O.Chat > "The Bird": What is Your Favorite Dish?
Well, we have had Thanksgiving with the same family for 35 years. This year we are selecting a few recipes from The Silver Palate Cookbooks to honor the memory of the great Sheila Lukins, and we will fill out our menu to include great dishes from Gourmet Magazine - RIP.
We have made the most delicious oyster stuffing from Gourmet forever, and a very simple but tasty caramelized onion dish that requires at least 1 stick of butter and an ample dose of honey.
We are very fond of making the Cooks Illustrated vodka pie crust - it really is a charm to work with - and Susan Stamberg's Shocking Pink Frozen cranberry/sour cream/horseradish relish. You can pull that recipe off the NPR website!
Bevi
I don't cook, so can I tell you what I like to eat?
BTW, every year I say I am going to go in the kitchen and help(well actually I always have to grate cheese and last year my auntie asked me to chop vegetables and I ended up breaking her chopper, Ooops! and she hasn't asked me since, I wonder why:) )and learn all these delicious recipes. Do I ever go? Umm, NO!! One day, though, I really am going to do it!!
Nyon
Yes, Nyon - what do you like to eat? What was supposed to happen to that grated cheese??
Bevi
This is going to be fascinating for me seeing as we don't do Thanksgiving! We do turkey at Christmas instead in my country. Not in my house I should add, I do roast duck. Having eaten a fair few indifferently cooked turkey's (and some just plain badly cooked ones), I'm not that interested in turkey.
I hope you're all buying organic free range turkeys that have lived a happy life puttering about in a field and not force reared?????! *stern look*
Posh Tater
That would be an affirmative Posh, I promise you.
Bevi
Mmmm! The grated cheese of course goes for my fave side dish, macaroni and cheese.
Ok, so our dinners are simple and straight down home cooking. First off, my immediate family usually does not eat turkey. We had fried turkey last year, but that was because we did a big pot luck dinner with the extended family. Normally, my auntie will cook a hen or duck, which gets half eaten as well. We are more of ham people. We always have a humongo (this means huge, ya'll know how I make up words) ham with the tastiest glaze.
Our side dishes include:
As stated above, mac and cheese, which I love with a passion.
Dressing, which is cooked with the hen or duck. We don't do stuffing and I guess the difference is stuffing is made with bread and dressing is made with cornbread. It is too tasty for words.
Sweet potatoes or candied yams, whichever you prefer to call them.
Greens. I think it is a mixture of turnips, collards, and mustards, but don't quote me on that.
For those that don't eat greens, my mom will cook her famous green beans with potatoes.
Oh, and this year I asked my mom to cook lasagna because it is oh so good and I know she won't be able to cook it for Christmas this year.
Now for the things that I don't eat:
Sometimes they have potato salad or deviled eggs. I don't eat eggs, so I bypass them and I really don't know why I don't like potato salad, I just don't.
The grosses of them all is the chitterlings, which I call shitterlings, excuse my french. I don't see how people eat something that you have to clean poop out of and something that smells so bad. And I promise you, chitterlings are like gold, people be calling asking did your ma or your auntie cook chitterlings. And depending on how much they cooked, they are scarce with the rationings of them. But it is alot of work to clean them and nobody wants to do that. Truthfully, my aunite has already cleaned 4 pales of them for next week. Ok, thats enough about that. I have saved the best for last.
My auntie's famous homemade rolls.(well, the recipe was actually passed down from my grandma) I mean, the whole family literally waits all year for Thanksgiving and Christmas to come so that we can get the rolls. They are so good they make you want to smack your moma. They melt in your mouth and not in your hand. I really can't do them justice with the written word because I am not a poet.
I think this year's desserts will include:
Sweet Potato Pies, they are a must.
German Chocolate Cake, love it because we don't have them too often. I can thank my cousin for asking for it this year.
Pound Cake
So, as you can see I am waiting with much anticipation for next Thursday. I am full just thinking about it. And I know I will have that NENS disease afterwards. BIG SMILE!!!!!
Nyon
Posh:
I am not that interested in turkey either. I save the duck for Christmas. I like ham (I only eat twice a year) and I use my father's recipe . The ham is cooked in apple juice. It is juicy from the time you cut it to the bone!!
I don't like macaroni and cheese or sweet potato pie. I love pumpkin pie! So, as you can tell, I am a very fussy eater! I like stuffing which I sometimes make from scrap with cornbread and sausage but I don't place it in the cavity of the turkey.
Nyon:
Your aunt's rolls sounds like my mother's. She doesn't make them that much because they take a lot of time, but you can eat them hot or cold and they are delicious and light as a feather!!
jerseygirl
That sausage and cornbread stuffing sounds delicious, jerseygirl. As a kid, my father taught me a stuffing that was cooked in a pan. What else do you put in that recipe?
We don't have rolls, but I always do popovers for Christmas.
What other kinds of vegetable recipes do others put on their Thanksgiving table?
Bevi
Someone mentioned sweet potato pie. I'm curious about your recipe. As far as I know, I have not eaten it. One year a lady who suffers from severe depression and other mental ills asked me to take her to our community Thanksgiving dinner. So there we were and I get served this light clayish-colored pie, bland, no spice, bad crust.
I've searched for recipes on the web and found 3 different types. The first was on a "soul" site and for one pie used 2 cups of sugar and a stick of butter, no eggs though the author said that some like it with eggs.
Pillsbury had a recipe that had ingredients and proportions similar to pumpkin pie recipes that I'm familar with and love.
Another was for Mississippi sweet potato pie. Again for 2 cups of sweet potatoes, 2 cups of sugar. The butter was only a quarter of a stick.
Do you put that much sugar in your pie? Seems like a lot to me, but I prefer things a little less sweet than normal.
That was the year President Bush visited the troops in Iraq on Thanksgiving Day and the table was abuzz about it. To interject a bit of bi-partisanship and because I thought it was neat, I said, "And Hillary went to Afghanistan." Instant silence.
So I not only got bad pie, but I also got treated like an outcast. So much for community spirit.
Sharon Nelson
Nyon--
I've never had macaroni and cheese for Thanksgiving, but I am perfectly willing to indulge in it anytime. anywhere which is why I don't make it very often--too big a temptation. It tops my list of favorite foods.
Sharon Nelson
My menu this year:
Turkey - I always add two chopped up red apples and a can of 7up to the bottom of the roasting pan.
Dressing/Stuffing - Always made with 'white bread' in my home not cornbread. Grew up in the north and we always used white bread, I didn't even know that people used cornbread in dressing until I moved to Texas 35 years ago.
Mashed potatoes and homemade turkey gravy
Green bean casserole (the recipe on the french fried onions can)
Candied yams
Corn casserole - made with kernel corn, cream corn, package of cornbread mix, eggs, butter, salt and pepper, and TONS of cheddar cheese
Cottage cheese jello salad - made with jello (strawberry for Turkey day and lime for X-mas), crushed pineapple, cottage cheese, cool whip, pecans
Tray of Deviled eggs, Stuffed celery stalks, Black Olives - put out early for the nibblers
Pumpkin, pecan, and apple pie
Yeast rolls
Cranberry sauce
Leah D
Sharon Nelson,
Here's the recipe that I use for sweet potato pie. It was orignially printed in the Dallas Morning News Newspaper in 1990, it's a recipe from a Dallas restaurant that served barbecue and Louisiana style dishes. It was the owner's grandmothers recipe that he modified a bit. It's the best pie I've ever eaten.
R.J.s SHO-NUFF FAMOUS SWEET POTATO PIE
4 medium size sweet potatoes (about one pound)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons undiluted evaporated milk
1/4 cup white corn syrup
2 eggs
1 to 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 unbaked 9 or 10 inch pie crust**
Place unpeeled sweet potatoes and water in kettle and cook, covered, for 20 minutes or until potatoes are very soft to the touch.
Remove kettle from heat and pour off hot water, replacing with cold water. As soon as potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel by hand under running cold water. Skin should slip off easily.
Place potatoes in medium size mixing bowl. Mash lightly, then add remaining filling ingredients, and blend with electric mixer at medium speed until all lumps are dissolved.
Pour filling into unbaked pie crust and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes or until filling is lightly browned. Do not overbake or filling will become dry.
Let pie cool. Can be served while still warm if desired. Makes one pie.
* The corn syrup is an emulsifier, it makes everything come together and increases the smoothness
** I cheat and use the pre-made Mrs. Smiths pie shells
Leah D
I'm honing in on your corn casserole, Leah D. That sounds delicious.
My mother always worked some kind of jello salad. My favorite is strawberry jello with walnuts and pineapple. I think Jello is a universal all purpose recipe treasure trove. My Vermont raised mother used cottage cheese as well as sour cream, and Kool Whip. We're going with the strawberry, walnut, and pineapple combination this year for Thanksgiving. We use a nice mold, and put it on a bed of lettuce. We pile a generous blob of sour cream in the middle of a ring mold.
Bevi
Corn Casserole
1 package of yellow cornbread mix
1 can kernel corn
1 can cream corn
2 eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
1 small onion chopped
Salt
Pepper
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (I normally add a little extra)
Mix above ingredients together in a bowl, then pour mixture into a greased casserole dish.
Melt ONE STICK of butter/margarine and pour on top
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
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The Jello salad recipe I use doesn't make a jiggley mold salad like most holiday day ones do. This recipe uses the Jello as the 'flavoring'.
Monnie Lee's Jello Salad
1 small package of strawberry or lime Jello
1 medium can crushed pineapple WITH the juice
1 medium carton of small-curd cottage cheese
Pecans (broken up fairly small) I'm guessing around 1 cup, depends on how much you like pecans
8 ounces of Cool Whip
In a sauce pan add contents of Jello package and the pineapple WITH the juice,
bring to a soft boil then turn the heat down a bit and simmer for 7-8 minutes (be sure to stir a lot and keep your eye on it)
Remove from heat and set aside (I pour it into a mixing bowl at this point) and let cool on the kitchen counter
When cool add the cottage cheese and pecan pieces and mix throughly
Then add the Cool Whip carefully folding it in.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
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p.s. I normally DOUBLE the two recipes above for the holidays, and during the year make single versions for normal servings.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone :)
Leah D
Thank you Leah D!
That corn casserole is going on the table!
Bevi
I love to cook, so the holidays are exciting! My menu varies from year to year, but the staples are turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, yeast rolls, and pumpkin and pecan pies. I'm mostly a from-scratch cook, since I love the process and the wholesomeness of real foods. Probably half my grocery shopping is done in the produce department.
By the way, Nyon, after reading your post about your sheer love of food, I'm more convinced than ever that you and I share a common ancestor somewhere along the line! ;-) I'd love to have you at my table, because I love to cook for people who love to eat!!!
My favorite turkey recipe comes from an old book called The Carter Family Favorites by Ceil Dyer. It's a collection of the recipes of Lillian Carter, former President Jimmy Carter's mother. Her turkey recipe produces the most moist, flavorful turkey I've ever eaten.
Cut a stick of butter into very thin slices. Then loosen the skin on the breast and insert the butter slices. Cut 1/2 lb. of salt port into thin slices and fasten with toothpicks to the outside of the turkey. Then brown the bird at 425 degrees about 15 min. on each side (all 4 sides). Then remove the salt pork strips and lower the temp to 325 degrees and continue roasting and basting until done.
Her cornbread stuffing and turkey stock recipes are also great.
My pie crust recipe also comes from a very old book which I purchased at an Amish restaurant near my grandparents' home in southeastern Ohio.
Never Fail Pie Crust
3 cups flour
1 ¼ c. Crisco
1 tsp. salt
1 egg well beaten
5 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. vinegar
Cut shortening into flour and salt. Combine egg, vinegar, and water. Pour liquid into flour mixture, all at one time. Blend with a spoon just until all the flour is moistened. This is an easy crust to handle and can be re-rolled. Yield: 2 9-inch crusts
This is SO easy to work with and very flaky. But Bevi, I'm also going to try your vodka pie crust recipe. Sounds interesting!
Some of my favorite vegetable recipes are from the Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving recipe book. I especially like the green beans with shallots and ham; I've also substituted slivered almonds for the ham. The shallots are what make it!
I also like the mashed potatoes with rutabagas and leeks from the Williams-Sonoma book. And the turkey stock recipe is so good that I now use that in place of Miss Lillian's.
My pumpkin pie recipe comes straight off the Libby's can label, and I always use half-and-half instead of canned condensed milk. That recipe works equally well with fresh pumpkin.
My cranberry salad is one I made up myself by combining a number of others.
1 ½ cups ground fresh cranberries
½ cup sugar
6 oz. raspberry-flavored gelatin
¼ tsp. salt
2 cups boiling water
½ cup cold water
¾ cup port wine
¼ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. cloves
1 16-oz. can crushed pineapple
½ cup chopped almonds, walnuts, or pecans
Combine cranberries and sugar and set aside. Dissolve gelatin and salt in boiling water. Add cold water, lemon juice, cinnamon and cloves. Chill until thickened. Fold in cranberries, orange and nuts. Spoon into 6 cup mold. Chill until firm, about 4 hours. Unmold. Garnish with crisp salad greens, if desired. Makes about 6 cups or 12 servings.
Since my kids are not big cranberry salad or relish fans, I think I'm going to try the NPR recipe you mentioned, Bevi, just to see if they might like one with a bit more of a bite instead of the sweetened kind.
BarbG
And while I'm cutting and pasting recipes, here's my all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipe just to move us on to the next phase. It's from a book of cookie recipes by Maida Heatter.
Sugar Cookies
3 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
Scant ½ tsp salt
6 oz. (1 ½ sticks) butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 T milk
Additional granulated sugar for topping
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat well. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add the milk. On low speed, gradually add the sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula and beating only until thoroughly mixed.
Divide the dough in two and wrap each half separately in wax paper or aluminum foil. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 3 hours or longer. (Chilling the dough in the freezer makes it too hard to roll.)
Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat to 400.
Place one piece of the dough on a lightly floured pastry cloth. Turn it over to flour all sides and form it into a ball. With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough to the desired thickness: For very large cookies, roll to a generous ¼ inch. Cut the cookies as you wish. If you want very large cookies, cut with a plain round 4-inch cookie cutter.
With a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to ungreased cookie sheets. If the cookies are large and thick, place them 1 ½ to 2 inches apart. They may be closer if they are small and thin.
Sprinkle the tops generously with granulated sugar.
Bake until the cookies are lightly browned, reversing the position of the sheets top to bottom and front to back as necessary during the baking to insure even browning. Large, thick cookies will need to bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
With a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to racks to cool.
BarbG
Get ready for the color of the Susan Stamberg relish, BarbG. It is a shocker! We use a food processor and it is over in a few minutes. I use a small to medium white onion that I grab from the pearl onion bowl.
I am in the process of making a very complex cranberry relish with apricots, raisins, orange and lemon rind and sections, and 5 spices. I was going to photo the whole process and post it on my fb page, but I messed up royally and so had to use all my concentration on preparing and stopped the photography!
Bevi
We fry turkeys. It's a team effort. I do a rub and marinade and my husband cooks. My guess it that folks like it because the only thing left on the plate are the bones. Its a 4 day process BUT well worth it when we see how much family and friends enjoy.
Mrs. HJS
MMMMMMMMMMMMMM, I'd like to see that relish recipe, Bevi, if you have time to share!
BarbG
Here you go, Barb!
It is magnificent. The taste is so layered and sublime and I must say it is worth the effort. Be sure to have a sharp knife to tackle the citrus. Kudos to my good friend and online Scrabble partner, Helen E.
Cranberry Chutney
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups water
2 lemons, rind grated finely, pith discarded and fruit cut into sections
2 navel oranges, rind grated finely, pith discarded and fruit cut into sections
1 tart apple, peeled and coarsely chopped
6 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1. In a large saucepan combine the vinegar, sugar, curry, ginger, cloves, allspice, cinnamon and water. Bring the liquid to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the lemon rind and lemon sections, the orange rind and orange sections and the apple, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add 3 cups of the cranberries, the raisins and the apricots and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 35 minutes. Add another 2 cups of the cranberries and simmer for 10 more minutes. Add the remaining cup of cranberries and the pecans and simmer the mixture for 15 minutes longer.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat, pour the chutney into a bowl and let cool. Chill overnight or up to 2 weeks. Makes 6 cups.
Bevi
Mmmmm, yum yum! Thanks, Bevi!
BarbG
Bevi,
Be sure to DRAIN the can of whole corn before adding, I forgot to put that in the recipe up above.
You can use either two cans of cream corn OR one each of kernel & cream.
I normally use one of each but it is also good with just the cream corn, normally it all depends on what I have in the pantry at the time. The whole corn though adds texture since some brands of cream corn are too creamy without enough corn in them :)
Leah D
Leah D,
I am going to use one can of each kind of corn. Our extended family comes from a long line of kernel heads. We like our corn grilled, in salsa after it's grilled, showing little kernels in our cornbread, in corn salad, etc. etc.! And I like that this recipe is not "precious" with a water bath or any of those oven space grubbing techniques. And I'll be thinking of you while I make it.
Bevi
We have a big fete ahead of us - Thanksgiving! It would be great to know what you like to put on your table in the way of side dishes; how you like to cook your turkey; your favorite stuffing; your traditional
desserts. This will be a quick flash in the pan - just under a week - but it would be fun to know how our community celebrates this great holiday.