I could use a break from all the politics, and in the past we've always had a thread discussing our holiday dishes. This year, we are going without a turkey/ham/etc. All side dishes, including pumpkin stuffing, cranberry/orange relish, corn pudding, asparagus, brussel sprouts, and more.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
Roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, garlic and breadcrumbs
Sauteed green beans
Garlic mashed potatoes
Homemade cranberry relish
Homemade biscuits and dinner rolls
Homemade pumpkin, pecan and mincemeat pies
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I'll be eating at Cheesecake Factory with my father and sister. Most likely I'll get the orange chicken.
It's not as pathetic as it sounds; here's the story. Until I was in college, my extended family celebrated Thanksgiving at my aunt's house (my mom's sister). When she died, my immediate family really had no place to go, so we figured we'd go out for dinner. As a joke, someone suggested Golden Corral, but it seemed to satisfy all of our different tastes, so we actually went there! And that was our consciously ironic tradition for the next decade or so.
In 2007, my mother died, and for Thanksgiving that year my father, sister and I went our separate ways, dining with our own friends. That ultimately didn't sit well with any of us, so the next year, we had dinner with my father's girlfriend's family. That would be Ellen, one of the best people I've ever met.
That judgment does not apply to all of her family, however, so we've settled on spending every other year with them. This is the year where we don't do that, hence our Cheesecake Factory plans.
Ellen is still my father's girlfriend, not his wife, because she's been separated from her gay husband for thirty years, but they haven't gotten divorced. I still haven't figured that one out. Everyone seems to be fine with it all.
I don't know yet. Still trying to figure out if I'm going to be left alone. I have to work in the evening and everyone might end up traveling too far for me to go.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
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I have a show going up this weekend, so Thanksgiving doesn't get much attention....I'm usually sick.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Shrimp with remoulade sauce, veggie/walnut dip, roasted pepper hummus, crackers and veggies.
Roast turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, salad, corn pudding, honey glazed carrots, ciabatta dressing with pancetta and chestnuts, homemade applesauce. Homemade pumpkin pie, cranberry upside-down cake, cherry pie from Portage Pies in Westfield, NY (the best pie ever!), coffee and rooibos tea. Lots of wine.
I'll pitch in a heart-stopping recipe I learned from my mother...and I would say it's OK to eat once a year:
Party Potatoes!
These are mashed potatoes. The only difference is that rather than milk, you mash them with equal parts of sour cream, cream cheese and salted butter. Add a little salt and pepper...and perhaps a little garlic salt...and you're home!!
MichelleCraig said: "I'll pitch in a heart-stopping recipe I learned from my mother...and I would say it's OK to eat once a year:
Party Potatoes!
These are mashed potatoes. The only difference is that rather than milk, you mash them with equal parts of sour cream, cream cheese and salted butter. Add a little salt and pepper...and perhaps a little garlic salt...and you're home!!"
Dang! That sounds good! It'll be just immediate family, me, hubby, sons. I hate cooking, and I'm lazy, and there's no room in our dad-gum kitchen! (I wish we could all just go to Cheesecake Factory like kdogg! I'm so jealous.) Anyhoo, all have agreed to a simple home meal for Thanksgiving, and we'll have a bigger menu at Christmas. So for Thanksgiving (and some things on here are due to some slightly picky eaters):
Turkey breast / chicken tenders
Alton Brown's stovetop mac 'n cheese
Dressing (Stouffer's or whatever, with added sage, other herbs)
Got some prep work done today to get ready for tomorrow.
Cubed and dried out a loaf of pumpernickel to use for stuffing/dressing with Italian sausage, apples, pears, cranberries, sage and rosemary.
Made the cranberry sauce with plenty of orange and lemon zest, as well as orange and lemon juice in the base.
Garlic and herb (basil, rosemary, sage, and thyme) butter to rub down the turkey before it goes in the oven tomorrow.
Pumpkin pie is cooling on the kitchen table, Dutch apple pie is baking in the oven right now.
I'm doing a later dinner tomorrow, so my plan is to go see Fantastic Beasts in the morning over at the AMC on 34th and then come home to get the turkey in the oven. I'm still debating on whether I want to stuff the bird or do dressing. There will also be mashed potatoes made with plenty of garlic and sour cream, roasted cauliflower, and roasted brussels sprouts.