Onebyone

We have the southern traditional turkey and cornbread dressing for the star of the meal. Here is one recipe that everyone that likes sweet potatoes likes this.

Carrot Souffle

2 pounds carrots, chopped
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil carrots until tender. Drain and mash/sieve. To the carrots add melted butter, white sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla extract and eggs. Mix well and transfer to a 2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Can add or lessen amount of sugar to taste. 1/4 cup seems to be a good balance for sweetness.

toverly

After Thanksgiving, we have Turkey Hash. Take the bits of turkey left over and shred, add diced potatoes, onion, sage seasoning, gravy, chicken broth. Cook together in a large pot, serve over cornbread. To me it's better than the turkey.

bearisgray

Stovetopb stuffing/dressing with Jimmy Dean Sausage added to it.

marybs

No recipe, but jars of the little onions, make a cheese sauce and just keep testing. One of my favorite memories of time with my mom, we made and keep testing while we cooked the rest of the meal. Almost ate all the onions by the end. I continue to make, but they just don't taste as good as when mom was here.

Rhonda K

Tradition, every year is the Bell's Stuffing mix in a red box. Add a pound of JD Sausage (hot) for flavor with the celery and onions. I just scored 4 boxes yesterday to hold us for the year. It is a seasonal item and can be hard to find.

Other items are rice and gravy (home-made), candied sweet potatoes (no marshmallows) and the green bean casserole. We have the same menu every year!

JENNR8R

Last year I made these Oreo Turkeys for the pastor's Thanksgiving family dinner last year. The pastor has nine children and 33 grandchildren, and counting. They have a sitdown dinner for all of them (as well as others who don't have dinner with their families) at one of the children's BIG houses. I've been invited for many years.

I'm making them again this year because the wee ones absolutely loved them. The trick is to get the candy corn in October because they cannot be found in any of the stores a day after Halloween.

tropit

Onebyone...the carrot souffle sounds interesting.

My mom used to make an oyster casserole with soda crackers, evaporated milk and a can of oysters, brine and all. It was so simple, but soooo good! Alas, my dau is in charge of the dinner this year and the oysters won't be on the menu. She's experimenting with new dishes and ways to make the turkey. (Fingers crossed.) I'm making the simple things like the cranberries, rolls and pies.

c joyce

Never thought of adding jello to the relish. Do you cut down on the added sugar or use sugar free jello?

Iceblossom

It's just the two of us this year and we aren't planning on a huge feast. In prior years we would have a potluck style meal at my mother's house, she would provide the turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy.

Last few years I started bringing the savory version (with chilis and cheese) of the Jiffy corn casserole.

But my big thing is after the day -- turkey soup!

With the hubby's Ketovore (mostly meat) lifestyle, he eats a couple pounds of meat per day. We are already one cheap turkey done (eaten and made into soup) and yesterday I roasted another cheap empty turkey. Not planning on soup from this one.

We are planning on ordering a fresh (expensive) local turkey for Christmas if we can get on the list.

Chasing Hawk

My stuffing recipe, I make two kinds Sausage stuffing and giblet stuffing.
It is so simple........
Two 9x13 pans of cornbread
One bag of bread stuffing (Pepperidge Farm)
One roll of Sage Sausage (Jimmy Dean)
Liver and gizzards from Turkey (I simmer the gizzards and liver together with the neck. Stock is later used as a base for gravy)
One medium white onion
4 stacks of celery chopped into small pieces
2 packs of white cap mushrooms (whole and sliced them yourself)
1 to 2 cartons of Chicken Broth (Swanson's Low Sodium)
3 to 4 eggs beaten like your making scrambled eggs, beat until you can see no whites among the yellow yolks)
Fresh sage, chopped rough (not to small or you won't be able to taste)
Pepper to taste
No salt (sausage, stuffing mix and broth contain enough salt)

I bake the cornbread the day before and allow it to dry out a bit. Gizzards and Liver, Neck in the crock pot on low overnight. I do this because I use a Whisky/Maple brine and let Mr. Tom Turkey lounge in it for 12 hours.
On Thanksgiving day I chop, slice and dice all the onion, celery and mushrooms I need fro the stuffing and side dishes I need to our meal. And cook the sausage, drain on plate lined with a few paper towels
In a large bowl of roaster pan mix all the stuffing ingredients EXCEPT for gizzards/livers and cooked sausage.
Divide stuffing mixture, I do 2/3 for sausage stuffing and 1/3 for the other stuffing (Husband is the only one who eats this one)
Spoon stuffing into those aluminum pans, I inset a toothpick into the gizzard/liver stuffing to tell them apart. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or internal temp is 165 degrees,
I cook my Turkey unstuffed.