I’m a li-i-i-tle bit behind but these should make it all better
Below are four scrumptious sounding recipes and if you have already decided your Thanksgiving menu, you may want to run…these are going to cause you to rethink everything! We’ve got cranberry sauce with attitude, sweet potatoes with a kiss of brandy, pumpkin cake that just about melts right off your screen and spanakopita that I want RIGHT NOW!
Yes, today it’s Thanksgiving recipes by the blogload! Remember to hit the blue title of this post to access any pictures and links.
We’ll start with Susan’s copied, tweaked and lusted after cranberry sauce.
“This recipe is an alteration of “Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Sauce, as given by NPR. I omitted the sour cream and the sugar, tweaked the horseradish and onion, and basically made it healthier and simpler to make. It also lasts a whole lot longer since it has no dairy product in it to go bad quickly.”
One can cranberry sauce, either the jellied or the “whole berry”….up to you!
Add one small chopped Walla Walla Candy Onion (or any other white cooking onion, I’m just partial to these at this time of year)
2-4 TB (your choice for spiciness) horseradish sauce (I love the Bubbie’s Horseradish sauce from Huckleberries/Super 1)
Put it all in a blender or chopper and mix together to a saucy consistency. Voila! (It is so good that even the driest piece of turkey will come to life again.)
Thank you, Susan. Cranberry sauce is like crack to me and I can’t wait to try this. Do you think creamy horseradish is OK?
Now, this scoop of tummy love from Jeanne:
“OK, here’s my yumminess. I got this recipe from Sunset magazine in 2001 and have made it every year since. Not too venerable a tradition, but becoming one in our family. Everyone loves it. The recipe is on the Sunset (magazine) Web site.”
Marmalade & Ginger-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
Yield
Makes 8 servings
Ingredients
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2 pounds sweet potatoes or yams (each 2 to 2 1/2 in. wide)
-
1 orange (about 2 1/2-in. diameter; 6 oz.), rinsed
-
2/3 cup orange marmalade
-
1/2 or 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon brandy or orange juice
-
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
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1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
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About 1/2 teaspoon salt
Preparation
1. Peel sweet potatoes and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Cut unpeeled orange in half through stem, then crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices, discarding end pieces and seeds.
2. In a large bowl, mix 1/3 cup marmalade, 1/2 cup brandy (1/3 cup if using yams), butter, ginger, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add sweet potatoes and mix to coat. Arrange slices in rows in a single layer, overlapping them slightly, in a shallow 3-quart casserole (such as a 9- by 13-in. baking dish), interspersing the orange slices evenly throughout. Drizzle any of the remaining brandy mixture over the sweet potatoes. Cover tightly with foil.
3. Bake in a 325° regular or convection oven (350° if baking with a turkey at that temperature) until sweet potatoes are tender when pierced, 50 to 60 minutes.
4. In a small bowl, mix remaining 1/3 cup marmalade and 1 tablespoon brandy. Uncover sweet potatoes and brush marmalade mixture evenly over the top. Broil 6 inches from heat until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add more salt to taste.
Brandy, ginger sweet potatoes…what’s not to love? Thank you Jeanne.
My former newsroom colleague, Cathy Grimes, sent this next one in.
“This is an adaptation of a Gourmet (magazine) recipe. I’ve made it a few times and it always gets wows and requests for the recipe. Super easy to make.”
Blogger’s note— easy is relative here. Cat is an excellent cook and seems unruffled by anything.
Pumpkin cake
3 & 1/4 cups sifted flour (sifted, then measured; I used unbleached, but cake flour would give a lighter batter)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter (two sticks, softened)
5 large eggs
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Also can be baked in a bundt pan, sheet pan, two loaf pans or as cupcakes.
Sift first 8 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin, molasses and vanilla; beat until blended. Gradually add dry ingredients; beat until incorporated. Spoon batter into prepared pans; smooth top with spatula.
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes (longer for loaf or bundt cakes; the loaf cakes take about 50 minutes). Cool completely in pans on racks.
Now we have Mary’s contribution and reading this at 5:30 a.m. made me realize it was foolish to do so before eating breakfast.
“OK, well, the kid and I are spinach fans, and all things feta, so we decided on Spanakopita as the main course of any and all festivities at my place..
Can I say thundering success? On the rare occasion when there were left-overs, the kid would take them to work and drive co-workers insane in the break room from the heavenly fragrance as she reheated them.
Over the many holiday and non-holiday attempts I’ve more or less gotten to the point where I have no set recipe. At times I get artsy and make the filo/phyllo dough wrapped triangle version and sometimes just flat and tasty in a lasagne pan.
Our version always has ricotta or cottage cheese that’s been drained, at big tub of crumbled feta, and I have used butter to paint the filo/phyllo sheets with more often than olive oil (saturated or non-saturated, your call). Other necessary components are green onions, spinach (wilted fresh is good and moister, but frankly squeezed and squeezed again frozen spinach works better for me), onion, and at times I’ve tossed in four to eight ounces of cream cheese grated (for extra goo factor).
This is a nice basic recipe to begin the experiment (from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spanakopita-greek-spinach-pie/detail.aspx) and I’d say double it if your family likes spinach — this stuff goes fast.
9×9 pan? I guess as an appetizer course or side in a big holiday meal for a larger family. But you get a zillion wispy sheets of filo/phyllo in one box.”
(Blogger’s note: I think this means we might as well board this train and ride long.)
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 pounds spinach, rinsed and chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
8 sheets phyllo dough
1/4 cup olive oil
Cooking directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil a 9×9
square baking pan.
Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute
onion, green onions and garlic, until soft and lightly browned. Stir in
spinach and parsley, and continue to saute until spinach is limp, about 2
minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, ricotta, and feta. Stir in spinach
mixture. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough in prepared baking pan, and brush
lightly with olive oil. Lay another sheet of phyllo dough on top, brush
with olive oil, and repeat process with two more sheets of phyllo. The
sheets will overlap the pan. Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and
fold overhanging dough over filling. Brush with oil, then layer remaining 4
sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with oil. Tuck overhanging dough into
pan to seal filling.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cut into
squares and serve while hot.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/spanakopita-spinach-triangles-or-pie-recipe/index.html has the directions for folding it into triangles. I’ve tried this recipe, it’s fine, and it is a nice tutorial for learning how to work with filo/phyllo (clue, keep the sheets you are not working covered with a damp towel, really, never let the air get to it for more than a few seconds and make sure it is thawed completely before you start the process. Have the dough, the filling and the pan if you go that route right there before the first sheet is placed).
These triangles are also good as appetizers for a large gathering. Turning dinner into finger food is always a good thing. I have used this recipe, adding drained cottage cheese or ricotta to it however.
clear off a huge expanse of counter, and realize that even though the extremely fragile filo/phyllo might crack and break (this is what happens if it is not kept moist) but that can be fixed by painting another sheet with oil/butter and slap it on. it cooks up just fine. Heck, I add a few extra sheets because if the flakey wonder of it all.
“Let the turkeys run free this year.”
OK, here it is for today. What I don’t get in for Thanksgiving, I’ll get in here in time to influence your Christmas cooking. My gratitude to everyone who sent in printed love!
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Re the cranberry sauce: YES, I should have written “prepared horseradish” which comes in a jar, is creamy consistency, though it has no cream in it. ~susan
OK, I’ve had two similar recipes submitted, tongue-in-cheek (since we’re talking food, is saying “tongue-in-cheek” more or less tongue-in-cheek? And tyou thought I was wasting time in this job.).
No. 1: “The Relative Reliever”
Take one bottle of your favorite wine.
Open it, letting it breathe for ah, maybe ten seconds.
Put your mouth on the open end.
Tip up until bottle is empty.
Have breakfast.
Repeat as needed
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The other recipe, which I have somehow lost, called for gin, vermouth, an olive on a toothpick and hiding from the company. You can probably figure out how to measure those out.