Traditional foods are a large part of Thanksgiving celebrations. Many families include the entire family in the food preparation. Traditional foods include turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Many people serve pie for dessert at the end of the meal. Popular pie flavors are pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, and apple.
Some families choose to serve vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners instead of a stuffed turkey. Some people eat vegetarian turkey, which is made out of tofu. Others prefer to eat squash, salads, or other fruit and vegetable dishes.
Some families include breaking the turkey's wishbone as part of their celebration. The wishbone is found attached to the breast meat in the turkey's chest. After the meat has been removed and the wishbone has had a chance to become dry and brittle, two people each take one end of the bone, make a wish, and pull. Whoever ends up with the larger part of the bone gets their wish!
Many generous folks use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to help the less fortunate. Some people volunteer to serve food at homeless shelters on Thanksgiving Day and others donate to shelters or participate in canned food drives." National Geographic
Thanksgiving Stuffing
Cook time: 40 mins
Total time: 50 mins
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter or non-dairy margarine to keep it dairy-free
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, cut crosswise in ¼” slices
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground sage
- 1 teaspoon dry thyme
- 10 cups dried unseasoned bread cubes (found in the bread section at the grocery store)
- 1½ cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 egg
- Optional garnish: ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a large pan. Saute onions, celery, salt, sage, and thyme for 5 minutes on medium heat. Turn off heat. Add bread cubes and gently stir them into the onion mixture. Slowly pour chicken broth over the bread cubes folding everything carefully so the bread cubes do not break apart too much. In a small bowl, gently whisk the egg and add it to the stuffing mix. Continue to fold everything until the egg is incorporated. Scoop uncooked stuffing into a medium casserole dish and bake uncovered for 40 minutes or until nice and toasty on top.
Sweet potato brown butter marshmallow sauce
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 3 large sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup marshmallow creme
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped (optional)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. On sheet, toss sweet potatoes with oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange in a single layer and bake until tender and golden brown, about 40 minutes, flipping once.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat butter over medium, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown and most of the foam has subsided, about 8 minutes. Immediately pour into a small bowl and let cool slightly. In a medium bowl, whisk together marshmallow creme and sour cream, then stir in brown butter and salt to taste. Serve sweet potato fries warm with sauce and sprinkle with pecans, if desired.
http://www.marthastewart.com/862295/matt-armendarizs-sweet-potato-fries-brown-butter-marshmallow-sauce#Thanksgiving%20Potato%20and%20Sweet%20Potato%20Recipes|/274448/thanksgiving-potato-and-sweet-potato-rec/@center/1009076/thanksgiving-side-dishes-appetizers|862295
Gravy
1 Remove the roast from the pan. Place pan on stove on medium high heat. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp of the drippings in the pan.
2 Dissolve 2 Tbsp of corn starch in the minimum amount of water needed to make a thin paste - about 1/4 cup. Pour into pan with drippings and use a wire whisk or spatula (as pictured) to blend into the drippings
3 Stir with a wire whisk until the gravy begins to thicken. As it thickens, slowly add water, stock, milk, or cream, or some combination to the pan. Alternate stirring and adding liquid, maintaining the consistency you want, for several minutes (about 5). You will probably add about 2 cups of liquid all together. Taking into consideration the evaporation that is occurring while you are cooking, you will end up with about 2 cups of gravy. Season with salt (we use Vege-Sal).
Making Gravy with Flour
1 Remove the roast from the pan. Place pan on stove on medium high heat. Pour off all but 2 Tbsp of the drippings in the pan.
2 Into the 2 tablespoons of drippings in the pan stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir with a wire whisk until the flour has thickened and the gravy is smooth. Continue to cook slowly to brown the flour, and stir constantly.
3 Slowly add back some of the previously removed drippings (remove some of the fat beforehand if there is a lot of fat). In addition, add either water, milk, stock, or cream to the gravy, enough to make 2 cups. Season the gravy with salt and pepper and herbs.
Read more: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_gravy/#ixzz3FuGgwGpP
Quick cranberry sauce
- 1 bag (12 ounces) frozen cranberries
- 1 jar (12 ounces) red-currant jelly
STEP 1 In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries and jelly. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have burst and liquid has reduced to a syrup, 20 to 30 minutes.
STEP 2 Transfer to a serving dish, and let cool.
Pumpin bread
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 2/3 cup flaked sweetened coconut
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
- Add the pumpkin puree, oil, and coconut milk, and mix until all of the flour is absorbed. Fold in the flaked coconut and walnuts. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven, and cover loaves tightly with foil. Allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil, and turn out onto a cooling rack. Tent loosely with the foil, and allow to cool completely.
Notes:
If you don't have the time, use Pillsburry Quick Bread & Muffin Mix Pumpkin 396g.
Pumpkin french macarons
- • 1 cup almond flour
- • 1 cup powdered sugar
- • 2 egg whites
- • ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- • 1/8 teaspoon salt
- • ¼ cup granulated sugar
- • ¼ teaspoon pumpkin spice bakery emulsion
- • Orange gel food coloring, optional
For pumpkin buttercream
- • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- • 1 cup powdered sugar
- • 1 tablespoon pure pumpkin puree
- • 1 teaspoon heavy cream
- • 1/8 teaspoon salt
- • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In medium bowl, sift together almond flour and powdered sugar twice. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and salt, and continue to beat. Slowly add sugar one tablespoon at a time. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until hard peaks form. Add pumpkin spice bakery emulsion and orange gel food coloring. Beat on medium speed for one more minute, or until the color is evenly distributed.
- Sift the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture over the whipped egg whites. Gently fold the mixture running the spatula clockwise from the bottom, up around the sides and cut the batter in half, as shown in this video . The batter will look very thick at first, but it will get thinner as you fold. Be careful not to over mix it though. Every so often test the batter to see if it reached the right consistency. To test the batter, drop a small amount of the batter and count to ten. If the edges of the ribbon are dissolved within ten seconds, then the batter is ready. I repeat, do NOT mix again. If you still see edges, fold the batter couple more times and test again. This step is so crucial, so please make sure to test often to ensure not to over, or under mix the batter.
- Transfer the batter into a pastry bag with a round tip. (I used Wilton A1 tip).
- Pipe out 1.5-inch rounds about an inch apart on prepared baking sheets.
- Tap the baking sheets firmly on the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles. If you don’t release the air bubbles, they will expand during baking and crack the beautiful macarons shells.
- Let the macarons rest and dry for 15-30 minutes. On a humid day, it might take an hour or so. To see if it’s ready to be baked, lightly touch it. If the batter doesn’t stick to your finger, then it’s ready. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
- Bake the macarons one sheet at a time for 18-20 minutes. To check the doneness, remove one macaron. If the bottom does not stick, they are done.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from the baking sheets.
- While macarons are drying, prepare the pumpkin buttercream. In a mixing bowl with whisk attachment, beat the butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, heavy cream, pumpkin puree, salt and cinnamon. Beat until well combined.
- Transfer the buttercream into a pastry bag and fill the macarons.
- See more at: http://www.sweetandsavorybyshinee.com/pumpkin-french-macarons/#sthash.ylw2icHp.dpuf