Thanksgiving 2023 Thread

SolidSnake84 · Jan 15, 2023

Edge612 said:
DAYS TILL THANKSGIVING: 312
DAYS TILL NOVEMBER: 290
DAYS TILL THE BERS: 229

Happy Mid-January! Today folks we have 312 days remaining until Thanksgiving, 290 days to go until November, and 229 days left until The Bers. Our next milestones will be back to back days but they will not happen this coming week so we have a free week here. But they will be the Tom Turkey Day #2 in 11 days and then our 300-Day Marker Till Thanksgiving which will be a huge breakthrough in this thread I think. We all know that. The 3’s always makes everything seem impossible. We move along in our Winter Wonderland here in January where we actually have had winter weather this weekend. It’s cold, windy and we even had snow showers on and off throughout Saturday. Nothing major (no need to get out any shovels) but still it was kind of cool to see and made me feel in the holiday spirit a bit. Still enough lights out there too in my neighborhood. Are people loving Christmas or too lazy to take them down? Maybe a combination of both. For you turkey fans out there I hope you are all doing ok and hanging in doing the best you can. Watching the playoffs this weekend has made me feel like wanting turkey, stuffing and gravy. As long as we keep football on till the Superbowl we have our link from Thanksgiving. Now you all enjoy your Sunday and I hope it’s a restful one for you. Thanks for stopping by this thread on this weekend. Have a great Mid-January!

Our lights finished up on Friday night. I did see one other house on Friday night besides ours that still had lights up. It was in my Grandma's neighborhood and they were totally decked out. It made me happy to see. I wonder if I will see any tonight anywhere. Ours ran its course though. I think it would have started to feel forced if they stayed up much longer. And "forced" is never something I want to associate with Christmas Season or The Holidays.

+2 on the comment about having counts in the 3's. The threes really do feel awful and it just makes everything feel a million days away. But here in less than two weeks there won't be anymore 3's in this thread, and I do indeed agree that will be a big day for the thread. Have a great Sunday!

Rich · Jan 15, 2023

When we're counting down and still in the 3s it's like we've only just left the dock on a long journey across the sea. But once all the 3s are gone, then you know we're on our way and the dock is no longer in sight. So for now, let's all enjoy this sail-away party.

The_Escalation · Jan 15, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
My wife makes the best ham ever. Even people who don't like ham normally talk about how good it is the way that she does it. Every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas we do Ham and Turkey. It's our family tradition. But there are lots of people who don't like Ham for Thanksgiving, and that's fine. But I couldn't imagine one of our holidays without it!

You can't drop this here and get away with not sharing the recipe! But only if Holly wants to share it and it's not a secret family recipe or something.

The_Escalation · Jan 15, 2023

Edge612 said:
DAYS TILL THANKSGIVING: 312
DAYS TILL NOVEMBER: 290
DAYS TILL THE BERS: 229

Happy Mid-January! Today folks we have 312 days remaining until Thanksgiving, 290 days to go until November, and 229 days left until The Bers. Our next milestones will be back to back days but they will not happen this coming week so we have a free week here. But they will be the Tom Turkey Day #2 in 11 days and then our 300-Day Marker Till Thanksgiving which will be a huge breakthrough in this thread I think. We all know that. The 3’s always makes everything seem impossible. We move along in our Winter Wonderland here in January where we actually have had winter weather this weekend. It’s cold, windy and we even had snow showers on and off throughout Saturday. Nothing major (no need to get out any shovels) but still it was kind of cool to see and made me feel in the holiday spirit a bit. Still enough lights out there too in my neighborhood. Are people loving Christmas or too lazy to take them down? Maybe a combination of both. For you turkey fans out there I hope you are all doing ok and hanging in doing the best you can. Watching the playoffs this weekend has made me feel like wanting turkey, stuffing and gravy. As long as we keep football on till the Superbowl we have our link from Thanksgiving. Now you all enjoy your Sunday and I hope it’s a restful one for you. Thanks for stopping by this thread on this weekend. Have a great Mid-January!

I kinda wish I had bought a third Cajun turkey and held onto it until Super Bowl Sunday. It would've been the smart move. The pizza chains will be flooded with orders that day. Maybe this is a lesson learned for next year...

SolidSnake84 · Jan 15, 2023

The_Escalation said:
You can't drop this here and get away with not sharing the recipe! But only if Holly wants to share it and it's not a secret family recipe or something.

There’s no secrets on any of our food! It makes Holly immensely happy anytime someone asks her if she can have the recipe! I will get it from her today and post!

LadyLynn · Jan 15, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
My wife makes the best ham ever. Even people who don't like ham normally talk about how good it is the way that she does it. Every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas we do Ham and Turkey. It's our family tradition. But there are lots of people who don't like Ham for Thanksgiving, and that's fine. But I couldn't imagine one of our holidays without it!

We always do both. And I can't imagine the holiday without both.

Edge612 · Jan 15, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
There’s no secrets on any of our food! It makes Holly immensely happy anytime someone asks her if she can have the recipe! I will get it from her today and post!

Awesome!

Edge612 · Jan 15, 2023

LadyLynn said:
We always do both. And I can't imagine the holiday without both.

Special stuff we can't imagine the holidays without!

Edge612 · Jan 16, 2023

DAYS TILL THANKSGIVING: 311
DAYS TILL NOVEMBER: 289
DAYS TILL THE BERS: 228

Happy Middle Day Of January! Today folks we have 311 days left until Thanksgiving, 289 days remaining until November, and 228 days to go until The Bers. Our next milestones will be back to back ones but not this week. It will be next week (10 days from now) when on Thursday we reach Tom Turkey Day #2 followed the very next day by our 300-Day Marker Till Thanksgiving. I think that’s kind of our final “reset” button in this thread folks. When we stay in the 300s it feels like we’re almost still living off the previous Thanksgiving. Now it’s Monday folks here in our Winter Wonderland season in this thread so you know it’s time to get busy with our Weekly Countdown Till Thanksgiving Week which today stands at 44 weeks. Double 4’s folks. Enjoy it. Why? Because someday when we’re at double 3’s, double 2’s, and double 1’s we’ll be like how the heck did it get here already? If you are a turkey fan like me I hope you’re staying warm in the depths of winter which we are certainly in now. And maybe one way to stay warm is to turn on that oven and make a Thanksgiving turkey meal with all the sides? I think winter is the best season to do it. And if you do anything like that anytime soon please let us know (maybe include it in one of our weekly Tuesday picture days). Have a great start to your week my turkey friends. Have a great Middle Day Of January!

SolidSnake84 · Jan 16, 2023

Okay folks so anyone who wanted to know the secret to Holly's ham, here you go:

We start with a spiral-cut ham that is small enough to fit comfortably in the instant pot. Start off by pouring pineapple juice into the bottom of the instant pot (Or roasting pan, if you don't have an instant pot!). The secret to the Ham's taste is to coat the ham in Maple Syrup and brown sugar, and then place it in the pot and cook.

My favorite ham to use for this is the "Kentucky Legend" brand that is sold at Walmart and some other stores, but I'm sure a "smithfield" or equivalent would work just fine as well.

There will be a little bit of glaze that's left in the pan/pot after the cooking is done, mix that with a little bit of corn starch to thicken it up, and then pour that glaze over the ham when you serve.

A small/"normal" Instant pot (6 quart pot) will handle up to a 6 pound ham. We have the large Instant Pot (8 quart pot) and it will do larger than a 6 pound ham with no problem. That's a lot of ham!

And a "pro" tip here - do not substitute maple flavored pancake syrup instead of real/pure maple syrup - the taste will be WAY too strong. We feel like the natural syrup cooks into the meat better.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy!

The_Escalation · Jan 16, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
Okay folks so anyone who wanted to know the secret to Holly's ham, here you go:

We start with a spiral-cut ham that is small enough to fit comfortably in the instant pot. Start off by pouring pineapple juice into the bottom of the instant pot (Or roasting pan, if you don't have an instant pot!). The secret to the Ham's taste is to coat the ham in Maple Syrup and brown sugar, and then place it in the pot and cook.

My favorite ham to use for this is the "Kentucky Legend" brand that is sold at Walmart and some other stores, but I'm sure a "smithfield" or equivalent would work just fine as well.

There will be a little bit of glaze that's left in the pan/pot after the cooking is done, mix that with a little bit of corn starch to thicken it up, and then pour that glaze over the ham when you serve.

A small/"normal" Instant pot (6 quart pot) will handle up to a 6 pound ham. We have the large Instant Pot (8 quart pot) and it will do larger than a 6 pound ham with no problem. That's a lot of ham!

And a "pro" tip here - do not substitute maple flavored pancake syrup instead of real/pure maple syrup - the taste will be WAY too strong. We feel like the natural syrup cooks into the meat better.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy!

Oh, this is brilliant! Bookmarking this post so that I can come back and try it. Two questions:

How much pineapple juice do you pour in the bottom of the instant pot?

Do you do this in lieu of the glaze that usually comes with the ham?

The_Escalation · Jan 16, 2023

This morning I am just drinking my coffee and enjoying the quiet before everyone else wakes up. It's a cloudy day outside. If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine that it's Thanksgiving. Brings a smile to my face.

DecemberisComing · Jan 16, 2023

The_Escalation said:
Oh, this is brilliant! Bookmarking this post so that I can come back and try it. Two questions:

How much pineapple juice do you pour in the bottom of the instant pot?

Do you do this in lieu of the glaze that usually comes with the ham?

And can I ask how long you set the Instapot for and do you do a natural release?

ballcoach · Jan 16, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
Okay folks so anyone who wanted to know the secret to Holly's ham, here you go:

We start with a spiral-cut ham that is small enough to fit comfortably in the instant pot. Start off by pouring pineapple juice into the bottom of the instant pot (Or roasting pan, if you don't have an instant pot!). The secret to the Ham's taste is to coat the ham in Maple Syrup and brown sugar, and then place it in the pot and cook.

My favorite ham to use for this is the "Kentucky Legend" brand that is sold at Walmart and some other stores, but I'm sure a "smithfield" or equivalent would work just fine as well.

There will be a little bit of glaze that's left in the pan/pot after the cooking is done, mix that with a little bit of corn starch to thicken it up, and then pour that glaze over the ham when you serve.

A small/"normal" Instant pot (6 quart pot) will handle up to a 6 pound ham. We have the large Instant Pot (8 quart pot) and it will do larger than a 6 pound ham with no problem. That's a lot of ham!

And a "pro" tip here - do not substitute maple flavored pancake syrup instead of real/pure maple syrup - the taste will be WAY too strong. We feel like the natural syrup cooks into the meat better.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy!

Can't wait to try this....

DecemberisComing · Jan 16, 2023

Happy Monday! The weather here is remarkably November-ish, 38 degrees with a light misty rain, so I might let myself pretend for a bit that it is THE Monday of THE week, just for a little bit.

SolidSnake84 · Jan 16, 2023

The_Escalation said:
Oh, this is brilliant! Bookmarking this post so that I can come back and try it. Two questions:

How much pineapple juice do you pour in the bottom of the instant pot?

Do you do this in lieu of the glaze that usually comes with the ham?

Enough pineapple juice that about an inch is in the bottom of the pan. Yes, we don’t use the ham glaze that comes with the ham.

SolidSnake84 · Jan 16, 2023

DecemberisComing said:
And can I ask how long you set the Instapot for and do you do a natural release?

Natural release, yes. I believe 2 minutes per pound will be completely adequate. Plus or minus for individual taste / preference. I like “softer” ham. But you don’t want to cook too long and risk making the maple syrup get hard / too much carmelizing.

DecemberisComing · Jan 16, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
Natural release, yes. I believe 2 minutes per pound will be completely adequate. Plus or minus for individual taste / preference. I like “softer” ham. But you don’t want to cook too long and risk making the maple syrup get hard / too much carmelizing.

Thanks for sharing, one of my goals for the new year is to use my Instapot more!!!

Christmaswarlock · Jan 16, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
Enough pineapple juice that about an inch is in the bottom of the pan. Yes, we don’t use the ham glaze that comes with the ham.

I once had to throw a pan away that the glaze ruined from burning. I let it soak for 2 days and gave up.

LadyLynn · Jan 16, 2023

SolidSnake84 said:
Okay folks so anyone who wanted to know the secret to Holly's ham, here you go:

We start with a spiral-cut ham that is small enough to fit comfortably in the instant pot. Start off by pouring pineapple juice into the bottom of the instant pot (Or roasting pan, if you don't have an instant pot!). The secret to the Ham's taste is to coat the ham in Maple Syrup and brown sugar, and then place it in the pot and cook.

My favorite ham to use for this is the "Kentucky Legend" brand that is sold at Walmart and some other stores, but I'm sure a "smithfield" or equivalent would work just fine as well.

There will be a little bit of glaze that's left in the pan/pot after the cooking is done, mix that with a little bit of corn starch to thicken it up, and then pour that glaze over the ham when you serve.

A small/"normal" Instant pot (6 quart pot) will handle up to a 6 pound ham. We have the large Instant Pot (8 quart pot) and it will do larger than a 6 pound ham with no problem. That's a lot of ham!

And a "pro" tip here - do not substitute maple flavored pancake syrup instead of real/pure maple syrup - the taste will be WAY too strong. We feel like the natural syrup cooks into the meat better.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy!

Thank you for sharing.