Only a few guests for Thanksgiving; menu?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm one who serves a tossed salad with Thanksgiving.

Fifty years ago you never would have seen a tossed salad served. Tossed salad is not traditional Thanksgiving faire. I serve it because I make one every night for all of our dinners.

I've noticed that everyone takes a helping of salad along with everything else.

My grandmother, born in 1917, always served a tossed salad at Thanksgiving. It was slightly special because it had grapefruit sections and pomegranate seeds in it. I don't think we ever had pomegranate for anything else. But she had a very traditional Thanksgiving menu, and the salad was definitely part of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d cut the salad. No one really eats it in our family. You need a separate plate for it too.

I only cook for six, and our menu is similar, only replace corn with sweet potatoes.

I love salad and corn.

The dieters will be happy with the salad (though personally I am not willing to use valuable TG plate space on salad)

As someone who is a fan of salad and definitely not a dieter, the obvious solution to this is seconds, also thirds.

OP, I think it sounds delicious. Green beans are one of my least favorite green veggies, so I'd probably do broccoli or sprouts, but that's just me. I might do an orange veggie instead of salad. In my house, carrots and parsnips roasted with a little olive oil and salt, is something that always disappears, and is super easy to make. I've also roasted some delicata squash and put it in the salad, to cover my "orange" requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's plenty of food. I assume you've checked with your guests for any specific items that they really care about - my family would totally revolt if I skipped sweet potatoes, but I know a lot of people don't really care about them.

Turkey: I'm not a huge fan of just doing a turkey breast, because several of us really love the dark meat. But I have cut a turkey in half, roasted half for Thanksgiving, and put half in the freezer for another time. Bonus, it's a lot easier to cook that way without drying it out. Nobody in my family really cares about the presentation of putting a whole roasted bird on a platter.

Salad: love, but only if it's an unusual / festive salad. Not looking for lettuce and cucumbers here. Something with citrus, dried cranberries, pomegranate seeds, etc. Otherwise I'd skip the salad and add a second vegetable instead: roasted Brussel sprouts with lemon, wild rice with cubed butternut squash, or roasted parsnips.

Wegmans sells turkey in pieces - breast, leg, thigh. One year I cooked a breast and two thighs. It was perfect, and so easy.