After listening to a radio show this morning, I wondered how many of us use prepared foods. Especially for the holidays. They asked people to call in and tell what they “cheat” with. The biggest thing people admitted to was the stuffing. I’ll admit that I use that stuff only once in a while. Maybe only a few times a year. But making a whole turkey from scratch, it wouldn’t occur to me to use anything other than my own homemade stuffing. I should also admit that I’m not really a huge fan of stuffing to begin with but I do like what was passed down to me.
I make real whipped cream. I have to use a glass bowl and put the beaters in that and freeze them for an hour or so before I want to whip it up. That’s what the MIL did and it was the best so we still do it that way. We will have real squash and real mashed potatoes and real gravy. Our turkey will be frozen but hey, that’s real. I can really only think of the cranberries that will be canned. I can’t stand them and neither can my kids so my mom brings a can. The rolls will also be gotten from a bakery.
What’s on your plate for Thanksgiving and how much “help” do you have with prepared foods?
Us Girls..Our Views 
Ha! Lord forbid I should have to cook any of the stuff that is typically served at Thanksgiving. That is why God put me in a large family. Until I die, I have a good chance to never have to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
OK, so what does my family do? My mom cooks a “real” turkey (yeah, frozen). Used to always buy a loaf of “stuffing bread” or make it from scratch, but I think nowadays they only do that some years, and use bagged stuffing (still bread, but already cut up and seasoned). My dad will make “giblet gravy” using certain “optional” parts of the bird. Someone will make “real” mashed white potatoes and baked, mashed, and buttered yams. Someone will make baked cauliflower au gratin and broccoli au gratin from scratch. My sister will make creamed peas and carrots from scratch (except she’ll get the peas from a can). My SIL will bring homemade bean salad which tastes horrible but nobody will say so. My dad will bake the pumpkin pies, using pumpkin in a can but otherwise doing it from scratch (including the whipped cream, just like you described). My mom will make one or more jello salads, which are not “from scratch.” Cranberry sauce will come from a can. Now, what am I forgetting?
Well we already had our thanksgiving up here and I made everything from scratch except the stuffing.I loved my Moms homemade stuffing but unfortunatly I havent been able to replicate it so I use the boxed stuff.I always try to make most from scratch…was how I was brought up and it really tastes better anyways!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Oh wait!I did buy cheesecake from Costco this time.I think I make a pretty good cheesecake but the price was just so good I couldnt resist!
we will be at my sisters house and who knows what all she will prepare..she is always going to “not go to a fuss” and then there is a buffet.
It’s our job to bring cheesy potatoes and of course the traditional green bean casserole and I will make 7 layer salad and take it along just cuz that is what my deceased sister always took and I feel if it’s still there so is a part of her.
then for at home I will have made a turkey breast (although even after the dude at the grocery store saying it should be thawed out..it’s still hard as a rock)..so not sure what I am going to do here.
crockpot dressing/stuffing
corn casserole (the kind with corn bread)
another dish of 7 layer salad
pumpkin pie dessert
(this will be supper for T’day and also probably Friday and Saturday.
oh btw..the crockpot stuffing/dressing starts with a box of stove top and chicken broth and then I add my own twist to it with my herbs and stuff…so it’s almost homemade! I also tear up a bunch more bread for it.
I have to say, I love Stove Top! It’s really the only stuffing I like isn’t that sad?! For Thanksgiving there’s not too much that we use prepared food for, but during the week is a different story! Whether it’s rice, potatoes, stuffing, mac and cheese, ect those usually come from a box. I don’t have time to make my own noodles! That’s about it though, fresh/real is so much better.
My mother-in-law does the cooking. We will have Turkey, green bean casserole (which I’m in charge of making), stuffing, oyster stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry jelly stuff, creamed onions, and rolls. Everything is homemade except the rolls and the cranberry jelly stuff. Last year I made REAL cranberry sauce from scratch like my mom used to but I was the only one who liked it soo I’m not wasting my time making it again until I am the one hosting Thanksgiving!
Are creamed onions the little pearl onions? Man, they sound wonderful.
Yes they are. The pearl onions in a white sauce, my favorite!
I have NEVER cooked a Thanksgiving dinner or even hosted Thanksgiving at my house. Not that I wouldn’t for either but just have never had too.
We do Christmas at our house for the family.
I love real mashed potatoes and I keep the peeling on, add a great texture and all the vitamins are inthe skin right? IDK but we now prefer them that way. I learned that from my big sis! We do get the packs of gravy, I don’t make great gravy (not like Toby!) and I LOVE real cranberry sauce. I made that one year and everyone loved it. We really like Stove Top too. I think we have a good balance of real and processed foods. Some things are easier already made. I have to be very good this year, I can’t pig out! I’m already over the weight I said I’d never be at again! 😦 Perfect timing huh…right before the holidays! I am looking forward to seeing and spendingtime with the family most of all. 🙂
I’m in charge of making the turkey this year… Thanksgiving is at my mom’s, outside of Chicago (which is why I’m finally responding so late at night! Drove all day). My dad’s allergic to turkey, so she was gonna make a ham. Well, you CAN’T have Thanksgiving without Turkey, so I volunteered to make it. I use a recipe that I found in Bon Appetit Magazine several years ago, that Alton Brown wrote, which tells you how to brine a turkey. I made it that year – brined it, baked it the way he said, and MAN, oh MAN!!! Did it turn out GOOOD. Crunchy skin and everything. mmmmmmm. So I’m doing that again this year. From frozen.
Mom is making “rotten potatoes” (au gratin) from scratch, she’s already made the cranberries, and we’ll have dressing from scratch (according to the above referenced article, “stuffing is evil”). I hate dressing, so I don’t make that. Steve might do it.
I can’t think of anything that we’ll have from a can. Crescent rolls, maybe.
All food is prepared so I guess all of the food.
We typically have between 25-32 people for Thanksgiving dinner. I always smoke the meats, the Mrs alwasys brings pies/cakes. This year she made a NY style cheescake. Everyone brings a dish. We even have a few different assortment of breads (both homemade in a bread machine and store bought).
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