Thanksgiving dinner (need suggestions for appetizers) 🦃🧡

Smoked fish and/or caviar with all the accouterments. A high end selection of cheeses. Nothing too filling.

[quote] Smoked fish and/or caviar with all the accouterments. A high end selection of cheeses. Nothing too filling.

That sounds really filling.

first you take a can of tuna and you put it through the meat grinder with peanut butter............

Nothing filling and nothing carby. Crudite platters, shrimp cocktail, oysters, mini meatballs.

I always do a cheese board with an assortment of olives, celery sticks, and deviled eggs. Simple and quick. And there are seldom leftovers to deal with. As far as the cheeses go, I usually do a plain cheddar, smoked gouda, and them something interesting like a blue or brie.

Bruschetta are my failproof appetizer choice. Good, cheap, classy. I might add some anchovies or smoked salmon to make it a but more fancy.

I like asparagus steamed crisp wrapped in goat cheese and prosciutto.

Thanks all

R6 there are a lot Bruschetta recipes - any one in particular you like?

I was thinking bruschetta, also, but wondering if people could get good tomatoes now.

Not R8, but this is how i make bruschetta.

Store-bought baguette (or Italian bread of course) sliced, brushed with olive oil and broiled in oven.

Bruschetta topping:

Tomatoes (e.g., grape or Roma)

Onion

Garlic

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Crushed red pepper

Salt & pepper

That's it.

Forgot to add: fresh basil.

Smoked salmon and nibbly things

If a couple of crackers with some creme fraiche and caviar sounds filling to you, r2, you might have an eating disorder. Sorry.

What’s wrong with the pickles, olives, carrot sticks, and stuffed celery rolled in nuts?

Take about 20 large dried dates and split them open. Lay them out on wax paper on a baking sheet. Put a dab of goat cheese in each (about a teaspoon worth). Drizzle them with honey and sprinkle crushed pistachios and chopped rosemary on top. Pop them in the oven at 375 for 10-15 minutes. DELICIOUS. Feels fancy but is super low effort.

I also sometimes do deep-fried brussel sprouts with a fig jam chutney (easy) dipping sauce. The trick to the sprouts is to put them in the oil while it's still cold and let them heat up together. Let them deep fry and spoon them out onto paper towels to drain when thoroughly browned. Sprinkle with sea salt. Make sure to serve them hot so they're nice and crispy.

To make the chutney I just get store bought fig jam and let it simmer with cloves, cinnamon, orange zest, and two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar.

We're going to a nice buffet that the local hotel puts on.

OP, this was posted here a couple of months ago:

accouterments

Oh DEAR!

Scotch bonnet peppers stuffed with blue cheese, marcona almonds, deviled eggs with curry.

Grapes coated with roquefort and rolled in your choice of chopped nuts.

Can we make this our one stop thread for our Thanksgiving menus and suggestions?

Thanksgiving appetizers are not entitled to oven space, so nothing you have to bake or heat up in the over which is reserved for the holiday’s main stars.

Cut brioche bread with a dip. Preferably cranberry and cream cheese.

Anything with saltines or Ritz crackers will suffice. Chicken bacon cranberry appetizers on a saltine or ritz cracker is perfect.

Avoid nuts. Allergies.

I have struggled with this question forever it seems. My partners and I have all loved entertaining, and I have made so many bad choices over the years - appetizers that were too filling, too much trouble to prep, didn't hold well, weren't popular - you name it. I worked for a caterer years ago and she used to make these antipasto sticks, which is pretty much all I do now. They are portable, so people can pick them up and still manage to drink and talk...you can put whatever you want on them. I use olives (no pits), chunks of provolone and salami, pickled onions, tomatoes, marinated mozzarella, pepperoni, pepperoni, chunks of feta, dolmas - whatever that is bite sized and flavorful. Skewer them and put them all on a plate. Add some smoked almonds, and maybe some while bean dip with pickled carrots and string beans - super easy and people really do love it.

For something light, make skewers with grape tomatoes, little balls of fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil leaves, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic. Add a touch of sea salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper. They take almost no time to assemble, and make a nice contrast to the heavier fall-themed foods typically served at Thanksgiving.

I like deviled eggs.

R17, I hope you get laid on Thanksgiving, but that's a long shot. If you don't, I'll sign up to kick you in the cunt.

Can we discuss roasting the turkey? I'm going to dry brine my fresh bird a couple of days in advance, then I'll stuff butter and herbs under the skin. I usually start off at a high temp, then reduce. I'll roast the bird on a bed of rough chopped onion, carrots, celery, and garlic, which will help flavor my gravy. How often do you guys baste? I always worry about lowering the oven temp every time I open the door. Oh, and I add two lemon halves...

That sounds good r27. You got all of that shoved in under the skin, I don't think you need to bother basting. I don't. I just put a tent of foil over the breast if it's getting too dark.

Basting is very old timey. I think you just need a probe thermometer to get it to the right temp. The day before I cut the turkey into pieces: legs and breast crown with wings attached. When cooked flat on a sheet pan it cooks much more evenly and much faster. I roast the carcass in a hot oven for a bit and use that to make a stock which is used for the gravy and cornbread dressing. I’ve tried dry brining in the past but I always ended up with leathery nearly inedible skin I guess because it got too dry in the fridge. I recommend keeping it covered. Last year I just rubbed an herb mayo over and under the skin. Finally crispy brown skin. I cooked it at 450 for about an hour using a probe thermometer in the breast, took it out at 150. Breast was slightly dryer than I had hoped, I probably should lower the oven temp but I’m scared the skin won’t turn out as crispy.

Something sure to make your guests bloated and gassy before the Thanksgiving prayer. We like candied(with red hots!) baked beans with li’l smokies in a Gruyère sauce. Each in their individual crock. Naked Contessa swears by it.

Coconut flaked raspberry layer cake is a lite, simple appetizer that compliments our pastrami and provolone stuffed olives rolled in hypoallergenic nuts that are a fun, quick fix in the microwave.

An assortment of Little Debbie Cakes

Chips and dips

Hot wings and tenders from the air fryer

A couple bottles of Dom

Lube and toys

Block of cream cheese covered in raspberry pepper sauce (someone help me with the brand name), served with Wheat Thins.

If you have some oven space broiler some, goat cheese-filled dates wrapped in bacon and the have them passed by your Haitian maid are always a crowd pleaser.

Buy a big box of those frozen hot dog appetizers, wrapped in puff pastry. Unhealthy as fuck but people grab them all the time. No fuss., just pop in oven. Also trays of cheeses, grapes, chips and dips. Bowl of nuts.

Plenty to nibble on before a heavy feast.

Stonewall Kitchen has some good options, r33.

OP don't have any. Nothing. Your all going to eat like pigs, so why bother with "appetizers."

A cheese ball with various crackers.

R18 "Scotch bonnet peppers stuffed with blue cheese"

You serve scotch bonnet peppers stuffed with blue cheese at your house? Maybe you're thinking of some other type of pepper.

How about spiced flamingo tongues?

Cheese slices or cubes and crackers.

No mushrooms. No seafood. And nothing anyone can double dip in.

Put out some mixed nuts and raw vegetable tray. No one needs appetizers on Thanksgiving.

A cheese ball, crackers and crudite. You need nothing else for apps on Thanksgiving, what with all the gluttony to come.

I agree that appetizers shouldn’t need an oven to prepare as it will just up the stress factor. I like the idea of antipasto type layout, some mixed nuts, crudités with some dip, cheese, crackers… any of those would be good.

Ice cubes

Here you go.

Three huge bowls filled with a family size bag of Lays potato chips; plain, BBQ, and sour cream & onion.

My mom used to make a fantastic dip by blending together cream cheese and taco sauce.

Cheese will always be an after-dinner thing to me, especially for big meals.

I thought everyone on the planet had those celery sticks filled with cream cheese and sprinkled with paprika. Maybe some tiny sweet pickles on the side and some black olives out of the can. (That was Thanksgiving 1965-1980 and I'm sticking to it).

Red wine braised chorizo slices on skewers is quite nice and not carby. Lightly pickled (morning of) thinly shaved zucchini (or maybe cucumber, I hate cucumber so haven’t tried this) wrapped around herbed goat cheese is lovely and light.

I am so sick of this bullshit. I never Really expected to live in the end of times.

Excuse me, r52, but the hour is growing late. May I draw your curtains and prepare your nightclothes?

Yes please.