Try anything new for Thanksgiving? Hit or Miss?

[larry_stewart]

Although I appreciate the traditional foods made for each holiday, I also like to mix thins up a bit so the meals dont become boring. Sometimes they are a hit. Sometimes a miss. I was wondering if anyone tried anything new this year and how well it was perceived by others.

My Hit was the potato / cheese bake I did. It was the only thing that was %100 finished .

My Miss was the rutabaga ,parsnip, carrot mash ( with butter, cream s&p). People kinda stayed away from it, or took a small sample, but didnt go back for seconds. ( Tasted good to me though ).

 

[Andy M.]

I put too much roasted garlic in the butternut squash. Not great.

 

[PieSusan]

I was going to just show up and volunteer this year and serve dinner at a local church on the west side of town but the weather was mild (we had been getting a lot of snow and colder temps of late) and my mom wanted to go out to eat--so that is what I did instead. She had a wonderful time and I have a ton of leftovers but I really miss making the meal.

However, I am very thankful that we were together. We did a lot of reminiscing.

 

[bullseye]

It's all about tradition, here. SO introduced the cornbread stuffing w/ sausage--it went over well. Other than that, it was all the Thanksgiving staples--mashed turnips, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy (put out some giblet style, with limited appeal), rolls, and cranberry relish. Turkey, of course.

 

[GrillingFool]

Tried an oyster stuffing. Not bad, was a little moist for my taste.

 

[Wart]

White Sweet Potato pie.

Not bold enough flavor, brought almost all of it home.


OTOH that may have been due to my also making apple, pecan and custard pies. Not much of those came home, especially the custard.

 

[JoeV]

DW "doctored up" the green bean casserole with bacon and some other goodies (she watched Guy Fieri make some killer beans) and that was a big hit. I made 2 loaves of Challah bread. SIL never has any bread at her dinners, and was reluctant to put any out. "There's plenty of stuffing if they want bread" is her usual response. It was big hit and all disappeared as well (23 for dinner). Yes, I kept my mouth shut. Next time I'll make dinner rolls.

 

[texasgirl]

Joe, it's just not right without bread!! hehe

Nothing new tried, just someone new doing the turkey. It was all good though. A little different as the cooks were young and not use to cooking Thanksgiving food, lol

 

[letscook]

Yes no family, just hubbie and me.
Went to see parents in am, my sister was having dinner for them this year
Daughter and family were at her hubbie family.
It was nice, very lil dishes to do and watch Holiday movies all day and did some sewing- Hubbie did his thing in the garage.

 

[Michelemarie]

HIT!!!!! I did Alton Brown's brined turkey this year with the help of Andy M - it was a HUGE hit - this was the most beautiful and best tasting turkey any of us had ever had - this will now be the tradition!

 

[GB]

We did not try a new recipe, but we did cook something a different way.

One of the recipes we always make it pickle watermelon rind wrapped in bacon. This is the most popular appetizer and usually does not last more than a matter of seconds. We usually cook them under the broiler.

This year since we were frying the turkey we decided we would do the bacon wrapped watermelon rind in the fryer too. It worked perfectly. They cooked in bout 2 minutes, much quicker than the broiler, and they came out great.

Before we did it my mom gave us a funny look and said "if you do that then the turkey will be flavore with bacon" and she gave a little frown. 6 people looked at her at the same time and said "SO?"

 

[getoutamykitchen]

I made 2 new dishes this year, a broccoli cheese stuffing and a new corn dish called Gulliver's Corn and both where a big hit. I can't wait for leftovers tonight.

 

[PanchoHambre]

My family is not big on innovation.... we still make the stuffing as my Abruzzese great grandmother did... We must have Lasagna before turkey.. We have ALOT of picky and very incurious eaters so innovation is usually a tough go as unknowns are scary Alot of my cousins could happily survive on buttered pasta and plain chicken. Its sad.

A few things have been added over time that are generally well received.

My Cranberry Sauce has become expected I started making it a few years ago. We never really had cranberries on the table... for a while a requisite can of cranberry sludge would be put out and taken back untouched eventually they just stopped.... so everybody thought they just did not like cranberries.. I DO! so one year I made it from fresh cranberries and Grand Mariner it was warily regarded and tasted out of curiosity... but it was a hit and has stayed a staple

A few years ago mom introduces a dish of matchstick cut roasted root vegetables.. this has been a HUGE hit and is now expected at every holiday (they have no idea they are eating exotic things like parsnip and rootabega or they would not touch it)... even the pickiest eaters like this... frankly I could take it or leave it.... its good but not exciting.

This year I tried my hand at Pies... a Cranberry Apple and and Apple Quice... BAD IDEA. They were decent pies... a bit on the runny side but that wasnt the issue... Quince was WAY to wierd.... I might as well have said it was made out of the intestine of space aliens... even the cranberry was warily regarded... we had too much desert anyway so people just gravitate to the ones they know the like.... I will not bring dessert again it is not the place to introduce anything new... my aunts amazing pumpkin banana suoffle is testament to that... I was the only taker.

 

[RobsanX]

Antipasto trays we made for our family dinner were a hit. We had meat including hard salami rolled with goat cheese and roasted red pepper, prosciutto and provolone pinwheels, pastrami finger snadwiches with smoked swiss, genoa salami, capicola, and mortadella rolls. All were well received.

Veg trays with garlic stuffed green olives, ripe olives, kalamata olives, pepperocini, pickled mushrooms, grilled potabella mushrooms, okra pickles, tomato and basil mix, roasted garlic, fresh mozzerella, capers, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, and herb goat cheese. The things they didn't like were the capers, goat cheese, roasted garlic and grilled mushrooms. Everyone from WI loved the okra pickles since they are so uncommon here, and they taste great!

We also had some garlic bread for the tomato and basil topping which was really good.

 

[GotGarlic]

I decided to do something different for dessert and made a marbled pumpkin cheesecake - it was a hit! I made my first cheesecake ever last spring, a lemon one, so this is only the second type of cheesecake I've ever made. Yum

 

[Run_Out]

My first fried turkey, turned out very good.

 

[Robo410]

Did a nice butternut squash soup with roasted garlic and sherry. (very nice, compliments all round)

Did a big pot of greens (collards kale and turnip) cooked with smoked pork bones. These frighten people; I personally love them, and don't care what others think about them. They go great with the taste of turkey.

Added rutabaga to my mashed spuds...also a yum all around.

Made two stuffings...oyster for me but many took both (so much for leftovers of that one!)

so that's the news from here.

 

[kitchenelf]

Did a big pot of greens (collards kale and turnip) cooked with smoked pork bones. These frighten people; I personally love them, and don't care what

I went to 3 different stores and I couldn't find ANY collard greens - that was going to be my "something new" this year. I, too, think it's perfect with turkey...and a lot of other things too!!

The only thing I did differently this year was set my turkey on fire I brined overnight and then smoked it. I forgot to put water in the drip pan and luckily I went out to see "how it was doing" Oy, I opened the smoker door and the whole interior was on fire. Once flames were out I decided it simply had a nice sear on it (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Water was added...all was well.

I did delete a couple things only because we tried to cut back on cost and ultimately, it's just more stuff that gets thrown away. Left-overs are minimal and perfect this year!

 

[sattie]

I made a jalapeno cornbread dressing using leftover jalapeno cornbread from several nights before.

I sliced it up and let it set out over night to dry a bit. Cooked up a bit of turkey sausage and added that in. Added butter to the pan and sauted onion, garlic, celery.... tossed that in. Used a cup or two of chicken broth and baked. It was pretty darn good! I would have loved to add some apples or nuts to it, but DH is not real big on that.

Oh, since I started making my own pie crusts, the pie crust that I made for my pumpkin pie turned out really nice this time... best yet!

 

[GB]

That dressing sounds delicious Sattie.