# Thanksgiving shoping lists and menu



## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

I'm having a heck of a time picking a menu and making a shopping list for Family Holiday meals. I also see a lot of folks on HST are doing their shopping. So, What is on your menu, and what does your shopping list look like? Do you do traditional meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole, or do you have some fun family quirks in the holiday meal?


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

For our family dinner, I will pull one of my turkeys from the freezer, open several quart jars of green beans, make homemade egg noodles, pumpkin roll and pumpkin pies from our pumpkins, make homemade yeast rolls and several loaves of bread.
Other family members will likely bring store bought dishes and garnishes.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

Local fresh turkey, my brussel sprouts , potatoes and green beans. Fresh churned butter and homemade bread, Pie from garden pumpkins.

My menus are based as much as possible on what I can provide from the homestead


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Smoked salmon, home grown wild rice, coleslaw, dinner rolls, apple cinnamon rolls for dessert. No shopping needed...James


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

Oh, we had fun making lists last night. We have 3 columns, some of which are interchangeable:
Meat/no restrictions (blue serving dishes)
Vegan (red serving dishes)
Diabetic & no gluten (yellow serving dishes)

Meat & Diabetic columns have turkey (our own, of course)
Vegan has wild mushroom risotto, stuffing, special pumpkin pie & maybe apple pie
All three have roasted root veggies, broccoli, yams, our own apple juice 
Meat has giblet stuffing, regular pumpkin pie with whipped cream

I don't know what the Diabetic column eaters are doing for desert yet. We'll see.

The "Meat" column seems to have fewer choices, but I know those folks (I AM one of those folks!) and the centerpiece is Turkey and Pumpkin Pie and everything else just takes up space, so they don't feel left out!

There will be 25 to 30 people from 6 to 92 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when we always have our celebration so that there isn't any conflict with peoples' other plans.

Interestingly, the shopping list was really short. I was surprised at how little I needed to buy to fill in. Really, I think more whip cream (I don't have a cow, sigh) and we were out of mushrooms. I need to set more mushrooms to grow... And I need to make vegan bread to dry for the stuffing.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Kit


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

Thanks for the ideas guys! I especially like the smoked salmon idea! It's my turn to host the holidays again, so I have a minimum of 20 people to cook for. That's if the kids don't have any of their friends stop by. Everyone loves it when I make holiday meals, so instead of asking what they can bring, they want to know what it costs per person. I usually give them a grocery list, and they bring the groceries a few days early. Most come from gardens and farms, but some come from the store. Some of our family members stopped eating pork for religious reasons, so ham is out. Since Grandma got to old to cook a huge meal, nobody wants turkey - even my turkey just doesn't compare to hers. Thanks Giving is an all day affair here! Whoever hosts gets to give all the men folk a honey do list while the women teach the little ones how to cook. It is the only day we adhere to traditional gender rolls.
For Breakfast, My Dad will make his traditional Omelette Bar - then head out to ride herd on the honey do list. We have 3 youth deer deer tags just in my house open that day - so I cheated and am having them take the kids hunting! The hunters will get a nice sack lunch with a thermos full of cocoa and coffee, those who stay home will have a cheese, cracker, meat, and veggie tray to snack on after breakfast.
For Dinner we have settled on Prime Rib, Garlic and herb mashed potatoes,Cesar Salad, Parmesan Garlic knots, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and after dinner lattes.


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## FeralFemale (Apr 10, 2006)

Dixie Bee Acres said:


> For our family dinner, I will pull one of my turkeys from the freezer, open several quart jars of green beans, *make homemade egg noodles*, pumpkin roll and pumpkin pies from our pumpkins, make homemade yeast rolls and several loaves of bread.
> Other family members will likely bring store bought dishes and garnishes.



You make homemade egg noodles for Thanksgiving???? I've never heard of anyone outside of my family who does that!!!!

My mom did this every Thanksgiving and Christmas. We call them Turkey Noodles because we boil turkey necks/parts to make a broth and then cook and serve the noodles in that, with the broth being like a kind of sauce for the noodles. (we also had stuffing and mashed potatoes as well as the noodles, lol). My mom learned them from her mom, who learned from her mom who came from Hungary/Austria abt 1908 (but as I research her family her parents may have been Czech or Slovak and just living in Hungary/Austria). 

I am the only one left who can make them. Mom can, but she is old and doesn't like the work, particularly since I do them now. I tried to teach my sister but she is hopeless. Otherwise, the current state of affairs is that, if I am in town for the holidays, everyone asks 'is Feral making Turkey Noodles?!?' 

We don't have kids. Someone is going to have to learn the noodles, but no one really seems to care -- or I have lived so far from home for so long that no one has been exposed to the Turkey Noodles and how awesome a tradition they are. I feel sad that the tradition and the 'recipe' (not really a recipe, more like a set of guidelines and a description of how the dough should feel) is going to be lost.


Where did you get the homemade egg noodle tradition? Where did it come from? What ethnic background are you? 

Sorry for being so freaky about this, but I really have never ever ever heard of anyone else making homemade noodles for Thanksgiving! (pm me if you want)


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## wally (Oct 9, 2007)

I dont recall having noodles on my side of the family. Mrs wally has always got to have noodles. She can not recall when her family started as its always been that way in her family. we have been married 35 years and that has always been the thanksgiving/christmas program. Now DDs do the same thing.


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

we made the menu just this weekend
turkey 2 ways (baked and fried)
ham
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes
home made cranberry sauce
store bought cranberry sauce (for the traditionalist)
rolls
collard greens
rutabagas
green beans
yellow squash
carrots cooked in orange juice

desserts
pumpkin pie
sweet potato pie
pineapple cake
apple stack cake
fruit cake (grandmas recipe)
Ice tea
lemon aid
coffee


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## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

Prime rib from a cow we butchered last year, some type of a potato dish, rolls, veggie tray and desserts.


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## badlander (Jun 7, 2009)

I usually do a standing rib roast but with the price of beef through the roof, no way that was going to happen. I went out shopping yesterday and found a marked down sirloin roast that was just the right size and marked down to just over 9 dollars. Good deal. I'll make that along with a turkey breast, corn from our garden this summer, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, home made dinner rolls, cranberry sauce (with whole cranberries) and finally pumpkin pie for desert.

I managed to pick up something like 5 cans of whole cranberry sauce after the holidays last year for 50cents a can at the local grocery store and had bought pumpkin pie filling early in the fall. Since it is just DH and I for dinner, we will save the left over meat for sandwiches.


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## unregistered65598 (Oct 4, 2010)

Kmac15 said:


> we made the menu just this weekend
> turkey 2 ways (baked and fried)
> ham
> mashed potatoes
> ...


You forgot to tell us what time we need to show up....:buds:


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

All are welcome for eating at 1 o'clock. I even bought more plates in case we have more than the normal number.


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

FeralFemale said:


> You make homemade egg noodles for Thanksgiving???? I've never heard of anyone outside of my family who does that!!!!
> 
> My mom did this every Thanksgiving and Christmas. We call them Turkey Noodles because we boil turkey necks/parts to make a broth and then cook and serve the noodles in that, with the broth being like a kind of sauce for the noodles. (we also had stuffing and mashed potatoes as well as the noodles, lol). My mom learned them from her mom, who learned from her mom who came from Hungary/Austria abt 1908 (but as I research her family her parents may have been Czech or Slovak and just living in Hungary/Austria).
> 
> ...



I thought I was alone with the "secret family recipe" for egg noodles! My Mom taught me to make egg noodles for Turkey as well! The oldest copy of the instructions (no, you can't call it a recipe) we have is from the early 1940's - they were Swiss German (Austria's neighbors) and the instructions are written in German. I wonder if it is a regional tradition. Now you have me thinking.


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## Jlynnp (Sep 9, 2014)

There are just 2 of us and we considered going out to eat - this is our first Thanksgiving without the extended family. However we decided to cook and have lots of left overs.

We will be having spiral sliced ham, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, my special apple salad and pumpkin or apple pie.


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## surf (Sep 29, 2011)

I have hosted Thanksgiving for about 5 years now. The past three years it has gotten really big. There will be about 40 people there. Then menu stays the same pretty much from year to year. 

Two 20+ pound turkey, a ham, pork loin, and venison backstrap
chicken n dumplings
dressing
mashed potatoes and gravy
green bean casserole
sweet potatoe casserole
corn casserole
hash brown casserole
fresh green beans (frozen from garden)
sweet corn (cut off cob and frozen from summer)
home made rolls and corn muffins

pumpkin pies
pecan pies
coconut cream pie
cupcakes and the list goes on and on

I tried in the past to have each lady bring a dish and that didn't work out. So I plan and purchase everything. Some ladies bring a "specialty" dish or dessert. If they don't.....it doesn't hurt anything. We all have a great time together. Several people come up a day or two early and stay. 

I am looking forward to next week already.


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## melco (May 7, 2006)

Feral, your noodles sound delish! I would love to be able to make them.


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## Guest (Nov 19, 2014)

I'm the host for my very small family (myself, dh,2 sons,mil,fil and maybe my little brother)and always the same menu except for the desserts.

Appetizer's

Fruit platter
Veggies platter

Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Stuffing
Corn
Cabbage Salad
Gravy
Turnips
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls'

Desserts

Marie Calender all berry pie
Cheesecake maybe?

Homemade whipped cream


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

For Melco, and anyone else who wants to know how to make homemade egg noodles: 
1 egg per person you cooked turkey for; plus one for the pot, if more than 10, use a full dozen eggs. Squeeze your hand together to make a dish in your palm. Pour the salt into your hand counting quickly to the number of eggs you used. Dump the salt into the eggs and beat till salt dissolves. Add a tea cup of flour to the egg mixture for each egg used, folding the flour and egg together - do not over mix, you will get rubber noodles, but do mix thoroughly. The dough will bounce back slightly and slowly if you press your finger into it. Roll the noodles to about 1/8 inch thick, then cut with a sharp knife aprox. 1/4 - 1/2 inch wide (a pizza roller cutter thingy works great too!) Let dry for several hours. Drop noodles one by one into boiling turkey, vegetables and stock. Noodles will float when fully cooked. Serve immediately, or freeze for later, or store leftovers in fridge for up to 3 days.


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## FeralFemale (Apr 10, 2006)

That's it almost exactly, Lilith. Except after rolling out the dough I then flour and roll up like a jelly roll then cut into 1/4 - 1/2 inch pieces. It was always the kids job to unroll them and
Lay them flat to dry. That was such a huge part of the tradition that it's never occurred to me to find an easier way to cut them lol.


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

Thinking back to when I was a kid, I believe my Mom used to jelly roll them too, but when cooking for 20- 30 people's worth of leftover turkey, we find the pizza cutter to get the job done quickly lol. Crazy how not "secret" this method is, and how close it's origins are geographically. It's cool to pass along things like this to your kids, and what a great way to use up leftover turkey & veggie trays.


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## sniper69 (Sep 23, 2007)

Lilith said:


> I thought I was alone with the "secret family recipe" for egg noodles! My Mom taught me to make egg noodles for Turkey as well! The oldest copy of the instructions (no, you can't call it a recipe) we have is from the early 1940's - they were Swiss German (Austria's neighbors) and the instructions are written in German. I wonder if it is a regional tradition. Now you have me thinking.


Lilith - by chance could I get you to take a picture of (where I could make out the words) or scan the instructions (that are in German)? If you have the instructions in English to go with it, that is great too. I enjoy the recipes from that part of the world (and it makes me miss living there too  ).


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## sniper69 (Sep 23, 2007)

As for a Thanksgiving menu - Thursday will be Turkey, taters (two types), corn, brussel sprouts, cranberries, and some sort of dessert. Friday will be a Thanksgiving meal with the rest of the family and will be turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes (my MIL like to candy them, I think they're to sweet - but then I like baked potatoes plain  ), cranberry sauce, pies, salad, green stuff (a dessert my wife's family likes), stuffing, and probably some other items.
I'll have had my fill of turkey then, lol.


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

Sniper69, I'll see if Mom has a copy still, a lot of that stuff Mom gave to another family member who is working to preserve our family history and has the time and resources to research , catalog, preserve, and whatever else he does with it. I've never had an actual copy of the instructions- just years of making it and lots of practice till I didn't need Mom's help anymore. I should probably write it down in the cookbook tho so it doesn't get lost if I don't wake up tomorrow. I shared how I make them earlier - 



Lilith said:


> For Melco, and anyone else who wants to know how to make homemade egg noodles:
> 1 egg per person you cooked turkey for; plus one for the pot, if more than 10, use a full dozen eggs. Squeeze your hand together to make a dish in your palm. Pour the salt into your hand counting quickly to the number of eggs you used. Dump the salt into the eggs and beat till salt dissolves. Add a tea cup of flour to the egg mixture for each egg used, folding the flour and egg together - do not over mix, you will get rubber noodles, but do mix thoroughly. The dough will bounce back slightly and slowly if you press your finger into it. Roll the noodles to about 1/8 inch thick, then cut with a sharp knife aprox. 1/4 - 1/2 inch wide (a pizza roller cutter thingy works great too!) Let dry for several hours. Drop noodles one by one into boiling turkey, vegetables and stock. Noodles will float when fully cooked. Serve immediately, or freeze for later, or store leftovers in fridge for up to 3 days.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

Lilith said:


> So, What is on your menu, and what does your shopping list look like?


Ours is pretty normal.... turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, 7-layer salad, pie.


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## Elffriend (Mar 2, 2003)

turkey
green beans almandine
crashed potatoes
cheesy cauliflower bake
stuffing
low carb stuffing
cranberry sauce
dinner rolls
apple cider
hard cider
chardonnay
pumpkin pie
apple crisp
low carb pumpkin cheesecake


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## sniper69 (Sep 23, 2007)

Lilith said:


> Sniper69, I'll see if Mom has a copy still, a lot of that stuff Mom gave to another family member who is working to preserve our family history and has the time and resources to research , catalog, preserve, and whatever else he does with it. I've never had an actual copy of the instructions- just years of making it and lots of practice till I didn't need Mom's help anymore. I should probably write it down in the cookbook tho so it doesn't get lost if I don't wake up tomorrow. I shared how I make them earlier -


Lilith - thanks. It is appreciated.


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## anahatalotus (Oct 25, 2012)

So this year I'm not to sure about Thanksgiving. We haven't been invited to any of my friends or by any family members. Nor have I found any other odd ones out who are not doing anything for the holiday. I'm still going to put together a dinner for my kids and I, and I think it will last the three of us a week, lol. So here is my tentative list of dishes...
Smallest pastured turkey or duck I can find. Still need to get
Mashed potatoes and giblets gravy.
Homemade egg noodle and cheese casserole with sourghdough crumbles on top.
Roasted root veggies.
Cabbage with apples.
Some sort of stuffing... Still need to get.
Raw milk made from scratch cheesecake.
Hazlenut apple pie.
A cornucopia made of grain free pie crust or sourghdough.
Artichoke spinnach dip to dip ripped up cornucopia in (I might not make this if I use extra pie crust if there is any.
Soo kind of feel like I'm going overboard for just three people to eat, lol.


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## FeralFemale (Apr 10, 2006)

Look what I found this weekend to cut my egg noodles with! I can't wait to use it! 

http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-1410075/Eppicotispai+Pappardelle+Pasta+Cutter


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## Vickivail98 (Sep 26, 2014)

This year it's my turn to host our Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year party. Appetizers- Stuffed dates, veggie tray, deviled eggs, salsa and guacamole, bean dip, veggie salad and chocolate dipped clementines. My crazy family doesn't like turkey so I'm roasting 3 chickens, adding cornbread, candied carrots, roast squash and cranberry stuff. Dessert this year is gluten free pineapple upside down cake (hopefully), carrot cake, and something using up the frozen strawberries and rhubarb sauce in my freezer. I should probably get moving, today (Tuesday) is cleaning day and then a day of cooking, followed by a day of assuring everyone it was no trouble!


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