Do any of you not eat turkey during Thanksgiving? What are your non-standard food options you like to bring.
We are doing cornish game hen over turkey this year. I also would consider lamb. We just decided we are not big fans of turkey. It is fine, and I would eat it, but there are other things we would much rather eat.
My family has never really done Thanksgiving.
Capon
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My cousins do Roast Leg of Lamb, they never really liked Turkey…
Last year I did takeout from Atoboy and they did an amazing chicken with amazing side dishes.
This year I’m back at my cousins’ which means turkey from Wegmans.
My 90 year old father won’t travel to our 4 day Thanksgiving extravaganza, which will be in Palm Springs this year, so we will have Thanksgiving dinner with him on Tuesday before. We will serve Thanksgiving dinner of his choice: martinis, followed by caviar from Petrossian, followed by colossal stone crabs from George, followed by pumpkin and pecan pies. All washed down with Krug '04 and Cristal '04 with dinner and his favorite whisky, Macallan 25 distilled in the 1960’s (none of that shitty post-1979 distillate for MY dad on Thanksgiving!) after dinner.
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I expected this to be about some nice fried chicken served on top of some turkey. How disappointing.
Fresh Dungeness crab is a favorite of some of my friends in CA. Not an option for most this year as the season has been delayed. My family has always been traditional turkey people but the prep varies from year to year.
We almost never have turkey. Salmon this year.
I mix it up. Sometimes, I make rack of lamb, sometimes lamb and turkey.
To me it looks like Turkey over Fried Chicken.
Don’t you know that all '04 champagnes are wretched? Why do that to your dear father 
To the original question, my preferred Thanksgiving meal is tajarin with white truffles, because I try and be Piedmont on Thanksgiving whenever possible.
When that’s not possible, a high quality heritage turkey in the wood burning over is pretty fantastic.
Our family tradition has been to serve a whole beef tenderloin in addition to turkey because we have several family members who don’t enjoy turkey. Over the years, the tenderloin got larger and the turkey got smaller. Now we are a much smaller group and I have not served a turkey in a couple years, as my kids and dad much prefer the filet and I got tired of wasting time, effort and food just for symbolism.
That sounds amazing tho.
I love turkey and my personal preference is deep-fried Cajun Brined turkey, but no one in the family agrees with me, so we always have something else. This year, we went around the dinner table dinner table when my grandson was visiting and the first place votes were turkey (me); baked sweet potatoes (Rebecca); French fries (what a shock, my grandson); and Tomahawk Rib Eye (Uncle Jacob - my son). My other son and DIL have not weighed in yet, but Turkey and big pieces of red meat seem to be the winners.
I would never go for fried chicken - I can get that at KFC and I have chicken every week at home. Nothing special about it.
We usually do a turkey and ham, but this year we are doing turkey and more than likely a beef tenderloin.
Thanksgiving = Turkey
Call me old school, but we don’t deviate from this. Sometimes the turkey is crappy, sometimes its really good. But on Thanksgiving its always that rolling of the dice.
TW
I smoke my turkey along with some extra thighs. Juan alway used to make Pavo en pepitoria (a delicious savory almond sauce) so I carry that tradition on for Nolita and the rest of us. There are left overs, but everyone here complains that they don’t get enough to take home.
The “joy” of getting up at the crack of dawn to fart around with a turkey (or 3) that half the clan has no interest in has long faded. We are down to a small crowd (14) this year so I’m nixing the turkey and going with a leg of lamb and a rib roast. I’m going to nuke a Swanson turkey tv dinner (do they still make those?) for anyone who complains
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