Happy Thanksgiving!

Beautiful Bouquet Laurie! Hope you have lots of leftovers! 😋

debra

Happy thanksgiving to all! I love that meal and the day after leftovers even more!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian friends! Blessings to you all!

:)

Dee

P.S. Yes, beautiful arrangement!

Hope Thanksgiving was enjoyed by all celebrating!

This is the first year that I didn't make or eat turkey! We went out for Vietnamese food and came back to my place for dessert! (My daughter has turned vegan so meals have had to be changed.)

I do love turkey and all the side dishes, but confess that it tasted a lot better when someone else made it!

Thank you Debra! That is my DD's handiwork, she is a floral designer. It is in a cute white ceramic pumpkin. Yes lots of yummy leftovers

Patti so nice of you to comment! You will be enjoying yours soon. I had a turkey sandwich with stuffing & cranberries earlier and will have a hot plate in a couple of minutes ending with pie of course Yum!

Dee how lovely of you to say! Enjoy your bounty in November. I have a sister in Va. that used to celebrate both but decades later has hers in Nov. only.

nhl I am sure you all had a wonderful time & meal! My best friend has been vegetarian for well over 40 years & vegan for the last nearly 10. He says it is the meal he misses most. Yes it is a lot of prep and you probably did not miss that. LOL yes depending on who was cooking. Nobody wants a dry turkey and lumpy gravy!

Glad to hear my Canadian friends had a good holiday! I agree, lovely floral display.

Sherry

but confess that it tasted a lot better when someone else made it!

AND does the dirty dishes!

Thank you Sherry, enjoy yours when it comes around!

Yes rouge I am exhausted from all the prep and clean-up! Hope you had a good one.

Happy Thanksgiving! I had a question but upon reading this thread it was answered. I wanted to know if you all in Canada eat turkey for thanksgiving. So we have that in common. I know of people who think turkey is not good and is inferior to chicken. I don't think so at all and my animals agree with me. My dogs and cats love turkey. To me it has a wonderfully different flavor than chicken.

One year I cooked Chinese food for Thanksgiving but I like the traditional turkey meal better. Every year I think about going out to eat for Thanksgiving. One year my son hosted it and it was lovely. Most years they come over here.

erasmus turkey certainly is traditional here and I agree it has a different taste and texture. My dog does not generally get people food but she did get some and was beside herself with joy! When I made broth this a.m. she got a tiny bit too.

I suggested we could have something different and do turkey at Christmas but my DD said noooo I want stuffing and the whole bit. No problem, it was fabulous.

Yum! My animals seem more excited about turkey than anything else. Partly it might be the wait for it to cook...they smell it coming. Mine also like broth. Why would they not? It's probably as comforting as it is to people when warm.

I often buy two turkeys at Thanksgiving because the price is best right before Thanksgiving. I keep one in the freezer and cook it a few months later. I almost always make turkey/ shrimp/ andouille gumbo with the carcass.

Good food, family and friends - wishing you all a great day.

Lol erasmus I am sure you are right that the aroma drives them (and us) wild. Smart shopping, getting the timing on deals is important these days especially. OMG that gumbo sounds amazing!

rp yes that is absolutely what it is about! I understand Thanksgiving is not generally celebrated in the UK so we all extra appreciate your well wishes!

I’m late to the party, but I hope all our Canadian friends had a good Thanksgiving! Good idea to have it before the bad weather sets in. Ours is "iffy" being in late November.

Laurie, I’m glad you enjoyed your day and that your daughter got the turkey and all the sides she was craving. And your dog, too! It must be nice that she can bring such pretty flowers for any celebration you might have!

Thank you Lisa! It does seem late for the northern parts of the US, at least some years.

Yes everyone is as stuffed as the turkey was. I always look forward to whatever arrangement she brings. It is a really welcome addition to the table!

Happy holidays and best of wishes to a wonderful Thanksgiving Day

How lovely forever_a_newbie_VA8 I hope you have a wonderful holiday too!

So do Canadians go in for Halloween? Should be kind of cold up there by then I imagine. I am no longer interested in Halloween. It used to be fun when I was a kid and when my kids were kids. Now I don't much want people knocking on my door. But I like fall decorations and the general season has a good spirit to it. I miss my halloween decoration that was a large black velvet tree with tiny bats hanging from it here and there. Can't find it. I also have a thing my son gave me which looks like a ghoul of some sort with changing colored lights in it. But that's it for Halloween. Oh, I have a few scary trees with wire branches and a couple of ceramic ghosts.

I personally, now hate Halloween. I think I started hating it when Halloween started to appear in stores in August. I prefer Mexican, Dias de los muertos for a variety of personal reasons.

Yes erasmus Halloween is very big here too. Some years it is great weather other years quite cold. I am very rural so I have never had anyone come to the door. I used to take my DD and her friends to the nearest village where they really went all out for the kids. They would have elaborate decorations and homemade goodies plus all the candy bars etc. Very different in a small community when you had no worries. In later years my DD had some fabulous parties and we would go all out with scary decor. It holds no appeal for me now except to watch horror movies lol!

41 North I can certainly understand the early over saturation being too much. Dias de los muertos is very different. I imagine it has become commercialized less.

We don't do Thanksgiving but I never need an excuse for a meal with my beloveds...and neither, I hope, does anyone else. However, no meals will EVER include turkey in any form. Or that weird thing you do with pumpkins, turning 'em into puddings! In my world, pumpkin and squash is roasted with garlic and olive oil...and certainly never sees extra pastry (bewildered Brit).

No, we don't need an excuse for a meal with family. Much of our family lives far away. We do have our kids and grandkids. My oldest grandson , who is 15, is developing an interest in cooking though I have never eaten something he's made. Recently he made his family a chicken sandwich. He made the mayonnaise, the pickles, and the buns and all. I hear it was really good. He makes root beer too.

I really like pumpkin desserts. I make a good pumpkin cheesecake with a little bourbon in it and a caramel sauce. I think pumpkin pie is great. I made some blonde brownies a few months ago with pumpkin cheesecake top. I felt like a sinner though and froze a lot of them...they're still in the freezer. I am on a low carb diet.

It is just weird how the stores can have Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decor for sale all at the same time starting maybe in August. My daughter is particular about not putting up any decorations till close to the holiday. No Christmas before Thanksgiving .

Yes rp no excuse ever to not have a meal with loved ones. I knew you did not do Thanksgiving but pumpkin pie is terrific, indeed pumpkin anything! I take it the pumpkin spice craze has not hit the UK. I really like trying new foods from all over the world but like to keep the holiday meals traditional.

Always a treat to have another cook in the family erasmus! The pumpkin cheesecake and brownies sound really yummy. You have great self control I must say.

The marketing can get so annoying!

As much as I HATE with a passion, American Halloween, I LOVED in abundance, American Thanksgiving. My father was a true Yankee from northern Vermont, and he loved Thanksgiving most of all holidays, and so do I now. I hated squashes as a kid, now, squashes (pumpkin included) are my favorite of the autumn harvests. Squash is awesome. I thought I discovered it, but my Italian friends know all too well how exquisite pumpkin is in a pasta sauce. And many gardeners here in NJ, Italian or otherwise, love to grow cucuzza squash. For those that don't know, it grows to about 4 feet long here and Sicilians are obsessed with its cultivation, culinary uses and medicinal properties.

We always had traditional American Thanksgiving foods..., turkey, sweet potatoes, potatoes, cranberries, corn bread, squashes, and wild rice. Happy early Thanksgiving, CANADA!

Thankfully for you tastes change over the years from when we were kids. Pumpkin/squash filled ravioli too is popular and yummy. Yes traditions hold on for good reason, why mess with perfection. Thank you North!

These cucuzza squash are from my friend's garden who lives in a much cooler zone than I, and they are several feet in length by the end of the season. We all have deer in abundance here in NJ, so everything needs to get protected in a gardening cage or some sort.

Those are incredible! I had not heard of that kind of squash. Yes rotten deer. I am surrounded by herds of them and cannot fence my rural property. I spray with Bobbex every 2 weeks. It is a pain & expensive but the alternative is to have few plants untouched. I used to have a huge veggie garden and I miss it.

Those are neat squash. I may have seen a picture of those before. I think they'd look amazing growing, or dangling off of something.

My daughter likes butternut squash and bakes it with olive oil and garlic. It is not high in carbs she says so we eat that instead of potatoes. I'm cooking a rutabaga for dinner tonight to go with a stew my husband made yesterday. Rutabaga has a nice flavor with butter. I might mash it. It's a lot lower carb than potato.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving sides?

They are not sold in supermarkets here, but being so loved in Sicilian cuisine, they are commonly grown in local gardens and easy from seed, so if you manage to get a fruit, save the seeds for next season (or order them online). My friend's are actually from Pa., and they are MASSIVE. Sicilian grandma's recipe for soup.

P.S., I am invited over for Thanksgiving and making Mexican butternut squash soup (not spicy) with homemade cornbread.

P.S. 2: Peren.all, my gardening is mostly restricted to toxic/deadly/poisonous plants due to the armies of deer. So, basically growing a lot of paleobotanical plants that had to fend off dinosaurs from munching.

One of several cycads (they go into my garage from December to March 1st.

erasmus butternut squash is so good, this year I did acorn cut into boats baked with butter. I am a fan of rutabaga, also parsnips done as a puree or caramelized. Sides hmm well I can't enjoy turkey without the stuffing. Not really a side per se but I could not go without homemade cranberries to offset the heaviness of the meal.

North I watched the video and would make it if I had the cucuzza. I am sure your soup and corn bread will be a big hit.

Lol the only paleobotanical plants I have are unwanted. I am cursed with horsetail. Both Equisetum hyemale & arvense. I just redid a couple of areas where I dug it out otherwise I just have to keep breaking it off at ground level until it eventually dies. Terrible stuff. Your Cycad is fabulous! Yes toxic plants plus Ornamental grasses never get sprayed but I grow a lot of Hosta, Delphiniums etc. that need spraying.

Hosta?! You mean DEER LETTUCE! I love Hosta, there are so many beautiful, tropical-looking ones with enormous blue-green leaves. Alas, I can grow NONE of them here among herds of deer. I can't spend my life spraying as I have 0 time. Two years ago, I supposedly "retired", now I teach 13 classes a week and have over 200 students, which is pretty good for an old man, Also have over some 600 plants (tropicals, subtropicals, cold hardies). Peren, Cycads are relatively easy outside but make terrible indoor plants, I never bring mine into the house..., too big, to heavy, too SHARP, and too prone to mealy bugs under indoor conditions. I have at least 6 of these big Cycas revolutas (Japanese sago "palms", they ain't palms), have had them for decades. They pup, so reproduce asexually, also sexually, but have not had gendered cones yet. Cucuzza seeds are readily available online and they do grow FAST, not sure how long a growing season they require. My friend's fruits are from zone 6A/Pa and they are big enough.

Yes deer lettuce lol! If I did not spray I would have nothing but celery stalks. I have many Hosta but my largest is Blue Angel that is over 8 1/2' across. That does not sound like you are "retired" but I can only hope & imagine that you enjoy teaching so much that it has been impossible to stop. Do you put your tropicals/subtropicals in a shed for the colder months? If you put your Cycads in you must need a truck dolly. I have a short growing season here. We have to really look at days to maturity even for tomato varieties. I checked a site that said 70 days to maturity. I may have to grow them one of these years.

I tried broccoli a little different last night. Bought those steamable bags of frozen broccoli. Cooked them in the microwave till not quite done. Then sauteed some sliced garlic in olive oil and added the somewhat cooked broccoli. Cooked that awhile on the stove and then added salt, and melted some butter and squeezed some lemon into that and poured over the broccoli. Everyone liked it. I liked it. I am always interested in simple but good vegetable dishes.

Some people add some red pepper flakes to that sort of broccoli and some add parmesan.

I have one of those Sago palm cycads. It was very small when given to me..it was an offset I guess from my son's larger plant. It is now in about a 7 gallon pot. I have been growing it indoors in winter in a dark hallway on a pedestal. It amazes me that it tolerates such low light. I haven't had any problem with bugs on it. It had been in a 2 gal pot but I potted it up this spring and it has been outside in dappled light all summer.

That sounds good erasmus. Butter/garlic & lemon makes just about everything better. Jazzing up veggies in a simple way makes them even better.

Very nice that you can enjoy your Sago palm over the winter. You must have hosed it down if it is bug free.

North what a gorgeous array of plants you have on your patio/deck! That is quite the collection. You must spend so many enjoyable hours out there, I know I would.

Perren, that is in the garage mid winter, too chilly for me but still nice when the world outside is very cold and covered with a blanket of snow. I have yet to put stock the garage for the winter, will do so mid November when I have some time.