Thanksgiving

This is my first Thanksgiving here, and it's the first year I'm doing a big dinner. My parents always did, but if I couldn't be there with them, I'd celebrate with chinese or pizza. But I'm doing all the things that my parents did over the years. Green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, turkey, thick gravy, buttermilk biscuits (so the children will finally know what I mean when I say "biscuit"), pumpkin pie, egg nog, watergate salad, and stove top stuffing. It feels like there is something else, but I can't think of it right now. My parents have already mailed me a package with a few ingredients I couldn't find here. I'm a little nervous, as I've never cooked any of these things before, and now I'm doing them all. It would be okay if it was just us and the kids, but we've invited another couple over, so the pressure is on.

Hokie, it looks like you have a lot of things that need to go in the oven, one cheat move my mom taught me with the green bean casserole is to start it in the microwave. Mix it all together as per the recipe, put it in the baking dish (if your microwave is big enough to handle this), minus the onions you sprinkle over the top. Microwave the beans until you see it start to bubble a bit. Pull it out, sprinkle with the onions and put it in the regular oven until the onions start to brown a bit and it's bubbling.

It will free up some space in your oven if you don't have a lot of space to start with! Good luck! Making thanksgiving isn't really too difficult...it's all about timing!

Thanks Kim, that's a great tip. I'm going to have to borrow some dishes from friends, as we don't have all that many baking types. I'll make sure the beans go in one that will fit the microwave.

It occurred to me today that I need to start planning a schedule for the day. Since we only have a little fridge, I can't do stuff the day before and just reheat it. So I'll do a little hourly plan as to what gets done first.

This is my first Thanksgiving here, and it's the first year I'm doing a big dinner. My parents always did, but if I couldn't be there with them, I'd celebrate with chinese or pizza. But I'm doing all the things that my parents did over the years. Green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, turkey, thick gravy, buttermilk biscuits (so the children will finally know what I mean when I say "biscuit"), pumpkin pie, egg nog, watergate salad, and stove top stuffing. It feels like there is something else, but I can't think of it right now. My parents have already mailed me a package with a few ingredients I couldn't find here. I'm a little nervous, as I've never cooked any of these things before, and now I'm doing them all. It would be okay if it was just us and the kids, but we've invited another couple over, so the pressure is on.

Yams? Or is the sweet potato casserole ( a much nicer sounding ) alternative to that? I've never liked candied yams LOL so the casserole sounds ace!

Just cranberry sauce and squirty cream for the pumpkin pie (yes, I'm a philistine *blush* )


Good luck! TRY NOT TO PANIC! It doesn't matter if everything isn't perfect and you do not have to do everything yourself Remember to have fun!

so for all intents and purposes I'd say it's absolutely fine and wouldn't be at all worried about it not being 100% pure pumpkin....

ETA: it's out of the oven and more or less cooled and it's yummy!!

Good to know! Thanks! 

Yams? Or is the sweet potato casserole ( a much nicer sounding ) alternative to that? I've never liked candied yams LOL so the casserole sounds ace!

Just cranberry sauce and squirty cream for the pumpkin pie (yes, I'm a philistine *blush* )


Good luck! TRY NOT TO PANIC! It doesn't matter if everything isn't perfect and you do not have to do everything yourself Remember to have fun!

Yams sounded familiar, but I googled wiki to make sure : For the vegetable usually called yam in the United States, see sweet potato

Oh yeah, I've got cranberry sauce on the list... We never did cream on our pumpkin pie, but I like the sound of that... we are having it now!

Thanks. Most of the time I'm just excited. And our friends we are having round are really cool people. Plus, the upside of fixing so much stuff means that if anything isn't great, there is still plenty more to eat!

FYI: For those still deciding what to have, I found a great recipe website called allrecipes.com. I searched for all the items, and found ones with lots of comments and few ingredients. Those were my criteria. It also does metric and US conversions and a shopping list (it adds up your whole meal to tell you what you need). I highly recommend it. There is also a .co.uk, but none of the meals I wanted where listed there of course.

The husband and I were invited to Edinburgh to spend Thanksgiving with another American (and her German boyfriend) plus a bunch of Brits. Will  be the most interesting Thanksgiving I've had in ages!

Ha, I might go to Edinburgh for Thanksgiving too!  I have a good friend from college that's in school there and is planning on making a traditional dinner.  Was going to cook myself, but hate cooking...so it probably won't happen!