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Holiday Recipes

Mountainair

By Mountainair
in Food & Drink

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Mountainair

Mountainair

Thought I would start a Holiday Recipe thread! 

 

With Thanksgiving just around the corner what are some staples at your table? 

 

I'm sad to not be hosting this year however most of my recipes come from my mother who is hosting us this year. I'm sure she will have some new things but my favorite is the dressing! 

 

It has celery, carrots,  green onion, mushrooms, sage, rosemary, chicken broth, bread, dried apricots, sausage. It calls for apple but I never add that. Yum! 

DeLurker

DeLurker

Just was thinking about dressing this morning - I am so tied to the recipe that I grew up with which isn't really special at all but it "defines" the dish for me.  My friends and I noticed when we were in college everyone thought their family recipe for dressing was the best, but no one's family used the same recipe!

 

My favorite part of Thanksgiving I found out by accident.  I put the bird in the pan and it was lopsided so I ended up using a couple of whole carrots to prop it up.  The carrots cooked the whole time with the bird and when I decided to take a try post-cooking I was amazed at how incredible they turned out.  I have never liked cooked carrots before that, but from that point forward several carrots go into the pan.

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mlp

mlp

 

My friends and I noticed when we were in college everyone thought their family recipe for dressing was the best, but no one's family used the same recipe!

 

I think that's very true.  My mother always started with Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix so that's what I think stuffing should taste like.  I add onions, celery, pecans and dried cranberries to mine but the basic flavor is the same.  When I moved to the Midwest, I discovered that my neighbors started with white bread and ended up with something pale and gluey that I couldn't even eat.  They loved it though and thought less of mine because it wasn't entirely homemade.

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Mountainair

Mountainair

  • Author
(edited)

My MIL's (love her) idea of thanksgiving is canned veggies and box stuffing. This is why I took over the job of hostess. She contributes home made mashed potatoes and canned cranberry and rutebegga (don't know how to spell that). I grew up with a love of cooking so yea, I host :)

I'm from the south but hate sweet potatoes so my SILalways makes the sweet potato marshmallow thing. For me as long as I have white meat turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy I'm good to go. I usually add in a good broccoli casserole and a good cauliflower casserole I have recipes for.

It will be nice not to host this year. My parents are 5 hours away so the trip will be brutal but my mom is doing all the shopping so me and her will spend the day cooking while the babies play with grandpa and great grandparents. It's literally been 10 years since I've had thanksgiving with my family so I am looking forward to it :)

Edited by Mountainair
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PRgal

PRgal

When I was little, my parents made Thanksgiving stuffing with sticky rice, taro and mushrooms.  I'm not a fan of sticky rice, so as an adult, my stuffing is made with quinoa!  I've experimented with various items since I married, but lately, I like onions and sun dried tomatoes.  I also make slow cooked or baked apples (i.e apple pie filling) as a dessert.  Save for bread, my Thanksgiving/Christmas meal can be completely gluten-free.

Uncle Benzene

Uncle Benzene

Oh man, stuffing/dressing is what it's all about during the holidays. Sage, cornbread, oyster, crawfish, sausage, rice... I've seen a million dressings, and I've rocked them all. Never met one I didn't like.

 

My favorite though, of course, is my mom's. Duh. It's not at all sophisticated. Low-budget, blue-collar delicious.

 

Day before: Go get one of those ready-to-go rotisserie chickens at the grocery store. Pull the meat off the bone in small pieces. Boil the carcass & skin in some box chicken broth with onions, celery & several bay leafs to make some stock. Strain & refrigerate.

 

Three boxes of Jiffy™ cornbread mix, prepared according to package instructions in a single large pan. When cool, crumble into a huge mixing bowl with a loaf of french bread, torn into small pieces.

 

Boil, peel and rough chop about 8 or so eggs.

 

Sweat out a shitload of onion, celery, frozen corn. Add to the bread, along with the chicken meat and chopped boiled eggs.

 

Stir in the stock, then add milk until it's about the consistency of cooked grits. Season to taste... sage, parsley, thyme, lots of salt & pepper. Then when you think you've nailed it, add just a little more of everything. (Do not skip that step.) Then stir in a bunch of chopped scallions.

 

Pour into one of those huge disposable foil turkey pans, because there will be a LOT of it, and bake at 350 until it sets up. It'll take a good while, at least a couple hours.

 

It ain't exactly high-falutin' but it's soooooo good. Crispy on the edges, the middle is almost like pudding. Pretty much a meal in and of itself. Gravy optional.

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stillshimpy

stillshimpy

Mushroom pot pie over here. It's really quite good.  I don't attempt anything with tofurkey or anything, because that stuff is not good.  People would not be thankful for it.  

I do still make stuffing, just using vegetable broth instead (with cubed white, whole grain and wheat bread, sage, onion, celery) and cranberry relish.  I love the recipe I have for it, because it's basically an orange, two granny smith apples and two bags of cranberries pulsed in the food processor and then coconut sugar to sweeten it.  It's fun :-)  It's best made a day ahead too.  

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KnoxForPres

KnoxForPres

(edited)

About...maybe 10 years ago I made Williams Sonoma Sausage, cornbread, and chestnut dressing. (I don't use the chestnuts).

It's delicious . I'd classify it as "normal" but really damn good. I'm experimental in cooking but each year, especially my mom, will request the same dressing be made.

I make my own cornbread from cornmeal night before and buy Pepperodge Farm country white bread. In case anyone wants to give it a go. I'd call it easy. Oh! Another thing I've done a few times is used breakfast sausage instead of Italian (Williams Sonoma just screamed in terror) and I gotta say, it's damn good. One hot, one reg.

Eta: Fresh herbs a necessity. Don't bother making it without that. For sure, that's what drives it from meh to wowza.

Edited by KnoxForPres
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Bastet

Bastet

I'm not excited by Thanksgiving dinner; it's good, but the treat for me is the plethora of snacks we munch on all day long while watching football.  We take the motorhome out each year, and there are three of us, so we do a (deboned and rolled) turkey breast on the charcoal grill as we'd be eating even the smallest whole turkey for months.  Brined and then basted with butter while cooking, it's delicious. 

 

But I don't care about the dressing, whatever it is, because I'm not a big bread person, and I really don't like bread once you've cooked it with other stuff.  My mom makes cornbread dressing from my paternal grandmother's recipe, which I think is just (non-sweet, homemade) cornbread, onion, celery, giblets, chicken stock and some herbs.  She doesn't much care for it, but she makes her mother's dressing at Christmas, so Dad gets his nostalgia at Thanksgiving. 

 

The vegetable dish depends on what we're in the mood for, but I always push for Brussels sprouts of some sort.  This year, probably roasted with pancetta and drizzled with a little balsamic before serving.

 

I'm the only one who likes cranberries, so if I'm in the mood I'll make a small batch of Ina Garten's cranberry fruit conserve.  I'll probably skip it this year.

 

I'm in charge of the side salad, because I'm the only one who does more than mixed greens (not that there's anything wrong with that), so I'll either pick from some old standbys or try something new.

 

Dessert is always pumpkin pie, which I can't stand (I don't like pumpkin), but that's okay because I'm full by then.

Mountainair

Mountainair

  • Author

I'm not a desert eater at all but a few years ago my BIL was the manager of our local Cracker Barrel and he brought over chocolate pecan pie. YUM!!

I find myself so busy that by the time dinner is served I have no appetite. I'll make a big plate and eat nothing. After serving the meal, having family time, drinking a few beers (not a fan of wine),cleaning up getting family out of the house, kids put to bed, etc. I'm just not as hungry as I hoped to be. Midnight after thanksgiving is usually when I chow down :)

KnoxForPres

KnoxForPres

(edited)

Bastet it sounds fun. A motorhome is sort of like a dollhouse to me. Been intrigued and mesmerized as hell with both since a little kid, never had either.

If your family feels the same way about traditional Thankshoving (I left that phone spelling just for you) then I'd say screw it and get whatever you guys really like. But if you don't, please make yourself a little batch of that conserve. I mean that.

So I'm now giving a recipe sure to elicit yells of panic of preservatives. But...people love this. My thin and in shape (what is my sisters FIL to me? Nothing? A guy?) could eat an entire 9x13. Growing up in my church it was called Strawberry Pretzel Crust. But I've done lots of research and testing on this one and the best is on allrecipes.com . "Judy's Strawbery Pretzel Salad".

It's pretzels, butter, sugar base. Sweet cream cheese layer. Jello/strawberries on top. Look, I laughed a bit just typing that. But trust me, it's a fan favorite.

Edited by KnoxForPres
DeLurker

DeLurker

When I used to work crazy hours and was basically a single parent (there was another who was supposed to be the stay at home parent, but he was useless), I swtitched Thanksgiving to Friday.  I did all the shopping, chopping, cooking, cleaning, etc anyaway and had to work all week too, so moving it to Friday made loads of sense.

 

Bastet - your Thanksgiving sounds pretty awesome!

 

Mountainair - not much of a baker, so all my pies were from Marie Callendar's when I lived in So Cal (the bakery at the restaurants, not the frozen food aisle).  I live near family know who's souls would die a little if we did purchased pie, so I just let them take care of it.

 

Some of the family who live near me are vegetarians so I normally make the turkey or meat portion of the holiday meal while they do the other sides, including vegetarian main dishes.  It works out well and we're not competing for oven space at the same time.

 

I make 2 turkeys - 1 for Thanksgiving and let my family split up the leftovers, and a smaller one for my house the next day.  Love turkey anyway, but then I can also make the best part - turkey bone soup!

backformore

backformore

One holiday dish I make is THE easiest in the world. It's the one dish people rave about, and they always ask if I'll make it. Makes me feel stupid, because if started one year when i had no time to do anything homemade , looked for a quick and easy last minute dish.

Sweet and spicy meatballs.

Crock pot. - mix a bottle of chili sauce. (It's spicy ketchup, find it next to ketchup) and a can of cranberry sauce - any kind.

Add cooked meatballs. I'm sure homemade ones would be awesome, I use the frozen ones, pre- browned. The smaller, cocktail , ones are best.

Heat them as long as you want.

If you want, you can add sugar to make it sweeter, hot sauce to make it spicier. A splash of Orange juice, wine, anything you think might be good. You can't wreck it.

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ramble

ramble

I grew up with my grandma & mom's version of cornbread dressing. Mom always made an extra pan with cut up chicken & extra broth & then froze it in serving portion sizes. The extra broth meant that when it was reheated it was still moist & delicious. I liked that better than the turkey & dressing part. Since my family has gone gluten free it's been a lot of experimentation to match the flavor. Last year was close but the cornbread has to be tweaked a bit. This year we'll try again.

My family's Thanksgiving dessert, in addition to the standard pumpkin, mincemeat & pecan pies, is chocolate chess pie. It's fudgey & moist & yummy. The experimentation with crusts & trying no crusts is still ongoing with this as well.

I love sweet potatoes. Baked or fries or chips. Yum. I love the typical brown sugar, cinnamon, butter & sweet potato mashup. I can take or leave the marshmallows on top. My ex MIL used to throw in some pecans. I liked that too but my kiddos don't.

Growing up we always had green beans & green peas because my sister & I each liked one but not the other. My mother thought we needed something green for the day. I could care less about the green for the day. I try to keep fruits & veggies on the menu most of the time so holidays can be a free zone in my opinion, but my kids now think you're supposed to have the green bean/pea thing for a true holiday meal.

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EllieH

EllieH

I've never made a chocolate chess pie before, but randomly its made its way onto my pie list for this year, so I may try one!  The one I was looking at had a pecan topping, so I thought it might be a nice (lighter) substitute for a traditional pecan pie (we've made a chocolate pecan pie before, with mini chocolate chips so they spread out evenly in the pie).  You all's comments have me wondering this won't be a lighter choice at all though!

ebk57

ebk57

Today I'm off to buy the sweet potatoes and apples for my contribution to the Thanksgiving table.  A recipe I found in the November 1982 Gourmet magazine - sliced sweet potatoes, sliced apples (and chestnuts that I've never used) in a honey-rum sauce.  I love it.  And Mr. ebk's family swore they never ate sweet potatoes at all before I started bringing this.  Yay me :-)

 

I've been know to bring a pumpkin cheesecake on occasion, too, but not this year.  

 

I'm also in charge of the wine! (bringing it and drinking it...)

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DeLurker

DeLurker

I have never heard of chocolate chess pie but after reading about it here I looked up recipes.  I want to try this! 

 

The recipe looks pretty easy, but I always think that and find myself unpleasantly surprised once I get started.  For a mostly inept baker, how difficult would you rate this recipe on a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being no problem for the baking challenged and 10 being Turn Back Now!)?

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callie lee 29

callie lee 29

Growing up our holidays were always a mix of homemade and boxed stuff. Homemade gravy, pie (with homemade crust), homemade mashed potatoes, and sweet potato casserole sat next to stove top stuffing (the turkey kind) and canned cranberry sauce. Everybody I tell that to finds that odd.

 

When I was about 21-22 my grandmother gave me cooking duties; she loved the way I cooked the turkey, which never seemed that revolutionary to me. I peel the skin back, spread the bird with flavored butter, and put the skin back into place. About halfway through, once I get some good juice on the bottom of the pan I take a syringe (this was about 19 years ago and they didn't have these cooking syringes I see everywhere) and inject the juice back into the turkey.

 

The past couple of years my friend and I have gone to her bosses house for the holiday. Her family is out of the country and mine has all passed away. Normally I make a small little dinner at home the weekend after to have leftovers, but this year she and I have decided to have the holiday dinner still at her bosses and have a Thanksgiving dinner 2nd round at her house on Saturday.

Wings

Wings

For those who are gluten free you can get gluten free graham crackers (for pie crust) on Amazon and I bet Whole Foods has them, as well.   Quinoa is a seed, not a grain and could be used for stuffing.  I have never tried that.  I try to eat gluten free most of the time but for Thanksgiving, I let that go and for the rest of that weekend too!  I love turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry as much as the meal itself.  

 

I enjoy this meal once a year but that is it for me.  It is starch heavy and just heavy in general.  I have always been stumped as to why so many have a repeat of this meal on xmas.  I will wait for the xmas thread, when it is time, to share the many ways I do food for this holiday.  It is rarely the same thing and I love creating a nifty day of food.  

PRgal

PRgal

For those who are gluten free you can get gluten free graham crackers (for pie crust) on Amazon and I bet Whole Foods has them, as well.   Quinoa is a seed, not a grain and could be used for stuffing.  I have never tried that.  I try to eat gluten free most of the time but for Thanksgiving, I let that go and for the rest of that weekend too!  I love turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry as much as the meal itself.  

 

I enjoy this meal once a year but that is it for me.  It is starch heavy and just heavy in general.  I have always been stumped as to why so many have a repeat of this meal on xmas.  I will wait for the xmas thread, when it is time, to share the many ways I do food for this holiday.  It is rarely the same thing and I love creating a nifty day of food.  

 

This is a quinoa stuffing I made for Thanksgiving a few years ago.  Now that I don't buy the pie and make my own dessert (this year, I switched from baked to slow cooked.  Same ingredients, but just replaced the baking with the slow cooker (it's four hours on low if you wanted to know) so it will free up the oven for more dishes), I've replaced the apples and bell peppers with sun dried tomatoes and green onions. I'm all about twisting classics!

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Wings

Wings

Nope.  Is this a "scratch" recipe or from a gluten-free mix (I would prefer the former...mixes are full of weirdness). Thanks! :)

 

 

From scratch, definitely.  I never use mixes.  Here is a link with many. 

 

http://dailyburn.com/life/recipes/healthy-mug-cake-recipes/

 

My mother never made the 50s "classic" (ugh) green bean casserole nor have I.  I only tasted it 2 years ago when it showed up for a pot luck.  Truly terrible! I am sure many will disagree with me though.  :>P

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ALenore

ALenore

I'm actually hosting Thanksgiving this year (unless the predicted snowstorm keeps people away).   I'm making turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and apple pie.  My family members are bringing everything else.  

 

This year I'm trying a new recipe where the turkey  is put in the oven breast side down, it's supposed to keep it juicier. The only problem is the breast doesn't have the nice brown skin.  I may try and turn if over to brown it the last few minutes.   I make the stuffing from scratch, using store bought ciabatta bread, and adding onions, apples and pecans.  

 

I'm making a sweet potato casserole that my husband's mother (who I never met) used to make for Thanksgiving.  It uses mashed sweet potatoes, sugar, butter and eggs, then a crumb topping of crushed corn flakes, pecans, sugar and butter.  

 

The apple pie I make is a little different, it uses grated apples with the skins still on, topped with streusel.  

 

I hope the weather isn't too bad.  The last report I saw said we were supposed to get 5 to 8 inches of snow on Wednesday, but it will be gone by Thursday.  The temperatures are supposed to be fairly warm.  My family members are all about 1 1/2 to 2 hours away, but where they live it's supposed to be most rain.

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DeLurker

DeLurker

 

This year I'm trying a new recipe where the turkey  is put in the oven breast side down, it's supposed to keep it juicier. The only problem is the breast doesn't have the nice brown skin.  I may try and turn if over to brown it the last few minutes.

I've been reading about this method too and was probably going to give it a try.  I was pondering whether it was going to stick to the rack though...I probably will figure it out just before it needs to be done.

 

And haven't made up my mind yet, but have been reading about cooking the bird on a high temp for the first 30 or so minutes (like 450*) and then going low and slow.  I've started to do beef this way and have been really pleased with the results.

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Mountainair

Mountainair

  • Author

My mom is using an apple brine on the turkey this year and then putting it on the smoker. I've never had a smoked turkey before so I am anxious to try it.

They are calling for snow here as well which makes me glad we decided to celebrate with my parents this year. We've already had three snows and it's not even winter yet! I'm ok missing one snow but shhhhh don't tell my kids!

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ALenore

ALenore

The turkey I cooked breast side down came out great.  The breast meat was very juicy.   I turned it over the last half hour to brown the skin.  I was worried I would drop it turning it over, so I came up with an idea.  I took it out of the oven then put oven mitts on my hands and put my hands into plastic bags.  It turned over easily (it helped that it was trussed, so it was more compact).   Today we made Cape Codder sandwiches (turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and a little gravy).   I looking forward to making turkey soup from the rest of the leftovers, but I think I'm going to freeze it and wait a while so I don't get sick of turkey.  

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Bastet

Bastet

(edited)

I think I could eat Brussels sprouts daily and not get sick of them.  They're very good just simply roasted, but also good roasted with some pancetta and then drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar when they come out of the oven.  This recipe with walnuts is tasty when you want them mixed in with other things.

Edited by Bastet
mansonlamps

mansonlamps

Had Brussel Sprouts for the first time over Thanksgiving. My mom made them in a cream sauce with bacon and cheddar cheese on top! DH and the two year old ate them too! I love having a new veggie to add to the grocery list!

Not to rain on your parade, but I eat almost every type of veggie and love them all, but Brussels sprouts are vile to me. Please report back when they are not covered in cream sauce with bacon and cheese. Because I could eat a shoe prepared that way but am still finding a way to like Brussels sprouts!

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

I'm planning to make the Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Bark (and her White Chocolate Bark) so I'm trying to find Ghirardelli's 4 oz chocolate bars for a bit less than $2.50 a piece (just paid that in Wegman's and not happy about it).  I used to be able to find it for just under $2 a bar at Target's but can't find them any longer. Does anyone have any tips on where to find these bars?

stillshimpy

stillshimpy

annzeepark, is there any reason you don't want to use an equal weight of Ghirardelli chocolate chips?  They have bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate chips from Ghiradelli at places like Target and Sam's for wicked levels of less money.  Seriously, I bought a 36 ounce bag of 60% cacao ghiradelli chocolate chips at Sam's for less than six dollars and the grocery store has them also.  

 

So that would be my advice, look towards chips for a cheaper per ounce.  

 

Unless you need unsweetened? 

photo fox

photo fox

I think? but could be wrong, that "bark" has a higher melting temperature than regular chocolate. My mom and my sister both use bark for things like chocolate-covered peanuts, because it stays solid at room temperature and is slower to melt in your hand.

Tabbyclaw, I've made marshmallows before, and people absolutely think you're a wizard! I've actually had someone say, "you can MAKE those?" Well, they don't grow on trees, so yes.

A trick I learned awhile back is to just pour it into a mason jar instead of putting it in a pan and then cutting into squares. It takes less time, you don't have the powdered sugar mess, and it's a handy and clean way to store it. It's not quite as company-friendly as squares, but if it's just for me, I just spoon out what I need.

Qoass

Qoass

I seem to remember learning that chocolate chips have an additional ingredient that helps them hold their shape so while they can be melted, bar chocolate without that ingredient is a better choice.  That said, I won't touch that fake stuff you melt and pour into molds for "candy".

 

If only I could find an ingredient that helps me keep MY shape!

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annzeepark914

annzeepark914

annzeepark, is there any reason you don't want to use an equal weight of Ghirardelli chocolate chips?  They have bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate chips from Ghiradelli at places like Target and Sam's for wicked levels of less money.  Seriously, I bought a 36 ounce bag of 60% cacao ghiradelli chocolate chips at Sam's for less than six dollars and the grocery store has them also.  

 

stillshimpy: They put an ingredient in the chips (to hold their shape) that makes chips unsuitable for making bark.  A few days ago I made brownies and tossed some white Ghirardelli chips on top, thinking they'd melt and be interesting.  Well, they didn't melt...some got a little squishy but most were bite-y.  Anyway, I broke down today and bought 4 bars of the white Ghirardelli at $2.50 each ;>(  But--they'll end up in pretty cellophane bags tied w/ a ribbon as Christmas gifts, so that's ok, I guess.  I have fun creating the bark and sometimes try to recreate Chunky bars (loved those back in the day).

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