Cooking thanksgiving dinner at my place, my menu will be:

Smoked beef brisket
Smoked turkey breast
Mashed potatoes with gravy
Cheesy hash browns
Green beans
Stuffing with pork sausage
Chocolate chocolate cheesecake

You are out of your gourd!

One,

That sounds like an amazing dinner. Please return here w pics!

I got this from a friend on FB. I'm thinking about trying to make it for Thanksgiving or Christmas.



Red Velvet Cheesecake

Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

RED VELVET CAKE:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup (two 1-ounce bottles) red food coloring
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons white vinegar

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted lightly to remove any lumps
Two (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Prepare the cheesecake layer: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place a large roasting pan on the lower third rack of the oven. Place a kettle of water on the stove to boil. Spray a 9-inch spring form pan with nonstick spray and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Wrap a double layer of foil around the bottom and up the sides of the pan (you want to seal it so the water from the water bath doesn't seep into the pan).

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the cream cheese- blend until it is nice and smooth and creamy. Mix in sugar and salt and blend for 2 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, blending after each addition. Finally, mix in sour cream, whipping cream and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Set the pan into the roasting pan in the pre-heated oven. Carefully pour the hot water from your kettle into the roasting pan (it will fill the pan surrounding the cheesecake).

Pour enough water so that there is about an inch of water coming up the foil along the sides of the cheesecake pan. Bake the cheesecake for 45 minutes. It should be set to the touch and not jiggle. Remove the cheesecake from the roasting pan and let it cool on a wire rack for at least an hour. When it has cooled, place the pan into the freezer and let the cheesecake freeze completely. This can be done in several hours- or overnight.

Prepare the cake layers: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round metal baking pans (or spray with nonstick baking spray with flour). In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add eggs, oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar to the flour mixture. Using an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat for 1 minute, until blended. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pans, dividing equally. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans, then invert cakes onto a rack to cool completely.

Prepare the frosting: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla until it is smooth and creamy (do not over beat).

Assemble the cake: Place one cake layer into the center of a cake plate or platter. Remove the cheesecake from the freezer, take off the sides of the pan, and slide a knife under the parchment to remove the cheesecake from the pan. Peel off the parchment. Measure your cheesecake layer against the cake layers. If the cheesecake layer turns out to be a slightly larger round than your cake, move it to a cutting board and gently shave off some of the exterior of the cheesecake to get it to the same size as your cake layers. Place the cheesecake layer on top of the first cake layer. Place the 2nd cake layer on top of the cheesecake.

Frost the cake: Apply a crumb coat layer to the cake- use a long, thin spatula to cover the cake completely with a thin and even layer of frosting. Be sure to wipe off your spatula each time you are about to dip it back into the bowl to get more frosting (this way you won't be transferring any red crumbs into the bowl of frosting). Don't worry at this point about the crumbs being visible in the frosting on the cake. When your cake has a thin layer of frosting all over it, place it into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to “set” the frosting.

Once the first layer of frosting is set, apply the 2nd layer. Start by adding a large scoop of frosting onto the top of the cake. Use a long, thin spatula to spread the frosting evenly across the top and then spread it down the sides of the cake too. Because you applied a crumb-coat layer, you shouldn't have any red crumbs floating around in the final frosting layer. Decorate, as desired. I recommend white chocolate shavings.

Makes sense. You are a good enough cook that it probably could have gone unsaid, since a good cook usually knows the tastes of people they are cooking for.

http://www.recipelion.com/Thanksgivi...nksgiving/ct/1

Both the cornbread and the oyster stuffing in this link would go well with the roasted crabs!

EDIT: Just saw the other mention of Oyster stuffing. Call me a +2 on this idea.

Best,
zero

Where do you live? I might need to be there.

zero

Have a great bread pudding recipe from food and wine. It's bread pudding w leeks and garlic, Grace Parisi nov 1999. I've been making it since and it's amazing.

Also making a Cajun stuffing w shrimp and andouille from 2000. Cannot believe I've been making them for so long. So good, I am usually asked to do a post thanksgiving in dec or jan.

Also Alton Browns Mac and cheese, sesame green beans and a bourbon chocolate pecan pie. Then a bunch of veggie stuff for my sister. My friend is a saint and hosting-- her fam, my parents and veggie sister and a good friend.
May also make the hungry cats crab cakes w garlic aioli just for an extra app. They are so yummy!

Happy turkey all!! You can pm me if you want a recipe! I also have a great 2-3 hour hi heat roast turkey that comes out perfectly!

Due to early Chanukah, Thanksgiving dinner will be brisket and latkes.

zero: whoa, thanks for that awesome stuffing link. Those sound perfect, and I almost surely would have made one of those, except....

ecco: Damn, http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/b...eks-and-garlic sounds amazing, that's happening, thanks for the rec!

I'm going over to a good friend's house for Thanksgiving and most everything is super traditional which I don't mind at all. I'll be doing one side item and decided to go with this Spinich-Artichoke Scalloped Potato recipe. I don't know how it couldn't be good.

http://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/01/...otatoes-recipe

Starting off threads titles with the year is a rookie move.

Happy Thanksgiving Clarkie and the Diablo... I can feel the love <3

Fwiw, I'm hot smoking a turkey with hickory. Brined in soy sauce, with ginger and green onions. There will be stuffing and homemade Mac n cheese. Probably some garlic parmesan mashed potatoes. In laws gonna do all kinds of Vietnamese stuff. Gonna be pretty damned good.

Oh my word, the photos in these holiday threads ... drool!!


Once tried a 'lazy pierogi lasagna' that someone brought to a potluck - it had regular potato and cheese layered between the noodles, and it was tasty! The pumpkin lasagna sounds a bit similar, except more Thanksgiving-y

Our Thanksgiving up here in Canada was over a month ago, but now I'm in the mood to make at least a roast chicken and some taters

El D- both are great, I can't believe I've made them for 13 years and they never get old! Enjoy!

Some day, I'll have an oven bigger than a child's and will be able to host thanksgiving again!
Have a great holiday!!

Everyone has their favorite food for Thanksgiving. I prefer a good turkey breast.

Can't wait for Thanksgiving. It's the one and only time of year my aunt/cousin break out the hand graters and make a few pans of Potato Kugel. I posted about it last year but if you are looking for an interesting side dish to serve google that ****. It's legit! Bitch to make tho.

Sounds amazing. Super jelly. Gotta hook up soon.

Anyone know if major supermarkets sell frozen birds without the added pre-brined solution? I went to albertsons today and that's all they had. I know I got one last year but cant remember where.

whole foods maybe?

El D-

Need detailed minutiae re: roasted crab. Intrigued.

found it at Whole Paycheck, thanks.

Also went to:

Albertsons (all have the added 8% brine)
Wal-Mart (same)
Sam's Club (same)
Local Grocery X (same)
Local Grocery Y (same)
The Fresh Market (had fresh birds without the brine, but none frozen, and smallest one was 14lbs, I was looking for 10)

The guy behind the meat counter at The Fresh Market told me that all the "fresh" turkeys are flash-frozen during processing and shipped to the store frozen where it is then thawed, unless it specifically says never frozen. That was my main concern with buying a fresh bird, the abuse a fresh bird would take over the course of shipping, and a frozen bird being arguably more "fresh" being flash-frozen during processing.

Whole Foods was sold out of frozen birds, but I walked up as they were refilling the fresh ones and found a 10lb bird that was still mostly frozen.



At $2.99 /lb it is quite a bit more than the frozen butterball or jeannie-o, but being able to brine mine myself knowing that 8-10% of the bird isn't their own cocktail of salt water makes it worth it.

I'm going to be taking a non-gourmet cheesy potato dish to the family get-together. This was a situation where I got a recipe from an acquaintance, started reading down the list of ingredients, and was like WTF. Something like "1 can condensed Cream of Chicken soup...1/2 tsp salt..." like the can of soup doesn't already have a mountain of salt in it.

Do you guys get family recipes from others and immediately start nitpicking the **** out of them and changing stuff?

"Frozen" isn't really the right word for that process. Birds labeled as "fresh" never get below 26°F.

"Hard chilled" is used for birds that are stored between 0°F and 26°F.

"Frozen" is for birds stored below 0°F.

tmyk

crash,

Super simple, for crab I pretty much just do this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...SS-CRAB-231591

cool, thanks for the info.