Sweet potatoes

This one is by the seat of your pants, so I love it!


Sweet potatoes
butter
brown sugar
marshmallows

Preheat oven to 325 (or whatever the turkey's at - just not too hot).

Boiled the sweet potatoes and let cool a bit.
Cut into 1 inch slices and line a pan with them.
Add a pat of butter to each slice and sprinkle generously with brown sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes and pull from oven.
Add marshmallows and put back in oven for 10 more minutes.

Stuffing

This thing didn't call for giblets. I'm not sure how it'll be, but here goes...


15 slices white bread
2 Tbl butter
1/2 lg onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
2.5-3 C chicken broth
2 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp garlic powder

Lightly toast the bread and leave it out for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 325.

In a saucepan, melt butter and cook onion and celery to softness.
Crush/cut the bread into crumbs and add to a large bowl.
Add egg and broth to crumbs. You want the crumbs softened but not mushy.
Add spices and contents of saucepan to bowl and mix up.
Add mixture to baking dish (approx. 9x13) and bake for 1 hr or until top is brown and crisp.

Acorn squash

This is my first, so I'm putting both the different recipes in this post. I'm going with option 2 today, just cause...

1 acorn squash
2 Tbl melted butter
honey or 1/3 C brown sugar (or both)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 375.

Cut squash in half and scrape out crap. Place face down in a pan. Add water to pan to fill about 1/4". Bake for 30 minutes.

Now things can go one of 2 ways.

1) You can add butter and then the rest of the ingredients and bake an additional 30 minutes.
2) Remove the shell of the squash and mix with ingredients and bake for 30 minutes. This option allowed us to add some crushed walnuts to the mix.

Cranberries

We tried out a new recipe this year and it turned out very well.

1 bag cranberries
1 C OJ
1 C brown sugar
ginger

Mix everything and bring to a boil for 5 took off heat and let cool.

Cinnamon Sticks

Whatever could I do with this left over pie dough? My goodness...I know, I'll add butter and cinnamon/sugar and nom!



This was a recipe my mom used to make for us as kids. They are awesome and danged easy - especially if you already have the dough made.

melted butter
cinnamon/sugar mixture (should have enough cinnamon that its brownish)

Roll out dough and slice into inch wide strips a few inches long. Move to cookie sheet (I like parchment paper under them for easy cleanup.)
Brush on butter generously.
Sprinkle on spice generously.
Add to oven being used for pie. Given that sugar's present, its a good idea to wait for the lower temp of the pie baking. I wouldn't add to an oven hotter than 350.

Bake for 20ish minutes. Make sure it doesn't burn. Those pictured above were cooked a little too long but they aren't bad at all. I'd look for them to be a touch lighter in color than those.

Nom.

Pumpkin Pie

Let the Thanksgiving cooking....BEGIN!!!!

Seems easy enough to get this one out of the way. Since there are a lot of steps to it, it even makes more sense.


First off, take a small pumpkin. The recipe I found called them Sugar Pumpkins. I cut it in half, removed the stem and the guts and then placed it in the oven at 350 for an hour. I've also read you can steam smaller pieces in a saucepan. This is what it looked like.


After its done, pull off the rind and mash it. You need 2 cups for the pie. The pumpkin pictured above provided twice that. I'm freezing half of it.

1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
lemon zest from 1 lemon
2 C pumpkin puree
1 C heavy cream or 1 12oz can evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 egg yolk

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs and yolk and add.
Add pumpkin and cream and mix well.

Add to pie shell and bake for 15 min, then reduce oven to 350 for an additional 40-50 minutes. Mom reminded me that you want the middle a little underdone. The pie will continue to cook for awhile after its pulled from the oven.

Shell

I'm altering the pie crust, too. I'm going to make the normal amount and just use the left overs for cinnamon sticks.

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening (Crisco preferred)
4 Tbl butter

Mix these together using your hands. Its important to use the heat from your hands to begin to soften the shortening. Once you get pea-sized bits of flour, its ready for the liquid amounts.

1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vinegar
milk (amount below)

Mix the liquids and fill the measuring cup with milk until it gets to about 2/3 cup. Add this liquid to dry ingredients in doses mixing each time.

This time the crust was better, but still kinda fell apart. I'm thinking a touch less crisco.

Blackberry pie

Well, the time has come to quit being a chicken and make a pie. Since mom worked with me I've been avoiding this, but with Thanksgiving coming I want to make sure I can make a crust for the holiday.

Pie filling

4 cups blackberries, divided into 3.5 and 0.5 cup amounts
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour

2 Tbl milk
1/4 cup sugar

Mix the 1/4 cup sugar and flour in a bowl. Pour it over the 3.5 cups of blackberries and mix. Add them to your pie crust and top with the unsweetened berries. After putting a crust over the top of all that (it will be heaping but dont worry - it'll cook down) brush with milk and then sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Place in oven at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce to 375 for 20-25 min if using fresh berries and 30 min if using frozen berries.

Crust

This is not Mom's crust. I plan to modify this as I go but Mom didn't have measurements and Whitney did. Whit just opened a pie store in KC. Thanks for your recipe, Whit.

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup shortening (Crisco preferred)

Mix these together using your hands. Its important to use the heat from your hands to begin to soften the shortening. Once you get pea-sized bits of flour, its ready for the liquid amounts.

1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vinegar
milk (amount below)

Mix the liquids and fill the measuring cup with milk until it gets to about 2/3 cup. Add this liquid to dry ingredients in doses mixing each time.

Split the dough in 2 and using a floured rolling pin, tap down the dough somewhat. Once its flattened a bit, start rolling. Make sure to not roll over the edge of the dough as that will make it fray. Once the dough is rolled out, there are 2 ways to get it into the pie pan. The first is rolling the dough onto the rolling pin and unrolling it in the pan.

That worked for me the first time. The dough wasn't quite right for the second half of the dough (the top). I had a lovely assistant there to demonstrate the second method of moving the dough. I gathered it in my hands and lifted it while she moved the pie plate under the dough. I'm not very good with this method and the beginning of it broke quite a bit. I repaired it using left over dough and sealed the pie.

Then I cut slits in the top of the dough and made sure there were no holes in the sides for the juice to leak out. Just to be safe, I put the pie on a cookie sheet with parchment paper on it.

Whew. Its smelling awesome right now. We'll see how it comes out.

Chicken and rice soup

Ok, so this is easy, but every time I do it, I look up and find a different recipe. I'd rather have one that I can modify over the years, so here goes...

3 qt water

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

3 large celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) chicken

1 cup long-grain brown rice

1/3 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

3 teaspoons salt

3 quarts water

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Rice-Soup-100914#ixzz1cV30uwZz

1 white onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 chicken
2 cups rice
1/3 cup parsley
6 bay leaves
1/3 cup rosemary

Combine everything in a 6 qt saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for an hour. Pull out chicken and let cool. Pull meat off bones and add back into soup.

And DANG, this house sure does smell awesome.

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

3 large celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Rice-Soup-100914#ixzz1cV34KNcZ

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

3 large celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) chicken

1 cup long-grain brown rice

1/3 cup packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

3 teaspoons salt

3 quarts water

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Rice-Soup-100914#ixzz1cV30uwZz