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Okay, all of you cooks, I need your help
I am bound and determined to host Thanksgiving for Matt's side this year. I'll be darned if I'm going to drag myself all the way up to MIL's to listen to her whine about how tired she is.
The only kink in this awesome plan is that I have never made any of the components of a Thanksgiving dinner before. Well, I've made green beans with roasted almonds. I'm a decent cook when I put my mind to it; I just rarely put forth the effort. I'll probably ask my mom all of this stuff, too, but I thought you ladies might have some suggestions that she might not think of. I'm trying to think ahead so I can practice anything that might be tricky.
Can I use the cranberry sauce from the can? Do you have to do anything to it? You can just dump it on a plate and slice it, right?
I'm confident that I can handle the Pillsbury rolls. MIL can bring her own if she wants some that are gluten-free.
Mashed potatoes don't worry me... I know how to cook them, and Matt loves mashing them up.
I checked out a can of Libby's at the grocery store and that looks simple enough, but what do I do about the pie crust? Can I use a pre-made one? It seems weird to put pumpkin pie in graham cracker crust. I'm sure I could handle the from-scratch kind if time allows. It would be nice to have a pie that was gluten-free for MIL, but I'm not going to agonize over that.
And, of course... the turkey/stuffing/gravy question. I've roasted about a zillion chickens, but no turkeys. I don't like stuffing and MIL is gluten-intolerant, so can I skip stuffing, or will the bird suck without anything inside as it cooks? What is the deal with the plastic bags that you can cook the bird in? (I'm seriously contemplating trying to do the bird in a crock pot.) Am I really supposed to pour all of the gross stuff from the bottom of the pan into a dish, scoop congealed fat off the top, mix it all back together, and cook it all by itself after the bird is done, or is there an easier way? (I don't eat gravy, either, but I think the boys will mutiny if we don't have any.)
Thanks in advance for any tips or recommendations. 
Re: Okay, all of you cooks, I need your help
ok, my mom (always with my dad's and my assistance) makes the best thanksgiving dinner ever. EVER! take that, all of you who are about to say the same thing!
so based on that, i'll give you my advice:
- cranberry sauce: i don't know if this is a regional thing. but we use the canned kind (both the jellied kind you slice up and the kind that is actual mashed up cranberries). we like it. yes, you can get it out of the can and slice it up, or mash it up with a spoon in a bowl, or whatever you want to do.
- we use pilsbury rolls sometimes. nothing wrong with them.
- yes, you can use store bought crust for the pie if you want. of course homemade usually tastes better, and you could make it GF, but it is not mandatory. people will still eat your pie. we usually get our pies from a local gourmet place here...but i think most of the population uses store bought pies and they aren't fancy so you'd be fine!
- mashed potatoes - you've got them covered. awesome. but don't forget the yams/sweet potatoes. no canned ones. this is my favorite part of the meal so i'd throw a fit but i'm sure not everyone eats them
- we always do green bean casserole instead of cooked green beans, just a suggestion.
- pleeeease don't crock pot your turkey. my mom's stuffing is bad-a$$ so if we didn't have it i would make a scene, but if your family isn't into it, whatevs. i do think it makes a difference in the turkey flavor/moistness, though. what we always do is prep the turkey (remove the nastiness inside, stuff it, etc.) and then melt some butter and give the turkey a good coating with a pastry brush. then cover it with foil and roast on a low temp for several (i.e. 8 or so) hours. we usually get up early on thanksgiving day, get the turkey prepped and in the oven, and then go take a nap. anywho, occasionally pull the turkey out and re-butter him up/re-cover with the foil, and keep doing this until about the last hour of cooking. then you take the foil off and baste again, but let it brown up. best turkey ever.
- gravy: my dad always makes the gravy. he uses a turkey baster thing to get most of the juices out of the bottom of the pan (without the fat and other mystery chunks) and makes the gravy with wondra flour (to thicken), the turkey "broth" and seasonings. so no, you don't need all that nastiness. it usually takes him about 10 minutes (including siphoning the juices) and it is soooo much better than gravy mix packets. gravy mix makes baby jesus cry, don't do it.
- i always make a fruit salad as well. just one of our traditions i'm suggesting...
ok that was really long, but i love thanksgiving. so i had to chime in.
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I LOVE LOVE LOVE cranberry sauce from a can. There would be a problem if there were no Ocean Spray cranberry sauce at thanksgiving. I don't want the stuff with chunks in it.
My mom (or aunt, whoever is hosting that year) stopped putting the stuffing IN the turkey because it took longer to cook. I know they cover it with foil for a while and then uncover it to brown it.
To make the gravy, they cook the giblets and neck in water and use that in the gravy. They use the pan that they cooked the turkey in, with all the grease and drippings, add flour and the giblet water, salt and pepper to make it the consistency they want, but cook it long enough to cook out the flour taste.
We usually have green bean casserole, mashed butternut squash (my FAVORITE t-day veggie), mashed potatoes (when I make them, I stir in about a tablespoon of chopped garlic (from the bottle/can) into the water so the potatoes get a little extra flavor), someone will make yams with mini marshmallows, and maybe we'll have just plain green beans.
Turkey Day is Adam and my favorite meal....
And we get to eat it twice because we eat at his parents and then with my family.
You've heard what I've done, not what I've been through.
If you were in my shoes, you'd fall the first step."
I know this is so un-Southern of us, but my mom just uses gravy from a jar sold at the grocery store. I want to say it's Heinz brand, but I'm not positive. Tastes great to me! Oh, and my mom and aunt each make a turkey breast (not a whole turkey) and they both do them in their crock pots. Moist and delicious!!
I don't eat cranberry sauce, but we have the canned kind and they lay it on it's side and slice it up. We're also fatties so we have several kinds of pie (pecan, pumpkin, chocolate) but you're pretty safe if you just go the pumpkin route! Good luck!!
I've hosted Thanksgiving twice for our families in the last few years (about 30 people) And then I've ALWAYS helped Mom.
Turkey - I am an AVID believer in BRINE!!! Letting your bird sit in a brine for at least 24 hours makes a world of difference in flavor and moisture! You can buy brines in some stores (Williams-Sonoma, Sur la Table, Etc.) but it's super easy to make. And I also use Apple cider instead of water for it. I put lemons, onions and herbs in the bird and GENEROUSLY butter, salt and pepper. And I roast to brown and THEN cover and cook. That way you don't run the risk of drying out the top of your bird when browning at the end.
We grilled our bird last year and it was AMAZING! It also opened up oven space for all the other goodies!
Homemade cranberry sauce is super easy! Just boil cranberries with sugar like it says on the back of the bag but I like to add a little fresh orange juice and zest. I never ate cranberry sauce until I started making it!
Then all the yumminess - mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, dressing, Corn souffle (on occasion), Mac & Cheese (on occasion), rolls, gravy - sometimes there is green beans (greens on Thanksgiving is for the BIRDS! Bahahaha!) Oh and we always have a Honey Ham too!
We're big on desserts! I usually make at least an apple pie, Jack Daniel's pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake. My aunt always makes the pumpkin pies and my Grams makes chocolate delight (the most amazing dessert ever!)
This time of year also brings out my pumpkin bread (Kevin's absolute favorite!), sometimes with cream cheese filling!
Now I want Thanksgiving dinner... damn.
I've never done Thanksgiving on my own but I've always helped. My Thanksgiving consists of going to both sides of my family's dinners plus MIL & FIL's now. On my Dad's side, my Aunt makes stovetop stuffing in a pan as where MIL makes homemade in the oven. Personally I love both, I grew up on the stovetop though so I'm kinda partial to it. Everyone uses canned cranberry sauce though. And all of our birds are cooked in bags but I can't help you with what they put on them to season them. I know MIL puts pads of butter underneath the skin of the turkey. As far as the gravy we all have homemade. Take the juice and drippings from your turkey and heat in a saucepan, add flour to thicken, salt and pepper. I think they use store bought broth to add in case there isn't enough juice from the turkey.
I would love to do Thanksgiving at our house but there's no way we could fit 3 familys in our house, especially since we don't have a dining room. Maybe I'll be able to in the future =]
Adam and I had our own Thanksgiving by ourselves a couple of years ago. He did the majority of the cooking, so I don't have a ton of advice, but I'll tell you what I remember. I think the only seasonings he used were salt and pepper for the turkey and then the juices of course. He MAY have used poultry seasoning, but I'm not 100% sure on that. He put it in the pan (after taking out the bag of grossness) and didn't use any stuffing. He did Stovetop dressing which I happen to love and it's really easy to make, so you could always go that route. We just used the rolls that are already packaged that you just put butter on and then throw in the oven. And then of course, mashed potatoes, green beans, and I think we did butterbeans, too.
Wow, thanks, girls! I have a lot to think about now, haha. I'm going to try to keep it fairly simple because my kitchen is only so big, and, anyway, we'll only be 5 (or maybe 6, if SIL deigns to show) people. I've never helped with anything because my mom prefers to cook by herself.
I appreciate all of the gravy suggestions, even though each and every description of boiling innards or scooping up grossness makes me want to puke.
I will never understand why people eat gravy.
This is the same guy who likes chicken gizzards and liver.... Like I said, he's gross.
We don't stuff our turkey, Bernie cooks the turkey its his thing!
I will admit I cheat when it comes to the pumpkin pie I buy the frozen premade crusts for this. I do the libby's filling (hey good tip on the buying pumkin early didn't even think about that)
I also agree that the canned cranberry is perfectly fine I like the jellied as well but if you want to do more the homeade cranberries are really quite simple and pretty darn tasty.
I make my gravy from the drippings of the turkey but I also buy heinz turkey gravy as well just in case! I buy it early here because they always run out at the stores (always good for a back up plan)
We are not big on marshmallows in my house so it is just simple real butter, brown sugar, cinn and a little real maple syurp with my sweet taters.
With the mashed potatoes I add a heaping scoop of sour cream in them to make them extra creamy along with the garlic.
Butternut Squash is something new to me and my daughters but something Bernie adores so we tried the frozen kind that stuff was nasty. We are doing fresh this year. He makes them just like mashed potatoes almost but with just butter and I think a bit of cinn.
I always make greenbean casserole and I make it with either fresh greenbeans or with the french cut frozen greenbeans which my daughters can't wait for every year. So silly
We cheat with the rolls as well we always get the hawaiian sweet rolls. Couldn't change that either kids adore them.
Apps I do simple stuff. I do cream cheese softened and spread on a plate. I mix baby shrimp in cocktail sauce and pour that over top of the cream cheese with wheat thins, crazy simple and it disappears. We also do a dip with chips and veggies as well. It is just your basic ranch dip add finely shredded cheese and if you you have no veggitarians and some crumbled bacon. It is amazing and people are like where did you get this!!! OMG this is so crazy good have been some of the comments I have heard from people.
Stuffing I buy 2 boxes of sour dough bread crumbs if I am feeling short of time. Lots a butter onions celery garlic sage a couple of other seasonings sometimes apples n nuts. Oh and broth in a can or a container ( I like to buy organic seems to give a better flavor) If I have more time I actually buy loaves of sour dough bread and dice it up to make the dressing.
You can do it. I big ol bird can be intimidating but you do it 1 time to 2 times a year so don't stress about it. We all have your back. Hmmm I really want turkey dinner now sigh....