Your Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes November 20, 2009 Jill Thanksgiving is coming up and I am hosting for the first time. This means I have no idea what to make. Any great recipe suggestions?
I am a big fan of lemonade pie around this time of the year. It’s not a normal Thanksgiving dish, but it’s easy to make, delicious, and fun. 1 can condensed milk 16 oz. can frozen lemonade or lime 9 oz. container Cool Whip 2 pie crusts mix it all together and freeze for at least an hour.
My menu this year will include much yummy: Snacks Pomegranate and Pear Brandy ‘tinis Crackers, Smoky Blue Cheese, Honey Roasted Rosemary Cashews: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/rosemary-roasted-cashews-recipe/index.html Dinner Roasted Root Vegetables (Purple Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips, Squash, and Sunchokes with olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper). Baked Mushroom Polenta (a new recipe for me – wish me luck!): http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/baked-polenta-with-mushrooms Mushroom Gravy (That can top both the veggies & the polenta): http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/vegetarian-mushroom-gravy Mixed Green Salad (With Blue Cheese, Beets, Chopped Walnuts) and this dressing: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/vinaigrette-for-green-salad-recipe/index.html This year, instead of stuffing I’m making Sage & Buttermilk biscuits: http://shop.bluebirdgrainfarms.com/product.sc?productId=7&categoryId=31 Possibly salmon wrapped in parchment paper and baked with lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh dill. Syrah or Shiraz. Dessert is store-bought pumpkin pie, homemade whipped cream, and sparkling wine! Let us know what you decide for your menu!
Oooh Jennifer I love Ina Garten’s roasted rosemary cashews! My room mate and I make them whenever we have parties. The rest of your menu sounds amazing. Wish my parents had cooked like this back in my childhood days of vegetarianism…
For awesome gravy, add flour to the drippings in your turkey pan, then degalze with white wine. Add chicken broth, cook to thicken, and die of deliciousness.
Cinnamon Ice Cream 1 and 1/8 cups sugar 1/2 cup milk 4 cups cream 1 tbsp cinnamon oil 2 tbsp ground cinnamon Combine sugar and milk, and whip until sugar dissolves. Add cream, cinnamon, and cinnamon oil and whip until fluffy, like whipped cream (funny thing that) pour into ice cream maker.
Those cashews are always a hit with guests – surprisingly so for something that easy to make! Thanks for the menu compliment! I love cooking, and we’re lucky to have quite the bounty of local produce here in Seattle. And I really am interested to know what you, and others, decide to make!
I’m going to be making these mashed potatoes: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/golden-mashed-potatoes-with-leeks-and-sour-cream.html Best part? No peeling required. With a ricer they’re pretty effortless. I think I’m also going to be making goat cheese souffles (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Goat-Cheese-Souffles-and-Mixed-Greens-with-Raspberry-Vinaigrette-5809) for supper along with leftovers. If I’m not passed out on the couch.
Our family’s favorite side dish: 1 Large Heap of Green Beans (preferably string beans, but snap will do) 1 Stack of Bacon 1 Puddle of Bacon Fat Crumble bacon into small pieces. Get a big pot of water boiling. Toss in green beans, bacon, and bacon fat. Simmer until beans will fall apart when you poke them and have been infused with bacon flavor. Drain most of the water. Salt and pepper to taste.
last year I went the the boyfriend’s house and brought this awesome apple cake: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/unfussy-apple-cake-recipe.html . It was delicious, but it would work just as well for the morning after. I served it with homemade vanilla whipped cream
One thing I’ve done is instead of the traditional mashed potatoes, I’ll make a dish of roasted fingerling potatoes. If you’ve never tried fingerlings, they’re great…similar to new potatoes, but they have a very unique and tasty–almost nutty– flavor. Best way is to get a bag that has a variety of different kinds of fingerlings…the ruby crescents, butterfinger, banana fingerlings, etc. Then just slice them into little “coin” shapes maybe a half-inch thick. Sautee with some butter, garlic, rosemary and thyme for a minute or two (till the butter is melted and the potatoes are coated) and then pour the butter/herb/potato mixture into a baking dish or cookie sheet and roast at 425-450 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. (Check the potatoes after 20 min. and then increase the time from there as needed.) You won’t be sorry you tried this, trust me. And the nutty flavor goes so well with turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, etc.
For those who aren’t sweet potato fans, this is my favorite side dish recipe: Carrot Souffle 1 lb Carrots, cooked until soft 1 stick Butter 3 Eggs 2/3 cup Sugar 3 tablespoons Flour 3 teaspoons Vanilla 1 teaspoon salt Mash carrots while they’re still hot. Add butter. Beat until smooth (it’s have a consistency like chunky applesauce). Add rest of ingredients, stir. Bake at 350 in a 9×9 in pan for about 40 minutes. Center should be set and the edges slightly brown. This recipe multiplies really well. Double, triple, whatever and it still comes out just as good. You don’t have to use quite as much butter when you multiply the recipe but you can use it all if you want to! Use a smaller or bigger pan (for thicker or thinner souffle) and all you have to do is adjust the cooking time a little bit. It sets well no matter what and is yummy!
Going to visit my parents for turkey day, so dinner will probably be pretty traditional, including the traditional dry turkey. :o) I’ll be taking some sort of baked good with, and doing my best (along with my brother, who’s the best cook in the family) to rescue some of the traditional dishes. If you’re looking for something decadently rich, I’ve made this chocolate parfait pie before, and it’s delicious. Not a quick thing to whip up though. For quick, I like brownies. I like them enough that I’ve memorized the recipe and can provide it while I’m here at work. Melt 1 stick of butter, add 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, salt and vanilla to taste, 1 tsp baking powder and stir it all together with a big spoon or rubber spatula (for an 8×8 pan). Doubles easily (9×13 pan). Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or so (toothpick test). Add something yummy to it. (My friend’s original recipe called for topping it about 3/4 through the cooking with peanuts, marshmallows, and chewy caramels for rocky road brownies. I prefer mixing in almond toffee bits before baking.) For egg-free cookies that always get rave reviews (warning – old fashioned ‘by eye’ recipe follows): cut cold butter into flour, then add canned milk (or substitute of choice) to dough until it comes together. (Think pie crust here, just a little drier and heavier consistency.) Chill that, then roll it out fairly thin (maybe 1/8 inch) on a well-floured surface. Dock the dough with a fork, and cut with a shot glass (or similar sized thing). Flip the cookies in granulated sugar to coat each side, and bake at 350 F until pale golden (usually 8-12 minutes). Make a cream cheese frosting with 1 lb powdered sugar to 3-4 oz cream cheese, adding canned milk to get a spreadable but still fairly solid consistency (peanut butter-like). Color it if you wish, and/or flavor it (almond extract or vanilla, or perhaps something like hazelnut liqueur*). Make little frosting sandwiches with the cooled cookies (2 cookies per sandwich). Make lots, they’re yummy. If you make too many, just send me the leftovers. *NB. I’ve never tried hazelnut liqueur for these, it’s just something that’s on my list to experiment with eventually.
mmm. i love TG. I’m trying a deep fried turkey this year on thursday, and then on Friday (we do two TGs) I’m roasting and deep frying again, ’cause i’m making two birds. I also tend to roast root veggies, but i cut them small (1/2-3/4 inch), roast them hot and slicked with oil and salt, and serve them room temp or just a bit warm, sprinkled with fresh herbs. I have had excellent success with goat cheese and caramelized onion tarts: start with fresh goat cheese. Mix in sour cream until just spreadable. Make (or buy) a pie/tarrt dough. you can freeform it or put it in a shallow mold as you prefer. caramelize a ton of onions until they are a dep rich brown. Just bfrore you remove them from the heat, stir in fresh ground pepper (quite a bit) and a bit of decent balsamic, plus a sprinkle or two of salt, pinch of thyme or other herb. top tart crust w/ goal cheese mix, ! 1/4 ” thick, spoon on onion jam, bake till done, eat.
For dessert we’re making Pumpkin Swirl Brownies. http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/10/pumpkin-swirl-brownies/ We’ve made them before and they are to die for! We’re also going to try Sweet Potato Buttermilk Pie http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/11/sweet-potato-buttermilk-pie/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+smittenkitchen+%28smitten+kitchen%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Basically, anything the Smitten Kitchen has is amazing. They have a great search feature. I don’t think we’ll be making anything not on there! And I’m sorry, Hot Tramp, but bacon fat? NASTY NASTY NASTY.
Also, if you want cranberry sauce that’s a little more exciting than the traditional stuff, this recipe is fantastic. It keeps for up to two weeks, refrigerated. Cranberry-Pineapple Relish 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple in its own juice 2 12 oz. packages cranberries 1¼ cups sugar 1 cup chopped walnuts (about 4 oz.) 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice ¼ tsp ground cloves Drain pineapple thoroughly in sieve set over large measuring cup. Add enough water to juices to measure 2 cups liquid. Place liquid in large non-aluminum saucepan. Add cranberries and sugar. Stir over high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to boil. Continue to boil until most berries burst and mixture is thick, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in drained pineapple, walnuts, lemon juice and cloves. Transfer to bowl and refrigerate uncovered until cold, about 2 hours; cover. Makes 6 cups.
My friend is hosting a Thanksgiving Redux this year for the American Thanksgiving holidays (she’s calling it “Yanksgiving”, ’cause she’s adorable like that), and it’s a potluck dinner party, so I’m using the opportunity to cook a dish that *screams* harvest and autumn to me, but isn’t traditional to my family dinners. It’s a marvellous and simple puree soup, (providing you have access to a blender/food processor): Curried Cream of Carrot Soup 1/4 cup butter, melted 1 medium cooking onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, chopped 3 cups sliced carrots (about 6 medium size) 1 medium/largish potato, peeled and diced 1 can (284mL) broth (chicken or veg) 1 can (284mL) water 1 heaping tsp of curry powder 3/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp dried tarragon 1/4 tsp pepper 1 cup milk (if someone is lactose-intolerant, this isn’t absolutely required, or could be added later by individual diners) In a large saucepan, sauté onion and garlic in butter for 5 minutes. Add carrots and potatoes; stir to coat. Add broth, water, curry, salt, tarragon, and pepper. Simmer covered over medium heat for 15 minutes until veggies are soft. Pureé in batches (about 3-4 batches is what it takes me in a 48oz blender) until smooth (and it will get very smooth, if you blend it long enough — don’t settle for grainy!). Pour back into saucepan, stir in milk, heat and serve. Total time: 30-40 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings. Optional: serve with plain yoghurt on the side to mix in with the soup (delicious contrast and really cuts through the curry heat–also, you can get away with more servings), and pita bread for dipping. It’s a brilliant orange colour, warm and filling, and absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to make it myself again.
I have nothing to add except…all of this sounds delicious. I love Thanksgiving foods – besides the turkey 🙂 Can’t wait for my pumpkin pie.
Erin- I’m allergic to turkey, so we’re making Cornish game hens. Nyah! Nothing says you need to make turkey…
Pumpkin Bread Pudding. My best friend introduced this recipe to me, so this will be my first time trying to make it, but it pretty much blows pumpkin pie out of the water… perhaps due to the fact that if you drizzle some nice chocolate syrup/sauce on it, you actually dream about this dessert that night. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Bread-Pudding-240275 Ingredients *1 cup heavy cream *3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin *1/2 cup whole milk *1/2 cup sugar *2 large eggs plus 1 yolk *1/4 teaspoon salt * 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon * 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger * 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice * Pinch of ground cloves * 5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread * 3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted Preparation -Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. -Whisk together cream, pumpkin, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, and spices in a bowl. -Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.
Ian wrote: “I am a big fan of lemonade pie around this time of the year. It’s not a normal Thanksgiving dish, but it’s easy to make, delicious, and fun. 1 can condensed milk 16 oz. can frozen lemonade or lime 9 oz. container Cool Whip 2 pie crusts mix it all together and freeze for at least an hour.” We have a similar family recipe that mom used to make every year around the holidays and my birthday when I was growing up. It’s called Raspberry Pie. Basically the recipe is identical to Ian’s above except you’d omit the can of frozen lemonade and instead add a small jar of (real!) raspberry preserves along with a tablespoon of jemon juice. Mix it all together well and pour it into 2 small or one large frozen pie crust. Chill like Ian says…for at least an hour, but overnight is best. 🙂
I think I was scarred as a child, because I HATE lemon desserts. Whenever my little sister got to pick the dessert, she went with something lemony or limey. I always, always hated it. It took me 25 years to just try key lime pie. So… I envy all of you who enjoy the lemon-flavored treats. I can’t do them.
My favorite dish to make is guajalote en mole poblano, which is the best way I know to a: make turkey interesting and b: utterly obliterate the competition at potlucks. If you’re a mole eater, Jill, I’ll totally hook you up with the recipe, including the secret cheat I learned from my mother.
I can’t believe I’m the only person so far to recommend that you order it from somewhere. Be lazy and support your local grocery at the same time. Win-win!
Side dish of chorizo and brussel sprouts. And… Quartered baby yukon golds, with skin, steamed in a dish with lemon zest, lemon juice,fresh chopped parsley, ground pepper, and coarse salt.
Here’s the recipe to my grandmothers cranberry glop- always the first thing to disappear from the table, even the kids always love it! My mom typed it up and posted it to my blog with a vegetarian version (trust my grandmother to find a way to make a fruit dish non-vegetarian friendly.) http://cookandhook.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/grandmas-cranberry-glop-recipes-from-my-moms-cookbook/
No recipe but a word of advice. Keep it simple, my first Thanksgiving I was moving right along, cooking my head off. What I didn’t realize until we started to carve the turkey was that I had missed the giblet bag which had cooked inside the bird…
I don’t have any particular recipes to offer so much as a couple of basic tips. First off, if you want to make anything you cook taste special, use FRESH herbs. Grab a couple supermarket packages of fresh rosemary, thyme, sage and chives out of the produce section. Use the sage under the skin of the turkey, along with maybe some bacon. Throw the chives in mashed potatoes, or offer them up as a topper for baked taters. Use everything in the stuffing. Fresh herbs go a long, long way towards the wow factor of any meal. If you’re baking the bird, don’t be afraid to use some softened butter, olive oil or coconut oil as a rub on the skin, either. That helps crisp the skin and keep the turkey moist. Cooking the turkey on a bed of apples helps with that, as well. You can make a simple, yet festive, holiday punch with some ginger ale or seltzer water, a bit of orange sherbet, and some cranberries floating in it. It’s light, refreshing and pretty. For dessert, cream cheese puffs are an easy favorite around here. Take one 8 oz package of cream cheese, one 8 oz thing of Cool Whip, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Mix until blended well and nice and creamy, then cut Stella Doro Anginetti cookies in half and fill with the cream mix. Replace the tops of the cookies, pile on a plate, and Bob’s yer uncle. If you don’t want to go through the tedium of making the cookies, you can pour the cream mix in a graham cracker crust, sprinkle on some colored sugar, and stuff it in the freezer over night. Thaw well and serve with an optional fruit topping of some kind, or plain. Lastly, setting the stage for the meal makes a big difference, too. Maybe put out a plate with some pickles and olives, another with crackers and cheeses, a selection of nuts, and a big bowl of fruit or one of those supermarket-bought fruit arrangements. Light some candles. Break out the good china. Get some $3 mums, gather up some fresh-fallen leaves, and set the mums on a plate in a pile of the leaves with some fresh herbs around the bottom, maybe with some tea lights or orange votive candles, and use that as a festive and beautiful centerpiece. Most of all, don’t forget to take care of YOURSELF, and have some fun for you, too. Make a point to do whatever it is that makes you happy, and worry about other stuff later. If you wanna watch the football game, then leave the damned dishes and watch the game, or go for a walk, or whatever. There’s no written rule that the kitchen must be sparkly-shining clean immediately after dinner, so don’t be shy about letting the mess sit once the food’s put away. Enjoy your family while they’re there, and clean up later. The mess will be there in the morning. The family, and certainly the holiday, won’t. Good luck, and have fun! Bast
I haven’t tried making these yet (I went and got the flu, which has precluded cooking for the moment :P) but King Arthur Flour’s Golden Pull-Apart Buns recipe looks awesome. http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2009/11/12/the-one-thing-i-have-to-bake-every-thanksgiving-pull-apart-butter-buns/
Slightly OT, but out of curiosity: since Turkey is the traditional meat for Thanksgiving in the US, what do you have on Christmas? Turkey is the general tradition for xmas in the UK these days. (I’ve also been told in the past that the US doesn’t have mince pies or Christmas pudding. Would barely feel like xmas to a Brit 😉 )
An Easy Cranberry Sauce recipe. Set oven at 200 degrees. Put a bag of cranberries in a pan, add enough brandy so the bottom quarter (or third) of the cranberries are submerged, and then half-a-cup (varies by how sweet you like it) of dark brown sugar over the top. Roast in the oven for about half-an-hour, then run about two-thirds of the cranberries through a blender. Put all the cranberries, blended and unblended alike, into a bowl.
If you have vegetarian guests, there is a link for a vegetarian thanksgiving plan here: http://www.boutell.com/vegetarian/Thanksgiving.html I haven’t made all of the recipes, but I have made the nut loaf and the gravy, and it is excellent. As the vegetarians in our family eat dairy, we use butter instead of the oil. We use the full head of garlic. And we buy vegetable stock to use, rather than using water. We also cook the onions longer, until they are somewhat caramelized, for extra flavor. In my experience, the “loaf” isn’t very loaf-like, and tends to fall apart if you try to unmold it. So we serve it in the loaf pan, and spoon it out. The overall effect is of a rich nut stuffing/dressing, and it is a good side-dish for the meat eaters as well as a good main dish for the non-meat eaters. We’ve also made the gravy recipe there, and it is quite good with turkey as well as the nut roast. We usually use more mushrooms, and cook them with the onions, again, cooking to caramelize the onions rather than just soften them. You definitely want the reduced-sodium soy sauce, and since nutritional yeast isn’t a common thing in our house, we’ve used ordinary baking yeast (bought in bulk) instead, and its worked fine. This is a more garlicy gravy than the one my stepmom makes with the turkey drippings, and I like it with the turkey as well as with the nut loaf.
Definitely agree: keep it simple, especially if it’s your first time hosting and you haven’t already road-tested the recipes. Trader Joe’s cranberry chutney. Roasted halved acorn squash, baked sweet potatoes — both dead easy and delicious, and you don’t have to futz around with marshmallows or anything like that. Something green with a little something-something; I’m going with kale and garlic this year. I’m also considering making this: http://noteatingoutinny.com/2009/11/06/sweet-potato-gnocchi-with-arugula-and-hazelnuts/#more-4269 Where you want to go hog wild is probably with your stuffing and your dessert, since you can make those ahead of time; making an interesting sauce, like little light’s mole, is also a good idea. If you’re making pie crusts yourself, do yourself a favor and don’t over-handle the dough. Make liberal use of refrigeration to keep it chilled (chilled shortening makes for air pockets, and air pockets make for flaky crusts). Remember, too, that you can make the food fantastic, but if you stress yourself out doing it, your guests are likely to remember that more than the food. Don’t forget to spend time with them, and to kick up your feet and relax occasionally.
I’m also doing the whole shebang at my house for the first time this year. I need to get to the farmers’ market today! One suggestion: Ginger Glazed Carrots – really simple, autumnal, and delicious. Arkady – In the US, there is no one specific Christmas meal. I think a lot of people do ethnic or regional foods. Some Italian-Americans do a Feast of 12 Fishes (I think that’s what it’s called, from what I remember from my Catholic school compatriots). A lot of Southerners do ham. My family does a Danish style smorgasbord – but we also have Christmas plum pudding!
Little light, some of the rest of us would like to read your mole sauce tips and tricks as well! Please share! Otherwise, I have no suggestions. I do like to add a little bit of horseradish to my mashed potatoes, though. It gives them a bit of a kick.
I was never in to the sweet potato + marshmallow thing, but I do enjoy a nice sweet side dish to balance out all the salt/savory on the table. This sweet potato recipe has become a mainstay for my thanksgiving meals. It’s like a cross between the sweet potato casserole and a pecan pie – absolutely delicious: http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/food/112204recipe_esspc.html Also, let me second the person who mentioned cornish game hens. My mom used to make them because I hate turkey. They’re so much easier to deal with than turkey and they make things really festive because, seriously, when else do you get your own personal bird?
My mom does a bitchin’ roast turkey. Getting a roasting recipe is a no biggie, but one of her secrets is that she lays a piece of cheese-cloth on top of the turkey (just like, 8 inches by 8 inches), and keeps it basted with turkey juices and initially butter or margarine. By putting it on top of the turkey your oven won’t dry out the breast meat or unattractively burn the top of the breast, so you can roast it for longer while cooking other things and not have to worry about scorching.
If you’re sick of pumpkin pie, or want to move the cranberries out of side dish limbo, this is the easiest, tastiest cake ever: http://cooking-books.blogspot.com/2009/02/nantucket-cranberry-pie.html
I’ve got a recipe for pumpkin soup. Pretty damn easy, and pretty damn good: First you take a really big pot (3 quarts or more). Put your stove to “medium”, melt two tablespoons of butter into the pot, and then add: -30 oz canned pumpkin -30 oz soup broth -1 ½ cups milk -1/3 cup maple syrup -1 tablespoon fresh ginger -1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, or add to taste -a teaspoon or a tablespoon of chili powder (depends how hot you can handle) And then I usually add some allspice, too. Recipe adapted from one in “Better Homes and Gardens: Anyone Can Cook” cookbook, 2007 edition. Original recipe specifies chicken broth, but it worked okay for me with veggie broth.
World’s Best Roast Potatoes: an idiot-proof recipe -Preheat oven to 350F and put in a tray with olive oil, a chopped-up onion, and a generous dollop of butter -Peel batch of russet potatoes and chop into irregular shapes, not too big (so ratio of crunchy outside to middle is high, a few bites per potato) -Boil potatoes in water with a pinch of salt, until, with a bit of effort, you can cut them with the side of a fork -Drain potatoes, put back in pot, put on lid, and shake vigorously until potatoes are ‘fluffy’. DO NOT MISS THIS STEP, this is the crispy-making trick -Put potatoes into the hot oil, basting to ensure full coverage with oil -Cooking time is 45 to 90 mins depending on your oven and your potatoes. Just check in at 45 mins and turn the potatoes over, then again have a look every 15 mins (every 5 if you go over 75 mins). That way you can spend most of your time hosting. Remove potatoes when they are golden-brown and crispy and put in a dish with some paper towels at the bottom (as it absorbs some of the oil so the ones at the bottom stay crispy longer). Serve. Allow as much per person as you can fit in your oven, because that is how many they will eat.
Preemptive note to tl;dr types: Patriarchy blaming is about to ensue, but nowhere in this comment do I say that cooking an elaborate meal on Thanksgiving is an ANTIfeminist act! 🙂 My mom is boycotting Thanksgiving this year. She grew up in a large, poor family where the mother and daughters were expected to do all the cooking and cleaning and cater to the men of the family and didn’t get much respect for it. Thanksgiving was just an intensification of this: the women would rise early and cook all day (or, often, start the day before) while the men sat in the living room and drank beer, and it was the women who did all the setup and cleanup. It wasn’t treated as a particularly spiritual day, and to my mom it felt more like a celebration of traditional gender roles. These days, my dad isn’t much better — he’ll get mad if there isn’t a “traditional” spread, with turkey and everything, but he won’t help and has to be reminded to even express appreciation of the work my mom puts in. I’m proud of my mom for going on strike, so to speak, to make the point that all that turkey and stuff comes from someone’s labor, and that one person’s relaxing holiday is another person’s obligatory chore. I’m sure the day will just end up erupting in screaming arguments, but her life has shown that just keeping quiet and putting up with crap doesn’t get you anywhere. But all these recipes do sound delicious!
I’ve done my share of cooking and serving. I’m also tired of making reservations on Thanksgiving — that’s often a day when the restaurants that are open are just swamped — food’s usually better when they are less crowded, less harried. This year all precooked from one or another market. turkey, roasted root veggies, corn souffle, etc. Very traditional, all just heat and serve. Easy cleanup. Food may not be the best, but it will do. In addition, we can try something different. I’m looking forward to a peaceful, quiet, mellow Thanksgiving — my partner, myself, and all our lovely cats. By the way, our “old time” traditional Christmas dinner has always been a standing rib roast as main course. Antipasto to start, maybe a little light soup, then the heavy stuff. Sides can vary — I always loved Yorkshire Pudding as a part of the meal. As I’ve aged and my taste for beef has waned, that sort of meal is a thing of the past — still, I do remember them fondly. Shrimp cocktails or oysters were also a luxury touch, if we wanted to forgoe the antipasto. Those were some heady times.
I got this recipe over at firedoglake a few years ago, and it is absolutely the best (and easiest) cranberry sauce ever! This year I made it with pecans instead of walnuts, to which my daughter-in-law is allergic. Cranberry Conserve Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix 12 oz. of fresh cranberries with 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a 9×13 pan (or a Pyrex casserole) and cover tightly with foil (or the glass lid.) Bake for 1/2 to 3/4 hour, stirring two or three times to dissolve the sugar. The berries should remain whole but will be squishy, so stir carefully. The juice and the sugar will form a syrup. Cool the mixture, and then add 3/4 cup of a good orange marmalade, preferably English and dark-ish and a little on the bitter side, and 3/4 cup broken walnuts. (The recipe calls for English walnuts, but they are very expensive and frankly no better tasting in this than American. Just don’t stint on the marmalade. Buy the good stuff.) Stir together and chill before serving. This keeps well in the refrigerator and will serve a lot of people with enough left over to make those turkey sandwiches with.
You don’t say whether you are, in fact, doing a turkey, but let me pass along this turkey tip anyway (and apologies if anyone already posted this — I am lazy this evening and didn’t read the whole list): Roast the bird breast side *down*. Seriously. If you aren’t going for the big “presentation of the bird” thing, flip it on its breast after rubbing the whole thing generously with butter (or oil of your choice). As it cooks, the juices migrate *down*, so they go into the breast and keep it really much more moist than I’ve found basting to do. (The dark meat still stays delightfully moist, and I’ll fight you for it. 😉 You can still baste if you like, but I tried roasting it belly down a couple of years ago, and it *works*. 🙂 Also, be careful not to overcook the bird. Turkeys are not fatty birds to begin with, and even with food safety issues firmly in mind, I do believe that a lot of folks just cook the crap out of turkey. *Cover* it, with foil if not the actual roasting pan lid, baste it if you must, but don’t overcook it. Consult a NEW cookbook for roasting times, and keep an eye on it. If you get one of the conventional birds that has the little timer thingie in it, *pay attention to it*. When the little button pops out, the bird really is done. It has to rest for a while anyway before you carve it. I’ll be having Thanksgiving at my step-families’ home (nephew with newly finished downstairs is hosting — expecting something like 20 – 30 people. Yikes.) so I won’t be cooking THIS holiday meal, but I trade off Christmas Day with my sister-in-law and this year is my turn. (Actually, it’s my turn more than not, but that’s OK. I can cook in my jammies if I want to, and we get to have dinner at a decent time. Like, supper time — 5:00 or so — rather than stupid early for dinner and late for lunch, as is normal in these parts. ) Strangely, I rather like cooking the big meals. The hardest part is getting everything on the table warm at the same time, and getting the gravy right. I generally over thicken it…. Enjoy your holiday!
Definitely agree on getting everything ready at the same time, and hot. If anybody’s got good tips for that outside of using a restaurant kitchen with enough room to make it all at the same time I’d love to hear them.
I took a fairly successful dish to a Thanksgiving dinner once: unfortunately there is no recipe for it, but it involved layers of cooked-and-cut-up butternut squash (I imagine any other winter squash would work as well), lentil sprouts and shredded cheese, piled in a casserole dish and baked until the cheese melted.
Cactus Wren: That sounds delightful!! To me. I’d be the only one eating it. *sigh* But I think I need to write that down ’cause it sounds really yummy. (I’m a sucker for “hot dish” as we call it in MN, and especially any “hot dish” that involves cheese, but not Cream of Mushroom soup. So Minnesotan I bloody *squeak* sometimes….) libdevil: Making good use of the microwave helps. No one but me likes the stuffing from inside the bird, so I don’t stuff it. Instead, I make a BIG casserole dish of stuffing and cook it in the microwave. Takes 10 or 15 minutes, and is awesomely moist. (Which reminds me that I should do a small trial run before Christmas. O, darn.) Small dishes of stuff will fit around the turkey roaster — VERY small dishes — and some stuff like potatoes are done on the stovetop anyway. It helps that we don’t have lots and lots of side dishes that all need to “bake at 350 for an hour or until bubbly”. OR more than a half a dozen people to feed. *grin* When I lived with my step-mother, we did a bunch of stuff the night before, but a lot of it was the cold dishes — cole slaw, etc. — or stuff that could be put together and warmed up, or things like pies that we didn’t serve warm. The last 15 minutes or so are always just *insane*, and it helps to have one or two helpers who can all work together well in the space you have. My kitchen is so small that my brother-in-law stands on the other side of the peninsula counter to carve the turkey, leaving my husband and me to dance around each other in the tiny, 1970s split level excuse for a kitchen. *snort!* After 16 years of marriage and several holiday dinners, we really do have it down to a dance. 🙂 But getting it all to the table hot? Still working on that….
My three tried-and-true turkey tips are to… 1. put the stuffing in cheesecloth if you cook it inside the bird; it makes for a much easier and cleaner removal 2. roast the turkey upside down; only if you don’t care about the presentation part because while moist and delicious, it will not look like the Norman Rockwell painting when done 3. lay pieces of thick-sliced bacon on the top for roasting – as the turkey cooks the bacon renders, sending deliciousness down upon the bird making basting unnecessary and cutting cooking time (because you are not constantly opening the oven); but beware whether cooked upside down or right side up this also does not make for a Norman Rockwell bird – BONUS you have turkey-infused bacon to chew on while the turkey cools
A little labor-intensive, but SO delicious. I found the recipe online somewhere years ago and edited it a little: PUMPKIN SEED PESTO RAVIOLI Using prepared wonton wrappers (available in the deli section of most markets) makes it easy to make ravioli. • 1 cup pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted • 1 cup packed parsley leaves • 2 cloves garlic • 2 teaspoon miso • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt • 8 ounces firm tofu • 1/4 cup olive oil • 1 (50-piece) package round or square wonton/dumpling wrappers Mince pumpkin seeds, parsley, and garlic together in food processor. Add sea salt and tofu, and process until mixed. While processor is running, drizzle oil through the top. Flour a tray or board for prepared ravioli, and flour a small work surface for their preparation. Place a cup of water next to your work station. Form ravioli as follows: Place a wrapper on floured work surface and put about 1 teaspoon of pesto filling in center. Dip finger in water and wet edges of wrapper. Fold wrapper over diagonally to form half-moon (round wraps) or triangle (square wraps). Press to seal. Place ravioli on floured tray or board. Continue with remaining wraps and filling. When ready to serve, drop ravioli into a large pot of boiling water. Cook 2 to 4 minutes, or until they float to the top. Remove to serving platter with slotted spoon. If cooking all the ravioli at once, do it in several batches. Serve the ravioli drizzled with olive oil, and with a little salt, pepper and Parmesan. Makes 8 servings.
I have pages of recipes for Thanksgiving on my LJ Vegan, Vegetarian, Turkey, etc. http://metahara.livejournal.com/tag/recipes+and+ingredients+list enjoy