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This year, for the first time, it will only be DD17 and I for Thanksgiving. DD doesn't do turkey (very picky). She suggested doing burgers on the grill (even if snowing).

Anyone else do nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner? After doing the traditional back breaking and exhausting turkey feast for over 20 years, burgers on the grill is sounding very appealing, especially since DD wants it.

[This message edited by Phoenix1 at 11:30 PM, November 1st (Friday)]

I hate Thanksgiving; it's only work. This year I'll be alone. I'm thinking cheese & crackers and wine.

Last year we had pizza and salad. It was probably the best Thanksgiving ever. It was just the four of us and we were relaxed (no cooking stress), laughing and having a really good time.

I would make a dinner that you two enjoy and can be thankful for! Burgers on the grill (maybe with some pumpkin pie for dessert???) :-). Sounds great!

I think it sounds great! I really don't like Thanksgiving much. All that shopping and cooking and table setting and stress--and then everyone sits down to eat and 10 minutes later it's over.

Burgers on the grill and doing what you want with who you want seems like a great day. Lucky you!

My mother has made steaks on the grill for Christmas before. It's a little more big meal than burgers. We then would have twice baked potatoes and other things. The one thing we never went without was pie and other deserts.

If I decide to cook dinner here I am just going to throw the turkey in the crock-pot and have mashed potatoes. Then a store made deserts. I am a full time college student right now and it's towards the end of the semester so I will be very busy.

We have had pasta.

I will still be doing an in-house separation so there is no way I am throwing in the stress of cooking that huge bird which, as has been pointed out, gets eaten in 10 minutes.

I'm planning a buffet style brunch, there are only four of us. Breakfast things and some ham.

I am vegetarian, so don't do turkey. Also, we no longer live in the US, so don't always celebrate on the day (it's not a holiday here).

Typically what we do is each year choose a country, and then make a fancy meal using that country's food as a menu. We have done Mexican, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Brasilian, French, Ethiopian (went out for that one), Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Lebanese. This year, we will probably either do Mexican again or maybe Korean.

So yeah, a bit non-traditional.

Typically what we do is each year choose a country, and then make a fancy meal using that country's food as a menu. We have done Mexican, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Brasilian, French, Ethiopian (went out for that one), Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Lebanese.

We've already decided that that is what we're doing for Easter this year. We're choosing Greek.

I have only done a turkey twice in 25 years.

My "traditional" is prime rib, super easy, always turns out good.

I have 4 kids and the last few years they have picked the sides/appetizers, etc, they have to make what they pick, so yeah, super easy for me, I just have to make sure we have the ingredients.

Mainly we snack all day and then have the rib roast and then snack the rest of the weekend on left over snacks.

Grace

We have non traditional thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I'm the only one in my family who likes turkey so we either have ham or tenderloin. For Christmas, same thing. A couple years ago, we had steak and crab. I don't have a huge family so it's not cost prohibitive. Traditional can get boring and it is a ton of work.

We do nontraditional. I'm not wild about turkey, but will do it if the kids really want it.

Fortunately, they prefer sushi. Or prime rib. If I'm cooking a fancy meal, it's gonna be prime rib, not turkey.

For Christmas, we always have Texas barbecue--smoked brisket, squishy white bread, the right sauce, etc.

We live in Chicago now. Doesn't matter if it's snowing. Doesn't matter if it's freezing. I smoke a brisket, and we have the most laid-back Christmas dinner ever.

And it's perfect.

I'm ALL for breaking traditions and establishing ones that are meaningful for you.

[This message edited by solus sto at 11:55 AM, November 3rd (Sunday)]

My kids pick out their favorite appetizers and I make them all up. We feast all day on these! Same thing for Christmas.

I'm down with cereal or popcorn!

k9

This year is a mess for us... Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are at the exact same time.

Hanukkah starts the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I LOVE doing the traditional T-day dinner... been cooking it for 20+ years now, every year, and I kinda weirdly love it.

But I also have a "traditional" Hanukkah dinner... which is also big... So... which do I do this year???

Turkey w/ all the trimmin's OR

Prime Rib w/ Latkes, salad and carrots tzimmes?

Ugh!

My family never celebrates the holiday on the actual day. So for me, it's usually steaks on the George foreman.

And a long nap with the corgis on the couch!

It's only my husband and myself, plus my elderly mother, so we don't deal with all of the back-breaking work anymore. We usually go out to dinner on that day - there's always plenty of restaurants open for business (though you do have to make reservations fairly quickly). This year, we're doing a seafood buffet - lots of crab, shrimp and lobster to choose from. There'll be the traditional turkey and fixings if we want them, though, they'll be serving that too.

It's a lot easier on us. We buy a small turkey breast to roast for ourselves, make some mashed potatoes, but we don't go all out anymore.

Enjoy your burgers.

I pretty much live at work so when I am home, I just like to keep it easy.

Our staples are always rice and beans for any meal.

I love home made cranberry sauce, so I make that...and its never sweet enough for anyone else (I would have to use a hole 5 lb bag of sugar for these people) so its all mine.

I pick a veggie.

Bake rolls (from the tube).

Idiot wont eat turkey. Kids have never had it but do the "I dont like it" because he doesnt like it.

One year I found cornish hens. Stuffed cornish hens. Very good.

Another year we grilled very thin skirt steaks (my fav).

Wh likes ham slice sliced small and cooked in brown sugar and butter.

I havent had a traditional thanksgiving meal in 13 yrs. My favorite dish is my ex-boss (from when I was a nanny in CT) pennsylvania dutch mashed potatoes.

During some of the holidays we just put out appetizers to graze on all day instead of doing a big meal. Makes it especially easy for xmas day with the distraction of toys and games and shit. Though we have turned it into a yearly tradition to go have xmas dinner at the Chinese buffet in town. No food cleanup = win