Fantasy Thanksgiving Menu: Boston Area Thanksgiving To Go

  
I love to cook, so our Thanksgiving is prepared by me and my entire family with a few exceptions. We always have a selection of Fastachi nuts, seeds, and mixes for guests to nibble on while the turkey is cooking. I also love the ooey gooey deliciousness of Petsi Pies pecan pie so I always have to add one to our dessert table next to my mom’s and husband’s pie.  Many people would rather leave the cooking to others and luckily there are a lot of people making some amazing food to go. All you have to do is choose your menu and get your orders in on time.

  
My fantasy menu:

Starters:

Mushroom bisque from Ten Tables ($16/quart)

Roasted Squash and Leek Soup from Formaggio Kitchen ($6/ serving)

With a choice of:

Buttermilk Biscuits with Parsley and Sage or Double Corn Cornbread with Honey and Fresh Thyme from Flour Bakery ($2.95/biscuit $9/cornbread loaf)

A slather of Sofra’s house made crème fraîche butter with honeycomb will go perfectly with the biscuits.  ($9/pint)

For the cornbread and dinner rolls I’d serve Hi Rise’s own cultured butter. ($8.50/8oz)

Turkey & Vegetarian Main:

If you want to cook a little then pop in to Pantry, in Brookline. Pantry has everything measured and ready for you recipe, ingredients and all.  Their Turkey Roulade recipe serves two and all you have to do is pop in and pick up all the elements of the dish portioned out and all ready to go.  The Turkey Roulade and Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing with Mushroom Gravy and Green Beans ($24) is for two people. Each “Recipe Kit” is pre-portioned, locally sourced when possible, and simple to prepare. 

Wilson Farm is happy to cook the entire turkey dinner for you.  Thanksgiving “to go” includes a 10 to 12 pound Plainville Farm turkey, 2.5 pounds of mashed potatoes, butternut squash, traditional bread stuffing and 2 pounds of green beans almondine. There’s also a 16 ounce jar of Wilson Farm cranberry sauce, two 13oz. turkey gravy and 12 soft dinner rolls. Then just in case your guests have room included is a nine-inch, pumpkin pie. (serves 6-8 hungry adults $129)

We have, despite my initial trepidation, become a family that fries their turkey. If you, like me, are afraid of a huge bubbling vat of vegetable oil, let Summer Shack fry your turkey for you ($95/8-10 people) and it comes with gravy. Roasted turkeys and sides are also available.

The vegetarian guests would get a generous slice of Butternut Squash Phyllo Pie with Gruyere from Sofra ($22 serves 4-6)

One gravy is good but more gravy is better.  Flour has an apple cider, thyme pan gravy that sounds delectable. 

Sides Galore:

To me, the turkey is all well and good but the feast is really all about the sides.  So continuing along with the fantasy menu there will be.

Scallion mashed potatoes from Formaggio (sm ($9) serves 1-2, med ($18) serves 4-6, lg ($32) serves 10-12)

Brussels Sprouts with crispy garlic, pepitas and sherry vinaigrette from Sofra ($18 serves 4-6)

Hi Rise’s glazed Brussels sprouts made with honey mustard and toopes with crispy morsels of bacon.

Sofra’s Bread & Butter stuffing with leeks, celery and nigella seeds ($16 serves 4-6)

Formaggio’s housemade sausage stuffing ($8/sm, $16/med, $30/lg)

Mac ‘n cheese from Ten Tables ($16/quart)

Since this is a fantasy menu I don’t have to choose, thank goodness, because I want both the meat steeped stuffing and the vegetarian one from Flour so there will be: classic herb stuffing with butternut squash, kale and apples as well as the duck-fat country bread stuffing with currants, winter greens, smoked bacon and shallots.

Flour’s roasted cauliflower with almonds capers and golden raisins ($12 serves 3-4)

Garlic braised dark leafy greens from Sofra ($14 serves 4-6)

Formaggio Kitchen’s haricots verts sautéed with almonds because there always has to be green beans. Because I love my greens I’ll also take some creamed spinach ($9/sm, $18/med, $32/lg)

We’ll take one can of cranberry sauce because there is always someone who wants that jelly, but then there will also be a few other options.

Condiments:

Maple onion jam from Sofra ($8/pint)

Quince and cranberry relish with Syrian spice ($9/pint)

Flour’s cranberry, ginger, and orange chutney ($7/pint)

Cranberry relish from Hi Rise with apples, golden raisins, ginger, walnuts and Ruby Port (my homemade cranberry sauce always has Port) $12/pint $23/quart. 

Dessert:

A selection of Formaggio’s cheeses local cheeses (this is an all American holiday after all) paired with a little of Hi Rise’s fig and almond conserve ($12/9oz jar). 

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie from Formaggio Kitchen ($27)

Sofra’s Candied Pumpkin Revani – Syrup-soaked semolina cake ($24)

1 double crust apple pie from Flour ($26)

a roasted pear and cranberry crostata also from Flour ($28)

Hi Rise’s cranberry crumble because I secretly love an oat crumble more than pie crust ($15/6 inch or $22/8 inch)

Pear, Almond and Golden Raisin Umm Ali from Sofra ($24)
A pecan pie, an apple crumb, a pumpkin and a sweet potato pie from Petsi Pies ($24 each)

South End Buttery’s chocolate salted caramel cupcakes ($18/ 1/2 dozen) because to some there is no dessert unless there is chocolate somewhere and for our little guests cupcakes are way better than pie.

Because there can always be pie for breakfast, I will add in a frangipane and pear tart from Praliné ($20/ 4 servings, $30/6, $38/8)

Now that is a feast!  

This is just a small selection of what you can get and I love that Flour has thought about breakfast too with treats like: pumpkin spice bread with candied pepitas, gluten-free chocolate chip and coconut muffin cake, a delicata squash, goat cheese and onion jam crostata, old fashioned gingebread with coffee glaze just to name a few. 

If you want to make any of this fantasy menu your reality- juat make sure yoi get your order in on time. Check online, call or stop in to meet the deadline.