Thursday, November 27, 2008

Your Thanksgiving menus

This is a join-in post, campers.

Your Thanksgiving menus, please. OR your favorite dish on the menu today. OR your recipe for what you brought to your Thanksgiving potluck or for something you made at home.

Your choice.

I'll post my friends' menu in this space later. I know it already because we are bringing different parts of the meal and they announced their main course, but it's more fun to post after the meal.

I am making only the soup (thank goodness, see below) and have been looking forward to being responsible only for two things: making soup and showing up.

The soup is a butternut squash puree (made with itself, not with stock - it's simple and vegetarian) flavored with allspice. Though I'm remembering ginger from my mother's recipe, too. We shall see. I haven't made the soup yet due to the little afternoon episode yesterday. But dinner isn't till 4 p.m. so there's time. I may even go back to bed before then.

P.S. (Added later) I finally remembered the other ingredient! I kept thinking "I haven't made this in a few years, I know there is something in this soup besides allspice, what is it??" It's fresh ginger. How in the world could I forget? Good thing I keep fresh ginger in the house.

P.P.S. (Added much later) Menu of the Very Delicious Foodie Thanksgiving at the Home of Fabulous Hosts:

Cocktails of Prosecco and Lillet (yes, mixed! first time I'd ever had that combo)

Butternut squash soup (see above)
First of several wines brought by Retired Academic Who Is Into Wine:
Lindemans (Western Cape, South Africa) Sauvignon Blanc vintage 2007; fragrant, smelled of flowers.

Duck confit (one leg for each person - which led to jokes about the nine-legged duck)
Mashed sweet potatoes
Sauteed green cabbage (with olive oil and garlic as it turns out, but neither was overpowering; made by Lawerly Spouse of Retired Academic Who Is Into Wine)
Homemade cranberry sauce (made by one of the Fabulous Hosts) with half the sugar and twice the cranberries called for by the recipe on the package - perfect.
Cornbread (made by the Southern-born member of the couple of Fabulous Hosts)
Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon (Domaines Barons de Rothschild) from Colchugua Valley, Chile, 2006; excellent, nice and dry.

Then we went for a walk.

Upon return:

Pear Crostata (made by Lovely Hip Young Artist and Scholar Couple, with a really thin crust and almond slivers all around)
Pumpkin pie (made by Cool Couple of Colleagues of Fabulous Hosts)
Pumpkin brownie pie (a novelty invented by Young Son of Cool Couple of Colleagues of Fabulous Hosts, who was at the dinner but not at the table because he didn't want to be bored by all those grown-ups and because he was the only kid in the house and preferred to entertain himself; the pie is exactly what it sounds like: a pumpkin pie with a layer of brownie cooked on top!) (Confession: I didn't have any.)
All this with the best-wine-saved-for-last by Retired Academic Who Is Into Wine: a 1975 (!!!!!!) Chateau du Mayne Barsac.

After-dinner drinks:
Absinthe (seriously! 144 proof; I didn't have any)
Amaro (Averna brand, from Sicily, delicious, I had some; about 64 proof, more my speed)
Homemade (by one member of Fabulous Hosts couple who is studying Italian on the side and likes to experiment) fennel liquor a.k.a. Finocchietto (I stuck to the Amaro)

Decaf espresso

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am making:

Turkey
Green-bean casserole
White pie
Pumpkin pie (mostly from a can)

Other folks are bringing more sides, and I have some cans of corn and some frozen pies in reserve in case we're not lucky enough with our potluck. :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm not cooking this year..but mom is making:

Turkey w/ gravy
Stuffing
green beans
broccoli
dinner rolls

I'm bringing shrimp for shrimp cocktail

Padre Mickey said...

The menu at La Rectoría is:

Hors d'oeuvres:
edam and gouda cheeses
crackers
Ceviche de corvina
Padre's cream cheese and crab dip
Raw vegetables and the Lovely Mona's dip

Dinner:
Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Mona's cashew gravy (MUCH better than giblet gravy, and vegetarian to boot!)
A big honkin' salad
Cranberry relish
Broccoli
Rolls

Desert:
Pumpkin pie
Cheese cake

Many beverages, both soft and hard

June Butler said...

Jane, I'm not sure beyond the turkey, because we are going to my son's house. My contribution is oyster dressing, and Grandpère's is peach cobbler.

I'm reading your book, and I'm already quoting you in a "Thought For the Day"!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Fran said...

cheese plate and appetizery things

green salad with walnuts, sultanas, blue cheese and balsamic vinaigrette

broccoli

corn

buttermilk mashed potatoes

cider-brined turkey

Mother She Was' stuffing - bread crumbs, broth, onions, celery, sage, various other spices to taste, sausage not written down, ever, done from my head and my memories and my heart.

pumpkin pie

This is fun to read and to respond to.

Happy Thanksgiving Jane and sorry for yet another mishap.

Ken said...

I have no idea. We're not cooking: that's the important part. And Marie's sister didn't ask us to bring anything.

A wonderful Thanksgiving to all, anyway, regardless of its true origins.

Joseph Zitt said...

My dinner:

smoked turkey
asparagus
sweet potato

Alone tonight, since my roommate is with his family back east and I wasn't invited anywhere (nor could I think of anyone to invite over here who wasn't already committed). But I did wak down to the local theatre to see "Synechdoche New York" which I enjoyed.

Kitten said...

Our menu, chez mes parents:

appetizers: crackers and several cheeses (mozzarella, orange and yellow cheddar, monterey jack, and goat), pigs in a blanket, homemade pizza rolls, pastries stuffed with spinach, ham, and boursin, and two kinds of crab cakes

lots and lots of wine

bloody Marys upon arrival chez mes parents

classic, traditional moist turkey

mashed potatoes with lots o' butter

stuffing (not sure of the entire recipe, but there's Bell's seasoning, celery, and a LOT of white bread)

homemade green bean casserole, made with organic green beans, mushrooms, and onions

green salad with baby spinach

my godmother's very scary cranberry mold (pics will be up on the blog later)

giblet gravy

homemade apple pie

homemade pumpkin pie

johnieb said...

Butternut Squash Soup w/ allspice, nutmeg, and curry powder

Sausages and Lentils a le Auvergne (w Bacon, a Mirepoix, a garni of Thyme, Bay leaf, and Parsley, and Mustard for seasonin')

Brussels Sprouts braised w/ Apple, Walnuts, and Roasted Garlic cloves

Apple Pie with Sharp Cheddar

Paul Autard Cotes du Rhone 2006

Jane R said...

Yum. Thanks, all y'all. You all had interesting meals. Thanks be to Godde. It's good to hear from you, and fun to read the variations in menus large and small.

Padre Rob+ said...

Thank God Grandmere Mimi brought the oyster dressing- even being vegetarian, I can't think of having Thanksgiving Dinner without it.... Maybe I'll take some to the parish Advent potluck dinner tonight ;)

Thanks for the post, Jane, it was fun to read all the menus.

June Butler said...

Padre Rob, thank you! This year's oyster dressing was the best that I ever made, but it was still not as good as my sainted grandmother's dish.