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thanksgiving recipes, part 3
When it comes to measurements in recipes, I’m usually precise. I have this thing about food ~ I like for it to taste good. 
I have pretty much taught myself how to cook; when I was a kid (actually, make that before I was married) no one told me that cooking would some day actually be an important skill. I took 1 home ec class in high school ~ and I only took it because I wanted “an easy, goof off class” for my last period during the last semester of my senior year. So basically I wasn’t in that class to learn, and nothing that was taught stuck with me.
Despite my natural tendency to be particular about things, I do have a few recipes that call for a dash of this or a pinch of that, and use terms like “about” and “around” when referring to measurements. These recipes are from my dad, and they are the traditional recipes I have loved since I was a kid.
I’m sorry that I can’t be more precise with the measurements in the following recipes ~ I’ll do the best I can, but really these are the kind of recipes you just have to try for yourself. Adjust for personal tastes as you go along.
The first recipe is for my famous turkey dressing. I took the basic recipe my dad gave me and built on it (ok, let’s be honest: I think I improved on Dad’s recipes, but don’t tell him that!). It took me a few years to get this one just right, but now everyone (including my father) thinks it’s the best dressing they’ve ever tasted.
Sloppy Turkey Dressing
1 pan homemade cornbread (do not use sweet cornbread ~ if you usually make your cornbread sweet, leave out at least half the amount of sugar you usually use. I only use about 1 Tbs. of sugar in my cornbread recipe.)
2/3 – 1 loaf stale Wonderbread
1/2 – 1 stick of butter, softened
1 tsp. rubbed sage or a dash of poultry seasoning
2 eggs
4 – 5 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
salt & pepper to taste
8 – 12 C. chicken broth
Bake the pan of cornbread the day before; also spread loaf of Wonderbread out on cooling racks and allow to dry out (you’ll have to turn them over a couple of times so they dry on both sides).
Thanksgiving morning, in a large bowl crumble the cornbread into bite-size chunks and tear (break) the bread into chunks. Add remaining ingredients except chicken broth. Mix well. Add chicken broth, a few cups at a time, until dressing is a bit sloppy and the cornbread chunks begin to break down. Don’t add too much broth because the dressing will absorb some of the turkey drippings while it cooks.
After placing turkey in roasting pan, spoon dressing into pan around turkey. Bake/roast until turkey is fully cooked.
After removing turkey from roaster, spoon dressing into large baking dish. If the dressing is too moist, bake uncovered at 400 degrees until it has dried out enough. If the dressing is too dry, add more chicken broth and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
The perfect state of dressing sloppiness is up to your personal dressing preferences. I like mine a little moister than Roger likes his, but we’ve been able to come to a happy medium with this recipe.
The second recipe is an old southern favorite. As with dressing recipes, it has many variations. This is our tried and true favorite:
Sweet Potato Casserole
3 to 4 medium-large sweet potatoes, peeled, rinsed and cut into chunks
water
salt
1/2 stick butter, softened
brown sugar
cinnamon
milk
mini marshmallows
chopped pecan or walnuts, optional
Place sweet potatoes into large stock pot. Cover with water. Add a dash of salt; boil sweet potatoes until tender (they’ll fall apart when you stick a fork into them).
Drain sweet potatoes in colander. Place drained sweet potatoes into large mixing bowl. Add softened butter and cinnamon (a hearty dash should do it); begin mixing with electric mixer on low. Slowly add 2 or 3 handfuls of brown sugar, increasing mixer’s speed slowly as needed. Alternate handfuls of brown sugar and splashes of milk; only add enough milk to smooth out the sweet potato mixture (you don’t want lumpy, chunky sweet potato casserole ~ it needs to be smooth like mashed potatoes). After a few handfuls of brown sugar and splashes of milk, stop mixer and do a taste test. Continue adding brown sugar if needed (mixing well between additions), until the sweet potato mixture is to your liking. Add a little more cinnamon too, if desired.
Pour/spoon sweet potato mixture into baking dish. Top with nuts and mini marshmallows. Bake at 350 degrees until marshmallows have melted and begin to brown. Serve hot; goes best with turkey and dressing.
If I make enough sweet potato casserole, my kids will snack on it for days. They absolutely love it.
Happy cooking!
thanksgiving recipes, part 2
Marilyn Moll (the Urban Homemaker) wrote this post about organic vs non-organic, frozen turkey. In it she mentions brining your Thanksgiving turkey.
We started brining our Thanksgiving turkeys about 6 or 7 years ago. We buy our frozen turkeys from the grocery store ~ usually Butterball. They’re already injected with a brine-like solution (we will not go into how bad this whole injecting things into my already non-organically raised turkey is). Even so, we have found that brining our turkey makes an incredible difference. Since we started brining our turkey, we have yet to have a dry, bland Thanksgiving dinner. The brining process has made a huge difference, and I don’t think we’ll even go back to not brining our turkey.
We have tried several different brines over the years, and have finally narrowed it down to this fail-proof brine that has a taste we enjoy:
Citrus Turkey Brine
baking soda
1 C. salt (we use Kosher salt, but chunky sea salt would work well, too)
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 orange, cut into wedges
1 medium white onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves fresh garlic (the minced stuff from a jar won’t work)
4 bay leaves
1 Tbs. dried thyme
1 Tbs. ground black pepper
enough water to cover turkey
Sprinkle baking soda all over turkey; rinse turkey under cold running water, rubbing the skin with the baking soda then washing it away. Pat turkey dry with paper towels.
Rub about 1/4 to 1/2 C. of the salt onto turkey (do not rinse off); place turkey in a large bowl or clean bucket. Place remaining salt into medium bowl; add 4 cups of cool water, then mix with a whisk until salt is dissovled. Add salt/water mixture to bucket with turkey. Add lemon, orange, onion, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and pepper to bucket. Cover turkey with cold water; refrigerate overnight. Discard brine after removing turkey (do not rinse turkey again, though).
With this brine recipe, I don’t have to let the turkey sit for any certain amount of time after removing it from the brine ~ I can just put it right into the roaster and then into the oven.
I am not a turkey stuffer ~ we do dressing around the outside of the turkey rather than stuff it inside the turkey. I’ll share that recipe tomorrow. I have found that my dressing turns out better when it’s positioned around the turkey in the pan rather than in the turkey cavity.
Also, we cook our turkey upside down. The “presentation” of the turkey doesn’t matter to us~ our tradition is to carve the turkey in the kitchen then place the meat on a platter that is taken to the table. I have found, since brining and cooking the turkey upside down (breast down in the pan rather than up), we have had the most flavorful, moistest turkeys I could have ever hoped to cook.
Using this brine and cooking the turkey breast-side down has made all the difference. Before I started doing both of these steps, Roger was not a huge turkey fan ~ now he really looks forward to our Thanksgiving meal.
thanksgiving recipes, part 1
This recipe is for my youngest son’s favorite part of our traditional Thanksgiving meal ~ dessert (of course!). This recipe is so easy, and you won’t believe how good it tastes!
Cherry Cream Cheese Pie
1 (9-in.) graham cracker crumb pie crust
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1/3 c. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 (21-oz.) can cherry pie filling
Chill cherry pie filling in refrigerator.
In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffly (don’t skimp on this part ~ the fluffier the better). Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Pour into prepared graham cracker crumb pie crust. Cover and chill in refrigerator 3 hours or until set. Top with chilled cherry pie filling before serving. Refrigerate leftovers.
Mmmmm, yummy! 
new bosch universal
Oh Marilyn ~ you really shouldn’t have done this! The NEW Bosch Universal? Oh my ~ well, I guess I’ll just have to alter my Christmas Wish List a tad to include this new beauty!
cookie recipes
My mother-in-law sent me this link ~ tons of cookie recipes right at your fingertips. Pretty handy!
week #2
In my quest to be organized and avoid the holiday frenzy, I have been using The 12-Week Holiday Planner for the Christian Family. This week is “Browse Week”. Actually, this “week” ends Wednesday, but we’ll just go with the flow.
Browse week means this week I have been developing gift ideas, thinking about decorations (both Christmas and Thanksgiving), and doing a holiday self-evaluation. The decorations part is a breeze ~ I have what I have, and I’m not planning on adding anything to it this holiday season. I wish I was one of those people who can hit the day-after Christmas sales and buy up Christmas decorations for a song. Alas, I’m not ~ I don’t like the crowds, and the frenzied pace makes my head hurt. As a rule I avoid after-Christmas sales like the plague. That being the situation, my Christmas decorations are a hodge-podge of items I have collected over the years. Some things have been given to me (the beautiful ceramic Christmas tree that lights up that Norma made for her mother and gave to me last Christmas; the Christmas ornaments that adorned the Christmas tree when I was a child, given to me by my mom; the rocking horse and Christmas doll given to me by one of my bosses way back when when I was working outside of my home…….). Others have been picked up here and there when we really felt the need to add Christmas decorations or when we needed to replace something (like the Christmas tree skirt that just completely disintegrated one year while stored in the attic).
Coming up with Christmas gift ideas has been a bit of a stickler. We’re making homemade gifts for our friends and neighbors ~ that’s not too hard. We like to make some sort of homemade gift ~ muffins, a quick bread, cake, flavored butter, etc. ~ with a nice recipe card or gift card that has the instructions for making that gift. It’s the gifts for family members that always get us. Why is it that parents, when faced with the question of what they would like for their birthday or Christmas, always respond with something like, “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really need anything.” Or, better yet, “Don’t get me a present. There’s nothing I need or want.” How in the WORLD do you respond to THAT?! It’s a bit frustrating. I mean, if I actually don’t get them anything, because they said not to, their feelings get hurt because they think we forgot them or didn’t care enough to get them something. On the other hand, I don’t want to get them something they don’t like, or even worse, something they stick in a closet somewhere and never use.
So, what do we do? I don’t know ~ Roger and I are still mulling that one over. The thing is, we go through this every single Christmas. You’d think somewhere along the way we’d come up with some ideas!
Next “week” ~ October 17-23 ~ is supplies week. I’m supposed to inventory what I have, make shopping lists, and go shopping for what I need. That should be easy enough as far as the baking and homemade gifts go.
I’m going to continue to browse catalogs and troll online stores until I find good gifts for each of our parents. I like to give gifts that are meaningful and useful to the receiver ~ if worse comes to worst, all of the parents will be getting a box from Harry David’s or Hickory Farms!
12-week holiday planner
I have had several people ask me about the 12-Week Holiday Planner for the Christian Family. I just bought it about a week and a half ago, but I have already printed it out, put it in a 3-ring binder, looked the whole thing over, and even added a couple of baking and freezer meal making days!
I saw today that Marilyn Moll has a new ebook out that compliments The 12-Week Holiday Planner ~ and they’re offering the two ebooks together as a package deal. Marilyn is an awesome Titus 2 woman with a fantastic website ~ The Urban Homemaker. I love her bread recipies.
If you want to check out the combination of The 12-Week Planner and Marilyn’s new ebook The Holiday Open House click here.
12-week planner
I have had several people ask me about the 12-Week Holiday Planner for the Christian Family. I just bought it about a week and a half ago, but I have already printed it out, put it in a 3-ring binder, looked the whole thing over, and even added a couple of baking and freezer meal making days!
I saw today that Marilyn Moll has a new ebook out that compliments The 12-Week Holiday Planner ~ and they’re offering the two ebooks together as a package deal. Marilyn is an awesome Titus 2 woman with a fantastic website ~ The Urban Homemaker. I love her bread recipies.
If you want to check out the combination of The 12-Week Planner and Marilyn’s new ebook The Holiday Open House click here.