Do you realize that THIS WEEK is Thanksgiving? This week! This coming Thursday! If you are not residing in the U.S. at this time, may I move in with you and skip over this extremely wonderful and yet High Stress holiday please and thank you.
My parents are visiting, which is WONDERFUL. They stay in a hotel, which is mutually beneficial. My mother will be making a pumpkin pie – from scratch, using a real pumpkin – with Carla, per Carla’s request. My father will make the Caesar salad. I will make the mashed potatoes. Perhaps I can outsource the dressing to my husband. I don’t know.
Wait a second. Now I am wondering whether we typically HAVE Caesar salad at Thanksgiving, or if this is a my-family-of-origin Christmas tradition only? I really WANT Caesar salad. But maybe it’s overkill.
I suppose I will make a turkey. I mean, I ordered a turkey already, so I am kind of locked in to making it. This is the only time all year that I eat turkey, because I hate turkey. Is hate too strong a word? How about, I strongly dislike it. It seems kind of silly to put so much work into a thing I really only eat because It’s The Thing You Do At Thanksgiving… (in my family, that is). But everyone else likes it. Maybe even Carla will eat it. And it’s essential to making the gravy I like. Well. I suppose I will ask my mother to help me. She is very good about helping – the giblets don’t squick her out and she is masterful with timing things so they are all ready at once. Why those genes did not express in my DNA, I don’t know, but here we are.
I feel kind of giddy, like I’ve had too much caffeine. Combination of pre-Thanksgiving excitement/anxiety, I suppose. That’ll get your blood buzzing!
Plus, as per usual, the end of the year just snowballs out of control. I don’t yet have holiday cards! I haven’t purchased a single Christmas present! I have only one single idea what to get Carla for Hanukkah! My mother-in-law arrives two weeks from today!
Please tell me something calming. I originally typed “clamming.” You could tell me something clamming too, if you like. But something calming would be MOST WELCOME.
In the meantime, we all need to eat in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Perhaps we shall go for easy and warming. And then we’ll wing it, afterwards, with leftovers and charcuterie boards.
Dinners for Thanksgiving Week 2022
- Chicken Paprikas: Hearty and spicy and easy and good.
- French Onion Soup: So yummy, so cheesy, so perfect for snowy, pre-Thanksgiving eating.
- Oven Baked Pork Chops with Steamed Broccoli: My husband requested this meal, so on the plan it goes!
- THANKSGIVING!!!!! The menu is as follows:
- Turkey: I use a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, which has rarely led me astray.
- Gravy: Same as above.
- Dressing: Pioneer Woman’s traditional Thanksgiving Dressing. Nothing fancy, but a good, traditional dressing.
- Goat cheese + garlic mashed potatoes: This is my mother’s recipe and I love it. I could eat an entire pot of these myself.
- Candied yams with marshmallows: America’s Test Kitchen, baby. But I’ve re-created it here, alongside my lovely experiments at Charcoal Topping.
- Salad: Can I persuade my father to make a Caesar Salad? This is the question.
- Cranberry sauce: Pioneer Woman’s homemade version plus canned sauce for my mother
- Dessert: Pumpkin pie with REAL pumpkin, courtesy of my mother and Carla, with vanilla ice cream
Where are you spending Thanksgiving, US friends? And what are you most looking forward to stuffing into your pie hole eating? What are you having for non-Thanksgiving dinner, non-US friends?
It seems as though I am doing NaBloPoMo this month, which is 30 blog posts in 30 days. (Will I make it??? Only time will tell.) Details at San’s blog here.
I am punting and making only a turkey breast. I hate wresting with a big bird, I don’t carve very well, and the carcass makes me feel like I have to make stock, even though I won’t use it.
We’ll be trying some new cookie recipes which should be fun, and I’ll be adding a vegetarian pot pie recipe for certain children.
The nice thing about having only my kids come for Thanksgiving is that there’s no pressure. If things aren’t cooked by 1, then eat at 2 or 3. Have some cookies while we wait. Very easy going- if it wasn’t for for the pressure to make a full blown turkey for “tradition” , it’d be the best day. (And the kids who looking most forward to seeing a turkey don’t actually eat it…)
I love making only a turkey breast. So much better than doing the whole big bird. And yes! I love the low pressure of having only family around! Although my turkey always ALWAYS takes longer than is humanly possible to cook, so I do end up getting antsy.
We’re spending Thanksgiving and the day after at the beach, as is our usual tradition, just the three of us. It’s pretty low stress (except for the packing for a trip part). We’ll have a vegetarian roast, potatoes with mushroom gravy, a broccoli-cheese casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, and sparkling apple-cranberry juice, and pie. We got three single-serve pies so we could have three different kinds– apple, pumpkin, and pecan without having a lot of leftovers.
It will be our first Thanksgiving without Noah, which prompted us to skip the dressing this year, as it’s just more carbs in a carb-heavy meal and he’s the one who likes it most. Similarly, we no longer make the sweet potatoes because I am the one who likes them best. Last year I didn’t take a blood sugar reading after the meal and I am thinking of doing it again.
That sounds so lovely, Steph, and I am so glad that the three of you are able to do it. Love the pie array! Will Noah be able to celebrate overseas?
You can move in with me!
Even when I did eat meat, I loathed turkey. I cannot even be in the kitchen when someone is cooking a turkey; I can’t stand to see it.
Good luck with it all!
I will pack my bags and a toy for Rex!
And I will try to remember to put a warning on any photo I post of the turkey. It is a beast.
I actually adore turkey. We don’t have it the rest of the year, because I prefer white meat and most everybody else likes dark meat, and most of the year they sell turkey breasts and not a lot of dark meat. So.
On the T-Day menu:
Turkey (my husband usually cooks this, we use an oven bag and it doesn’t take forever and is always perfectly moist and yes, it browns!) Oven Bag Cooking For Life!
Bell’s Stuffing (the kids go crazy for stuffing)
Damn Delicious Slow Cooker Garlic Parmesan Potatoes
Homemade cranberry sauce, which, shamefully, I can eat by the bowl
Argellian Coleslaw from the Star Trek Cookbook, one of the kids has volunteered to make this
Corn, Rolls, Jarred Gravy
Pumpkin Pie, one with crust, one without, and I may make homemade whipped cream because I love it.
Oh, I can’t forget the relish tray. I’m trying two new dips this year, to add some more veggies on the roster.
Sounds wonderful! And now I need to find out what an oven bag is!
https://www.reynoldsbrands.com/products/cooking-bag-liners/oven-bags
They are, quite frankly, magical. Cooks a large turkey in about 3 hours or so, and NO BASTING. I mean, if you want the deep brown, glossy, Martha-Stewart-magazine-ready turkey, this is not the technique for you. But honestly, we’ve been using these for years and it’s been the same number of years since I worried about dry turkey breast meat. Yes, they’re plastic, but we use them twice a year or so, and none of us have mutated yet, so I think we’re good.
They are also great for ham.
I used oven bags for corned beef- cooks up tenderly without the stink and the mess of boiling. Clean up is so easy.
I might try one with my turkey breast- thanks for the suggestion.
Oh…I really enjoy turkey! But I cheat at Thanksgiving and buy rotisserie chickens. The kids nearly had a conniption fit the first time I did this, but they’ve calmed down about it all. A lot less work than a turkey, but still delicious!
I will make a turkey for Christmas (but we actually do it on the day after Christmas – so much less stress than on Christmas Day).
Then again, I’m one of those Canadian folks who gets to celebrate back in October, so I have NO IDEA WHAT I’D DO if I had two huge celebrations so close together. Lose my mind. That’s what I’d do…
I hope, despite the stress – and it IS stressful to coordinate so many things! – you have an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving <3
That is so smart, Elisabeth! Next time it is just the three of us, I may copy that idea (if buy husband is okay with it — seeing as he’s the only turkey fan of my little immediate family).
I too have done almost nothing for Christmas and Hanukkah and I just… it’s too much! It’s hard to even THINK about it. Finally last night, I made a spread sheet for our upcoming trip so everyone could pack– but so far, I have just been ignoring all things holiday
I finally made a Christmas gift spreadsheet, so that’s something. Although it’s mainly blank. My husband did order the gifts he and I are giving to each other this year, so that’s sorted. But also it is the least important of all the gifts, so… no less pressure.
I’m another person who is not a fan of turkey. I can make it and it’ll taste great, but after a few bites I’m over it. In fact, truth be told, I don’t like much that is associated with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner– other than the gratitude. I like thankfulness.
I live with my Mom, it’s just the two of us, and last year she was going to pick up a “small” turkey for us, mostly so that she could make stock for the gravy for when we do the whole meal again at Christmas when my brother is here. She came home with a 25-POUND TURKEY. What an ordeal.
This year we’re going out to dinner for Thanksgiving, and I for one am thankful! I like turkey, and I would like to have a few leftovers, but goodness last year was just way too much all around.
May I suggest turkey tenderloin instead of a whole turkey? Far better and easier to cook and much tastier.
I couldn’t believe it when I realized that this week was already Thanksgiving. It’s early this year! Then it’s into Xmas stuff which I’m also not ready for. Dinner sounds delicious minus the sweet potatoes. My older daughter also makes pumpkin pie with real pumpkin versus the normal Hubbard squash in the can. We traditionally eat ours with whipped cream though. Apple pie with ice cream though. 🙂
Yes, I have fully embraced Thanksgiving mode, ALTHOUGH I think it would be much better if we had it earlier, like Canada does. It seems extra-cruel that I also have to think about other dinners this week- tonight we’re having a stir fry, tomorrow veggie burgers and then Wednesday will be a free-for-all. Good luck with everything!
Our meal plan this week is for everyone to figure it out (which means that they’re still eating the chicken burrito fixings that I made last week), our traditional pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday dinner of burgers, and then family Thanksgiving for 12 people at our house. I got off easy this year because the only things I have to make are gravy (which I love doing) and desserts. I cannot stand turkey or any part of cooking it, so that’s what I have a husband for. The rest of the fam is bringing everything else.
I adore Caesar salad so my vote is to go for it!!!
I went to Costco this morning. My calming thought to you is that at least YOU didn’t go to Costco this morning. I did snag some romaine (lettuce IS getting hard to find), so that’s a win, but the entire population of Madison, Wisconsin was with me in that store and I am never going to Costco the week of Thanksgiving ever again, no matter how DIRE the dog’s medication crisis is. Calm. Calm. It’s going to be okay.
Your Thanksgiving menu sounds delicious! Which America’s Test Kitchen turkey recipe do you use? I’ve brined and salted turkeys before — and the brined, I think, makes the most moist turkey…at least in my not-very-long experience cooking turkeys. 🙂 Once my nieces and nephews got older, they wanted to try their hand at making turkey…and sometimes, we rely on Honeybaked Ham turkey, which is suprisingly good!
My big family will celebrate on the Saturday after Thanksgiving so we will have a small one at home on Thursday. I am trying to think what I’ll make — turkey or tenderloin roast. We had the tenderloin on 2020, when we couldn’t get together with the big family so I wanted it to be a little more special. But I do miss the turkey-cooking smell for Thanksgiving so I may look for a small turkey or get a turkey breast; we will see what the stores have.
My son wants to bring Popeye’s to share with the big family on Saturday! LOL My nephew will make a turducken so that will be very interesting! And my SIL is again treating us to roast pig, Hawaiian luau-style (she did last year, too, but they combined her son’s house-warming party with the family Thanksgiving last year…but I guess she wants to do a big one again this year since we’re having it at my nephew’s house again). I actually like the way their “roaster” makes it — very flavorful. I usually don’t partake because I find it really bland and greasy — but I’m looking forward to a few bites of this one! Honeybaked ham, turducken, roast pig, Honeybaked turkey and a bunch of sides…I’ll be sure to have at least a bite of all.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
I do like turkey a lot, but I also love everything else. I am a non-discriminatory Thanksgiving eater. hahaha! It’s ALL delicious!! And solidarity on the overwhelm. When I start to think about all the stuff I have to somehow make happen between now and December 25- Thanksgiving, 2 birthdays (my dad + my son), organizing a huge swim meet (volunteer job), work work, christmas cards, shopping (pretty non-existent yet at this point), more decorating, cookies, wrapping, a work holiday party….uh, yeah. Not looking so…. feasible.
We will be having Thanksgiving with The Girlfriend’s parents so we are getting off light this year. Man-Child requested blueberry, cherry & lemon cheesecake pies (which is something we generally have at Thanksgiving, but since we are going as guests, I feel like this is cheating because it’s ridiculously easy). According to Man-Child, The Girlfriend’s father enjoyed The Husband’s potato salad SO much when they were here that he asked that we bring that (never had that for Thanksgiving before!). And I will probably also make a Vermont Cheese spread with French bread as an appetizer.
I think we may try to celebrate with our friends (we’ve celebrated just about every Thanksgiving with them for about the last fifteen years or so) either on Wednesday or Saturday – but I expect the traditional meal will be skipped in favor of something else.
Yes! Move in with me! (or Nicole, I think she’s a better cook). We have Thanksgiving in October, so we have more time to get stressed out about Christmas (and you have to do hanukkah TOO? You poor woman. Let me bake you some shortbread).
My son has the week off, but when he asked if he had to come home for any reason other than us liking him, we gave him dispensation to go watch football and be quasi-American with his friends’ family who practically adopted him when we couldn’t get over the border during lockdown. I hope it’s great, even though it’s too much work. The only advice I can offer is something I’ve been employing during Christmas madness, which is “do what you can, and let the rest go.”
Spending Thanksgiving with our friends and we will have turkey (which I like).
We don’t typically have salad for Thanksgiving, but I’d welcome it. Especially Caesar!
I am preparing ham, dressing, yams, pumpkin pies. We are also having cranberry sauce, turkey, green bean bundles, gravy, mac and cheese, hash brown casserole, rolls, and lemon icebox pie. It’s way too much food, but leftovers are delicious.
I LOVE turkey and especially leftover turkey. We use leftover turkey to make wild rice soup. But I never have to host Thanksgiving. I’m child 4 of 5 so will forever have ‘baby of the family’ status and can’t be trusted to make such a key meal. 😉 My brother hosts this year – usually we go to my parents. My mom is the queen of having everything ready at the same time, but Thanksgiving stuff is pretty forgiving and can be kept warm for quite some time and not impact the flavor of the dish so that helps. But ideally you need 2 ovens or to have things in crock pots, etc. Anyways, I am glad I will avoid all of that stress and just show up with my 2 side dishes (veggie tray + dip; brussel sprout salad).
I really really love Thanksgiving, though. I like that there are no gifts exchanged. You just show up, eat, enjoy family, etc. It’s a low pressure holiday aside from the meal which is a lot of work. Try to think of the meal as you would if you were a guest at someone else’s dinner. Maybe that will help you relax your standards? Everyone is just happy to be together (generally – this is not always the case!).
Suzanne, it is no time to start Clamming up; much needs to be done! 😳
I used to try and fit salads into Thanksgiving, but with all the veggies we do (carrots, Brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, broccoli), we realized the salad was not the star of the show on Thanksgiving.
The coach will spatchcock and smoke the turkey for us, and it’s my favorite part of the holiday since I don’t have to give up oven space!
I’ve honestly never heard of someone making pumpkin pie with actual PUMPKIN. I need to know how this goes. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
I am not letting the holiday stress me (mantra voice). It’s just going to be Jon and me, so there won’t be any expectations (only my own). I’ll go for a Turkey Trot run and then leisurely prepare our dinner (which will be a turkey breast with dumplings, gravy, green beens and stuffing. I am hoping to NOT produce leftovers … and stay on my regular cooking schedule for the rest of the week.
I hope you have a good time with your fam though.
Every Thanksgiving I wish I had set up some sort of big Thanksgiving get-together where everyone brings something and so I only have to make one or two things. That seems like the way to go. On the other hand, then I’d have to host a big Thanksgiving get-together.
I have two calming thoughts I use, if you’d like to try either of them to see if they work for you. The first is a partially-remembered quote from a Maeve Binchy short story; they’re talking about Christmas dinner rather than Thanksgiving dinner, but it sounds like it’s roughly the same meal, and one of the characters says she can’t understand why everyone gets so flustered, it’s just a meal: you put in the turkey and take it out, you make the sides, it’s no big deal. I don’t agree per se, but…it’s also true it’s just a meal, and that makes me feel better.
The second calming thought, when I am getting a little amped about about how much there is to do, is that I think about how much I like to be in the kitchen knowing how many others of us are also in the kitchen at the same time, making roughly the same foods. I play Handel’s Messiah while I cook, and I think of everyone else cooking too, and I find that calming.
Living in the UK, Thanksgiving passes us by, but my mother has just moved to live with my sister in Missouri so part of the family will be doing the big turkey thing. Like you, I’m not a fan of turkey (although my mother loves it), so we don’t have it at Christmas either. Love the image of you cooking to Handel’s Messiah 🙂
Love this post! My Thanksgiving meal looks similar to yours but add mac & cheese, and green beans and green bean casserole (both). Also no goat cheese in the potatoes; though I would LOVE that, my family would disown me. This year I am making my MIL’s yeast rolls in her honor (wish me luck), as well as cranberry daquiris which are my Dad’s specialty from years past.
No stress, friends! We will all just do our best! I love Swistle’s calming thought about all of us in kitchens together.
I am wondering why you need to get your mother canned sauce?
I know that the turkey turned out perfect and on time. And that made me aware of that we always fret about and stress ourselves that will in the end not be of matter. if we would just know beforehand…