Anyone here cooking a Thanksgiving meal, and if so.....

[Earlybird]

......what will your menu be?

I am hosting this year (by default, and am NOT an accomplished hostess ), so would greatly appreciate some inspired menu ideas / tips.

Need ideas for all of it - starters, main, sides, pudding, etc., and any menus /recipes (with links if possible) would be a godsend.

Also, any brilliant ideas re: table decorations / centrepieces?

I've got 12 adults and 8 children coming. Help!

[ramonaquimby]

Thanksgiving dinner is really just a fancy roast, kind of like a Xmas dinner. Check out Martha Stewart for ideas

[Knowsabitabouteducation]

We do turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, followed by pumpkin pie.

I like to keep it distinct from Christmas, which is a lot more lavish for us.

[NettoSpookerstar]

I'm considering it, though I'm not American and it's only DD and I.
I just love cooking and trying new things, and we love American food.
I'm lurking about for tips, and have been noting down things from Chowhound too.
I particularly want to do the green bean casserole with mushroom soup!

[Grockle]

I am! I'm not American and do everything but the turkey so do the whole thing wrong! This year, I'm going to make veggie corn dogs with mac & cheese I'll be at work so won't have time to do anything else. I will make pumpkin bars too.

[SoggyMoggy]

We do turkey Alton Nrown style, gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet corn and dinner rolls. Pumpkin pie for dessert.

[SoggyMoggy]

Alton Brown style, sorry. Oh! And cranberry sauce!

[SoggyMoggy]

Alton Brown's gorgeous turkey recipe.

[InNeedOfBrandy]

When is thanksgiving? I might so an american day, mac and cheese, fried chicken corn on the cob...

[Grockle]

22nd November - 4th Thursday of the month

I usually do mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows/ brown sugar & cinnamon, green bean casserole (but it's hard to find the dried onions over here), dressing, rolls etc.

[InNeedOfBrandy]

Explain sweet potatoe and marshmallows to me please

[Grockle]

Best to google for quantities & ingredients but basically, you mash sweet potatoes, put them in a dish, pour mini marshmallows on the top then put it back in the oven/ under the grill so they melt & go brown. It is delicious but very sweet and sickly.

[InNeedOfBrandy]

Mmm I am so nicking that for my american dinner thankyou!

[SoggyMoggy]

Oh, and decor wise ... My folks do the whole tasteful scattering of fall leaves thing. At my house, I have one of these that I dress in a blindfold and leave in the center of the table with a wicker cornucopia. Guests have been known to ask why the heck it's blindfolded. I point out they're welcome to remove the blindfold, but then they have to make it face them, because I can't handle the sad little look.

I must be a damned good cook, because people keep coming back, blindfolded turkey toy and all.

[Knowsabitabouteducation]

You can get French's onions, and lots of other American ingredients from Ocado.

[Grockle]

Can you? I have a Ocado account! Yay!

[NettoSpookerstar]

No Ocada here but I see Amazon have the onions and tinned pumpkin.

[Grockle]

American Fizz sell everything too. Don't know what shipping costs are like.

[MadCap]

Grockle, I love Alton Brown.

You can usually get crispy onions with the salad condiments. I've gotten them before from Sainsbury and Tesco.

We usually do a chocolate pudding pie for dessert. But I don't have any jello pudding this year.

[MadCap]

Sorry Soggy not Grockle! Dog!

[NettoSpookerstar]

I quite recently tried an Alton Brown recipe for Mac and Cheese which I served with homemade corn dogs. Bloody lovely.
I boutht DD marshmallow fluff this week from Asda. She loves it.

[MadCap]

Do they show Alton's show over here?

[NettoSpookerstar]

No idea, I got it from Chowhound.

[Knowsabitabouteducation]

TBH, a Thanksgiving meal isn't much more than a typical UK Sunday lunch. It might be a big thing food-wise in the USA, but they don't have the same roast dinner tradition that we have.

So, it's a roast dinner with turkey as the meat. It's no big deal. You can do a meat and two veg meal.

One of the big things about Thanksgiving is that it isn't Christmas. The secondary trappings of the day should not detract from the main message. Don't let your menu, effort of preparation, and table decorations take away from what Thanksgiving is all about (being thankful).

[ZZZenAgain]

is there a typical dessert? I'm supposed to contribute something towards a Thanksgiving Meal but I am planning on doing dessert. Is a cheesecake the sort of thing you'd usually follow the Turkey meal up with?