Entertaining Ideas
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Poll: How did everyone's Thanksgiving go?
Did you host or were you a guest?
Re: Poll: How did everyone's Thanksgiving go?
Since we have the board back....
Was it smooth sailing or any disasters??
I hosted. Everything turned out great.
This was the first year we brined the turkey for about 16-18 hours.
We will definitely be doing this every year. It added a great depth of flavor.
Also had:
For an app I made California rolls.
My father in law has never tried sushi and he loves wasabi so I thought this would be fun way for him to experience it.
Roasted onion and Green Bean Casserole
Cornbread and Sweet Italian Sausage Stuffing
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Broccoli and 3 cheese casserole
Garlic Infused Mashed Potatoes
My mother in law brought pumpkin pie and a splenda apple pie that was amazing.
I made fresh whipped cream with almond extract.
I haven't had time to blog about any of the recipes because I had a huge wedding on Sunday. Hopefully i will be able to soon.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
I was a guest. My mom hosted. I brought Orange Cranberry bread. My family tends to be picky so I wasn't sure if they'd like it, but it ended up being a big hit.
How was yours? Host or guest?
Yum! Recipe please!!
I was a guest, but I brought two pies (pumpkin chocolate cheesecake pie and walnut pie), sweet potato wedges roasted with garlic and rosemary, and Pioneer Woman's baked beans.
It was fun, but my 5 year old niece cried when she realized my husband and I were the only guests
She thought there was going to be a big party because there was so much food!
We only had 6 people at Thanksgiving. We didn't eat until much later than our usual 2:00, but it worked out well. I only brought the Pumpkin pie, though I offered more.
IF/Baby Blog
2 years, 2 surgeries, 2 clomid fails, 2 IUIs, 1 loss, IVF #1 - 10/25/10 = BFP!
TTC #2 - June: surgery #3, FET #1 w/ Lupron = canceled, poor lining
FET 1.2 mini-stim = BFN
FET #2 mini-stim, no BCPs = BFP 5dp5dt, betas:11dp5dt=350,13pt5dt=978, 16dp5dt=4606!!
I can't wait for the "im getting a divorce" post in 5 years or so because your husbands were fed up with your disgusting chair asses from playing on the knot all day and getting fired 4-5 times for not doing any work. you guys are all winners!! ~ Laur929
"crab stuffed shrimp"
Sounds like porno for little people.
My sisters and I helped my mother host. We made two different types of cranberry, bacon braised green beans, mashed sweet potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and zucchini, turkey, ham...There were 5 different desserts, cranberry bread.
So much food, so little time. I can't wait for Christmas.
That's all you did, JJs?
We had two brined turkeys, which we smoked on the grill, plus mashed potatoes, sweet potato spears with a molases glaze, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, stuffing, 3 dozen dinner rolls.
Appetizers were stuffed mushrooms, my famous pizza dip, and a cheese platter. Desserts were pumpkin pie, apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake and ice cream.
Everything, down to the ice cream, was home made by DH and me. But I guess I lose points for letting my husband help in the kitchen instead of keeping his beer full while he watched football.
Crap...I Mean Crafts
I made macaroni and cheese, baked, with homemade macaroni, and our own aged cheddar from our prized cows. For the macaroni, we used duck eggs and imported semolina flour (the American semolina selections were so inferior).
My ILs, God bless them, used mostly store-bought items. Ha! I should have sent them here for some better ideas, it looks like!
we were guests. Made the 8 hour drive up to CO to be with my dad who just had his second round of cancer.
It was really cool, we figured it was the first thanksgiving since 1992 that me, my dad and sister all go to be together. AND it was my little neices firt tday, so it was extra special!
Everyone's menus sound delicious.
Here's the recipe I used for the bread:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/CranberryOrangeBread.html
We were guests at DH's aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner and then hosted lunch the next day for my family.
Things went well at his aunt's house but a lot of people left immediately after dinner to go to their various other families. I made an apple spice cake with cream cheese frosting and there were 3 other desserts but only like 6 people to eat them.
At our house we had salmon mousse, crack dip, cranberry bread with apple butter, sausage bites, spiced almonds, chicken pesto wraps, french dip sandwiches, spinach salad with cranberries and walnuts and potato soup plus my mom brought her awesome mac and cheese. Cake and brownies with mulled cider for dessert.
Our Share of the Harvest:How a couple cooks from a CSA share. Pick Up Day Week 15
It went well. My H and I went to my parents house for the weekend. I brought sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. I was happy that my super picky sisters ate and enjoyed the Brussels sprouts. The sweet potatoes were another story - no one really liked them. Oh well - there's always next year.
We tried something more formal this year. I wanted to do courses, so that everyone didnt stuff themselves so bad.
First course -- homemade cream of broccoli soup
Second course -- salad of course, clementine and jicama salad. Very interesting and unique
Dinner -- homemade cornbread and homemade french bread stuffing, sweet corn pudding that was amazing, clementine stuffed turkey, with cinnamon and port cranberry relish. Our turkey this year was a heritage turkey (I can explain what that is for those of you not in the know) and it was so flavorful and tender and moist. Very yummy and worth the price.
I did go easy on dessert though. just an old fashioned pecan pie recipe I found out of Cooks Illustrated.
Please explain this "crack dip".
Crap...I Mean Crafts
We were guests this year and traveled between families.
For Crazy SIL's dinner I made mixed vegetables. The zucchini and squash looked so lonely in the sea of carbs, boiled sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, steamed rice, and stuffing. SIL boiled the sweet potatoes and made three pies.
For Mom's I made more mixed vegetables, candied yams, and a ham. Mom cooked the turkey, stuffing, and gravy. Dad made the salad and mashed potatoes.
We were only at SIL's for 2.5 hours and my dad was in a good mood. All in all, it was a pleasant TG.
I hosted & it went well.
I made the turkey, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes & butternut squash puree from PW's blog and sweet potatoes (w/ pineapple/ginger/rum sauce.) Also I made an apple crunch for dessert. My mom brought the salad, green beans and pumpkin pie (but I made the puree for the pie.) The only not totally homemade stuff were the crescent rolls and the stuffing (used the Trader Joe's cornbread stuffing from a box, added apples, fresh celery & onions.) It was my first time doing a turkey and I was surprised at how well it turned out.
I had 4 guests stay overnight- and to me that was the most exhausting part of entertaining. I hated that the next day I had to rush to get my kitchen back to spotless shape only for them to descend like locusts @ lunch time and mess it all up again!
We did Brussels sprouts for the first time this year. DH makes them with cream and cheese so they are really good.I never had them growing up. My uncles doesn't eat green things so I knew we were taking a risk. Almost everyone tried *1* and they liked them! So now we will have two green vegetable sides for Thanksgiving.