Creeping Up Upon Us - Thanksgiving

[circlew]

Tim, that restaurant sounds good!

Since my sister, her husband, and my oldest nephew and his family are going to Florida (Disney) that week, I'll probably go to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner. I've done this for several years (sister away most years), and always been pleased with the food.

 

[michaelman2]

Am going to a friend's house and was asked to bring Cornbread Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and a Cranberry Congealed Salad.

I don't like Sage and use it very sparingly in my cornbread dressing. I do use eggs in the recipe, but not hard boiled eggs.

I have cheated with the cornbread used in the dressing and live near a Cracker Barrel where the manager will save two dozen cornbread muffins for me.

I love a Thanksgiving dinner.

 

[superocd]

My wife works on Thanksgiving (she's a cardiac CCU RN). I should be off but I am on my on call rotation, so if somebody has no heat at home or a store loses a refrig unit then I am one of the first to be called, so Thanksgiving this year will be short and sweet. As for the meal, my wife and I are going to have French dips and au jus with steamed baby red potatoes and a nice chef salad (roast beef instead of ham). Quick and easy. Dessert will be whatever appeals to us at the bakery tables at Safeway or Costco.

My wife knows that I *hate* turkey (and ham) and she's not too fond of it either so we are going for something simple and delicious and we both LOVE French dips. However, when I suggested a taco bar or a pizza buffet (order a bunch from Papa John's) for Thanksgiving last year, which hosted about 12 people, my wife looked at me like I was crazy. She wouldn't have cared if it was just "us" like this year but she wanted to stick with tradition because of the fact that we had guests. I never understood the tradition of a Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham.

If I am not dispatched, I will start hanging Christmas lights at home after wifey leaves for work.

 

[toploader55]

Chicken Cutlets with Lemon and Parsley, Organic Short Grain Brown Rice Risotto, Steamed Green Beans with Olive Oil and Garlic, and a Romaine Salad with Italian Dressing.

Put the Turkey Down about 7 years ago. Too much Heavy Food for me. I don't like the stuffed gorged feeling anymore.

 

[lordkenmore]

I'll be alone as always.

 

In the background, we hear the sobs of Lord Kenmore, as he ponders his lonely Thanksgiving fate.

 

Right now, I'm thinking I'll probably treat it like "just another weeknight dinner."

 

 

[angus]

The traditional dinner with the friends I grew up with. So in addition to the roasted turkey, the fried turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, squash and turnips that the host prepares, I will be bringing the sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows), sautéed broccoli rabe, corn pudding, spinach gratin, hot sausage dip, rolls and of course the knives, cutting board, extra paper towels (my big job is to carve the turkeys - you would think the other 7 men at this dinner never saw a knife before.... I also have to bring the coffee. Interesting thing about this dinner - I truly enjoy visiting with all these folks - our parents were friends for many years and we were children together. However, there are two things that irk me. The host insists that every TV in the house are tuned to football and since the dining room opens on to the living room, even during dinner he and his teen age son insist on facing the TV and talking between themselves about the game not participating in any other conversation. The rest of us have resigned ourselves to conducting our own conversation and ignoring what they are doing. Last year it got really fun when he actually told his wife to stop talking so he could pay attention to the game. But since there are 18 of us at the table, we just ignore.

The other thing is that no one believes in serving coffee and dessert. Most of the guests are content to leave the table after the dishes are cleared and go to the living room and drink wine for the rest of the day. - and red wine to boot. I get a headache just thinking about that. Desserts are set on the kitchen island and if anyone wants coffee, they have to make it themselves, cup by cup in the Keurig... one reason I stopped bringing a dessert when I was asked to.

So I gather a group to go for a long after dinner walk. A good way to work off the "turkey torpor"...

 

[twintubdexter]

That is so true...

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">It's very sad that after-dinner coffee seems to be a thing of the past.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">Harriet Craig (Joan Crawford) to housekeeper Mrs. Harold..."Don't you ever intend to serve the coffee? My guests are still waiting!" She was dismissed shortly afterwards.</span>

[this post was last edited: 11/11/2018-17:45]

 

[lordkenmore]

After-dinner coffee is sadly a thing of the past.

I didn't know this...but then the difference between Big Foot and my social life is that Big Foot might actually exist... (And so much for the justification I might use for buying a coffee pot: "I can use it for after dinner coffee if I ever have a candlelight supper!" LOL)

 

I have fond memories of evening coffee on a special occasions. My mother mostly made drip coffee as a during day thing, but on, say, Christmas, we might have a pot of French press coffee in the evening. (It was after dinner in the sense it was after dinner, although not immediately after.)

 

 

 

[ea56]

Not in Our Home

it isn’t! We still have after dinner coffee when we have guests, and for ourselves too. And there’d be snowballs in hell before we’d have the TV on during Thanksgiving Dinner, let alone the damn football game. It doesn’t hurt anyone to observe social graces during a hoilday dinner.

So many people live just like wild animals anymore. They will eat a holiday dinner off of paper plates with plastic utensils. And start to eat before everyone is seated, especially the host and hostess. Thats a no go in our casa!

We have our neice, her husband and their 3 sons for dinner on holidays and a few times throughout the year, and those nephews have perfect manners. They know when they are at Uncle David and Uncle Eddie’s house you put on their best manners. They are now grown up ages 25, 24 an 19, but they’ve always been polite. It’s up to the parents and other relatives to make sure that young people know what good manners are. If the older generation doesn’t care, neither will they and these old niceties will die with us.

Rant over.

Eddie[this post was last edited: 11/11/2018-18:03]

 

[lordkenmore]

The comment about football games reminded me of another annoyance which hit the last time I had a Thanksgiving dinner to go to. (And given how unlovable I am, it could, indeed, be the last time ever I have a Thanksgiving dinner to go to...)

 

In the background, we hear the sobs of Lord Kenmore, as he ponders how unlovable he is.

 

This annoyance was how the dinner was rushed. It had to be over, fast! Because people had to get going and be at some big box retailer when they opened Thanksgiving evening so they could perhaps be one of the lucky 5 people to get the door opener special!

 

[twintubdexter]

Eddie,

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I meant to imply that serving after-dinner coffee was a nice thing. The aroma of fresh-brewed coffee is comforting and satisfying after any meal.</span>

 

[appnut]

Maybe when I was growing up it was an accepted sequence of the dinner.  But, as my parents aged, they didn't have caffeine after a certain point during the day.  And even decaf coffee has too much caffeine for me to deal with in the evening.  So I've never bothered to have coffee with dessert at my house.  MAYBE herbal tea, but that's pushing it. 

 

In fact, I've not had coffee in the house for a couple of years. 

 

[ea56]

Oops Joe

and there I go gettin all Harriet Craig about it! And you are correct, it is a pleasant aroma and comfort after after a good meal.

I just can’t help myself sometimes.

Eddie

 

[DADoES]

 
I've never gotten into the taste of coffee.  It never happens unless very specific guests are here.

 

[angus]

In my family, after dinner coffee was understood as part of closing out the meal. We might take a walk after dinner just for a break, but we would reconvene at the table. I guess I just see it as extension of the social nature of the day and a relaxing time - coffee or tea, caffeine or no, it is just the "wind down". In most Italian families, we wouldn't actually go right to coffee and dessert. First we would put out the fruit bowl (featuring fresh fennel as a digestive) and the nuts. . The "push" of getting dinner out and ensure that everything goes according to plan is done, and so that is the point where everyone can sit and relax.

I do agree that many people simply aren't interested in observing social convention anymore. Last Easter which I hosted, the same group was pretty annoyed that I hid all the TV remotes when we sat down at the table. I also ruffled a few feathers when I walked around the table and confiscated four I -phones from the teenagers. And the best part was they were so engrossed in their phones, none of them noticed me until I reached from behind and pulled the phone. I asked them once to put them away and participate in the conversation with everyone but they pulled them right out again once I turned my back. Some might think that harsh, but there is no reason that you are sitting at a dinner table with 14 other people texting your friends. You can give up an hour - after all these are teen agers, they aren't on their phones learning how to do heart transplants..

Anyway, I guess I am just a dinosaur but we work so hard all the time and I have so little free time that when I attend a holiday meal or host company, I see that as an occasion and I truly look forward to it - so it pains me to see people taking that opportunity to gather for granted. Since I actually don't have any real family anymore, I now understand that those opportunities to be with family are governed by time, which is definitely finite. Besides, if all you want to do is come to my house to watch TV and eat, you really don't need to be there in the first place... And that's that!

 

[norgeway]

I LOVE the smell

Of coffee But I CANT STAND the taste!

 

[wayupnorth]

2 mugs of coffee every morning and I am perfectly regular. My Thanksgiving will be a to-go dinner I can just heat up in the oven and then have my pets begging for some of it.

 

[jmm63]

My husbands family is absolutely bizarre with dessert and coffee. No thought or presentation, usually served still in the boxes from the store it was bought at. Coffee can only be made by brother in law, and only makes 8 cups no matter how many people are there, because "that's how I always make it" The joy of family.

 

[tolivac]

I am also one of those that's likes the SMELL of coffee but not the taste-glad I am not alone!

 

[vacerator]

Congrat's to you Jim and Eric!!!

It's gathering that is important. We enjoy holidays wether us, or our host's use paper plates or china. No pretense needed. Enjoy the family.