Food that's YOUR tradition on Thanksgiving...

[crp]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[Ladipyg]

Sk8r...I agree...I've got this really old tin recipe box that my mom had when I was just a little kid, filled with recipes written in her own hand...Broken glass jello torte, english toffee (a frozen dessert that used whipped egg whites, raw..no one wants to do that now a days.) Corn bread and sausage stuffing, pierogi (the Polish equivalent of ravioli) spatzle (homemade noodles) and the like..sometimes I just open up the box and look at the recipes and reminisce...it feels great. I didn't have a daughter but I have a son that loves to cook, so the recipes will get passed down to him along with mine added in...a 2 generation recipe box....

[crzy4reefs]

My big thing that's a hit with the is my special mashed potatoes.

7-10 peeled and chopped Idaho potatoes
alfredo sauce
lots of fresh chopped garlic
sour cream
fresh chopped chives
salt
freshly ground pepper
and cut up and cooked thick hickory smoked bacon
1 1/2 sticks of butter

cook potatoes till soft
then mash them up, and add the ingredients all except for the bacon add that last after everything taste just about right. I don't know the measurements i just do it by memory and taste. And there is never any left overs.


i'll post some other things i do as well later

[crp]

BAKED STUFFED TURKEY


Here is a turkey recipe that also includes the use of popcorn as a
stuffing. This recipe is perfect for people who just are not sure how to tell when poultry is thoroughly cooked, but not dried out. Give this a try.


8 - 15 lb. turkey
1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing (Pepperidge Farm is Good.)
1 cup uncooked popcorn (ORVILLE REDENBACHER'S LOW FAT) Salt/pepper
to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush turkey well with melted butter
salt, and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in
baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven.

Listen for the popping sounds. When the turkey's butt blows the
oven door open and the bird flies across the room, it's done.

[catdoc]

Originally posted by Aliie
My Pecan Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie:

Thanks, got the crusts baking at this moment! Do you know roughly how much canned pumpkin to use instead of fresh? I don't think I'm going to have time to mess with the real thing this week!

dc, yes, as I was writing up that post I realized that if I don't start getting some of the family recipes now, I'm going to miss my chance. I'll be hitting up Grandma on Thursday!

[Ladipyg]

crzy4reefs...I love potatoes and it sounds like yours would make a complete meal for me...that is one I am going to try. I am guessing you use the Alfredo sauce in place of the milk right?
crp...you had me right up until the moment the turkeys butt blew out and it flew across the room

[crzy4reefs]

yes that's right ladipyg, it gives it a more tasteful and creamy texture

[Freed]

Mom always makes a leg of lamb. Don't know what she has against turkey but it's delicious.

[blu iz]

Later on T-day or the next day -- a turkey sandwich on limpa bread with mayo, or a sandwich on a left over bun with turkey, cream cheese and cranberry relish...

[PrivateJoker64]

OK, you have to try this one. This is a mix in the pan cake, and the icing really makes it!

In an ungreased, 10 x 14 cake pan, put

3c flour
2c sugar
3tbsp cocoa
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
and mix all together. Make three holes in this mix and add:
In one hole - 2 tbsp vinegar
In one hole - 3/4c oil
In one hole - 2 tsp vanilla

Pour in over all 2c cold water and mix thoroughly. Bake at 350 for about 35 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle just comes out clean.
Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

When cool, make the icing - there is no real measured recipe, it's just by guess and by gosh.
Put a stick of butter, or margarine, in a large bowl and melt in the microwave. Add a 1-1/2 pound package of powdered suger, a tsp of vanilla, and 3 - 4 tblsp cocoa. Add a small amount as needed of hot coffee and beat with a mixer until creamy. You want this to be just a tiny bit too soft to ice the cake with. Now add a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter, about all you can get on the spoon. Mix this in completely and ice the cake.

I have more good recipes than any other straight man. I can't help it, I like to eat!

[batguano]

I'm trying a tofu bird this year. j/k

[Sk8r]

I love the flying turkey---with the popcorn.

And the other recipes. I'm going to print this thread and save it.

All you guys who can snag a senior relative, see if you can sit in the kitchen with a notebook and get some of those recipes down. It's a great conversation starter, between generations, and see if they can remember what *their* mom/grandmother used to make for holidays. Sometimes a little reminiscing and kitchen-chemistry guesswork can resurrect an oldie that's not in any book. Sometimes, cooking with, say, soda, as many old recipes ask, takes a technique and combo of ingredients the modern cook may have forgotten, but the missing part of the recipe is definitely in the older books, so it can be recovered. You may find that a recipe has fallen out of favor because of, say, raw eggs, or its fat content, but that's no reason to lose it. YOu can do some technical modification---[and you can use raw egg, for that matter, if you're careful of your source and don't let the egg contents come in contact with the outer shell. Just don't feed it to infants or people who could suffer from it.] You should have seen my grandmother's potato salad, and the turkey which sat out from dawn to dusk, for all comers, and none of us ever suffered from it.

Happy Thanksgiving each and all!

[dc]

I've gained 10 pounds reading this thread.

[Sk8r]

What I'm cooking, in the 'bird' line, is Mandarin Chicken, which is not Chinese food.
Start with chicken breasts, virgin olive oil, and add all the 'hot, sweet' spices: tbs of cinnamon, nutmeg, tsp of allspice and clove, 1/2 tsp cardamom. Cook: and start the rice.
Refrigerate 2 cans mandarin oranges in syrup. Open both. Drain into separate small saucepan. Add contents of one can, refrigerate other orange bits from other can. Cook [reduce by boiling] with ample cinnamon and clove. When sauce has become thicker, prepare to use.
Cook a helping of rice for each.
Serve chicken on bed of rice, pour hot orange sauce over it, then just before serving, add the refrigerated orange slices atop the sauced chicken.

You've got the contrast of flavors, of textures, and of temperature---in that sense, good Chinese cooking, but it owes more to France.

You can also do it with sliced peaches, or peaches and pineapple, but if you do, leave out the cardamom.

[TOURKID]

mmm... im having turkey tortilla soap the day after

[BigSkyBart]

Originally posted by PrivateJoker64
I have more good recipes than any other straight man. I can't help it, I like to eat!

I thought I was the only one!

[PrivateJoker64]

Originally posted by BigSkyBart
I thought I was the only one!

I make a mean chili too. Guaranteed to give you heartburn, or you have to fight the cook.

[petoonia]

OMG im so hungry now!!! I shouldnt have read this thread!!!

[Ladipyg]

Speaking of soda...my mother used to cook our Easter ham in Coca Cola....just put the ham in the pot, covered it with soda and let it simmer. It pulled all the excess salt out of the ham and gave the outside a rich brown color and the flavor was out of the world. No dried out from the oven ham here. It works with a spiral sliced honey ham...Just put the ham in a metal colander face up so it doesn't roll around, add the soda and simmer until the ham is hot. If you want, you can take the package of spices that usually come with the ham and pour it into the coke during cooking for extra flavor. YUM!

[Aliie]

Originally posted by dc
I've gained 10 pounds reading this thread.

YEP !! This has become the menu place to go.

[Aliie]

Okay so far this morning I've made one Pecan pie and have my crust in for the PecanPraline Pumpkin Cheesecake pie.

On the list of things to make today:

2 Pecan Pies
2 PPPC Pies
2 Sweet Potatoe Souffle'
and Cranberry sauce

Cheater cookies if I have time. You know the ones you break & bake

[BigSkyBart]

this just went in the oven
family won't speak to me if I neglect to bake this one for them

Pecan pie

3 eggs (room temp)
1 stick butter (room temp)
1 Cup light corn syrup (room temp)
½ tsp. salt
½ tbl vanilla
1 tbl amaretto
1 cup sugar (80 /20 brown / white)
2-3 cups pecans (about a pound)
reserve enough pecan halves to arrange on top of pie
chop the rest in a food processor
cream butter, sugar, salt, vanilla & amaretto
gently incorporate eggs & corn syrup
DO NOT OVERBEAT, TOO MUCH AIR WILL CAUSE FOAM OVER WHEN BAKING
Gently add chopped nuts to wet mixture, pour into prepared pie shell
Arrange reserved halves on top
350 degrees 35 minutes ish

[Aliie]

Is your pie shell 6" deep? Good lord man, I want to see that bad boy when it comes out.

I ended up making 4 sweet tatere soflays, yeah c'mon!
3 PPPC pies

but I still have to make the cranberry sauce in the am.

[BigSkyBart]

I'll snap a picture when it's out of the oven

just a glass 9" deep dish pie pan with a deep crust, edges fluted about an inch above the pie plate rim

[Aliie]

Okay I can see how that might fit. I took pics of mine today too I still want to see this monster pie of yours.

The assist for........................take it away BART!