Let's Talk Turkey-Thanksgiving

[Mariner]

I posted this a few years ago in the old recipe thread. It's a surprisingly easy dessert to make and quite yummy:

Harvest Cake

Ingredients
One-Bowl Cake:
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup water
2/3 cup cooking oil
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Pumpkin Cream Filling:
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Chocolate Glaze
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
Cake Toppers:
Seedless red grapes, whole blackberries or raspberries, toasted hazelnuts, or shredded orange peel

Directions
1. PREPARE OVEN AND PANS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9x 1-1?2-inch round baking pans; set aside.

2. COMBINE INGREDIENTS: In an extra-large bowl combine buttermilk, water, oil, sugar, eggs, baking soda, and salt. Using a large wire whisk, whisk until well combined. Add flour and cocoa powder; whisk vigorously until smooth. Divide batter between prepared pans.

3. DO THE TOUCH TEST: Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until top springs back when lightly touched in center. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.

4. PREPARE PUMPKIN CREAM FILLING: In a medium bowl whisk together cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, and cinnamon until thickened. Place one cake layer on plate. Spread filling over top. Top with second cake layer.

5. MAKE CHOCOLATE GLAZE: In a saucepan bring whipping cream just to boiling over medium-high heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate (do not stir). Let stand 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Cool 15 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour over cake, allowing glaze to drip down sides. Chill until set, about 30 minutes. Top with desired toppers. Makes 14 servings.

Chocolate Harvest Cake Recipe

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[doxie]

My family always has curry on Christmas Eve. It is a long story, but my parents had curry at an Indian restaurant in Spain the first year that they were married. Mom got the recipe and has made it every year since then. The first year that my brother's bride (now she-beast ex bride) had Christmas Eve dinner with us, she asked "What kind of an animal is a Curry? Is it a bird?"... We've joked about that since then.

On Christmas Day, my family comes here for a late lunch. I do the turkey/dressing/gravy/cranberry sauce and my parents bring a few side dishes and the wine.

[Ellen]

Since DH and I are childfree and live in a small apartment, we don't feel compelled to do the completely traditional Thanksgiving thing. We do invite whoever my adult French ESL students are, though. So we have turkey, but do something different like grilled turkey cutlets with nectarine-cranberry-pecan salsa. My orange-Jack Daniels cranberries. Roasted vanilla-bean spiced yams (the real kind -- NEVER canned -- yuck!!!). Maple-rum pumpkin pie. And, of course, good wine. So we do a sort of "twisted traditional."

[Unklescott]

Reminds me of the year I had some of my Mexican employees over for Christmas. We had BBQ ribs, tamales, Pozole, Frijoles Borrachos, corn on the cob and several Corona's.

[Ellen]

Originally Posted by Unklescott

Reminds me of the year I had some of my Mexican employees over for Christmas. We had BBQ ribs, tamales, Pozole, Frijoles Borrachos, corn on the cob and several Corona's.

Mmmmmm yummy! Now that's a ¡felíz navidad!

[gabriel]

Originally Posted by myrosiedog

I don't do yams either. I make sweet potatos.

I grew up with the traditional turkey and maybe a ham on Christmas, but somewhere in my 20's, my parents started branching out and now we never do a turkey for Christmas.
Well except the year that my dad was helping my mom carry it in from the smoker outside and he fell and dropped the turkey and the dogs got it and we had side dishes for dinner.

Gabriel, you can keep the fruitcake too. My grandmother used to make a HUGE one, but I never did like it.

I make a pumpkin bundt cake. It's divine. I like pumpkin just not the pie. I think its a texture thing mostly. But I do like sweet potato pie which is similar, but thicker in texture.

I have started buying some of my ingredients for Thanksgiving so it's not all one BIG shopping trip. I am so looking forward to stuffing. My FAVORITE part of the meal. I always make cornbread stuffing and I think this year I may make some oyster stuffing. We haven't had that in seveal years and both hubby and I were thinking it might be good to have it again. I'll do regular stuffing and oyster.

I think I could just eat the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatos and be perfectly happy.

I'm hoping that the fruitcake is good, because I usually don't like them.

[Gutmutter]

I don't usually make turkey because my whole family is in Ohio, including my kids, while my contract forbids me to take off the day before a holiday. This year I'm fasting for that week, but last year I made the whole shebang for my exchange student, Dan. He was really puzzled by the stuffing and only ate a little to be polite. That's ok - the stuffing is my favorite part of TG.

[Keymaster]

Turkey - there are two turkey recipes I love. One is Emeril's Brined and Roasted turkey (Food Network). I've used this recipe for the last 4-5 years. It results in a very juicy, tasty turkey. The other is Roast Turkey with Apple-Soy Baste. The recipe comes from Mimi's Cyber Kitchen. It calls for a baste of 3 cups apple juice and 1/2 cup soy sauce. The drippings from this turkey make a very flavorful gravy.

I eat most my my turkey right from the cutting board before it ever gets to the table.

Oh, I also have an awesome recipe for cornbread/jalapeno/sausage/pecan stuffing that I like to make. Yum!

[Keymaster]

Originally Posted by Ellen

Roasted vanilla-bean spiced yams (the real kind -- NEVER canned -- yuck!!!).

THAT sounds delicious!

[prhoshay]

When I was watching The Neelys the other day, they put salt, brown sugar, apple juice, bourbon (and I wouldn't be surprised if I left something out) in their brine. That didn't sound very good to me.