When do you start cooking?

[mudbug]

I've got all the stuff downstairs to make the lemon creme mold and start the boston creme pie.....but I cannot seem to motivate myself today!

Give yourself a break, dear. You just returned from the family celebration and stressed yourself learning how to upload photos, and the big day is still several days away.

 

[kadesma]

Well, i finished the filling for my stuffed onions last night as well as pie crusts which I wrapped and put in the freezer. Did the rest of the shopping today and picked up the turkey and beef for the homemade ravioli gravy, and except for the deli meats and cheeses for the anti pasto tray Ahhhh. My meat gravy is simmering away and my imported mushrooms are soaking, will add their broth to the gravey to get it a nice rich brown and finely chop the mushrooms to thicken up everything...I may get it all done yet

kadesma

 

[VeraBlue]

Give yourself a break, dear. You just returned from the family celebration and stressed yourself learning how to upload photos, and the big day is still several days away.

Thanks, but when I have a schedule, I have to stick to it! The lemon creme mold is chilling in the fridge, and the cake layers for the pie just beeped!

My son did all the work with the pictures...I just labeled them and messed up the order.

When are you getting to NYC?

 

[Constance]

You go, girls! I rather miss the days when I could do what you're doing, but we must roll with the changes.
I'm only responsible for 3 items, and am still trying to figure out short-cuts.
I sort of committed myself to shrimp cocktail, planning to use some of the shrimp we have in the deep freeze. When I fix that at home, it's always peel and eat, but I got to thinking, that's pretty messy for Thanksgiving dinner. There will be 11-12 people there, and at 6 shrimp each, that's a lot of shrimp to clean if I peel them first.
I thought about buying one of those big shrimp rings at the grocery store, where they're already peeled and cooked, and have a little container of cocktail sauce. But I've decided to buy a couple of bags of peeled pre-cooked shrimp instead, and make my own cocktail sauce. I could present them in a bowl of ice, with the cocktail sauce in a smaller bowl in the center, and some sliced lemons scattered about. Aside from my husband and me, the people eating them won't know the difference.
That will leave me more time to spend on my oyster dressing and apple crumb pie.

 

[Ishbel]

also, since pumpkin pie is my daughter's favorite, the last couple of years i've been letting her make it on her own. my one slight regret is that, while i've still got several quarts of mincemeat i put up a couple of years ago, no one else will touch the stuff. since it's hard to justify having 1 pie per person, i usually forgo.

A reall good use for the mincemeat is to use some beaten into plain vanilla icecream and then frozen... Or a baked apple with the core space stuffed with some mincemeat. Perhaps with one large mincemeat tart or lots of little mincemeat pies AND ice-cream you'll be able to justify using a jar?!!!

 

[TexanFrench]

I do a simplified Thanksgiving:

I'll do the pies on Wednesday, when I have the day off school, and mix the dressing (not stuffing--we like LOTS of it!) and refrigerate. The turkey is locally smoked (and thus precooked) and is delivered Wednesday as well, to be refrigerated overnight. I'll prep the veggies as much as possible and store in plastic ziplock bags.

Early Thursday, I'll mix up some cornbread and bake it, and the dressing, warm the turkey, fix sides and salad--and the gravy last of all. DH has already been making quarts of his cranberry sauce, don't have to worry about that!

 

[JoAnn L.]

I ask everyone this year to help me out with the food. I got an email this morning with what everyone will do.

Ham- JoAnn
Potatoes-JoAnn
Cranberry relish-JoAnn
Cranberry salad-JoAnn
Green beans casserole-Carol
Vegetable dish-Carol
Dinner rolls-Bobby Jo
No bake pumpkin pie-Bobby Jo
Snack/dip-Bobby Jo
Dessert-Mary Jo
Orange rolls-Mary Jo
Chips-Tara

I have already made the cranberry relish. It taste better made early.
As you can see Tara is only bringing chips, she is one of my granddaughters with a 1 year old. They have to go to two other places to eat before they come to our house. My other grandchildren live out of town so I don't expect them to bring anything when they come. All together there should be about 19 of us.

 

[PA Baker]

I made my cranberry sauce yesterday (I like to give it a few days for the ginger and orange flavors to really meld anyway), but I won't start other stuff until Wednesday.

Vera, what a wonderful tradition with your dd. I hope to do the same with mine someday!

 

[VeraBlue]

JoAnn, looks like Tara lucked out!

 

[VeraBlue]

I made my cranberry sauce yesterday (I like to give it a few days for the ginger and orange flavors to really meld anyway), but I won't start other stuff until Wednesday.

Vera, what a wonderful tradition with your dd. I hope to do the same with mine someday!

Since I don't get to have too many Thanksgiving dinners with my parents any longer, Lou and I continue the tradition here, and my dad has his wherever they land for the holiday. I'm hoping they'll come up here next year.

 

[VeraBlue]

Today, I got the crusts made for the apple and pumpkin pies. I roasted the sweet pots for the candied sweets.

I'm going out for cocktails with the crew from my 'adult industry' days, so I don't think I'll be doing any prep tomorrow evening!