The Thanksgiving Mega Thread

Whole Foods in Kensington, London had a ton of pre-made pumpkin pies last night and the fixings to make your own evap milk, libby pumpkin too.  But, this won't help you up in Worcestershire.  Apple pies are often on my family's table in the States too and I would think that pre-made apple pies would be in your local grocery stores.

This is my first year since marrying a Brit too and am finding newcomers comments through this thread useful.  I wonder if us newcomers will ever put the whole sha-bang of Thanksgiving dinner on again or are just acting like this since it's our first.  It will certainly be a lot easier the next year with all we are learning. My mother-in-law said she was looking forward to learning the tradition so that was nice to hear.  My brothers-in-law will take any excuse to eat so they'll probably invite themselves year after year. So, I may be stuck as hostess if I don't watch it.

Yes it might be hard to convince my hubby to take me to Whole Foods in Kensington... Apple pie would be great too!

I know having Thanksgiving is a tradition I will carry on since it's important that when we have kids (not for awhile yet) that they understand their Mom's traditions and heritage too.  All my in-laws are very excited about coming over which makes me really excited too.  And I totally agree on the BIL's, hahahahahaha.  Any excuse to eat and drink they're all over.  Plus since I'm trying to get hubby to love American football, they're excited to sit down and watch a game (even if they don't totally understand what's going on).

I told one of the BILs to bring an apple pie so I'm expecting a Tesco/Sainsburys apple pie to show up at my flat.  I just hope it doesn't have to go in the oven since he probably won't have the forethought to warn me of that.  They were surprised when I told them to bring some of the food but serves them right for inviting themselves.  I have 3 hungry BILs so how much food I have to make increased dramatically.  I'm so happy to have family around though since I won't have my normal group of cousins and aunts and uncles for the holiday.

jean6 - Apple pie! That'll be my backup. We got a decent one over the summer. With a scoop of ice cream on the side, it'll be perfectly American   Well, this will be my first and last Thanksgiving in England. We're moving to my hometown in Virginia next summer, so we'll be heading to the parent's house next year (THANK GOODNESS!). I think this will be a great experience for us, however, no matter how it turns out. But I think if you can survive the first, after that they'll be  a piece of cake, right?!

Think of it this way, it's a thanksgiving you'll never forget!

I'm a bit nervous about making pie on top of everything else since I've never done the whole Thanksgiving dinner before... so now I'm on the search to find pre-made pumpkin pies... I know you're out there....

Pumkin pie is dead easy.  Seriously, like 10 minutes prep time max (if you don't make your own crust).  Plus it needs hours to set, so you can make it first thing, cook it, and set it aside for the rest of the day

We celebrated Thanksgiving every year while in the UK, sometimes even two of them!  We used to have about 20 people over each time... the only one I missed was the one when my son was born!  He was better than a Turkey! 

Good luck to all those cooking Thanksgiving dinner in the UK.  It can be done even in smallish ovens!  Though we did have a convection microwave to help too!

Pumkin pie is dead easy.  Seriously, like 10 minutes prep time max (if you don't make your own crust).  Plus it needs hours to set, so you can make it first thing, cook it, and set it aside for the rest of the day

You gotta have a pie for Thanksgiving! And Sara's right -- not that hard to make.  You could even do it the day before.

I think the reason we don't really do Thanksgiving here is because I am the only one who has experienced it and it just doesn't feel it because there are no days off here. Most people I know don't understand past the complete overindulgence side of things. I think what I am trying to say is, to me, Thanksgiving is more than the meal, it's the family gathering, the hustle bustle of women kin-folk helping in the kitchen, the men kin-folk occupying the kids by playing outside, getting spun about, tossed in the air (well the littler ones) and just a general boisterous atmosphere, the connection, the long weekend, watching football and the parades on tv, getting into mischief with cousins, general closeness of the family catching up and letting their hair down.

We tried a few times but it just never took off with us, perhaps because we don't really have the extended family here. Unlike the other holidays, Easter, 4th of July and Halloween are understood by the kids (well the older two) because they have been across at these times.

But all this talk of pumpkin pie has got me wanting one now. So... it has been a long time, is the pie crust normally a graham cracker type (like a cheesecake) or a pastry type (like apple pie)?

We have had Thanksgiving in India, Morocco, London, and Edinburgh.  I always make a dinner and we really enjoy it, whether it's just the two of us or with friends.  We invited a number of my British colleagues over when we were in London and they really enjoyed it.  It's a special thing for us (helps that we are both Americans so we both feel it's important).

But all this talk of pumpkin pie has got me wanting one now. So... it has been a long time, is the pie crust normally a graham cracker type (like a cheesecake) or a pastry type (like apple pie)?

Pastry.

Pastry.

Definitely. Graham cracker is too sweet.

I agree with Bob -- it's as much about families getting together as it is about eats.  So, even if you can come up with all the ingredients and decorations but don't have any family around, it can feel pretty flat.

Definitely. Graham cracker is too sweet.

I like the sweet. That, plus the idea of making pastry crust seems (in my head at least) so much harder than a graham cracker crust.

I like the sweet. That, plus the idea of making pastry crust seems (in my head at least) so much harder than a graham cracker crust.

You can buy ready-made pastry crust in the refrigerated section. You just need to roll it out like normal and bung it in your pie pan! I've never had a pumpkin pie with a graham cracker crust, only pumpkin cheesecake.

Okay, so I'm deliberating over my pecan pie...  And wanting some advice - vnicepeeps?  Elynor?  Bueller?

According to my go-to cookbook, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything his take is this:  There are two kinds of pecan pie.  One made with corn syrup which is basically too sweet and nasty.  (I know he's talking about the pecan pie most of us know & love there, but hear this out.)  If you ever taste corn syrup on its own, you'll never cook with it again...I'm paraphrasing him there.  The other kind is (still a sweet pie, mind) essentially an egg custard type pie filled with pecans - what could be nicer?  (according to Mark)

So I was wondering - would people like the latter?  (I know I can use golden syrup over here & all that.)  Last year, my pecan pie...well people were nice & I guess it tasted okay, but you had to literally chisel it out of the pie plate.  Not nice.  So I'm just trying to decide if I'm going to do that kind of pecan pie - Take 2, this year?  Or maybe try Mark Bittman's way?  If I go traditional (very very sweet and lovely, not nasty), how do you keep from having to chisel it out of the pie plate?

Mrs. R, the egg custard one would NOT appeal to me at all. I'm not sure why you have to chisel it out of the pie plate. Did the crust get hard or was it the filling?