip, stuffed mushrooms and a veggie tray. I like the appetizers so much that if it were just Me, that's all I'd make. Hope your day is filled with what matters most--family!
Your future menu sounds delish! We r making traditional turkey and fixings today, but my favorite part of the meal is the appetizers: deviled eggs, cranberry salsa, hot pizza dip, stuffed mushrooms and a veggie tray. I like the appetizers so much that if it were just Me, that's all I'd make. Hope your day is filled with what matters most--family!
There's gonna be 20 or so here today. We started with the from-scratch cinnamon rolls my Grammy taught me how to make when I was 15. My ILs are making some kind of turkey on the BBQ grill. I'm frying one. There will be mashed potatoes and gravy and sweet potato casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, broccoli-cheese casserole, roasted root veggies, corn casserole, from-scratch dinner rolls, caramel-apple pie, pumpkin pie, and Oreo cheesecake. Not sure I will fit in the van to make it back home!
Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! Lynda if you can't see how sweet potatoes with marshmallows or jello pretzel salad could be good, you probably wouldn't approve of ketchup on mac-n-cheese, would you?
The from scratch cinnamon rolls sound delicious! I bet they are better than the Pillsbury canned version I make.
I have a year to learn how to cook. Better get on it!
You can do it. Keep it simple. The part everyone will remember is that it was important to you and you all came together over the table :)
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