Thanksgiving dinner

I was just curious as to what other folks did for their Thanksgiving dinner. Typically it's a turkey dinner with all the fixins. Does anyone have another kind of meat for their dinner? Does anyone hunt for their main course? I dunno, just wondering how different other families make their holiday come together at the table.

 

I did a Beach Thanksgiving one year where the main course was Alaskan King Crab. I thought it was great fun to switch it up for the holidays, my family...not so much.

 

We decided to do 2 thanksgivings this year. We are doing a friends only get together the Sunday before thanksgiving and a family one on the day of. My wife has a couple of friends in a difficult time in their lives and she invited them along with a few of our close friends to sit down and enjoy some food and drink. My wife is Canadian and did not get to celebrate her Canadian thanksgiving this year so this is like a combo kinda day.
And as you mentioned with your beach get together, we changed up our Xmas day routine a bit a few years ago. We boil lobsters in the afternoon and have a few friends over after the family stuff in the morning is done. So much fun doing it a little different.

 

My family is small. Sometimes we will roast a whole beef tenderloin (or center cut) instead of a gobbler.

There's still way too many fixins however.

 

We had a Mexican stand off recently on who is going to host Thanksgiving Day, my sister finally offered to do so. My wife was just about to give in. The suspense was intense. It's a lot of work and about 20 people can show up. We are doing Christmas.

 

Sometimes we do a standing rib roast, but lately I've really taken to turkey so we've had a few in a row. Sometime we have a ham in addition

Not thanksgiving, but a few years back for Christmas dinner we had an Italian dinner. Homemade ravioli, beef braciole, some kind of seafood stew whose name escaped me, canolis, and tiramisu. That's was good eatin

 

I come from a big family. My Dad would always ask his students at the college he taught at if anyone wasn't going home for Thanksgiving and invite them over, he usually got at least a couple of takers, mostly foreign kids. He hunted pheasant on the farm we rented, my Mother would cook a whole mess of birds depending on how many were coming, each would have a different stuffing, good memories.

I do the same now, my workplace attracts people from all over the world, as well as many young people who may not be able to make it back to their family. I'll invite them over if I happen to know they are alone, it is always a good time. Interestingly, most other cultures have a similar "Thanksgiving" celebration. The "orphans" are also always grateful.

 

We do the roasted turkey thing, although the only times I've really enjoyed it was when the turkey was deep fried and I was the one manning the fryer. But I'm not a fan of turkey in general, and the rest of the family isn't a fan of fried turkey, so I'm outvoted. Really I'm hoping my wife will take care of Thanksgiving eventually. Both mine and my wife's family has a habit of overcooking meat, making it dry, chewy, and tasteless. Somehow both my wife and I bucked that trend, and understand that chicken, turkey, pork, and especially fish, beef and venison isn't supposed to be turned into charcoal!

 

Anything other than turkey would be blasphemy at my side of the family's dinner.

My wife's family does breakfast on thanksgiving day.

 

My buddy's family has a breakfast tradition as well on Thanksgiving morning. They all go outside in the woods and cook breakfast over a fire. Even though the kids are mostly in their 30's now (and one of them has a kid) they still bundle up every Thanksgiving morning for breakfast by the fire. I think it's a neat tradition.

 

As you said Jack, it's a big 'to do' so I can understand why nobody jumped in so quick to say I'll do it this year.

 

I've had turkey cooked both ways and I have to say I like your method the best too. And as you are outvoted so am I. During the year I will get my way and fry a small bird. I think it tastes better and is definitely more juicy

 

OMG, that description made me hungry too.

 

We had a big smoked turkey last year. Mmmmmm.

 

Our entire family gets together for Thanksgiving brunch in the morning about 9-10. This is anywhere between 30-40 people, when we all come at different times! The result of my parents having 10 kids, the grand children, and now their children. LOFL Then everyone does their own dinner at their own house. That is when we have my wife's parents over. That is the usual routine. I absolutely have to go out and cut some wood for 3-4 hours so that I can work up an appetite for dinner. I like the breakfast thing so much I have usually eaten enough for the day by 10am. But after cutting wood for a while outside, and usually going for a walk through the woods as well, we have a late turkey dinner with all the trimmings at about 6pm and I'm ready to mounge again.

 

For the amount of people in my post above we have to have everyone bring something of course. So it is not so much work for the house hosting it. You should see the amount of bacon, sausage, egg casseroles, keish(SP?) pies, donuts and biscuits that are brought in done already. And then the fried and scrambled eggs, and English muffins that are cooked on site for that breakfast.

 

We usually have Thanksgiving at our house but this year we are going to my brother in laws.

It's nice not to have to do all the cooking and cleaning but I don't care for the traveling and when going to someone else's you always run the risk that the food will suck.

This year we're starting a new Black Friday tradition. I have the day off already and my wife who is a nurse is taking it off. We're going to get up early, go to the country diner in the next town over for breakfast. After breakfast we're going home to put up the xmas tree/xmas decorations and have a nice relaxing family day. Aside from breakfast we're not going to spend a red cent on anything else. I hate Black Friday and what it represents with a burning passion.

 

That is good! And true!