Thanksgiving 2010 cooking - DONE!

As a treat to my entire family, especially my mom who's always slaved away every Thanksgiving cooking for our family, I've decided to do all the cooking myself. CATERED! lol

I'm having the whole thing catered from sides, to main, to desserts, this year it will truly be all about just kicking back and spending time with our family. There will be no clean up whatsoever and that alone is a blessing!

I'm a total mommas boy and she has always been my best friend, go to gal & earth angel. I love my dad too and he's always been a hard worker, but on the holidays he usually makes it his sole responsibility to hold down his recliner and keep the remote control nice and warm. I haven't told her yet but I cannot imagine the shock she's going to get when she finds out she's not going to have to lift one finger.

Aren't you just a sweetie!!

Wow, what a nice thing to do for your mum.

You've gained Mom Perks big time! Good job!

I'm also the cook for the whole crew here on Thanksgiving Day (and the week before). But, at least my 2nd oldest daughter is also an amazing cook at just 17 yrs old & does a lot of our daily cooking!

I'm sure she'll insist on making something we can't live without....she's mom! Probably some sort of dessert or homemade maccaroni and cheese

you KNOW you Mom'll have to make SOMETHING!!! (I would)

But you get some serious brownie points for that smooth move dude!

Thats very sweet!

I know I enjoy cooking with my kids. They're only little right now, but cakes, cookies, shortbread, cornflake cakes and all that jazz. We have a giggle!

When theyre older, I look forward to being able to cook full roast dinners with them. Me and my Mum work on the same wavelenth, so if we're cooking a roast together, we instantly know what to do, and when, and do it on our own, without gettin in the others way haha. We can prepare and serve a full dinner without communicating, or getting in each others way if we wanted!

Haha, we don;t, cos we giggle and chat whilst we're doing it, but we could if we wanted!

You are such a sweet mommy boy! I wish my son willbe able to see and appreciate everything I do for him when he is grown If not, I will reffer him to this thread in 15 years

Great... I'm sure she'll love the thoughtfullness.

This year, me, mom, and grandma are all on the bad side of chronic illness. We had discussed going out for Thanksgiving, but my 14 year old son offered to cook! He's not a bad cook (he's perfected his over-easy egg... something I have yet to do!) My 12 year old daughter chimed in, so I think I'll help them plan a do-able menu, and let them at it! Although, I keep picturing Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving complete with lots of popcorn! It will be fantastic.

It will be great JBax and the best thing is you'll all be there together.

Hey Jenn,

That's awesome I wish my two would do the same for me!!
Let us all know how it turns out....and even if you have toast & popcorn...it will be an awesome memory!

Aww, will you be my son? Nah. I love Thanksgiving dinner, from the preparation to the execution, to the over-fed sighs of delight. Not so much the clean up, though...
I do everything from scratch: turkey, dressing, gravy, candied yams, mashed potatoes, corn, yeast rolls, green bean casserole, pie, after pie, after pie...

Oh...my house rules...if I cook...I DON'T clean!

Part of the whole thing (for us it is at Christmas, Thanksgiving was last month) is the prep over two days, the smell of the cooking turkey all day throughout the whole house, the leftovers...

LOL at the toast and popcorn Linda....a Charlie Brown style day.

I invited my mother here, she said she wasn't up to the drive. So, we offered to get here- she said no. So, I offered to cook at her house. She didn't want her kitchen to get dirty... so... she made reservations. At a seafood restaurant. Ah- family!

I think having a catered dinner sounds great. One year I cooked everything so my mother could have a break. I just had her make one dish. She actually felt let down a little, she actually enjoyed the cooking! I was amazed. Since then I let her do all of the cooking. And I just enjoy eating it!!!

That was really nice of you Terina...I love moms cooking, probably too much. There's some things that she makes that you just can't buy that taste as good, especially her fried chicken.

Being from the south, we have some great catering companies around who we know are really good. I'm going to test the waters with the Thanksgiving catering and if it works out as well as I hope it does, I'll do it again for us Christmas. I just think it will be great to sit back, eat, not worry about the hustle of it all and then especially not worry about the clean up. I've already bought heavy duty disposable plates, cups and all that junk. I really hope all the food is GONE, I'm not one for trying to think of 15 creative and exciting ways to finally polish off a turkey or ham when it comes to left-overs. I will confess that I've never met a left-over pie that wasn't calling my name around midnight though. Why do the deserts always taste twice as good late at night especially when no one is watching, haha.

I married an American lad so last year we had a Thanks giving dinner. Because pumkin pulp is impossible to buy here, we spent 2 days chasing down a pumpkin from what was left over after Halloween. My poor husband was about 1 1/2 hours at the microwave prepping the pumpkin to make the pie (yes folks, from scratch).

Anyway, this year his friend Brenda sent us a 'Thanks giving kit' in the post. A tin of pumpkin pulp, spices, a can of the cranberry jelly he loooooves and a tin of shortbread in Thanks giving themed shapes.

You can substitute winter squash (hubbard, acorn, etc.) for pumpkin if you can't find a pumpkin. We have ... can't tell the differences with the spices!

Shannon Fennell wrote:You can substitute winter squash (hubbard, acorn, etc.) for pumpkin if you can't find a pumpkin. We have ... can't tell the differences with the spices!

Ha ha, thanks for the tip