My Thanksgiving Menu 2015

Thanksgiving 2014 I admit we ordered the entire thing from Central Market. It was pretty good. Honestly, it didn’t feel that much easier than just making a very simple Thanksgiving menu myself, what with all the heating and reheating and special turkey bags and reading instructions and everything, but at the time, Flint was only about four weeks old and we were very sleep-deprived.

This is our first Thanksgiving in Los Angeles and Chris’s mom is flying in for the week. We are so excited to see her! Since our guest list is very tiny, our Thanksgiving menu will be whittled down to just the basics.

Turkey breast: I’m going to try this method for roasting a turkey breast from The Kitchn, placing the turkey on top of some thickly sliced carrots and onions and rubbing it with an herby dry-brine the day before we roast.

turkey gravy

Turkey gravy: my recipe of course, with a little sherry and shallots

Mashed potatoes: probably jazz up the basic mashed potatoes recipe with some garlic and rosemary.

chorizo cornbread dressing

Cornbread dressing: I updated my cornbread dressing recipe this year to make chorizo cornbread dressing and it’s awe-inspiring. So I’m gonna make that.

Green beans amandine: Chris is in charge of this side dish, but I’m going to suggest he use this recipe from Mollie Katzen ’cause it looks yummy-as-hell.

Cranberry sauce: homemade, because it’s ridiculous-easy and way more better than canned (unless you like canned). My recipe has cardamom and oranges.

Sweet Potato Pie: Chris is also in charge of pie. Maybe he will make Patti LaBelle’s version. One can only hope.

I realize that there’s hardly any vegetables on our menu, but that’s what the day after Thanksgiving is for, right? Making turkey sandwiches with lettuce. And tomato. Voila. Vegetables.

7 Comments

  1. The Other Randy on November 21, 2015 at 10:02 pm

    I was going to blow off Thanksgiving this year due to a massive revival of enthusiasm for Christmas thanks to a sudden flood of memories of Christmas at my Grandparents. Being alone (but not lonely…no pity needed!!!) made planning for two holidays seem to be, I don’t know, overkill). But this has brought back a flood of memories of spending Thanksgiving with the love of my life and her family, so I’m going to do Thanksgiving as well this year. She put me in charge of dressing, cranberry sauce and one of the pies. I made a Southwestern-style dressing, but this year I’m going to try your Chorizo Cornbread Dressing, but I’ll use Serious Eats’s Vegan Chorizo http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/vegan-chorizo-food-lab-recipe.html which is incredible. For the turkey breast, I’ve always used Julia Child’s recipe in The Way to Cook. Instead of cranberry sauce, I’ve always made Ms. Child’s cranberry chutney https://www.starchefs.com/thanksgiving/1999/html/recipe_05.shtml (which is why I got the cranberry job in the first place). For the admittedly non-traditional pie, I was always ordered to make my own recipe for apple pie. Foodies will roll their eyes (and I don’t give a shit about what they think) when I say that I love sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows and pecans, but I love the idea of making a sweet potato pie. It’ll be easier than making an apple pie AND a casserole. Thanks for the link to the recipe (I’ll be singing along with Ms. Labelle as I make it). And thanks also for the link to the green beans amandine recipe. I’m going to try that, as well. I finally found my potato ricer, so I can make mashed potatoes (and Mashed Potato Waffles the day after!). You know, I think that green beans, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes are plenty enough vegetables.

    • Hilah on November 23, 2015 at 10:31 am

      I am happy to hear of your personal Thanksgiving feast, Randy. You’ll have delicious leftovers for days!
      I’ve just been working on a vegan chorizo recipe myself, well, actually vegetarian since it uses butter. Though I’m sure margarine would be fine. The chutney recipe looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing. I love cranberries and would like more things to do with them when they’re in season. I have a recipe on here for a cranberry bread that I just remembered. It’s so good.
      Maybe I will make the cranberry chutney for Christmas, to go with our pork loin.
      Happy Thanksgiving!

      • The Other Randy on November 23, 2015 at 11:04 am

        I’m really looking forward to your vegan chorizo recipe! I decided to go with real chorizo because the Serious Eats recipe to too complicated to make for Thanksgiving.

  2. Diane on November 23, 2015 at 4:39 pm

    Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday, and I usually spend it with friends, but this year I’ll be dining alone. So I’m thinking your butternut squash with caramelized onions and a risotto with apple and sage (getting some of those dressing flavors in there). Not traditional . . . but it sounds good! Love to you and yours!

    • Hilah on November 24, 2015 at 4:13 pm

      That sounds really dreamy, Diane! Happy Thanksgiving! XO

  3. Jen on November 25, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    Happy Thanksgiving, Hilah! We are pretty low-key for this holiday; we don’t have any family in the area, so we usually hang out with a couple of other friends of ours who also don’t have family in town. But I always host a big holiday party between Thanksgiving and Christmas (sort of a combination of the two) to celebrate with them and all of our other friends who do have family in town and can’t celebrate with us on the holiday itself. So our big shindig is next weekend.

    • Hilah on November 26, 2015 at 8:22 am

      Happy Thanksgiving, Jen! Sounds like a really fun holiday party. I love that idea.

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