For crying out loud! Thanksgiving. Christmas.

G

GeorgiaXplant

Well-known Member
Location
Georgia
About a month or six weeks ago, there was an online article with recipes (I think it was 100) for Thanksgiving dinner. Today?
70 recipes for Christmas dinner, 35 recipes for Christmas cookies, and 40 recipes for after church on Christmas Eve. Not kidding! This. Is. October. Planning ahead is a good thing, but meal planning two and half months out? Naaaah.
 

It is already crazy with that. My bunch expects the same things every year so I glance over the articles to see if I am interested in any variations of our menus. Every now and then I might see something I want to add or change but usually not.
 
terry123 said:
It is already crazy with that. My bunch expects the same things every year so I glance over the articles to see if I am interested in any variations of our menus. Every now and then I might see something I want to add or change but usually not.
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Same here.
 

Yanno what? I'm really thinking that maybe this year it's time for DD and DGD to take over making Thanksgiving dinner. And Christmas dinner as well. Um. Since there's a full kitchen in my granny flat, that probably isn't going to happen. LOL

Yanno what else? I grew up with fruit salad made by my grandmother, then my mother. DD was raised on it, too, and like most kids, gobbled it down. She makes her fruit salad a different way with altogether different ingredients. I eat a little but don't much care for it. And it doesn't taste like Thanksgiving. Or Christmas. However, I have accepted that I'm just outta luck on that front. Some changes just shouldn't be allowed, at least not until I'm pushing up daisies.
 
We're fortunate in that our kids (now entering their 60's) and our grandkids host our family Thanksgiving get-togethers. Always 20 -25 of us, sometimes 30, and we move around from house to house each year. Meals are basically the same as in my mom and grandmothers day as the recipes have been passed along. Not sure if it'll be in Mass. or Conn. this year?
 
Last Christmas my daughter had to work Christmas Eve so she said she had dinner covered. I took her at her word and behold she arrived Christmas Day with grands, presents and a beautiful Cajun Christmas feast from Abe's Cajun Café. Great gumbo, rice and all the cornbread we could eat. Plenty of leftovers for all of us. I already had a sweet potato pie, pecan pie and sweet tea along with chilled white wine for drinks. We really enjoyed our Cajun Christmas dinner!
 
Not sure what we are doing this Christmas
My man asks me to bake gingerbreads for his mates at work which I usually do but we usually spend Christmas alone. His parents are half way across the country and mine were usually down south. We spent Christmas with them last year and probably was our last Christmas together like such.
I really like the Christmas 🎄 food & lights ⛄️
 
Boys and girls, we have a winner...ding ding ding! A couple of days ago there was a commercial on TV for pre-made Thanksgiving dinner from one of the local supermarkets. After thinking on it for a bit, I approached DD with the idea...why don't we do that?

It comes refrigerated and has to be heated in the oven so the house will still smell like Thanksgiving. And we can get one that serves 10 so it won't matter how many or few turn up for dinner (we'd have between four and seven) and still have leftovers.

The only thing we didn't like about it was that we'd get a whole turkey. Nobody in our family ever wants the dark meat. We checked Cracker Barrel online, and they provide dinner for 10 with two turkey breasts. Two! Yippee. Their food isn't gourmet food, but we're not gourmets--just ordinary plain cooking suits us fine--and their food is consistently good.

The dinner comes with the two turkey breasts, dressing & gravy, three sides, cranberry relish, dinner rolls, a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie. One of the sides is mashed potatoes, one is mashed potatoes AND turkey gravy. It already comes with turkey gravy, but one can never have too much gravy! We chose the mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, and mac & cheese. I'll liven up the cranberry relish with some brandy and bake it in the oven like I do for brandied cranberries. DD will still make fruit salad and maybe a peanut butter pie.

This feast is a bit more spendy than if we were to buy the ingredients and make dinner at home, but factor in the time spent in prep and cleanup, and we're golden. The bottom line is $125. DD and I are going to go halves; we've already placed the order to pick up on the day before Thanksgiving.

And I dodged a 10 lb. potato bullet...no need for me to peel, cook, and mash 10 lbs of potatoes this year!
 
I did that once. Canned gravy, Bob Evans chilled mashed potatoes, which weren't bad at all. But back then it was only 60.00 for 8 people.

BTW, when did mac & cheese become part of the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner? LOL, I never had that green bean casserole in my life, either.
 
Mac & cheese seems to be a southern thing, and it's on every menu every holiday, every big dinner, every funeral luncheon! Mac & cheese at the same meal with potatoes and gravy. Yup, it's the way things are done down here.

I did wonder about the mashed potatoes and gravy with the Kroger or Publix deals, though...if they'd be something like the prepared ones from the refrigerator case. With Cracker Barrel we know what we're getting and happy with our choice from them. Like I said earlier, their food is consistently good.

We don't much care for Cracker Barrel's version of green bean casserole so we're skipping it in favor of just green beans, but it was on the list of sides we got to choose from. Christmas dinner is always ham, so we'll have it then. And I still won't have to peel 10 lbs of potatoes at Christmas because we have a hash brown casserole, and yes, mac & cheese, of course.
 
It's very simple for me this year and I don't mind it at all (no more putting up with annoying relatives!); no Thanksgiving and no Christmas. I'll be with my loving pet family and that suits me fine!:love:🐶🐤🐦
 
How nice for you, Ruthanne. I like having my DD/DSIL and g'kids all together in the same place at the same time, or at least on the same day. About this time of year, up to and including Thanksgiving, "We Gather Together" starts being my daily earworm.
 
My mom and in-laws became good friends and invited each other for holidays almost from the beginning, making it very easy on hubby & me.

The in-laws always hosted Thanksgiving. When my MIL became unable to manage Thanksgiving our daughter asked to pick it up. Whew! (I love hosting parties but not formal dinners so dodging the TG hosting makes me happy.) Following family tradition, in-laws for all the siblings and friends without plans are included in the TG invitation.

My mother hosted Christmas Eve until just a couple of years before she passed away, so I picked up that holiday about 8 years ago. I've hosted Christmas Day for 35 years. As above, in-laws and others are invited to join us.

In accordance with my children's desires, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day each have a set menu that have become family tradition, so no need for me to search out recipes.
 


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