I live far from home. *Sniff*. We usually wait and make the trip at Christmas when we have more time to visit.

I always cook for my family of five and usually it's the basic turkey, dressing, mac and cheese and pecan pies.

Who wants to share some good recipes for some new dishes? What is your favorite?

This may be in the wrong spot, so I apologize in advance if it is.

By Mara on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 08:29 am:

Besides the things that you've already mentioned I must have baked beans, hashbrown casarole, deviled eggs, and dinner rolls. Yumm...can't wait!


Mara

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 08:32 am:

I always make the cranberry sauce - just follow the recipe on the bag of whole cranberries. It's really easy. I usually add a bit less sugar than they suggest, and my Mom substituted orange juice for some of the liquid.

One of my favorite easy vegetable dishes is the mini carrots with marmalade. I cook them in the microwave, stir in some globs of marmalade and return to the microwave for about 30 seconds. It adds a great flavor to the carrots.

By Tunnia on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 08:40 am:

I always have Thanksgiving at my house for both sides of the family so it's a pretty big meal.

The meat course changes from year to year (fried turkey, roasted turkey, baked ham, prime rib, roasted duck, turducken, etc). This year we are having smoked turkey. Then there is always mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed corn, green beans with ham & onions, dressing, deviled eggs, cranberry jello salad (posted on the recipe board), a raw veggie, olives, and pickles platter, dinner rolls or a fresh baked loaf of bread, sweet potato souffle, pecan pie, egg custard pie, pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream, iced tea, and wine.

I start planning the meal a few weeks in advance and it takes me a couple of full days to get it all done.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 08:47 am:

I never heard of having Mac n cheese on Thanksgiving. That must be a regional thing.

For Thanksgiving you could just put a small piece of Turkey on my plate, with some gravy. Mashed potatoes and lots and lots of stuffing and i would be perfectly happy! Everything else my family makes is just extra stuff to me LOL. I'm not really a big fan of turkey, but what is Thanksgiving with out turkey?

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 09:10 am:

We vary either side of the *traditional* meal, but my favorite is my homemade cornbread dressing.

My aunt makes this jello-y dessert with orange jello, but uses the juice from cans or mandarin oranges and pineapples in it, lets it chill maybe halfway, then mixes in the orange and pineapple pieces and whip cream and lets it *set*. It's yummy!

By Ilovetom on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 11:40 am:

I have no idea why I make macaroni and cheese. LOL!

Mara- I would love to have the hash brown casserole recipe, if you would like to share it.

By Colette on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 12:07 pm:

We do thanksgiving at my house. I serve turkey, spiral ham, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, chestnut stuffing, homemade spiced cranberry sauce, various vegetable dishes, rolls, gravy, and many desserts.

the stuffing is my favorite.

By Kaye on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 12:15 pm:

The dressing is my favorite. We have quite a bit of food, we do turkey and a ham, mac and cheese, some sort of cranberry jello salad with whipped topping. We have a salad, dinner rolls, mashed potatos and asperagas. And then a bunch of desserts, pumpkin pie, brownie pie and usually and apple pie and then throw in some pound cake and we are good to go!

By Mara on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 12:47 pm:

Here is my hashbrown casarole recipe:

1 bag frozen hashbrowns
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 8oz. container sour cream
1 8oz. package chedder cheese
2 tablespoon melted butter
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
plain potato chips, crushed

Mix all items together except chips. Spread in baking dish and top with crushed chips.
Bake at 350 for about 40 min. or until slightly browned.

This is the way I do it, some people use different flavors soup, some omit onion or garlic and some do not use the chips. Personally I think the way I do it is the best

Mara

By Boxzgrl on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 01:15 pm:

I still go to my parents house for holidays meals but its never Thanksgiving with candied yams!!!! Mmmmmmmmmmm........

By Conniemarie on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 01:51 pm:

You must have Green Bean casserole, with the fried onion pieces.

By Bea on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 05:43 pm:

I'm the pie lady.
Every year I bake...
Two cherry
Two apple
One blueberry
One pumpkin
and One pecan pie
with crust and filling made from scratch.
We also have Turkey with Bread Stuffing and Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
German Style Green Beans
Sweet Potato Casserole
Parker House Rolls
and DH insists on his creamed onions every year.
No one likes cranberries so we skip them.

By Emily7 on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 07:00 pm:

We have:
Turkey
Ham (if there are a lot coming)
corn
potatoes
stuffing
green bean casserole
onion pie
rolls
veggie, relish, & cheese tray
pecan pie
pumpkin pie
cherry yum-yums
pasta salad
squash
cranberry sauce

By Rayanne on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 07:03 pm:

I love greenbean casserole!!!!!! I look forward to my dad's every year!!!!!! YUMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY

By Truestori on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 07:04 pm:

I make Turkey, Ham, mashed potatoes, yams with marshmellows, corn souffle, fresh cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls, and pies, usually pumpkin and apple. Every year I try to incoporate something different also.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 07:15 pm:

Yummy. Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, something with sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, some sort of veggie, and pumpkin or apple pie.

Christmas at my SIL's house:

Ham, buns, hashed brown casserole, green bean casserole, some sort of jello, a frozen cranberry fruit thingie for dessert.

For appetizers, little weinies in barbecue sauce, cheese, sausage, and crackers, and chips.

Can't wait for the holidays!

By Tink on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 08:51 pm:

Emily, what are cherry yum-yums?

We have a small Turkey (mostly for the sandwiches later), ham, potatoes with orange-cinnamon glaze, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, Watergate salad, cranberry sauce (we all prefer it out of a can), green bean casserole, creamed corn, rolls, a turkey cake, pumpkin pie and apple crisp. Gosh, that is so much food! No wonder we can't move after that!

By Kaseys on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 09:02 pm:

My favorite is cornbread dressing and chicken and dumplings.. I make myself sick every year on it.

By Emily7 on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 10:28 pm:

Graham cracker crust, a layer mixture of whipped topping & cream cheese, a layer of canned cherries & topped of with whip cream when served.
Lately I have gottten individual graham cracker crusts, put the cream cheese & whipped topping mixture in then served it with chocolate pudding, cherries, or blueberries so people can put their favorite in.

By Cybermommyx4 on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 11:27 pm:

Turkey w/homemade pan gravy, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, corn, rolls, stuffing, cranberry sauce, broccoli w/cheese sauce, assortment of breads, pies, cakes, lol! We usually have about 12 for dinner and enough food for twice that ;)

By Nicosmom on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 11:27 am:

Some of my favs are: Baked Mac and cheese, Candied Yams and Cherry Squares. The mac and cheese is to die for, my uncle makes this and the cherry squares. Too bad he and my aunt are not cooking this year. They'll be in Jamaica. I'm gonna make the mac and cheese!

By Fraggle on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 02:30 pm:

My favorite for Thanksgiving is pecan nut rolls.

By Trisa on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 05:10 pm:

Sweet potato casserole!! Soooo yummy!

By Eve on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 05:12 pm:

Ditto the sweet potatoes!! With marshmallows, please!

By Ilovetom on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 05:22 pm:

Nicosmom- you don't have the baked mac and cheese recipe do you? I sure would like to bum it off you.

And fraggle- what are pecan nut rolls?

By Pamt on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 05:31 pm:

Turkey, chicken and dumplings, green bean casserole, little white peas, turnip greens (pot likker), sweet potato casserole, dressing, cranberry sauce, relish tray, deviled eggs, rolls, cornbread, LOTS of different desserts. I sure miss my grandmother's cornbread and I never can find the right kind of cornmeal to duplicate her recipe.

By Katherine on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 08:45 pm:

We had fried turkey for the first time about 4 years ago and we have not gone back to traditional turkey since! It is so juicy!! My siblings always end up going to their in-laws for Thanksgiving, but always stop by my house to "gobble up the turkey" LOL

We never even have enough left over for sandwiches.

By Kim on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 01:37 am:

My Dad is Italian, so we sometimes have Turkey as an accent to Lasagna or Eggplant Parmesian or something like that. I love my Mom's cranberry sauce. It was passed down from her Mom or G~ma. Its made fresh and has orange zest in it also. I don't remember all of the ingredients. I also like corn casserole, broccoli casserole or green bean casserole! Love mashed or sweet potatoes. Mom makes pecan pie and cherry cheescake. I usually bake pies. We sometimes have asparagus or brussel sprouts. For predinner snacking during the day we usually have a veggie/dip tray, olives, pickles, peanuts/cashews.............ok, I need to stop talking about food now! I am trying to lose weight!

By Fraggle on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 01:52 pm:

Pecan nut rolls are just a sweet roll topped with pecans. My grandmother always made them using the box of hot roll mix from the grocery store, but I make my own dough since I have a breadmachine. I will find the recipe and post it later.

By My2cuties on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 02:03 pm:

I can't believe all the good food on this post, every time I look it just gets yummier..lol I don't know if I can wait 2 more weeks I might have to fix some stuffing tonight... Anyway, my grandma always has the traditional thanksgiving as almost everyone has posted, but we eat at 3 different houses on Thanksgiving. So... my SIL makes enchiladas and casadias (sp?) and a turkey also so it is not so traditional. but the other 2 places have traditional food. I love to snack on the black olives at my Oma's house before we eat, it is the best. I also love my Oma's rum cake, it is so good and moist, but I have to watch out and not eat alot of it, I am limited to 2 pieces...lol

By Children03 on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 02:10 pm:

I love green bean casserole and my grandmother's stuffing the best. We usually have Turkey, Stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes & gravy, butter peas, cranberry sauce, rolls, and then several different desserts. I love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday.

By Kim on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 07:45 pm:

lol, Candis, I am guessing you are German?

By Wandilu on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 08:09 pm:

We have all the traditional foods too.I always stuff my turkey.D oes anyone else stuff theirs? You hear that you're not supposed to,for health reasons.But I've been doing it for almost 35 yrs now.I also make the corn bread stuffing.We also have a tradition that we do.It's just not Thanksgiving or Christmas without a Million Dollar pie.It's made with cool whip,and it's delicious.

By My2cuties on Friday, November 12, 2004 - 01:18 pm:

Yes, correct, Kim I am almost 1/2 German! Who would have known..lol