No turkey for Thanksgiving?

[Rye Miles #13621]

I’m going to my son’s house for Thanksgiving. There’s only 4 of us and we’re having spaghetti, meatballs and sausage. It’s about getting together not necessarily the food! My Ex is making the dinner and she makes great sauce! 

Anyone else having something else than turkey?

Edited November 18, 2025 by Rye Miles #13621

[Pat Riot]

I am smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving. I am also smoking one on Christmas Day. 

[Rip Snorter]

I didn't know they made papers that big!

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

Yepper!!  I'm in.  Or "out" depending on your outlook.  I don't particularly care for Turkey except for the Dark Meat.  And, for the two of us, an entire Turkey is just over kill.  Way way too much food.

 

I'll be doing Pork Tenderloin, baked Sweet Potato and Corn.  I had considered special ordering a Turkey Thigh but it's just more work than I want to do.  Yep, I are lazy and tenderloin is a really great meal.

[Cypress Sun]

We usually have turkey but we're going to my sister's house, so I have no idea. She usually makes turkey though. I'm bringing the desserts so I do know what desserts we'll be having.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I have no idea what I'm having.  I don't even care.  

 

I've been invited to the home of some old friends and whatever they put out is fine by me.  

 

I can get a meal anywhere, but friendship isn't on the menu at most of those places.

 

Have a great day, and I hope it's with your friends, too.

Edited November 18, 2025 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[Gateway Kid SASS# 70038 Life]

Two Thanksgivings for us. First up to my wife’s sister in Meeker to see everyone and get excited about our nephews new baby due in late January, plus another nephews baby due late March, plus our nieces baby due in May.
Turkey plus everything else you would expect. Come back home and I am smoking a prime rib for our Bible study group on Sunday. I will be making a pecan pie, lots of mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted brussel sprouts and everyone brings their favorite as a donation. 
Should be flush with leftovers for a while, which is a good thing!

Regards and enjoy your family time!

Gateway Kid

[Alpo]

44 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

I didn't know they made papers that big!

You never heard of Cheech and Chong's Big Bambu? It came with a paper.

 

It would probably have to be a small turkey though.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I’m going to my son’s house for Thanksgiving. There’s only 4 of us and we’re having spaghetti, meatballs and sausage. It’s about getting together not necessarily the food! My Ex is making the dinner and she makes great sauce! 

Anyone else having something else than turkey?

waitaminit is it "sauce" or "gravy"?  😛

[Subdeacon Joe]

I have no idea.  SWMBO looked at me a few days ago and said, "Let's not Do Thanksgiving this year. Maybe just Stovetop and sweet potatoes."  I'm fine with that.  Just the two of us.  It's about family and friends, not the 5 hours of cooking and 5 minutes of eating.  Heck, we haven't down the classic Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving for years.  Oh, we have the foods, but not all at once.  Usually buy one of the Loss Leader turkey, thaw it, brine it, then cut it up and cook the parts as parts.  Boil the backbone, neck and wing tips to make broth, usually adding the trimmings from the onions and celery I use for the dressing.  Use that to make gravy.   I might make the mashed potatoes and gravy for breakfast, bake off a breast and a thigh and make dressing for lunch, cook the sweet potatoes and wings for dinner. Or make turkey sandwiches and have leftover dressing for dinner. 
A lot less stress that way, and makes the clean up as I go easier.  

[Chantry]

Not me, I expect I'll be cooking sweet & sour chicken for me and my mother.

 

I can eat turkey and ham, I'm not a fan of either.  Probably due to 30+ years of holiday bad cooking by an aunt, which is where Thanksgiving and Christmas used to be held.  Don't miss the 2+ hour drive each way in holiday traffic either.

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

Venison 

 

 might smoke some catfish 

 

  if all else fails , a ham sandwich 

 

 just depends , on how much work , I want to do 

 

  CB 

[Subdeacon Joe]

6 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

waitaminit is it "sauce" or "gravy"?  😛

 

 

I thought it was only gravy on Sunday.  (cue Melina Mercouri)

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

My all time favorite. Jennie-O used to make a commercial version, but it is discontinued. If I can find something similar, that's what we'll have. It's just the wife and I ,(unless our daughter and her husband  show up), and even then not worth the effort of a full meal. 

[Rip Snorter]

So far, 2 kids with 2 dogs.  Pending, 2 more kids, one dog.  Possible, Friend & adult son.  Had to laugh, when I looked up turkey for 8 people with leftovers, the 'Net said a 12# Turkey!  Life experience?  16#  with all the fixin's.  A day's work!  Possible 6 dogs present!  Excitement for sure.

[Subdeacon Joe]

18 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

My all time favorite. Jennie-O used to make a commercial version, but it is discontinued. If I can find something similar, that's what we'll have. It's just the wife and I ,(unless our daughter and her husband  show up), and even then not worth the effort of a full meal. 

 

Turkey Spam.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I was early to the market yesterday and got a 9.7#, thawing it now. I'll save the legs

and thighs and make a broth with the rest.

[Rye Miles #13621]

54 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

waitaminit is it "sauce" or "gravy"?  😛

In my Italian family it’s SAUCE! Gravy is the brown stuff you put on meat loaf etc. Calling sauce gravy is mostly a NY NJ thing! 😜

[Yul Lose]

I usually smoke a 24-27 lb prime rib roast. I have a granddaughter that insists on turkey so I ordered a precooked turkey from a local market and will warm it up on thanksgiving day. We usually have lots of turkey leftovers but not much of the prime rib. 18 people have RSVP’D so far.

[Alpo]

It's not only sauce at my house, it's spaghetti sauce. When I first heard the term marinara sauce, maybe 10 years ago, I thought that was what it was called and I called it that until I learned that marinara does not have meat in it. So I went back to calling it spaghetti sauce. I put it on spaghetti. I use it when I make lasagna. I put it on chicken and bake it. But whatever I do with it, it's spaghetti sauce.

[Cypress Sun]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

You never heard of Cheech and Chong's Big Bambu? It came with a paper.

 

It would probably have to be a small turkey though.

 

 

Yep, that was a huge rolling paper. After using the rolling paper, but after that....did it really matter what was for dinner? There probably was no leftover turkey....or turkey sandwiches....or dressing....or potatoes....or green beans. Cranberry sauce was the last thing to go.

Least, that's what I heard anyway.

[Rye Miles #13621]

8 minutes ago, Alpo said:

It's not only sauce at my house, it's spaghetti sauce. When I first heard the term marinara sauce, maybe 10 years ago, I thought that was what it was called and I called it that until I learned that marinara does not have meat in it. So I went back to calling it spaghetti sauce. I put it on spaghetti. I use it when I make lasagna. I put it on chicken and bake it. But whatever I do with it, it's spaghetti sauce.

That sounds like when I found out that chicken cacciatore was basically chicken in sauce with different spices etc. My mom made it once a week and we called it “Chicken in Sauce”. I guess we were not high classed Italians 😂🤣

[Rip Snorter]

7 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

Yep, that was a huge rolling paper. After using the rolling paper, but after that....did it really matter what was for dinner? There probably was no leftover turkey....or turkey sandwiches....or dressing....or potatoes....or green beans. Cranberry sauce was the last thing to go.

Least, that's what I heard anyway.

I seem to recall back in the '60's the stoners got the munchies.  Not my thing, but they were everywhere,

[Rye Miles #13621]

Just now, Rip Snorter said:

I seem to recall back in the '60's the stoners got the munchies.  Not my thing, but they were everywhere,

Yea and they ate weird snacks, that’s what I was told! 🤣🤣

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 minute ago, Rip Snorter said:

I seem to recall back in the '60's the stoners got the munchies.  Not my thing, but they were everywhere,

That’s why food trucks near pot dispensaries succeed, or so I’m told.

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

I have never been a Turkey fan .

So even as a kid I always eat Ham.

Rooster 

[Rye Miles #13621]

I love turkey and all the fixings but you don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving. We can have it whenever we want! 

[Grumpy Old Man]

We have ham. everyone but SIL likes it. SIL does a deep fried turkey for him. Son and grandson come in from Colorado. Fri after we have Thanks Christmas for the grands.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

When my Beautiful Bride was a girl at home, their church had a Walking Thanksgiving.
They'd start at one house and have one course.
Walk to another house and have the second course.
When they came to the turkey, it wasn't done right, my wife had food poisoning afterward and to this day can't stand turkey!

Our first Thanksgiving together involved Cornish Hens -- she could not get the frozen bag of giblets out of the frozen carcass -- I ended up kind of murdering it out with a pair of channel lock pliers and profanity, not necessary in that order, and it was the first time I sent my wife into a case of the Hysterical Bubbles, for she'd wakened me (I was working midnights) and there I am, long tall and skinny, wearing undershorts and an irritated expression, quietly profaning the offending bird while plying the plumbing pliers with increasing frustration, aggravation and irritation, not necessarily in that order!
(In the several years since I found other ways to embarrass and humiliate myself, this was just the first)
Over the years we've had Thanksgiving pizza, Thanksgiving stir fry, one year just for funzies we had Turkey TV Dinners (which she ate without reservation, apparently if it comes out of a factory instead of someone's house turkey is OK)

Matter of fact, just shy of three decades as man and wife, I don't honestly think we've ever fixed turkey under our own roof!

[DeaconKC]

It looks like we will have almost 30 people here for Thanksgiving, so there will be turkey, ham, etc and all the extras!

[Subdeacon Joe]

My wife found this today. 

 

 

 

With mashed potatoes. 

 

Safeway has turkey for 39 cents a pound. Bone it out and grind it.  Cheaper than buying ground turkey.   Make a raft of them and freeze most. 

 

 

[Smokin Gator SASS #29736]

We have been going to my oldest daughters house for the last few years. This year I got my grandsons electric motocross motorcycles and had a decent track made out back. My wife wants everyone to come here and depending on the weather the kids can be out back playing and the older two boys riding.

 

Dinner will be typical Thanksgiving. I like ham ok but it's usually nothing great. Instead I'm making this Carmelized Pasilla chile tritip. A couple of tritips, dried pasilla chiles, tomatillos, garlic, broth etc. You cook it in the oven then remove the meat and slice it then run everything else in the pot through the blender. Put the sliced meat back in and pour the blender full over the meat. Add carrots and potatoes and cook for another hour or so. I made it before and we all really loved it.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I'm planning drumsticks. that's it just drumsticks.

[Alpo]

8 hours ago, Smokin Gator SASS #29736 said:

Instead I'm making this Carmelized Pasilla chile tritip.

I read that last word as tripe.

 

Why would someone serve tripe at a holiday dinner?

 

Read it again. Ooohhh. Yeah that makes a little more sense.

[Yul Lose]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

I read that last word as tripe.

 

Why would someone serve tripe at a holiday dinner?

 

Read it again. Ooohhh. Yeah that makes a little more sense.

Millions of Mexicans serve menudo at holiday gatherings and one of its main ingredients is tripe.