Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Here at the Robinson household, my wife has begun drawing up a list. Which got me to thinking: If I offer my favorite Thanksgiving recipe, I bet a lot of Ricochetians will offer theirs, too.
Here goes:
Alice Robinson’s Scalloped Oysters
At any Thanksgiving dinner table, in my experience, no more than half those present will truly like oysters. Coupled with this recipe, that strange constant is very good news for those of us who do. At least my mother, my brother, and I always thought so. Year after year, we got this simple but delicious oyster dish almost entirely to ourselves.
Ingredients
One pint of oysters
One-and-a-half cups of cracker crumbs (Saltines, if you have any in the cupboard)
Half a cup of butter
A third of a cup of cream
One teaspoon of salt
A quarter teaspoon of pepper
Two tablespoons of parsley
Directions
Drain the oysters, saving about a third of the oyster juice. Add the oyster juice to the cream. (My sister-in-law, the authority on this recipe now that my mother is gone, tells me that she sometimes adds a little extra oyster juice.)
Grease a baking dish. Layer half the cracker crumbs on the bottom of the dish and half the oysters on top of the cracker crumbs. Mash the butter with a fork, then sprinkle half over the oysters. Layer the remaining crackers and oysters into the dish. Sprinkle them with the rest of the butter. Pour the mixture of oyster juice and cream on top, doing your best to cover the oysters, crackers, and butter completely, then dust the mixture of oyster juice and cream with the salt, pepper, and parsley.
Place the dish in an oven pre-heated to 400 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes. (My sister-in-law starts checking on the dish after 20 minutes, but she’s convinced the temperature in her oven runs high.)
Serve hot for Thanksgiving dinner, then refrigerate the leftovers. And if you can say which tastes better—the hot, fresh dish on Thanskgiving Day, or the cold leftovers the day after—be sure to let me know. In our family we’ve never been able to decide.
And that, as I say, is my favorite Thanksgiving dish.
What's yours?
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Comments:
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Yes, everyone please post their best recipes. I am traveling this week and arrive home on Wednesday night, meaning I don't have time to menu plan. I'm not hosting, but I would like to bring many side dishes, appetizers and even dessert. I'm relying on you all! This looks fantastic, Peter.
Mar '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
I found this recipe for a parsnip, carrot and leek gratin in the October, 1996 issue of Bon Appetit magazine, and have been obliged to make it every year since. It's a hit.
Feb '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
I make this Chocolate Indulgence cake. It is really really yummy and quite rich. I often garnish with fresh mint, sometimes I make a drizzle of chocolate for it as well, ro raspberries in season. I bring this Sweet Potato Pie or a crisp like this one. I also like to bring these Chocolate Truffles as a hostess gift.
For appetizers I have loved these Fried Pork Wontons (complicated but can be made in advance) and also the Spinach Balls (easy -- scroll down the linked page to find both recipes).
My cheesy scallion potato mash -- prepare mashed potatoes, with butter and salt and pepper to taste (I usually make 8-10 lb at a time 'cause I have a big family and everyone loves this). Lightly sautee some chopped scallions (3-5) in a little butter. Add to the potatoes along with about 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese and stir up nicely. Put in a greased baking dish. Sprinkle toasted wheat germ or matzo meal or something nice and crunchy on the top. Add paprika if you like. Bake at 350 until nice and brown.
Edited on November 20, 2011 at 9:04pmOct '10
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
For those inclined to procrastinate or simply so engaged in what they're doing that it's only sometime on Wednesday they realise with shock it's tomorrow, I offer my Jamaican Jerk Boneless Turkey Breast recipe. This is not only quick and deliciously spicy, it's paleo as I interpret it.
Not remotely paleo, but in the spirit of the season are recipes for spiced cranberries and, for the days following the feast, leftover turkey with pasta. Then there's the blue cheese salad dressing….
Jul '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Everyone has a favorite dish. Mine is mom's stuffing. This particular Thanksgiving is special as my mom is just out of the hospital in what will sooner or later be a losing battle with a newly diagnosed aggressive lymphoma. Usually she is my debate opponent on most issues as she's a Massachusetts liberal environmental activist yet very smart and well informed. She finally caved a few months ago that Obama was not as competent as she'd hoped for. I am flying across this great land for what will probably be the final Thanksgiving minus the debates and home cooking but quite frankly canned cranberries will be heaven to me just to have the company for a while. Sorry to be sappy but the question hit me a bit hard as I haven't got copies of the recipies. God bless all the moms and their scalloped oysters wherever they are.
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
DocJay, God bless you and your mother. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration together.
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Savage family tradition puts me in charge of the meal, and I always receive a delighted response to the Silver Palate Cookbook's Gran Marnier Apricot Stuffing. Mmm mmm good.
Aug '10
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Here's a link to my flexible pumpkin pie recipe (it includes adaptations for diabetics and lactose and gluten intolerance).
The following ain't a recipe, perhaps, but it's good:
Get some fresh cranberries, a can of pineapple (chunked, crushed, or whole -- doesn't matter), some ginger, and some clementines, mandarins, tangelos, or oranges.
Zest your citrus, then peel it.
In a blender or food processor, combine all of your drained canned pineapple with the following ingredients, added gradually to taste: cranberries (use a lot of these, but not all at first, in case they're overpowering), ginger (chunks are fine if it's fresh), citrus zest, and peeled citrus segments (or supremes), tasting and adjusting as you go.
Process the lot until it's a sort of relishy consistency. If it needs moisture, add some reserved juice from the canned pineapple. Sweeten to taste with whatever you like (sugar, honey, Splenda, stevia, Truvia, whatever...)
If you use dried ginger rather than fresh, you can fold this mixture into orange-flavored Jello for a molded salad (fresh ginger, like fresh pineapple, can cause gelatin to dissolve rather than set).
Fresh pineapple is good to, if you're not Jelloing.
EDIT: Oops! Forgot: A pinch of salt. Helps sweet stuff, too!
Edited on November 20, 2011 at 11:26pmRe: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Midget Faded Rattlesnake: The following ain't a recipe, perhaps, but it's good:
Get some fresh cranberries, a can of pineapple (chunked, crushed, or whole -- doesn't matter), some ginger, and some clementines, mandarins, tangelos, or oranges.
Zest your citrus, then peel it.
In a blender or food processor, combine all of your drained canned pineapple with the following ingredients, added gradually to taste: cranberries (use a lot of these, but not all at first, in case they're overpowering), ginger (chunks are fine if it's fresh), citrus zest, and peeled citrus segments (or supremes), tasting and adjusting as you go.
Process the lot until it's a sort of relishy consistency. If it needs moisture, add some reserved juice from the canned pineapple. Sweeten to taste with whatever you like (sugar, honey, Splenda, stevia, Truvia, whatever...)
If you use dried ginger rather than fresh, you can fold this mixture into orange-flavored Jello for a molded salad (fresh ginger, like fresh pineapple, can cause gelatin to dissolve rather than set).
Fresh pineapple is good to, if you're not Jelloing. · Nov 20 at 12:21pm
Lord. Just reading this makes my mouth water.
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
George Savage
DocJay, God bless you and your mother. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration together. · Nov 20 at 12:13pm
Yup, that is sort of an emerging sub-theme here, isn't it? When some of us talk about Thanksgiving recipes, what we're really talking about is our moms.
As DocJay and George say, God bless 'em.
Aug '10
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Not to bring up costly fresh produce or anything, but if you need a real quick sweet snack or dessert, buy some fuyu persimmons (the smallish, flat kind of persimmon, not the largish pointy hachiya kind). Cut them into bite-sized wedges and squeeze a little lime juice on 'em (prevents browning, enhances flavor). If you want to get fancy, grate a wee bit of cinnamon over 'em, but that's about it.
Persimmons taste sort of like pumpkin-pie-flavored fruit. The fuyu kind are good either firm or soft, and can also be eaten whole like apples. Yum!
Apr '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Gratin, Schmatin. Carsnips are a popular family dish, and sine qua non for Thanksgiving. They come from my paternal grandmother, who was from Minnesota; my mother made them, and now my wife does.
This year my wife proposed infusing a few sprigs of fresh rosemary into the cider as it cooked. I told her it would cause mass prostration of my family, signs and horrors in the skies, two-headed calves, wolves seen in church, two suns rising, fish swimming upon the shore, and cats and dogs living together, but go ahead--it sounded tasty. Screw what my family thinks; they always love everything she does, anyway.
Edited on November 20, 2011 at 10:19pmMay '10
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Here is my sister's recipe for Brussel Sprouts Chiffonade, which I shamelessly stole from her and made my own:
1 lb. brussel sprouts
1/2 lb. bacon
1 cup shelled filberts (hazel nuts)
Trim the end of the sprouts and slice them chiffonade; I do this by cutting the sprouts in half from bottom to top, setting them cut-side down on the cutting board then slicing them thinly across, making ribbons of sprouts as I go.
Slice the bacon (the best bacon you can get - I get "platter bacon" from the butcher) across into small quarter-inch pieces and fry gently in a LARGE saucepan until crisp, retaining the drippings.
While the bacon is frying, toast the hazel nuts in a 275 - 300 deg. oven for about 10 - 15 minutes, shaking the pan frequently to make sure they don't burn. Keep your eye on those nuts! When toasted, chop the nuts coarsely.
When the bacon is nice and crisp, add the sprouts to the saucepan along with the hazel nuts. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until all is combined and the sprouts are limp. Remove from heat and salt to taste, if needed.
Drink wine!
Edited on November 20, 2011 at 10:22pmApr '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Other Thanksgiving staples (good any time, but all together only at Thanksgiving): Williamsburg sweet potato muffins, sauerkraut, and Brussels sprouts.
The sauerkraut was imparted by the same Minnesota French-Irish grandmother as carsnips. Does anyone else's family have sauerkraut for Thanksgiving?
May '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Does anybody cook oyster stuffing inside the turkey? I heard that this is an unwise thing to do. It causes botulism or some kind of bacterial formation is what I've heard. Any truth to this?
Dec '10
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Not a whole recipe, but an addition...add chopped apple and cranberries to the stuffing. I started doing this recently and it is outstanding.
Nov '10
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
If you like oysters you will like this very quick and simple oyster stew:
Cut up and fry in a cast iron skillet 4 to 6 slices of bacon until the bacon begins to soften. Pour in 1 quart of oysters with their juice. Grind some black pepper over them. Cook in the skillet until the edges of the oysters begin to curl. Pour or spoon into soup dishes and serve hot. Serves about 6 folks who like oysters and takes no more than 10 or 15 minutes.
Apr '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
I have tried many different types of cranberry sauces but I find this one the best. It tastes great with everything and is so easy. 1 c sugar, 1 c water, 1 12-ounce package Ocean Spray® Fresh or Frozen Cranberries. Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil; add cranberries, return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time.
Apr '11
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
White wine?
Red wine?
Both?
Discuss amongst yourselves.
May '10
Re: Anybody Planning The Thanksgiving Menu Yet?
Sorry Peter, but from where I sit near the center of a continent, oysters seem like a deeply strange ingredient. I.e., a liberal's ingredient.
Did the pilgrims eat oysters at the first thanksgiving? I think not. Did they eat sugary, gelatinous cranberry "sauce" from a tin can? All the evidence at my disposal says they must have.