Okay, foodies, I need your help building a real menu (ingredients, substitute)

[JustJulia]

My in-laws are coming to visit next week, and they will be here from Wednesday night through Sunday afternoon. They will arrive fairly late on Wednesday, so I am making minestrone soup--I will be very busy cooking that day, and minestrone is not a lot work, plus it can sit in a crockpot out of the way and keep hot.

Really good soup, by the way: Jamie's Minestrone Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Thursday is Thanksgiving, of course, and Friday they are taking us out to dinner. That leaves Saturday night, and I need to plan the menu. I get the Martha Stewart Living magazine, and there was a menu that I fell for: roast pork with kumquats, herb-and-scallion bread pudding, and beet, fennel, and carrot salad. (There was also a brussels sprout gratin, but they dislike sprouts so I was going to make green beans or asparagus.) I can't find the recipes online or I would show them to you. I admit that I fell for the beautiful pictures; also, my father-in-law loves beets and so do I. They like spinach, and I planned to make a simple spinach salad with pomegranate pips and cranberry-mustard vinaigrette.

Finding kumquats seems to be a problem--the Whole Foods around here are out and aren't sure if they can get any in, and I am not sure if other grocery stores will have them, and the WF produce guy sounded dubious about the recipe to begin with. I've had homemade kumquat jelly but never whole or halved, and he says they are kind of bitter. Additionally, the roast pork is a skin-on shoulder, and I think I will have to request that from wherever I get the meat. I see bone-in pork shoulder all over the place but none with skin. The recipe calls for scoring the skin, roasting it on low, and then blasting it with heat at the end so it crisps up like a ham. (I would have gone with a ham in the first place but my mother-in-law hates ham.) Lastly, the beet salad calls for raw, grated beets, which I don't think I have had. I don't know if that is too weird.

I realized that I loved the idea of the meal but am dealing with too many unknowns ... and I am falling out of love. So what should I cook?

Here's my Thanksgiving menu. I am including this so as not to have any duplicate dishes: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with pecan topping, dressing, whole cranberry sauce, peas with pancetta, spinach gratin, green bean casserole. It would be OK to use spinach or green beans again, just not in the same dishes (hence the spinach salad and steamed green beans in Saturday's menu).

They hate: ham, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts. Probably a few other things so I might have to veto some ideas. My husband dislikes lamb. I considered fish but all they eat is salmon and we already eat a lot of that. Other stipulations: nothing extremely expensive or outlandish (no crown roast that costs $50 just for the meat, etc.) I am a pretty good cook, but I don't want to do anything en croute or otherwise really fancy that I might screw up.

I still really like the idea of the herbed bread pudding, which includes stale challah or brioche with parsley, sage, thyme, celery, garlic, chicken stock, cream, S&P. With the exception of the bread, I will already have those other things on hand from the Thanksgiving prep.

Also, if we can put beets in there somewhere, yum. But not as a main thing because only two of us like them. And most of us like asparagus.

Thank you for your suggestions!

Main dish:
Side dish (bread pudding/rice/potatoes/starch):
Fruit/veg:
Veg:
Veg:

^ These categories are not set in stone. I'm just indicating what kinds of dishes I am expecting to make.

[rainroosty]

Julia,
Wow! That sure sounds like a whole bunch of cookin' you'll be doing!
I agree with you entirely - I can't stand when my wife does the hot dogs en croute - why not just offer it on the side?
Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and good luck with all the yummy foods!

[CharlotteGal]

The beet salad will definitely be good! Especially if you like beets. If they're grated (not matchsticks) you might not even notice they're raw. I've used raw beets in a slaw type preparation - yum.

The skin-on roast also sounds quite tasty, and should be easy to find.

You might consider roasted veggies. Oven-roasted asparagus, OMG. The tips get brown and a little crunchy, where they touch the pan they get a little caramelized... my mouth is watering! With just a little olive oil, salt & pepper, you can roast most any veggie, and they come out amazing. For future reference, you can halve brussel sprouts and roast them... another OMG moment. Since it's fall you could do squash or root veggies.

My mom makes this fruit salad which is kind of 50s fabulous, like all those odd jello salads back in the day. But boy is it yummy! Canned fruit cocktail, canned mandarin oranges, sour cream and bits of marshmallow. Martha would be appalled! But as a once-a-year treat, I love it.

[leftmyheartintennessee]

My thoughts for what they're worth:

Fresh Pork shoulder picnic Whole ( that should have the skin on it)
baked Acorn squash cut into rings
Roasted baby red potatoes
Beet salad

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving and enjoy the time with family

[JustJulia]

Ooh, roasted veggies. I like. Carrots and parsnips are so good that way, roasted with a little olive oil and then sprinkled with thyme. And roasted asparagus is delish. I hated squash for years as a kid, but I admit that hard-shell squashes are pretty good roasted. (Soft-skin like yellow squash, still hate.)

I like roasted brussels too!

[JustJulia]

What if I ditch the bread pudding and make:

Roast pork
Roast parnips and carrots (made before the roast and then reheated while the roast rests)
Roast asparagus (broiled while the parsnips and carrots rest)
Beet salad
Spinach salad with pomegranate seeds and cranberry-mustard vinaigrette - could substitute dried cranberries for the poms

Too many vegetables? The carrots and parsnips are so starchy.

[Dogmama50]

Pioneer Woman had a nice pork roast with apples and onions, she served it with wild rice but I think it would be nice with the roasted parsnips and carrots too.
Pork Roast with Apples and Onions | The Pioneer Woman Cooks | Ree Drummond

[Wilson513]

Wow! Your guests are in for a treat. What great care you are taking for them; the sign of a most gracious hostess.

After Thanksgiving I like to switch to an "anti-turkey" meal for guests. That means beef. The easiest approach is a beef tenderloin cooked in advance and served cold with a warm sauce like Bernaise or Bourdelais (did I spell that right?). Then the sides like beets, gratin potatoes and a salad can stand out as well. I remove every speck of silverskin from the beef,, warm it to room temperature, rub lightly with EVOO and roll it in cracked black pepper. Cook with a digital probe thermometer to a perfect red (not bloody) and a charred crust. That usually means 475 then 325.

Caesar Salad goes well with that dish and leaves room for a lot of creativity with the ingredients and the croutons.

I like buttered and peppered beets but wife eats them raw almost every day and swears by them.

If you have a couple of empty chairs on Sat, give us a call.

EDIT: Bread pudding would make a nice desert.

[Gerania]

I think that a roasted vegetable medley would work here as well. Start with the beets and add... carrots or other orange, potato, parsnip or turnip, onion, whatever. It'd cover a lot of territory.

The spinach salad seems a good idea.

Roast pork sounds great after the Thanksgiving turkey. I'd forget about the kumquats.

Definitely serve a green vegetable.

Mom always served applesauce with roast pork so I like some sort of counterpoint served with it. It could be applesauce, slaw, pickled cabbage, braised red cabbage.
*The beet, fennel, carrot salad would fit the bill.

The bread pudding reminds me too much of dressing/stuffing to want to eat that two days after Thanksgiving. You could always serve rolls or bread.

What's for dessert?

[Bulldogdad]

Turkey pot pie -from left overs. I make extra Turkey and gravy every year so my wife can whip one of these up on Sunday. Use the ready to bake pie crusts for an even faster meal

Fresh Cole slaw-made the day before to marinate and chill. This is always a big hit because it light, fresh and cuts through the heaviness of all the other foods. Serve them with beets on the side.

Boysenberry sourdough toast casserole. You can use regular fresh french bread as well but my family likes the fresh sourdough we get locally. Make the day before so bread soaks up all the goodness and cook right before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Make sure what ever bread you use is dense not that fluffy crap from safeway etc...

Thats it. You choose the drink.