lets discuss; Thanksgiving side dishes

While I do enjoy the core meal, (turkey,stuffing,potatoes and lots of gravy) its all about dessert for me. Warm cherry pie ala mode, pumpkin pie, and cookies to munch on afterward.

It should be ready to crash, filter and recarb in time for Thursday. I should have an airlock top on it, but I'm not too worried about it as I'll be recarbonating it. 

J.A. Ackley said:

Red cabbage and pickled beets - that's what I grew up with. I loved how it turned my baked potato purpleish red.

Try it with a sprinkle of Feta cheese.  

Thanksgiving prep started for me last night with making the cranberry sauce. Tonight we will make the Sweet Potato Casserole and prepare vegetables for the stuffing. 

Chris Tropea said:

Thanksgiving prep started for me last night with making the cranberry sauce. Tonight we will make the Sweet Potato Casserole and prepare vegetables for the stuffing. 

looks delicious...  what are the peels?  I recognize brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, but what are the peels?

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

 

It should be ready to crash, filter and recarb in time for Thursday. I should have an airlock top on it, but I'm not too worried about it as I'll be recarbonating it. 

cider?  

We make cranberry relish: grind up cranberries, oranges (and the peel) in the food processor (just a little, stop before it becomes puree), then add some chopped walnuts and sugar.  Best after sitting for at least a day (I'm making it today).

Also, Mrs Hotel invented a recipe for sweet potatoes that are still a little sweet but not too much (and no marshmallows!).  The sauce is basically corn syrup, orange juice and ground ginger.  Delicious!

Frankly I like the day after much better than Thanksgiving.   Same food, no work.

In reply to ClearWaterMS :

They are orange peels. I do 50% water and 50% fresh orange juice in with the cranberries along with a splash of amaretto towards the end of cooking to add some extra flavor. 

pres589 (djronnebaum) said:

Segue slightly; I made corn bread stuffing with Jiffy corn bread mix as the basis.  Made the cornbread about like normal but baked it extra long so it would be more firm when converted into stuffing.  And it was okay... but too sweet for my liking and a bit too dense.  I had read about using just corn meal as the basis and I think that would work better. 

That said, I'm chopping up some white sub rolls to make croutons with for my next Thanksgiving lunch (first was yesterday, next one is Thursday), but maybe another time when I have the interest I'll try corn bread stuffing again.

I use pan fried hoe cakes that you leave out for a day or so after cooking or you toss in a warm oven and crisp them up. I leave out the sugar when I make the batter. When frying them you have you choice of fat.  Bacon is my go to but butter is also good. 
 

Make extra as I always end up eating some of the hoe cakes for a snack/meal.  Maple syrup and butter on a plate. Dam tasty. BTW if you just want the hoe cakes as a side it is also an option. 

This thread reminds me that I need to get my mom's dressing recipe.  She's had slices of bread sitting out on trays all over her house for a couple days now in preparation for tomorrow.  The trick is being able to lay the slices flat in places where (a) she doesn't forget about them and (b) the dog does.  If we had some sort of terrible disaster and instead of turkey as the main course, we were going to have mom's dressing, I would be okay with that.

But my absolute favorite can't-have-thanksgiving-without-it side is the bourbon slush.  I put that together last night and it's sitting in the freezer now.  This year I'm using the Old Granddad BiB.  I'm getting a little worried, though, about how hard it's getting to find frozen concentrate juices.  That's a vital part of the family recipe and for some reason, while that used to be a staple at every grocery store with at least a whole frozen case dedicated to it, I had to go to two different stores this year to find what I needed.

I grew up between Pittsburgh, PA and Seacoast, NH.

My favorite holiday of the year. 

Menu:

Turkey, gravy, mashed potato with the skin, mashed sweet potato without the skin and berkeley your marshmallows, French's green bean casserole, cranberry sauce jelly with the can marks (very important), ho made from the pumpkin pie, stuffing made from a store brand package with breakfast sausage and apples, and a lot of thanks.

Xmas I usually do a beef roast for the meat. This year I am going to buy a slicer so we can make the ultimate sandwich, the North Shore Roast Beef.

Collard Greens.

Wife started cooking those up last year following a suggestion by a coworker.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) said:

Sweet Potato pie is 100x better than pumpkin pie, any day of the week. Done correctly the texture is less mushy, the spice/flavor blend works better, and you don't need whipped cream to make it palatable. 

Agreed!

And as a closer-to-home rant: Pumpkin is basically the worst thing you can add to a beer. It is not starchy - it is gelatinous and flavorless. So it adds nothing to a beer and gums things up making brewing difficult. Canned sweet potatoes are infinitely better and actually taste more like what people imagine "pumpkin" flavor to be.

wae said:

But my absolute favorite can't-have-thanksgiving-without-it side is the bourbon slush.  I put that together last night and it's sitting in the freezer now.  This year I'm using the Old Granddad BiB.  I'm getting a little worried, though, about how hard it's getting to find frozen concentrate juices.

My mother's Whiskey Sour recipe was 1 large can of frozen orange juice concentrate, 1 small can of lemonade concentrate, and ice as needed.  Blend until desired consistency.

Whiskey amount varied between the lemonade can and the orange juice can, depending on target audience and desired effect.

Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry.  Best cocktail I've ever had.

One thing my uncle makes that usually only him and I eat is oyster stuffing haha. If you haven't had it before I highly recommend. 

Duke said:

wae said:

But my absolute favorite can't-have-thanksgiving-without-it side is the bourbon slush.  I put that together last night and it's sitting in the freezer now.  This year I'm using the Old Granddad BiB.  I'm getting a little worried, though, about how hard it's getting to find frozen concentrate juices.

My mother's Whiskey Sour recipe was 1 large can of frozen orange juice concentrate, 1 small can of lemonade concentrate, and ice as needed.  Blend until desired consistency.

Whiskey amount varied between the lemonade can and the orange juice can, depending on target audience and desired effect.

Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry.

 

Oh crap!  I completely forgot about the maraschino cherries! Looks like I've got to go to the grocery store.

In reply to ClearWaterMS :

Infused hop water with mulling spices with agave nectar added prior to pitching with yeast. 

Pies are baked and root veggie gratins are prepped to go in ovens tomorrow! We do double-duty for thanksgiving, so the pictured dishes are going to the Tropea house while the Suddard pie and veggie pan are already in the fridge at their final destination.