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2024 Thanksgiving Menu and Meal Prep Timeline

* image These past few months have been busy for our family, especially since our oldest joined a local swim team. Between juggling our work schedules and balancing school with practices... we're all pretty wiped out. Although it's a lot of work, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Preparing the holiday meal for our family fills my heart with joy, and I can't wait to get started. To make things easier for me, I don't deviate much from  our first Thanksgiving  as a family. The dishes I make are familiar ones, and the recipes for them live at my fingertips. Keeping the same menu year after year means I don't have to spend time researching recipes or planning a new one. Here are my tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipes, as well as my prep timeline for the big day!
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Creamy Crab Meat Salad in Belgian Endive Cups

It's January 2nd. A new year has officially begun and I can now say that I've officially survived the holidays. Stressing about finding the perfect gifts for the people I love, juggling time between family and friends, and attending holiday parties -- that's all behind me and I'm ready to jump into 2009. I hope all of you enjoyed the time you spent with your loved ones and are as eager about the new year as I am.

My holiday season began with a couple of days with my boyfriend's family. His mother put us in charge of preparing an appetizer for Christmas Eve dinner, so I tried to replicate a dish that I had at a party thrown my by friend Angelina and her parents: a shrimp salad served in Belgian endive leaves. I've always loved the idea of serving a bite of creamy salad in an endive leaf, so I set out to come up with something similar for Christmas Eve.

But, I couldn't find a shrimp salad recipe out there that sounded like it would turn into what was served at Angelina's party. After thinking a bit, I decided that it might be interesting to prepare the filling for crab rangoon and then place that in an endive leaf. Turns out that was a great idea, and everyone at dinner really enjoyed our appetizer! I started with this crab rangoon recipe and tweaked it.

Additionally, we discovered that the crab meat salad paired really well with Sundried Tomato & Basil Wheat Thins. So, if you have some "leftover" salad after filling the endive leaves, you can serve it with some crackers!

Enjoy!

Creamy Crab Meat Salad in Belgian Endive Cups(adapted from Crab Rangoon recipe by Rhonda Parkinson)
Printable Recipe

INGREDIENTS
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 6-ounce cans canned lump crab meat, drained, flaked, and picked over (reserve liquid after draining)
  • 1 tablespoon red onion, minced
  • 3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
  • 1 scallion (green part only), finely sliced
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • Belgian endive (at least 4)

INSTRUCTIONS
  1. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, crab meat and the reserved liquid, red onion, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, green onion, garlic, Old Bay, salt, and pepper thoroughly until all ingredients are well mixed.
  2. Right before serving, separate the endive into leaves and arrange on a platter.
  3. Fill the flat end of the leaf (the white end) with a rounded tablespoon of the crab mixture and serve.
Endive on Foodista

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Comments

Christo Gonzales said…
this sounds delicious, I love when food is the vehicle for more food....
January 02, 2009
Michelle Rittler said…
Doggybloggy - It really was! And, given how well the crab meat salad went with those Wheat Thins, I wonder if stirring in some chopped up sundried tomatoes would be a good idea. :-)
January 02, 2009
pixen said…
oooh my Chicon !!!! There's always a 1 or 2 pks of Chicon aka Endive in my fridge :-D In Belgium they always wilt it down and cooked with lardon Fumé with little bit of sugar (to get rid of the bitterness - which I found it's not bitter at all!) and white wine. I even stir-fy with garlic, prawns and oyster sauce before :-D I think I nearly 'killed' my belgian family when they saw what I cooked with their famous dish but... they attacked the plate clean!!!

Happy New Year!
January 02, 2009
Michelle Rittler said…
Pixen - I've never had wilted endive before! It sounds fantastic! I'm going to have to try that some day. Thanks for the suggestion!

Happy New Year to you, too!
January 02, 2009
V.Streit said…
I will definitely have to try the wilted idea.I tasted fresh endive for the first time a few years back and I spit it back out. It was way too bitter for me.
January 03, 2009
Shelby said…
I am an Old Bay fan and this recipe really appeals to me!
January 03, 2009
Michelle Rittler said…
Veronica - I think the bitterness of the endive makes it a perfect green to pair with other, more subtle flavors, like the crab meat salad in this recipe. The endive just reinforced the flavors already present... without getting in the way. But the idea of wilting endive is so intriguing. I've wilted other greens before, so... why not, right? :-)
January 03, 2009
Michelle Rittler said…
HoneyB - The Old Bay really made a difference in this recipe. The original recipe for the crab rangoon filling didn't call for it, and after preparing the original recipe, my boyfriend and I both agreed that something was missing. It took us a while to come to the conclusion that Old Bay was needed, but once we added it, the recipe really came together!
January 03, 2009
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