Now that it's almost over .... what did you get up to on your thanksgiving?

It was just the 2 of us, which is generally how we like it.

Got up semi-early, had a fairly standard breakfast and did the chopping for whatever would go around the turkey. Ended up putting the turkey in at 1:30 (it was 12.7 lbs., the smallest one I could find in the store). The turkey was stuffed with lemon wedges and garlic cloves, and sat on a criss-cross bed of celery stalks. During the last half hour of cooking, I tossed in some rosemary twigs. Also, the turkey was sprinkled with kosher salt, cracked black pepper and paprika.

Now for the sides.

I wanted a yam and RP wanted mashed taters. No prob! We had leftover mashed taters so he just took a few scoops of that. I had exactly one yam, cooked in the microwave.

I made semi-stuffed mushrooms by hollowing out shiitakes mushrooms and mixing their innards with bread crumbs and onion powder. Also added chopped oyster mushrooms. I think "stuffed" is a neat, generous word for the reality, which was stuffing covering the mushrooms.

I also cooked whole cranberries (you can get 'em here) with sugar, water and a little orange juice. I'm the only one who eats those, so I immediately froze over half of them.

Green veg ended up being frozen vegs as we had not planned that part terribly carefully (oops). Salad and smoothies were what we eat pretty much any night we eat in.

Oh, and the stuffing was cubed bread, onion powder, sage and chestnuts. In the last half hour of cooking the turkey, I threw the stuffing mixture into the pan where the turkey was cooking (along with the aforementioned rosemary twigs). The mushrooms, in their container, were also placed in the oven.

The rosemary twigs, lemon wedges and garlic cloves were discarded. I had a leg; RP had breast meat, and we ate at 8 PM, which was fine (we'd had late lunches). We will have leftovers for dinner tonight.

Oh and as for family stuff, my brother called and we had a nice chat (learned that the elder nephew made the stuffing there. Yay!) but could not get my folks as all circuits must've been mighty busy in Jersey, where they were spending the day with my cousins. Ended up leaving word on my Dad's cel phone. I'm sure they're fine, just distracted with all of the people there. I know my cousin and I'm sure she put on a beautiful spread.

Ack! How ya doin'?

Pretty damn good, thank you.

I think the calm chowder helped.

Thank goodness for calms.

I had no idea where this one came from, I thought they were all imported and it was quite pricey. It's delicious though, very tender meat and flavorful.

We went over my aunts house for a nice traditional dinner. My kids and their cousin did the best thing ever for Thanksgiving....not only did they perform an original skit (has become a tradition over the past couple of years) - and did their a version of Grandma got ran over by a reindeer - instead they re-wrote it as Grandma got run over by a Turkey.

The sweetest thing was - they made a scroll for each of us - that specifically said what they were thankful about us for - they were made with white paper with sticks glued on each end wrapped in red ribbon. Quite a hit and surprise for us all.

Scovy ducks (Muscovy is their full name), are ducks preferred by the Chinese, the Jews and theSlovaks. The ritual of "Charnina SOup" made with ducks blood, is an acquired tatse.
But the meat pf the SCovy is ample, tasty and juicy. The Long Island Ducks are just raised for their meat and it usually turns out very fatty. BUT LI ducks are easily acquired at any butcher and so restaurants (except Chinese) serve em all cut up so you dont usually recognize the cutting.

There are several other varieties but those are more like geese than ducks.

I love duck soup its so rich, its a meal in itself

Wally and I braved the 68 degree cold and made our way 2 houses down to have dinner and entertainment at our neighbors.
There were about 30 people there, about equal amonts of adults and kids (aged 2 through 8).

I met neighbors' brothers' finance, who is from Japan. She'd brought a couple of her Japanese friends. Met neighbors new friends who are from S. Africa. Listened to an improteau guitar session outside, while 5 little ones banged on the piano indoors.

A neighbor who is just going on the market asked me to keep a lookout for any men from New York, as she's attracted to them.

Enjoyed watching 3 little girls try to out do each other with customs made from forarging in various closets.

Very nice time.

Pretty laid back. For a long time, Thanksgiving was my one real cooking experience per year and I'd be kinda panicky about it. I've finally, finally gotten more comfortable with cooking, and it was both good and extremely un-panicky.

Made several things ahead of time (cranberry nut bread, cranberry sauce, step one of fiery sweet potatoes [thai red curry, coconut milk]). Then the turkey was done right on time (2 hours in my trusty clay pot), once it was finished I put the stuffing and sweet potatoes in the oven and made carmelized corn with mint on the stovetop. Half-hour later, everything was ready to eat (at the same time!).

This is very unusual.

Just us three, had some adventures trying to find a movie to watch (not really anything on TV as we've already seen Elf about 17 times, library was closed, Redbox had nothing that both E.G. and sozlet wanted to see, iTunes is terrible about captioning), finally lit on "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" on iTunes -- which then took two hours to download. Grr.

But we still watched the first half, will watch the rest tonight. (Started promisingly, then got weird and random. Just kind of throwing out references to make fans happy ["42!! Woo!!!"] at the expense of a cohesive storyline. Maybe the second half gets better.)

Anyway, overall a nice day. And a fridge full of leftovers today, yay.

The only thing I ever liked about "Hitchhiker's" was the vogons penchant for lunch.
Im not one of those who worshipped that movie or the story. II found it too damn annoying and often trite.

Bumblebeeboogie and Butrflynet invited Diane and me over for thanksgiving dinner and a good time was had by all, though Butrflynet had quite a two day kitchen workathon. What a feast!

The turkey was gorgeous. The dressing was wonderful (recipe!!). Homemade cranberries. The sweet potato dish was the best I've ever had. I'm not fond of the traditional sweet potato marshmallow dish that so many love: this was a whole set of leagues more delicious. There were fresh perfectly cooked asparagus spears... salad with apples and pecans and much else, delicious, but by the time I got to it I was already stuffed so I only ate half (I'm strange, I like my salad as a kind of palate cleanser, thus it's place in the lineup). I made the Lahey no-knead bread and that turned out great but really superfluous.

Diane brought champagne that we put off attacking until Christmas. We opened and drank a Vinho Verde, part of Dys memories, as it was a favorite of his.

We talked a lot, some serious; laughed a lot. I got involved with BBB's cookbook shelf, which had lots of goodies.

Butrfly and I approached the wine cabinet - see her recent wine thread. In the review of what was there, I scounced down on the floor for better viewing and BFN wrote up the possible-save-this names and held bottles up to the light.

Leaving the room - or even when I was in the room, Maddie the doggy suddenly fell in love with my kneesocks, which were mostly hidden under my long black skirt... followed me out, chewing my socks as I walked. That went on for quite a while though he was obedient to sanction moderately readily. Eventually it stopped. All I can think of is that I had held up some of the portion of bottles that had leaked over the years and that dripped on my socks. (snort!!!!!) That's a lifetime first, a doggy wanting to run away with your socks while you are still wearing them....

Over here is no Thanksgiving, so food or party was not planned.
But a Turkish friend of mine invited a group of ladies for a Turkish evening, which had nothing to do with Thanksgiving - just that we all had time that day.
She made a lovely assorted snack plate and small breads all Turkish with Turkish tea.
A very nice evening.
By the way - instead of flowers I brought an advent calender with chocolate.

Thanksgiving here was with my wife, two daughters & granddaughters (sons and their sons on the East coast). I slept in late after a good workout yesterday. Then, after a few cups of coffee, did about 40 minutes on the elliptical machine to get pumped up for the eating ahead; sat around talking and occasionally trying to read amid the (mostly) happy noise; played a long game of monopoly with one daughter and two granddaughters (they're eight) - won handily and taught them never to trust old men doing deals. The meal preparations were fairly peaceful considering that three women and two girls were each trying to be creative and boss at the same time.

We had a round of bubbly with shrimp hors d'oeuvres and then the traditional meal with turkey mashed potatos, green beans, stuffing, creamed onions, & fresh cranberries. An excellent, slightly tart, apple pie for desert. It was great. Afterwards I (once again) watched the film "Polar Express" with the granddaughters (a newly created "tradition" for opening the Christmas season, created by the women here -without consulting me at all). Still a very good day, with lots to be thankful for.

That's because I lost a day! I'm so glad Diane called Wednesday afternoon to ask what time to be here for dinner. When she asked "What time should we be there tomorrow?" I seriously said to her that tomorrow was Wednesday, but she should be here around 2pm on Thursday. She believed me! When I told BBB what the call was about, she said that tomorrow was Thursday, not Wednesday. I had to look at a newspaper and then verify it with the calendar before I believed her. We then called Diane back and told her she was correct and not losing her mind, that it was me who had lost a day. An entire day of preparation gone!

Meanwhile, I'd had all the cooking leisurely scheduled out for the next two days before Thanksgiving and had to do a marathon job of it that evening instead. Luckily, I had already begun much of the prep work the night before with chopping veggies, etc. The turkey was still partially frozen in the middle but brining it overnight thawed it out the rest of the way very nicely. (And yes, I remembered to remove the goodies from the inside this time.) Did you know that you have to add 10 minutes of cooking time per pound of bird at higher elevations? I found that out! It needed an extra hour to reach temp.

BBB was heroic in decorating and setting the table. I was so sore from lifting that blasted turkey so many times, we might have eaten on paper plates.

I sent both Diane and Osso home with lots and lots of leftovers. Osso also got the turkey neck and giblets for soup making.

Diane brought over a Coconut Cream Pie (with fresh coconut!), one of Bob's favorites from our favorite restaurant, the Flying Star. We all managed to force ourselves to eat a slice of it in honor of Bob even though we were royally stuffed. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with the cooking and company.

Osso, I'll put the recipes you asked for over on the Ask the Cooks thread.

Just got home on this wet Saturday afternoon & have been catching up on all the new posts here ...

Thanks to all of you for sharing the details of your thanksgiving day with those of us who don't get to have one. Your posts have been an absolute delight to read. The next best thing to being there!

And anyone who hasn't posted yet, it's never too late, OK?

For those of you who may still be feeling a wee bit queasy after all that good food, a gift from me to you.
This'll perk you up in no time! Good ol Alka Seltzer!

No need for that, what with the tryptophan in turkey, so goes the belief. Not that there isn't. Well, whatever. There I was trying to save the room from invaders or something when I was suddenly moving through a building - as usual it was sort of in Los Angeles, with complications as the building moved, and I woke up needing to pee. Done and back dealing with how to get out of the building into the....

suddenly it was eight a.m. and the sky showed through the curtains.

How did your UK thanksgiving get-together (for the multitudes! ) go today, Aidan?

I made Butrflynet to rest Friday after our Thanksgiving dinner. I spent about three hours clearing up the kitchen and get everything put back in the cupboards.

Diane and I went through my walk-in closet before dinner and found some clothes that will fit her. My wonderful neighbor friend, Barbara, can cut the pant lengths and sew them so they fit shortie Diane properly.

Diane and Butrflynet plan to take Diane's Sally dog to our near-by dog park along with our doggies Dolly and Madison. They will have a great time there. Diane will like it, too. I'd love to go with them, but the ground surface is not safe for me to attempt to walk on it without falling down. I will stay home and finish up some of the Thanksgiving left overs.

BBB

Msolga, I celebrated my birthday two days early and now I'm celebrating Thanksgiving two days late. The kids from Orlando are doing everything and I am delighted.

The 24th my daughter was going to leave to go to her place and she will not spend Christmas at home this year. So the 23rd we had a Swedish Christmas dinner.
We decorated the kitchen for Christmas, found the Christmas music and did the dinner.
First we had herrings, sour cream, boiled eggs, etc.
The ham, applesauce, mustard, red cabbage and caramalized potatoes.
For dessert we had baked apples filled with marzipan and vanillasauce.