My cousin enjoys "ghetto cranberry sauce" i.e.: the one straight out of a can.

I hope you guys feel better after tonight!

Cranberry sauce is super easy to make, though! And it's so much better. I recommend having both canned and homemade cranberry sauces so that you can show people that homemade is superior. Of course, it's usually just me and my kids for Thanksgiving, and all they care about are turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie. I still make a table full of food, though.

Feel better boys!! Hope this episode is just what you need to get better :)

I don't think we've got any unusual Thanksgiving dishes...for me, all I need is mashed potatoes. And it better be my grandma's recipe. Otherwise forget it - Thanksgiving is canceled.

Last year was nice because my mom made peach cream pie instead of her usual pumpkin and pecan combo. It was a good change.

I love my Grandma's succotash (however you spell it)! We also always have the "butt stuffing" and the "dry stuffing"..because some of the cousins don't like to eat it out of the turkey!!

Since I haven't been really watching Project Runway (just DVR-ing and fast forwarding through most of it)is tonight the finale? It's a 2 episode finale like normal?

About Thanksgiving, no crazy foods. I don't even know where I'll be at Thanksgiving yet. Between my husband and I we have 4 set of parents so it's always hard to decide where we'll wind up.

My Dad and I demand Mom's oyster dressing. And no one makes turkey gravy like my Mom!

A glass filled with ice. 1 lemon hand squeezed. Filled to the brim with vodka. A touch of cranberry juice.

its called my lets-survive-this-holiday drink.

challange! yay!

hang in there boys.

we still like the cranberry in the can, its the only one i like.

still cant resist the macy's day parade & yes i still wait for santa. still a kid a heart :)

That cornbread dressing sounds really good.

Thanksgiving isn't bad for me: It's Passover, that makes me want to drive into a tree.

--GothamTomato

Daddies, come sit down and put your feet up. What are you drinking? Just tell us what it is and we'll make sure your glasses are never empty.

As for Thanksgiving, the worst thing was anything that messed with the sweet potatoes: candied "yams," sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. I never knew I liked sweet potatoes until I went to very low key Thanksgiving where they were served as is - just baked. Delicious!

On the other hand, my sister in law makes this wicked cornbread that has creamed corn and cheese in it. Each piece contains an entire week's fat and calories, but it sure is good.

Me and my 2 daughters are most likely spending Thanksgiving with church friends, since my husband is working a civilian contractor in Iraq.

As for strange foods, when I eat with my family my mom usually makes chitlins' (chitterlings). My dad and husband think they are disgusting, and husband says if I can eat those I shouldn't complain about putting other things in my mouth.

Happy viewing!

My Grandma always makes these homemade noodles that are AMAZING. Everyone else in the family has tried to make them at least once, but no one can get them just right.

We still have fresh cranberry sauce, no worries. She's the only one who eats it. It's very disgusting to me.

Another busy day in a busy week, so little time to post. Uh, and ditto from this quarter as to the editorial observation about the kind of a week it's been, Boys.

Thanksgiving will be back in the Mitten State with my beloved sis, her husband, their college age son, their two frolicking cats, and on TG DAYm bro-in-law's family. Owing to.. uh... issues and the realization that those issues make kitchen time on this holiday tantamount to self-flagellation with no holds barred, we all have the holiday meal at the Club. Everyone can get what one wants from the bounteous buffet to one's cholesterol-clogged heart's content. And we don't have to wash up.

Yes, I miss the leftovers, but not the predictable drama that would come with their initial creation and the labor in trying to satisfy all the shirttail relatives.

Oh, there's fashion tonight? TOO BAD, I have a lovely function to attend in Manhattan, so I might not get to see tonight's episode. Why is it that I'm not perturbed....?

All the best,

NDC

I've got the turkery and sourcreamed-mashed potatoes,

Ma's got the graham cracker strawberry cheesecake,

Auntie will probably bring venison...

As for tonight, who cares?

I do a lot of cooking for Thanksgiving and usually have a lot of guests, most of them get on my nerves and I have to drink massive abouts of alcohol to get though it.
The weirdest thing I make is mincemeat pie. It is kind of a pain it the ass but Mr. Siren likes that kind of thing. They used to all insist on riced potatoes but I got tired of that goddamned tradition and quit making them.

Gotham Tomato said, "Thanksgiving isn't bad for me: It's Passover, that makes me want to drive into a tree.'

What, you don't find the sight of a big old dried up lamb bone in the middle of the table appetizing? Or is it the gefilte fish?

Sewing Siren said "They used to all insist on riced potatoes but I got tired of that goddamned tradition and quit making them".

LMFAO!!!

This year we are unable to be with either my family or my husband's, so we are hosting our own. It was just going to be the two of us, our son, and our friend who we considering to be more like family but then my best friend emailed to ask if she could come as she isn't up to dealing with her family this year. So it will be us and close friends. I can't imagine a better day.

Since it's so non-traditional, we've also decided this is our year to try something different for the meal so we're having duck instead of turkey, plus any other side dishes we can dream up that we've always wanted to try. The menu is still in the planning stages but I'm more excited than I have been in years (no disrespect to our families).

TLo, I'm sorry to hear things have been shitty lately. I hope things are looking up.

The real tragedy is that I can't start drinkin' until the family LEAVES.

My in-laws visit for Thanksgiving week and I am so lucky that I get along with them. I make the mashed potatoes and whatever side dishes we decide on. My mother-in-law makes the stuffing and gravy and we roast the turkey together.

I make zucchini bread and my mother-in-law brings a dessert which we supplement with store-bought pies.

The kids are finally old enough to "help" with the cooking and baking, and it's generally the most relaxing holiday at my house.

My sister-in-law spends the holiday with her in-laws, but she and our nephew come over for leftovers the next day.

I hope everyone has a warm and happy Thanksgiving.

Wow, I think I must be on some crazy LSD trip. The colors in that lounge are too biazzar to be for real.

Could you pass along the whole stuffing recipe?

I'm spending Thanksgiving with my brother in Bucks County, PA, who is seriously into Barefoot Contessa. I hope he makes the mac & cheese and the armagnac ice cream.

We have both canned and homemade cranberry sauce.

We have scalloped potatoes at our table. Thinly sliced potatoes, flour, butter, salt and pepper, layered in a dish, then milk (or cream) poured in and baked. Yum!

We also make cornbread stuffing... but fresh cornbread, cooled, brokenup, add rubbed sage, celery, apples, raisins, the giblets, and some of the turkey stock from cooking the giblets and turkey juices, mix together until well incorporated and bake... raisins optional. Serve with Giblet gravy.

Our family does not like turkey. We have filet mignon and fettuccine alfredo each year. We're such rebels.

i like these sessions of friendly chat over our drinks! superlative bar btw- love the colours.

as an aforementioned Canadian American, i get 2 Thanksgivings.....and always wondered why i didn't get 2 Christmases too.

Cdn Thanksgiving is my favourite and has several dishes that don't appear at the other Thanksgiving (as well as all the usual suspects). maybe it's due to the fact that we all cook all the time!

*a savoury herbed popcorn snack mixture (made in massive amounts)
*baked turnips covered with cheese (the BEST dish)
*usually a secondary meat as well as turkey
*pickled and Harvard beets
*sweet potato casserole with maple syrup in it
*tons of homemade breads, rolls, scones and biscuits
*even more homemade desserts: cookies, candies, and pies galore including merangues

we follow it up with choral singing and sometimes a polka or two or a hike to shake the food down.

the American version is also nice but smaller-scale.

yes- and i do hope your weekend gives you time to recover from the bad week!

My thoughts exactly on the last minute surprise!

No weird dishes however my Dad this year may want to go non-turkey so who knows-Thanksgiving tilapia?!

Hi - Feel better.

It's mild down here in the Deep South of New Orleans.

I wanted a turduken (a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey and baked very well), but I was ruled out.

It's very tasty despite any visions you might have about it.

Mince Meat Pie. Not the stuff from the jar. I use the condensed mince meat and substitute brandy for some of the water and add extra stuff like pecans and a little dried fruit.

So in honor the the pie a sniffer of good brandy.

I want to know who wins but not enough to get excited about watching the show the next two weeks. Anything I need to know I will learn here.
I hope life gets better for you and tonight's episode gives you plenty to enjoy.

I hate it when people mess with the classics. Fortunately, Southerners are less likely to look for new "twists" for the holidays and just stick with the traditional stuff and lots of it.

Fried turkey over here!

I'd have to say that my Ma has TWO weird dishes:

This sucatash cranberry sauce thing (that nobody eats)

and a marshmallow topped sweet potato mash dish (scrape off the marshmallow and it's pretty tasty).

HAVE A GOOD NIGHT, BOYZ. We luv u.

Love the lounge - it looks like it is made out of amazing flavors of Jello shots! (Now that would have been a good challenge for this season: make an outfit out of jello!)

We usually stay home (me, dh, 2 kids) and have a friend over as our families are all out of state. But this year we are headed to where it all began, my hometown: Plymouth, MA. So we will have my mom's stuffing - which rocks, and a bunch of other things.

Weirdest dish? Hmmm, probably the onions out of the jar that she heats up and serves buttered. I love them, but I don't make them when I do Thanksgiving dinner at my house.

I'll be headed to the woods of Northern Idaho, about an 8 hour drive, to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We don't have anything particularly unusual. Like Kheli, I always demand that my mom make her oyster stuffing, even if it's mainly my dad and I who enjoy it. My husband doesn't like any stuffing so too bad for him. I'm hoping to contribute some butternut squash dish this year to try something new (and I grew them myself!).

I'm half-way excited for tonight's PR. I'm rooting for Carol Hannah, but I'm pretty sure the top 2 will be Althea and Irina.

At the "Lost Lamb" Thanksgiving that some friends host, it's not Turkey Day without natural blue mashed potatoes. :)

This year I'll be volunteering at Jamestown Settlement as a 17th century costumed interpreter cooking rustic in iron over the fire.

We've been reserving July 4th for family, sailing, and pressed Cuban sandwiches in Tampa.

Nothing weird here, but I've been making pumpkin cheesecake for dessert lately instead of pumpkin pie.

Mmmmmm....

Another alternative is apple and onion pie: caramelized onions of course and really delicious.

PS - Jamsticks made me laff!

the "butt stuffing" vs the "dry stuffing".

It's true!

Worst Thanksgiving dish for me? Turnips. They look and smell like a bowl of earwax, yet my parents insist on having them every year at my house.
Best dish? Ooh, too many to count!

I always have someone insist on Cranberry sauce from the can, so I insist that it come to the table still looking like the can :) I also make some, whole berries with orange. A kind of weird dish I serve is the brown rice and spinach casserole from the Moosewood cookbook. So yummy!

I'll have a very dry martini, please. Thanks.

I love Thanksgiving and cook for 2 days getting ready. This year's desserts: Concord grape pie, cranberry almond caramel pie, apple blackberry pie. Homemade ice cream. I told you I cook.

BookieBookie

We have sauerkraut (sp?); I suppose the weird part is having a German side dish at the table among my big, Greek family. But I like sauerkraut so no problems for me!

Anyone ever tried tofurkey? I've only ever heard it mentioned as the butt of a joke.

Also, pumpkin pinwheels with cream cheese -- delish.

Tom and Lorenzo,
Your cornbread dressing sounds very similar to mine, which is slightly different every year because I don't have a receipe. I use the turkey stock though and I usually add raisins and chopped nuts of some kind.

Beautifulmonday,
I LOVE pickled and harvard beets.

Trish,
No, I don't use the jarred mincemeat (which is usually just raisins) either. I make the whole thing from scratch. Sometimes I even but ground meat in it. Once someone gave me some venison which I had to grind myself (I job I do not recommend). The super traditional recipe has suet (gag) but I have never gone that far.

Since we don't live in the state where most of our relatives are, we (my little family of 3) have spent the last couple of Thanksgivings with other transplants. I usually make the cheesecake - I make a damn good cheesecake. But this year it looks like we are on our own so my question is this - What restaurants are open on Thanksgiving?

Nothing "strange" but our Thanksgiving must always include broccoli cheese casserole...the topping has an entire stick of butter in it! My waistline can only afford having it at Thanksgiving and Christmas but I look forward to it. Might have to double the recipe this year, it always goes fast.

Last Thanksgiving met an attractive interesting funny successful guy at my sister's house -

Unfortunately he was there as the guest of her (multiple divorced) SIL. She is the one who looks a little like Irina. When she saw how much he was flirting with me, she kept sticking her ass out, lifting up on her shirt and putting her hands on her skinny (exposed) waist. Oh joy.

My sister is a great cook and WTH he was entertaining (and it was kind of funny watching her try to get his attention back from me).

We're going to the in-laws, whom I love, but MY idea of Thanksgiving (football/parade/really fabulous food) and THEIR idea (Wii/window shopping/green bean casserole and cranberry gunk from a can) do not match.

I'm usually the one in charge of pies, but this year I may be making some soup due to a touch of TMJ... Maybe I'll just throw everything in a blender and get a straw.

@ Ms. Sangrail- i NEED to know the recipe or approx. ratios for the apple/onion pie.
oh, pretty pretty please!

I Can Not Wait !!!!!

We (husband and son) are going to New York for Thanksgiving with our newly married daughter and husband and her husband's family.

We are seeing a Robin Williams comedy show, "Finian's Rainbow", a crazy treasure hunt thing called "Accomplice, NY" and a jazz show.

Couldn't care less what is on the table for the meal !!

BUT TLo, PLEASE tell us something about Fabulon and how he comes by all of these amazing "lounge" photos ?

I don't serve anything out of the ordinary, because my family won't eat it. But the in-laws used to serve two things I couldn't fathom: Cauliflower baked in milk, no seasonings, nothing. And 'stuffing' that was fresh bread, water, and fresh celery mixed up and baked. YECH!

Sewing Siren- i love the beets too! in every form except borscht. (too cabbage-y)

Hey guys!

I wanted to share with Tom my happy cornbread dressing accident of a few years ago...

I was a new mother on little to no sleep blah, blah, blah (you've all heard it before) and had grand illusions of making the dressing along with a wild rice/cranberry casserole. Long story short, I spaced that I was making two DIFFERENT items and dumped the wild rice and dried cranberry mixture in with the cornbread dressing mix. Since I'd already fucked it up I added a bit of cooked breakfast sausage I had made earlier that morning and tossed it in the oven and hoped for the best.

It's the first thing gone every year.

Enjoy the show and your wine!

Not a weird food, just oddness.

My MIL insists we MUST have black olives at the table, but NO ONE eats them. I leave them at the kid table for them to play with while waiting for the grownups to finish dinner.

I only want turkey, dressing, and gravy. The rest is to please someone else.

Everything goes better with bourbon. TLo have you been to Village Whiskey at 20th & Sansom? Bourbon and Short Rib Fries can chase those blues away.

@Anonymous 3:22 PM:

Please tell me you're a guy -- it would make that story even greater. ;)

It just isn't Thanksgiving without a green bean casserole. We also have stuffing balls instead of stuffing inside the Turkey and enough food to feed about 40 people (which is usually how many show up, since my aunt hosts it and invites some people from the dance school she owns, who may not have anywhere else to go.) This year both of her children are bringing their families, so it will probably be even bigger. My mother also always makes pumpkin, apple, cherry, and chocolate pie. She may not be the best cook in general, but she can crank out those pies like a pro.

How about when I ask my MIL to bring a vegetable and she brings the good old Green Bean Casserole!? You know the one, with canned green beans, cream of mushroom soup & those weird fr. fried onions on top. Blech.

This year will be simple and low key with just my dad, hubby and me.

Now last year was a different story. We were invited to a big fat Armenian-American Thanksgiving bash. 40+ guests and tables full of foods, ranging from the traditional to the exotic. After dessert, we told each other's fortunes by reading the coffee grounds!

Note to Eddie C: Get your Grandma to give you that noodle recipe!

Tom's dressing sounds amazing. I prefer cornbread dressing over any other kind. Yum!

I'm sorry you have had a few crappy days. Here's to a brighter tomorrow.

I'll be drinking vodka / tonic tonight. Wine gives me a hangover.

The dish I'll be making for Thanksgiving is a jell-o salad with cranberries, walnuts, apples and orange juice mixed in. It all congeals together, and is the most tangy, crunchy, sweet, satisfying dish ever. No one else in my family will eat it, so I get the whole thing to myself, eaten over the course of the 4-day weekend. HEAVEN.

As for PR, I don't really care who wins. I hope CH wasn't too terribly sick. It sucks to be sick no matter what, but during a big event like Fashion Week it must be ten thousand times worse. I take back what I said: I want CH to win.

I just got married and we're leaving the day after Thanksgiving for our somewhere-that-requires-a-swimsuit honeymoon (husband is keeping it a surprise). Ah, a pasty-white distended mashed potato and gravy belly, here I come!

Obviously I could eat less mashed potatoes (and mac-n-cheese and green bean casserole) at Thanksgiving dinner but then what's the point? I'm already married, right?

I don't cook, so it was especially stunning to all who know me when I produced a turkey completely enrobed in puff pastry leaves and vines. In fact, it was the first turkey I'd ever cooked--and the last one. But, if I do say so myself, it was exquisite. An idiot savant kind of thing. It was the mid 1980s and I'd seen it on a Martha Stewart special. Because of one thing and another, I never made it again, but I would love to. Trouble is, I can't find the recipe. Martha Stewart has banished it from her oeuvre. Does anyone, by some quirk of fate, have this recipe? Highly unlikely, I realize.

Hope you fellows have a long string of spectacularly fantastic days to make up for this week.

My kids usually go to their dad & stepmom & stepmom's extended family for Thanksgiving, and I get 3-4 beautiful adult-only days to myself. (I am way more hands-on than Bad Mommy but I'm not enough of a hypocrite to criticize her approach to mother love.)

This year I'll be spending the holiday weekend with my brother, for moral support after a year of family deaths. It's still adults-only but not nearly so easy, breezy & blissful.

And I have no weird Turkey Day dishes, although my traditional one is a little non-traditional: A room-temperature salad of barely-steamed (really, mostly raw) broccoli & red bell peppers, dressed with a rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, scallions & ginger dressing. Soy sauce instead of salt in the dressing, and hot pepper sauce if you know the crowd will like it. Amounts of all ingredients are variable based on what you have in the house and how you like it. Go easy on the vinegar and fresh ginger is required. You could probably substitute a bottled sesame-something dressing doctored up with scallions.

It's my standard pot luck dish all through the holiday season, because of its red-and-green presentation .

Ooooh, I love those weird french fried onion things (but not the green bean casserole they are usually put on top of)!!!

My mom never served cranberry sauce - instead, she made a cranberry jello mold salad, with walnuts, chopped celery and a dab of mayonnaise on top.

The last family Thanksgiving was so traumatic that I'm skipping out this year. Friends and I are going to have dim sum in Chinatown, then back to my house to lounge around and watch football. I'm so excited to not be traveling...

Sorry you're having such a crappy week TLo - is it too early for "happy hour"???

I do like cornbread stuffing, but I make mine with a mix of white and rye, celery, walnuts if I feel like popping for them (we're on a tight budget and they ain't cheap), onions, stock, a bit of OJ, butter, sage, and black pepper.

Last year, instead of doing green bean casserole, I made a green bean salad with black olives (my family always had olives on the appetizer plate and I love them) and scallions, dressed with balsamic vinegar and tarragon, and topped with fried onion strips. It was actually quite good, and I'll probably do it again this year, though I might use slightly different spicing (maybe oregano and celery salt).

Plus turkey and mashed potatoes, of course, and gravy. We buy our pies usually because our kitchen is so small that doing baking is really obnoxious (the turkey is bad enough).

I think that this might be a crazy Canadian farmer thing, but we eat Jello molds with cut up sweet vegetables in it. Having said that - Thanksgiving is in October for us, so I'm Jello free this weekend.

Kat - I remember that Martha Stewart turkey! But I don't have the instructions since it never occurred to me to attempt it. Props to you.

That cornbread stuffing sounds amaaaaaazing.

Both my family and my fiance's family are Italian-American & from Brooklyn... our stuffing has tons of pork sausage from the pork store in it....mmmm.... I can't wait!

I'm trying to talk my mother in law into making Italian cheesecake, even though it's such an Easter thing. Craving it!

I love green bean casserole!

Believe it or not, though, in 24 years of marriage this is the FIRST YEAR I'll be doing Thanksgiving.

Still not sure how I got suckered into it, since I've been dodging it for so long.

Oh, and my stuffing is among the best at our family events - I use whatever bread happens to be going stale, rip it into tiny pieces and freeze the whole lot until a turkey holiday - so it can contain everything from tortillas to pumpernickel bagels to flaxseed bread bits. Cut up some onions and apples, roast some chestnuts and cut them up, throw in spices and bingo bango, best stuffing ever.

Hutchlover,
If you haven't done a Thanksgiving before. You do the turkey and have all your guests bring either a vegetable or dessert. The turkey is the easiest thing to get right. Getting all the side dishes finished and hot on the table is the hard part. Let them figure it out.

Another great topic, boys!

Jen -- your day at Jamestown sounds like sooo much fun! What a special way to spend Thanksgiving.

Say What? -- my mom & sis are in Plymouth as well, not too far from the Plantation. They used to live on the other side of town near some cranberry bogs, which are so beautiful.

My mom hates to cook. She used to put out a crystal dish filled with sweet gherkin pickles. That, to me, is the strangest Thanksgiving dish.

Since moving to CA we're the house of misfits. We invite people who have no place else to go.

The oddest item we serve is from my husband's family: tomato pudding. It consists of butter, croutons, tomato puree, brown sugar and a bit of cornstarch. It can be really bad (especially if you use seasoned crouton) or it can be wonderfully sweet, tangy and savory. The key is using homemade croutons and making puree out of whole tomatoes.

I am really hoping for a good episode tonight. We need to end of a high note.

Not really weird, but an odd addition to the traditional Thanksgiving meal. For the past few years, my dad has made his Caribbean jerk green beans in lieu of a green bean casserole. Even though they don't really "fit", they are delicious! And my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins have become a staple item, as well.

@ Lynn:

A lot of restaurants are open on T-giving, especially the kind of places that usually serve nice Sunday brunch. This year it might just be my sister and me, so if so we'll go to the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA, for champagne brunch.

Otherwise, my sis and I will drive up to the Bay Area to have dinner w/our cousins. It's always kinda white trash (football on TV, the green bean casserole mentioned by a poster above, canned sweet potatoes with marshmallow cream, Costco pies, and once, asparagus boiled to a paste-like consistency, because God forbid you actually TASTE the vegetables), but nice to see everyone.

"Your daddies have had a spectacularly shitty couple of days," *HUGS*

Mmmm.....everything sounds yummy! Going my daughter's this year. This will be the first holiday she's ever hosted, and she doesn't want any help from mom!

The best thing about being in Mississippi? Im still wearing short sleeves!

Ill go home to the Charleston and Charlotte for Thanksgiving - two days in each place. My aunts are all stay at home Junior Leaguer types, and, while its not my lifestyle choice, it makes for damn good holiday food. They plan the menu for a month, then all cook together.

Of course, being Southern, the most important thing is the drinking order:

9am-12pm: Bloody Marys and Mimosas
12pm-4pm: Beer and Wine
4 pm - until: Bourbon and Whiskey

While beer or wine may replace the Whiskey and Bourbon, anyone drinking hard liquor before 4 or Mimosas after 12 will be discussed ad nauseam and probably not invited to Christmas.

I love this! :) TLounge discusses Holiday food faves...and oh yeah, PR is on tonight..if anybody cares...

Wow TLo, tonight's lounge is such a sad, dark little place for the colorblind. :)

Sorry things have been so crappy for you two. I know how you feel.

Hm. 'Weird' food. Not much with the fam, unless you count chicken and noodles. It's not soup, NOT Italian, just chicken & noodles prepped like it was back in the shtetl....

"Weirdest thing I did for Thanksgiving" - slaughtering & eviscerating a turkey with a dull knife and plucking the darn thing by candlelight (thanks to the lack of electricity) with those swiss army knife tweezers. All this in the midst of ex-pat holiday dramarama in a foreign country.

See the lengths I go to for my T-day turkey!

Anywhoo, I need a Bailey's & coffee, stat. I need something to keep me awake for this finale. Hope TLo can stay awake too...

Oh one thing I miss something terrible from childhood Thanksgivings is homemade tamales. Nobody ever brings those to my Thanksgiving table. So if any of you know how to make them (and will). You are invited. I mean it.

Fresh cranberry sauce was a must growing up, it was even an old family recipe. Imagine my sisters' and my surprise when we found the same recipe on the Ocean Spray bag when we started having our own Thanksgivings. Not quite fair...Mom and Grandma used less sugar. My family is scattered so I spend Thanksgiving with friends who are fabulous cooks and I bring the wine. The next day I cook a turkey breast and all the sides I like so I can have leftovers.

I don't celebrate thanksgiving. It's a fabulous day of relaxation - and then I'm having an anti-colonialism party at my place that night so people can escape from their familys.

I somehow missed that there is another "Kat" around. Funny.

Madisonfw~
One year, no one wanted to fix the "hard stuff" so we decided to do Tex-Mex instead (we are in Dallas). My husband was so pissed that he had to miss out on Thanksgiving food because everyone was arguing and complaining about cooking. Typical family drama.

BeccaGo said...
@Anonymous 3:22 PM:

Please tell me you're a guy -- it would make that story even greater. ;)

11/12/09 3:27 PM

haha

You are right. It would make it better.

Unfortunately it isn't that good.
However she is thin (I am not), like 10 years younger than me, no career, and couldn't relate /participate in any of our common interests music/professions/etc - that is what made her look a little desperate trying to shake her booty to get his attention.

But I like your scenario even better.

I always make Pecan Yams and Stuffing Muffins (since everyone loves the crispy stuffing edge). But, it isn't Thanksgiving until I sit down with a whipped icy drink made from vodka, Baileys, Kahlua, and a shot of espresso and watch Uncle Buck with my three kids. It is the greatest John Candy movie, so funny, it has kept us laughing for almost 20 years.
Sometimes we make the effort to drive over 40 miles to this 100 year old bar that makes the best eggnog brandy drink in the world. It's made without any milk or cream and they won't give away the secret!

Eddy C. - and anyone else in a similar situation - Lurk in grandma's kitchen "helping" even if it means taking an extra day off work and traveling early.

I treasure every family favorite recipe I bothered to collect before my mom started feeling that the traditional dishes were "too much" for her - and the first year she expressed that opinion shocked the family, let me tell you. She was still healthy, but had, I think, reached Sewing Siren's feelings re-riced potatoes. Some of them she'd never really loved, but prepared for my dad. Once he was gone, it took her a few years, but she finally realized that she could sometimes please herself first.

She was especially receptive to teaching grandchildren the recipes, so you may have an "in."

We're taking my silent Yankee father-in-law to my effusive Jewish family's Thanksgiving in New Jersey. Hilarity will ensue. My SIL is kosher so I don't know if she'll let me make anything in her holy kitchen. If she does, I'm making the best Brussels sprouts. Heat the oven to high, cover a baking sheet with tin foil. Trim the sprouts and lay on sheet. Pour enough olive oil to coat and roll sprouts around with a couple of handfulls of kosher salt. Cook until the sprouts begin to turn brown. Delish!

Does anyone else love the sour cream-horseradish cranberry sauce (which I believe actually originates in some classic cook book) that NPR used to air as "Susan Stamberg's mother-in-law's" every year?

I make it by the bucket every year for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, though no one but me truly loves it. Heh heh heh. More for me, yes?

Hey Boys,
would love to have a drink (or several) at this week's T LOunge. Hope you get better soon!

A smallish crowd this year I think. Just my Mother, my boyfriend, and half the siblings (and their spawn).

Nothing too weird for Thanksgiving: A few Norwegian baked goods (home made lefse and Hardanger Kake)- otherwise it's all pretty usual. Fresh cranberry sauce (I bought the berries directly from the bog), fresh pumpkin pie (pumpkins from a roadside stand), and all the other usual good stuff.

I guess the only strange thing is after the leftovers are put away, the bony turkey carcass goes outside under the bird feeder. In a day or so it disappears - devoured by fishers, foxes, or wolves (I'm in the northwoods of Wisconsin).

Cheers all!
I love reading everyone's comments!

-Woodsy

Sorry your week has been icky. Waiter - bring my favorite boys a couple of Malbecs.

My sister and I put on Thanksgiving each year for our folks and any other siblings who happen to be wandering through town.

Mashed potatoes are a no-no for Dad, so we came up with a faux-tato recipe that he LOVES. It's made from mashed cauliflower, garlic and parmesean. Stinky during preparation, but delicious in the end.

Sewing Siren said...
Oh one thing I miss something terrible from childhood Thanksgivings is homemade tamales. Nobody ever brings those to my Thanksgiving table. So if any of you know how to make them (and will). You are invited. I mean it.

Ugh, I had to make those things every Christmas. I can't stand the smell. Here in Texas you can go to some stores and get the Masa (corn tortilla masa) doctor it up with salt and boiled up ancho chilies. Slowly roast some pork with the ancho chilies too. Then get the dried corn husks, spread the masa on it (1/8 inch or so) from the middle down using a wet spoon...add in a line of the pork. (We always put down newspaper to help with the mess). Then roll them up (folding the top half over) till you have more than you think you could ever eat in a lifetime. Then make 2 dozen more. Get a big pot or a steamer, steam (open side up) for about an hour or until the masa easily pulls away from the husk. The bigger you make them, the longer they have to steam.

One year I made an Indian dish substituting brussels sprouts for green beans. It was really intended for the two vegetarians at the table but was LOVED by 17 out of 19 at dinner (the two holdouts, by the way, were small children).

Every year I am asked to bring it again. It's made with cumin, corriander seed, chili peppers, and mustard seeds. Weird side for Thanksgiving; never any leftovers though - and so wonderful with my homemade cranberry sauce, which is more chutney-like anyway.

Gotham Tomato's right. This holiday is so much easier than the seder!

Cheryl

MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE!!!!!
Then the in-laws. I bring the string ban casserole.

Mmmmm - Tom your dressing sounds fabulous! The only thing I would add to it is crumbled sausage. Everything tastes better with pork.

We're going to my sister's house for Thanksgiving. My oldest son plays saxophone in the high school marching band, so he'll be busy at the annual Burlington-Lexington game that morning. I'll probably make sausage bread and baked butternut squash. If I get up early enough, I'll make bread, too. And I always bring good champagne.

Speaking of which... Open a bottle of Bollingers darling. I'll have one, with a raspberry floating in it if you have one. Anyone else want some Bollies?

Oh, for Tamales, You HAVE TO SOAK THE CORN HUSKS IN WATER!!!

Ms. Sangrail, the pie recipe sounds so odd and yet so intriguing. I assume it's a savory, but, yes, please give us the recipe.

Though I don't know why I ask. I've never made a pie. I'm not really much good for anything on holidays except showing up and being charming. At least that's better than when I was little, when it was almost inevitable that at some point I'd end up running from the table in tears.

I often host - Thanksgiving is one of my favorite meals to cook, I do love a challenge. This year we're flying to S. Florida to be with family, wish us luck we're flying on Thursday!
I mix cornbread into my regular stuffing bread, makes a nice sweet contrast.
Not weird, but since my SIL is Cuban -- and we have about 2 dozen at the table -- we do 2 turkeys, one "regular" and one "mojo" and we have to have black beans and rice -- real surprise for my Irish family the first year!
JMB

Okay, maybe I'll start to cook --

Anonymous Indian Brussels Sprouts:
Recipe, please!

Friends like low-brow food, so often dressing up store bought boxed items (except for potatoes).

So our perfect stuffing would be:
Stove Top stuffing mix, but use homemade chicken stock rather than water, add extra sauteed onions, mushrooms, celery, and Italian sausage.

We add cream cheese and sour cream to our standard mash potatoes recipe and it gets cleaned up pretty quick.

Pumpkin pie has kinda been just a required Thanksgiving item that everyone is rather neutral about. Last year, in lieu of the standard pie, I made the Barefoot Contessa's Pumpkin Roulade roll-up cake with Mascarpone cheese filling. That thing was devoured in minutes. Ina knows her desserts.

@ Woodsy

Where you at in the wild north woods of WI?

TLo said: "Your daddies have had a spectacularly shitty couple of days and all we want right now is to watch some fashion and some bitchery enhanced through a wine-soaked haze. Who's with us?"

Awwww, boys, you need to sit back, grab a couple of bottles of wine (yeah, it has been that kinda week) and relax.

that is, as best you can given the extended BM nonsense that is this season of PR.

oh, well, Thanksgiving will be here soon. will be spending it with my side of family. all the items on the menu are pretty standard Thanksgiving - except we almost never have turkey, usually a roast. works for me. I hate turkey and the never-ending leftovers.

srq

Esme, I think I'm going to try that roulade. My extended in-laws are insanely good cooks of good southern cooking and I'd like to bring something both good and a little unusual.

Two years ago we hosted my husband's family for Thanksgiving, and made the whole big turkey feast for the first time, complete with a kids' table in the hall for nieces and nephews. Actually the food came out fine. But his sister and mother fought so much it came to blows and the threat of calling the cops.

So we will not be inviting them again, and this year have declined all invitations. We're having a low-key dinner just the two of us, featuring duck and my husband's heavenly chocolate pecan pie. To hell with the turkey and feuding family!

Hey - C'est moi, c'est moi Lola -
I'm kind of between Spooner and Rice Lake. If you're up near here, pour an extra Bailey's & coffee. I think I'm going to need several for tonight!

-Woodsy

Anonymous 4:00 said "the bony turkey carcass goes outside under the bird feeder. In a day or so it disappears - devoured by fishers, foxes, or wolves."

Lordy, I just heard my granny roll over in her grave! She always made Bone Soup the day after T'giving. You boil the broken up carcass to get ALL of the little meat scraps off, then remove the bones and add cut up onions, carrots, celery and a couple of packages of yellow rice. Many in our family look forward to the Bone Soup more than the actual turkey dinner.

I had actually forgotten about PR being on tonight until I saw the TLounge open. Boring disappointing season.

I think it was Sewing Siren wrote that the turkey was the "easier" part?

My sister-in-law's father died a couple days before Thanksgiving a number of years back. Now normally she would cook the turkey breast that my brother would get from his food service sales job. So not wanting them to go to waste, since SIL and her mom were in no position to cook, my brother asked me to cook them. (My mother and sis already had cooking duties for other family.

I had never cooked turkey before. Now I don;t know what freakishly large kind of birds these two breast came from. But I recall that according to the instructions it was supposed to take 3 to 4 hours to cook. I did have thermometers and it took almost 10-12 hours to cook those things! (The oven was not broken.)

My holiday cooking is more for Christmas and Easter. ANd baking my grandmother's bread has been my responsibility for many years now. It is a sweet yeasty bread that has to be mixed by hand, punched down a couple times - but it is fantastic.

I make pumpkin pie from scratch, starting with raw pumpkin that I only cook in the pie, not before. The raw pumpkin gives it a very different flavor. People who don't like pumpkin pie really like mine, and people who like pumpkin pie really like it as well -- win for all!

I hope you have a lovely T-day and that your weekend brings you joy and bliss and a chance to relax.

Thanksgiving to me means meeting the family members I can't stand and my mom and dad fighting over who does a better job curving the turkey. Not a good time for me.

"Sane Woman said...

Anonymous 4:00 said "the bony turkey carcass goes outside under the bird feeder. In a day or so it disappears - devoured by fishers, foxes, or wolves."

Lordy, I just heard my granny roll over in her grave! She always made Bone Soup the day after T'giving. "


LOL Same here.

Scalloped Oysters.

I swear I thought Ms. Garcia was wearing one of those skeleton T-shirts in the preview. I thought girl had lost her mind. But it was so quick and I went back to pause it, it's just the fabric of the shirt.

Now that's funny. Put Nina in a skeleton T and Michael in one of those tux T-shirts for the finale. I'd die laughing and may watch Season 7. I say "may."

Married 20 years- seven kids. Last year we finally agreed that we are pretty sick of turkey and oppeted for cocconut shrimp and sceared scallops (too much top chef) our relatives were cranky, but quess what...no leftovers! We hope the pilgrims forgive us because for us a new holiday tradition is born.

It's the After Thanksgiving Leftovers that I love!!
I make sandwiches out of toasted brioche bread, piled with slices of turkey, heated sage stuffing, cranberry sauce and cranberry mayo.
To be enjoyed with a cup of mulled cider and a slice of pumpkin roll after watching the Macy's parade on TV.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!
TLO, I am very, very thankful for the joy that you bring us.

ASK,
Were the turkey breast thawed completely? That is the only thing I can think of that would make them take so long to cook.

I usually roast a whole turkey and generally I buy it frozen, which takes about 3 days to thaw.
I like to roast it in a deep pan with a lid. Mine is speckled black enamel. I maranade the bird with garlic, butter, and bell turkey spice, stuff it with T and Lo's cornbread dressing put it in the pan which I like to fill with fresh rosemary boughs. Then put it in the oven. The time and temp recommendation is on the wrapper of the bird. It usually takes a little longer but not that much. Also after it's been in the oven a couple of hours I start basting it about every 1/2 hour. Never had a disaster, but sometimes the legs will fall off.

It's ridiculously warm where I am. I want to wear my Michael Kors sweaters, but the weather won't let me, damn it!

My brother-in-law's family makes this cranberry-orange relish thing in which NOTHING is cooked and peels are involved. They grind everything by hand through this 19th-c. meat grinder. I'm sure it's delicious, but.... Ugh.

More importantly, I'm sorry you've been having a shitty time of it, gentlemen. I hope things perked up after you posted this. Just know your loyal readers are sending you much love and good thoughts and so forth like the cuddly little kittens and poodles we are.

Mashed potatoes from a box, Pillsbury rolls from a can, salad from a bag, pre-cooked ham from Honeybaked. Or, we're going out.

I don't like Thanksgiving, because it always involved food that I don't like, so now I try to find the balance of easy and tasty as to not rehash bad memories. The only thing I'll really make is dessert--perhaps an apple crisp. But the final plans really depend on my husband. He has been working abroad for months and is coming home for the holiday--and not telling his parents.

Boys, This was a truly lovely tangent to send us on. I loved reading everyone's stories. I hope that they gave you two a lift as well.

The only interesting dish at my table is a roasted cauliflower/roasted fennel mash that I adapted from a soup recipe. Yummy!

If there is anyway to get the recipes for the oyster dressing/stuffing (BF's fav) And the raw pumpkin pie, that would be terrific.

Peri

My mother-in-law brings (and eats) a box of corn flakes (without milk) because she is afraid that she will be allergic to my cooking. Sometimes she'll nuke the cornflakes in the micrwave so she'll have something warm.

PS She doesn't share.

Sewing Siren -
I thought they were - but they were so big and apparently dense (especially since it was all white meat), that perhaps the middle wasn't?

The reason I had to make them, was because they had been out of the freezer when her father died, and he died at least a couple days before Thanksgiving. So rather than waste them, that was why I had to cook them.

My family immigrated from Latvia. We don't have any normal dishes. Even the turkeys have a can of Heineken shoved up their asses. Everything else involves raw herring and rye bread.

I like it best when the cranberry sauce is extracted from the can perfectly and retains the can shape and lines.

For Thanksgiving: creamed onions, baked potatoes, rum gravy, cranberry orange sauce, apple yam hash, baby peas, and about three gallons of "special stuffing" to last through all those leftovers.

For tonight's episode: An entire bottle of wine, followed by an entire half gallon of ice cream.

Just kidding! (At least about the wine part.)

So, anybody want to guess what Tim Gunn's "We have an issue" refers to?

I'm hoping it's not cheating. It would be more interesting if a whole group of the models got swine flu and got quarantined (or became otherwise suddenly unable to participate), so new models in different sizes have to be brought in at the last minute . . . . and they are all bigger than the original models.

I know I am thankful for my fabulous daddies Tom and Lorenzo.

Weirdest dish: waldorf salad. Apples + mayo = blech.

Best dish: my dad's homemade almond croissants.

@ Woodsy

Youderhey!

Hey, sorry for the late response - crisis breaking out at the office!

Anywhoo, I'm not in the great north woods myself, I'm in Madison, but I DO know the area you're at. It's nice to see someone on the board from our neck of 'flyover country'!

Sorry I have to dash out of TLounge, but like I said, a crisis has befallen the office, and I may have to work on Sunday to remedy the issue. And there's no corporate coup, no Joan, Peggy or Don Draper joining me either....

Have a good night everyone!

Scalloped oysters ? sounds....interesting

Myra Flection

I always do appetizers. We eat them in the early afternoon with toasts of bubbly. I try to mix it up every year but always do certain favorites. One of which is a bacon-wrapped water chestnut recipe I got from a collection of Main Line Jewish ladies.(right ?) You coat the water chestnuts with mustard and brown sugar. Totally outrageous and since I rarely eat meat, a once or twice a year treat.

TLo, this cold rainy weather, I'm sure, is not helping your moods.


BTW I peeked at the final runway collections. #3 appears, to me, to be the clear winner. Does anyone think they know who did it ?

Myra Flection

*goes off to look up rum gravy*

i am enjoying this thread immensely.... and it is making me drool.

and laugh.

Hey Tom,

Here in the south we add jalapenos to our cornbread stuffing.

And we add cayenne pepper to our sweet potatoes...the sweet with the spicy just kicks ass!

Put me on board with making fresh cranberry sauce. 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and 1 package cranberries. I liked to watch and hear them pop while cooking. Guess I'm easily amused, or maybe its the mimosas that I hit at 7 in the a. m. :)

I'm hosting this year (as I do EVERY year).

BTW I peeked at the final runway collections. #3 appears, to me, to be the clear winner. Does anyone think they know who did it ?

Myra Flection


Everybody knows. Check out the comments section of that post. I think poster "al" called it after about 2 or 3 episodes.

I have had a long ass day and could use a stiff drink!

Thanksgiving? Yeh - no pilgrims in Australia. Well, not the Puritan kind anyways =) Just convicts =)

So I've really only got about 6 years worth of Thanksgiving tradition to speak of. My husband's family gets together on Thanksgiving, usually in Chicago at his aunt's place. She's....not the best cook in the world. There's usually at least 1 weird dish in the mix.

Last year it was some sort of polenta which was awful and I love polenta.

This year we're all going to Indianapolis for a big ol' church conference. Looking forward to it and visiting Indianapolis for the first time! Any suggestions on what we MUST do in Indy?

Happy TLounge everyone, can't wait for tonight's episode!

Wine all the way around, boys.

If you want everyone to fall down worshipping at your feet, I highly recommend this sweet potato casserole recipe from the Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love:

http://tinyurl.com/ygv7rfj

(Skip the coconut)

I don't think I'd be allowed to come to Thanksgiving dinner if I didn't bring it.

Tom darling, if I could muster up the effort and skill it requires to cook, I would definitely try your cornbread dressing.

hope you boys feel better already! look
at all the fun we're having because of your
suggestion.
we don't serve anything weird at thanksgiving.
the favorite dish is definitely my cornbread dressing.
i use home made corn bread for the base, southern style; a little bit sweet.
i cook up bacon in a pan nice and crispy for crumbles to be added to the dressing. i save the bacon grease (i know, totally decadent, and probably gross to some, but the flavor is worth it) and saute onions, garlic, and green chilies/jalapenos in that. mix all the above-mentioned things together with chicken stock, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh cilantro. i have to make a ridiculous amount of it to keep from running out.
and boys, thanks for posting so much the past couple of "shitty" days. you guys rock!
xoxo

The strangest thing at my Thanksgiving dinners is my tiny MIL going all border collie on me and physically nudging me all over MY kitchen. Seriously. It's like being herded by a cartoon.

Although I manage to keep the household alive for the other 364 days, and not dying from either scurvy or rickets, somehow she thinks I can't cook. Or stir, Or read, chop, wipe, wash, slice, dice or sprinkle.

Ah well. What was that lemon, vodka, and cranberry juice drink recipe? Can I put it in a hydropack and just sip on it all day long?

For tonight's episode: An entire bottle of wine, followed by an entire half gallon of ice cream.

Just kidding! (At least about the wine part.)
Hey Me too!! execpt I'll be skipping yhr icecream.

A toast to you both,Tlo. I myself started drinking one second past five o'clock.

HEY! You guys, you're missing a possible BIG HINT in that video clip.

First the girls get assigned one more outfit and moan about it, then, at the very end, Tim says "We've got an issue."

Don't you think that means something ELSE besides the extra outfit requirement?

What do you think might have happened?

The only way to host Thanksgiving is to drink Mimosas all day long. Or a couple of Mimosas and then switch to straight champagne.

Whitney: I'll be at your place at 4, just in time for the bourbon!

I always make the stuffing too. Been doing it for years, totally traditional--no weird ingredients allowed. My mother put oysters in it one (horrible) year and no one ate it.

Nothing weird for TG, but the Martha Stewart sweet potatoes and bourbon-caramelized apple dish (we changed it a bit to get the bourbon into it) takes forever and is worth every minute!

I've promised myself I won't get mad tonight--I'll just laugh...and have another drink. TLo, you boys do the same and feel better!

Since I've moved to NC, my parents and brother have come here from La. for Thanksgiving. I haven't done anything odd for the meal (yet). On the menu this year is turkey (if I can find a Turduckhen then we'll have it), real mashed potatoes, cream-style corn (my grandparents grow it and put it up - I've been eating organic all my life, LOL), carrots, cranberry sauce in a can (I like it so there!), maybe some cornbread, quick banana pudding, and probably a sweet potato pie.

Before I was married, the family ate Thanksgiving lunch at my grandparent's house. Every year, my Mema insisted on making one of those disgusting Cool Whip fruit salads that is colored either pink or orange. And she was the only one who ate it.

If you have a sweet tooth try these. 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 stick butter, 2 cloves minced garlic slow cooking in sauce pan while you wrap three cans of whole green beans into bundles using bacon for the wrap. pour the sugar mix over and bake in oven until the bacon browns. everyone always begs for this recepie, ( I would rather give it to you guys than my relatives) whose idea was it to mess up thankgiving by adding relatives?

I forgot about cranberry bread! (Thanksgiving & Xmas for me). Just use the recipe on the back of the Oceanspray bag of cranberries. Delish! (and so easy)

(otherwise, with just husband & me, we usually have just one big dish like a beef stew or potato/leek soup or egg fritata thing or shepherd's pie... Not much different from every winter night... Except for the addition of a pre-dinner dry sherry, the cran bread & expensive chocolates)

You guys bring us so much delight and laughter, I hope that tonight's show fills you with some worthy bitchiness and snark worthy drama and your week starts to improve.

It is sunny, warm with just a touch of crisp here in NorCal.

We are usually very traditional and boring with our Thanksgiving menu. However, last year my college aged daughter made us lamb in her tiny dorm kitchen. It was wonderful!

Drink LOTS!!!

Does no one put eggs in their dressing? Broken up corn sticks (more crust for more crunch) baked in Grandmother's ca. 1900 cast iron pans, sage (lots), celery and onion sauteed in olive oil and butter, chicken broth and bits of chicken (from a baked hen)... YUM. Roast turkey and gravy with mashed spuds; roast tenderloin of beef; roast root vegetables (parsnips, turnips, carrots, potatoes); sprouts, green beans, Mac & Cheese (don't know why I capitalized that?); homemade cranberry sauce with oranges and pecans; turnip & collard greens; rolls and cornbread (for soaking up the pot liquor - or likker, as you like it). Wonderful wines and whatever someone else makes for dessert! Daughter and son-in-law and their children (son lives in NYC, works in theatre so can't be in Alabama); brothers and sisters, their children; any friends and friends of friends who have no other place to be. The more the merrier!

HAS ANYONE ELSE SEEN THIS?!!!

In his TVGuide.com exit interview, Christopher accidentally slips up and says he was a PLANT on the show!!! This is scandalous....

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Project-Runways-Christopher-1011962.aspx

Watch for it at about 1:09...

-WishIWasJoan

Thank you for the recipe Anon 4pm. I am familiar with it, the "pork" usually being the giagantic head of a hog. But I was so hoping that one of my guests would bring me a big steaming pot full arranged vertically with a big ol' wad of tinfoil in the middle to keep them standing up. It's never going to happen though.

Have we seen the episode yet where a model refuses to wear a designer's garment on the runway? Did I miss that one? Is such drama in store for the finale? Tim did say such drama took place, or did I imagine that?

SewSew said:
I've promised myself I won't get mad tonight--I'll just laugh...and have another drink. TLo, you boys do the same and feel better!

An excellent idea. Instead of moaning about how dreary this season of PR has been or trashing anything that looks trashworthy tonight, let's make each other laugh.

In fact, let's see if we can out-Kors the Dutchess in coming up with hilarious descriptions of any garments or garment features that come up short.

With, of course, special attention to the expected knocking knockers on Althea's models, any other mis-highlighted body part, and anything diaperific.

:=D

Sew Sew, I will see you there!

As I am rooting for my girl from CofC (Carolina Girls represent!) I was wondering...any one on here living in Mississippi?

I actually make three side dishes: Cranberry sauce from scratch (with enough booze in it to liven things up a bit), butternut squash bisque, and the traditional green bean casserole. I also end up picking out the wine (since I spend my Thanksgiving with most of my friends who are wine merchants, bartenders, and other professional drinkers). So this year I have an awesome Zinfandel and Fumé Blanc prepared, along with the traditional Beaujolais Nouveau.

"Tom feels the need to point out that his cornbread dressing has been among the most popular side dishes for about 20 years now. "

Awesome! My mom makes the best cornbread too ; )

I don't really like any of the 3 final collections. They are all too dark, no color of any kind, and just not my thing. There are one or two individual pieces in each collection that I like, but nothing that blows me away.

I don't really care who wins. Either Irina or Carol Hannah will win, I think.

It is not my turn to cook for Thanksgiving (my sisters & I switch off), but I have to take Dear Hubby's staples: sweet potato casserole and cranberry relish (1 bag whole cranberries, 1 extremely large or two medium oranges, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, sugar to taste. You grind up the cranberries & oranges, rind and all, add lemon juice, then sugar to taste. you can add nuts if you like)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
SisterZip

Well, for the first time ever, my family and my Significant Other's family are coming for Thanksgiving. Together. Oh god.

So that sums up my life. I love the lounge. Looks like one that could get puked in and no one would really notice.

I want an Irish coffee, please. Brr.

I bring the weird dish. I cook up sweet potatoes with onion, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, ginger and fresh cilantro. The folks who don't like my mom's yams cooked w/brown sugar and butter go for mine.

Sheesh, no one has posted the recipes I wanted. Apple & Onion pie. . . Brussels Sprouts w/ Indian spices. . . come on people! One last try: Kaycee, as I've declared above, I can't bear sugary items added to sweet potatoes. Your savory concoction sounds really good. Is there a recipe, or do I have to try to figure it out myself? I mean, is it baked, is it a home fries kinda thing, or what? (Recipe, please!!)

Anon at 5:39

Not a scandal. Christopyer misspoke and quickly corrected himself. He was saying he was stuck in at the last minute.

What IS interesting is his recap of how he was questioned about being a "cryer" in the casting interview and whether he could keep it under control. He told them he could.

My Dad always likes to give impossible tasks or quests for some reason. Last year he decided he wanted the canned green been casserole since I usually steam them fresh. My beloved husband (who is the better chef) made it from scratch except the onion toppings. It was to die for and it shut my Dad right up. This year we are trying it with fresh asparagus. Yum. Sorry your days have been off....and tomorrow's the 13th.

Brooklyn Bomber - you could try Googling it. "Apple onion pie" brings up half a dozen recipes.

Same with Indian brussel sprouts. Here's one:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/345585

nothing weird on the thanksgiving table, but a tradition that started 2 years ago is a huge thanksgiving dinner for Marines from Camp Pendelton. We live in a beautiful community with a large clubhouse on a (man-made) lake; about 20 families get together and put on a feast for the troops who are all alone on Thanksgiving. We have a great dinner, then everyone goes upstairs and plays poker and several of the residents give boat rides around the lake. then we send them all home with "doggie bags" with turkey sandwiches and other goodies. So many of the guys express that if we didn't do this for them that they would be sitting in the barracks playing video games. For many it's their first Thanksgiving away from family.

I've got 21 people from four states coming on Thanksgiving.

Don't tell them, but 'm buying two smallish turkeys already roasted and sliced. I'd much rather bake pies and good veggies instead of a big old bird. They will be scandalized by this break in tradition, but hey, I want to have fun too.

Best cranberry pie ever:
Chop up a bag of cranberries in the Cuisinart, but not too fine.
Get a 10" piepan. Dump the cranberries, 1/2C chopped walnuts and 1/2 C sugar into it.
Mix 2 eggs with 1 1/2 sticks melted butter, 1C sugar, 1C flour, 1 tsp. almond extract. Stir until smooth.
Pour into the pan on top of the cranberries and bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
It's good with vanilla ice cream on top.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

This show tonight is going to have horrible ratings because Lifetime didn't promote it enough. I didn't even know it was on.

--Itsjustme

Triplet Mom,
That is awesome. Thanking our servicemen and women is what it's all about. I hope you have a fantastic day.

--Itsjustme

This one's for you BB!

In a big pan, fry up 2 chopped onions in 2 Tbsp olive oil till soft - add 2 chopped garlic cloves and stir. When you start to smell the garlic - in a minute or so - add 3 peeled and chopped tomatoes and 3/4 tsp. ground ginger. Peel and cut 2 lbs. sweet potatoes into 1-inch cubes and add those, then add 3 Tbsp chopped cilantro. Add about a 1 1/2 cups water - the potatoes are about half covered - and season w/salt and pepper. Cook for 20- 25 min., turning potatoes over once, until tender and the liquid has mostly evaporated.

This is so good with roasted or grilled meat or poultry. I can't tell you how many people who say they can't stand sweet potatoes go crazy about this dish.

Pinot noir, I think . . .

We will be in rural Alabama with husband's extended family. Their only real must-have is the family caramel cake--spice cake with several batches of cooked caramel icing allowed to soak in. A diabetic coma waiting to happen.

I cannot abide the mushy celery stuffing, and so always make what they refer to derisively as "Yankee stuffing"--the cubed stuff with sauteed mushrooms, fresh cranberries, pecans, and the like. Evidently I am the only Yankee hailing from Virginia and North Carolina!

Sewing Siren - Yes, I'm unfortunately familiar with the giant pig head. My grandmother joined us one year and insisted on it. That was the year I stopped eating them! 2 per year is my limit. We use a pork roast usually. Good luck on someone bringing them over!

-JC

Thanks, Kaycee & MouseAnony!

It's plain old good food for me.

Baked spuds, green beans, turkey & gravy, dressing from a bag of Pepperidge Farm seasoned croutons, roasted butternut squash, jellied cranberry sauce from the can, with pumpkin and mincemeat pies for dessert. Plus, of course, mulled cider and a bottle of wine.

Lord god Kaycee, that sounds delicious. (you had me at "garlic")

And Itsjustme - I am not a pie person, but I might have to try that. Is it sweet/tart like rhubarb pie?

Mouseanony, I don't know...why would Christopher even think of the word "plant" if he was just a last minute addition? Not really interchangeable words. If we wanted a delicious conspiracy theory, we could think, he used the word "plant" and quickly realized, aw sheet, I'm not supposed to say that, and so changed it....

Even if it's just a last-minute addition, kind of telling, isn't it? Did a contestant drop out? Did B-M think, oh, no, we did a new, unfound, untrained talent to fit the PR slot and gosh darn, let's get a cryer. BTW, even though he says, he said, "I don't cry", he's also pretty unself-aware and would be just the type not to realize the pressure of the competition before signing up. He might be a "nice guy" but I think he'd be trying with his lack of self-awareness as a friend and I certainly wouldn't trust him with a secret (to get back to the "plant" or not).

On Thanksgiving, we head over to my husband's Aunt's house for a big family meal. She has asked me to make "Sunshine Salad", which is a nasty Jello salad...yuck! The following day, I cook Thanksgiving for my husband and kids. I get a natural bird from the butcher, brine it in kosher salt, brown sugar and apple cider (it's really good that way), and then I make stuffing, Mashed Potato Mountain, gravy, sweet potato casserole for the kids (both college age), apple pie and a pumpkin pie. My favorite though is the leftover hot turkey sandwich...

TLo, hope things get better and that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Hope tonight's show is interesting enough to make you feel better.

My Gram always makes oyster stuffing. I don't know where the recipe came from or why one would want oysters (and their juice, blech) in stuffing. I stick to the traditional, but a lot of my family members love it.

Personally, my favorite is Gram's sweet potatoes that are basically drenched in molasses - super sweet and delish.

Enjoy the show everyone!

Lord have mercy, thank you for not asking us to predict the winner because my response would have been "I don't care who wins this crappy season".

Having said that, I am excited because I am going to try "dry-brining" a turkey this year, which involves rubbing it with salt and letting it sit in the fridge for a few days before roasting it. I can't wait to try it.

And my apple-cranberry pie always has people coming back for more.

The hubs and I have our own tradition of Pumpkin Pie for breakfast. I am always too full for pumpkin pie after Thanksgiving dinner, so we have it for breakfast. Yummy.

My husband works Thanksgiving for the fourth year in a row, which is really bumming me out, the kids and I will be at my family's and I am bringing the stuffing. I am all about the stuffing.

Anon 6:15, I am from Charleston, SC and just moved to Mississippi for a fellowship. Everyone I meet keeps asking me how I'm adjusting to the South.

THE CIVIL WAR BEGAN IN MY HOMETOWN, PEOPLE.

pickled water melon rind

TLo, I'm so sorry to hear that you've had a bad few days! I love you, I think you're brilliant, I love your blog. Cheer up and have a seabreeze on me. -victoria

Worst Thursday Ever:

I'm sick, its cold, no contest, the final three suck majorly....

I just woke up from a 5 hour nap, that's not healthy. I don't mean to whine but you said to talk. No drink for me tonight, but if you have a replacement liver or lung sitting around for the one I'm about the cough up.... ;)

We get to host some great friends and their kids this year. None of us have family available to come, so it will be a non-dysfunctional Thanksgiving this year...yippee!

So I'm starting to stress about what to make and how to make it. I have NEVER hosted Thanksgiving before, so some angst going on here! (Plus it doesn't help that I am domestically challenged when it comes to cooking). So I'm loving the delish recipes mentioned so far. Keep them coming!

High school concert tonight, so I'll probably miss PR. Watch, I actually miss the one interesting episode of the whole season...Ok, probably not.

Hey Kat and kat, I think there are as many of us as there are Anonymouses. I will change my username...I don't care.

ha ha I really should try reading this time. Thanksgiving plans...this year should be your typical dinner with my roommates but I usually *don't* have a normal Thanksgiving. Yes I spend it with my family but we're usually traveling and don't care much for turkey. Sauteed shrimp and pasta is our only known tradition lol. One of the more memorable Thanksgivings I have is when we ate dinner at Sea World with the sharks swimming around your head. Good times.

And to everyone who said Pumpkin Pie for breakfast: YES!

"Not a scandal. Christopyer misspoke and quickly corrected himself. He was saying he was stuck in at the last minute."
Huh? yesterday i was starting to kinda warm to christopher like a clueless little brother with ALOT of growing up to do.
today he reminds me of an ex boyfriend who lied so much even he didn't know which were the lies and which was the truth.

Sorry you boys have been having a crappy one. Lots of (((HUGS))) to you both!!!

I was supposed to spend Thanksgiving with my parents this year but can't get a kitty sitter so it'll be me and the striped one downing take out and a large bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

Oh and for the poster who wanted to know about Tofurkey. RUN. It's vile. Get thee a nice multi-grain vegetarian loaf instead.

Now onto the drab finale.....sigh....

Reading so many posts...can I also mention that my Grandmother is a terrible cook...so atypical *sigh*
Both my parents are fantastic cooks though, so I can't complain that I've been missing out.

:( I miss those home-cooked meals every night

Far be it from me to throw a cloud over the TLo Lounge, which I love, but this T'giving will be bittersweet for me. I lost my mom at the end of 2008, and T'giving was the last time I saw her with any semblance of health. Nevertheless, I've got years of happy memories AND her recipe for awesome dressing - much like Tom's, except we don't let the cornbread dry out AND we use a "making" of biscuits (she always made an extra batch of dressing and froze it so that when I came for our joint birthday in February we could have T'giving all over again). So here's to moms, and family recipes handed down, and happy memories, and love that endures no matter what - and the wonderful, wonderful TLo who give us a place to come to share ourselves!

Triplet Mom,
That is awesome. Thanking our servicemen and women is what it's all about. I hope you have a fantastic day.
WOW...all the best to you, tell the men and women that we honor their service now more than ever!

Last year I brined our turkey for the first time. The ingredients included allspice, cloves, garlic, brown sugar, and, unexpectedly, juniper berries. The juniper really took over - I could have soaked the thing in a couple gallons of Tanqueray and called it a day! The flavor was good, if not traditional.

Feel better, TLo. Your minions love you!!

xox

FormerlyAnon:
This cranberry pie isn't really a pie. The good stuff is on the bottom and then there's this chewy cakey part on top.

It's so damn easy to make and even people who don't like cranberries eat it. That includes my picky kids.

It definitely is a tart/sweet combo. I bring this dessert to every holiday dinner I'm invited to because it's foolproof (I'm a sewer, not a cook); it's super-simple, and I have the recipe memorized. Now people call and specifically ask me to bring it. Make it, you'll love it.

--Itsjustme

Changing the subject a little. I could care less which soon to be forgotten designs wins, however I really want Tanisha
to be the model. Did you see her at the after party last week ( the one with the stupid plastic champage glasses)... that necklace, that skin, that dress, those eyes!!

Love you guys (though pissed that you didn't pull my name out of the bag for the Joe Faris jacket!!!).

Our Thanksgiving is run-of-the-mill, except, for whatever reason, my mom always makes a big bowl of hollandaise sauce, only much thicker than you'd find on your brunchy eggs benedict, and the family proceeds to dip slices of Italian bread wrapped in cold cuts directly into the sauce. It's kinda gross, most definitely not good for your, and hella-delicious.

Team Carol-Hannah!!

Hey, TLo, sorry to hear it's been shiteous. Hope you're turning the corner.

My family is pretty hidebound about the Thanksgiving menu. Everyone looks eagerly forward to the standing menu, which I cook. We have turkey (a really big 'un) with bread stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, lima beans (not combined into succotash since not everyone likes limas), homemade rolls, homemade cranberry-orange relish, homemade applesauce. Dessert is homemade pies: pumpkin, pecan, and sour cream apple.

And the leftovers are fab. First we have hot turkey sandwiches, then turkey pot pie, then the carcass is used for turkey noodle soup. Royalty couldn't eat better than this.

Oh, yeah, PR finals. Yawn. I'm guessing Irina wins, but I couldn't care less at this point.

My family is coming in and I'm cooking as usual, only seven of us this year so I foresee tons o' leftovers. Now, I've never done anything particularly whacky, I've always done the standards, and quite well, I'm told...UNTIL THIS YEAR!

This year, I step out of my comfort zone. This year I am going for it. For this year I am adding one more dish to the repetoire I've never tried before. This is a dish only spoken of with quiet whispers and furtive glances and knowing nods. It is a dish that I always thought was mere urban legend, for my unschooled brain could not understand how this could possibly be real. Until, one day, as rare as a unicorn and as precious, a dear friend not only gave me the recipe but spun tales of glorious victory, that when this is on the sideboard all other foods fade away while guests elbow each other out of the way to get more, and still more! Until all that remains is an empty vessel. The magical dish of which I speak is...

Stuffing casserole made with White Castle hamburgers. And chicken gravy. Oh yes, my friends.

To many of you this will seem bizarre, I know. It certainly did to me. But this magical carb cocktail is apparently the stuff from which heaven is made. So I'm doing it. Because when one has such a recipe, one makes it. Yes, I am hedging my bets and making my usual foccacia stuffing as a back-up. But from what I've been told no one will touch it, its flashier slider cousin will hold so much more hypnotic allure...

So there it is, folks. White Castle Stuffing Casserole. God help us. I'll keep you posted...

Looking forward to this episode. I've always enjoyed Tim's visits.

Oh man, I gotta stop reading this... I'm starving.

I'd like a very dry martini and a deep fried turkey at my end of the bar.

@ LynnW and formerlyAnon: My mom and I have tried for years to watch my Grandma make those noodles, and there's just a way she makes them that is so delicate (not thick and chewy)... I think it just takes 70 or so years of practice.

EEK/STL - I need that recipe, PLEASE!
My man just got put on a wheat free diet. but just reading that put me over the edge! Fuck it.
I'm begging!

WOW.

Project Runway has versions in the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Australia, the Phillipines, Korea, Israel and Belguim. They're currently casting for a show in Finland, as well. In Lebanon, the version is called Project Fashion. Discussions are underway for a Greek version as well.

Holy cow.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is a mere two weeks away or that this season of PR is coming to a close. As much as I've complained about PR this year, I'll actually miss my Thursday night ritual of; bitching about PR before the episode airs, watching the episode/bitching/posting on this blog and then indulging in the post-viewing bitchfest at work and on this blog about how bad the episode was that aired.

Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays because it's all about food (!!!) family & friends. My family is small and we have a pretty traditional meal each year with my parents doing most of the cooking. My mother has a big heart and usually she or I invite a few stray friends or acquaintances to join us. Each year I vow to cook "something special" and spend months collecting recipes, but typically wind up going to Reading Terminal Market or some frou-frou bakery on the day before buying a bunch of amazing pies, cakes or unusual sides for something different. Over the years I've realized that I'm not big on cooking, but big on collecting and eating. Happy finale and Thanksgiving to all!

- edina -

Whitney -
I'm from Mississippi and now live in North Carolina. It may as well be Yankee land to most of my family! What part of MS is home for you?

My weird recipe is definitely green cottage cheese jello:
Cool Whip + Lime Jello + Cottage Cheese + Marshmellows = Something only Mom eats.
The absolute must have at our house? Stuffed Mushrooms. Does anyone else think TLO should do an all-recipe post, where we all share our recipes in the thread?
And I know this is off topic, but those crazy Alexander McQueen shoes, with the fish scale pattern? Lady Gaga is wearing the whole outfit in her newest music video. So there's your answer on who would wear that.

Thanksgiving for me has been Chinese food and a movie with the kids since my Mom died. Holidays just don't seem the same, and after a year of sobbing my way through the old traditions, I gave it up and started new ones.

I don't know if some time I'll feel like doing the traditional things again.

I used to make turkey until we discovered that our favorite BBQ place makes them to order. Expensive but SOOOO worth it. Pick it up the day before, stick it in the fridge, reheat the next day according to directions and it's the best turkey you'll ever have. I get to dedicate myself to the things I like best, the sides and desserts - like homemade yeast rolls, real cranberry sauce, and pies!

Mom'a Pea Salad:
Start with 3 cans le sueur peas, drained

In amounts to taste (approx 1/4 cup):
sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
dill pickles, cubed
black olives, chopped
green olives, chopped
celery, chopped
mayo to taste
salt and pepper
Mix all and let sit.
Before serving mix in 1/2 c. chopped pecans and decorate with whole pecans.
Yum.

This year, as with the past two years, it will be Marie Callender's turkey dinner and myself for Thanksgiving. I'm 3000 miles from home, and can only afford to go home for one holiday (xmas). I have a feeling Thanksgiving is going to be a very hard day this year - I just lost my last grandparent, and all of my happiest holiday memories are completely tied up with her. She was a wonderful cook and an even better grandmother.