What Are You Having For Thanksgiving?

probably a hot pocket.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

"probably a hot pocket."

Those are great for every occasion. Especially the ham and cheese ones.

--Roz Abellera

I'm having an ex and his new wife....she's great entertainment....especially after she's had a few drinks!

We are very traditional, will have one of my sons, my in-laws, Karen's sister husband and 2 of the 3 kids. Will be turkey, stuffing, all the trimmings. Lots of food, laughter, and general chaos. Might get to paint with my niece.

We are going to Hardee's - I may have the six beef taco's - the wife will have the big burger. I'm against killing turkeys - at least the feathered kind - the taste ain't that great - we usually have pig - but it's just too much trouble for two 'old' folks.

Marlene, I want to come to your house! LOL. Sounds like great entertainment. I don't eat turkeys, so if I can remember to pick up a slice of veggie pizza the day before, I'll be doing good. Last year my sister and I made reservations at a local restaurant and still had to wait a couple hours. Everybody in town was there!

Lobster with butter on the side? Roz, how about some extra company? Yum...

We are having a turkey fry-off between my brother-in-law with his traditional oil fryer and my nephew with his electric fryer. Two fried turkeys to eat and the winner of the vote gets a custom bottle opener that I designed on the POD that starts with a Z. This is a rematch from the first competition two years ago which my brother-in-law won. Guess we'll have the usual sides of green beans and mashed potatoes too. I'm also baking ginger cookies with some crystallized ginger a friend just brought me from her trip to Hawaii and my sister is making a chocolate peanut butter pie.

Have to work on Thanksgiving (UGH), but will be having turkey and all the fix ins on the Sunday....

I indulge in 'real' desert four times per year -- Thanksgiving is one of those days. So, all I really want is chocolate cake and ice cream.

Or fudge.

Or cheesecake.

Or peach cobbler . . .

Actually, we're planning roast chicken, barbecue, roasted veggies, and various other sides for dinner. We went traditional last Thanksgiving, but are saving that for Christmas this time around.

@Roy -- I'm very intrigued by your suggestion of six beef tacos. Sounds like quite the challenge! ;-)

Stress and a lot of alcohol. Les

Mike and Roy, I do love hot pockets, but have you noticed that no matter how long you seem to wait, those damn hot pockets always burn your mouth. My wife is always complaining about cold feet in bed. I am really considering heating them up and using them as foot warmers through the night.

hot pockets have to cool for a while, or you'll burn yourself something fierce. it's like one of those potato things you get as an orderve. i sometimes stab it with a fork to release steam, but it's true to its name. its a pocket and hot. and simple. i only have that because i don't want to go to my aunts house. there isn't anything to do there, and it's a really long drive. i'd rather just stay home alone. i found everything near me is closed though, on that day.

to me, thanksgiving is a week without sales. everyone is out visiting. hopefully, looking at my stuff ready to buy it when they come home.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Pat, I'd invite you except we are going to THEIR house ( for the sake of the kids....been doing it for 15 years now)
My son has traditionally made Thanksgiving his holiday but some people are unfashionably late and ruin his meal.
Not naming names. lol

This is the on-year I host Thanksgiving. My son, wife and granddaughter are coming from the Chicago area. My daughter, husband and two granddaughters are making the drive down from New Hampshire. I invited my sister, husband and one of her girls and boyfriend. The other one is staying up in Maine. I'm cooking for thirteen, with three little ones ages, 2, 3 and 4.

I have two kitchens but no dining room. What once was a dining room downstairs is now another living room. So I decided I'm going back to my childhood years and bringing up two 6-foot folding tables and setting them up in the living room. I'm doing the same this Saturday as I'm hosting twelve for the annual parade. It will bring back memories for my sister and brother.

It's not only Thanksgiving dinner, it's all three meals and sleepovers throughout the holiday weekend.

This weekend, a buffet with chicken wings, meatballs and roasted pork and sides.

Thanksgiving: two turkeys so I can give leftovers to my daughter and my sister. The best part of the Thanksgiving meal is the sandwich at night. I want my sis to take some home for her family.

Stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, boiled onions, green beans, peas, cranberry sauce, black olives, stuffed celery, cranberry nut bread and rolls. For the two vegetarians, I'm making a pan of eggplant parm. For dessert: six pies, (two chocolate cream, banana cream for my husband and son, pumpkin, apple and pecan for my daughter-in-law. It's her grandmother's recipe.

The thing about Thanksgiving is it is usually freezing so the kids will be indoors. I'm pulling out a game of kid's charades for them to keep them occupied. It's called, "Kids on Stage". Both big and little love it. You should have seen their faces this summer when my son was crawling like an alligator. Good game, so my goal this week is to make more cards.

Mike, you should purchase a small turkey (10 lbs) and cook it up for yourself. It's super easy. Just have a meat thermometer handy. Or order take-out turkey dinner from one of your local restaurants.

This year will be less traditional with smoked ham and smoked salmon (succulent and wonderful, not dried), roasted vegetables, cranberry jubilee and key lime cheesecake.

"We are having a turkey fry-off between my brother-in-law with his traditional oil fryer and my nephew with his electric fryer."


Fried turkeys are awesome. I had it once and I liked how the skin cooked. Maybe I'll do it next year.

--Roz Abellera

In Canada we have Thanksgiving on Oct. 13. We always have the traditional turkey meal. I'd think having it in Nov. is too close to Christmas to have two turkey meals so close together? I mean everyone loves turkey but you get tired of it. One Christmas I had turkey leftovers for a whole week. I made soup out of the carcass at the end of the week.

turkey takes hours to cook. a hot pocket takes a minute or two. that's it. simple and done. its not that special a holiday for me, other than i'm dressed like a turkey.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

'its not that special a holiday for me, other than i'm dressed like a turkey."

You don't like Turkey Mike? I love turkey, that's one of the reasons why this day is special to me. I get to gourge on turkey all day. Among other foods. /m/

--Roz Abellera

i like turkey and all. in fact some of my best friends are turkeys. we don't have it once a year, we have it when its on sale, so its kind of often. its just a big chicken in terms of bird meat we may eat.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I don't know - we're going to a friends house; I presume there will be turkey, although I'd much rather have lamb. My wife will make a couple of pies. In the 22 yrs we've Bennett married I think we've only had thanksgiving at our place 2 or 3 times. We always seem to get invited to friends houses.

lamb.... high five!


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Something different this year. We're eating on the world's oldest 4 masted tall ship still floating, the Moshulu. It's docked at Penn's landing. They have the typical holiday stuff, but all the other menu items as well.

We have already had our Thanksgiving which was not a family get together this year as we were up at the French River for a week and my daughters family went camping in their motorhome so my son and his family went to his in laws and my mom and sisters got together - I like having our Thanksgiving in October, like Jim said having it in November is way too close to Christmas to be having turkey again - does anyone do the Black Friday shopping - I have heard that the sales are phenominal?

i only watch the black friday shopping murders on tv. when people are trampled to death all for a tv.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

We are doing something really strange for us. We usually do very traditional. But this year I let some friends talk me into going to a dude ranch.

A dude ranch!!?? Can you believe it? My wife is giddy over the prospect. She does not have to cook a turkey.

Who goes to a dude ranch for Thanksgiving? No one will tell me the menu and I am afraid to ask. They just keep saying the food is fantastic.

A dude ranch.

I can't wait! (Yes I can.)

People sleep overnight on the sidewalk for those sales.

I would pay big money to get out of going anywhere near those stores if I had to.

I don't understand that mentality. Almost everything you buy before Christmas can be bought for less the day after Christmas.

Regarding Hot Pockets, I split mine open after heating, and stuff them with cold canned vegetables, like canned tomatoes or French green beans. That way, I'm getting vegetables and cooling off that mean little Hot Pocket at the same time.

We will probably go traditional for Thanksgiving, and also have an Edward's Pumpkin Pie, because those things are ridiculously good.

@Mike - is it that bad?

@Floyd - but it doesn't count after Christmas, you want to save money before Christmas, for all the presents you have to buy:)

BTW What is a hot pocket? Is it like a pastry stuffed with something?

Debbie, Black Friday to me can be somewhat rewarding depending on what you are looking for. It depends also on what the store decides to offer. You can probably go on line and see what the offers are?

Yes, Hot Pockets are a frozen pastry that has a minimal filling of cheese and something else (ham, pepperoni) with minimal flavor (sorry Mike and Lenora). I would rather make tacos or pinto beans in the crock pot with home made salsa (onions, tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and adobe sauce cooked in the crock pot) adding sour cream, cheese, much more satisfying to me and easy! I keep salsa in the fridge.

Lenora, I am glad to hear you say you liked Edwards pie, I agree. I have had the pecan (very good) and key lime (fantastic!).

I can understand your wife's excitement about going to the Dude ranch and not having to cook! Sounds like something fun and different.

http://www.hotpockets.com/

the pictures they have look way better than what they actually look like. basically it's a bread of some kind - garlic, pretzel bread, croissant, or a few others. filled with cheese and meats. it's sealed in a tube of sorts, and you place that into a pocket (it's a tube that has that microwave cooking material), and when its done, your supposed to slide the housing down so you can make a pocket out of it. and you eat from that.

it's a quick easy lunch that tastes pretty good. philly cheese steak and cheddar with bacon with pretzel bread, are my current fav's.

i kind of miss frankenStuff hotdogs. the hot dog with chili in the center. i think they stopped making that due to the volcanic like liquid squirting into your mouth when you eat it. or the hot dogs with cheese embedded inside it - that looked so gross.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

i agree, hot pocket for the most part, don't taste like anything. you need something powerful like onions, bacon, and occasional that overly sweet sauce they put into it. the whole point is, all i need is a plate and a minute and a half time to make it. that's about the limit of my cooking abilities. plus i have no hands, just wings, which makes it hard to do things...

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I'm not going to feel sorry for you Mike, I figure you could probably eat a number of things but are happy with the hot pockets, wings or no wings! lol

once i like something i stick with it. jeno pizzas are good, despite the lack of every ingredient. we had to find some other kind of food stock since we stopped going to a price saver type club. adding it up at the end of the year, the savings weren't worth the amount we had to pay to be there. we bought these pizza's there, red baron i think, but oh well for that.

i've tried most of the flavors and only a few are actually ok, many don't have flavor at all.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Turkey with all the trimmings. My wife loves to cook. My brother is coming to visit the day after. We'll probably have Turkey pot pie or something with the leftovers. Black Friday I avoid. I don't feel the need to elbow aside my neighbors to save a few bucks on a TV.

Thanksgiving used to be the last hold out on commercialization. I don't support any store that has sales on Thanksgiving day.

Oh yeah and pecan pie. Can't forget that. Homemade whipped cream on top. Some wine and probably the annual watching of "ELF"

Do people actually do turkey for both holidays? We've always had ham or roast beef or roast pork at Christmas. Last year, we made lasagna, instead. Yum!

The hot pocket sounds interesting but not for me - and Mike the hot dog sounds gross - I like Suzanne's idea better and I make my own amazing salsa - I love pecan pie!
Our traditional Thanksgiving meal is Turkey with all the dressings, pumpkin and apple pie but for Christmas with the kids going to in laws etc, I will usually make a German meal like Rouladen (thin strips of beef stuffed with bacon, onion, carrot), loads of gravy with potato dumplings and potatoes for the 1 person that doesn't like dumplings, red cabbage and green beans for the ones that don't eat cabbage and a fruit torte or I will make Kussler which is smoked pork - just can't eat that much turkey in a short period of time and our desserts can range from pies, to tortes to anything new we want to try!

Traditional turkey and trimmings for Thanksgiving, company visiting. For the Christmas meal (company in town again) we do not have turkey again, and usually go with one of those spiral hams, sliced for making sandwiches, plus some sides. It's too busy here (I call it hectic) on that day to have a full-blown meal. Thank goodness for bourbon! :)

the hot dog tasted pretty good, the cheese one i didn't like, that one was gross. not many dare to reinvent the hot dog.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I like "normal" or real hot dogs Mike but they have to be barbequed with a toasted bun and homemade relish, mustard, tomato and onion - yum!

John, I didn't read your comment, eating on a tall ship sounds like what I would love to do, kind of "Hornblower" style! Have fun it sounds so neat, eating down in the "hole?!"

I think Edward has a good situation, his wife likes to cook good food. Debbie, you have the German food ways going on which sounds wonderful! I had a few German foods growing up but not the meats and homemade dumplings.