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Thanksgiving

Posted: Oct 31, 2012

I know it's a month away but can you all share with me your "normal" plans for Thanksgiving? My parents live too far away so it will be just me and my 11 year old son by ourselves this year. I want to make it special since this will also be his first Thanksgiving without his dad but cooking a huge turkey and the works seems like it will be a waste of food. Suggestions/ideas?

;

Solo Thanksgivings - SD

[ In Reply To ..]
What I've done in the past when I haven't been able to be with family for whatever reason is to invite other friends who do not have family plans to spend the day. I do a turkey, I have them bring stuff potluck style, make sure there are board games and whatnot available, maybe a couple movies rented and just celebrate that way.

How about cornish hens? They are small and you - could do maybe two of them and

[ In Reply To ..]
a small pan of stuffing and one pie with some mashed potatoes & gravy, two standard size sweet potatoes and whatever else to your liking. If you dont like cornish hens, you could get a small ham.

I personally usually drive home for Thanksgiving or my parents come here so my mom does the cooking. On Christmas I stay home and make Christmas dinner for my kids and they all come over to eat.

But cornish hens is a perfect replacement for turkey, they are small, single serving size and you dont have to worry about wasting food.

Hens - Silly Girl

[ In Reply To ..]
I hadn't thought about cornish game hens - great idea! thank you!

I don't think it would be a waste of food. - (sm)

[ In Reply To ..]
You could get the smallest turkey you can find and have leftovers. I am assuming you want to be sort of traditional for your son and by not doing anything or having little game hens is fine but it's traditional to have turkey and sides. I would google meals for 2 for side dishes and make a small amount but I would cook a turkey, so you can show him how to baste it, etc.

I don't know. Maybe it's me, but spending time and showing your child is never a waste of anything.

Furthermore, you could pick all the turkey meat of the bones and freeze some of it for a later use like hot turkey sandwiches, etc.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your son!

Turkey - Nancy

[ In Reply To ..]
Turkey is not a lot of work. You prepare it and put it in the oven and leave it alone until about 30 minutes before you eat, at which time you cook the side dishes.

The bonus is that you have all kinds of great leftovers that you can freeze for individual meals later (make your own TV dinners) and the bones are great for soup or stew.

I always prefer the leftovers to the actual turkey dinner.

Because I work on Thanksgiving Day, we changed our - wannie

[ In Reply To ..]
meal from the traditional Thanksgiving Day meal to one of having a big breakfast with all the trimmings for our evening meal on Thanksgiving. It's a nice change and we really enjoy it.

When it was just my husband and me, we had duck. - L&L

[ In Reply To ..]
It's a little more expensive, but I really like the taste much more, and it's never dried out like turkey. One duck serves 2 people very well.

Dry turkey - Nancy

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I roast my turkey upside-down so it bastes itself and I've never had a dry turkey. It can be turned over for the last 30 minutes if you need to brown the top. I don't bother because I carve it before anyone sees it.

Thanks, but I really do not like turkey. - L&L

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The hospital I used to work for gave us one every Thanksgiving. I always fed it to my cats.

Lucky cats! NM - Nancy

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Thanksgiving traditions - L&L

[ In Reply To ..]
When I was in Jr High and living at home with my very poor parents, one Thanksgiving my mom put a turkey in the oven. After 7 hrs it was still cold...the gas was shut off for nonpayment. The only place open that night was a little diner in town. We went there and had chili for our Thanksgiving. Every year thereafter we celebrated our "traditional" Thanksgiving with chili.

Later when I was married, one year we were driving in an Iowa winter across the state to have Thanksgiving with some friends. I had make a chocolate cake and an apple pie to take. We got caught in black ice in a little town on the way. Fortunately, a farmer had this 8-room motel where we wound up spending Thanksgiving. We decided to save the cake and eat the pie. The only thing we had to cut it with was an ice scraper. We have our own cozy little celebration.

Forget normal traditions; I wouldn't have traded those holidays for anything!!

Thanksgiving - livin4christ

[ In Reply To ..]
The past few years, even though we get together at my moms, she has fixed a turkey breast in the crockpot, stays more moist.. and I fix a couple of those turkey roasts you can get in the freezer section at Walmart and other stores.. my 2nd son jake ask if we would fix those and we don't have a lot of leftover dry turkey... also have an awesome chicken N dressing casserole that everyone loves.. got meat N dressing in one dish, simple to make.. and even the grandbabies luv it~ ;)

Thanksgiving Tradition - Gobble

[ In Reply To ..]
We buy a pound of ham or turkey (or both) from Honey Baked Ham and just cut my recipes in half for the sides. It is also nice b/c you don't have the turkey taking up all the oven space, but we still have enough leftovers for a day or two.

Thanksgiving - MTforever

[ In Reply To ..]
We normally have a huge ham with all the sides, but this year our grandchildren have asked for oyster stew - so that's what we're having this year!

Thanksgiving - See Msg

[ In Reply To ..]
We live in FL now, where it's very common for people not to have family in the area. I have all the "orphans" over.

As to dry turkey, that's because it's overcooked.

For leftovers, we make turkey salad, turkey soup. You can make small pot pies and freeze them. We also make TV dinners---those plastic throw-away sectioned plastic plates work. Turkey in one section, mashed potatoes in another, etc, then just put foil on the whole thing and slip into a zipper plastic bag.

We also freeze the slices and stuffing separate, then make turkey sandwiches with the turkey slices, stuffing, cranberry sauce. Makes a delicious sandwich.

Some people spend the day volunteering at a center where they serve homeless or the poor Thanksgiving dinner. That's not a bad lesson to teach a kid.

Silly Girl, what's special about Thanksgiving is the tradition - and the memories. So, a small turkey so it

[ In Reply To ..]
cooks up fast and easy, plus your son's favorite dishes from years past, the traditional ones.

You can probably continue the tradition and still leave off most extras. I insist on making lots of sides, but it's mainly for me. My family really is waiting for the turkey and mashed potatoes and my from-scratch gravy and stuffing.

BTW, I learned to be sorry about the stuff I cooked in early years before I really liked to cook. Because of that nostalgia hook, thirty years later my family insists on the old dishes though I can cook much better replacements. Thank goodness canned cranberry sauce, at least, really isn't bad. :) So--it's about the nostalgia.

Go Tofurkey! When my daughter was around - your son's age

[ In Reply To ..]
we made a Tofurkey (you can buy them now too) and a veggie meal together. After seeing what happens to a turkey to end up on a dinner table, I no longer buy the real thing.

My vegetarian daughter has tofu-stuffed cabbage rolls. - L&L

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I'll be working.

Sounds good. Tell your daughter to make a - pumpkin pie

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using tofu and pumpkin and just a few other ingredients. There are a lot of recipes on the web. Yummy!

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