Thanksgiving Menu

Pie for dessert, mincemeat and pumpkin. Piffka I like plain old bread stuffing the best. I am going out this year and do not know what to expect since this is Texas who know what will be served or how the turkey will be cooked.

Cranberry sauce
Fried chicken
Sweet potatoes
Peas
Corn
Dressing
Blue Berry Pie


(ALKA SELTZER)

Fried chicken??? really???

I'm heading over to my sister's so if things are "normal" for them we'll fry a turkey and everything else will be Italian. Lasagna, spagatti, raviolli, breads, cheeses, etc.. A few after dinner cordials..

I love fried chicken. I 'm not crazy about turkey!

Every Thanksgiving we go to my sister-in-laws for dinner. She has a large family, and they make a lot of everything. Her daughter-in-law is a professional baker, so you know what that means!

Pies, always lots of pies
Apple
Pumpkin
Mincemeat
Boston Cream

Pie! Pie! I think I'd die for Pie...
Don't get me started... did you ever see that abuzz thread on pie? I went on for several paragraphs naming my favorites!

Joanne - my stuffing is made of bread, but I have honed it over the years and call it my Italian stuffing. It starts with a variety of breads, but mostly coarse Italian. I add celery and onions which have been sauteed and seasoned, then a lot of very good country sausage, slivers of sun-dried tomatoes & a few pine-nuts. There are slivers of prunes & dried cranberries, but I don't overwhelm it with fruit... I add eggs (of course) and broth and quite a lot of parmesan cheese. It is yummy.

fishin' - sounds like you'll be having a delicious feast. Does anybody NOT like Italian food? We've edged towards a similar menu at Christmas-time... it is so festive and can be green and red!

I don't know how I forgot the cranberry sauce! I've already bought 3 pounds of cranberries.

I"ve been searching for my favorite Thanksgiving Day song... it was by Steve Goodman, called The Thanksgiving Song.

I can only remember a couple of lines:

That old turkey really knows who's boss,
When you put on that cranberry sauce...
Cook that turkey, have another bite to eat.

If anybody knows this, please forward lyrics immediately!!!

If you forget to serve the cranberry sauce, just call me. I can take care of that. It's my favourite part of the meal.

I could happily have a small serving of oatmeal stuffing and gravy, and a bowl of plain cranberry sauce or jelly. The rest of the meal is nice, but not necessary.

Oatmeal stuffing? What is that?

Yes, I adore cranberry sauce, whatever was I thinking when I started this??? I was confused, I guess, having just talked to my sister about what she was going to bring. Her fiance is coming with his mother and they apparently always have canned potatoes. Go figure. Otherwise they are waaaaay more whole foods & natural than I.

piffka - oatmeal stuffing/dressing is a traditionally scottish thing. We learned it from a friend (Rest in peace, dear Bob) who emigrated to Canada from Scotland after WWII, accompanied by his German war bride. Bob was a trained chef who worked at the best country clubs for many years and then went on to become a chef and trainer at one of the federal prisons in my home town.

I've never had a written recipe - a google search gives over 11000 hits! I'm going to go look at a few, and see if one looks familiar.

one nice site with simple oatmeal stuffing - not as bland as it might seem


another link to skirlie - mmmmmmm i'm hungry now

Did I ever tell you about when I had "vegetarian" haggis in Scotland? Tasted like oatmeal with onions. OK, but ....

I also once had such a strange meat dressing in the Kyle of Lochalsh, I didn't care for it... I suppose it COULD have been finely ground oatmeal mixed with bacon fat. That's sort of what it tasted like. I admit I only had a couple of test tastes before leaving the rest.

I think I may stick with my most favored and highly honed own, but I'd like to see your recipe! I'm sorry you aren't going to have a real Thanksgiving dinner this year. Cuban food is all well and good, I'm sure, but ... we're talking TURKEY here!

Scottish Oatmeal Stuffing

2 cups Quick Oats
1 stick butter (room temp)
2 medium chopped onions
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
chicken or beef broth (canned)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl with your hands. Form into a
ball. Tie in clean cloth (we used to cut up a old clean undershirt
-- please no fabric softener -- gives weird taste) with rope.Simmer tied up ball of stuffing one hour in broth. Let it sit and
get cold (you can prepare a day ahead). Tastes best reheated.
Zap it in the microwave before serving.

The secret is the undershirt, although purists may want to substitute
cheesecloth etc.

this one is from
arielle's scottish oatmeal stuffing

I've seen people fight over the left-overs of this - especially when it's part of a big breakfast fry-up. Pointy elbows are useful.


I think the secret to Bob's is the herbs - particularly lots of sage (I can almost never get enough sage in a stuffing/dressing).

Hmmm. Sounds a LOT like the vegetarian haggis. We had ours as an hors d'eourve. We ate most of it... maybe it wasn't made in an authentic Scottish undershirt!

I'm so fond of the effect that I often toss a handful of oatmeal into other stuffing/dressings i make. It can make stovetop stuffing seem real - toss in some oatmeal, dried or fresh cranberries, a half can of mandarin oranges and some sage - almost gourmet like.

Isn't sage great? And the cranberries? I realized I forgot that I also add some diced apples to my stuffing. I ought to write it down, memory going and all, but I'm always reinspired as I cook. I do think it is the parmesan cheese that puts it over the top. Have you ever put cheese into your stuffings?