24 thoughts on “November 24, 2011: Best Thanksgiving Food: Stuffing”

  1. "Scalloped Corn" This is in joke with my family, as my gramdma used to make the worst scalloped corn known to man.

    1. And I love it specifically because of my grandmother. Wild how they can forge your taste in food and leave a lasting impression even if they only cook for you a few times a year.

  2. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I managed to not have any flights delayed yesterday (and got upgraded to first class from OKC-DET! Scotch on the house! But seriously, its amazing how much less my back and arse hurt on a two hour flight in first class compared to the following 1 hour flight in coach.) and made it home as expected, which was still later than I would have like. Booking travel the week of a major holiday sucks.

      1. Unfortunately, I couldn't book a flight earlier than 5:30 pm last night, but I didn't have anything to do that day so I went to the airport at 9 am or so to see if I could get on an earlier flight. (I couldn't) While I was there, there were a number of flights delayed, and one cancelled, due to mechanical issues so I was getting a bit nervous things. In the end everything went smoothly and I arrived back in Madison on time.

  3. As far as Thanksgiving traditions, twenty years ago my family and Runner daughter's godparents' family decided to have Thanksgiving meal together, since both of our extended families live nowhere nearby. We alternate homes every other year, with the "travelling" family bringing a pie and a couple side dishes. Besides the two couples and the three girls, this year we have another man at the table, as their oldest daughter was married two weeks ago, so there will be a little more contention for the extra pieces of pie.

    Although Runner daughter's godfather is a ChiSox fan (we behave ourselves), he is equally not a Cowboys fan, so we have that going for us, which is nice. Also, I think we'll be using some of our post-feast lethargy to try and begin planning our joint vacation next February to Napa Valley. Looking forward to seeing how much it's changed in 26 years.

  4. For the second year in a row, Stef and I will be going to a lovely B&B in Stillwater for two days. And for the second year in a row, we'll have the entire house to ourselves on Thanksgiving when the owners leave for the holiday.

    1. Very nice, my wife an I love B&B's (even if we're the youngest couple there by far.) My mom got married in a Stillwater B&B a couple years ago. It was a nice house, and had a great view of the post office. (actually, I think it had a pretty good view of the river out the backyard, too.)

  5. We're heading to a friend's house in Madison this year. I'm currently making a chocolate swirl pumpkin pie and will be making some maple syrup glazed sweet potatoes later on. It should be a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving for a change, since I won't have to fry the turkey and do everything else this year.

  6. Going to my mom's. This is the first year in a couple that we haven't hosted. I am both thankful and a little sad about that. Baking pies this morning: pumpkin is cooling, apple is in the oven, a chocolate cake for my god daughter's birthday is waiting to be frosted.

    Good thing the boy woke me up at 5.

  7. The Mrs. & I are spending a nice relaxing day together, watching the Packers and then going out for dinner. Then tomorrow it's off to the northland to visit family.

  8. The hour-by-hour forecast says partly sunny after noon. The Weber will be fired up and I shall deliver a glorious, applewood-smoked turkey!

  9. Usually we do Thanksgiving at home on our own. With three sides of the family within 2.5 hours' drive, the pressure to rotate families by year simply is too much. We already switch on and off Christmas and New Years, which means a lot of driving for us. This year, however, we went to my mother-in-law's because some friends of ours throw a day-after-Thanksgiving party with tacos and board games, and have basically been begging us to come back for the last five years.

    My only responsibility this year is to make the gravy and stuffing. For stuffing, that means toasting two pounds of artisan sourdough from Madison Sourdough, then mixing with three pounds of Italian sausage (half hot, half sweet), apples, parsnips, and turkey stock. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

    Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, my friends, wherever you may be today.

    1. Hey, that sounds amazing and would probably qualify for a Nation Loves Pork post, if you catch my drift.

  10. I'm really, really missing my family this year. I haven't gotten to see them on Thanksgiving since 2007, when I was so sick that I spent the day upstairs and couldn't taste the food. The Milkmaid just found out she'll be getting off at noon instead of 3pm, which is fantastic, but unfortunately, I woke up sick this year on Thanksgiving too (this is an uncannily common occurrence for me) and I just keep feeling worse, and of course I'm just 16 hours away from a 12-hour shift. This is going to be a tough one.

      1. I was really hoping for this kind of response. It does make it a little better.

        I don't know how many more major family holidays I can do away from Minnesota, though. We made a deal to trade years quite some time ago, but I haven't seen my family on any holiday since 2008. Last year, Christmas with just the girls, the Milkmaid and I was nice, and while I don't want to deny my wife her family when she can see them, every year that I see her family and not mine, it gets tougher not to feel resentful, as unfair as it is. I've been dreading Thanksgiving for weeks now for this reason. I'd actually just like to fast-forward to my Black Friday shift, which will be chaotic enough that I'll forget how crummy I feel.

  11. Just got back from dinner, it's still 70 degrees here in the Big O! For fun on the way home we drove by Best Buy & Target to laugh at all the campers.

  12. I had a near-disaster with the turkey. It didn't get on the Weber until 2:00, by which time the rain had pretty well stopped. I started it breast-side down for the first 90 minutes (adding coals and wood chips at 30 and 90 minutes; my first batch of coals may have been a bit too small). And the back side looked beautiful. I flipped it, added coals at 2.5 hours. At 3 hours, the whole thing was beautifully bronzed and the legs felt loose. I waited until 3.5 hours before pulling it.

    The turkey was somewhere south of 12 lbs -- a really big chicken, basically. As it was unstuffed, I figured that 15 minutes to the pound should be plenty. Well, 18-20 minutes to the pound would have been more like it, because it was still not done around the thigh and wing joints. I had to carve it into major pieces and put it into the oven to finish for another 15 minutes or so. It cost me a lot of moisture -- and, even so, the dark meat could have gone longer.

    Live and learn. I need to get a new instant-read thermometer. My digital one has been without a battery for several years.

    But dinner still was a big, gut-busting success. The applewood gave the turkey a beautifully fragrant, light woodsmoke flavor.

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