The Thanksgiving Mega Thread

This probably belongs in IA, but what the hey? I'm having issues with my guest list. Originally it was supposed to be four people and then it became seven and if we were prepared to stretch eight, which is a huge deal for my small kitchen. My flatmate (1) who was supposed to join might visit her bf in Brighton since with her schedule, it's hard to make time to see him. The BF was supposed to be one of the seven guests, but understandably, with his schedule, he can't make it.

Flatmate (2) and her BF were also supposed to join, however they are having issues so I don't think the BF will be joining. Also flatmate (2) is thinking about going on diet (yes, I know, a diet ON thanksgiving...) and most likely won't be eating.

So we're down to three eaters (including myself) and one non-eater. My small kitchen may be relieved (I counted our chairs and almost had to make it BYOC  ) but I feel a little bad since I told one of our guests that he couldn't invite his GF for the sake of space. Will probably ring him later and tell him to invite her... so that might put us back to five?

Thursdays are already busy for me, but with thanksgiving dinner to prepare...this is gonna be me  

I bit the bullet and ordered a boneless turkey breast from Wholefoods. I'll have to do roast potatoes as DS avoids dairy. Broccoli (he eats that) and stuffing and cranberry sauce (the jelly kind) with the free apple pie for dessert. And that will be it.  Maybe I'll make corn bread.

I just did my food order tonight! I don't usually like ordering online and having it delivered (I'M A CONTROL FREAK!), but I just won't have the time this week to do it myself. Turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, stuffing ingredients, corn casserole fixings, green bean casserole fixings, pumpkin pie fixings and pecan pie fixings!

Pumpkin pies baked, chicken in the oven, and everything else together to start soon. We figured we'd have our feast tonight so our bellies could settle before the family feast Thursday. I never did get cranberry sauce but it is okay. I'll have some Thursday, along with turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't have time to do Thanksgiving dinner today (actual Thanksgiving) but am planning a HUGE dinner this Saturday with 13 of my new friends over, most of which have never had Thanksgiving dinner. I'm going to make LOADS of food, mainly from scratch.

On the menu:
Turkey crown and legs
Gravy
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoe casserole
Roasted broccoli and carrots
Peas
Green bean casserole
Biscuits
Sage stuffing (first time I'm making it from scratch, using stale bread instead of the boxed stuff)
Cranberry sauce
Yorkshire pudding

And for dessert:
Pumpkin pie
Sticky toffee pudding

And assorted nibbles like crackers and cheese for appetizers. We're going to explode! Which is proper for the holiday ^___^. Hope the rest of you guys have had a fun and safe holiday.

Wow! Impressive menu!  Everyone should be either content or overly full but happy to be overly full!

We head out in less than an hour for Thanksgiving Part 2... or is it Part 3 if we had leftovers twice yesterday?  One way or the other, I can't wait.

This was almost an IA...

My oyster card, British library card, school card, NHS card were in a pack and it must have fallen out of my pocket when I was dashing off to uni. I realized at the station that my cards were gone. I retraced my steps twice, asked around the shops, and buses, but nothing.

It was getting cold, so I just went home, bummed out and annoyed about needing to replace and pay for my cards. Plus, I would have lost the value of my monthly travel card.

My flatmate returned but shouted for my name outside the flat. I ran downstairs and she pulled me over to a tree near our flat. I'm not even kidding, my pack was hanging off a branch! Someone must have set it up there!   What awesome luck! And another great story for thanksgiving!!! I almost want to tape a five pound note on the branch Thank you to who ever found my cards!

I've never been a huge fan of Thanksgiving due to having a lot of food intolerances, but I decided to make my co-workers a pumpkin pie today and give them a taste of what american Thanksgiving is like. They brought along some sweets as well, so we spent an hour of the afternoon on a sugar high whilst playing Jenga. It was really lovely of them and I have to say it was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had.

I'll be honest, I was not going to do Thanksgiving this year. I am getting over a crappy cold, we had to go back to LA this past weekend for DH's citizenship interview and we are both exhausted. Then I skyped with my parents in San Fran, and instantly was filled with the spirit! I took the bus to the high road, got the last of the pre cooked turkey, bones and all, from the Waitrose deli counter (£3.23!), some ready made mash (£1!), bisto, brussels, green beans and a jar of cran sauce... it all came to just under £8 and the best part of the whole evening was how happy and surprised my husband was. It may have been one of the best Thanksgivings we'd ever had, reminded us what the day is about to us: being together with whatever family you got.

Oh, and the egg nog latte from S'bucks really put me in a festive mood. Yum!

Thanksgiving was a big success here! We had soooo much food! Turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots, corn casserole, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce - followed by pumpkin pie and pecan pie with lashings of whipped cream. Some British friends came over and loved it! Everything went down a treat, particularly the corn casserole.

I also cut out leaf shapes from autumn-coloured paper and we all wrote down on them various things we were thankful for this year. Then, over dessert, we read them out and tried to guess who'd written which one.

And, finally, people left and I collapsed into bed; and my lovely husband (for whom I am very thankful) did all the washing up.

That's so nice elle!

I love it dels! Yay!

Chary, what corn casserole recipe did you end up using?

Chary, what corn casserole recipe did you end up using?

I used one that Persephone (whom I don't think is on UKY anymore) sent me - but it was quite similar to others that people posted here. I ended up doing ordinary stuffing, rather than cornbread stuffing, so that solved the problem of having too many cornbready things. It was delicious!

I used one that Persephone (whom I don't think is on UKY anymore) sent me - but it was quite similar to others that people posted here. I ended up doing ordinary stuffing, rather than cornbread stuffing, so that solved the problem of having too many cornbready things. It was delicious!

Excellent!

Any ideas on sausage to use in stuffing here?  I'm a stuffing novice to begin with, and I'm (sorry) not a huge fan of sausage in this country.  If someone has suggestions on a good quality sausage to use I'd really appreciate it!

(I'm open to using it in either cornbread or regular stuffing- haven't decided which I'll make yet.  Our dinner won't be until Sunday but I need to decide tonight as I'll need to knock out a batch of cornbread tonight in preparation)

Any ideas on sausage to use in stuffing here?  I'm a stuffing novice to begin with, and I'm (sorry) not a huge fan of sausage in this country.  If someone has suggestions on a good quality sausage to use I'd really appreciate it!

(I'm open to using it in either cornbread or regular stuffing- haven't decided which I'll make yet.  Our dinner won't be until Sunday but I need to decide tonight as I'll need to knock out a batch of cornbread tonight in preparation)

I'd head out to your local butcher and see what sort of sausage meat they have. They should have a variety of different kinds, including plain sausage that you could add your own seasonings to, which is what I would do.

Just took the cornbread stuffing out of the oven, waiting for the sweet potato casserole with pecan topping. I haven't tried this recipe before (it's been ages since I made a proper sweet potato casserole) but hopefully it's good. The potato mixture looked a bit thin, though.  Still, it got rave reviews online, so fingers crossed.