What's Your Thanksgiving Menu This Year?

I'm being 100% honest when I say it's worth the drive to Utah. Mrs. Brake makes the best pies.

 

Wow - looks great. I just had some myself and now I want more.

 

Pumpkin just finished baking.

Cajun seasoning for the fried turkey.
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Injecting some Cajun love into the bird.
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+1. I love pecan pie!!

 

Pie and football. USA, USA, USA!
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Looks great !

 

Homemade sweet potato pie, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. Main course was grilled burgers! Kids didn't want turkey which is fine with me.

Started the day off with homemade cinnamon rolls and a walk through the local arboretum.

 

food coma time!
After a 14 hour drive to NJ yesterday (older dog Sake liked to snooze up front inbetween us while the puppy preferred to sleep in his crate in the back) spent today drinking, cooking and eating. Started the morning with a mimosa, then a Chimay blue while prepping, then Glenfiddich pre-dinner, wine with dinner, then an esspresso martini with pumpkin pie and cupcakes

Also continued a tradition: after the humans finsihed we make a complete mini-plate for the dogs. The new puppy most certainly approves of this tradition!

Great meal and dinner converstaion this year! Went around the table asking the folks and neighbors what they ate, and who cooked thanksgiving dinners of their youths. Some fun stories!
Already planning next year's menu. Going cajun-style. Need to find a source for turtle and fresh rabbit....

Happy thanksgiving all!!!
Defintely a ton to be thankful for.
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And you have started a new tradition with my family. I made the Corn Pone you listed and was pretty amazed at the great flavors from such a simple recipe. I added a little shredded cheddar cheese. I could see adding some jalepenos and maybe even some shredded chicken and making that dinner!

Great day here too. I should have taken some pics. Fried a 23.5 pound turkey in just over an hour. It does make a little mess but if you do it right it's not bad. The oil is getting more and more expensive though. Still my favorite way to cook a turkey!!

 

We had a lot of different dishes. My contributions were Pumpkin soup, homemade meatballs and mashed potatoes. The soup was by far the best dish of the night.

 

Cool! We've made corn pone at least 1/2 dozen times over the summer for BBQs and just about everyone who tastes it demands the recipe. So easy and deliscious.
Yesterday all I did to vary from the basic recipe was to add a few tablespoons of guanciale (cured pork cheeks) fat after I crisped some up for the brussels sprouts, and add a healthy pinch of cayenne. Held ~1/4 stick of butter back from the CP recipe to compensate for the pork fat.
Adding shredded/chopped chicken is a good idea - or leftover turkey

Do you re-use the (peanut?) oil after fying a turkey, or is it pretty much done?
Must be talking about ~5 gallons I imagine, so not sure what you could do with that much oil other than fry a turkey.... love to taste fried turkey someday.

 

My mother in law makes the BEST stuffin' muffins ever...slathered in gravy, it's to die for. Had a few servings last night...soooooo good!

 

Ha, didn't think of left-over turkey. I generally use that for sandwiches. There's just something about left-over turkey sandwiches that you can't replicate with deli meat.

I don't usually re-use the oil when I'm done. Like I mentioned that makes it a pretty spendy way to cook a bird. The oil this year was $45. They sell it in a big 35lb jug. Not sure why it's sold by weight instead of volume?? It usually takes the whole jug if you have a bird over 15lbs or so. I guess it's about 4.5 gallons or so.

You could use it again if you needed to fry stuff in that big a batch! I thought about doing a couple chickens after one year but don't think I ever did. Might be kind of fun to have a bunch of folks over and have a giant fish fry. You could do enough to feed a pretty big group!

Oh and all the dogs at my house get "trimmings and scrap" from the turkey after I clean off the carcass. They love it!!

 

We had one several years back at the request of the wife and everybody was beyond disappointed, including her. This year everybody requested I smoke a turkey as our contribution to the dinner. I smoked a 12 pound bird using mesquite and it came out great; however nobody thought it was better than the oven roasted thing the mother in law cooked (except myself, the wife and an uncle). Next year I'm planning on doing a brisket instead since that is what myself and the relatives who come in from Texas would prefer anyway.

 

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Since I don't have a smoker for turkey yet decided to mess with my Texas inlaw's minds this Thanksgiving and do braised Asian style duck in the dutch oven for Thanksgiving Dinner today. Using the recipe from Boloud's cookbook "Braise". 7 lovely duck legs have been marinating in black vinegar, ginger, hoisin, five spice, OJ and some thai peppers overnight and in a couple hours they'll be seared then braised in the Lodge DO for 2.5 hours in rice vinegar and soy sc.
MIL is is making the sides (boudin stuffing, beans, cornbread) and desert, so other than the duck and cranberry sc I have little to do but EAT!

What's on your menu today?
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So Kurt, what time should I come over for dinner?

That sounds excellent!

BTW, Gander Mountain has the lesser model Smoke Hollow Tri-Mate 570 for $249.99 (after mail in rebate) today through Sunday. Probably not good for a regular, experienced cook like yourself. I'm gonna check it out since it may be good for a novice like me.

 

This year was a first for us using an infrared fryer. It was out of this world. No more $40 jugs of peanut oil and the turkey was just as moist and delicious.

 

Dave - huh never heard of that, did you use something like this one?
Amazon.com: Char-Broil The Big Easy Oil-Less Infrared Turkey Fryer: Patio, Lawn & Garden

Jason - thanks if I'm by a Gander this weekend will check that out!

Duck came out GREAT. The inlaws were suspicious, until their first bite....
Nap time!!!
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That looks just like the one we used. Best turkey I've ever had.

 

Those are spectacular.

When we were kids, my brother simmered a bunch in BBQ Sauce for an hour - tremendous.

Per "tradition" around here - I've already simmered a big, brothy, spiced pan of leftover bird to consistency of a machaca & baked 20 Turkey Verde Enchiladas in big Pyrex.

Zzzzzz


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I just had a turkey sandwich with leftover turkey and threw some bacon in it you just have to make it happen.
That corn pone sounds great I've never heard of it before.

 

turkey taco's rule! cookem anyway you like taco meat...just keep it a moist method. Greatway to use leftover turkey...my kids eat it up...and other adults btw.