What To Expect Hosting Thanksgiving

My family is not close at all, and very dysfunctional. However, I'm playing around with the idea that I might offer to host a Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment.. I eat mostly vegan but I'm OK with adding some milk to mashed potatoes or whatever. I can not and will not make a turkey though. I would puke over gutting a turkey... not to mention, I think it's morally wrong, but I won't get into that... I'm not even certain my family likes turkey. I think they had chicken last year. I know I won't seem like a great host doing this, but I'm gonna ask my mom to make a small turkey if her and my dad want to eat it and if they will even come (again not close)... They'll understand. They know I've been into animal rights and vegetarianism since the beginning of time...

I'll make green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, yams, corn, fruit salad, green salad, biscuits, pumpkin pie...

So I wanna hear stories of when you hosted your first Thanksgiving.. What should I expect? Family feuds? Was making dinner overwhelming for you? The thing I'm most excited about is getting a cornucopia basket and making either a flower arrangement or filling it with fruit. I love doing Martha Stewart shit like that.

 

I took the giblet pack out of one end of the turkey but didn't know that there was another giblet pack in the other orifice of the turkey. That caused the inside of the turkey to not be done. That was a terrible thing to discover.

You have to put the men in one room watching football and the ladies in another room with the newspaper so they can plot out shopping for Black Friday.

Seriously, that's old school but that's how it went down at my parents and grandparents homes on Thanksgiving.

The best Thanksgiving I've had was when my son's Puerto Riccan in laws got together and cooked. All I did was drink, eat wonderfully different foods, and try to explain Thanksgiving, lol

 

Well, it won't be too many people. Just me and my three kids and then my mom and dad and my brother... I'm now fantasizing about serving everyone pot laced brownies..... (as soon as they get here).. Everyone would be so chill and hilarious. This is too ensure there's no fighting. On second thought, I should probably not be hosting Thanksgiving..

 

Expect to do alot of work and having everything eaten in 5 minutes......

Humor today, humor....

I hope you have fun with hosting, if you do.....

 

Oh. I should also have a bottle of champaigne to myself, one I could possibly walk around with. And another for the guests. Plus sparkling cider for the kids...

 

people eating, if you make something for them?

 

I just talked to my mom on the phone and invited her. OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE????????????? She said they will come....

I need a cute apron.

 

And a cornucopia...woo.

 

No Seriously, OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE. I suck at cooking...

 

its your house. when you lived in theirs, you ate what they fed you and lived by their rules. YOUR house, they can damd well abide by yours.
that's the way the universe works. no reason to be any big thing about it.

 

I host 2 Thanksgiving dinners at my house every year. There are about 40 people each time (2 different days, different sides of the family). I've done this for the past 10 years. The first year I was really stressed out trying to make sure everything was perfect. It wasn't. Stupid me, i put the potato peels down the garbage disposal. DON'T DO THAT! It clogs and causes major flooding in your kitchen while people are trying to eat their pumpkin pie. Instead of helping when they see you panic they will just back up so their feet don't get wet.

Don't stress over the small stuff. It will go unnoticed. You won't feel quite as appreciated as you would hope and there is a lot of clean up. Although my families get along great, I'm always very ready for everyone to leave. 40 people in a house is a lot no matter how big your house is. Keep it simple and just try to enjoy your family.

Have you ever seen the movie Pieces of April? When I read your post that is what i instantly thought of.

 

No potato peels down the garbage disposal, got it. Though I'd probably just get a box of mashed potatoes, yikes, writing that out seems gross... but like I said, I suck at cooking so I don't know if I'll be able to make mashed potatoes from scratch. Plus, my kids probably wouldn't allow me the time to do that... I vaguely remember that movie, but I have seen it.. I hope it's still on netflix.. worth a re-watch. Maybe I can get some good thanksgiving ideas from the movie, ha ha. I'm used to hosting birthday parties for my kids with these same people so I should be alright...

 

Order the food in..and no cooking will be necassary by you....just have fun at the gathering......but you may want to cook, too.

 

Nah, kinda want to challenge myself with the cooking. Thanksgiving sides are pretty easy. And I think I will attempt the mashed potatoes from scratch...

 

Mashed potatoes...here is my recipe......


Idaho potatoes....not rotten spots or soft spots...must feel each in store

as many as you need...usually 2 per person, so there will be leftovers.....

rinse, peel....and throw peelings away.....

cut in quarters and boil.......

take skin off an entire garlic bulb and put that in foil in the oven to roast and get soft.....usually takes 20 minutes....

when potatoes are soft.....discard water and mash with included full stick of butter and garlic from oven and lots of parsley.....

no milk.....

salt and pepper to taste individually at table....each do their own salt and peppering....

out of this world!

 

vegies and fruit, mushrooms and nuts. people enjoy eating food. plenty of recipies from india that satisfy the protien craving without having to resort to actual animal meat of some kind.

i do love bread stuffing cooked in meat drippings and with a nice gravy on it. i tend to think of cooking for more then three people at a time, something best left to resteraunt kitchens where experienced cooks can mutually make lighter work of doing so.

not saying you should have to eat out, nor go without a nice hot cooked meal, nor that it should have to be impersonal. i stopped cooking turkeys though, when i started having dreams about turkey skellitons dancing around. i know pigs are even closer to humans, but i didn't have that whole rib cage being left over to be haunted by.

i don't get the thing with potatoes either, other then baked, with lots of nice things on them, like sour cream and cheese and cives and bacon bits.

and if you're gonna have yams with huney and butter, why have pumpkin pie? or vicy vercy? a scoop of pumpkin ice cream with a bit of whipping cream on top makes for plenty enough of sweet stuff. expresso to wash it down with. that's the stuff.

green beans with gibblit gravy are wonderful. or beans and spotzelle.

lots of wonderful ways to have a feast without turkey or ham of course. i'm sure whatever you fix will be wonderful.

 

Here's all i do for my mashed potatoes but mine are probably more bland than moonglows.

Peel the potatoes. I use an apple slicer/corer (do you know what that is? not sure if i'm making sense) to cut them.

Put them in a big pot of COOL, not hot, water. Let them boil until they are soft.

Once they are soft, drain them.

Add a stick of butter, a splash of milk and whatever spices you want then use an electric beater to smash them up. Make them as lumpy or creamy as you want.

That's all there is to it. So simple. If you have a crock pot you can make them up early so its done and out of the way. Put them in the crock pot with a little extra milk to keep them warm. Stirring occasionally. I'm NOT a cook either but i can even handle mashed potatoes. It's so much better than the box.

 

Make some kind of cream cheese spread with pot in it and serve it on crackers as an hors' de oeuvres.

 

Man, every family dinner ends up the same for us lol and we have a loving family yet, without a doubt, some of the uncles will get into it with one another. But now we are broken all around the world we no longer really mass congregate but even little family stuff, someone always ends up in tears, someone always gone get angry. XD

Me, I think it's a riot. XD

 

Am thinking about what I need to buy here now...another favorite recipe for Thanksgiving is:

fresh shitake mushrooms and wild rice....

Boil wild rice like you would regular rice....Pan fry shitake mushrooms in olive oil very lightly....do not overcook them....mix together with wild rice......