If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

what were your successes and what didn't come out as well as you would have liked?

Here's my break down:

Turkey- brined it using Michael Chiarello's brine recipe, unfortunately it was over cooked and dry- I was super disappointed

Gravy- used McKormack's packets, added some turkey drippings and touch of milk- came out very good

Cranberry compote- made with crushed pineapple, fresh cranberries, mandarin oranges- Would make again

Sausage stuffing- Delicious, definite keeper

Sweet potato casserole w/ marshmallow topping- make same one every year, big hit

Mashed potatoes- Used Pioneer Woman recipe from Throw Down- awesome (made the day before and heated day of)

Baked Macaroni and cheese w/ panko topping(used Cavatappi, american, cheddar and asiago) Used recipe posted on here- Came out delicious straight form the oven! Must be eaten right away though.


Steamed asparagus with EVOO, sea salt & pepper- unfortunately I over steamed it, so again too mushy.

Spanokopita- mom's recipe, love it! Family tradition

Pumpkin Bread Pudding- Made Bobby Flay's Throw Down recipe. Bread was perfect! Unfortunately the bread pudding was a bit too mushy for my taste but the flavor was great. I will def keep his pumpkin bread recipe as my new favorite though.

My biggest problem was getting everything on the table HOT with limited oven space. Overall though I was please and happy to have left overs!

Message edited 11/26/2010 9:54:41 AM.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

I made three pies, two of which were new: the apple butter pumpkin posted here, a new jack daniesl chocolate pecan and my standby favorite Caramel Apple Pie. The Jack Daniels pie was by far the favorite. Almost the whole apple pie went. the surprise was the pumpkin (which I made from a real pumpkin and not from a can) that no one but I touched I thought it was pretty darn good

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

turkey was disappointing. I got a small bird and it was all drumsticks and wings. Very little breast meat.

Next time I will get just a breast. It tasted good though.

Everything came out great. Best was the stuffing and mashed taters.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

My First thanksgiving.

Made a 12.5 lb bird - was fantastic!! SUPER moist. Rubbed w/margarine, salt, pepper. Threw some onions on the bottom of the pan, lotsa broth, and just basted the shitt out of that bird. It was amazing.

Homemade stuffing - very good for a first timer - a little bland but I was nervous to go nuts with the seasoning. Day old rolls from the deli, soaked, mushed, added browned onions, eggs, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning.

Sweet potato casserole w/marshmallow topping - CANNED. Hahahaha - but delicious.

Corn - frozen niblets. I didn't eat any.

Mashed potatoes - mom made - cream cheese and mozzarella. A little bland but awesome texture.

Green bean casserole with stuffing on top - sister made. Added box stuffing on top - was DELICIOUS.

Dessert:

Tastefully Simple pumpkin patch bread - I put them in pumkin shaped muffin tins - very tasty.

Tastefully Simple carrot cake cheese ball w/tasty grahams. A+

Pumpkin pie and apple crumb pie from White Post Farms - delicious.

So - I did a semi-homemade Thanksgiving. It was perfect for us - it was just 4 of us...

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

This was my 10th time making Thanksgiving.

Turkey - I love my recipe and this was the best of all of the turkeys that I have ever made. It was moist, succulent, and flavorful. There is barely anything left over. Everyone said it was excellent. I was thrilled.

Gravy - I made my own this year for the first time. I modified the America's Test Kitchen recipe to make it for a meat meal and substituted margarine for the butter. It was amazing. I will absolutely be making this again. Everyone raved and said it was the best gravy. I was thrilled.

Stuffing - It was a little dry. I was not thrilled. It was only ok.

Mushrooms and onions - very good.

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows - my mom made it and it was fantastic.

Apple sauce - I combined both cinnamon and chunky and it was amazing. The entire jar is gone.

Green beans - I steamed them in the microwave of all places and they came out perfectly. It was the store brand and I had never made them before. I really liked them and would make them again.

Pumpkin cheesecake - I was inspired by the ladies here to make this using the Paula Dean recipe and it was fantastic. I had made it for my Halloween party and I figured out how to perfect it this time. Over 1/2 is gone.

Brownies - at DHs request I tried the Gheradeli brownie mix and I failed. I love my old recipe and this is not it. He likes this one, but I don't and I have tons left over. My other recipe goes and I never had leftovers. I want to go back to my old Duncan Heins standard.

I made a Gingerbread choo choo train with candy. It was a lot of fun and a cute project for the kids.

Breads - I did not love mine. I got the fat free crescent rolls and bleh. I should have gotten the regular crescent rolls.

Butternut squash, onion, spinach and crasin salad - very good. I love eating this as left overs.

ETA: Pumpkin muffins. DS loves them and I made the box mix and since I had left over pumpkin I whipped up a batch from scratch. I love them. If anyone needs an excellent scratch pumpkin muffin recipe let me know.

Message edited 11/26/2010 3:25:30 PM.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

i used a small turkey breast b/c it was 3 adults..cooked in an oven bag and it came out pretty well.

the veggies were steam fresh bags;

the mashed potatoes however, DH made. I wanted to use the Pioneer recipe someone shared onhere, but DH almost died when he read it would have cream cheese in it. So we made it with softened butter and half and half. IT was smooth and not lumpy, but when the potatoes were somewhat cooled off and we went to get 2nds..they kind of fell apart and hardened...have no idea what happened. I wish DH would have just used that recipe. Im going to make them Pioneer woman way and show him how its done.

other than that, getting everything timed to stay hot is a problem.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Message edited 11/26/2010 3:57:18 PM.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

My first thanksgiving hosting too!

I had a 14.5 lb turkey and I found that it was a little dry as well. I even brined it! I used alton's recipe from a thanksgiving food network special. All he seasoned it with was oil and pepper. It was ok but I'll def try something new next year.

candied sweet potatoes - canned but came out awesome. Only problem was I made it the day before and it took forever to heat up so they were sort of cold for dinner

string bean casserole - I couldn't eat it but I heard it was good

stuffing - AWESOME - I added sausage, celery, onion, dried cranberries, walnuts, apples and seasoning

corn - out of the can

cranberry sauce - came out great and super easy, I don't think I'll ever used canned again. I mixed sugar and orange juice and then fresh cranberries

for appetizers we had spinach dip, clam dip, guacamole and cheese and crackers

Message edited 11/26/2010 8:58:21 PM.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Turkey - dh did this, he brined it. it was good.

Gravy - although the turkey was delish, dh used salt and we used the drippings for the gravy, the gravy was extremely salty
mashed potatoes - delicious

stuffed mushrooms - shrunk a lot but good, used giada's recipe. it is fantastic.

sweet potato casserole - found a recipe on allrecipes, used fresh, read comments on recipe to cut the sugar in half and turned out really good.

broccoli au gratin - told it is normally very wet, not wet, but i think i overcooked it.

stuffing- was very dry, hate it dry. added broth after when we put leftovers away and today it was delish.

glazed carrots - delish, but used margarine instead of butter so i think it was not as good as it could have been.

turkey soup is on the stove now. smells delish

we had 10 people (1 canceled) and 3 of the 10 were sick so we had tons of leftovers.

Message edited 11/26/2010 6:32:39 PM.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Turkey: Butter rubbed between the skin, breast wrapped in bacon, basted it for hours...it was 22lbs...succulent and golden delicious!

Stuffing: We stuff in the bird. Cornbread stuffing with bacon, sausage, celery, onions and apple. Amazingly delicious, best stuffing yet.

Gravy: Pan drippings w/chicken stock and flour. Simple is the best. Very rich.

Cranberry sauce: Whole jellied cranberries w/pineapple tidbits, pineapple juice, orange juice, orange zest and lemon juice. A HIT!!!!

Spinach Gratin: Another hit. Creamed braised spinach w/Gruyere.

Mashed Potatos: My best yet! Whipped redskin potatoes w/cream cheese, butter, heavy cream.

Roasted Cauliflower: Delicious and simple.

For dessert we had apple crisp, brownies, coconut custard pie, pumpkin cheesecake and Briermere pies (peach and apple blackberry).

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Turkey: DH did 2 turkey breasts on the rotisserie on our BBQ. It wasn't as juicy as I thought it would be.

Mashed Potatoes: Yukon golds made with butter and whole milk, creamy and delicious.

Green Beans: Steamed fresh in the bag, and made a sauce with sour cream and lemon juice. Topped them with shaved parmesan cheese. Yummy.

Carrots - Boiled on the stovetop, I don't like roasted carrots.

Corn - Green Giant in the bag, with butter sauce, cooked in the microwave, yummy

Stuffing - Pepperidge Farm stuffing, added celery and onions, yummy

Gravy - Had to use jarred since there were no drippings from the turkey breasts on the grill. Used Heinz, and it was good.

Bread: Pillsbury Crescent Rounds - Delicious!

After everything got cold last year before I got a chance to eat, I bought a buffet server/food warmer and used that this year to keep everything hot.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Turkey: We make a breast because no one really eats dark meat. I put half an orange and a package of poultry mix herbs inside. Seasoned with salt and pepper. I use a Cranberry Glaze from Emeril to glaze the turkey so the skin darkens up.

Gravy: We buy Heinz gravy, love it.

Stuffing: I make Rachael Ray's Apple and Onion Stuffing Muffins. Always a huge hit and easy to make.

Green beans: Just sauteed with garlic.

Mashed potatoes: Baked in the oven the day before with skins on, peeled and mashed. On Thanksgiving day, I added a 1/2 cup of milk, salt, pepper. Topped with homemade bacon bits and French's french fried onions. Heated in oven.

Sweet potatoes: I used the Sweet Potato Casserole recipe from Five Ingredient Fix on the food network. Sweet potatoes, chipolte in adobo, bacon, maple syrup, eggs, and salt and pepper. You mix the egg yolks in and then whip the egg whites and fold them in. Made it nice and light. This was the first time I made this and everyone loved it!

Cranberry sauce: We are suckers for the canned jelly cranberry sauce.

Rolls: I made potato rolls from Annie Eats. They came out good and I made herb butter and honey butter to go with them.

Apple pie: I bought Mrs. Smiths, wasn't cooking anything else.

Chocolate cake: It was DS's first birthday, so we had to have a cake, store bought. He loved it!

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Turkey - 12lb bird seasoned with salt and pepper inside and out. I spread thyme butter over the skin and put a good chunk under the skin. I put 2 clementines and thyme in the bird as well. This was the first year I cooked it without foil on top. Usually I put foil and make a tent and take the foil off about 30 minutes before it's done. It was still moist and delicious.

Roasted brussel sprouts - cut brussel sprouts length wise and tossed in EVOO, salt and pepper. This is definitely the best way to eat them.

Roasted broccoli - tossed in EVOO, salt and pepper. Just delicious.

Cranberry sauce - my first time making it. I followed the directions on the back of the package of fresh cranberries. I will never used canned again.

Peas - frozen peas cooked with onions, garlic and EVOO. I make this a lot and surprisingly it was not my best.

Gravy - I sauteed chopped onions along with the giblets and turkey neck then added chicken stock and let it simmered. I removed the giblets and neck and added flour to thicken and salt and pepper. I let it simmer more to really soften the onions. I let it cool then put it in the food processor the blend the onions. When the turkey was done I poured in the drippings. It was really really good.

My MIL made:
Sausage stuffing - it was tasty, but I would have preferred regular. It was heavy with everything else.

Stuffed mushrooms - her usual recipe so didn't have any.

Mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows - didn't have any but others enjoyed them.

Spinach casserole - really good and will be making this for other occassions.

Message edited 11/27/2010 10:39:15 AM.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

My homemade cranberries were AMAZING!! omg everyone loved them and I like them hot (taste like tv dinner cranberries- the dessert! wow brought me back to my childhood haha) I just followed the recipe on the cranberry bag and added a little bit more sugar.


My homemade sausage stuffing was also a big hit and came out great. I followed a recipe on here. so tasty.

cookies and brownies were a hit, but they were things I usually do. nothing new

Mashed potatoes had no lumps. The trick is boiling them for a looooong time that they are falling apart.

pepperoni bread was a HUGE hit. so yummy.

chili bean dip was good!

green bean casserole was good. my hubby had it for the first time and liked it and he;s not even a fan of mushrooms.

Only thing I would like to improve on
next year is the turkey. Everyone said it was great, and I enjoyed it (and we barely had leftovers of it), but I thought it was too dry. I heard if you put apples, oranges, and lemons in the cavity it keeps it more moist.

Overall, it was a success! very proud of myself :)

Message edited 11/27/2010 3:32:03 PM.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Turkey - 20 pounder, cooked it the reynolds bad seasoned it up. I don't really like turkey, but it came good.

mashed potatoes - my usual recipe, good!

Mashed sweet - yummy, wanted to do something more excited but MIL is diabetic so I had to make them low carb/sugar

Stuffing - sauasage cornbread stuffing... first time i ever made it, it was AWESOME!!!! I can't stop eating the leftovers!!!

String beans with garlic, oil and lemon zest.

gravy - mom did it, it was seriously the best one she ever made and I ever had (i will take some credit since she used my turkey drippings)

everything else mom or MIL brought!

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

Turkey-14 lb bird, came out dry. I'm going to use a bag next time or do a better job basting it.

Sweet Potato casserole-I make the "Ruth Cris" recipe with sugar, butter, and a pecan and brown sugar topping. This is always a big hit (but I don't like sweet potatoes myself).

Corn Souffle-made with jiffy corn bread mix, can of regular corn, can of cream corn and some thing else but I can't remember. Came out great, but since I double the recipe it took a lot longer than I thought it would to cook so it didn't make it to the table in time.

Stuffing-ran out of casserole dishes and the pan i cooked it in wasn't insulated enough so it was a little more crusty that I would have liked.

Green Bean Casserole-I only make it for my FIL, no one else eats it. But, he like it!

Mashed potatoes-The only ones I eat are Yukon Gold and they have to be creamy. My MIL and I were cooking together and she fixed these. Actually, she ruined them because she skimped on the butter and milk. After that I told her not to touch my sweet potatoes!

Oh and I tried a sausage cornbread stuffing too-it was a debut recipe for this year It failed! I'll have to try a recipe from here next time.

Re: If you cooked for Thanksgiving...

here is my breakdown. We did a second thanksgiving on saturday with my mom and sisters family.

Turkey breast - I made a butter spread with fresh sage, thyme, and rosemary. Spread it under the skin and all over the turkey. Placed the turkey on top of carrots with chunks of onion and whole garlic cloves around it. threw in full strands of rosemary and thyme under the skin along with a few green onions. Dumped 1/4 cup of sauvignon blanc over the turkey. cooked at 325 for like 3.5 hours. Turned out perfect.

Green Beans - steamed them then threw them in a skillet with chopped garlic and lemon olive oil and black pepper. Very tasty.

Corn casserole - paula deans recipe. Came out very good.

Cheese casserole - family recipe. Turned out heavenly

Stuffing - stove top. i totally cheated.

cranberry - made traditional cranberry sauce and mixed in some blueberry port wine. Very good!

Pumpkin Pie - used a simple recipe from the bottle of the pumpkin pie spice. Very very easy and tasted good. Although the refridgerated pie crust was only okay - I was lazy and didn't make my own.

sweet potato casserole - was very good and not too sweet.

Burbon glazed carrots - I wasn't very happy with these. The galze didn;t thicken as soon as it was supposed to and i ended up adding more brown sugar making it a little too sweet and the carrots were over cooked.

gravy - madwe by my BIL. He did it the southern way with egg. it was great!

Message edited 11/29/2010 2:04:14 PM.