Anyone else doing the full Thanksgiving dinner thing?

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We'd like to take over hosting--we've got a good house for it--but can't get our parents to give it up yet. So we're going to my inlaws this year. I usually get tasked with making mashed potatoes.
 
Man, I just hit the grocery store over my lunch break to get the last of the stuff I need. As expected, the place was a madhouse. Good thing I didn't wait until this evening. :messedup:
 
One way or another we do it almost every year. This year the rents came down from NY and my dad did the turkey(s) and stuffing while I did the mashes (regular potatoes for all, yams for mum and dad, rutabaga for dad), corn, green beans almondine, cranberry sauce, asparagus (for the youngest who only ate two), and gravy. My wife made the apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bars (w/ cream cheese frosting), and chocolate cake. The only thing not homemade were the rolls.

Her family's tradition is to overdo it, so that's what we do. Usually I'm good for two platefuls, but today I could only do one. Way too much food for six people...more like a feast for 15. One of my favorite holidays too, all about family and food. None of us are here without both.
 
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I did a very partial, half assed throw together Thanksgiving. I had my daughter for the holiday. My son was home from the Uni and I invited an old friend to all of us. I had a whole bunch of chicken thighs I had bought at different times on sale and then lost ambition. I found some turkey thighs (my favorite part) so the meal would not be completely turkey free. Bought a can of cranberry sauce. 3 sweet potatoes (kids don't eat them). Picked up stuff so there was a little uncluttered surface area. Baked a frozen pumpkin pie. Cooked rice. Burned rice (bottom, upper 3 quarters was good). Foil lined a half and a whole baking sheet and cut up a ton of onions, seasoned the bottom of the chicken and turkey with garlic, rosemary and a smidge of lemon pepper and the top as well and baked it all (maybe it was roasting, tried to keep the moisture down). Forgot the potatoes. Forgot the veggies. No one ate the pie. My guest has wine. I drank an ounce or two of wine and my face and head turned white and red. We all had a great time with conversation and it was a blast. Maybe I'll remember to open the can and cook the potatoes next time. My son shocked me by actually eating three chicken thighs. Actually one of the best thanksgivings I've had in years.
 
Cooked a full thanksgiving meal from scratch for 80(though we only had 60) at work yesterday. Easy day actually haha.
 
Yes we did. And as I said above, I did the cranberries. Little did I know that one member of the couple that was hosting us and some other friends this year had a very long family relationship and connection to Ocean Spray, knew all about cranberry bogs and harvesting methods, etc., and was very particular about how the cranberries are prepared. Fortunately, my homegrown recipe matched up with her expectations on all fours. Phew!! Good thing I didn't know or I might have felt pressured! LOL!!

My recipe includes using brown or raw sugar, and dialing back on the sugar perhaps 10% from what the recipe on the back of the package calls for, cinnamon, a little ginger, a pinch of clove, and add two mandarin oranges cut up small with strings removed. Yum!
 
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