Let's Talk Turkey-Thanksgiving

I love this time of year because I get to use my fall dishes!

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My family lives miles away, so I celebrate Thanksgiving with my single friends. I went all traditional this year -- turkey with sage/chestnut stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy made from pan drippings and stock, candied yams, orange-cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, soft rolls, pumpkin pie, apple-cranberry crumble and cranberry-pomegranate cocktails. The only things I didn't make from scratch were the rolls and the pie crusts (Trader Joe's roll-out crusts are better than homemade).

I'm exhausted, but it was worth it.

What a lovely table you've set, candor. Good to know about Trader Joe's roll-out crusts...didn't know they carried that item. Will check it out.

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Originally Posted by Gutmutter

My aunt always brought stewed tomatoes that were sweeeeeet with butter and bread in them.

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I'm just catching up on this thread and this caught my eye, Gut. A flood of memories...it's probably not the same dish, but my very Catholic grandmother would stay with us from Thanksgiving to Easter for most of my childhood. She would make this concoction in a pot on Fridays in lent (no meat!) where she's put a can of diced tomatoes in a pot, some sugar, and broken up bread buttered on both sides it up in the pot and cook it. I nicknamed it "tomato gush" but ate it up. I probably haven't had it in 20+ years; I might just have to make it this week.

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Originally Posted by PhoneGrrrl

I'm just catching up on this thread and this caught my eye, Gut. A flood of memories...it's probably not the same dish, but my very Catholic grandmother would stay with us from Thanksgiving to Easter for most of my childhood. She would make this concoction in a pot on Fridays in lent (no meat!) where she's put a can of diced tomatoes in a pot, some sugar, and broken up bread buttered on both sides it up in the pot and cook it. I nicknamed it "tomato gush" but ate it up. I probably haven't had it in 20+ years; I might just have to make it this week.

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That sounds like a wonderful comfort-food dish. Is the bread toasted first? It sounds like it would be a yummy go-with for grilled cheese/leftover turkey sandwiches.

Even though I didn't cook, I got custody of the turkey carcass.:yay So I got to make turkey/vegetable/noodle soup. Yum! I boiled it & de-meated it, and strained the water on Saturday & made the soup yesterday. Afterwards it was so cold outside that I put the pot outside on a chair to cool. Thank God I remembered it before I went to bed. I would have had a giant pot of frozen solid turkey soup.:laugh
I'll have leftovers tonight & probably take a container full over to my son. Then I'll separate what's left into freezer containers & freeze them in slightly larger than meal size portions.
I'll get to eat my yummy turkey soup whenever I want.

I got the turkey carcass too, MS. Got to get the fixings for soup and get that done tomorrow. The house is finally back to normal since my family went home this morning. The house feels so much bigger (although I still live in a teacup) and QUIET. Hallelujah!

We did the traditional turkey dinner with a few special additions including a savory corn pudding that we always have, but which is usually provided by someone else who's since moved out-of-state. Easy recipe and SO delicious!

I aslo got the carcass again and made some great stock last night. I'm going to freeze it to make gumbo at a later date, when the temperature gets below 60 for more than 36 hours. :lol

I made and froze individual servings of turkey pot pie (with stock made from the carcass!). This time I bought packaged puff pastry and just put it on the top. Delicious.

I'm going to throw the carcass into the crockpot before I leave for school in a minute. If I had more time, I'd add all the aromatic veggies, too, but I'll just have to add them when I make it into soup.