My family invited themselves to my place for Thanksgiving this year, so I'm trying to plan the menu! My sister offered to do desserts, so I just have EVERYTHING else. So besides turkey, what Thanksgiving staples do you have every year?

Rice with brocolli and cheese is a family tradition (: along with patato salad, homade rolls, glazed ham.. I could go all day :P

stuffing is a must. and macaroni and cheese. haha  :) 

Mashed potatoes and gravy, squash, rolls, corn, stuffing, cranberry salad. Ugh, now I gotta go eat something. :P

I'm also making Thanksgiving dinner.

This is what I'm making:

-Turkey

-Stuffing

-Mashed Potatoes

-Gravy

-Sweet Potatoes/Yams

-Cranberries

-Green Bean Casserole

-some kind of bread (maybe cheddar bay buscuits)

Possibly also making:

-Cheesy Potatoes (probably)

-Roast Beef and Brown Gravy (if it's decided to have two meats)

-Salad

-Jalapeno Poppers

-Mac and Cheese

-Some other kind of veggie. Maybe brussels sprouts or asparagus, MAYBE roasted carrots (but ew, gross)

And for dessert I am making caramel apple pie. I might also make pecan pie or a chocolate mousse. I dunno. We shall see!

Here's my list (so far):

Turkey (how much turkey do I need for 6 people??)

stuffing

Mashed potatoes

Banana bread

Rolls

A vegetable – cooked carrots, green beans, something like that

Jello (remind me to get the strawberry jello recipe from my relatives...)

gravy

I should probably do salad, it'd be easy to do.

My sister is doing desserts, so I don't have to do anything there.

The general rule of thumb is 5 pounds plus 1-1.5 pounds per person if you're going to want leftovers (which I assume you are).

hmm ... are deviled eggs considered Thanksgiving-y? lol, I love them.

I LOVE DEVILED EGGS.

But no one else in my family loves them as much as me. So if I made them, I would eat them all. Not that that's a bad thing...... except for health reasons.

Okay, so here's my next question: tips on cooking a turkey? Websites? Anything? :P

Oven or electric roaster?

oven!

and my dad sent me a stuffing recipe that I was told I HAVE to make. So how do I do that? Like, the preparation of the turkey/stuffing the turkey bit?

and Sam, on your food blog, the mashed potatoes recipe - how many servings does that make?

I'll scan a turkey recipe thing to you this afternoon if you remind me :). It's the one I'm planning to use.

And I would not recommend stuffing the turkey, but instead making the stuffing separately. If you put the stuffing in the turkey, you have to wait for the stuffing to reach 165 deg. before it is safe to eat because of all of the raw turkey juices that will be flooding into it, but it'll take too long for it to reach that temp and make the entire turkey too dry because the rest of it will be done much sooner.

It makes 5 or 6 decent-sized portions, if I remember correctly. If you're worried about not having enough though, then I'd go with 5 lbs instead of 3 lbs, or like a potato and a half per person (since I don't know how many people you'll have).

I shall harass you until I get the turkey recipe.

and hm, okay. So how do I do stuffing, then? Just mix everything all together? All they sent me was a list of ingredients - how do I cook it? (can you tell I don't eat stuffing? at all? lmao!)

we deep fried our turkey last year. yum. 

Are you making it from scratch or from a mix? If you're making it from scratch, I would have to see the recipe/ingredients to be 100% sure, but yeah, you basically just mix it all together. Bread, veggies, and then pour some broth into it so it's all nice and stuffiing-y.

For generic stuffing: You'd want to cube up the bread and set it out the night before so it'll get stale, and then the day of Thanksgiving, cut up veggies (probably carrots, onions, and celery) and sautee them in some butter until they're nice and soft. Then mix in the bread cubes, so they're coated with the butter and veggies, and then pour in chicken (or turkey, if you have it) broth until it's moist. Then mix in poultry seasoning (which is basically parsely, sage, rosemary, and thyme) and salt and pepper to taste. Then I would just toss it in the oven for a bit, if it gets too dry add more broth.

I'll scan the turkey recipe now, haha.

I'll send you the list that my step-mom sent me later...

Is everyone who's cooking ready for the big day?!

Today I'm making the pie in preparation. Haha. And POSSIBLY brining the turkey, if I'm feeling ambitious. We shall see.

This was my first time EVER cooking for Thanksgiving, and things are a bit strange since my girlfriend is gluten-free and I'm a vegetarian.  But we had:

Cranberry/brown sugar chicken (for Susan)

Cider roasted veggies

Green bean casserole

Balsamic artichoke hearts

Baked pumpkin apples

Cranberry sauce

Mashed potatoes

Not a whole lot, but DEFINITELY way more than the two of us needed.