food, family, and football — *with recipes! :)

 First, let me just say, that I cannot wait to go home and see my family!! Only 4 more days until my flight leaves and 5 until I’m home 🙂 

I’ve been pretty sick lately, as I wrote about before, but recently, I’ve started to feel more flu-like symptoms (hot and cold a lot, stopped up sinuses, feeling very very tired, sinus-like headaches, etc.). So, I’ve spent most of the last couple days in bed or watching tv on the couch. This morning, I’ve been watching Food Network Thanksgiving shows! I wanted to come here and post a Thanksgiving entry of sorts. I’m going to talk about my family and the changes in recent years and then I’m going to post some recipes at the end, so if you just wanna skip this mumbo jumbo, feel free.

I love Thanksgiving, because it is all about family and food! And to me–a fat Southern girl–any holiday devoted completely to food and hanging out with family is alright with me! So, I was thinking about Thanksgiving today, and about what traditionally happens for our family. The Thanksgiving that sticks out in my mind is on my mom’s side of the family (since we have issues on Dad’s side with my stepmom’s family always coming first, it hasn’t been the big deal that it was when we were younger in a while). Try to keep up here, this going to get confusing, as it always does when I start talking about my family. My mom’s mom (who we call Grandma Margie or Marge) has hosted Thanksgiving in the past, with my mom and our family, my mom’s sister and her family, and the grandparents. But in recent years, we’ve had Thanksgiving at my stepdad’s (Jackie) mom’s (Nell) church because our families are so big. Normally, we’d have this cast of characters at our Thanksgiving: 

My mom (Rhonda)
My stepdad (Jackie)
Me, of course
My sister (Shelby)

My aunt — mom’s sister (Angie) —  and her husband before they were divorced
My cousin (Jessica)
Jessica’s boyfriend, turned husband last January, I think? (Joey)
My cousin (Eric)
Eric’s girlfriend, turned fiance last Christmas (Amber)

My grandmother — mom’s mom (Marge)
My grandfather — mom’s stepdad (David) 
My grandfather — mom’s dad (Papa Jim) — Marge and Jim divorced when my mom was in college, they remian "friends" for family get togethers and whatnot

My grandmother — Jackie’s mom (Nell) 
My uncle — Jackie’s brother (Johnny) — sometimes his  2nd wife (?) before she died and sometimes my other cousins (he has 4 sons) before they all turned idiot thugs and/or went to prison /rolleyes
My cousin (James)

Normally, we would all meet at the church social hall and bring our dishes with us and have plenty of room to accomodate what would not fit in anyone’s house comfortably. This year, things have changed quite a bit. As you all know, Jackie left in April. Mom is talking about taking a vacation for Thanksgiving, which I think is just crazy! Just because he’s not here doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate our REAL family–the ones who stuck by while he was out fooling around!! I know it’s a lot of work for her, and I know it is not even close to the same as how it used to be, but skipping out completely? Meh, I mean, it’s her life, but I hope she comes, because it just won’t be Thanksgiving without my mom.

So anyway, I was just reflecting on how things have changed and thinking about what this Thanksgiving might look like. So, here’s the original list with some modifications: 

My mom (Rhonda) is maybe taking a vacation instead?
My stepdad (Jackie) is a cheating, lying, cowardly, tiny little speck of a man (no question mark here!) 
Me, of course
My sister (Shelby)

My aunt — mom’s sister (Angie) —  and her husband before they were divorced
My cousin (Jessica)
My second cousin — Jessica’s new baby born in February (Austin) 
Jessica’s boyfriend, turned husband last January I think? (Joey) — Joey cheated (?) on Jessica and they are no longer together
My cousin (Eric)
Eric’s girlfriend, turned fiance last Christmas (Amber) — Amber broke up with Eric a few weeks ago

My grandmother — mom’s mom (Marge)
My grandfather — mom’s stepdad (David) 
My grandfather — mom’s dad (Papa Jim) — Marge and Jim divorced when my mom was in college, they remian "friends" for family get togethers and whatnot

My grandmother — Jackie’s mom (Nell) — obviously, Jackie will be spending Thanksgiving with his family, and thus not with us
My uncle — Jackie’s brother (Johnny) — sometimes his  2nd wife (?) before she died and sometimes my other cousins (he has 4 sons) before they all turned idiot thugs and/or went to prison /rolleyes
My cousin (James)

So, that’s down to 8 people and a baby. We’ll easily fit around someone’s dining room table now. 🙁 It’s the nature of life, I know. Things are constantly changing. But the change I have personally, and my family has gone through in the past year has been really hard, heartbreaking even. I know that we will all come out of this year, and every other after it, having learned something, become better people, and with better perspective for the future. But I am really, really looking forward to spending some quality time with my family. The love and loyalty will help us mend our wounds.

This brings me to the part where I talk about food. We usually have almost everyone bring something. So, this would be a typical menu for us: 

Turkey (sometimes a baked on and a smoked one or a fried one)
Cornbread Dressing (some without sage, some with) 
Giblet Gravy (with boiled eggs! the only way to go!) 
White Rice
Mashed Potatoes
Baked Macaroni and Cheese (with eggs and milk, you know, the casserole kind?) 
Some kind of fresh rolls or biscuits
Broccoli Casserole (recipe to follow)
Squash Casserole (with yellow squash)
Green Beans and/or Green Bean Casserole (with french fried onions)
Some sort of beans (usually lima or something like that) 
Sometimes Collard Gre

ens (blech!) 
Cranberry sauce (of course! Jessica is a cranberry sauce weirdo) 
2 Sweet Potato Casseroles (one with marshmellows on top and one with candied pecans and brown sugar)
Pumkin Pie
Pecan Pie
A couple other ever changing desserts (sometimes a chocolate type cake or pie, sometimes a berry or peach cobbler, sometimes apple pie)

I think I got everything. Shelby, help me out if I missed something 😛

Question for my readers: What foods do you traditionally have on Thanksgiving?

I’m not sure whether our menu (or our plans at all) will look anything like recent years, but I am hoping to cook something of my own to bring and to share some new traditions with everyone. So, here are some recipes to share (a mix of mine, from the shows I watched today and from places online).

Note: I use abbreviations, so tsp = teaspoon and tbsp = tablespoon.

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Sweet Potato Casserole with Toasted Pecans (Candied Pecan recipe in the note)

Toasted pecans

1/4 cup butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 cups pecan halves
 

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter on medium-low heat. 
3. Add cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to melted butter and mix.
4. In a small mixing bowl, add pecan halves, and pour melted butter mixture over, making sure each nut is coated.
5. Arrange the nuts on a baking sheet (if you have a pizza stone or other stoneware here, it makes for an excellent flavor).
6. Bake for 5 minutes in a 375 degree oven, then remove and turn the nuts, then bake for additional 5 minutes.

2 cans of mashed sweet potatoes or yams
OR 
4-5 large sweet potatoes — peeled and cubed
2-3 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. salted butter
1 packed cup light brown sugar

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. If you’re using the canned potatoes, you’re going to want to add 1 tsp. of cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. of ground cloves and mix in a large bowl before assembling the casserole, but I don’t recommend this method–only if you’re pressed for time! 
3. If you’re using fresh sweet potatoes, after they’re peeled and cubed, boil them in water until they are soft (just as you would regular potatoes for mashing). Drain the potatoes and put then in a large mixing bowl for mashing.
4. Mash your (fresh) sweet potatoes while they’re still hot, adding the butter and milk to help the consistency. If you don’t have salted butter, add about a tsp. of salt for flavor. You can use a hand mixer for this part, but I prefer mine to be a little more lumpy for a good texture. If you use a mixer, be sure to add the milk slowly as you mix. 
5. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish and spread your mashed sweet potatoes or canned mixture on the bottom evenly.
6. Roughly chop pecans (see instructions above) and sprinkle over sweet potatoes evenly.
7. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the top of the casserole.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until brown sugar is bubbly and pecans are brown.

*** Note here: for the pecans, you could substitue walnuts or any other nut you prefer, I just think pecans give it the best flavor. Also, you can modify the toasted nut recipe for a great snack for the football watchers to munch on while they’re waiting on the food by melting 1 1/2 sticks of butter, doubling the other ingredients, and adding 1/8 cup sugar and 1/4 cup light brown sugar (more or less for consistency–I am writing this from memory, so not sure exactly how much, should be like a syrup though) to the melted butter. You’d cook those ingredients until the sugar melts down into a syrup, then pour over the pecans. You’d want to cook them in a higher degree oven, say 400 degrees and watch them. You want the syrup to get brown enough to be crunchy, but not burn. Also, make sure the nuts are lightly coated but not dripping with the syrup. Then you’ve got a really yummy candied pecan recipe 🙂 

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Broccoli Casserole

2 – 10 oz. packages of frozen broccoli, cooked and drained
2 – 10.5 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
3 – eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 sleeve Ritz crackers

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Chop your cooked broccoli to small bite-size pieces.
3. Mix broccoli, soup, eggs, and cheese in a large mixing bowl.
4. Pour mixture into a greased 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.
5. Crumble crackers evenly over the top of the mixture.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, or until the casserole has puffed up (the eggs have cooked) and the crackers are brown.

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Deep-Fried Cranberry Sauce Fritters (Paula Deen) 

1 – 13 oz. can jelly-style cranberry sauce, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 tbsp. sugar
Pinch salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup water
Oil, for frying

1. Lay the cranberry sauce rounds flat on a single layer of parchment or wax paper and freeze for 4 hours or until solid. 
2. In a shallow bowl, place 1 cup of the flour. In another bowl, mix the remaining flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
3. Slowly pour in the water and mix until smooth. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
4. Heat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 375 degrees.
5. Dredge the frozen cranberry sauce rounds in flour. Then dip them in the batter and gently place in the oil. Fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes.

*** Note: I haven’t tried this, but I think it’d be yummy to add the zest and the juice of 1 orange to the batter. Though, you might have to use less water for the consistency to be right, just measure out how much juice you get from the orange and subtract about the same amount from the water you’d use.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tbsp. light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 stick salted butter

1. In a small saucepan, melt salted butter. 
2. In a mixing bowl, combine cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
3. Pour melted butter over dry ingredients and mix with your hands.
4. Press mixture flat into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

Filling

3 – 8 oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 – 15 oz. can pureed pumpkin
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. vanillaextract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat cream cheese until smooth. 
3. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Beat to combine. Then add flour and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
4. Pour mixture into crust and spread evenly.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes.
7. Remove outer edge of springform pan (run a knife around the edge to loosen first), then wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate for 4 hours.

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Pear Fritters

1/2 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup sour cream
1 cup self-rising flour
2 peeled and cored pears
Oil, for frying

1. Whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and sour cream. Whisk in flour. 
2. Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of a cast iron skillet.
3. Slice the peeled and cored pears into rings and dip them in the batter to coat.
4. Gently place the coated pears in the hot oil and fry until golden brown on each side, about 3 minutes per side, flipping halfway through.

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Another good idea I came across was for Thanksgiving leftovers — Turkey and Dressing Stuffed Egg Rolls. You just make a mixture of diced leftover turkey and some stuffing in a bowl, then take premade egg roll wrappers from the store and stuff them with about 2 tablespoons each of the mixture. Then brush an egg wash (3 eggs and 1 1/2 tablespoons of water beaten together) on to the edges to seal it, and roll it up like a closed-ended burrito. Then throw them in the deep fryer for a few minutes until they brown up. Dip them in leftover turkey gravy. Yum!