Thanksgiving Traditions

When it comes to cooking, I'm a creature of habit.  When I find culinary combinations that work well, I tend to stick with them.  For instance, I always serve Marinated Baked Chicken with Mushroom Rice Casserole

and Baked Ziti with salad and garlic bread.

This habit comes in handy at Thanksgiving, especially when the fourth Thursday in November falls early like it does this year.  My Thanksgiving menu will be reminiscent of years past which, in reality, is almost identical to what my mother served every year at Thanksgiving.

There will be slices of roast turkey on a colorful turkey serving platter and a big bowl of Cornbread Dressing.  To save time, I bake the frozen biscuits and packaged cornbread mix the day before.  The recipe makes a lot -- 8 to 12 servings -- so if there's any left, you can freeze it and use it later.

A lot of people serve mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving, but my mother always served Potato Salad and so do I.  In fact, it's the only Thanksgiving recipe I use that came from my mother.  This tasty side dish can be made one or two days ahead of time.  You can substitute a 24 ounce package of Ore-Ida Steam 'n Mash cut Russet potatoes and avoid peeling, dicing and cooking the potatoes.

If you prefer sweet potatoes, I've got two recipes to share.  Sweet Potato Souffle, a fancy name for sweet potato casserole, can be made with three pounds of sweet potatoes or a package of Ore-Ida Steam 'n Mash cut sweet potatoes.  It can be made a day or two ahead of time and reheated in the oven or microwave.  If you leave it in the dish you baked it in, no one will even know it was made ahead of time.

Quick and Easy Candied Sweet Potatoes are a nice alternative to the traditional casserole.  You don't have to peel potatoes because this recipe uses canned sweet potatoes.  Unlike the sweet potato souffle that can be made ahead of time, this is best made right before serving.  It only takes a few minutes and is cooked on the stove top, which is helpful when the oven is already being used.

If you're a cranberry lover like me, I've got three tasty recipes that share some of the same ingredients, but with completely different textures.  The first one, Cranberry Orange Relish, is a sweet-tart combination made with fresh cranberries, apple, orange, pineapple and sugar.  It can be made up to two weeks ahead of time and stored in the freezer.

Southern Cranberry Salad is a congealed salad that combines whole berry cranberry sauce, mandarin oranges and pineapple with cherry gelatin. It can be made a couple of days ahead of time.

Cranberry Orange Casserole also uses whole berry cranberry sauce and mandarin oranges, but not pineapple.  The sauce and oranges are combined with lemon juice and sugar and baked in the oven.  Unlike the other two cranberry recipes that can be made ahead of time and served cold, this one is best served hot from the oven.  The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

My mother made homemade rolls from scratch, but I use a bread machine to make One Hour Buttermilk Rolls, which means they take longer than an hour to make.  If you don't have a bread machine, the recipe includes directions for making the rolls by hand.  The rolls can be made a month ahead of time, stored in the freezer and reheated in the oven or microwave.

To quench everyone's thirst, I serve Fruit Tea.  This sweet tea is combined with pineapple juice, lemon juice and, the secret ingredient, ginger ale.  It's best made the day it's served.

I'll be posting some new Thanksgiving recipes next week, including a dessert that combines two traditional Thanksgiving flavors.

© Margaret's Morsels

                                                     

Stuffing or Dressing?

For many people, the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving table is a succulent roast turkey.  For others, the most highly anticipated dish is the dressing. There are two schools of thought when it comes to this versatile side dish: stuffing or dressing.  Some people say they're the same, but they're not.

The most obvious difference is stuffing is, well, stuffed in the turkey and baked.  Dressing, on the other hand, is baked separately in a pan.  Stuffing tends to be more common north of the Mason-Dixon line and dressing more common in the South.  People in some parts of the country use white or wheat bread as the base whereas Southerners use cornbread.

A typical recipe for Southern dressing includes cornbread, white bread -- usually biscuits -- celery, onion, chicken broth, poultry seasoning, sage, salt, pepper, eggs and, if you cook the vegetables, butter.  Additional ingredients vary depending on which region of the country you reside. Common additions include oysters, rice, sausage, turkey giblets, dried cherries, cranberries, pecans and almonds.

For years, I made cornbread dressing using my mother's recipe.  Although the dressing was good, it was never as good as what my mother always prepared.  A couple of years ago, one of my nieces made the best cornbread dressing I'd ever tasted.  She shared the recipe with me and it has since become a staple on my holiday table.  The recipe makes a lot so be sure to use a big mixing bowl.  I don't have a mixing bowl big enough so I mix everything in my biggest stockpot.

The recipe uses the ingredients listed above for Southern dressing, but with two notable differences.  First, the recipe uses cornbread and Mexican cornbread.  The Mexican cornbread adds additional flavor without any additional work.  Second, in addition to chicken stock, the recipe also uses milk.

To save time, I bake the cornbread and biscuits the day before and store them in a covered container.  When I'm ready to assemble the dressing, I use a food processor to chop the cornbread and biscuits into very fine crumbs.  If you don't have a food processor, grate the bread into crumbs using a hand or box grater.  No matter which method you use, you want the crumbs to look like this:

Crumbs made with the cornbread.

If you've got a food processor, use it to chop the onions and celery too. They also need to be chopped very fine which, of course, you can also do with a knife.

Once everything is chopped, cooked and combined, add milk to the dressing until it's the consistency of a thick cake batter.  Don't add too much milk; you don't want the dressing to be soupy.

The dressing after the milk has been added.

When all the ingredients are combined, there's enough dressing to fill a 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan and a 9-inch pan.  Bake the dressing 45 minutes covered with foil; remove the foil and bake an additional 15 minutes to brown the top.

The house smells so good while the dressing bakes.  To dressing aficionados, the dressing makes the house smell like Thanksgiving more so than the turkey!

Cornbread Dressing

8 to 12 Servings

1 (6.5 oz.) pkg. yellow cornbread mix

1 (6 oz.) pkg. Mexican cornbread mix

15 biscuits (canned, frozen or homemade)

1 stick butter

3 onions, finely chopped

6 celery stalks, finely chopped

6 eggs, beaten

2 tsp. salt

pepper to taste

2 tsp. poultry seasoning

4 tsp. sage

1 (32 oz.) box chicken broth

1 (14 oz.) can chicken broth

milk

Cook cornbread and biscuits; cool.  Chop into very fine crumbs using a food processor.  Mix to evenly distribute.  Chop onions and celery in a food processor.  Melt butter and cook onions and celery for about 15 minutes until wilted.

Add eggs to the bread crumbs.  Stir in salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and sage.  Stir well; mixture will be very thick.  Stir in cooked vegetables.  Add chicken broth, adding additional broth, if necessary.  Add milk so the mixture is the consistency of thick cake batter. 

Pour mixture into a greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan and a greased 9-inch square pan.  Cover each pan with foil and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15 minutes to brown the top. 

© Margaret's Morsels