Quick and Easy Recipes from Reader's Digest has a whole section on Thanksgiving Appetizers They've divided the recipes into two groups: 15 minutes or less and 30 minutes or less. That way you can just check the time you want to spend on them and treat your hungry mob.
All Recipes also has a delicious collection of Thanksgiving appetizers that you can plan for your Thanksgiving meal.
Razzle Dazzle Recipes' Thanksgiving starter section has great Thanksgiving soup recipes with squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, and acorn. Sounds yummy and so homely that I wish thanksgiving was here already! Razzle Dazzle Recipes also have a collection of Thanksgiving appetizers so you can razzle and dazzle your guests! (Ok, I like just saying razzle dazzle.)
Send this Thanksgiving eCard !
Hey folks your thanksgiving dinner has to start with something. And to keep the hungry crowd at bay and wait for those late relatives or guests, appetizers are the best. And anyone would love Deep Fried Mozzarella as started for the big meal. They're not so heavy and they're not that difficult to make. So just watch this video and you can have it on your thanksgiving dinner menu!
VideoJug: How To Make Deep Fried Mozzarella
Have you seen and read the how to make turkey stock? Once you have the turkey stock you'd be ready to make the turkey gravy. Check out this video to learn how.
VideoJug: How To Make Perfect Turkey Gravy
And if you're not sure how to plan your thanksgiving dinner, read my post on Countdown to Thanksgiving 2007 - I've outline the dates and what you need by when so you're not stressed out right before the big family dinner.
One thing I love about Thanksgiving is that everything is homemade. There's nothing like the taste of mother's cooking. The best things are the little things that count. Like I can't imagine myself having a thanksgiving dinner without cranberry sauce. And no, not the shouting and yelling of 'cranberry sauce' in a Tenacious D concert. I'm talking about the best condiment that goes with thanksgiving turkey.
Sure you can get it by opening up a can but where's the fun in that? For those of you who still opt for the can I recommend you watch this video.
I found it on Cooking.com - it's a more fruity version but I think it'll be totally delicious, especially with all those zest and fruits in it!
You need to make Turkey Stock for the gravy. If you don't have the recipe for Turkey Stock you should read the recipe on Epicurious - Turkey Stock Recipe.
This is a chicken stock variation from VideoJug. You can use the same to make turkey stock too.
VideoJug: How To Make Chicken Stock
I know it's only the middle of August and school hasn't even started. But before you know it it'll be the holiday season and we'd all be panicking for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and parties. If you've decided to stay at home and have your Thanksgiving dinner there's a couple of things you can do weeks (and even a month!) in advanced. This way when the big day comes you don't have to do everything all at once and you're less stressed out.
Here's the countdown to Thanksgiving Dinner 2007:
(Thanksgiving falls on Monday 8th of October for our Canadian neighbors so I've included a plan for them as well.)
One Month to Turkey Day:
September 8th (Canadians)/October 22nd (one week before Halloween in the US) : Make your turkey stock and freeze it. You're going to need this for the turkey gravy.
One Week to Turkey Day:
October1st for Canadians and November 15th for Americans: Make Cranberry Sauce and Refrigerate it. Ideally you should have your turkey or have booked by now.
Three Days to Turkey Day:
October 5th for Canadians and November 19th for Americans: Defrost the turkey by putting it out of the freezer into the refrigerator.
Two Days to Turkey Day:
October 6th or November 20th: Make pastry dough for pumpkin pie. Dips and/or other appetizers that you can make ahead of time.
One Day to Turkey Day:
October 7th or November 21st: Bake bread for the stuffing. Chop the vegetables. Make dinner rolls, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.
Turkey Day:
Make stuffing and mashed potatoes. Cook the turkey 5-7 hours before serving it (cooking time depends on the size of the bird and the size of the bird depends on how many people are coming. The general rule of thumb is one pound of bird per person and the cooking time should be 20 minutes per pound.)
Serve the appetizers when the guests arrive.
After cooking the turkey pour the dripping nto a bowl to make gravy. Make gravy, bake any stuffing that didn't get into the turkey. Reheat the mashed and sweet potatoes and the dinner rolls.
Did I leave out anything? I'll be posting the recipes and how to go about cooking all this stuff so stay tuned!
Free Thanksgiving ecard that special someone that you want to share the Thanksgiving season with. Send all your special friends and family free Thanksgiving ecards. Knowing the email address of the recipient is necessary when sending free Thanksgiving ecards. With variety of art and written sentiments that enhance the holiday season, free Thanksgiving ecards will delight the recipient. With the Thanksgiving season approaching, plan on doing a search on the Internet to find that special ecard. Thanksgiving denotes a time with family and friends, holding them close at heart. It further signifies sharing and giving thanks for all blessings. Sending that special loved one a free Thanksgiving ecard allows this expression to be a further blessing.
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Article Source: Thanksgiving Ecards and Greetings
How the Turkey Got Its Name
There are a number of explanations for the origin of the name of Thanksgiving's favorite dinner guest. Some believe Christopher Columbus thought that the land he discovered was connected to India, and believed the bird he discovered (the turkey) was a type of peacock. He therefore called it 'tuka,' which is 'peacock' in Tamil, an Indian language.
Though the turkey is actually a type of pheasant, one can't blame the explorer for trying.
The Native American name for turkey is 'firkee'; some say this is how turkeys got their name. Simple facts, however, sometimes produce the best answers—when a turkey is scared, it makes a "turk, turk, turk" noise.
Turkey Facts
At one time, the turkey and the bald eagle were each considered as the national symbol of America. Benjamin Franklin was one of those who argued passionately on behalf of the turkey. Franklin felt the turkey, although "vain and silly", was a better choice than the bald eagle, whom he felt was "a coward".
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving—that's one sixth of all turkeys sold in the U.S. each year.
American per capita consumption of turkeys has soared from 8.3 pounds in 1975 to 18.5 pounds last year.
Last year, 2.7 billion pounds of turkey was processed in the United States.
Age is a determining factor in taste. Old, large males are preferable to young toms (males) as tom meat is stringy. The opposite is true for females: old hens are tougher birds.
A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.
Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult. However, turkeys have a poor sense of smell (what's cooking?), but an excellent sense of taste.
Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.
Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees.
Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets
The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named for the short, jerky steps a turkey makes.
Here are more Turkey Fun Facts by the numbers...
$1 is the cost per pound in December 2004 of a frozen whole turkey.
3 is the number of places nationwide named after the holiday's tasty gobbler. Turkey, Texas, is the most populous, with 496 residents; followed by Turkey Creek, La. (357); and Turkey, N.C. (267). There also are 16 townships around the country named "Turkey," three of them in Kansas.
8 is the number of places and townships in the U.S. of A. that are named "Cranberry" or some variation of the name (e.g., Cranbury, New Jersey)
20 is the number of places in the United States named Plymouth, as in "Plymouth Rock," legendary location of the first Thanksgiving.
Plymouth, Minnesota is the most populous, with 65,894 residents in 2000.
Plymouth, Massachusetts had 51,701.
13.7 pounds is the amount of turkey consumed by the typical American in 2003 -- no doubt a good bit of it at Thanksgiving time. Per capita turkey consumption was virtually the same as in 1990 (13.8 pounds), but 68 percent higher than in 1980 (8.1 pounds).
256 million is the preliminary estimate of turkeys raised in the United States in 2005. That’s down 3 percent from 2004. The turkeys produced in 2004 weighed 7.3 billion pounds altogether and were valued at $3.1 billion. And that's a lot of turkey.
44.5 million is the estimate of the number of turkeys Minnesota expects to raise in 2005. The Gopher State is tops in turkey production. It is followed by North Carolina (36.0 million), Arkansas (29.0 million), Virginia (21.0 million), Missouri (20.5 million) and California (15.1 million). These six states together will probably account for about 65 percent of U. S. turkeys produced in 2005.
649 million pounds is the forecast for U.S. cranberry production in 2005, up 5 percent from 2004. Wisconsin is expected to lead all states in the production of cranberries, with 367 million pounds, followed by Massachusetts (170 million). Oregon, New Jersey and Washington are also expected to have substantial production, ranging from 18 million to 52 million pounds.
1.6 billion pounds is the total weight of sweet potatoes — another popular Thanksgiving side dish — produced in the United States in 2004. North Carolina (688 million pounds) produced more sweet potatoes than any other state. It was followed by California (339 million pounds). Mississippi and Louisiana also produced large amounts: at least 200 million pounds each.
457 million pounds is the record held by Illinois for total U.S. pumpkin production — followed by California, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York which produced at least 70 million pounds worth.
$5.2 million is the value of U.S. imports of live turkeys during the first half of 2005 -- all from Canada. Our northern neighbors also accounted for all of the cranberries the United States imported ($2.2 million).
Stats are complied thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. import and export trade reports, the U.S. Census and the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Of all the Thanksgiving symbols the Turkey has become the most well known. The wild turkey is native to northern Mexico and the eastern United States
The turkey has brown features with buff-colored feathers on the tips of the wing and on the tail. The male turkey is called a Tom and, as with most birds, is bigger and has brighter and more colorful plumage. The female is called a Hen and is generally smaller and drab in color. The Tom turkey has a long wattle (a fleshy, wrinkled, brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat)at the base of its bill and additional wattles on the neck, as well as a prominent tuft of bristles resembling a beard projecting downward from its chest.
The turkey was originally domesticated in Mexico, and was brought into Europe early in the 16th century. Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs. Some of the common breeds of turkey in the United States are the Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, and Bourbon Red.
Though there is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim's first thanksgiving, in a book written by the Pilgrim's Governor Bradford he does make mention of wild turkeys. In a letter sent to England, another Pilgrim describes how the governor sent "four men out fowling" returning with turkeys, ducks and geese.
Benjamin Franklin
"I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country: he is a Bird of bad moral character: like those among Men who live by Sharping and Robbing, he is generally poor and very often lousy.
The Turkey is a much more respectable Bird and withal a true original Native of North America"
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welcome to Thanksgiving Wishes
