THANKSGIVING DRINKS & DESSERTS
aka the best part of Thanksgiving if you ask us...
Part 2 of our Thanksgiving Digest special focuses entirely on Drinks & Desserts. They often get lost to the main event, but Drinks & Desserts are the bookends to a perfect Thanksgiving meal.
DRINKS
We love having a specialty cocktail at our Thanksgiving or Holiday get-togethers. They are fun and festive, you can make them in large quantities ahead of time, and people tend to want the specialty cocktail so you can spend less time playing bartender and more time with your guests!
We like to try something new each year, but always with a seasonal element. We will be serving a ginger whiskey cider sour cocktail at our Thanksgiving, but here are a few more favs to get you in the spirit 😜 (we didn’t forget the kids!).
A few years back, True Food Kitchen had an autumnal bourbon cocktail that was so delicious I ate there multiple times that fall just to order the drink. Sadly it is no longer on the menu, and although they have had many variations over the years, none were as good as that one. I really craved it the other day and decided to recreate it based on my memory alone. The standout flavors I could recall were honey, lemon, apple, and ginger. What I created (although I have no idea if it’s even remotely close to the original drink) hit the spot!
I am nowhere near a whiskey fan, but the boys in our family are and this Ginger Whiskey Cider Sour is a cocktail we can all agree on. The taste of the bourbon is made less pronounced and more palatable by the tartness of the lemon, the sweetness of the apple cider, and the spicy fizz of the ginger beer. The seasonal flavors of the cocktail pair perfectly with Thanksgiving food (or in our case sliders lol). And this cocktail tastes just as good spirit-free without the bourbon!
We used to order Sidecars at Beverly Hills Grill (by our parents’ house) back in the day. They were SO good, especially for us young newbies to cocktails, and we loved that they served the vintage recipe in a coup making it all the fancier.
Over the years we forgot about the Sidecar until our Mom made one for our Annual Christmas Cocktail Competition last year (and won!) The key is heating the Amarena Cherries (we LOVE the ones from Trader Joe’s) with 2 oz of the cognac in the microwave for a delicious cherry/cognac infusion. Cherries and Cognac bring warmth to the chilly late November weather and a Sidecar is a great choice for those who love classic cocktails and don’t mind shaking up drinks at a party.
Our Mom (by now you should know her as the Family Mixologist) came across a festive pomegranate aperol spritz recipe. Of course, she had to fix it in her classic CeCe way. In the end, she said it was a winner and was a perfect cocktail to make in a large batch for Thanksgiving. I took it a step further by making ice cubes from pomegranate juice, orange slices, and pomegranate arils, but you can skip this step and set out glasses pre-garnished with pomegranate arils and orange slices. If you want to make the ice cubes I recommend you fill 2 ice cube trays, 1 with the pomegranate juice and 1 with the orange/pomegranate arils and water.
We typically nix the soda water in our spritzes for more prosecco 😉, but for a gathering, we’d recommend you set out bottles of soda water as a top-off for your guests.
N/A OPTIONS
Having a non-alcoholic option at your gathering is always a good idea. This pomegranate punch combines pomegranate, orange juice, and cranberry juice then is topped with fresh mint, pomegranate arils, and a splash of sparkling water. It’s tasty enough for kids but still elevated for adults.
And finally, for the kids, we have our very own childhood Thanksgiving punch recipe! Between our Dad’s recollection and our Aunt Genie’s confirmation, we have secured the original recipe for the punch that we couldn’t wait to drink each year as kids (according to our Dad, the origins of this recipe are unknown). Nothing screams nostalgia like a big bowl of punch served with a ladle (especially one that uses frozen canned juice!).
DESSERTS
Thanksgiving is not complete without a spread of delicious desserts to choose from. We underestimated how full we would be during our first Smashburger Thanksgiving and ordered donuts and Levain cookies for desserts. Unfortunately, after our sliders, fries, onion rings, and shakes we could only get in a few bites of dessert. This year we hope to change that by making smaller shakes and ending with good old-fashioned banana splits!
But back when we were still doing the traditional Thanksgiving, the separate dessert table full of pies and cookies was always worth saving a little room.
If you asked me what my favorite food is….I’d probably say cookies…My dad, husband and I are cookie monsters. If there’s a cookie around, you better put a skull and crossbones ☠️ on it or it will be gone. So when there’s a Holiday dessert spread, you bet we’re including cookies.
I was going through my Grandma’s old recipes and found the $250 Neiman Marcus cookie recipe written down in 3 separate places – clearly, this was an important recipe. I have since altered it slightly, but they are delicious and so simple to make. Best of all, your house will smell like cookies!
If pumpkin pie isn’t your thing, or you’re tasked with bringing dessert and want to impress your family with something homemade….then enter the easiest Banana Cream Pie. I made this over the summer and there wasn’t a plate not licked clean.
We usually like to include an alternative to the pumpkin and pecan pies that traditionally accompany a Thanksgiving meal (since they aren’t our favorite). Plus, even if you’re full to the brim you can still enjoy a little slice of this light and airy pie before you explode.
Rocky Road Bars are another extremely easy dessert recipe for those non-bakers. This rocky road is different from the ice cream flavor we’re used to in the States. It has cookies, candies, and marshmallows covered in melted chocolate and cut into bars.
Use graham crackers or pumpkin-flavored cookies and candies to give it a more Thanksgiving vibe. You can make it the day or even the week before Thanksgiving and have one less to-do on the day. It’s also a great recipe to make with kids!
Thanksgiving Day breakfast is another tradition we hold near and dear. We either have bagels and lox with all the fixins’ or cinnamon rolls. TBH fresh, hot, ooey gooey cinnamon rolls are hard to beat. I know this is technically a sweet treat for breakfast and not a dessert….but this recipe is so good we would feel bad not to include it.
THANKS FOR READING & HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Cheers 🥂
Hil & Nat
Don’t forget you can access the entire recipe library with all your favs here.