This years Thanksgiving was a first for me. No tradition at all except for the turkey. Intentionally. Sort of...
This was my first thanksgiving with my partner blissfully alone. No kids, no extended family, just us, and that was unplanned. She cancelled a left coast trip at last minute and my kids' dad called and said he could pick up the boys early. Surprise! Suddenly no agenda, no hurry, no nothing but free time.
I am use to cooking for hundreds on this holiday. So my new challenge was to cook for two. The really cool thing is we often cook together, love food and are foodies and it is east meets west. And we like eachother. :)
We had a blast. bb.qued turkey, purple and orange roasted yams with butter and herbs and collard greens, cheesy cornbread, spicy sweet cranberry sauce and persimmoms dunked in Frangelica. Yum!
Leftovers ended up soup, a curry salad, empanadas and the official turkey sandwich. Enough to feed 3 other families, which we did.
The conversation flowed, music happened, our kitten got her first taste of turkey. Red wine DOES go with poultry.
I also made a couple quiches and a hamburger hot dish sort of thing and a brocolli and blue cheese salad which works completely with the sandwich.
I hope the fun and companionship becomes a tradition. The food is simply a wonderful excuse to get in the kitchen and laugh and talk. Which we do any way...
I must add we all baked bread together and made the sauces to share so the boys had something to bring to their uncles and grammas house, we have done that every year, so that counts. :) That is getting more fun as my boys are thinking up their own recipes.
Well, we have a house full of people. Our eldest son is 24, our youngest is not quite a year old. In between we have college students, high school students, and a new elementary student. We invite some of their birth families to come, too, usually, but this year, because our new little ones - the baby and the new foster daughter - are likely to be overwhelmed, we didn't invite the birth families this year. They'll come over in shifts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Wednesday before the holiday.
The college kids are all home now for the week, which makes for an interesting household to say the least.
We have turkey, two kinds of stuffing, cranberry sauce, orange rolls, regular rolls, butter, gravy, mashed potatoes, yams, corn, green bean casserole, rice pilaf, sparkling cider, and three kinds of pies.
We have a couple of 'traditions' - one is silly and the other is tasty. During dinner, at the end, we get our fingers wet and make our wine glasses sing. If we can do this while hanging a spoon from our nose, we are really talented. Imagine the family photographs we have ...
The other comes a couple of days later, just before the kids head back up to University, when we take the left over turkey and make green and red enchiladas.
While I have having a busy weekend preparing for Thanksgiving, I thought it is a great idea, if we can share our family's Thanksgiving tradition! I will be more than welcome to have your great recipe for Thanksgiving dishes. :)
Q1. What kind of dishes you can't miss on the table for Thanksgiving?
