Thanksgiving Plans

[flippy]

How will you be celebrating Thanksgiving this year?

We’re going to make a feast at home for just ourselves this year. I think we’re still planning to serve 50 even though there’s only 2 of us.

We’re gonna start prepping on Wed afternoon and I’ve been watching every cooking video under the sun making plans to pull off a gourmet feast.

The biggest challenge is going to be the prime time game. I’m guessing I’ll be in a turkey abd stuffing coma by about 1:30pm just after the start of the dog show and I’ll probably have to set an alarm for 8 so we don’t miss the game.

We usually travel this time of year on a vacation or to see family and friend and usually have at least 2 different meals if not more. So I typically don’t have time to take a mid day nap. But I’m guessing I might this year given the sheer amount of food in my house right now and knowing I don’t have to be anywhere or entertain anyone.

It’s gonna be a weird Thanksgiving, but we plan to make the best of it and hopefully the Steelers turn the game into a blowout for us. But if they don’t, at least it might help me burn off all the calories.

What do you got this year?

[Northern_Blitz]

We had my brother over last weekend (he moved to Upstate NY too)...kind of a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Smoked up some ribs and shot the ****. The rest of my family is in Canada, so it would be a 2 week quarantine both ways (and I'm not 100% sure we could get back into the US on Green Cards?).

We had been planning to have Thanksgiving to a friends house (just the two families < 10 people).

But she's getting a little antsy about having people over. We'd be OK going over "normally" still, but I'm also OK if we don't end up doing it either.

I get that people have different levels of anxiety / risk around this thing. And she works in a hospital and just went through a super low probability death of her husband last year (F$%k Cancer). We're happy to let her decide what she wants to do because I don't want to increase her anxiety.

Not sure where we're going to land. We've talked about a couple of different options.

Maybe going there, but eating outside.

Maybe eating dinner at home, but having dessert at their place outside.

Looks like we might get to the mid-50s and if there's rain, it's predicted for the morning. so being outside would be OK with me.

Basically, I'm just trying to stay flexible with everything this year.

As long as I'm home by 8:19 PM, I'll be happy.

[Northern_Blitz]

We’re gonna start prepping on Wed afternoon and I’ve been watching every cooking video under the sun making plans to pull off a gourmet feast.

If it helps:

The Turkey is my wife's specialty, but this is what I think I know.
1) Brine your turkey. We just use a simple brine, mostly salt water. This will make your turkey cook faster, so make sure you use a meat thermometer.
2) I think she still butters / oils under the skin.

I started making this cranberry sauce 2 years ago. It's pretty great IMO, but I cut the sugar by about half (I prefer to be able to taste the cranberries more). The recipe is for a pressure cooker, but I think it's just because InstantPots were "the new hotness" at the time. No reason you couldn't do this in any old pot IMO.
https://damndelicious.net/2019/11/19...anberry-sauce/

If you want to impress the lady of your life, make these. But it takes a fair bit of time. ****...now I want to make these again.


I don't like pumpkin pie (which earns me a lot of hate this time of year. And crumbles / crisps are just better than pie (except maybe banana cream...but I basically can't eat that anymore after having tasted a perfect one at Red Fish Grill in New Orleans).

The trick to the crumble topping is to add in some finely grated cheese. Sounds odd, but it's delicious. Here's what I do for my topping (you can put it on top of anything, but I'm currently debating apples with some cinnamon and maple syrup...or some cherries).
- 1 C Flour
- 1 C finely grated cheddar (sharp as you can)
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup softened butter (less butter = more crumbly, more butter = more solid).
- Cinnamon to taste (I'm of the opinion that you almost can't have too much cinnamon)
- pinch of salt (because apparently you have to put salt in everything).

I usually double this and throw it on top of some kind of fruit (fresh peaches are the best, but that time has passed).

[Northern_Blitz]

I made these in my "getting really fat" stage of the pandemic (followed by my losing a fair bit of weight, which was then followed by my getting kind of fat again phase). They're delicious, but don't really scream Thanksgiving.


Note that he puts a cookie pan under the buns in the oven. This is a good idea. I had some sugary mixture overflow onto the bottom of my oven when I did this. Got a bit of a fire...but just a bit.

I'll stop talking about food now.

[feltdizz]

Going to see the in-laws at the coast. My father in law is also from Pittsburgh. Small world.

I bought a brined free range turkey from Trader Joe’s. That’s the only thing I’m cooking from scratch. I bought a few frozen Mac n cheese boxes from Trader Joe’s. That stuff is the truth.

Everything else is coming from Whole Foods or Publix deli. It’s going to be an easy Thanksgiving.

Usually I go all in and cook everything from scratch but it’s 2020 and since it’s a small
gathering I’m going to take it easy.

[Northern_Blitz]

Going to see the in-laws at the coast. My father in law is also from Pittsburgh. Small world.

I bought a brined free range turkey from Trader Joe’s. That’s the only thing I’m cooking from scratch. I bought a few frozen Mac n cheese boxes from Trader Joe’s. That stuff is the truth.

Everything else is coming from Whole Foods or Publix deli. It’s going to be an easy Thanksgiving.

Usually I go all in and cook everything from scratch but it’s 2020 and since it’s a small
gathering I’m going to take it easy.

+1 on the Mac and Cheese from Trader Joes.

[Buzz]

Not traveling to the in-laws, as we normally do, because of the Covid. Will have a quiet turkey feast at home.

[flippy]

You're making me hungry

We have yet to decide on the turkey. We could smoke, grill, deep fry, or just bake it. And we've even cheated when having big parties before and had one of the local bbq joints make the meats for us and just focus on the sides. We'll probably do something different for the heck of it.

My only tricks on the turkey are to put full sticks of butter under the skin with all the spices/seasonings. And one year, I made so much stuffing that I stuffed pounds not only in the bird, but under the skin and that year when I really stretched out the skin to get the most stuffing in there, that was the moistest turkey I've ever had.

I really like making desserts and sides.

My plan is to make a pumpkin cheesecake with a home made walnut/pecan/date crust and whipped cream. I'm thinking about adding some bourbon to the crust and the whipped cream.

I'm most looking forward to making stuffing. I'm planning to make a standard stuffing from bread and another from pork rinds to change it up. I'll definitely go with some combo of sausage, red peppers, and mushrooms in the stuffing to make it a little more interesting.

I also got a couple heads of cauliflower and a couple pounds of bacon which I'm still trying to decide what to do. I might do some mashed cauliflower or cauliflower mac and cheese. The trick in either of those is to add some cream cheese / sour cream. I'm not 100% sure if I'll put hunks of bacon in with this recipe or I might even try to wrap the turkey in bacon.

We kinda decided to wing it a little and went to the grocery store Sunday morning this week and bought a couple of everything and decided we'll just make whatever we're hungry for the day of. It feels kinda 2020 to just wing it and go in unplanned and see what happens. I'm sure we'll make some good things and we'll make some that won't be edible, so we got a lot just in case.

I think my other half has some plans for sweet potato pies, breads, vegetabley casseroles, and something with scallops and shrimp because I saw a lot of seafood in our order that's gotta get used.

I also noticed assortments of meats and cheese and such, so I'm sure we'll end up with some sort of charcuterie board to pick at. We're seriously just going to pretend it's a real Thanksgiving and act like we get to eat it all cause no one showed up.

I'm also planning to go on a diet between Thanksgiving and Christmas

[Djfan]

Going to see the sister and her husband out of state. Yup, I'm crossing state lines. Screw the covid lies.

After dinner we are hitting a bar to watch the game, then go to the hotel. Should be good.

Give thanks, everyone. And, make sure you give thanks to the One deserving those thanks, God Himself.

Go Steelers.

[Chucktownsteeler]

Staying home, just the 2 of us. Maybe getting out Friday for a nice drive. We did buy a huuuuuuge turkey and all the fixings.