I got invited to a Thanksgiving dinner this year and want to bring a dish, but I'm not a very good cook?

>I want it to be good though.
You said you're not a good cook, and you're pressed for time. So your chances of making something good are slim. If I were in your position I'd show up with drinks - a few bottles of Pinot Noir or a case of decent beer, depending on the crowd. Problem solved, and you will have shown up with something good.

If it's a drinking crowd, this also works. Just make it clear you're not skimping cooking by grabbing something nice-ish.

Best Ever Cranberry Sauce:

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 12-ounce packages of cranberries
2 oranges
1 lemon
Honey (to taste) or alternatively, replacing the sugar with honey. Use a ratio of 1/2 cup honey to 1 cup sugar, and after cooking add more to taste, if necessary. Replacing some of the sugar with honey gives it a really nice mellow sweetness.

1. give berries a good rinse, remove any bad ones
2. combine berries, water, sugar in large saucepot with lid
3. add juice & zest of oranges and lemon.
4. add honey, stirring continuously, cover and bring to a boil.
5. once the berries start softening and popping, reduce heat, remove from heat, and mash berries with potato masher in pot. be careful, the bubbling sauce is very hot.
6. return to heat, cover, and let simmer for a few minutes. remove from heat and mash again. mashing them twice is usually enough, after the boil, the simmer and the double mash the berries have generally released all their pectin. you want them to be broken down to basically skin and seeds in the sauce.
7. continue simmering, stirring continuously at a low heat. this process can be done at a slightly higher temp, just be careful not to burn it. you are trying to cook the water out. once its nice and thick, maybe 15 minutes of stirring and simmering, it will be done.
8. remove from heat. at this point you can add honey to taste, if desired.
9. if you are feeling adventurous, you can strain the skins and seeds, but it's amazing as a whole berry sauce.
10. serve warm or chilled. Chilled it will form a nice thick congealed skin when you remove the water properly. Either way, delicious.

>>Best ever
>>water

Why do you hate flavor so much? Fucking red wine bro. Not water. Wine. Or at the very least use juice.

Seconding this. Mashed butternut squash with caramelized onions and parmesan cheese is one of our favorite side dishes at Thanksgiving. It's super easy, and tasty. It can be even easier nowadays, since most grocery stores sell precut and peeled butternut squash.

>water
>makes a fuss
>ignores recipe directions

Look drunkanon, booze up whatever you want, on your own time, but at least read everything before commenting.
I'm not sure an inexperienced cook would know how to modify that recipe without ruining it, and I have never cooked it with alcohol. Other friends of mine have made cranberry sauce with alcohol in them, and I frankly think they taste like shit.
By all means though, post your own recipe.

This is my favorite Thanksgiving cookbook by far. Really good, modern recipes that avoid the normal flyover pitfalls. A couple of my favorites are the sasuage and sage stuffing and the pumpkin pie with pecan crust.

You can get a PDF of it pretty easily on the normal pirate sites

>but at least read everything before commenting.
I did. That's how I determined the recipe is sub-par because it lacks wine.

I've made gordon ramsay's recipe many times. It's virtually identical to the one you posted except it uses wine instead of water, and it has no orange and only lemon (a minor change).

A good rule of thumb is that water in a recipe is nearly always a bad thing. There is nearly always something else that will add the liquid you need but also adds flavor instead of tasting like nothing the way water does. For savory dishes like soups or stews stock is the obvious choice. For things that are meant to be sweeter then juice is a great choice. Wine has applications for either.

Anyway, yeah, cooking with booze won't taste good unless you cook it long enough that most of the alcohol cooks out. But assuming you do that it is much tastier than using water. If you need to avoid alcohol for religious (or whatever) reasons then use juice instead. Just pick something that tastes good instead of tasting like nothing.

Any recipes you recommend?

Thanks, I'll torrent that.

here is one of my favorites at thanksgiving
Sweet potato casserole
3 cup Mashed sweet potato (I rub oil on them and roast whole til soft, let them cool a bit and cut in half to scoop out the taters)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup soft butter
combine and pour in 2qt. greased oven save dish. if your worried about the eggs being cooked by the heat of the roasted potatoes just let them cool some or mix everything up and add the taters last

top with
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup soft butter
1 cup chopped pecans
combine and spread on the casserole evenly
350 for 30 min

this is way better than some marshmellow shit. plus you don't need to make this ahead and try it out. it's real simple and very tasty

but I had a cranberry sauce once and this one seems like it could be it (it was amazing). this sounds like a winner too. and I bet these will be a highlight to the meal.

I'd like to make a sweet potato something but that was one thing they always make so probably would be redundant. The one she makes is really gross too, it's too sweet for me.

invoking gordon ramsay instead of posting your own recipe makes you come off as a cunt. "just look in the gordon ramsay book lolz!"
And there are orange and lemon juices (besides the cranberries) in the recipe already. How much juice does it need user?
"A good rule of thumb is that water in a recipe is nearly always a bad thing."
A good rule of thumb is to actually contribute, or fuck off. People have been cooking delicious food with water everywhere since the beginning of time. Do you always cook pasta with chicken stock? Seriously, being a critic is great and all, but at least use your brain. Something isn't bad just because you have a water phobia.

..oh, but I'm going to try to make that anyways even just for myself the weekend before. I'll make a learning experience out of it. Thanks.

it might not be up your kind of dish, there is a lot of sugar in it. maybe try halving the sugars in the dish and topping. never tried that though. the sweet pecan topping is what makes this one of my favorites.

if you go with the cranberry recipe posted above, do not leave out the oranges like the gordon fan talks about. the time I had something like it, you could tell there was orange in it and that along with the real cranberry made it so good

Okay I will try it thanks! That does look easy.

>People have been cooking delicious food with water everywhere since the beginning of time.
I'm well aware. I'm just offering advice on how to improve. I'm not sure why that triggered you.

>>Do you always cook pasta with chicken stock?
No, I often use pork stock.

anything in that pic would be pretty easy. our just get a pie from the store and heat it up. our you could be the wild one and make chili. mac n cheese. buy one of those spiral hams.

Stocks and wine killed my entire family, I'm sorry I overreacted.

So do I use wine or water? Is wine a direct substitute? What kind of wine?

As the poster of the recipe above, I would not use wine. I don't like alcohol-tasting cranberry sauce. This is a thread for recipes for someone who is not a good cook. Use your discretion.

Make this.
>inb4 people rage at me for being a weeb
It's pretty easy and seriously tasty. The "2 servings" is assuming it's the main dish, so I'd say make half to a quarter for the number of people at the dinner, to make it work as a side. So if you have eight people, make this or double this, but no more. Also crumble the bacon into it instead of serving it on the side as in the picture.

I usually just boil it like you would a potato. When it is soft it can be eaten with butter and pepper, or gravy, or brown sugar. If you want to make it like mashed/whipped potatoes just use butter and milk or whatever goes in mashed potatoes. You could also roast it in the skin or in chunks with a coating of oil and salt . It's really very simple and you can't ruin it unless you start adding weird ingredients.

The key to delicious butternut is getting one that has aged a few months after it was picked because the flesh gets much sweeter and darker orange

I myself wouldn't use wine. that recipe above looks like a tried and true recipe. plus lemon, orange and cranberry have a lot of flavor, especially when using the zest

Thanks.

Be sure to ask the people who invited you what dishes they'll already have covered just to be safe
In my experience people don't tend to have things like roasted carrots or squash, yet they fit perfectly and are pretty easy to do.
1.5 pounds carrots, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper
425 oven. Peel carrots, cut them in half and chop into equal sized pieces about finger length. Toss with melted butter and salt and pepper. Place on foil lined baking sheet in a single layer, then tightly cover with foil and cook for 15 minutes. Remove foil, stir, then return to oven without the foil covering for about 30 minutes until they're browned and tender, stirring at 10 and 20 minutes. Season to taste
Most roasted carrot recipes add sugar to caramelize them further, but I like the light natural sweetness more. Feel free to add more seasonings like cumin, coriander, cinnamon, rosemary, thyme, paprika or red pepper flakes. It tastes great with just salt and pepper though

Thanks this sounds very nice

Sure.
>slice up a few onions and caramelize them in butter (if you need directions for that, I can tell you)
>boil or steam cubed butternut squash like you would potatoes, until tender
>mash or whip squash with butter and a little warm cream, until you get a nice mashed potato type consistency.
>stir in the caramelized onion (save some to decorate the top)
>stir in about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (less or more to taste), and save some to sprinkle on top.
>taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper (you don't want to salt the squash until you taste how much saltiness the cheese added).
>spoon into serving dish and sprinkle with a little more parmesan and put a little mound of caramelized onions in the center. Done!

A little fresh thyme or sage can be good in it, but you don't want to use too much or it can overpower the other flavors.

I agree with this guy. You're already adding fresh squeezed citrus juice, besides water. Wine would be distracting from the nice, tart flavor that makes the sauce pop with the turkey. People ask me for my cranberry recipe nearly every year, and I use water.

Thank you!

you stupid, retard. just go buy a family sized side dish from either KFC or Boston Market and bring it home. then dump the contents into a casserole dish. spray the top and sides with olive oil/butter and put flour on the sides edges. broil for 10 minutes. done. looks like you spent +90 minutes making it. fag.

Dont do this. The host must've already prepared some sauce.
Its like youre trying to one up the host.

Turkey, stuffing, potato, gravy, are all pretty heavy, so I'd bring something light to compliment them, and with some color.

Green beans with bell pepper, onions and almonds.

Ratio:
2 cups green beans
1.5 cup Sliced bell pepper
1 cup sliced onion
1 cup sliced almond

1. Season olive oil with uncrushed peeled garlic. Add cold olive oil in pan with garlic and turn on the heat to medium. When the garlic starts to sizzle, flip it over in the pan and brown completely without burning, then pull out the garlic cloves.
2. Sweat the onion and bell pepper. Toss them in the pan with your oil, add a touch of salt to help draw out the moisture, and cook until soft but not browned.
3. Meanwhile, steam your green beans until tender, then set aside.
4. Once your onion and peppers have been sweated properly, add the green beans, almonds, some black pepper, mix it all together in the pan coating everything evenly with the remaining oil, and season to taste with salt. Garnish with fresh minced bell pepper, and serve.

Light. Colorful. Healthy. Delicious. And it keeps well in the fridge.

>your chances of making something good are slim.

cornbread

Look up a recipe to make stuffed bell peppers.

Hell look up a recipe to make Shepherd's Pie, then use that mixture to stuff into peppers.

That's a great idea for another dinner, but way too heavy for a Thanksgiving side.

kek

I've made the food wishes french onion green bean casserole, and it was really good. You could try bourbon glazed carrots too.

Just make a simple Banana Cream Pie.
Put graham crackers, then banana slices, banana pudding, banana, and whipped cream on top.
Or add another layer if you want to seem trendy.

>food wishes french onion green bean casserole
Thanks that looks perfect! youtube.com/watch?v=xRLaPXLjK4w

If I made this, how do I bring it over? Do I completely cook it? Then do they just reheat it in the oven? Will that fuck it up?

Or do I bring it over at the point where it needs to go in the oven and tell them to do 350 for 30min or whatever it is?

>Just make a simple Banana Cream Pie.
>Put graham crackers, then banana slices, banana pudding, banana, and whipped cream on top.
>Or add another layer if you want to seem trendy.
That's a great idea! I actually make banoffee pie at home sometimes, so was thinking of making that as well. So I'd bring maybe youtube.com/watch?v=xRLaPXLjK4w plus a banoffee pie.

375 for 30min*

Pretty interesting my nigga
Ill have to check it later

Look up Ree Drummonds dessert recipes. You cannot go wrong with the pioneer woman

just make deviled eggs. they're usually not already taken and are always welcome as an appetizer

Just make some kinda casserole. Like here's one that's nice and lazy.

nola.com/food/index.ssf/2014/10/green_bean_artichoke_casserole.html

I like to cook the onion a bit beforehand but this is nice and simple.

Yo fuck everyone in here that's talking shit on green bean casserole. That shit is top tier, you can fight me right now

Their oven maybe in use for last minute stuff, so if make it ahead. I'd think it would reheat on the warm oven setting just fine.

My girl can't cook to save her life, so we're doing Boston Market Thanksgiving (tm) agan...

It's only top tier when it's made from scratch. Opening a bunch of cans and mixing it together = bland mush.

Then why don't you make it?

>Then why don't you make it?

I have hereditary ET (essential tremor)

Anything I try to cook ends up on the floor. lol

Truly a man of spilled spaghetti. Eating is probably a pain in the ass too?

Chef John to the rescue
youtube.com/watch?v=JZ5VJNJNfSQ

what the fuck I made green bean casserole off that same recipe and my entire family loved that shit
Are we just fucked up? Am I just a better cook than you?
Either way I don't know why people give it so much shit but green bean casserole is just the fucking tastiest shit to me for some reason I love it

Thanks, that looks lovely. Chef John literally got me interested in cooking. I've had such success with his recipes. I try other stuff and then it either doesn't come out like the picture or I get lost along the way. I hate to be a shill but his stuff it comes out exactly like in the videos.

>what the fuck I made green bean casserole off that same recipe and my entire family loved that shit
You have bad taste, which makes you perfectly normal in America. Our standards are pretty low overall, as a quick look around the supermarket will make abundantly clear.

What recipes have you tried?
So far his rice pudding, mushroom risotto, crepes, and rigatoni al segreto have all turned out amazing for me.

For anyone who wants to stop their family from committing the ultimate crime of dry turkey have them cut up the cooked turkey and put that meat into a baking pan and pour in the juices from cooking the turkey so the meat can soak in them

Bulgogi beef (now a favorite i make pretty often), cider braised pork shoulder (pic related), sole dore, paella, lemon ricotta pancakes, and Brazilian fish stew. Only one that didn’t turn out great was the paella but that was one of my first goes so it might have been used error.

Try the cider braised pork shoulder it is fantastic and worth the time.

I just started cooking a few months ago so getting some successes is always nice

I have great taste sorry bro

Sorry that's just not true. :o(

Heh. It's lookin like you're wrong, my man.

Are you the Shepards pie guy by chance?

Best food in the world is in the USA. It's not my problem if you choose poorly you lardass

Who is that?

>oranges in cranberry sauce
This user knows what's up. My sauce isn't as fancy, I basically follow package directions, though I don't quite 1:1 sugar and water because I don't like it as sweet. Bring water to a boil, let sugar dissolve, add berries, boil until they've all popped and then turn down to a simmer. I typically add orange zest and juice then. I also add cinnamon and cloves and let it simmer like that. I don't mash anything so it's pretty chunky.

The orange and cranberry flavours pair up so well, you get the tart cranberry flavour but there's that cirtrusy sweetness behind it and it's just so good. Sauce like that is what makes sauce haters total converts (nearly everyone who's had my sauce was hesitant to try because they're used to the canned shit, which is totally flavourless and sad).

Speaking of alcohol though, you could make some mulled wine, or if your family doesn't drink, mulled grape juice or mulled apple cider. I have a friend that likes to bring a crock pot of the stuff to gatherings, it simmers while everyone gets through dinner and once everyone is relaxing and chatting after the meal the cider is ready to drink. Pretty nice (for Christmas, too).

So you vibrate for her pleasure?

where do you all live that green bean casserole is the norm?

i've only seen it in old sitcoms, never in person (been to several different family's thanksgivings)

Chef Johns corn pudding
youtube.com/watch?v=IRUkJ0e3LQg

>where do you all live that green bean casserole is the norm?
I live in Texas.

My family (thankfully) never made it. But it's pretty common if you get invited over to someone's house, if there is a potluck or whatever at work or school, etc. I wouldn't say that "everyone" makes it, but it's certainly well known. It's ghastly too.

I never, ever ate it until I met my future in-laws years ago. I was horrified by it. However, I make it for my spouse every year because it's part of his family's tradition, but I make it from scratch, even down to the fried onions, I refuse to mess with that canned garbage. Fresh green beans, blanched, scratch made creamy mushroom sauce made with shallots and wine, sliced water chestnuts, a little parmesan cheese for flavor, fresh made crispy onions.....now that, I will eat. Canned mushy beans mixed with condensed soup that barely has any mushrooms in it, and stale canned fried onions fuck no.

>where do you live (more specifically your in laws)

Both of us are from Texas, but my spouse's older relatives had moved there from the Midwest. Now we live in NorCal, and some people out here eat it, but it's not as common as other green vegetable dishes, you're more likely to see Brussels sprouts or asparagus.

Where do you live where you have never had green bean casserole?

west coast, never really seen any other "traditional" casserole.

also have never seen marshmallows on the sweet potatoes, only maple syrup or brown sugar.

and this is from several families of different economic and racial backgrounds from So Cal to Vancouver, Canada

For some entertainment, bring enough durian for everyone to have a segment. It's usually five per fruit.

Make a nice cranberry sauce. It's easy.

PURPLE SWEET POTATO PIE WUBALUBADUB

Probably a bullshit flyover thing because marshmallows on top sounds like something a walmart shopper would eat.

Cheaper alternative to brown sugar or maple syrup.

I can see it being cheaper than maple syrup but not sugar.

Just bring apple pie.

Everyone loves good apple pie.

>triggered
kill yourself

I thought about bringing desert to mine last year, but, last time they just bought stuff from Costco and claimed the pies are just as good as home made (they probably aren't). Kind of demotivates me from making a pie or something. I was thinking of bringing my banoffee pie that I'm pretty good at making but I donno based on that.

That's because green bean dishes are more for Americans and not for Mexicans.

Ahh...yes, the famous Mexicans of Portland and Seattle

i live in washington and i love green bean casserole

spokane, tri cities or yakima?