Thread: What does your Thanksgiving spread look like?

This sounds about like how my Mom made it:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/r...vy-recipe.html

Acky backy!! giblets! I love the gravy but will pass on the giblets. They could be used to make the stock for the gravy.

I always throw the giblets in the bottom of the roasting pan to give more wonderful turkey flavor to the drippings, but no one in my family eats them... although my dad used to. I just feed them to the dogs.

I LOVE turkey gravy. Everything (except salad, pickles and olives) get smothered.

I LOVE turkey gravy. Everything (except salad, pickles and olives) get smothered.

Me too!

What's the trick to cooking your Turkey and making it moist?

We put ours in a bucket filled with a brine solution.

I use one of those Reynolds Oven Cooking Bags - Just season the Turkey, add onions, celery and carrots, and the juices from the veggies and the meat will produce an aromatic steam that keeps the turkey moist.

Originally Posted by A.J.

Being Canadian, our Thanksgiving was 2 weeks ago already. 2nd Monday of October, so people make a weekend of it and the meal can be any time over that weekend. I always cook supper on Saturday so we have lots of help dealing with the leftovers.

We had 15 at our table and the menu was:
Turkey and dressing
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Pyrogies, 2 kinds
Nalysnyky (cottage cheese wraps/crepes baked in cream)
Holopchi (small, 1 or 2 bite, sour leaves cabbage rolls)
Baked sweet potatoes
corn
turnip
tossed salad
olives, green and black
pickles, 3 kinds including daughter's home made dilled carrots
home made pies, apple and saskatoon, with ice cream
pumpkin pie (purchased)

Nice! Do you do all the cooking?

I see there are a lot of traditional Ukrainian foods on your menu, is holopchi your standard type of stuffed cabbage or do you make the larger version also? I had no idea what nalysnyky was and when I googled I found a page that has a lot of the recipes (and pics) of things you included in your post:

http://www.claudiascookbook.com/tag/holopchi/

Originally Posted by sojourner

pineapple pies...

Yes! Not too many people make pineapple pies, I make them occasionally too, they're wonderful!

Originally Posted by A.J.

I always throw the giblets in the bottom of the roasting pan to give more wonderful turkey flavor to the drippings, but no one in my family eats them... although my dad used to. I just feed them to the dogs.

Same here...giblets get cooked but later become a treat for the dog.

Originally Posted by Lista

What's the trick to cooking your Turkey and making it moist?

We put ours in a bucket filled with a brine solution.

I stuff my turkey - I know lots of people don't anymore. I use fresh bread that I've frozen and then it's easier to cube when frozen. It makes extra prep time, but it's worth it. I don't know if that makes any difference to the moistness.

When the stuffing's in, I give the bird a nice butter massage and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

I put it in the oven, pre-heated to 425 and leave it for about an hour till it's nice and brown, then cover it tightly, kind of seal it in with foil and leave it in the oven @325 for the rest of the time. We like our turkey falling apart done, so if any turkey was going to be dry, ours would be, but it's nice. The legs, maybe are over done, but everything else is great.

Originally Posted by krystian

Nice! Do you do all the cooking?

I see there are a lot of traditional Ukrainian foods on your menu, is holopchi your standard type of stuffed cabbage or do you make the larger version also? I had no idea what nalysnyky was and when I googled I found a page that has a lot of the recipes (and pics) of things you included in your post:

http://www.claudiascookbook.com/tag/holopchi/

I DO do all the cooking, except the pyrogies, nalysnyky and holopchi are purchased frozen at the local farmer's market, so I cook them, but not from scratch and much tastier than anything we can buy in the grocery stores.

I don't make the larger cabbage rolls as I was raised on the little tiny Ukrainian style. My SIL's mom makes the big ones stuffed with hamburger in sweet leaves (I always buy the sour leaf) and covered in tomato sauce. He won't eat mine anymore! lol He used to take a couple to be polite, but the sour leaf ones taste like sauerkraut, right?

The nalysnyki ....... I LOVVVVVE them! Being allergic to wheat has made my holiday meals a type of torture. I indulge, know I WILL pay for it later, but the flavor!!!

Perogies, I love the plain cottage cheese, but none of my family do, so I make potato and onion and potato and cheddar cheese. My daughter is allergic to dairy, thus the need for 2 kinds.

So our holiday meal has 3 variations... gluten free (not so much), dairy free, and my nephew's GF is vegan, so I try hard to accommodate her with some things as well, so the cabbage rolls are just rice, instead of rice and meat. My mom always used bacon, but Daughter is allergic to pork so it's just easier to do meatless.

Sigh... then I try to do regular desserts and vegan, gluten free desserts... we warned the GF that our pie dough had an egg in it... one egg for 4 pies. She's always very polite, but wouldn't eat a piece and opted for the apple crisp.

It can get very complicated.

This is my "go to" recipe page:

http://www.ukrainianclassickitchen.c...p?action=forum