A lot of us will be spending Thursday morning (and Wednesday night!) in the kitchen. Any experiences or knowledge to share?
Here’s my favorite dish for Thanksgiving. My husband makes it every year and it goes quickly. I could make a meal of just this cranberry sauce on rolls and be very grateful!
Easy Cranberry Sauce
2 medium tart apples, peeled and sliced
1 (12oz) bag of cranberries
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 (15 1/4 oz) can sliced peaches, drained
1 (15 oz) can apricot halves, drained
Combine apples, cranberries, sugar, raisins, orange juice, salt and spices in a sauce pan. Heat uncovered over medium-high heat until berries pop and apples are tender (about 10 minutes). Add peaches and apricots. Heat through. Sauce will thicken upon standing. Serve warm or cold.
I was thinking about Thanksgiving food today, and I realized that I no longer have a cookbook in my house. I use to have many, but I must have given them away or something. Now I just use my imagination, eschew tradtion, and create new dishes, no two dishes ever being quite the same, but I will spare you the details.
Artsohio, your recipe sounds good, but, in my humble opinion, you forgot the chopped walnuts and orange peel. Also, your new avatar is a big improvement over your last one. You look like a much happier person.
Question: What does a middle-class minimalist have for the Thanksgiving meal?
Answer: A turkey TV dinner, of course. And not just any TV dinner, but one of Marie Callender’s deluxe ones. OK, I’ll admit it, I did pick up a couple of them at Walmart today. The photos on the box look terrific. I can hardly wait. After all it isn’t just about the food; it’s about being thankful.
Chopped walnuts?! Are you a crazy person?! Next you’ll tell me you put clams in your dressing!
My last avatar was from a picture of me working on the computer, eyes narrowed in concentration. I thought it was a contemplative look, but someone on another board told me I looked ‘mean’. For this one I was sitting at the piano, which is obviously a happier place to be than in the office!
I moved to Canada from the US two years ago, so now I celebrate two Thanksgivings, one in October and one in November.
This wonderfully scrumptious pie is worth making for both Thanksgivings, it’s from the one of the Shepherd’s Garden cookbooks (Recipes from a Kitchen Garden, by Renee Shepherd, full of yummy stuff):
Drunken Apple/Pumpkin Pie
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
1 cup cooked & mashed pumpkin, drained
1 cup thick applesauce
2 eggs
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
1.5 cups half-and-half or 1 12-oz can of evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pecans
2 tablespoons rum
Preheat oven to 425 F. In a bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until light. Mix in the pumpkin, applesauce, flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, half-and-half, and vanilla, and blend thoroughly. Pour into pie shell. Arrange pecan halves on top.
Bake in the lower third of the oven for 20 minutes, then reduce oven heat to 350F and bake 30-35 minutes longer until the filling is firm and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack. When ready to serve, warm the rum in a small container suitable for pouring. Light the rum with a match and pour immediately while flaming over the pie. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.
I’m considering having Burn’s Night in November but a vegetarian version.
Vegetarian Haggis
100g/4oz onion, peeled & finely chopped
15ml/1tbsp sunflower oil
50g/2oz carrots, very finely
chopped
35g/11/2 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
50g/2oz red lentils
600ml/1pint vegetable stock
25g/1oz mashed, tinned red kidney beans
35g/11/2 oz ground peanuts
25g/1oz ground hazelnuts
30ml/2tbsp shoyu ( soy sauce)
15ml/1tbsp lemon juice
7.5ml/11/2tsp dried thyme
5ml/1tsp dried rosemary
generous pinch cayenne pepper
7.5ml/11/2 tsp mixed spice
200g/8oz fine oatmeal
Freshly ground black pepper
Pre-heat the oven to 190°C, 375°F or Gas Mark 5
Sauté the onion in the oil for 5 minutes, then add the carrot and mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Now add the lentils and three quarters of the stock.
Blend the mashed red kidney beans in the remaining stock, add these to the pan with the nuts, shoyu, lemon juice and seasonings.
Cook everything, well mixed together, for a further 10 to 15 minutes.
Then add the oatmeal, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, adding a little extra liquid if necessary.
Turn the mixture into a lightly oiled 1lb loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes.
CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE I
9" Springform pan, 9" round pan, or 8x8 square
GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST III
1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
Mix the ingredients well. Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the pan in a thin layer, and half-way up the sides.
FILLING
16 oz. cream cheese 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated 3 T. cocoa or carob
1 t. vanilla
Suggested topping:
2 cups sour cream 1/4 cup sugar
2 T. cocoa or carob 1/2 t. vanilla
Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry, and set aside. Beat the cream cheese, egg yolks and vanilla together until the mixture is smooth. Sift the sugar with the cocoa (or carob powder) and slowly beat it into the cheese mixture. Fold in the beaten egg whites and spread the mixture in the prepared crust.
Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until the cake is set. Remove the cake from the oven. Blend together all the ingredients for the topping and spread over the hot cake. Return the cake to the oven and bake for 10 minutes longer. Cool the cheesecake on a wire rack, then refrigerate. Serve this cake chilled.
Excerpted from “The Cheesecake Cookbook”, copyright 1978, 2004 by Kevin Krell
This always shows up on our holiday table & even kids will eat it. When I first moved to Michigan, it was hard to find the jalapeno cheese but many of our stores now sell at least the mild if not the hot variety.
JALAPENO SPINACH
4 10 oz. pkgs frozen chopped spinach thawed & squeezed (to get the water out)
1 lb Mexican Velveeta or other similar jalapeno cheese (the processed stuff melts the best)
2 t. Worchestershire sauce
2 t. pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. celery salt (use seed if you want to cut the sodium)
Heat spinach in microwave until hot. Cut cheese into chunks, add to spinach & heat until melted. Stir in spices & Worchestershire & heat until bubbly.
You can top this with bread crumbs or crushed tostado chips; but we stopped using those because of all the other grain dishes on the table. Maybe slicing some Roma tomatoes on top would dress it up.
For a great dip, cut the spinach down to one package and add a can of diced Rotel or Red Gold tomatoes with green chiles (the hot ones) and serve with tostado chips.
here are the quick pan cookies I make for the holidays…
Pan cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 (14-oz.) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1 cup (6-oz.) butterscotch flavored chips
1 cup (6 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350°, (325° for glass dish). In 13x9-inch baking pan,
melt butter in oven.
Sprinkle crumbs over butter; pour condensed milk evenly on top of
crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients in order listed; press down
firmly with fork.
Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Chill if desired. Cut
into bars. Store covered at room temperature.
Those pan cookies sound a lot like the Seven-Layer Cookies we used to make (except yours appear to have only six layers). The title of the seven-layer cookie recipe had been typed by someone whose right hand was misplaced on the typewriter, so it came out:
SEVEB KATER CIIJUES
so that’s what we called them…I think the exotic name made them taste even better, actually.
Beats me, it’s been 10 or 15 years since I made 'em and I no longer have access to the original recipe. Maybe the sweetened condensed milk counts as a layer, and this is all seven layers? The list of ingredients sure looks familiar.
Anyone have a good mashed potatoes recipe? They seem so easy for the rest of the world but we’ve never been able to nail them in my household. I’m tempted to get the flakes this year, they have to be better than my usual homemade mashed potatoes.
