BUMPED 11/23/22
Because less than great just doesn’t cut it for Thanksgiving! In our family, Thanksgiving is the biggest holiday of all. We go to the same brother’s house every year, almost an hour’s drive out to the country. My husband comes from a family of eight siblings, and most of them have grandkids now, one even has a great grandchild.
As many of us as possible gather together since we will all be with our immediate families on Christmas. Usually, one or two people at least snag a friend who has no one nearby to celebrate with. Until a few years ago, there were four generations of us gathered to give thanks, but my husband’s paternal aunt died a few years ago. She was the last of his father’s siblings, although we often have a beloved aunt by marriage who still comes with her son and granddaughter.
There are often close to 20 kids, so my sister-in-law came up with the idea of a bouncy house years ago. It is the greatest idea in the world for a little peace and tranquility in the house as we gather and get ready.
Best of all, we never even discuss the menu. We’ve been doing it so long that it isn’t necessary. Certain people bring certain things, and yeah, you can maybe not bring green beans but have a new Brussels sprouts dish, but if you are depended upon for sweet potato casserole (that would be one of my responsibilities) or the turkeys, hams, or banana pudding, you’d best not disappoint.
No day of the year is as fun, and full of great food and family as this one. Every year we see people we haven’t seen since the last Thanksgiving meal. And every year we do give thanks for many things, most especially a huge, noisy, boisterous and growing family, who by God’s grace are still able to gather round all the tables and share our lives.
I hope you’ll share the best of the best of your own family traditions and recipes. I say this almost every year, I know. I so enjoy getting all the different recipes that are popular in different parts of our huge country. Here in the remnants of the Old South, tradition reigns at most tables on holidays, and we are slow to turn loose of Grandmother’s rolls and Mother’s dressing. But sometimes a few new excellent dishes turn out to be the hit of the day.
Here’s my casserole, but you have to wing it. I long ago lost the actual recipe. You’ll find similar ones online, but if you get one that tells you to add flour to the topping, just don’t. It ruins it.
Not my actual photo!
Boil 8-10 medium sweet potatoes until just tender. Mash with a cup of sugar, a few spoons of vanilla, half a stick of butter, a tablespoon or so of salt, three eggs, and whole milk or cream, just enough to get a thick consistency on the mixture, just like you’d want your mashed potatoes to be.
For the topping mix a about 3/4 stick of chopped butter, four cups of chopped pecans, and 1.5 to 2 cups of brown sugar until well mixed and crumbly. This is never a fixed ingredient deal. You have to eyeball how large your casserole is, and also how much of the topping you like. We pile it on. If you’re unsure, start with about half of these amounts and add until quantity and consistency work, then add the topping and cook at 400 degrees until browned.
Tonight, I’m making date bars for nibbles and will keep airtight until Wednesday night when we start drifting in.
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces chopped dates
1 cup chopped pecans
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt in a medium size bowl. Stir in the dates and nuts.
In a larger bowl, beat eggs until light (5-8 minutes). Add sugar a little at a time and continue beating. Fold in the flour and dates mixture. Add the 3 tablespoons water. Spread in a greased and floured 13×9″ pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until light brown. Sift 1/2 cup of powdered sugar over the top.
When cool, cut into squares or rectangles and store in airtight container. This is the only recipe I’ve found for date bars that stays fairly moist for a few days.
Date balls stay moist for a long time, but they are no bake, maybe that is the difference? I don’t know, but I have been thinking about making some.
Our family’s decades old date bar recipe calls for cooking the dates in a small amount of water until they’re of a jam-like consistency. If it’s taking too long to get to jam, you can cover them with a cloth and let them sit on the counter overnight. They will have absorbed all the water by morning.
The jam is then spread between layers of a butter, oatmeal (organic these days), brown sugar, flour, soda, and salt mixture, 1/2 pressed into the bottom of the pan, the other half on top. Under refrigeration, they keep forever, stay moist, and also freeze well. If I am shipping them, I box them up straight from the freezer and uncut.
The dates are the small dark ones that used to be marketed under the label, “Dromedary,” not the larger, lighter colored Medjouls, which to me are to dates what Wonder Bread is to home made. For several years now, the dark dates have only been available as vacuum packed “bricks” and not as individual dates. Wegman’s used to always have those around the holidays, but there are no Weggies in my area, alas, so I buy then on Ebay. If the price is good, I buy several and freeze them.
A slightly more recent recipe that used to be made by a midwest grocery store bakery under the name, “Princess Bars,” that finally made its way into the local paper, much to my delight, is also excellent, and exceptionally rich, with a flour-based dough that includes a greater quantity of butter, as well as egg yolks, coconut, and pecans. (Same dark dates.) I don’t make it as often these days because it’s more time consuming.
Easy best turkey i know:
Prep turkey how you like WThe butter, herbs, salt, etc
Use a rack in a big roaster pan
Put turkey in a paper grocery bag, and place on rack
Cook for 1 hour at 300
Then, 1 hour at 350
then 1 hour at 400
no basting needed, birds up to 23-25 pounds
as long as it fits in the bag, you’re good.
Juiciest bird ever, with amazing skin color and texture,
keeps a lot more juice in the bird
There are a variety of these paper bag recipes.
The best thing about them is they are super easy and typically 3 hours no matter what,
and the skin is great(use that butter) w no basting .
There really is no point in doing a long 6-7 hour bird when you can use the bag technique, imo.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Interesting.. I may have done this when I roasted my first turkey. I thought the oven was malfunctioning when the temperature ‘light’ kept turning off. So I would turn the temperature higher and higher until the light came back on again.
What did I know? I was a kid who got left out of the family celebration. I couldn’t travel due to work obligations, so I tried to host a turkey dinner myself.
The joke in the family was that by the time my turkey was done I had set the oven to self clean.
This made me laugh out loud, thank you!
Very charming, Judith!
Do you fold up the bag or keep the ends open? Also, do you suggest using the regular setting or the convection?
Keep the end open
don’t staple or wrap up the end
and just set the oven on bake, no convection
I wouldn’t Jack you guys around on this thread.
If you have any worries about this technique,
try a small bird later this year, instead of doing it for TDay.
Juiciest bird, easy, 3 hours (plus the rest time)
This is a recipe I have not made in 12+ years that I used to take to the monthly reunion dinner of my aunts, uncles, cousins and father before they “aged” out of the system.
This is off the top of my head mind you…. and I don’t think I ever wrote it down anywhere.
Easy Corn Casserole
2 boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix
1 can cream corn
1 can regular corn
1/2 cup sugar (optional)
In a large mixing bowl:
mix cornbread according to box directions.
Add in can of cream corn, stir
Add in can of regular corn (drained), stir
This is the hard part to explain .. mix to that “right” consistency not too thick but not too thin.
It should be able to self level basically with a couple of shakes to the pan.
It should be close to correct consistency with the base recipe if you add in heavy cream you may need the extra egg and/or a partial box of Jiffy Mix.
Optional:
Additional egg
Substitute melted butter for the oil… it is Thanksgiving after all
1/2 cup sugar or substitute bakeable sweetener
1/2 cup heavy cream
onion to taste if so desired
Salt to taste, cream corn already has a boatload, regular corn too.
I never put pepper in it but you can if so desired
13 x 9 rectangular pan (I always use glass / ceramic)
bake @ 350 for approximately 30-45 minutes
Cook until top starts to brown or to desired shade
Peanut Butter (no added sugar) Cake / Brownie:
I make this for myself in a 7″ round aluminum pan as a solo desert for 2 nights using 1/2 of the round.
4oz by weight peanut butter about 3/4 cup (I only use weight for consistency) Aprox 24 carbs with wally’s PB
2 eggs
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I make my own vanilla so my strength varies from retail)
1/8 cup or to taste of sucralose or stevia
Blend in tall sided mixing bowl
I use a hand mixer to beat eggs into the peanut butter
Add vanilla and slowly mix (too much vanilla or too aggressive on the beater it will separate) (do not add oil or butter as it WILL separate)
Oil or butter a small oven safe container
Bake @ 300 for 15 minutes or until center is set.
Serve with a scoop of No Sugar Added Vanilla Ice Cream
Some people (like me) don’t like to eat much meat. For them, you can cook a big bowl of succotash.
The two main ingredients of succotash are corn and lima beans. These are a grain and a legume, which make up a complete protein. And corn and lima beans are native western hemisphere foods, which makes them good food for Thanksgiving.
There are lots of succotash recipes online. About the easiest one is to cook 1.5 or 2 parts corn, and 1 part lima beans. (Lima beans are heavier than corn, so you want more corn than lima beans.) Cook them separately, because lima beans take longer to cook than corn.
When cooked, mix them together with a little salt and vegetable oil. You might want to add a few small bits of red bell pepper.
Thank you again Menagerie, for a wonderful post, a shining light in these tumultuous times. It reminds me to put my focus on God and my growing brood of grandkids. Happy Thanksgiving to you and all you Treepers out there.
LOOKING FOR ADVICE! A few years ago I bought an oven that has convection settings. Convection Bake and Convection Roast. I’ve yet to really figure out how to use it correctly! Any tips when roasting a turkey? Is it better to use the convection settings or just stick with the standard settings? I can use all the help I can get!
I don’t know about your oven. Convection is just a fan that circulates the heat. If you are roasting or baking more than one dish at the same time, convection helps the heat to spread evenly.
I am no expert at roasting turkey, although I have cooked a lot of them over the years.
I have found that 350 degrees with foil over the breast for the first two hours( to keep it moist and prevent burning) and then let it brown for the rest of the cooking time. I usually have a 20-22 pound bird and it takes around 5 hours. I butter and season the skin on the turkey and stuff the cavity with dressing.
A poster above suggested using a paper bag when roasting the bird. I have heard that works to keep the meat moist. They also sell plastic bags to roast a turkey in which probably has the same effect and is fool proof.
Turkey is easy and pretty forgiving. When you stick a fork in and the juice runs clear, it is done. Also, when you wiggle the drumstick it should move easily. Some turkeys have a pop out button that lets you know it is ready.
Don’t worry, it is easier than prime rib imo.
Convection cooking time in general is about 25% faster because the fan keeps the hot air moving over what’s being cooked -think of it as being the opposite of ‘wind chill’.
Convection bake uses the fan and bottom heating element and convection roast uses the fan and both top and bottom elements – this helps with top browning. So a big piece of meat like a turkey will cook more evenly with convection bake without the top of it getting too brown too early.
Best thing you can do is use a meat thermometer so you will know when it is done and not have to guess. Pull the turkey out of the oven 5-8 degrees below the target temperature – the temperature at the center of the meat will continue to rise (called carryover) as it rests on the counter. Let it rest for at least a half hour before trying to carve or it will fall apart as you slice it while hot.
Happy Thanksgiving!
My oven lowers the temp by 25 degrees when you use the convection bake or roast. It doesn’t change the time of cooking. It is confusing though. I understand the food cooks faster with convection, so don’t know why you wouldn’t just reduce the time, instead of the heat.
I do think the main idea of convection is more evenly cooked food though
My granddaughters have been here daily, helping make Grammy’s fudge. It’s a traditional gift during the holidays, and the recipient list has expanded to include their friends’ families. Yes, we even make Maple Bacon fudge, for my SIL!
(Each batch makes about 3 pounds)
Ingredients for basic fudge
5 oz. can of evaporated milk
1 stick of butter
2 ½ cups of sugar
½ container (large plastic size) of Fluff
1 bag of Toll House Morsels (semi-sweet, white, peanut butter, etc.)
1 tsp. extract (vanilla, maple, peppermint, etc.)
In large pan, on medium heat, cook milk and butter until the butter melts.
Add sugar. STIR to dissolve the sugar, until it comes to a boil.
Once it reaches a boil, turn down the heat to a low/simmering boil, and cook for 5 minutes, Stir occasionally to prevent scorching on bottom.
Turn off heat at 5 minutes and add the Fluff. Stir slightly, then add the Morsels and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth. (THEN add nuts, candy, etc.)
Pour into a foil lined pan (I use a 7” x 11”, but a square pan will work, too)
Refrigerate until firm. Lift out by the foil, wrap, and re-line the pan for the next batch!
Variations (Vanilla extract unless noted:
Maple Walnut: White morsels, Maple extract, chopped walnuts
Peppermint: White morsels, Peppermint extract, 1 box candy canes, crushed.
Peanut Butter: Peanut Butter morsels, with/without chopped peanuts and/or chopped Reese’s cups.
Turtle: Semi Sweet morsels, chopped pecans, caramel bits.
Cherry Vanilla: White morsels, almond (or vanilla) extract, chopped maraschino cherries (dry them off).
Salted Caramel: Semi Sweet Morsels, chopped Rolos, caramels bits, a sprinkling of course salt on top.
M & M: Semi Sweet morsels, a bag of miniature M & M’s.
Pistachio: White morsels, almond or vanilla extract, chopped pistachios, a drop of green food coloring.
Bacon Brown sugar: White morsels, 1/4C BROWN sugar replacing 1/4C white sugar, maple extract, CRISPY bacon (or a small package of REAL bacon bits)
Salted Pretzel: Semi Sweet morsels, chopped pretzels, caramel bits
Homemade treats make the best gifts!
My family took a vote on what to have for Thanksgiving dinner. Prime rib was the easy winner, cold pizza and flat beer was ahead of turkey.
Oh come on man, that’s just…..well it sounds great….but turkey (big chicken) is just so good!!!!!
Our hearts are in the same place, I expect a mutiny tomorrow. I am soon to be 80 years old and I am sick of making turkeys.
I haven’t told a soul but I bought 10-pounds of beef brisket at Angus meats, the butcher and I talked on the phone while I ordered it – I asked if it would taste good done in the oven and he asked if I ever made one before, sounded like a dodge to me, but I told him “{no” and asked him to have his fellow butchers pray over it for me.
I got this recipe:
Oven-Barbecued Beef BrisketThis Oven-Barbecued Beef Brisket is so smokey, tender, and juicy. No one will ever guess it wasn’t cooked on the grill.
PREP: 20 mins
COOK: 5 hrs
TOTAL: 5 hrs 20 mins
SERVINGS: 8 servings
IngredientsRub
Brisket
Sauce
Instructions
Any suggestions or cautions?
Sounds delicious!!
Enjoy! 🙂
Boo— at almost 80 — you can do whatever you want to do! 💕
Oh my…it’s bacon textiles!
That turkey looks yummy. Never thought of placing bacon strips on the top & legs! Think I’ll try that one!
I haven’t seen this mention ed or maybe I just missed it in the comments.
Toast your flour before making the gravy with it. Measure out your flour and pour it into a large, dry oven proof skillet and bake it at 350. Stir it every 5 minutes or so, it takes about 15-20 minutes for it to turn a blonde color. Dump it onto a plate or bowl to cool. If I’m making beef gravy or gumbo, I like to get it darker, but blonde is what you want for poultry gravy. There will be no lumps in your gravy either.
Interesting option that I have never heard before, thereby skipping the fat part of making a rue for gravy.
Although it does seem to be much more time consuming unless done in bulk…. assuming that it keeps well too, I’ll have to try it out.
I do about a half bag of flour at a time to the blonde color and store it in a 64oz mason jar. It keeps for months in an airtight container.
Great Idea.
Thank You Menagerie, for this and everything you do.
Thank You to all of the Admin Team and to Sundance! I am grateful to you all.
Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!
Finally broke down today and made a BLT, after days of watching this picture float by.
haha..I love BLT’s, too.
Hadn’t had one in a year, cuz they’re a pain to make.
But that picture made me Cry Uncle.
It was delish!
If tomorrow wasn’t Thanksgiving, I’d do it again tomorrow!
I did too! 😂
Happy Thanksgiving to y’all. May our Lord richly bless each and everyone on all the branches as you gather with family and friends to enjoy wonderful food and company with a thankful spirit.
My local family is gathering so there will only be 6, hopefully 7 of us here at our house. Number 7 has to work tomorrow so I haven’t heard if she’ll make it over. Three generations.
Hubby just finished the 16 lb turkey. He makes it in an electric roaster which took about 2 hours for this bird. I’ve been getting my part done in increments. Sunday was preparing the fresh cranberry relish. Yesterday was doing up 4 pumpkin nut breads and cleaning the turnip greens. Today, the greens are simmering with hammock meat, baby turnips, onion and garlic. Lord, it smells so good. Made the filling for the deviled eggs too. Later, I’ll be making the pies, cooking the sweet potatoes and prepping the asparagus for the casserole. Years ago my daughter switched the green beans to asparagus and it’s been the go to
since. Oh, I almost forgot, 5 minute fudge. I’m enjoying all the cooking since my daily cooking is only for 2. My husband enjoys it too. He’s the turkey cooker and carver, taste tester and dish washer.
It’s beautiful here today and after so many cold days the warmth of the sun is a blessing.
How are you cooking the green beans. I was thinking of doing that, or asparagus.
I’m not making green beans at all. I’m using the green bean casserole recipe but using asparagus instead of green beans.
2 cans asparagus or 4 cups fresh, cut into about 1 inch pieces.
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/3 cups French fried onions
Mix soup, milk, 2/3 cup of the onion and pepper. Pour over asparagus in casserole dish, stir around until the asparagus is incorporated into the soup. Sprinkle the remaining onions over the mixture and bake at 350°for 25 minutes until heated through.
Note: You can make this up ahead of time leaving off the onion topping until baking time. Just cover and refrigerate.
I like the switch up of asparagus for green beans.
First of all, thanks everyone for all the great recipes. There are definitely several I’d love to try,
For mine, it’s kind of silly, as it really isn’t a “recipe’ per se but I make what we call Ham Gravy.
When I’m roasting my ham I make sure to pack plenty of brown sugar on it and a few pats of butter across the top. This turns the juices into sweet glorious yum yum! Then I make my “gravy” from the ham juices pretty much like I make my turkey gravy. I use Wondra for the flour (no lumps) and use the water from the sweet potatoes (warm preferably-I use regular potato water for my turkey gravy.) While I am cooking, I continue to salt and pepper to taste and continue to add more brown sugar as it cooks. The sweeter, the better. Mine turns out pretty thick and is literally amazing poured over EVERYTHING!
We love sweet potatoes. We boil them for about 30 minutes. Then we take them out of the pot and cool on a wire rack. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, we split them in half lengthwise and remove the skin. Melt about a stick of butter in a large skillet then add about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, more if you have a really sweet tooth. Cook on low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Place the sweet potatoes in the skillet and cook, turning once till the potatoes are carmelized. Yum!
We used to have a holiday tradition where something new and never tried before is on the menu. Beef Wellington was a huge hit but one year I made the perfect wallpaper paste.
Twas a simple recipe, boil sweet potatoes and mash wit butter, milk and seasonings. Boy did those starch granules shatter when whipped. Turned out the author was east coast and sweet potatoes are orange (yams) while on the west coast sweet potatoes are white fleshed.
So without pictures, could you give a color mention with your sweet potatoes? Or just call the orange ones yams.
We all had a good laugh and had plenty to eat. For host and hostess, remember to not stress, the worst that can happen is having fun stories to tell. We are having turkey mole’ this year because of a joke my mother told fifty years ago. Relax and have fun with family.
Thank you, Menagerie for reposting and for all you do.
Cheers!
P.S. Norman Rockwell would be proud of what you captured here in this post.
It’s definitely not Kosher.
Found a recipe on this thread the other day for pumpkin mousse and tried it yesterday. It is so good!! It is like a heavenly essence of pumpkin pie! I made regular and sugar free versions and they both turned out great. Thank you so much, whoever posted the recipe. I have a new Thanksgiving favorite!.
1 short drink glass
4-5 cubes of ice
2 oz Kentucky Bourbon
Enjoy!