Hello and welcome to this thing we’re doing where we help you figure out what you’re gonna put in your mouth this week. Some of these are recipes we’ve tried, some of these are recipes we’re looking forward to trying, all of them are fucking delicious. Tell us what you want to put in your piehole or suggest your own recipes, and we’ll talk about which things we made, which things we loved, and which things have changed us irreversibly as people. Last week, we went gluten-free for the holidays.
Two years ago, I invited my family to come out to Chicago for Thanksgiving, to spend the holiday with my roommates and me. I also told my roommates to invite as many friends as they wanted, despite our limited number of chairs and despite having no dining table to speak of. Because I’m totally unbalanced, I also decided I was going to go ahead and cook everything myself. I began planning my dream menu, which included multiple kinds of potato and several pounds of butter. The shopping alone took two days. I even tried to bribe my neighbors into letting me borrow their oven so I could cook twice as much at once. (They declined, probably sensing it was crucial to maintaining my sanity.)
In the end, I survived, but not before ruining my oven mitt with turkey drippings, burning my hand on a baking dish and frantically calling my mother for reassurance that I was not going to ruin the whole trip if there weren’t enough apples in the pie. I really truly nearly lost it when one of those friends-of-friends who came showed up with a spinach artichoke dip I hadn’t planned on serving. So yeah, cooking your first Thanksgiving can be pretty daunting.
Lucky for you, I’m here to help. The following are all the recipes you could need to plan your first Thanksgiving, from the appetizers to the after-dinner drinks.
Appetizers
1. Mini Twice Baked Potatoes
2. Tomato Tortellini Soup
3. Slow Cooker Spinach and Artichoke Dip
4. Beet and Apple Salad
5. Baked Thick Cut Seasoned Oven Fries
6. Honey Butter
7. Beer Battered Onion Ring and Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
8. Thai-Spiced Pumpkin Soup
9. Warm Herb and Jam Goat Cheese Spread
10. Broccolini Salad
Main Course
11. IPA Brined Roast Turkey
12. Pumpkin Pot Pie
13. Buttermilk Roast Chicken
14. Mom’s Roast Turkey Recipe
15. Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash Rings
16. Herbed Pork Rib Roast
17. Lemongrass Braised Turkey Legs
18. Sweet Potato Gnocchi With Balsamic-Sage Brown Butter
19. Pork, Collard Green and Persimmon Pot Pie
20. Vegetable Lasagna Casserole
21. Garlic-Herb Roasted Chicken
Sides
22. Double Cranberry Sauce
23. Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa
24. Crispy Sweet Potato Roast
25. Balsamic Braised Brussels Sprouts With Pancetta
26. Mushroom and Mash
27. The Best Cranberry Sauce
28. Sweet Potato Bake
29. Gruyere, Cheddar and Leek Macaroni and Cheese
30. 30 Minute Rolls
31. Taterless Parmesan Zucchini Tots
32. Lemongrass Stuffing
33. Perfect Mashed Potatoes
Dessert
34. Apple and Cheddar Scones
35. Chocolate Chess Pie
36. Gingerbread Cookie Butter HoliGAY Cake
37. Pecan Pie That’ll Make You Cry
38. Dairy Free Apple Cake
39. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
40. Classic Pumpkin Pie With Pecan Praline Sauce
41. Chocolate Avocado Pudding
42. Raspberry Coconut Girl Bait
43. Pear and Cranberry Crumble
Drinks
44. Sparking White Cranberry Sangria
45. Mulled Wine
46. Mulled Cranberry Apple Cider
47. Irish Coffee
I feel like I need to buy a mandolin specifically for that sweet potato thing
also I forgot about that apple cake but now it is most /certainly/ going to be included in my holiday repertoire!
Also how does one get invited to your thanksgiving? Because I would like to come.
I literally said this exact thing re: mandolin slicer to my girlfriend this morning. And if that selfsame girlfriend would let me, I’d invite all of Autostraddle to our place for Thanksgiving every year.
Anyone else keep getting to pie when trying to get to the spinach artichoke dip? Other than that, omg this is super helpful, thank you so much! I had been putting off figuring out this stuff, and this came at totally the right time.
Oops, you’re right! Will fix now. Thanks for pointing that out!
So my lil bro and I are trying to find new yummy vegetarian stuff to eat for Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for the list, it helps a lot. :D
Also if anyone else out there has recipe suggestions I can use…feel free to message me. c:
World’s best stuffing mix!
I don’t measure, really, so add as much of everything as you like. This is usually enough for 4-ish people
In a dry pan toast a couple of handfuls of pine nuts until they start to brown, then add some olive oil and throw in diced red onion and garlic until they’re soft but not brown. Put it in a bowl with the zest of one lemon, shaved or grated parmesan cheese and lots and lots of fresh basil.
Sourdough or wooden bread works best, but any kind is fine really. I like it better when the stuffing is kind of chunky, so I just tear 4-5 slices into small pieces, but some people prefer to blitz it to proper breadcrumbs in a blender. Mix the bread into the rest of the ingredients with pepper and salt to taste. I add an egg at this point as it binds it all together, but it’s fine without if the veggos in question prefer not to eat eggs.
Turn the mixture onto a sheet of greaseproof paper, then roll it up into a sausage shape, make sure the paper seals it all in or the exposed parts can burn before everything else cooks. Wrap the whole thing in one layer of aluminium foil (more than one and it takes forever to cook) and out it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until it starts to brown and (if you included egg) it’s all cooked through without gooey bits.
Eat.
Oh! And the non-vegetarian option: fry some diced pancetta until its crispy and throw it in with the rest. Delicious.
Also, *wood oven bread, thanks autocorrect.
Holy heck this sounds DIVINE. My family never adopted stuffing into our Thanksgiving, but maybe that’ll change this year! As soon as you said parmesan and basil, I was sold.Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day and typing this all out. My tummy thanks you!! Have a lovely week!
No worries! I make it at every available opportunity (I usually make double this because my family really like it and one isn’t enough at holiday events). Hope you enjoy!!
No no no no no no no, thank you.
I just finished mixing up the rub for the turkey and pre-baking the pie crust for tomorrow.
And well several of these will fill up the sides void quite well and oven usage isn’t a prohibitive cause a different appliance is being used for the bird.
3 hours is enough time to pull those oven fries together, mwahahaha >D
Also if any one loves cooking with beer or our benevolent editors want to devote an entire article to cooking with beer: http://thebeeroness.com/