With my favorite cranberry sauce cooked and a turkey brining in my refrigerator for tonight’s dinner, I am also making a few Thanksgiving inspired side dishes to go along with our pre-Thanksgiving turkey meal.
Even though it is not quite Thanksgiving yet, I can’t imagine eating turkey without butter topped mashed potatoes to go with it… and don’t even get me started about gravy.
Last year I posted a recipe on how to make creamy mashed potatoes using Yukon Gold potatoes and passing the potatoes through a metal mesh strainer. But today I would like to share with you a more traditional mashed potato recipe using Russet potatoes and a potato masher. [click to continue…]
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Praise the Lord for the gift of mashed potatoes! Can I get an Amen?! The only thing better than mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes made with lots of butter and cream and whipped into a creamy delicious side dish which can only be described as heavenly.
Thanksgiving Day wouldn’t be complete without plenty of mashed potatoes for everyone to enjoy, especially when we all know everyone likes to go back to the serving table for seconds and thirds. I’m convinced my kids believe my mashed potatoes are the main dish and the turkey is the side. In fact, when we serve mashed potatoes family style, I often need to remind them to only take one or two scoops so everyone gets at least one serving –otherwise the only thing they would ever eat is mashed potatoes.
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Who wouldn’t want to eat a tender, moist, and flavorful turkey for their Thanksgiving feast? Brining is a salt marinade which causes the meat tissues to absorb water and flavorings by breaking down the proteins. This is why brining is a popular method of preparing a Thanksgiving turkey because any moisture loss while roasting still produces a juicy and flavorful turkey.
It’s important to note that you do not want to brine a kosher or self-basting bird. Otherwise the turkey will be too salty.
Most brining recipes call for a gallon of water or stock and a cup of salt and sugar each. From there, people often add apple juice, vinegar, whiskey, and other aromatics. I like to keep things simple by using ingredients I have in the pantry.
A few weeks ago I brined a turkey for two days for my father’s birthday. Everyone commented on how juicy and tender the turkey was. Dad was happy, I was happy, and I decided brining is the only way I’ll ever prepare turkey again.
I thought I would share with you how I brined the turkey. [click to continue…]
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[donotprint] I vaguely remember the first time I made my first pumpkin pie. My father, a diabetic, commissioned me to bake him a sugar-free version so he wouldn’t be tempted by all the sugary desserts during Thanksgiving dinner. I was 11 years old without a mixer, pie plate, or a cookbook to guide me. What I decided to do was follow the pie recipe on the back of a Libby’s pumpkin can and use a frozen pre-made pie shell. I followed the instructions exactly as written and was excited when I saw there no were cracks on the baked custard surface and that my pumpkin pie actually looked just as I hoped it would. My excitement only lasted a brief moment and turned to disgust rather quickly. I took a bite and had to spit it out into a napkin. Pumpkin pie without any sweetener is so bland tasting I thought I was eating store-bought baby food in a jar -yuck!
Over the years I’ve experimented with different recipes and sweeteners in search of the perfect pumpkin pie. I know people have different qualifiers in what makes a good pie. For me, I like homemade pies to be dense with a tad bit more spices than the Costco pie variety. I also like my pumpkin pies not to be too sweet, otherwise I can only eat a sliver of a slice because the pie is so sweet it distracts the flavor of the spiced pumpkin custard. [click to continue…]
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