So, this will be the second year that the kids have taken over Thanksgiving. Last year it was due to medical reasons and this year, a divorce.....plus, it's just fun

My second child is due just a few days after Christmas, so we're doing our "big" family meal at Thanksgiving. Nothing is too extravagant this year....well....beluga caviar would put a hurting on my wallet, but you know what I mean.

What are you ladies (or men) planning? Great recipes would be appreciated.

I go to other houses, but I always bring cranberry relish with me. Its a bag (the smaller one, not the big one) of cranberries, apples (I like to use macintosh), sugar, and some OJ to prevent browning of the apples.

Chop cranberries in a food processor. Set aside in a large bowl. Cut up apples (removing core, skin is optional) and chop in a food processor. Add to cranberries. Add sugar and OJ to taste.

I usually buy about a pound and a half of apples (about 6), and add them until it looks and tastes right. If I have any left over, I just eat them

I don't think my cooking is trusted yet I've been asked to bring the salad. I like to do it this way: Spinach and romaine, sugar-cayenne walnuts, cranberries, apples, feta, homemade vinaigrette. A little bit of onion and some cherry tomatoes.

I always make homemade cranberry compote. It's so much better than the canned jelly stuff.

1 bag cranberries, picked over and rinsed
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
water to cover

Bring to a boil and then simmer until the cranberries pop and everything begins to thicken (about 30-40 mins). Add a cup of chopped walnuts if you want the crunch.

Remove from the heat and pour into pretty glass jars. Makes 3-4 pints.

I make 2 batches of this right before Thanksgiving and we eat it all the way through to New Years. It's GREAT on turkey sandwiches with a little cream cheese or on an english muffin in the morning.

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This sounds great. I have last year's can in my cupboard- still.

Maybe some spenda, some sugar?

If you're going to use Splenda, I'd add it after the stuff comes off the stove, and stir it in well before it cools and thickens up completely.

I use organic cane sugar exclusively and I've found that depending on how tart you want the compote (and how sweet your orange juice is) you can sometimes reduce this to 1/4 cup of sugar. You just have to taste it and see what appeals.

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I give thanks with my friends, even though I have a huge family here on the isle. Its our chace to gather our chillin's and be the adults and do the cooking (when you live in the same town as 5 living generations you have to get out from under grannies apron sometimes). I'm roasting the turkey and making the potatoes...and maybe something like stuffing but not really like stuffing cause none of us really likes stuffing and actually eating something out of the cavity of a turkey seems like a biohazard to me.

In the South we make "stuffing" as a casserole dish and call it "dressing".

I've never gotten into "stuffing" in the turkey. But I love a good cornbread dressing, doused with turkey gravy. Mmmmmmm.

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Same here. I've never actually cooked stuffing in the bird... or seen anyone do it - except on tv. Seems to me like the stuffing would be done hours before the bird is. We do a casserole dish... but it's nothing healthy, so I won't post the recipe

I love stuffing and I especially love it cooked inside the turkey, because then all the juices from the turkey drip down into it while it's cooking. But it's not exactly diet-friendly, since I'm sure part of what is dripping into the stuffing that makes it taste so good is fat from the turkey. Carbs and fat, yum... And my understanding is that there are some food safety considerations; you do have to be careful to get the turkey hot enough to kill bad bacteria and the stuffing can hinder it from reaching the right temperature. But I love stuffing enough that I'm also perfectly happy with it cooked as a casserole outside the bird.

It's just two of us (at least I hope--there's an off chance my SO's mother will join us, which would not be a good thing) so we're going out. I already have our dinner reservations at one of my favorite restaurants. I'll definitely be having some stuffing and I won't be asking how they cooked it.

mmk....I should probably stress that healthy and diet friendly have nothing to do with my Thanksgiving

I'm usually a stuffing girl, but I've been transplanted to the south where we now do dressings.

Here is a question for everyone....how to do an awesome gravy when one isn't cooking a turkey? My SIL is bringing a turducken and I'm making a huge roast (which I still have to find a roasting pan big enough for). Canned gravy tastes like crap....

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PC - I make a similar cranberry compote to yours, except I use whole oranges as well. I too make way more than we need so we can use it for weeks afterwards. I love it as a pancake topping and to stir into oatmeal.

my salivary glands are already into hyperdrive with all this talk of good food.

can you please tell me how you got your lady bug in the grass thing at the bottom of your post - I just signed up today and am very out of the looP?

Jenny

Make a roux with equal parts butter and flour, then add a good quality store bought stock to make the gravy. It may not be quite the same, but it will be MUCH better then the canned or powdered stuff!

We are going to a friends house this year and I think we are in charge of bringing a couple of appetizers. I'm not sure what we are making yet, I need to find some fabulous recipes!

Zeff~ I agree on not worrying about the food being diet friendly! It's the one day I only eat twice (light breakfast then the BIG meal.) I do try to get a walk in, but I refuse to stress over one day. It's the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas I have to be careful about.

I start with the Williams Sonoma turkey gravy base (which is almost, but not quite, a demi-glace).

Make a dark flour roux with butter and flour, then add the gravy base, then thin with chicken stock. It's the only thing I've found that's as good as the real thing.

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