Thanksgiving leftovers...

I saw this at minnie's, thought I'd do it.


1. Which do you like better: cooking at your house or going elsewhere?
Well, I prefer the home-cooked version of Thanksgiving. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me if I am home, at my parents' house, or somewhere else where someone can do good home-cooking. Most years, recently, I've been home. I've eaten out a few times (not recently) for Thanksgiving and it's always a bit disappointing...restaurant food, as good as it can be, is not the same as home-cooked.

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird?
Frozen. The couple years my family tried fresh birds the consensus was that they were not enough better to be worth the extra price. Also it can be hard to find a smaller bird in the fresh category, and we need a small bird, because in the past 10 years or so it's been at most 5 people at table.

3. What kind of stuffing?
Plain bread stuffing with chestnuts. The old New England-y standby. Southern style cornbread dressing is OK, but it's not the same as the bread stuffing my mom traditionally makes.

4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie?
Either is fine with me. I'm not picky. We had mince this year because my mom made green tomato mincemeat with the crop of green tomatoes she picked before their first frost. Green tomato mincemeat is something that sounds like it would not be good, but it is. It is goooooooooooood.

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing?
Mmmmnnn...neither. It's nice to have the leftovers (I love hot turkey sandwiches) but I would not call them the whole point. It will be a struggle for me to use them up this year; I still have several pounds of turkey in the fridge.

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu?
Probably the dressing. Possibly mashed potatoes.

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock?
It's sitting in my fridge right now. I'm thinking I might have the energy to mess with it Monday afternoon. I think I'm going to make a batch of stock and freeze most of it for later.

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier?
A bigger kitchen, maybe a second oven.

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour?
We almost always do Thanksgiving at the normal dinner hour. This year we ate at 7. But it's something I can be flexible with. It's just nicer on the cooks not to make them start working at 6 am or whatever.

10. If you go to somebody else's house, what's your favorite dish to bring?
I dunno...I don't often go to a non-relative's house, and with relatives, it's easier for me to say, "What can I do to help out when I get there?" or to offer to do the dishes or something.

I suppose I could say my Famous Back-of-the-Bag Cranberry sauce...I made it last Sunday for the church's Thanksgiving dinner and had a couple people ask me for the recipe because they were so "wonderful" and I was all "Um....I just follow the directions on the back of the bag." (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water for a bag of cranberries. Boil the sugar and water together, wash and sort the berries, add them to the boiling sugar syrup. Cook over medium for 10 minutes stirring periodically.)

11. What do you wish one of your guests wouldn't bring to your house?
Doesn't really apply here.

12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you're happy to see?
Again, doesn't really apply, I don't generally have that many people over.

13. What's your absolute favorite thing on the menu?
Probably the stuffing. I only get it once a year (we do roast beef at Christmas) so I look forward to it. It's not something I bother to make when I'm by myself.

Pictures of Christmas foo, antiquing purchases, and ongoing projects to come later, probably later today...