Thanksgiving recipes

[tracilicious]

T-day is at my house this year. I need to make stuffing, mashed potatoese, cranberry sauce, and pie. I want them to be really impressive, as my family doesn't cook, and is therefore accustomed to boxed stuffing, store bought pies, etc. What are you cooking?

[Not Afraid]

I'm cooking up some dog food for the day.

[Matterhorn Fan]

Green bean casserole. (Don't worry--no canned green beans will ever come near my home!)

Dunno what else. Will depend on if I have company, when I get to the grocery, where I'll be cooking, and how much energy and motivation I have next week.



tracilicious--are you asking for recipes or menus? What do you need recipes for?

[BarTopDancer]

My mom always (until this year) makes t-day dinner.

We have turkey
Stuffing (Mrs. Cubersons adding celery, onions and orange juice and yes, we put it in the turkey)
cranberry orange Jell-o mold
Cranberry relish (receipe is on the bag of OceanSpray cranberries)
green bean cassrole (receipe on the french fried onions)
crossants (from the tube - POP)
pie is frozen (but Costco makes yummylicious pies)
olive trays are always fun for the kids (and kids at heart) before the meal

------
I know you're very 'make it yourself' but save yourself the stress and use what store bought stuff you can.

[Matterhorn Fan]

In my family, cranberry sauce must be shaped like the can. Ocean Spray has changed the way their cans are constructed in recent years, making it difficult to get the cranberry sauce out of the can in one piece. Stupid Ocean Spray.

[Not Afraid]

I used to cook for the masses, but stopped a couple of years back.

I always changed the recipies ever year but the basics are:

Turkey basted with something yummy and good things stuffed under the skin.

A Variation of the Stuffing theme with Wild rice and bread stuffing with pecans, currents, prunes, celery, water chestnuts, onions, cognac, fresh sage, garlic etc. (Stuffing creation is one of my favorite things to do.)

Potato and Celery root gratin with nutmeg, scallions, cream and fontina cheese

Cream Cheese-Pupmkin Pie with Pecan crust and topping.

[Alex]

Probably whatever fast food is open.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Matterhorn Fan

In my family, cranberry sauce must be shaped like the can. Ocean Spray has changed the way their cans are constructed in recent years, making it difficult to get the cranberry sauce out of the can in one piece. Stupid Ocean Spray.

Open both sides of the can
Apply pressure with a spatula or other flat object to the bottom
It should slide out.

[Prudence]

My mom makes a great fresh cranberry relish with orange and apple and so forth. Her other specialty is pearl onions in a cream sauce. My assignment for the year is orange-seethed carrots.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

If you want to do it yourself, do it yourself! I can't ever go home for Thanksgiving (unless I want to skip Christmas-- and I do NOT.) So Tom and I host dinner for his mother and a handful of friends every year. This year we're a party of eight, and I'm super excited. He and I make nearly every single thing from scratch. You can see our menu (and our frenzied food prep schedule) here on my Google Spreadsheet.

Because it's insane to do everything in one day, I've completed the bulk of my baking already. My Parkerhouse Rolls (best rolls EVER) are baking in the oven as I type. The apple pie is assembled and waiting in the freezer-- I will take it out and let it sit for an hour before I want to bake it. (Did you know you could freeze pies unbaked and bake them later? Terrific timesaver.) The pumpkin tofusecake has already been sampled and frozen, and the pumpkin cheesecake I'll tackle on Wednesday night.

As for recipes, I can paste in my favorites.

Stewed cranberry sauce is classic-- refreshing, and extraordinarily simple.

1 bag of cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Stirring constantly, heat on stove at medium-high for about five minutes until the cranberries pop. Cool and serve.

Mashed squash is delicious and flavorful, and so easy to make in the microwave (while other things are baking in the oven.)

Poke one butternut squash deeply with a sharp knife a few times, and then set it in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave for 20 minutes. Then slice open, scoop out the seeds/strings, and scoop the squash meat out into a serving bowl. (Repeat with as many squash as needed.) When you've finished scooping out the squash, simply add 2-3 tablespoons of butter (we use Earth Balance spread) with salt and pepper to taste. Deeeelish.

This is my mom's apple pie recipe, straight from her email a few years ago. I've never had better apple pie.
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
6 cups sliced apples (try cortland, spies, macintosh, winsap, duchess, Johnathan,Granny smith) [Heidi says: I used granny smith this year]
1-1/2 tablespoons butter
store-bought pie crust (this is much easier than making pie crust.)

Mix sugar and cinnamon. Mix lightly through apples. Add 1/2 cup of flour & mix lightly through apples as well. Sprinkle remaining flour in bottom of 9 inch unbaked pastry lined pie shell. Heap apples into pie shell over the flour. Dot with the butter. Cover with top pastry crust. Seal edges & flute. Poke slits in top crust with fork or knife. I like to sprinkle crust with just a little sprinkle of sugar. Cover edge of crust with 1-1/2 inch of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until crust is nicely browned and apples are bubbling & are testing done with fork. (May remove the foil from edges after 25 minutes--but don't get burned while you do this in the oven) Cool before serving.

My famous pumpkin cheesecake with pecan crust... (turns out you can use tofutti cream cheese and not tell the difference.)

CRUST:
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 cup flour
1 cup pecans, finely chopped

FILLING:
24 ounces cream cheese
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
16 ounces canned pumpkin pie filling
1/2 cup whipping cream unwhipped
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
4 large eggs
1 jar caramel topping

CRUST
Set oven at 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the flour and pecans and mix thoroughly. Press dough into the bottom and halfway up the sides of an ungreased 10 inch springform pan. Line inside of dough with wax paper and fill with dried beans or rice to prevent the sides from collapsing during baking. Bake for 12 minutes, cool for 10 minutes and remove beans and wax paper. Cool 10 more minutes before filling.

FILLING
Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Whip cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Next, thoroughly blend in pie filling. Then add next 5 ingredients. Now add each egg, one at a time, just enough to incorporate. Pour filling into crust and bake for 1 -1/2 hours or till done, checking with toothpick. Let cool 10 minutes and run thin knife around inside edge of pan to release filling from pan edge. Cool completely and refrigerate overnight. Before serving, remove pan ring and top cheesecake with slightly warmed caramel topping. Serves 16.

And then, my mom's Parkerhouse Roll recipe. It's pretty challenging and time-consuming-- I won't lie, I started mine at 10 AM today and I'm still baking them. And I had at least one emotional breakdown. But if you have the time or the inclination, they are truly worth it.

2 cups whole milk - scald for scum on top (3 min. in microwave)
1 cup cold water
6 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons butter + (2 tablespoons for brushing on top of baked rolls)
2 eggs
3 packets yeast
8 cups flour (approximately)

Scald the milk. Then disolve butter, salt, and all the sugar (except for 1 teaspoon) into the hot milk. Stir until disolved. Add the cold water and stir. Cool to lukewarm.

While above mix is cooling to lukewarm, prepare the yeast as follows: In a cup or small mug, mix the reserved 1 teaspoon of sugar with the 3 yeast packets and 1/4 cup of slightly warm water...NOT HOT! Stir with teaspoon till disolved and let the yeast set until it raises to top of mug or cup. This is a bit tricky as you want your hot milk mix to be lukewarm when yeast has risen.

Add yeast mix to lukewarm milk mix and stir.

Stir in 5 cups of flour and add eggs. Really beat well until smooth. Then add the remaining flour gradually as you knead. It'll be sticky and difficult to manage until all the flour is added, but don't make the mistake of doing it too quickly. Once it feels like dough-- rubbery to the touch, sort of like a baby's bottom (and TREAT it gently like a baby's bottom) turn it out onto floured counter. Knead until light and elastic. (Press forward with heels of hands, pull gently backward, the rotate.)

Let raise for one to one and a half hours under a kitchen towel.

Knead dough lightly and let rest 5 minutes before rolling. This lets the dough relax and is so much easier to roll!

Roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with round biscuit cutter (or well-washed used aluminum can.) Brush one half of each with softened butter. Crease the center of each with knife; fold over and press down firmly . Place in pan quite close but not touching. Place towel over rolls to keep them warm and let them raise for an hour and a half.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, then 350 degrees for 10 to 15 min. more. (bottoms should be browned) Brush with butter after removing from oven. Cool completely in pan. Freeze in a sealed plastic bag until the day before serving, then thaw on the counter. Warm in microwave for 30-40 seconds before serving.