Suze, don't sweat it.

Half my lazy, no good relatives stop by the local Piggly-Wiggly grocery on the way to the cabin and slip the store bought goodies in to thier own pans.

Susan in Seattle - that has a nice ring to it.

degas~ Thankfully I don't even have to hide the source. My friends think it's a brilliant idea. Besides at my house it's the vino that counts! Cheers.

Apps -
Shrimp wrapped with bacon
Smoked Salmon with creme fraiche
White pizza

Entree
Smoked Turkey
Smoked Ribs
Homemade Creamed green beans with onions and bacon
Stuffing with Italian Sausage
Cornbread
Mashed Potatoes
Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Dessert
Pumpkin Pie and Apple Tart

Mmmm some good stuff here, some new ideas. StCirq- that pear with apple vinegar sounds great.
At my house:
Starters
celery & olive plate
cold asparagus w/olive oil & fennel seed
smoked oysters & mussels brucetta
Dinner
fresh steamed green beans
pearl onions with white sauce
waldorf salad
turkey basted w/orange & fresh rosemary traditional bread stuffing, cran sauce
whipped yam w/pecan-brown sugar topping
double spice pumpkin pie, creme fraiche

Love Italy, one year I went away to escape the holiday & our overbearing TD insisted the chef make a TG dinner even though we told her we didn't want it. I usually like the traditional stuff.
Calamari- yes on the parm in white mashed potatoes, low in fat big in flavour. Sometimes I add broth instead.
Sfowler- yes! I am running to Trader Joes for haricot verts -- courtesy of someone here answering a post about where to find them!--for the follow-up turkey dinner on Sat.

Iregeo- last year I served a Riesling, which was a hit. This year, champagne, and a nice Spanish red to complement the dark meat.
Bounty & time to give thanks for it.

Oh cmt, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I almost did not post my comment but than thought "oh well, I will be the rebel". LOL.

Italian food - my grandmother always made Thanksgiving for me because of rigatoni with mushrooms (fungi) that I filled up on so the rest of the dinner I "picked at". I prepared the rigatoni but the tomatoes, the onions, the garlic the herbs etc. were from her garden.

Easter dinner I love! Lamb is one of my favorite meats. And asparugus! And new potatoes. Yum, yum,

Anyway, thanks for understanding! And I will enjoy the shrimp and cocktail sauce, the salad with lots of avacado, the special bread etc. tomorrow. And I do love turkey sandwiches the next day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Relax, it's Ok not to like any food. My parents were born in Italy and rarely cooked turkey because it did not taste the same as in Europe.Knowing now that the chickens there are more tasty, I now believe them. Capons were the substitute.

Loveitaly..I feel exactly the same way, I do like green beans just not that awful casserole form of it.
Like pumpkin pie filling though not the crust :)
So glad to hear you say it - most people look at me astonished when i express my dislike :)

Oh dear ones, thank you! I have kept this dark secret all of my life. I love Thanksgiving Day, just not the menu.

And so I posted my thread and now I find I out there are a few more of us.
:-x
Oh, misery does love company as they say.

But the day itself is special and wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Looks like to me the people on this board will be eating very well tomorrow. Thanks for all the recipes and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are truly blessed in our ability to travel to Europe and enjoy its many pleasures.

Very similar to last year's http://www.straughan.com/italy/living/thanksgiving.htm , except that my new oven is too small for a turkey - wah! At this very moment I'm roasting the chestnuts (in the oven), then have to peel them, in order to make them into stuffing tomorrow which I'll bake on Saturday. We'll do Thanksgiving on Saturday, since it's not a holiday in Italy.

Happy Thanskgiving to everyone!


best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

http://www.straughan.com

And in the spirit of this thread I pass on a message just received from my daughter, an English teacher in north China:

"Today is Thanksgiving I think - 4th Thursday in November? We've postponed our Chinese lesson to hang out with our poor American friend. He's a little homesick in China, and was a bit disappointed that we weren't keen to pay Y155 to have Thanksgiving dinner at the Western cafe. I guess he would have liked to hang out with his fellow countrymen (God knows there's not many here in China). We'll have to do something special with him, can't leave him sitting by himself in his apartment tonight of all nights. Maybe dinner with some Americans would be all right. It sounds like a very fancy dinner."

And let's hope that it is, and that the Australian contingent takes pity on their American friend at this time (as I write it's 5:10pm Thursday in China, by the way).

As the first British settlers in Australia bitterly cursed God rather than thanking him, we didn't develop anything remotely like Thanksgiving. But I hope you guys have a great day (or should that be "had"?)

Cheers,
Neil

THE POWER IS BACK ON!! YEAH!! They restored the power at 10pm last night and finally removed the power line from the pool, so Thanksgiving dinner is on again. :-)) DH was so worried, not about food or lights, but where would he watch football?!?! Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to all my Fodorite pals. Be safe and eat all the food you want. :-)

Amy: I'm sorry about your mother's death, but it sounds like you've found ways to keep the best things about her with you and that TG day will be a celebration of her memory.

P_M: I hope you found someplace interesting to have dinner!

Jahoulih: Thanks for the info. Now that you've explained it, I vaguely remember being told that once before.

Ninasdream: What does TD mean in the context of your message ("...& our overbearing TD insisted the chef make a TG dinner....")?

P.S. I saw this on another forum: http://www.people.virginia.edu/%7Epm...s/artrech.html

PM- oh, thank goodness. Ours went out one year before the turkey went in so we had veggies and watched movies all evening, then had turkey at 10 p.m., a late digestive stroll and more movies 'til pie. One reason why at my own home, I love my gas stove. The other reasons are of course roating peppers on the open flame. And...well, let's just say some of the marshmellows haven't made it tothe yams or cocoa! Toasted marshmellows, poor man's creme brulle?

The funniest holiday was when my father, a new widow, bought an oven stuffer roaster instead of a turkey. We were only 2 that year, and it was delicious. My mother, clever lady had somehow managed to always have him do the weekly grocery shopping, so it was doubly funny he should make a mistake. It WAS a monster of a chicken. Have a great Thanksgiving.

Wow Degas-

I was going to ask if I can come to your house and noticed you didn't have the cranberry sauce down. Noticed you did forget to put it down.
My sister is having Thanksgiving as she does every year. Our menu is consisting of the following:
Appetizers - chopped liver and cocktail hotdogs ( I get to do that)
turkey, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, sweet potatoes with brn sugar/pecan topping, corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, carrot cake ( side dish ), pumpkin pie, apple slices, shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate, and a few other desserts.

degas- thank you for starting this thread with your wonderful menu. (I saw your namesake at the Met earlier this week, by the way). If we knew where, we'd all be dropping by!

For anyone interested, there is a broadcast of Arlo Guthrie's epic, Alice's Restaurant being broadcast at 11:00 a.m. EST at www.wfuv.org. I believe you can listen online, as they have streaming. (please support radio stations that offer streaming!). I grew up listening to this song, and so now I leave this addictive site to continue my meal prep work. We don't eat until evening, and everyone enjoy!

I just have to report back on my first attempt at homemade cranberry sauce. Made it last night and it was so easy and tastes so much better than canned. Can't believe it took me so long to discover this! I made one batch with orange, lemon and Grand Marnier and another plain batch (for the kids.) Both are really yummy!!

Now, off to make the sweet potato casserole...

<b>HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!</b> :d

Kid!.... I love Alice's Restaurant. Been listening to it for years on Thanksgiving. But I have an MP3 of it on the hard drive, so I'm all set.

Glad you got your power back P_M. We were out for 2 weeks last year because a wind storm knocked power out here for 130,000 people. Then come November, we lost an element in our oven and thought we were out of luck again. Then we ended up roasting the turkey on the outdoor grill with the cover closed. Worked out pretty well actually, except for the frostbite. Another opportunity to roll with the punches. All things considered, I think I'll give thanks for electricity.

I'm doing the cooking this year, so it looks like the menu calls for ashed potatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Hooray for P_M :D

Our dinner is cooking, this is the menu:
Appetizers:
assorted olives
garlic toast rounds with smoked salmon and creme fraiche
Salad:
Mixed greens with toasted pine nuts and tomatoes
Turkey (roasted on a bed of baby carrots and celery)
*I did the butter under the skin thing:)
Cornbread and dried fruit (apples, cherries &amp; raisins) stuffing
Grandmas Green Bean Casserole
Mashed potatoes
Yeast rolls
Cranberry chutney
Fig chutney (gift from daughter)
Dessert:
Apple Tart

Drinks:
Pellegrino, Parker Station Pinot Noir, Port after~

Happy Thanksgiving,
Scarlett, the Yankee and Pup