American Thanksgiving

[Menolly]

My 18 pound turkey just went into the oven. We should be sitting down to eat about 7:00 pm. Appetizers of deviled eggs, smoked mahi-mahi and wahoo, cream cheese, Hebrew National salami (for Beorn), extra sharp white cheddar, grapes, sliced apples, and town house crackers will be set out in an hour.

I love cooking for the holidays.

[Worm of Despite]

I'm about to chow down. There's a marathon of the American Eats show on the History Channel. Gonna watch that while I feast.

Edit… We had the following:

HoneyBaked turkey breast (smoked, pre-sliced)
Black Forest ham
Dressing w/ giblet gravy
Cranberry sauce

Hashbrown casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Steamed cabbage w/ carrots
Black-eyed peas (I skipped those)

Cornbread
Pecan pie

[Fist and Faith]

Argh! We were asked to do the pumpkin pie, and I made two of them yesterday while Christy was at work. I intended to buy creamed corn so I could give that a shot too. *sigh* Sometimes I forget things...

[danlo]

Tam is made cornish game hens wrapped in bacon on wild rice stuffing, acorn squash stuffed with sausage, green beans with chili roasted almonds, Katie's (sis-n-law) cranberry salad, relish tray with homemade pickles and pumpkin cheesecake (yes it was made in the fancy oven that sat around powerless for 6 long months!).

I usually can't deal w/out yams and green bean casserole-but I made an exception this year. Today the girls are out BF shopping and attending a high tea at 1:30--I will be doing some serious napping.

[Menolly]

danlo, it all sounds scrumptious.

Is the oven as wonderful as it looked?

[Skyweir]

Menolly .. you are a domestic and culnirary god or goddess!!

what a menu ..

[Menolly]

Here it comes again...

American Thanksgiving is two weeks away.
Time to start planning those menus.
It looks like we won't be able to travel to father-of-love's, and he is unable to come up to us this year. So, my menu will most likely be trimmed down.

Now comes the tough part...
...what can we do without?

And hmm...perhaps I'll give a verbal reminder in person to Fist (and Raen) to pick up that creamed corn for the corned pudding when I see them in Manhattan a week from tomorrow...

[sgt.null]

i will have Thanksgiving day off this year. after working it 7 straight years.

[Menolly]

How fun, sarge!!
Will the grandkids be coming over?

[sgt.null]

How fun, sarge!!
Will the grandkids be coming over?

the three with our dil, no. we are hoping our son and his new gf & daughter will be here from vegas though.

[Wyldewode]

It's going to be Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's again this year. My mother always makes far too much stuff!

Tentative menu:

Mom is making:
Roasted turkey with dressing and pan gravy
Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes
Boston baked beans
Glazed spiral ham (my bro will not touch turkey under any circumstances)
Cranberry-Apple-Walnut Salad
Green jello salad with nuts and cottage cheese (this combination is inexplicable to me)
Baked Sweet Potatoes with butter and brown sugar
Green Beans with Garlic and Bacon


I am making:
Alexa's Honey Wheat Knot Rolls
Alexa's Cranberry Conserve
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Whipped Vanilla Cream

I will probably make something for the appetizer portion of the day. . . I am thinking about making my Beef, Pecan and Scallion cheese ball. Hmm. . . probably better double check with Mom about the menu soon.

[aliantha]

The girls and I went over the menu a couple of days ago. I'm driving down to their college town for Turkey Day; we'll cook and eat at Shara-Lunison's apartment. And this year, for the first time, we're splitting up the cooking duties, which I am *very* happy about. If I can get them to pitch in on the cleanup as well, my work here will be done.

That said, it's looking like we'll have the same menu as always:

*Turkey and stuffing
*Mashed potatoes
*Sweet potatoes (dunno how they'll be cooked, Magickmaker's in charge of this item)
*Broccoli
*Pillsbury crescent rolls
*Individual pumpkin custards
*Chocolate pie
*Cool Whip for the pie and custard

I've also had a request to bring some Wispride port wine cheese, which Batty said she couldn't find in Roanoke. So cheese and crackers are also on the menu. I think I'll see about bringing along some fruit, as well....

[Zarathustra]

I'm smoking a turkey this year. And bringing 4 different kinds of homebrew. Ki and family are doing the rest.

[lucimay]

we're having the usual:

turkey (we don't cook it stuffed. takes too long and sucks
all the juice outa the turkey)

dressing balls (my grandmother's recipe)

oceanspray jellied cranberry (cause it wouldn't be turkey
day without it)

mashed taties (self explanitory)

ger's turkey gravy (he makes the best turkey gravy known
to humanity)

and greasy beans (green beans flavored with country ham and onion)
deep dish apple pie (courtesy of sara lee)

we will prolly cook early in the day so we can be in food coma alllllllll day!!

Turkey meat and drowsiness
One widely-held belief is that heavy consumption of turkey meat (as for example in a Thanksgiving or Christmas feast) results in drowsiness, which has been attributed to high levels of tryptophan contained in turkey. While turkey does contain high levels of tryptophan, the amount is comparable to that contained in most other meats. Furthermore, postprandial Thanksgiving sedation may have more to do with what is consumed along with the turkey, in particular carbohydrates and alcohol, rather than the turkey itself.
It has been demonstrated in both animal models and in humans that ingestion of a meal rich in carbohydrates triggers release of insulin. Insulin in turn stimulates the uptake of large neutral branched-chain amino acids (LNAA) but not tryptophan (trp) into muscle, increasing the ratio of trp to LNAA in the blood stream. The resulting increased ratio of tryptophan to large neutral amino acids in the blood reduces competition with other amino acids for the large neutral amino acid transporter protein for uptake of tryptophan across the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system (CNS). Once inside the CNS, tryptophan is converted into serotonin in the raphe nuclei by the normal enzymatic pathway. The resultant serotonin is further metabolised into melatonin by the pineal gland. Hence, these data suggest that "feast-induced drowsiness," and in particular, the common post-Christmas and American post-Thanksgiving dinner drowsiness, may be the result of a heavy meal rich in carbohydrates which, via an indirect mechanism, increases the production of sleep-promoting melatonin in the brain.

[Menolly]

Father-of-Love is definitely not making it up this year, so for the three of us I am cutting back. Beorn never eats the specialty vegetable casseroles anyway, and while Hyperception loves the carrot souffle, corn pudding, and green bean casseroles, I just can't justify them this year. And we'll stick with the pre-made Ocean Spray cranberry-orange relish for chicken, instead of the five different versions I usually serve.

So, my simplified menu this year will be:

Turkey, brined using Emeril's recipe (will start that today) and cooked a la Alton Brown
Pepperidge Farm stuffing made in the crockpot
Garlic mashed potatoes
Home made gravy from drippings
Cranberry-orange relish
Southern-style green beans (the real version with smoked ham hocks, instead of my olive oil cheater version)

...and that will be it this year.
Still...
The guys will like it, I guess.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

Thanskgiving proper is at the B-i-L's this year. Here is the menu:

Turkey roasted with spices, lemons and white wine
Turkey gravy made with drippings of the above
Mashed potatoes 'ranched' with sour cream, chives, and scallions
Green beans w/ bacon (the way the B-i-L makes it, usually the reverse is true )
Civil war stuffing (mix of north and south styles - awesome!)
Rolls (of some sort?)
Broccoli & Cauliflower vinegar slaw
Cranberry sauce

The desserts (which we are baking to bring) are:
Made from scratch pumpkin pie and Granny Smith apple crumb pie (using Alton Brown's pie crust recipe- YUM!)
Plus either a chess pie or a marble-chocolate cheesecake

I have already confirmed that my gym is open early tomorrow morning - I am running several extra miles to finance the egregious amount of food I intend to eat. Oh yes - egregious is the right word.

[Zarathustra]

My smoked turkey was a complete success!! Amazing! Too bad everyone won't be eating it fresh. I had to smoke it beforehand, so I could bring it to our family gathering about two hours from here. But it was still wonderful heated gently in the microwave.

[Menolly]

Malik, if I ever come to Kentucky...
...break out the smoker.

[aliantha]

oceanspray jellied cranberry (cause it wouldn't be turkey
day without it)

Gak! I can't believe I forgot to mention the cranberry sauce! Yes, that nasty stuff that slides out of the can, faithfully retaining the creases and folds of the can innards!

[lucimay]

i love that shit.