It's time - menus for Thanksgiving

tiger roach

Urban Bovine Knievel
I'm playing it different this year - we are having tamales instead of a turkey. I have a freezer full of them from our favorite Mexican place, so I'll just need to steam them when it's time.

Since that will be easy, I can focus on sides. Not all decided yet but leading candidates are:
  • Mexican rice (one of two favorite recipes I have)
  • Sauce for the tamales, need to find a recipe
  • Beans of some sort
  • Margarita ice cream
I'll save the bird smoking for Christmas.

What about y'all?
 
We're going to see family this year, so I don't have control over the menu. I have been asked to make a cornbread-andouille sausage dressing (Paul Prudhomme recipe). I use the recipe from his cookbook, but here is the recipe if anyone is interested (cookbook recipe does not call for his pre-mixed seasoning blends, so it is more labor-intensive).

https://www.chefpaul.com/site.php?pageID=300&view=191
 
Thanksgiving is stressing me out a bit more than normal this year. Doing the girlfriend's house, than my mum's house and my dad said he'll take "the leftovers" at some point over the weekend. I've met Ash's family and she's met most of mine, but for some reason I'm super apprehensive about it all. As long as there is pumpkin pie I'm fine.
 
I'm really ambivalent about it this year. Mrs W did just post this on my FB wall though:

 
Thanksgiving used to be a big family event until my cousins started going to Texas A&M, which meant a big chunk of people were at the game against UT. :facepalm:

Mrs. T loves to cook big meals, so we're going with the standard turkey, etc.
Most of the immediate family will be spread out, so it will be a modest sized bird and dish sizes.
 
Not sure what is going on. I am probably going over to my GF's apartment. It will just be the two of us. then I'll be cooking a turkey and a few side dishes at home on Friday or Saturday.
 
We normally do crab for TG, but this year the season is closed due to a warm water toxin. We tried some Canadian crab that has flooded the market, but it's frozen and the quality is meh.

I think we are doing asian with a side of smoked turkey. Should be interesting.

Last years TG crab aka "a tale of two sauces" (garlic butter and Singapore Chili crab)

IMG_20141127_163039.jpg
 
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This evening I need to make the margarita ice cream so it can freeze overnight. That means I need to stop by the liquor store on the way home. :)

Guess I'll get the beans soaking overnight too, but the rest can wait until tomorrow.
 
Thanksgiving is, perhaps, my least favorite holiday. Many of the side dishes end up having meat in them, and there are too many people crowded into my mother-in-law's tiny cottage. (Which, by the way is really my wife's tiny cottage, but...) My Mother-In-Law will not accept non-traditional foods at the Thanksgiving table, by the way. She is 87 and set in her ways; she is also still very intimidating to her children. :grin:
 
We always go up to Santa Rosa to see an Aunt, Uncle and various cousins, so we never know (beyond turkey) what we'll be having except for what we're bringing: Kahlua candied yams, pumpkin pie, meyer lemon meringue pie, and banana-nut-cranberry bread.
 
I'll be making a Vegan Shepherd's Pie and some veggie side dishes. I'll probably make a soup as well. I never much cared for Thanksgiving meals even when I ate meat and I really don't like huge heavy meals in general. The only members of the family that like leftovers are the dogs.
 
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