Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are discussions about having or not having Turkey for Thanksgiving which many consider traditional.
For those of you HAVING a Turkey for Thanksgiving AND ALSO celebrating Christmas will you have a Turkey then or switch things up?
Growing up my family would always travel for Thanksgiving flying to my dad's extended relatives each year. Of course we had turkey and many delicious traditional items. We would always have a schedule of sorts for that weekend as well.
After my maternal grandmother died (they previously hosted Christmas 40 mins from us), we would alternate hosting with one of my aunt/uncles who lived 4 hours away to the south from us and stay with them. The other aunt/uncle lived 5 hours north in the opposite direction so they always traveled (but someone on their other side lived close to us). No matter who hosted our Christmas dinner would always be "Thanksgiving Dinner" which I love. Also if we did not host, often I would talk my mom into making a small turkey in the interim period.
Now our three branches of the family mostly do their own thing without traveling but we all love poultry.
My in-laws would have turkey (or poultry when they lived for several years, abroad in Africa) for Thanksgiving. For Christmas they had ham at my wife's grandparents who lived 40 mins from them.The food there was mostly small portions of finger food plus ham so while I enjoyed their Christmas celebration and gift exchange, I would usually try to eat before coming over.
Now her grandparents moved all the way across the country and my in-laws live near us (after moving this year). I don't even remember what we did for Christmas last year but it was low key. This year we will travel to my wife's brother's house 5 hours away but no idea what is on the menu.
TLDR: My family always did Turkey (except Ham for Easter) and wife's family did Turkey and Ham.
It's a shame you can't buy just dark meat turkey the same way you can buy turkey breasts,, which are all white meat. I've fixed turkey breast before for just myself, but I much prefer the dark meat. In fact, it was a standing family joke when I was a kid. So I just make do with a roast chicken for TG - I eat the dark meat first and make chicken salad afterwards.
I'm roasting a turkey right now (it's almost ready!), will have one for Thanksgiving at my brother's house, and probably another there for Christmas. And maybe I'll roast one more while they are cheap and plentiful.
I'd love to find a year-round source for turkey thighs. Nobody here ever seems to carry them.
We have the same situation here. In Florida a favorite meal to have now and then was to make some stuffing, put it in a baking dish, mix a can of cream of mushroom soup with some frozen baby peas, put that over the stuffing and then a couple of turkey thighs on top. Several times, when we didn't feel like cooking a whole turkey, that was our Thanksgiving meal.
There are discussions about having or not having Turkey for Thanksgiving which many consider traditional.
For those of you HAVING a Turkey for Thanksgiving AND ALSO celebrating Christmas will you have a Turkey then or switch things up?
My sister is having us over for Thanksgiving (turkey +). Then we’re going to deep fry a turkey here at our house for Christmas. Turkey both times, but different family members doing the cooking.
The catch for us has always been the dressing which I will try to duplicate in muffin cups. We'll see.
!
I've been experimenting with that using a cast iron muffin pan. Taste came out pretty on target, but they didn't hold their shape like I wanted. Need to do some more experiments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MI-Roger
No! But my Dad had an Army Buddy who was an artist and worked in commercial advertising in the decades following WWII. He told lots of stories like this.
Well, when we fix the turkey this year, let's just say we're doing it for a pal in the Army. (wonder how many will get the reference?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by steiconi
I'm roasting a turkey right now (it's almost ready!), will have one for Thanksgiving at my brother's house, and probably another there for Christmas. And maybe I'll roast one more while they are cheap and plentiful.
I'd love to find a year-round source for turkey thighs. Nobody here ever seems to carry them.
I think I've seen them in Publix packaged as a thigh and leg together.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lodestar
Since you're at your workbench you can use an old photographer's trick for a nice, brown breast.
!
You could try Guga's trick (for those who don't know, he Youtube's techniques for cooking meat) of using a propane torch to get the perfect brown on meat.
I think Italians like seafood at Christmas, too. I never got the back story on that....
Italians fast or abstain from eating meat before the birthday of Christ. It's like a Friday before Vatican II.
It doesn't have to be seven fishes either.
My husband's family is from the mountains of Italy, far remove from any body of water, so they only had baccalà (salt cod). It's cod, dried in salt, to prevent spoilage in world without refrigeration. It's been done since 1500. It's the ultimate prepper food.
It has to be soaked in water for a week. The water has to be changed a couple of times a day. Afterwards, the cod is prepared like fresh cod. Some people bake it in tomato sauce or in white wine. Some people boil it, let it cool and dressed with olive oil and served as a cold salad with sliced onions and sweet cherry peppers. It's amazingly easy to make cod (meat)balls too.
My surrounded by water Sicilian relatives made shrimp and lobsters on Christmas Eve.
There are a million Italian seafood recipes and no wrong ones for Christmas Eve.
It looks like my wife and I will be having Thanksgiving alone. We should have frozen leftover turkey for months so it is highly doubtful we would cook another one.
Turkey is not one of my favorites. I used to blame the tryptophan, but I understand that is more myth than reality. Anyway turkey seems heavy and greasy compared with chicken.
Roast a chicken and just "pretend" its a turkey! Have the turkey sides, dressing, cranberries, etc, etc! IDK, is there tyyptophan is chicken?
Thanksgiving means asking Buy Nothing for a plate of leftovers since my husband hates the holiday (bitter nationalized citizen that thinks the massacre of native peoples happened last weekend - bless his heart) and our near adult sons have no sense of tradition or culture. Christmas means Dim Sum because I was slammed with work (pet sitter) and usually gave up the kitchen a week earlier.
This will be my first work free holiday season in 8 years.
Thanksgiving I will do some sort of bird part. Sweet potatoes. Mashed potatoes. Something green. Leave the rolls, my husband can’t have any yeast.
Christmas maybe a lasagna. Sounds really tasty actually. Chef John’s recipe from All Recipes is impossible to beat. I think lasagna on Christmas Eve before midnight mass and dim Sum on Christmas Day sounds like a good plan this year
We do the traditional turkey at Thanksgiving, then my company gives a Turkey or Ham before Christmas. Kids were never big ham eaters, so I go with the free Turkey.
Last year, I did a standing rib roast. It was good, but with the prices of meat skyrocketing, I'll stick to the Free Turkey.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
