It's almost Thanksgiving ... so, what y'all doing?

[MarionTh230]

DH's family lives 4 hours away.  While we've never visited them 'on the holiday' since we've been married, we used to visit 'during the holiday season' before Kiddo was born.  Once we had Kiddo that stopped.  It's just too far to travel with a child.  My sibling will come to our house for the holiday.  Probably Wednesday evening and leave sometime on Sunday.

We will have oven roasted turkey breast (maybe 2 so we can have leftovers?), gravy, sausage and cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (all canned ingredients in all its super salty glory!), homemade cloverleaf rolls, and canned cranberry sauce.  With all of its jiggly can shaped goodness.

We are doing appetizers differently this year.  We will have apps for dinner on Wednesday night, and anything left over we will snack on Thursday while we are waiting for dinner to cook.  We normally have our holiday dinners anytime between 1pm - 4pm.  Since it's just us and we aren't expecting any guests, it just depends on what time I want to start cooking.  DH will be my primary prep cook/sous chef and my sibling will pitch in as needed.  I'm a little picky about the way my kitchen runs and DH understands the flow really well.  My sibling would be more than willing to help out more with the cooking duties, but it usually works out that they are better off in the living room entertaining Kiddo.  It really just works and we all end up having a good time.

Apps will be a 7 layer taco dip thing that my sibling makes.  Kiddo asked for deviled eggs (I will do 6 eggs/12 halves).  This year I'm going to try a sausage ball recipe.  Most of the recipes are some variation of sausage, flour/Bisquick, cheese and/or cream cheese, and seasonings.  Seems like it would be a bite sized thing that DH would enjoy so I'll give it a whirl this year.  I'll also probably put out a pickle/olive tray with a few crackers.

Desserts are pumpkin pie with Cool Whip and carrot cake.  I'm undecided on the pecan pie right now.

We will do Black Friday shopping.  All of us are on our devices on and off all the holiday weekend sharing deals and shopping tips.  About every other year or so we go brick and mortar shopping on BF.  It's sounding like we will go out shopping this year.  We try to pick more of the oddball stores and leave later in the morning.  One year we left home around 10:30 am and went to Lowe's, Harbor Freight, CVS, Dollar Tree.....and somewhere else that I don't remember?  It was pretty relaxed since we weren't hunting the best deals.  We were able to just wander at our own pace.  Kiddo seems to enjoy it since she usually has a few dollars of her own money she is trying to spend.  Mostly it just gives us a chance to get out of the house as a family so we try to keep it low key even though it is Black Friday.  

[greenthumb59]

Everyone's dishes sound so good!  Well, maybe not swamps!

We will be heading to Texas to visit with DS1 and DIL.  He has to work Friday and Saturday.  On Sunday he will insist we do a hike.  It's their tradition so I will drag my old butt along.

I will help with whatever food the kids pick out.  There will be football to watch and this is a big football family.

I think DIL wants to do Black Friday shopping!  I'll try to run interference for her!

We always eat out at a couple of fun places.  We will head home on Monday.

[happyhoix]

Nov 20, 2024 17:18:36 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Nov 20, 2024 10:40:39 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Why does green bean casserole have such a negative reputation these past few years?   It's quite good.

I immediately reject any recipe that has cream of barf soup in it. Green bean casserole is predigested, unhealthy vegetables. Just slurp the gravy out of the boat.

That said - my problem with Thanksgiving as a whole is that everything single dish is wet and mushy. Turkey and stuffing soaked in gravy, Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (with marshmallows) jellied cranberries, all the vege casseroles - green bean, corn, carrots, etc. I have been replacing dishes with similar things with a variety of textures. Things like a roasted butternut squash with a nut crust, twice baked potatoes with crispy skins, salad with fresh crunchy apples, Moroccan carrots and green beans almondine, using fresh beans and cooking them so they are nice and crunchy. I’m just fancy that way.

I always make a fruit salad - just various fruits cut up with a little brown sugar/water syrup. I used to remove the seeds from a cucumber and chop it up to add to the salad for some nice crunch but BIL got freaked out by a veggie in a fruit bowl so it’s usually apples, mango, mandarin oranges, grapes, sometimes pineapple.
Kind of a palate cleanser between the soft, warm dishes.