What's Your Thanksgiving Menu This Year?

[RolfTaylor]

Virginia Ham (purchased direct from the smoke house). To be served on fresh rolls as is the Virginia tradition (very thin slices and butter). Depending on how th erolls turn out I might throw together a batch of biscuits.

Turkey Breast. I am on the site right now looking for cooking options. IIRC white meat is not the ideal candidate for smoking, but I am hoping there's a way.

Suggestions and links in the Turkey Breast would be appreciated.

Mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. My partner in cooking crime is making those so not sure how she will do the sweet potatoes.

Green bean casserole (I just love them even if they are just a schlock kind of recipe. And I find they do best with the basic recipe (yes, with canned beans) - trying to make them better seems to fail.

Gravy. I will try to capture some drippings from the smoker and hopefully not burn them.

Pie and Ice cream. If I can find store-bough cherry pie I will get one of those, though we will definitely will have sweet potato or pumpkin too.

I am not originally from Virginia, but I do love the real Virginia hams. I was at a work site withing the County of Smithfield where they are legally permitted to call them Smithfield Hams (even if not with the company of the same name). However the local suggested I pick up my ham in a more conveninet location on my drive home, so techically it isn't a Smithfield Ham)

[Northern lights smoke]

Ours will be a 24 pound heritage bird, wet brined and I cook the day before and have it all sliced up in juices and then warm.
Mashed taters with cream cheese, sour cream mixed in.
almondine beans and Brussels sprouts
Cranberry fluff
Homemade sage stuffing
gravy
Desserts this year are pumpkin pie, Creme Brule or a hot chocolate soufflé

[RichieB]

Our traditional dinner which is a multiple day event. As I've mentioned before Thanksgiving is my wife's cook, I do nothing. Not sure if my son and family will make the trip from Vermont. Daughter and her crew will be here. There are 2 pieces to the weekend. The Turkey is the 1st part and that is for Thanksgiving Day. The bird (bought yesterday 24#) along with typical sides. Stuffing, candied yams, cranberry sauce a variety of vegetables, which I ignore. That includes the stuffed artichokes. Dessert will have apple and pumpkin pie and other goodies. My daughter does all of that.

Now for Friday we go to ravioli with my wife's Thanksgiving sauce. Meat will be sausage and braciole and meatballs. Ravioli is store bought but everything else is done from scratch. Leftover Turkey is in the mix. And all of it is a Saturday delight.

[ecowper]

We will have 12 people over, basically the whole local family ... plus youngest daughter has a boyfriend to introduce!

Appetizers
Assorted olives
shrimp cocktail
vegetables and ranch dip

Main Dinner
Turkey - spatchcocked and cooked on the SnS
Gravy - cooked under the turkey, then reduced on the stove
Mashed potatoes
Mac N Cheese
Stuffing (grandma's recipe)
Green beans with almonds and bacon
Cranberry sauce
Rolls
Fruit salad
Green jello holiday salad

Dessert
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Ice Cream

Cocktails, Wine, Beer
4 growlers from The Ram: local brewery and bar and grill
Manhattans made by Eric
Wine - Riesling, Grenache, Pinot Noir from local winery: Sparkman Cellars

[ecowper]

Mr. Bones it's always vanilla ice cream .... and we put out the toppings for people to doctor it up the way they like

[DavidNorcross]

Eric what is your recipe for Manhattan? Curious.

[ecowper]

@DavidNorcross

3 parts rye
1 part red vermouth
3-4 dashes orange bitters
1 Maraschino cherry (I like Bada Bing Cherries from Tillen Farms)
1 orange peel

Fill shaker 1/3 full of ice, add the rye, vermouth, bitters. Stir for 15-20 seconds until cold and well mixed. Wipe rim of cocktail glass with the orange peel. Strain manhattan into the cocktail glass, garnish with cherry and orange twist. Enjoy!

[Jfrosty27]

It will just be the two of us this year. I don’t care if we do anything special for T Day. Just another day to me. NOW having said that, SWMBO will have the final say and she tends to stick to traditions pretty tight. Sooooo I imagine we’ll be doing something in the turkey/dressing/cranberry/green beans thing. 🤷‍♂️

Happy wife, Happy life……….

[Mr. Bones]

Been givin this a lotta thought, an lookin at alla yall's ideals, as wail, on account I'm jus not certain, this year...

Our Gran Dame, my beloved MIL, passed away, this last year. Usually we had our Gatherin, there...

My younger Sis, wail, she jus got out th Hospital, from almost overimbibin her sweet self to death, so that option's deffo out. Pray she gits better, y'all. Please.

Myself, an Jesse James, we been battin round th ideal, jus today, of mebbe smokin a turkey breast, a ham, an a bacon-wrapped ground chuck an Hot Breakfast Sausage Meatloaf, stuffed. Any opinions? Or ideals?

Usual Suspects:

Mashed taters, mebbe garlic roasted, with some sour cream all up in there...lotsa fresh butter.
Gravy? Oh, YESSIR, DEAR LORD, There WILL Be Gravy, Long as I'm still Alive. Amen. Not Negotiable.
Sweet Taters / candied yams, etc.? mebbe. Vote's not in.
Green Bean Casserole. You betcha, Bucky.
Mebbe some creamed cheese an corn crockpot goodness, so stoopid esy to do, even fer me...
Cheesy Hashbrown casserole ,with either hot breakfast sausage, bacon or (WINNER) BOTH thrown all up in.
Dressin of some sort, reckon I'll do some cornbread, mebbe some Yanqui
Pumkin pie, apple pie, cherry pie, French Vanilla ice cream, toppins ideal, courtesy of My Brother ecowper

[ecowper]

there's only one way I ever learned to make mashed taters: potatoes, whipping cream, butter, salt. Smash 'em with a potato smasher, make sure there's some lumps left.

[Mr. Bones]

ecowper In Total Agreement:

Lumps is Good.

Lumps is our Friend, Eric.

To go beyond^ that stage,^ why would ya ever even bother buyin real taters, when ya can jus git th box stuff, add some boilin water...???

Don't even git me started on no gravy, a Major Food group, when I was growin up. Featured every meal, every course, includin dessert. : Loves me some Gravy!

Bonafide Part of th Hillbilly Food Pyramid, I garronshee y'all

[tamidw]

Gotta laugh about the lumps in mashed potatoes. We usually use the beaters to make mashed potatoes and my mom normally does that part of them. One year my MIL did the mixing of them and left lumps and my mom complained there were lumps in the potatoes! Ugh!

[CandySueQ]

Got a Snake River Farms karabuta ham in the freezer (it arrived 11/11). Got this cryovaced pink blob of a turkey breast to cook for a contest last weekend. I removed the miserable, tiny bit of skin, cut the blob in half and tied it up into two logs. The smaller log was sliced and was the bread part of a "turkey sandwich" with cranberry and dressing in the middle topped with gravy. Judges didn't like cranberry! Anyhow, the larger turkey log is in the freezer next to the ham. I'll reheat it sous vide. My side contributions are broccoli salad (with dried cranberries) and sauteed W'ham sweet potatoes. My brother's girlfriend is doing scalloped potatoes and some green bean tart-type things from Trader Joe's. We haven't decided dessert yet.

[ecowper]

The judges didn't like cranberry on a turkey sammich? Something's wrong with those judges.

[Mr. Bones]

Yeah, I think I might casually mention them 'Judges' to some my friends in Homeland Security, mebbe git a lil background. Sounds rather Hinky.

[LA Pork Butt]

Only six of us and two of which are grade schoolers.
Dr. T’s cranberry brined Turkey on my BGE
Crawfish Cornbread Dressing
Sweet Potato, Brussel Sprouts, Apple, Bacon and Caramelize Onion, Casserole
Wine
Cranberry-Apple pie and Pumpkin pie

[mnavarre]

It's just the two of us again this year, so keeping it fairly simple:

Spathcocked turkey cooked on the kettle with all the gravy makings in a pan underneath.
Stuffing, I'll probably just hit the easy button here and go with the boxed stuff and store bought sausage unless I suffer from a sudden bout of ambition.
Green bean casserole. Definitely made from scratch. With fresh green beans. You canned bean perverts can go sit in the corner and feel shame.
Popovers
Gravy. So. Much. Gravy.
Mashed 'taters? Dunno, game time decision. Not sure we really need more carbs.

I think the wife is going to make cranberry sauce.

Probably a cheese/charcruterie plate to munch on during the day.

Likker, beer, and wine as needed.

[STEbbq]

Another popover fan!👍

[Santamarina]

Life’s been crazy…we haven’t even made plans for Thanksgiving! 😳🤦🏽

We typically host, and if we do this year the menu will be…

Made by me:
• Turkey - following Meatheads guide!
• Thin gravy…and thick gravy, because many family members are bound by "tradition."
•Stuffing - personal recipe. We don’t "stuff" so I guess it’s technically dressing, but we still call it stuffing.
• Prime rib - this replaced ham a few years ago!

Made by wife:
• Jalapeño cream cheese corn

Made by FiL:
• Mashed potatoes

Made by MiL:
Green bean casserole.

Made by SiL:
Yam bites - yams with marshmallow topping on individual puff pastries.

Made by Costco:
Pumpkin pie!

[tamidw]

We generally host and it’s normally my parents, my brothers, maybe a girlfriend of one of theirs. My in laws and sometimes my daughter and her boyfriend, maybe some other stragglers that didn’t have anywhere to go.

I will be doing most all the meal this year.

• spatchcocked homegrown turkey on the smoker with a pan for drippings for gravy
• probably a ham that I will throw in smoke box on side of smoker to heat up while turkey is cooking
• lots of gravy!
• mashed potatoes, thinking of trying a SV recipe a friend gave me for those so I don’t have to babysit boiling potatoes.
• stuffing muffins, loosely following recipe on this site, won’t use cranberries and apples. Drying sourdough breadcrumbs now for stuffing.
• sweet potatoes of some sort. If my MIL comes, she will probably want to do the sweet potatoes swimming in a huge pool of butter and whatever else she puts in there.
• veggie of some sort, maybe green beans and bacon
• possibly loaded cauliflower dish (think loaded baked potatoes)
• homemade cranberry sauce that’s jellied like the can stuff but tastes way better that I can. My mom complains it’s not as good as canned, but I don’t care
• rolls of some sort
• Possibly a fruit salad or jello sort of thing that I’m sure someone will bring
• Deviled eggs, these are must have
• Homemade banana pudding with Nilla wafers
• Cherry cheesecake and apple pie if I am feeling ambitious.
• Whatever anyone else is bringing
• assorted munchies leading up to dinner

My in laws will most likely not make an appearance because my MIL has decided she doesn’t like to leave her house. So if that’s the case, we will make up plates and take them food the next day or have FIL come grab it and take it home. They live about 20-25 minutes from us.