Heather says:
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On to the Friday Free For All.
Today and tomorrow I’ll be gearing up for my big pre-Turkey Day cooking marathon. What is that, you ask? Well, Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday and each November I put together a Countdown to Turkey Day series where I break up the monumental feat of hosting a company-worthy Thanksgiving into manageable daily tasks. Things like: finding your dining room table extensions, figuring out the guest list, determining how much to serve, getting the house company ready, etc. This Sunday, a bunch of local friends will descend on my home and pitch in with preparing many of the recipes I’ll be sharing over the month of November. I’ve found it’s a lot of fun to have extra hands in the kitchen and knock it all out in one marathon cooking session and photo-shoot. In the process my kitchen will be utterly destroyed, one of my tables will probably end up in the front yard for better light, and a lot of fun will be had.
How else would you end up with photos like this?
So the question for today’s FFA is:
What is your favorite Thanksgiving Dish?
Is there a particular recipe or technique you would like me to cover in this year’s series?
Foodies, feel free to link to your favorite recipe (one per comment or the spam filter will eat you alive).
Have a wonderful weekend, I have a turkey to brine, but I’ll be checking in throughout the day.
Rice. @HeatherSolos, you know that! Gotta have rice. Well, that and pumpkin pie. Maybe pumpkin bread. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin soup. Wonder if you could make pumpkin rice?
@carnellm I have rice on the menu, JUST FOR YOU. (See you made me get my caps-lock on) As far as pumpkin rice, I could totally see cubed pumpkin in a wild rice dish or a pumpkin risotto.
@HeatherSolos Once I said that, I started to think the same thing – cubed pumpkin with maybe sausage in the rice?
@carnellm sort of a play on dirty rice?
@HeatherSolos Or make it after turkeyday with the leftovers??
@HeatherSolos@carnellm What do I get pts. for? I have 6 next to my name in little shadowy letters….????
I made a venison stew last year and some sort of dressing where I used cubed homemade bread. Those are my favorites. If I can find the recipes, I’ll pass them on to you and you can take pretty pictures of the results.
@TheAmyTucker was the stew in addition to or in lieu of a turkey?
@HeatherSolos In lieu of a turkey. I got a wild hair to do an “authentic” Thanksgiving. If everything had worked out, I was going to have venison stew and pheasant or a whole fish. Ended up doing venison stew and a rosemary and garlic roasted chicken.
@TheAmyTucker did you post the recipe for the chicken?
@HeatherSolos Nope. I just chopped up a bunch of fresh rosemary, smooshed a bunch of garlic, mixed all that with room temp unsalted butter and some kosher salt and fresh pepper. Under the skin it all went. 425 oven to start, in goes the chicken then 375 oven for about an hour. Delish!
We have a very traditional meal – turkey, pumpkin pie and all kinds of yummy sides. My turkey and cranberry sauce are the best (or at least they are to me): http://www.tonyastaab.com/2010/11/a-holiday-feast.html
Narrowing my favorites is a difficult task. I make a great sweet potato casserole (tastes more like pie, honestly, no marshmallows, but pecans), waldorf salad, we always like deviled eggs (I use pickle relish), my favorite is probably the stuffing – baked outside of the bird, crispy around the edges, lots of herbs and plenty of mashed potatoes & gravy. Then bring on the desserts. But I don’t have any of those mentioned as a link (yet) but I will share my Southwest Lasagna recipe, which calls for chicken, but I say, throw the leftover turkey in there instead. Bingo, great meal 1-2 days post feast, will taste completely different and satisfy! http://wp.me/p1APk9-9d
these panko crusted green beans are amazing. http://www.linneyville.com/2010/11/kikkomans-panko-crusted-green-bean-casserole-ftw/ I just got the recipe last year and have made them several time since. they work with so many dishes. or by themselves
Gotta say, I’d never seen rice for Thanksgiving before I moved down here. After the first Thanksgiving at which I pined for mashed potatoes, I’ve made sure they’re there every year.
Last year was the first time I made my oven roasted brussels sprouts (http://www.home-ec101.com/oven-roasted-brussels-sprouts/), and I’ve learned my lesson: Make more. Make lots more.
I love pies!!! Last year I made eight different ones. It was great!
@angela.busch.alston I made a fabulous pecan-ish pie last year….I will go look for the recipe!
@angela.busch.alston Okay, Angela…I couldn’t find it. But…I think it was generally the same but adding a good shot of Bourbon. It was fabulous! I made one with Amaretto but, it was VERY sweet. I am thinking of trying Jack Daniels! LOL!
Oh please address cranberries! I grew up with a plate of sliced cranberry “jelly” every year on the table, until my Hubby’s mom taught me how to make them from fresh cranberries. SO EASY and SO MUCH BETTER! Here’s my recipe:http://couponsnob.net/2008/11/22/real-cranberries-not-as-hard-as-you-think/
I’d love to see what you could do with them!
Stuffing. I love stuffing. I’m always open to new recipes, but I’m pretty traditional
Hey! I really love the blog. We run a home economics based blog too over at http://www.whatscookinglehighvalley.com. Drop on by and say hi! In the meantime, I would love to see an article on candied sweet potatoes. Last year we made sweet potato croquettes, but they didn’t work out so well.
The feast looks amazing, Heather. You’ve got me salivating for Thanksgiving!…for the person who asked for cranberries…I do have cranberries two ways for Thanksgiving on my blog…if you want to take a look. http://www.foodfixme.com/?p=443
My favorite is to make my own Cranberry Sauce. It is so easy! Boil cranberries in orange juice. Add a little nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Add in sugar after the cranberries “pop.” I add in a box of Sure Gel to thicken it. If anyone wants the recipe let me know!