Something Different on T-Day?

[Dark Cloud]

So from a culinary standpoint im really bored with the standard Thanksgiving meal. Turkey is well... turkey. Potatoes to me are useless unless they are a french fry. The rest of the stuff is good - stuffing, corn casserole, squash, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie...

What im getting at, does anyone have any "off then wall" recipes???

We typically go to my aunts for thursday and my parents that weekend. The meals are great but I want something diff.

I think im going to make a stuffing with a few diff kinds of bread including cornbread. Plus add in onions, celery, wild mushrooms, sausage...

I also had in my mind a sweet and spicy squash dish. Maybe some jalapenos and honey in there?

[KEN W]

hey.....on my wife's and my first Thanksgiving I had liver and onions.Now that's an off the wall Thanksgiving dinner.

[reinhard1]

as far as stuffing i use italian sausage [my own from venison] wild rice and instead of chicken broth i use a beef broth made from soup stock [dry] with the brand name dashida that i buy from a local korean grocery store. this dry soup stock has garlic and other spices instead of your normal 90%salt. of course breading and celery. good luck.

[ThunderLund78]

My Friends and I discovered this in College.

Take your standard turkey and baste it continually with your favorite Buffalo Wing Sauce. Make sure you get the sauce throughout the body cavity as well. The drippings make great gravy and it adds a twist to your stuffing, potatoes or whatever you pour it on. When carving the bird, pour some drippings over the meat as well to keep it hot, moist and flavorful!

Only caveat is if you have some wimpy-tounged guests or those who flat-out don't like buffalo wings (must be a miserable existence )

[eyeguy 54]

I'm putting my turkey in the smoker with hickory chips for 2 hours this year before I cook it. the mrs. isn't tooooo happy about it but I gotta do what I gotta do. :>)

[Jim Almquist]

I will not have to eat "plain" turkey until Saturday when I go to the MIL for our official Thanksgiving. I still have not made up my mind on what type of brine I will use but the turkey will be cooked on the rotisserie with some hickory or apple chips in foil on top of the Kingsford. Nothing like smoky gravy on top of yams with a warm dinner roll to clean up the excess gravy. 21 lb bird for 2 should give us plenty of leftovers.

[fishinfey8]

At our house, we smoke the turkey, then inject ranch dressing. It's VERY VERY tasty!! Look forward to it every year.

[picksbigwagon]

My mom makes this casserole that is onions, mustard and peanuts......I willmsee if I can find the recipe. I have only eaten it a couple times, I think it would be great with some beef stock in it. When I find the recipe, I will post it.

[picksbigwagon]

Okay here it is

PEANUT ONION CASSEROLE

2 lbs of small onions (about 15)

3TBL of butter

3TBL of flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 tsp salt

2tsp yellow mustard

1tsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

-cook onions in boiling salted water until tender, drain a nd arrange in baking dish. In a seperate pan, melt butter, blend in flour and stir in milk until it is thick. Stir in salt, mustard, and wrchestershire sauce. Pour over onions, sprinkle peanuts on top and bake @350 for 10-15 minutes.

Good luck and let me know what you think. It is a family tradition in my family.....

[Jackpine Rob]

Lots of sick and twisted freaks here.

Turkey is good. Potatoes are good. Stuffing is good. Gravy makes it all come together. I guess I'm just a total tradition guy!

If you want to be real, make some wild rice. Nothing like a little real honest-to-god wild rice with the meal. A bit of browned bacon and onion added is all you need for the wild rice.

Of course, a couple of Summit Extra Pale Ales to properly prepare the palate for the repast are in order.

My bird is a little shy of 25 lbs, and is thawing in the fridge as we speak. Already, like the dad in Christmas Story, I am drooling in anticipation....

Any Bumpus dogs that show up will be made into jerky.

[reinhard1]

for the turkey i put about 3 cups of beef broth in the pan with a couple of sticks of butter. for the first hour i place the turkey breast down [i poked the breast with a fork a few times] to absorb some of the goodness. i only put a small amount of kosher salt,pepper, and garlic powder on the bird. then i put the bird breast up in the pan and keep it covered with foil until the final hour. i inject the bird with the pan juices during the cooking proccess from time to time and baste it also. i always make the stuffing sepperate a day ahead of time and re-heat it during the last hour and a half of the turkey cooking time. yes gravey is the key and very popular in the house. good luck.

[Dark Cloud]

Thanks for the replys folks...

Picks - that onion dish sure sounds diff and interesting.

Im still not too excited about 2 Tday dinners in 3 days though.

Im not a big fan of gravy. I watch my dad pile all the stuff on his plate and pour gravy all over everything and honestly it grosses me out. If your gonna do that then everything on the plate might as well be tofu or rice.

Nevermind, i'll just crawl back into my culinary funk for a few days.

[Jeremy airjer W]

We did homemade beef stir fry, sweet and sour chicken, egg rolls, cream cheese wantons, and rolled our own sushi this year. Best Thanksgiving ever!

Otherwise we hit the Old Country Buffet. You can't beat it!!

[Dark Cloud]

I like it Airjer! I got sucked into two dinners on thursday. My GF had to work all day so I went to my bosses for a 1 oclock meal that was traditional and quite good. Then we went to her sisters for a 6pm meal that was well, not good. The bird was almost as dry and the Griswald christmas turkey, lol! Everything else was canned n boring...

We are about to have a full T-Day meal here. All the regulars but I made some scratch cranberry sauce from fresh berries. Cooked em down in oj, red wine, and applejuice with some diced up apples, mandarin oranges, and cinnimmon in the mix.

Also made some stuffing with bread cubes I seasoned and toasted. Added cornbread to the stuffing along with roasted chantrel mushrooms and venison brkfast sausage in there...

[delcecchi]

Just got around to reading the Thanksgiving "bon apetite" magazine. For off the wall, may I suggest Sauerkraut (they cook it in gin with some other stuff). Apparently it is a Baltimore thing from the large German population there.

They had a whole bunch of other recipes that you might find of interest. There was a masa cornbread stuffing that looked really good too.

I bet the library has the mag or they must have a web site.