Thanksgiving dinner | Arthritis Information

Okay lets talk turkey...every year my husband and I get in the kitchen and make the same thanksgiving dinner. While it is good and we can prepare the dishes blindfolded...I am ready for some new ideas. Here is our typical menu....

Turkey (of course)

Cornbread and Rice dressings

Cranberrys

Brown-n-serve rolls and brown gravey (I hate giblet gravey)

Greenbean casserole

Baked sweet potatoes or sweet potatoe casserol (with nuts and marshmallows)

Pea salad

Store bought pies for dessert.

So I need some ideas for additions or replacements. I know that some better rolls and desserts would spruce up the menu....any other ideas for sides or recipes for homemade rolls or desserts?

Come on, I know ya'll have some good stuff....dont hold out on me now!!!

Well we HAVE to have garlic mashed potatos and my mom makes honey carrots. She cuts the carrots on an angle and boils them to desired tenderness. While hot in a bowl she mixes in some butter and honey, then sprinkles with sesame seeds and fresh chopped parsley.

My DH loves them like this.
MMMMM....seasame seeds??? that sounds good!

My mother always made a trifle. Very easy, big bowl of yumminess.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Desserts/Trifles/Main.aspx

I make a really easy dessert. You will need a 9x9 square pan, a large can of any pie filling that you like, 1 1/2 boxes of Jiffy yellow cake mix per pan, and unsalted stick butter.

Pre-heat oven to 425. Pour pie filling in the pan. Cover the filling evenly with cake mix. You don't need to make the cake mix. Just open the box and spread it evenly over the pie filling. Break up any large lumps. Cover the entire thing with pats of butter and bake until the top is golden brown and bubbly. Refridgerate any unused portions to heat later or eat cold.

Well, sometimes I put a little ground up sauteed sausage in the stuffing. Also, do you make fresh cranberries or canned? My father in law always wants the jellied kind, in the shape of the can, that he can slice up. I refuse to buy them and I make my own. You just bring to a boil 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, add the bag of fresh berries and put a lid on it, lower the flame, they actually pop, takes almost no time and it tastes so much better than the canned stuff.

If, however, your family likes the sliced kind, I have seen a recipe from Jell-O for a sort of mold of cranberry jell-o with chopped apples and walnuts in it. That would look pretty.

Other than that, geez, it's 7am here and looking at your menu I am hungry already!

we have hors dourves, a cheese board, cocktail shrimp with cream cheese and crackers, crudittes, hickory farms type sausage, home made salsa,

we always have plain bread stuffing, and on the side I make oyster stuffing. Yum.

Broccoli with water chestnuts, teeeny carrots and a cheese sauce.

creamed onions

mashed potatoes, and gravy ( I make regular turkey gravy from the pan drippings and a can of chicken broth.. no giblet gravy here either.

Cranberry orange relish

Baked squash and apples with honey and cinnamon

a big salad with romaine, leaf lettuce, sliced bermuda onions, tomatoes, bits of mozzerella..

pumpkin bread, sliced french bread, dinner rolls.

pumpkin, apple, and mincemeat pies. jello plain and loaded, spice cake,

cider, coffee, milk or soda

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm hungry

OOOOOOHHH!!! I have one!!!! I always make a pesto-artichoke
stuffing!! I know it sounds weird, but all the picky eaters I know
have tried it and loved it!! Let me know if you want the recipe. I'll
have to dig around for it.Green beans with finally chopped prosciutto is a simple replacement for the casserole. My family seems to like that. Also there are some good recipes for a sweet potato and apple casserole on Allrecipe.com which I have made quite frequently.

But, you know, there is something to be said for "the same old Thanksgiving dinner". I make pretty much the same thing my mother served when I was growing up and everyone, including me, looks forward to it.Here are some "must haves" for our holiday dinners.

We start off with clam dip and Cape Cod potato chips, as well as a variety of crackers to dip also. Clam dip is more important to most of us than turkey. It is made with cream cheese, can of clams, chopped onions, horseradish, lemon juice, and tabasco. It becomes a huge project to get it just right, and everyone hovers over the bowl, saying "Add more onion", "No, it needs more horseradish", etc. After many tastings we deem it worthy! We usually make a quadruple batch.

Death by Chocolate has to be one of our desserts. You can experiment with other things without the family getting upset, as long as they old favorite is there. Using real whipped creme in it is key!

We always have the sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. My mother always made it with nuts, my mother-in-law makes it with raisins. Either way I love it. Our stuffing is old-fashioned bread stuffing made with juice from the cooked giblets, and lots of sage. I always stuff the turkey on both ends and then make enough stuffing to bake some outside of the turkey in a brownie pan. The outside dressing is cut into brownie sized pieces, which is great for snacking.
Pumpkin roll and homemade pies made from my mother in law and sister in law.
She also makes this yummy pineapple butternut squah and it is delicious.. I usually eat not much the week before so I can just indulge! Can't wait!!! it is so good. Your menu sounds so good!

Oh I just remembered my MIL always makes fruit salad, preferably fresh although she does use those canned cherries that are unnatuarlly red...LOL.

My mom makes a fruit salad sometimes that had marshmellows and coconus in it, I think jello too but I don't know the recipe?
zeebootee39024.4830555556

The cranberry sauce I liked was one my friend from the daycare used to make.

I don't know the exact ammounts, because we never measured, we just taste tested along the way!

You just mix frozen cranberries, sugar, and manderin(sp) oranges in a blender, and dont forget to add just a little bit of the orange peel. Then you litterally just nuke it until its warm. It's so easy! AND ITS SOOOOOOO GOOOD. (And I hate cranberries)

Oh, and gramma, my friend's mom in 3rd grade used to make a dessert like that, only we'd mix pineapple filling and mandarin oranges for the "pie filling" part. She always called it a pineapple upside down cake, but I know that's not the right name. But MAN that's good stuff! We always put cool whip on it too...we were fat kids..LOL

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Thanks for all of the suggestions guys. The squash and apple casserole and the cranberry-orange relish sound yummy. I love allrecipes.com...I will go there to find the recipes. I have never made oyster dressing but my grandmother makes it at christmas time and it is wonderful.

I also remembered something that my grandma makes every year, and I am going to add to my holiday menu...Pralines...mmmmm

Keep the ideas coming yall...this is some good stuff.

My family always has brussel sprouts. Sometimes we saute chopped bacon along with onions and mushrooms. Makes a nice garnish for the sprouts.

Ron
Oh Ron, no offense, but brussel sprouts just aren't fit for human consumption. Anything that smells like that is not going in my mouth! There is something about tradition!!!! We always have to have the mashed potatoes with the turkey and dressing, corn, green been caserole, sweet potatoes sauted in brown sugar so they are crunchy... and, canned cranberries!!!! Hee hee..... some day I'll make them from scratch!!    Thanks for all the recipes!!!
I'm sitting here reading all of this. Wish that I could eat it!!!
   My Thanksgiving dinner is going to be very plain and simple. Turkey breast slices, nuked sweet and white potatoe, and vegs. Will take the cranberries, heat them up and pour over my turkey slices, potatoes and vegs.
I know it doesn't sound that special but it's just me and my girls for dinner. The girls will get their plain turkey slices.

   Marisa

I think we might not be cooking this year

The hotel is having a Thanksgiving Buffett. If it's cheap enough for employees, I think Justin and I may do that. I'd tell you the menu, but it's a page long, and I don't even know what some of it is. LOL

Hey! Don't knock brussel sprouts!! My aunt always makes a
huge brussel sprout casserole (my fave!). It has eggs and
cheese in it too!

This thread makes me hungry!

My traditional thanksgiving dinner consists of the largest honeysuckle white turkey I can find, stuffed with a dressing I make with wild rice, celery, diced apples, & pecans pieces. Our traditional "must have" sides are sweet potato fluff (with brown sugar and marshmallows), butternut squash (whipped like mashed potatos with lots of real butter!), a vegetable medley consisting of french style green beans, white corn, onion, and water chestnuts; mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, and of course, the obligatory cranberry sauce, which I always buy and put on the table, that nobody eats!

Home made apple pie and pumpkin pie are my favorite desserts to make during the holidays. I also make 7 layer cookies, fudge, and divinity several times during the month of December and give them as hostess gifts whenever we go to a friend's home to visit during the season.

The past several years have made it so difficult and painful to carry on this cooking and baking tradition, but because of the miracle of Enbrel, this year I will be "dancing around" as I prepare these traditional family favorites...and giving so much thanks.

Many blessings!