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There are four of our families living here in Kansas City.We each take turns hosting the other three. Last year was my turn. My nephew's family hosted this year. Each day after Thanksgiving, when it isn't my turn to host, I cook an abbreviated version so we can have leftovers. I made turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry chutney, Parker house rolls and deviled eggs . I bought a frozen pumpkin pie but plan to cook it tomorrow.

My dear friends threw a full-blown Thanksgiving gathering with 3 couples and 3 singletons. Each of us brought something by prior arrangement. I forgot to take a picture of the appetizers, but they included a cheese ball, a country paté, clam dip, Reuben dip, probably some cheese, a wide selection of crackers and chips, and some wonderful lightly smoked salmon with baby pickles and fresh dill. That was just the appetizer set-up while we caught up on news and the chief cook kept coordinating kitchen chores. Then came dinner: 2 perfectly roasted chickens; gravy; green beans with bacon; scalloped corn; mashed potatoes; a cranberry-ginger chutney/relish that, I'm happy to say, is a NYT recipe that appears in my ancient cookbook!; cheesy rolls; wild rice dressing with water chestnuts; some sort of bready stuffing. Wine, of course. I didn't bring the scalloped corn, but it was my mother's recipe. Something the hosts did by accident made it taste much, much better than I remember my mother's version! A buttered breadcrumb topping, rather than the cracker crumb topping, was one difference. But I think having it spread out in a shallow baking dish made it taste better than the deep-dish serving she used to do. My friends did the recipe proud. The spread, before we all sat down and dug in: And here's my plate: Then there were the pies: pecan, pumpkin, apple. Urrp. Followed by after-dinner drinks. I think I ate more last night than I normally eat in a week, but it was a fine spread and an excellent evening. Better still, we all got to come home with leftovers!

This year my only panettone purchase was from Whole Foods. Sad.

Tonight’s dinner was called “use up everything at the AirBnB because we’re leaving tomorrow.” Shrimp, zucchini, green beans, and mushrooms, all seared separately. Sautéed shallots, chiles, and a head of garlic, then added spinach, cilantro, scallions, and thyme. Mixed in leftover salmon, a little half-and-half, feta cheese, and fish sauce and warmed through. Pretty decent, all considered.

All this talk of turkey got me hankering. Thanksgiving is not a thing in Australia, and sourcing a turkey would be difficult this time of year. Come Christmas, there’ll be plenty. I didn’t make stuffing because I didn’t have enough sourdough crumbs in the freezer, but I did make a herb butter to smoosh under the skin. Served with potatoes, carrots, fennel, red onions and peas. Plus gravy, lots of gravy, and leftovers, lots of them too.

1. Liberal use of baking soda. Leave it overnight. 2. Pour white wine over the red wine. Sometimes removes the red colour.

Considering what happened to my dining room on Thanksgiving from red wine (no children)…nobody can be trusted!

It was interesting in that half of the mustard seeds were crushed to reveal the yellow inner seed. I used lots of garlic finely chopped, a bit of chilli powder, turmeric, curry leaves, juice of half a lemon, fresh chilli and spring onions to garnish. Some of her recipes are available on line. This one is called “King Prawns with Garlic and Mustard seeds”. I hope you can find it, it’s very quick to make and delicious.

Easy-- Make ricotta stuffing ( whole milk ricotta 1#, 1 Egg, any Italian white shredded cheese, Mozzarella, 6 -Italian , zest nutmeg, and chopped spinach or basil, pinch salt, white pepper, sometimes i will add a bit of sugar ) Jumbo shells ( pre cook )-- Make your own sauce or best store for u Sauce bottom stuff shells-top with a bit a cheese and more saauce 325f for 45 mins and cover first 30 and uncover till brown and shell temp is 165 and above

Turkey/cranberry-onion thing/smoky sweet potatoes/ sausage stuffing (but not stuffed)/au gratin potatoes/sprouts slaw/apple crumble And various finger sandwiches at lunch today.

A dilemma, for sure, @Dr. Teeth !

I’m in DC. Blue crab territory. Gets cold enough at Christmas time that an outdoor event is not really a possibility. One of the guests is a 14 yo I’ve know since he was 5 or so. Cannot be trusted in my house with a red sauce covered crab body

Amen!!!

I've always loved it, and probably take blood pressure pills because of it!!! It's certainly a special occasion type cut in my late 40s but younger me ordered or cooked it at every opportunity. I gave partner a more done bite and he agreed it was fantastic. (He dislikes it for all the reasons I love it- fatty, beefy, and as rare as I can manage)

No, I purposely got one that does not take K-cups. But you can make a single cup or a pot, so it is flexible. K-cups got too expensive for me and are not recyclable, so I didn't want them anymore.

wow, that prime rib looks amazing... I haven't had it in so long - I used to love it as a kid, and it probably contributed a LOT to my current artery cloggedness!

I find that some of the smoke leaches through the bag and into the water. Even still, I still do a smoke --> SV; post SV, I don't think the smoke sticks well because the surface is so wet, unless you were to dry it with a fan or something to form a pellicle just before, but that's an extra step and a pita.

good points . thank you . Ill continue w Smoke , then SV , as its wasier that way the CkDrums are dry out of the S&S pack , and the SV bags stay sealed , and pasteurized .

This is timely.....my Kuerig (pre 2018) is slowly giving up the ghost. There's a Ninja on sale at Costco and a Keurig. @Maison Rustique did your Ninja use Kcups? Did you like it? (I don't function well enough in the morning for anything difficult. So while I LOVE pour over, I know damned well it won't be happening at 530am. I had an ex that would make pourover for me in the morning, was his best quality!)

I brought it up on the SV thread last year i believe with a wild turkey breast. I ended up doing smoke then SV. Id do it the same way again but smoke for far longer. No idea how or why but it seemed the smoke flavor nearly disappeared (Im a long time smoker and usually get it right but was fairly disappointed in the lack of smoke on the first breast and have been ignoring the second in the freezer because of it)

Zero pics of anything actually plated but it was good foresight that we decided to order at least part of the meal. I spent the day processing this guy (while partner was out hunting for elk. This is a whitetail deer that he got earlier in the week) Part of dinner from a local BBQ purveyor (happened to be the best prime rib I've ever had). Prime rib and pork ribs- We also had mashed potatoes, gravy,biscuits and a peach with blackberry cobbler Fat and happy with leftovers for days! Hope everyone had a blessed day.

We didn't order pizza on Wednesday, we went out for ramen (and sushi) before watching the latest Wicked movie. (And were reminded why we don't go to evening movies, the hoarde that was at the theater on turkey-eve was massive!)

https://www.gouterstore.com/shop/christmas/SFQM5LYIWTLPLYOK2CGLYPCK?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=asc Gouter's Christmas offerings.

Bumping this up to see if anyone's planning on panettone purchases again this year. I chose this photo series because it's what really pulled me into the splurge. Maybe @Alleguede or @Kerry Beal can tell me whether gouter.ca is making them.

Update The two units were dead again this morning. They had made coffee last night. Keurig is dead to me.