As we’re all starting to plan our Thanksgiving meals, I wanted to finally post a summary of what we served last year and what we liked about it, as well as some of our ideas for this year.  So, I have a list before of everything we made last year, including a couple ideas for re-mixing leftovers, and some of the things on my list to try for this year.  I’d love to hear your ideas, too.  What’s your favorite part of Thanksgiving?  What new things are you thinking about trying this year?  What traditions are always a part of your Thanksgiving meal?

Our 2009 Thanksgiving Menu:

• Lunch the day before: Butternut Squash Soup
• Thanksgiving breakfast: Pumpkin Brioche Cinnamon Rolls from Wild Yeast

The main event:

• Brined Turkey from Mugnaini
• Dressing from Pioneer Woman: Yes, this dressing is kind of a lot of trouble since it uses 2 kinds of bread and you have to make the cornbread. But you can do a lot of it ahead, and it was truly incredible. I don’t think I’m ever making a different recipe for dressing again.
• Cranberries two ways: Cranberry Sauce and Cranberry Salad
• Brussels Sprouts with Shallots and Wild Mushrooms from Gourmet: sort of an updated take on green bean casserole. We modified it to include pancetta, as in our favorite recipe for Brussels sprouts. That recipe is also a great substitute for something a bit lower maintenance.
• Twice-baked potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes with Coconut and Hazelnuts, originally from 101 Cookbooks
• Corn Pudding
• Angel Biscuits

Dessert:

• Pumpkin Pie: we made my friend Stirling’s Sugar and Spice Pumpkin Pie
• Rum Raisin Apple Pie from Gourmet, adapted to replace the top crust with a crumble topping
• Maple Nut Pie from Gourmet: a really nice update for pecan pie. I expect this will be making a reappearance on our Thanksgiving table at some point.

Leftovers remix:

• Breakfast Pancakes with Sweet Potatoes
• Turkey mole enchiladas with this sauce from Serious Eats: easy to make the sauce ahead, and extra freezes well

Other Ideas:

This year, it’s going to be just four of for Thanksgiving, so it’ll be a bit smaller than our gathering last year.  Although we’ll miss having a big crowd, and seeing my in-laws (and especially our new nephew who we won’t get to meet until Christmas!), the advantage of the smaller group is that there’s a little less pressure and for some reason we feel a little more interested in playing with tradition.  Though I unfortunately haven’t been able to convince everyone to go with the Serious Eats Buffalo Fried Turkey (yet!), I do think we’ll end up trying some new things this year. Here are some ideas, some (but not all) especially geared toward smaller gatherings:

For the turkey:
• Mark Bittman’s Braised Turkey: I’ve seen great reviews for this. Although it involves cutting up the turkey so that you don’t get the Norman Rockwell photo, it sounds like a great solution to get both dark and light meat appropriately cooked. Plus, it involves both sausage and pancetta!
• Tuscan Roast Turkey Breast from Martha Stewart: We did a variation on this rolled-up turkey breast the last time we had a 4 person Thanksgiving. The disadvantage: no dark meat.
• Pimenton Brined Turkey: Add some smoky flavor to your turkey without the smoker!

Side Dishes:

• Butternut Squash, Lentil, and Goat Cheese Salad: Not sure if this will make it to our Thanksgiving table or not, but I definitely think we will try it at some point this fall. Looks like a great possible main course for a vegetarian Thanksgiving, too.
• Green Beans with Meyer Lemon Breadcrumbs, from Sunset: A fresh alternative to green bean casserole
• Sweet Potato Souffle with a Twist: Homemade marshmallows and a bacon garnish! Not sure I’m going to convince the rest of my family on this one either, and we usually skip the sweet potato/marshmallow combination. But just look at that beautiful photo!

That’s all I’ve got so far, so clearly I need some help on the dessert front! We will probably make a pie or two, either pumpkin or pecan, or maybe I will make my grandmother Meme’s chess tarts so I can finally share that recipe with you. And as always, we’d love to hear your ideas, too. What’s on your Thanksgiving table?

What’s Thanksgiving without some rolls to go with all the rest of the carb-laden goodness? These are a great addition to the holiday table, and also make wonderful country ham biscuits. If you’re going to fill them, you can just roll them out and cut them into rounds. But for serving them with a meal, we like to make what my grandmother called “pocketbooks”, dipping them in butter and then folding them over, as shown in the picture.

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Angel Biscuits

Even though there is yeast in this dough, it is also leavened with baking powder/soda and does not have to rise before baking The dough may also be stored in the refrigerator for several days before rolling out and shaping.

1 package dry yeast
5 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 t salt
3/4 cup shortening
2 cups buttermilk
melted butter, for dipping (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Proof yeast by dissolving in 2 Tablespoons warm water. (If it doesn’t bubble a bit after a few minutes, your yeast is dead.)

Stir together dry ingredients. Cut in shortening. Stir yeast into buttermilk, add add to the cut together mixture.

Knead well. Turn out on a lightly floured board and roll out about 1/4″ thick. Cut with biscuit cutter and bake as biscuits. Or, dip in melted butter and fold over to make pocketbook rolls.

Bake 400 F for 15 minutes, until lightly golden.

Cranberry salad is another dish that we always have to have on our Thanksgiving table, and I encourage you to consider it for yours, too. It’s especially one of my mom’s favorites (and mine!). I love cranberries just about any way you can think to serve them, though this one is a little unusual since the cranberries are completely raw. It also has a whole chopped orange — and yes, that really does mean peel, seeds, and all! But there’s enough sugar in the jello, pineapple, and juice to nicely offset the bitter/tart from the orange and cranberries. This salad would probably have a nice retro look in one of those molded pans too, but we’ve always just made it in a pyrex dish instead.

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Cranberry Salad

Serves a crowd, at least 8-10

2 small packages cherry (if you want it sweeter) or cranberry Jello
1 cup hot water
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup pineapple syrup of juice
1 heaping cup of cranberries
1 whole orange
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup drained, crushed pineapple
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

1. Dissolve Jello in water. Add sugar, lemon juice, and pineapple syrup and put in refrigerator to thicken somewhat, but not long enough to congeal.
2. Chop cranberries and whole orange in food processor into very small pieces (until ground).
3. Mix all other ingredients together well and stir into thickened Jello.
4. Spread into a 13″ x 9″ or 11″ x 13″ glass dish and chill until firm.