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Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:50 pm
by johnrogers
Squash Soup with cre'me fraiche
(el farm squash,eli home stock buy cre'me fraiche

Brussel Sprout Salad with pecans,dried cranberries,bacon
(buy brussel sproats,eli pecans (home),buy dried cranberries,bacon

Green bean and shitake mushrooms
(moms recipe)

Baked sweet potato with melted marshmellow topping
(buy sweet potatoes,marshmallow,butter rice puffs

Mashed potato with cheddar cheese
(buy potatoes,cheddar block

Roasted Turkey with homemade stuffing,gravy and cranberry sauce
(stuffing buy - chunky bread,Italian sausage meat,celery,carrot,garlic,eli onion,fresh herbs

Homemade pumkin pie with fresh whipped cream
( buy flour.salt,sugar,butter,vegtable shortening(kira)5.5 oz/165 grams,pumpkin meat,whipped cream

Homemade apple pie with vanilla bean ice cream
(buy apples watrin,ice cream

Turkey Stock
Celery,onion or leek,carrot

Have included the grocery list as well - it is saturday night and we have started cooking dinner for tomorrow - right now could use some help doing dishes and cleaning the i am a spammer

All in the forum welcome to join us for thanksgiving

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 9:01 am
by annagram
sorry, John we were out of town on that day. You Canadians have the right idea about when to celebrate Thanksgiving. I wish we celebrated it in October too. October 8 was my husband's birthday so it would have been a double celebration. Your menu sounds yummy.

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:35 pm
by johnrogers
To bad you could not make it for our canadian thanksgiving annagram - I must tell you the preparation took at least two days - a lot of work for dinner I must say ( thank goodness it only comes once a year ) har har

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:53 am
by E-Hoog
Hi John,

Looking good there! As a Dutch native, I normally don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but last year we did (just as an excuse for the food though ;-) ). We will do it again this year (in november). Your stuffing looks very good! Is it possible to get some more details on that?

How was the dinner? Did all the courses work out for you?

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:56 pm
by johnrogers
Turkey Stuffing

Ingredients

poultry sausage ( we used chicken with feta from costco )
bread crumbs
poultry seasoning
carrots
celery
onion
salt
pepper
parmesan
oregano
sage

1. Cook off the sausage,set aside

2. Chop onion,carrot and celery (small cube size) and sweat (cook at medium-high until vegtables are soft-do not burn) with herbs and olive oil

3. Add cooked sausage,salt,pepper,bread crumbs and poultry seasoning.Can use fresh herbs too,like oregano and sage.

4. Transfer stuffing to an oven safe baking dish.

5. Sprinkle layer of grated parmesan on top

6. Bake in oven at 350 for 45 minutes.

Ehoog - let me know if you want my recipe for Tomato Boccacini Salad - easy to make but to die for to eat - I will send it to you if you want it but I think you shoud try it for your Dutch food celebration coming up

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:11 am
by E-Hoog
Hi John,

Thanks for explaining the turkey stuffing. I will definitely try it :). The tomato salad sounds good as well. I am definitely interested in your recipe.

One dish that has already been decided upon (after last years succes) is the oven-baked baby potatoes with Parma ham (prosciutto), rosmary, thyme, olive oil, sea salt and garlic. I simply can't get enough of this :-).

One thing I will have to arrange for is a large turkey, because last year they only had 2 kg turkeys and thankfully (no pun intended) a 4 kg turkey. It's nice to see that all european turkey recipes begin with "take a 2-4 kg turkey..." and all american recipes with "take a 16-20 pound turkey...". They have the right idea :wink:

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 11:13 am
by johnrogers
Tomato Boccacini Salad

Ingredients

4-6 nice ripe tomatoes ( ok to mix varieties )
coarse salt
boccacini cheese ( use large ones if using large tomatoes,small ones if useing cherry tomatoes )
fresh basil
olive oil
balsamic vinegar

1. Slice tomatoes one quarter inch thick ( if using cherry tomatoes cut in half )

2. Slice boccacini one quarter inch thick ( if using cherry size boccacini,cut them in half )

3. Layer a glass pan with tomatoes,fresh basil and cheese.Do as many layers as your ingredients can fill the pan

4. Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over the salad,then sprinkle coarse salt all over ( can grind fresh pepper if you like to )

5. Let set for half hour,so that the balsamic vinegar draws some falvour out of the tomatoes.

6. Serve and eat

:lol: Try your local farmers market for the tomatoes and perhaps you can find a 21 pound turkey at the local market as well

8) I love prosciutto - try wrappin prosiutto around asparagus and grill it on your barbacue

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 1:00 pm
by E-Hoog
Sounds good John! Thanks :-). I'll run it by the comittee :wink:. The asparagus idea also sounds fine.

I'll start hunting around for the monster tuerkey soon. I'll let you know what I came up with.

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:53 pm
by annagram
Your tomato salad sounds delicious. I love fresh basil and tomatoes. I will try this sometime.

My son in law has been deep frying the turkey for the last few years. I was quite dubious about this
but he has made a believer out of all of us - it is really good. I make potato bread stuffing which is very good and I make some of them into balls which he deep fries after the turkey is done.

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 3:54 pm
by annagram
johnrogers wrote:To bad you could not make it for our canadian thanksgiving annagram - I must tell you the preparation took at least two days - a lot of work for dinner I must say ( thank goodness it only comes once a year ) har har




Well maybe next year :D

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:58 am
by E-Hoog
Hi John,

The stuffing was very good! Thanks again :-). We managed to find a 7.2kg (16lb) turkey and to my amazement it was all finished at the end of the night.

@annagram: deep frying a turkey? What the... That sounds very weird, but I would like to try that sometime :-). How do you deep fry something that large?

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 11:25 am
by annagram
You have to get a special deep fryer and you do it outside. My son in law seems to enjoy it and it is very good. As I think I said before I was a bit dubious about it when he first brought it up but he has made believers out of all of us. Last year I made some of the stuffing into balls and he deep fried them - They made a big hit and so I made more of them this year!!!

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 11:27 am
by annagram
Ohh I see I am repeating myself ------- chalk it up to a senior moment. Sunday is Christmas tree cutting day - hope it doesn't rain!

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 1:35 pm
by johnrogers
You have got to admit cooking is a lot of work - 24 hours of prep for a one hour sit down dinner with family celebration,not to mention the cleanup after ( so did you do the dishes Ehoog - har har )Well Christmas is just around the corner so get ready to induldge again.Funny that a large turkey is so difficult to get in the Netherlands,majority of turkeys in Canada and the USA are very large up to 25 lbs. and the price tags on them are very small around Thanksgiving and Christmas,in fact most of the large grocery chains more or less give them away if you spend a certain amount in there store.

Deep frying a turkey is getting to be the rage in the USA ,in fact I have never tasted a deep fried turkey but I hear it is the way to go.I have a brother in law who lives in Maine in the United States who is a fanatic about the merits of deep frying a bird - and I see that Annagram is a believer as well - I am sure I will try it someday,but as I tell you it is very popular.

All my best to you EHoog - and don't forget to do a few laps on the treadmill after your dinner extravaganza :lol:

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:09 am
by E-Hoog
The preparation and cooking takes a lot of time, but as long as you have fun it's okay :-). I did not do the dishes after dinner, but during the cooking we had to do the dishes about three times. But the cleanup after dinner was a monster one :wink:.

In the Netherlands you have to go to a butcher, as they are the only ones who can get you a turkey. And it isn't cheap. Eating turkey is a bit of a rarity here, except maybe for christmas, but even then they don't have them at the regular grocery stores. I don't know how expensive a turkey is in Canada/USA, but here you pay over €11/kg. Which works out to about €130, or $175 for a 25lb turkey.

Maybe I will try deep frying the turkey next year, who knows. I'm definitely intrigued :).

Good luck with the Christmas preparations (we are going to family, so no cooking ourselfs) and all the best.

Re: Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:29 am
by annagram
WOW!!! $175 for a turkey - that is a lot of turkey!

We will have another deep fried turkey for Christmas.