Thanksgiving Menu

In a little over a week from now, I will spend a good part of the day cooking the Thanksgiving meal.  I will do most of the food and Barb will do the rolls and desserts.  I am not sure if the weather will break enough to do a smoked turkey outside on the grill.  I try to do most of the smoking on Wednesday and save the turkey overnight to let most of the smoky flavor sink in the meat.  I generally start early and put the meat in a pan to re-heat a couple of hours prior to meal time.  I might even add a little chicken stock to the pan to make the meat juicier.  I will smoke the meat but will not add BBQ sauce. A little salt and pepper and some cooked pear onions w/carrots mixed in.

My next item is the garlic smashed potatoes.  I will boil the potatoes with several cloves of garlic.  It will be at least a head of garlic in some salty water.  When the potatoes are done, I will add butter, milk, salt and pepper an mash them all up.  I have been known to add some Philadelphia brand cream cheese also.   If I get this done too early, I put them in a crock pot to hol;d the heat until meal time.

I really don't remember the recipe for green bean casserole.  When you go to the store, there is generally a display that tells you what you need.  Basically it is canned green beans, Campbells Mushroom soup and French Fried Onions for a topping.  There just isn't much you can do to change the taste - just follow the recipe stupid.

Barb will set the table and make iced tea.  We really don't have sweet tea just plain Lipton tea.

Years ago, I stopped putting cranberry anything on the table.  Most of the time what we did put out would get thrown away.

There is a funny story about all the Thanksgivings we ate at my mother's house.  There would always be the pumpkin pie and maybe an apple or cherry pie.  Mom would also make her favorite Sour-cream and raisin and minced meat pie.  One summer when we were talking about our Holiday plans, the subject came up and Mom said she would make the pies.  I asked for a vote from everyone present. on the sour cream raisin and mince meat pie.  Needless to say Mom was very surprised that they got no, zero, nada, zilch votes. I think it was decided that unless someone was just in the mood to make a pie, Mrs Smith could be our designated pie driver. 

Barb has worked on several different ways to make the rolls but I think has kind of settled into the frozen rolls that she thaws out and bakes.  Put real butter on them and they are the bomb.  

Now all I have to do is to wait a week and not get too hungry.

MUD