Thanksgiving: Share your best dishes!

[SoVerySoft]

Ok, I will confess up front that this is a purely self-serving thread. I am cooking this year and looking for inspiration.

I think I will get a fresh turkey from a terrific butcher nearby, and the rest? I am working on some ideas, but would love some suggestions from this board. I got one recipe a couple of weeks ago when I was at Wegman's, a phenomenal grocery store (like Disneyland for Foodees). They were cooking this dish and serving samples - and my roomie and I both practically fainted, it was so delicious! It was mashed butternut squash with butter, cinnamon, maple syrup, mini marshmallows and orange juice. Surprisingly wonderful!

Is there a dish that you make (or eat) every Thanksgiving that's "to die for"? Or a recipe you've come across that you want to try this year?

I'd love to make a few FoodeeBoard-inspired recipes. My honey reads the boards, so it's even more fun to know that some of our dishes might come from people we've known in the Dimensions community for years.

Can you help us round out our tummies...errr...I mean...our Thanksgiving dinner?

I'll start. Here's my recipe:

Mashed Butternut Squash

20 oz of cut up butternut squash (Wegman's sells it already cut up - so does Trader Joe's)
1/4 stick butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 bag of mini marshmallows
1 tablespoon orange juice

Boil squash in a 2 quart pan until tender. Drain and return it to the pan. Add the butter and mash. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Mix well, serve and enjoy!

[blueeyedevie]

Pink Salad..

large tub of cool whip
large can of cheery pie filling
1 regular can diced pineapples
1 can of sweet condensed milk
2 bags of small marshmallows (white)

mix and let set in refridgertor for a couple of hours (the setting makes it better)

** some people put coconut in this..** I am not a fan of coconut and my mom would always leave it out for me and that is how it has stayed..**


I have this every holiday. I try not to make it but on the holidays because when we make it we make it triple the receipt because I eat and eat and eat the stuff.. IT is so good.

I always do the holiday cooking (the only time of the year that i do cook .. I will have to get my receipts down and post my sweet potato receipt..)

hugs good cooking

[ConnieLynn]

Pink Salad..



Oh you just brought back memories of my grandmother:) We had a family joke that every special meal had to have a PINK dish on the table. She was an amazing cook, but would be heartbroken when she made some fluffy pink concoction and all the men would avoid it for her killer cakes. I have to say I still make pink things at the holidays in her honor though:)

[EvilPrincess]

Here in the sultry south it is often shirtsleave weather on Thanksgiving and side dishes seem to gravitate to a mixture of cold dishes mingled with the hot sides. My favorite cold one is cornbread salad...

Cornbread Salad

Two Packeges of Jiffy cornbread made to package instructions (use a large pan 9X12)
Let cool uncovered over night

Cut into small squres (crouton size) set aside

Chop into small pieces
1 small red bell pepper
1 small green bell pepper
1 small red onion (I ususally only use half of it)

Optional Black olives chopped

Mix veggies with the cornbread squares and add mayo until moist (like you would potato salad) salt and pepper to taste.

It is a pretty dish with all of the colors and is a HUGE hit when ever I have made it... I have used it as a side dish to a summer picnic when I wanted something different than potato salad, I have also served it in a crystal bowl on a buffet at a Holiday party that was a dressed up hired help kind of affair.

This dish gets made during the holidays every year, I will also make it after the fact if it does not make it on the menu to have with sandwiches and the Turkey or Ham leftovers.

[SoVerySoft]

Cornbread Salad

That sounds really interesting and different!! Do you only make enough for one meal? I am wondering how it holds up if there are leftovers.

[EvilPrincess]

That sounds really interesting and different!! Do you only make enough for one meal? I am wondering how it holds up if there are leftovers.

Very much like potato salad, works well the next day and the next.... It is one of those things that makes quite a bit and if you double or half again the recipe it is huge! You can find me after midnight with a spoon in one hand with my head in the fridge eating it out of the bowl! I find one recipe with the two boxes of cornbread mix to make enough to have left over.... usually by day 2.5 it is gone, It is so easy and very rarely will I meet someone who has had it before..... I love taking it places just for the ohh ahh factor and people wanting the recipe....

[Jeannie]

I love Jiffy cornbread anyway and your recipe is such an interesting way to serve it. I'm definitely going to try it. Thanks for sharing!

And I want that Pink Salad right now!!! :eat2:

[Gaining Gourmet]

Not my recipe, but Alton Brown's. It's very good.


1 pound 3 ounces sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
3/4 cup packed, dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
5 egg yolks
Salt
1 (9-inch) deep dish, frozen pie shell
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Special equipment: steamer basket


Put cubed potatoes into steamer basket and place steamer basket into a large pot of simmering water that is no closer than 2 inches from the bottom of basket. Allow to steam for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Mash with potato masher and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place sweet potatoes in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment. Add yogurt, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, yolks, and salt, to taste, and beat until well combined. Pour this batter into the pie shell and place onto a sheet pan. Sprinkle pecans on top and drizzle with maple syrup.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Keep refrigerated after cooling.

[Sandie S-R]

Everyone in my family loves my stuffing. (I usually cook a 20+ pound turkey, so you gotta have a lot of stuffing.) So here goes...

SAGE SAUSAGE AND MUSHROOM STUFFING

In a Large Mixing bowl - mix the following:

2 boxes of the cubed herbed stuffing (not Stove Top - just the bread cubes)
Ad 1 large yellow onion (chopped)
6 stalks of celery chopped
1/2 pound of mushrooms chopped

In a fry pan, fry up 2 packages of Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage, drain fat, then ad sausage to bread cube mix.

In a Sauce pan, melt 1 stick of butter in 2+1/2 cups of chicken broth.
Ad:
1 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1 Tbsp Parsley
1 tsp french rosemary
1/2 tsp of black pepper

Bring liquid to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes on very low.

Ad liquid to bread cube, vegtable & sausage mixture. Stir well...and use to stuff both cavities on the turkey. Cover the Turkey and bake for appropriate time. Any left over stuffing mix that did not fit in the turkey...put in a buttered cassarole dish with 2 extra Tbs of water, and bake with the turkey for 45 minutes.

The sausage ads incredible taste and moisture to the suffing. It's never dry.

Enjoy!! http://www.zaftig-2000.com/smilies/essen.gif