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Hey bees,
I'm not sure what it is but autumn has looked particularly beautiful this year and I'm feeling particularly festive. Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night were great and a Christmas market is coming to my city this weekend and staying until Christmas but..... I wanna milk this autumn for all it's worth! I wanna celebrate Thanksgiving!
Now, after a few drinks the other night, my friends agreed it would be good to get together and have dinner. I'm vegetarian but they thought it was a good excuse to eat turkey. Now, being sober, I'm thinking.... how did I bring up the subject again and make it sound like a good idea? I need to have a plan of HOW we can celebrate Thanksgiving before I invite my friends over to celebrate it with me. But none of us know how to celebrate Thanksgiving other than what we've seen on Friends!
So..... tell me ALL about Thanksgiving, please. :)
Well, this sounds like a fun idea! In my family we all get together, everyone brings a dish or two, we eat, and then play games/talk. Not very exciting, but something I always look forward to. Traditional dishes in my family are turkey, ham, green bean casserole, date pudding, and pumpkin pie. I hope you have fun with whatever you do!
Just cook a ton of food, eat the meal and then graze the rest of the day. Make sure you have pumpkin pie! We usually watch football or other tv and play games the rest of the day (like Rockband or something like that).
@elizabeth2004: Yeah, I thought it involved yams and pumpkin pie. I had pumpkin pie for the first and only time last year, so I know what that is now. But green bean casserole and date pudding, I am not so sure....
I think I'll do most of the cooking myself, or cook the main things, and ask people to bring smaller dishes if there are any?
You cook and eat! Its easy to celebrate.
If you are doing it with friends you could do a potluck and they could choose what they want to bring (use e-vite so everyone knows what each other is bringing so no repeats)
Since you are vegetarian you could do a great hearty dish like this honey walnut wild rice stuffed butternut squash
Other dishes people could bring is roast turkey and gravy (if not a lot of people this could be a turkey breast or even a chicken)
mashed potatoes or other potato dish
bread stuffing
a green veggie (green beans, brussel sprouts, swiss chard etc)
cranberry sauce
dinner rolls.
a pie for dessert (pumpkin, apple, pecan etc)
There are tons of stuff you can do, but the above are the most common
@BoiledPNut: I figured I need to cook a ton of food but not sure what! I think there's very particular stuff you have for Thanksgiving from watching TV.
Also, if anyone has any particularly good recipes they swear by for this stuff, that'd be amazing. I could google it myself but I wouldn't know a good recipe from a bad one for something I've never eaten before.
Haha great idea! I love Thanksgiving. Its a great time to catch up with family without all the pressure and expense of buying gifts, like at Christmas.
Basically our Thanksgiving goes like this:
Sleep in til 8 or 9 and throw a GIANT turkey in the oven
Sit around in elastic waist pants all day and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV
Finally take a shower, and put on clean pants (still elastic) and welcome the family and friends that have stopped by
Start getting my body ready for the big meal and dig in to the dips and appetizers that are around the house
Drink some wine, eat some snacks, wine, snacks, wine snacks
Around 2:00-Sit down for the big meal!
Go around the table and say what we are thankful for. When its my moms turn she starts crying and talking about how she is so thankful for her babies (her youngest is 21).
Pass the food around and dig in!! This is where I am thankful for my elastic pants-I eat epic amounts of turkey, stuffing (my favorite), mashed potatoes with extra extra butter, veggies, cranberry sauce, rolls/cornbread.
Take a breather...
Go in for 2nd and 3rd helpings
Take another breather...drink some tea to settle my belly
Dig in to the desserts! We have pie, cake, cookies, breads, mmmm
Take a nap
Take a walk around the neighborhood...which is more like a wattle because Im so full
Dig in and make a turkey and stuffing sandwich!
Go to sleep and eat leftovers for the next week
hahahaha I love your step by step process. our usually ends at take nap. And the turkey leftover makes AWESOME sandwiches for the week!
@VickyAurea: If its your first T-day, I would ask people to bring dishes and let them use their own creativity and research for dishes. Its a lot of work and much harder than one would suspect to time a Tday dinner with all the dishes for a lot of people.
If you have never done it before, it is actually a little stressful. If people bring stuff you still have to worry about heating and timing, but that is easier. I would even ask someone to bring an extra microwave because having two microwaves and the oven would be really useful.
@regberadaisy: Its my favorite day of the year :) Its actually gotten better over the years because my FI loves to cook and makes a mean gravy :)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Great-Grandmas-Bread-Stuffing-2/Detail.aspx
Or you could go easy and buy Stove Top that provides everything you need in a box.
Dinner rolls are just bread in small roll size. Fresh made or bought.
Here's a link to a bunch (like 2,000) Thanksgiving recipes! http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/holidays-and-events/thanksgiving/main.aspx
Thanksgiving to us is really about focusing on family and friends and being together. We go around the table and say what we're thankful for, and really give it some thought and honesty. Then we eat like there's no tomorrow- turkey, sage stuffing, mashed potatoes (all three of these covered in gravy), sometimes oyster casserole, greenbean casserole with fried onions on top, candied yams, cranberry sauce made with orange juice (one of my favs), roasted vegetables... all finished off with some kind of pumpkin dessert (pie, roll, cake, bread, ice cream, etc).
Then everyone takes a nap, watches some football, and grazes for the rest of the day.
FYI, Thanksgiving leftovers are AMAZING. There's so many things you can make out of the leftovers.
You can really make it a large dinner of your favorite foods, but for us at Thanksgiving, our menu is pretty standard.
20-25 lb. turkey, stuffed with cornbread/sausage/mushroom stufffing
homemade cranberry sauce
mashed potatoes
cauliflower with breadcrumbs and butter
broccolli casserole (steamed broc/cream of mushroom soup/slices of cheese on top/dried onion rings crumbled on top)
corn
2 kinds of gravy (turkey and brown with mushrooms)
2 kinds of hot dinner rolls (crescent & snowflake)
we always have appetizers first, and several kinds of dessert after, including pies/ice cream/cookies/fruit/nuts
Its a dinner of excess and we partake happily!
http://www.jannorris.com/ask-jan/thanksgiving-dinner-planning/
HaHa...this lady has it down to a science! Don't let this scare you off,tho. It can be whatever you want it to be. Have fun with it.
We eat thanksgiving lunch, and then we weat the leftovers for dinner. We have smoked turkey, hawaiian rolls, some sort of cranberry dish, mashed potatoes, stuffing (one with oysters & one without), white and brown gravy, and various casseroles, followed by chocolate, custard and pumpkin pies.
We usually have games (corn hole out on the lawn & various card games inside). Everyone leaves once it starts getting dark.
My American Thanksgiving:(maybe that's an oxymoron? Well, no, because Canada has Thanksgiving too!)
Wake up really, really early to get the turkey prepared and in the oven.
After the turkey is in, we make something for breakfast like Pillsbury cinnamon rolls so that we don't create a lot of dirty dishes (trust me, there will plenty later).
About 9 AM, the Macy's parade comes on TV. So, we watch it while we're cooking the other food.
Our food normally gets done around noon, but I have other relatives who eat around 3-4 (or even later). I guess it just depends on what time you get up in the morning to get the turkey going.
So, we have Thanksgiving lunch and I'm normally still in my pajamas at that point.
After we eat, I take a shower, get ready, and my siblings and I go to the movies. That is NOT typical behavior on Thanksgiving, but it's something my mom and I started years ago.
Usually after the movie I go visit with other relatives and eat more food.
The food generally consists of (but varies at each house I visit):
Turkey (I know you don't eat it, but it's like a staple of Thanksgiving... they do have tofu turkey, most vegetarians here just make that instead)
My mom makes a ham too.
Stuffing/Dressing (I prefer homemade to Stove Top)
Homemade mashed potatoes
Broccoli casserole
Rice and gravy
Baked macaroni and cheese
Biscuits (FI's grandma makes the BEST biscuits)
Green bean casserole
Cranberry sauce (although I don't eat it)
Rolls
Then, there's dessert, which is normally:
Pumpkin pie
Sweet potato pie
Chocolate pie
Apple pie
Banana pudding
Now I'm hungry!
This is a fantastic recipe for dressing:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/sausage-and-herb-dressing.html
I don't like dressing usually, but I chow down on this stuff!
Note to OP: which @BoiledPNut: made me think of.
Dressing and stuffing are the same thing. Its a regional difference in what it is called.
Also, some people just make it others actually "stuff" it into the bird while the bird roasts. There are many flavors and variations!
I would think a basic Thanksgiving should have a turkey/turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing/dressing and pie (pumpking & apple). Everything is really pretty easy, unless you do homemade stuffing. What you get in a box is a lot easier, but tastes way different. If you do end up with a whole turkey and want to stuff it, make sure to clean it out inside really really well.
@Bostongrl25: Haha. Well, I think since we have work, it'll have to be celebrated the Friday night. Saturday would be better but I'm whisking my man off on a secret trip Sunday morning so last thing we need is a party on Saturday. So, there will be less time for eating, and everyone is small..... I bet it'll just be me stuffing my face!!
@lefeymw: I'm going to assume you can't buy Stove Top here, as I have never seen it and it is for a specifically American dish. Dinner rolls, okay, they're just rolls!! That's easy enough, ha. And I won't have to worry about there not being enough food (I always cook FAR too much and still worry) because I can bulk people out with bread.
@honeyoats22: What is white gravy? And the outside game? Though I doubt that'd happen anyway, this is probably gonna be an evening meal and it gets dark here at 4. When does it get dark where you are in late November if people start leaving then?
@lefeymw: Thanks for clearing that one up. We have stuffing but I hadn't heard of bread stuffing. Nor had I heard it called dressing! Dressing here means sauce you put on salad! I was wondering how to make sausage and herbs into a liquid!
@Future MrsB: If we have turkey, there is NO WAY I am being the one to clean it out. But yes, I think the boys know how to cook it, it's just the same as cooking a chicken, isn't it?
You all say have pumpkin pie/roll/ice-cream, etc...... what if I told you they only import pumpkins on Hallowe'en? This could be tricky. But apple pie is easy-peasy.
Is there a cheese course? I so want you all to say yes but I know in my heart of hearts it's a no. Do people even have cheese courses in the US or is it just cos we're so close to France?
@VickyAurea:I don't usually handle the turkey making in my family, but I know one year we had an issue because my uncle forgot to clean it out before stuffing it, and they were afraid to let people eat the stuffing. If you don't stuff it, I don't think you have the same issue.
Do you have canned pumpkin in the grocery store? You dont' need a real pumpkin, I'm not even sure how you'd turn that in to a pie or anything else other than roasted seeds!
As for the cheese course, we don't do that the way they do in Europe. We might have cheese and crackers and other appetizers while waiting for dinner to be ready though.
@Future MrsB: Nope, we don't have pumpkin in cans! There is no demand for such a thing. I was just thinking the rolls would be nice with cheese...... lots of cheese...... so much cheese...... and I got excited! I'm really skint at the moment (wait, broke.... just remembered that's an English word cos they were talking about it on Gilmore Girls and I hadn't realised it was English) so we can't buy cheese. But we went to the cheese counter yesterday and drooled over the camembert, goat's cheese, mexicana, stilton and apricot, garlic cream cheese, red leicester, gorgonzola, camberzola..... yeah. Totally drooling again right now. Having cheese cravings.
@VickyAurea - You can get pumpkin through the autumn in supermarkets, but butternut squash can be used in place of pumpkin in a lot of recipes. My mum makes amazing pumpkin and pecan pies (not both in one, though).
I rather fancy doing Thanksgiving myself now.
@lefeymw: You're a genius! This e-vite site looks really cute. They have proper Thanksgiving cards. Beats a lame, old Facebook event that will just get ignored. Is there a way to share them without people's e-mail addresses though? Can you share it as a link on FB? (I know I just said it beats FB but it beats an event.... I still need me some FB!)
Do people think I could pull this off as a potluck evening meal? I get home from work at half 5 on Fridays, others maybe get home at 6ish and then they'd have to come over to ours. Plus they'd need to cook at some point. The alternative is we have it on the Saturday? I get home at half 4 on Saturdays but I don't think anyone else works so it would be easier for them. The only reason I suggested Friday was because I want to get up early to go on holiday on Sunday morning.
@VickyAurea: Depending on the size of turkey you get, it can be done! We usually get a 20lb turkey, which takes several hours to cook. Of course, you can get a much smaller one and get it ready before you leave for work and then throw it in the over when you get home.
All the side dishes can be made ahead of time and just heat up before eating.
@VickyAurea: One of the main points of Thanksgiving is to "give thanks" for things that you have. Families do this in different ways, sometimes saying it aloud person by person before or after you say grace, or some families don't talk about it at all. In my family, we have a Thanksgiving book where everyone writes what they're thankful for on a page and it's read aloud every year... that said, Thanksgiving has become more and more about food and football, as well as visiting with friends and family.
The typical meal is:
Roast turkey with stuffing (in or outside of the bird) and gravy
Mashed potatoes
Cranberry sauce (from a tin is fine, or you can make fresh)
Sweet potatoes (baked, mashed, or in a candied casserole with marshmallows)
Rolls
Pies (pumpkin, pecan, etc.)
Some families will do a ham as well, especially if you have a bunch of people coming. The cranberry sauce is the kicker though--it doesn't really taste like Thanksgiving if you don't have cranberry sauce on the table.
Another thing is that you can get a bunch of stuff from the American Store. It's a bit pricey, but worth it. :)
http://www.usafoodstore.co.uk/
My sister lives in Spain but still celebrates Thanksgiving with her (Basque) husband and (mostly Basque) friends. I think she maybe has had two Americans come over for Thanksgiving in the last three years!
Basically, they do a potluck. My sister provides the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie (my mom ships her some canned pumpkin every year, but you can make pumpkin pie out of whole pumpkins, it just takes longer); the rest of her friends bring dishes. Some people bring Spanish and Basque food, some people have tried out "Amercian" recipes in the past. Easy peasy! It's just like a big feast for us (or it's just like a regular Sunday in Spain, lol).
Some "traditional" foods you can look for recipes:
stuffing/dressing
green bean casserole
sweet potatoes/yams (especially sweet potato casserole or pie)
pecan, mincemeat, or apple pie
cranberry sauce
green bean casserole is where its at, totally missing out if you dont have some green bean cass....Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays - some wine, quality time spent with family, good food, festive desserts and did i mention wine? we usually go around the table and each say what we are thankful for this year.
down here in the south we deep fry our turkeys! yummmmm
here is a faux pumpkin pie recipe!
no pumpkin required! http://www.mexscape.net/Food/faux-pumpkin-pie.html
@SpecialSundae: Do it!!!! And nope, not seen a single pumpkin since Hallowe'en. Not one. I thought they'd be reduced but.... they just don't exist! Butternut squash.... oh man, so expensive but so tasty! Morrisons has onion squashes - they look like pumpkins, only small. Not even the amazing market stalls near me have any squashes, not even marrows, I was amazed!
@VickyAurea: Where are you? I seem to be able to get pumpkin or squash all year 'round, as it's one of our staple vegetables.
I can't imagine doing a 20lb turkey. Our one last year for Christmas was only about 14lb and it was pretty huge (even for eight people).
You could definitely get pecans even if you can't get pumpkins.
@Miss Longcoat: SWEET POTATOES IN A CANDIED CASSEROLE WITH MARSHMALLOWS?
Right, bees, why have none of the rest of you mentioned this? That is INSANE. So crazy it has to be tried.
@Miss Longcoat: Thanks, I'll take a look! Pricey doesn't bode well in my book, though.
@SpecialSundae: I'll message you where because I know you but I don't like announcing it to the whole of the internet. Though I'm sure anyone who was a genuine stalker could work it easily enough. I can definitely get pecans, yes! I used to live in the next city, 20 mins by train, and I had 50p giant marrows coming out my ears. But na-da here!
@VickyAurea: That's very sensible. I'm silly enough not to care too much.
I have a bit of a thing for the Asian supermarkets in Edinburgh.
@elizabeth2004: Ours is much the same. We watch the Charlie Brown special and of course football as well. :)
@VickyAurea: Maybe you could watch some rugby instead? Much more fun (and the players are much more attractive)!
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