Happy Turkey Day to All!

[Spiky Bugger]

Epicured (one of two companies in this country that prepares and delivers Low FODMAP meals) came through like a champ, so we are having a close-to-normal Thanksgiving Dinner! And I “previewed” it and it’s pretty good.

It consists of turkey (white meat only), gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans w/almonds (but not almondine), cranberry-orange sauce, pumpkin loaf and chocolate chip cookies…some of which appear to be missing after the “preview.”





MrMiniSue and his daughter are going to his mom’s home in Nevada. MiniSue is joining us for our smallest Thanksgiving ever. Flashback-> about twenty years ago, we WERE going to have dinner for four…us, our kid and my mom. But random loved ones kept getting added and, at the last minute, I had to go rent a table extension, extra dishes, glasses, silverware, etc AND add in an already cooked prime rib because four had become fifteen. My only challenge this time is how, in a kitchenette with no stove, to get the component parts warm at the same time!

My favorite part of “Thanksgiving Dinner” is munching on the leftovers. So maybe we’ll skip dinner and just snack all day?

 

[JackieOnLine]

sounds wonderful and I like the snack all day idea! I am taking 2 sara lee pies to a friend's house, I baked them yesterday and bought TWO spray cans of whipped cream as I'm hoping there will be leftovers to leave there and to bring home.

I am thankful to have plans today.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

[southernlady]

In our 27 years of marriage, I’ve only been a part of one huge group for Thanksgiving and only hosted a decent size group ONE time. My in laws joined us one year while we were living in the Atlanta area. One of the few times I ever cooked a turkey.

As to the other time, Pam, hubby, and I headed to the NYC area for Thanksgiving. We stayed in a B&B run by a retired minister and his son in NJ. That year it rained on Thanksgiving but we were out on the parade route in the cold and wet. I asked hubby this morning if he remembered about where. 76th and Central is what he said came to mind. Getting Pam and I toward the front so we could see was a real interesting activity.

After that, we went back, changed and then headed to a friend’s house to join her and her family for their meal. Now I’ve never been a part of a large crowd, 10 was a huge gathering for us growing up, hubby‘s largest was never more than 8. Pam’s the same as her dad. There had to be 30 people stuffed in that little house, they had tables and chairs everywhere. And no one went hungry. That was in 1997. The friend and I had never met IRL at that point. We’ve been close friends ever since. Being part of a large family gathering was totally a new experience.

After daddy moved into Assisted Living, we did join him for Thanksgiving there and they serve close to 100 at a sitting but it’s not the same as the large family group back then.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

In our 27 years of marriage, I’ve only been a part of one huge group for Thanksgiving and only hosted a decent size group ONE time. My in laws joined us one year while we were living in the Atlanta area. One of the few times I ever cooked a turkey.

As to the other time, Pam, hubby, and I headed to the NYC area for Thanksgiving. We stayed in a B&B run by a retired minister and his son in NJ. That year it rained on Thanksgiving but we were out on the parade route in the cold and wet. I asked hubby this morning if he remembered about where. 76th and Central is what he said came to mind. Getting Pam and I toward the front so we could see was a real interesting activity.

After that, we went back, changed and then headed to a friend’s house to join her and her family for their meal. Now I’ve never been a part of a large crowd, 10 was a huge gathering for us growing up, hubby‘s largest was never more than 8. Pam’s the same as her dad. There had to be 30 people stuffed in that little house, they had tables and chairs everywhere. And no one went hungry. That was in 1997. The friend and I had never met IRL at that point. We’ve been close friends ever since. Being part of a large family gathering was totally a new experience.

After daddy moved into Assisted Living, we did join him for Thanksgiving there and they serve close to 100 at a sitting but it’s not the same as the large family group back then.

Growing up, with one set of grandparents divorced and remarried, Thanksgiving was chaos. We’d hit the Mexican side, with visits…Grandma’s and then Grandpa‘s. The Italian side was grandparents and my mother and my father and his three brothers and their wives and kids and four sisters and their husbands and kids. So 18 adults and 13 kids…31 of us! The “table” was plywood stretched between sawhorses that ran from the front of the small living room through the smaller dining room. After a major room addition, the place clocked in at 1136 sq ft. That makes about 36 sq ft per person…less the bathroom space. About the same as a jail cell. Cozy.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

sounds wonderful and I like the snack all day idea! I am taking 2 sara lee pies to a friend's house, I baked them yesterday and bought TWO spray cans of whipped cream as I'm hoping there will be leftovers to leave there and to bring home.

I am thankful to have plans today.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I like it when you’re happy.

 

[southernlady]

Growing up, with one set of grandparents divorced and remarried, Thanksgiving was chaos. We’d hit the Mexican side, with visits…Grandma’s and then Grandpa‘s. The Italian side was grandparents and my mother and my father and his three brothers and their wives and kids and four sisters and their husbands and kids. So 18 adults and 13 kids…31 of us! The “table” was plywood stretched between sawhorses that ran from the front of the small living room through the smaller dining room. After a major room addition, the place clocked in at 1136 sq ft. That makes about 36 sq ft per person…less the bathroom space. About the same as a jail cell. Cozy.

That type of Thanksgiving was so totally foreign to all three of us but we are extremely glad we had a chance to experience it.

 

[ShrinkingMyTiara]

The big family Thanksgiving is something everyone should get to experience once! They are a lot of fun! It makes you understand why the holidays are SUCH a big deal to some people.

My partner and I went to the local Irish pub for lunch today. They had a turkey or ham dinner with all the trimmings. It was delicious! I ate mostly turkey, with a bite of potatoes, two bites of stuffing, and two green beans. And I was actually satisfied... I even got a bite of pumpkin pie! And my system did fine with it all so I'm grateful.

My partner is Chinese and wasn't raised celebrating Western holidays (and especially not Thanksgiving, since they aren't American) so I have gotten away from celebrating them too in general. I did the big dinners when I was growing up with the churches we belonged to so I've had enough of that for one lifetime. But it is still nice to have a turkey dinner and now I have leftovers for another three meals.

 

[southernlady]

I have enough leftovers to last over a week, need to figure out how much of it to freeze for later. I have 3 ziplock bags of sliced ham, thinking ahead to what’s gonna be on the menu. While at the grocery store this morning, unfortunately Kroger is only doing 4x fuel points today only, so it had to be today. I despise shopping on Black Friday. While at Kroger we discovered hams on sale (so were the turkeys but we don’t do turkey). Any, we got another one and it’s now a resident of the freezer for another time.

 

[hilary1617]

I made my favorite thing for Thanksgiving - reservations at a Brazilian steakhouse for the five of us. On Thanksgiving they have the full traditional turkey and accoutrements spread in lieu of the soup station at their salad bar - in addition to their standard tableside delivery of steak and other meats on spears. Yum! No muss, no fuss.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

The big family Thanksgiving is something everyone should get to experience once! They are a lot of fun! It makes you understand why the holidays are SUCH a big deal to some people.

My partner and I went to the local Irish pub for lunch today. They had a turkey or ham dinner with all the trimmings. It was delicious! I ate mostly turkey, with a bite of potatoes, two bites of stuffing, and two green beans. And I was actually satisfied... I even got a bite of pumpkin pie! And my system did fine with it all so I'm grateful.

My partner is Chinese and wasn't raised celebrating Western holidays (and especially not Thanksgiving, since they aren't American) so I have gotten away from celebrating them too in general. I did the big dinners when I was growing up with the churches we belonged to so I've had enough of that for one lifetime. But it is still nice to have a turkey dinner and now I have leftovers for another three meals.

Pubs…the Official Sunblock of Ireland

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I made my favorite thing for Thanksgiving - reservations at a Brazilian steakhouse for the five of us. On Thanksgiving they have the full traditional turkey and accoutrements spread in lieu of the soup station at their salad bar - in addition to their standard tableside delivery of steak and other meats on spears. Yum! No muss, no fuss.

I LOVE those places.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

The big family Thanksgiving is something everyone should get to experience once! They are a lot of fun! It makes you understand why the holidays are SUCH a big deal to some people.

My partner and I went to the local Irish pub for lunch today. They had a turkey or ham dinner with all the trimmings. It was delicious! I ate mostly turkey, with a bite of potatoes, two bites of stuffing, and two green beans. And I was actually satisfied... I even got a bite of pumpkin pie! And my system did fine with it all so I'm grateful.

My partner is Chinese and wasn't raised celebrating Western holidays (and especially not Thanksgiving, since they aren't American) so I have gotten away from celebrating them too in general. I did the big dinners when I was growing up with the churches we belonged to so I've had enough of that for one lifetime. But it is still nice to have a turkey dinner and now I have leftovers for another three meals.

Our party grew because my cousin and her young adult son with Down Syndrome never celebrated Thanksgiving because her husband was a Mexican she met in college in France and they lived in Uruguay! Then she called to cancel because her daughter decided to surprise her by flying in from Virginia. I said to bring her. She called again to cancel because her son was coming from San Diego. I said to bring him. (Her kids had only met us once when they were kids, so they agreed to come but would give her the evil eye when they wanted to leave. They never left!) Meanwhile, MiniSue’s boyfriend decided to NOT go up north to see his parents and another friend decided he needed to tag along and then the parents of her good friend who was Filipina decided they only wanted pancit, so SHE needed to be at a Turkey place…and it just kept going.

 

[JackieOnLine]

you are a good hostess, Spiky Bugger!

 

[KyahRose]

I made my favorite thing for Thanksgiving - reservations at a Brazilian steakhouse for the five of us. On Thanksgiving they have the full traditional turkey and accoutrements spread in lieu of the soup station at their salad bar - in addition to their standard tableside delivery of steak and other meats on spears. Yum! No muss, no fuss.

OMG, I love Brazilian Steakhouses! Fogo De Chao for the win....they actually just opened a brand new location in my city of Irving, Tx. Hoping to get to go soon. Another new favorite of mine is called Japan House, which is all you can eat Japanese cuisine / sushi. No, I don't need the rice, but heck....I figure all you can eat sashimi might be beneficial for protein intake. They also have really good Japanese short ribs. The portion sizes are also reasonably small each round.

 

[KyahRose]

Mom and I had a quiet, simple Thanksgiving this year comprised of a botched ham (over cooked, imo), stuffing/dressing, and yams. Sadly, not as much protein as I care for, but it was still nice. Next year, I may try to cook us a turkey. I cooked my first turkey back in 2015 when I spent Thanksgiving alone that year due to not having time off or funds for travel. I happened to win the turkey in a small town bowling tournament / event that year, and it came out amazing for my first try.