Thanksgiving Feast

Well, the Thanksgiving feast has come and gone. A whole day of cooking over in 30 minutes of shoving food down our hungry gobs! I was lucky enough to have a few friends over (5 friends, so 7 adult mouths and one tiny mouth to feed total) to enjoy our American tradition. It's not so hard to talk the Irish into showing up for some free delicious food! I feel strongly there is no point in spending the time and energy to cook up a feast with no one to share it with. Plus, they always show up with the booze ;)

Now, not only did I not grab pictures of all my dishes but I didn't even snap a shot of my bunch devouring it all. I'll share the recipes anyways, as nothing failed me. My cornbread stuffing could have used a little less bread or a little more stock, but besides that, I was content.

Our menu consisted of fresh no-knead rolls, a cider-roasted 18lbs turkey (stuffed with apple and onions, the apples I mashed for applesauce), sage and pecan sweet potato casserole, cornbread stuffing, garlic buttered carrots, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, finished with pumpkin tart with cream cheese. I'll list the important recipes

No-Knead Dinner Rolls

from The Pioneer Woman
These came out okay. I felt they had a weird consistency and were a bit too sweet for me. Next time I'll probably adapt for a different recipe. They are great for thanksgiving, though, when you have limited time for cooking food and all you have to do is mix the dough and leave it rise. I halved the recipe because I had no need for 24 rolls. This is halved:

Ingredients
2 cups Milk
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
4.5 cups Flour
1 packages (4 1/2 Tsp.) Active Dry Yeast
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1 Tablespoons Salt

Directions

Pour 2 cups of milk into large saucepan or crock on the stove (you will let the dough rise in here so allow lots of room)

Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Stir to combine.

Scald the mix on medium hear(between 90 and 110 degrees, I used a candy thermometer to be sure).

Add in 2 1/4 cups of flour and 1 packages of (2-1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast.

Next, add another 2 cups of flour.

Cover with a towel and leave someplace warm for an hour, it should double in size.

After it rises,
When it had risen sufficiently add 1/4 more cup of flour, 1/2 heaping teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and about 1 tablespoons of salt. Stir or knead (eh?) just a little to combine.

Oil or butter a muffin pan. Form the rolls by pinching off a walnut sized piece of dough and rolling it into a little ball.
Repeat and tuck three balls of dough into each buttered muffin cup. Continue until pan is full. Cover and allow to rise for about 1 to 2 hours.

Bake at 400F/200C until golden brown, about 20 minutes.


Cider Roasted Turkey with Roasted Applesauce

Ingredients
2 liter of cider
2-3 apples
2 onions
1/2 cup room temperature butter
2 chopped cloves garlic
handful of fresh thyme and sage.

Directions
Prepare your turkey as usual, wash and pat dry.

Place in a deep cooking try.

Take your butter and smash down in the center. Add chopped garlic, thyme and sage. Knead butter together and separate into two small chunks and two large chunks.

Shove two chunks under the skin of the thighs and smooth across the meat with your hand through the outside of the skin. Shove the other large chunks under each breast and smooth across.

Quarter your onions and put inside the turkey cavity. Quarter your apples and place them skin side down in the cavity.

Pour enough cider to fill the pan 1-2 inches full.

I cover the turkey then for 3/4 of the cooking time with tin foil, and remove for the remaining time to brown.

When turkey has been removed and has rested, take out your apples and remove the skin, and mash the apples for a quickie applesauce side :) You might want to roasted a few apples separately to add to this if you are feeding a lot of people.


Sage and Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole
from A Cozy Kitchen
This was ridiculously delicious. I spread my sweet potatoes a bit more thinly in the pan and didn't pack the pecans on as tightly as she has (I wish I had taken a picture!) but this is recipe gold. This is going to remain a permanent Thanksgiving feature in our house! I think I'll make this again for Christmas, or at least, I'm pretty sure Cormac will want me making this again before next turkey day rolls around.

Ingredients
3 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 ½ cups milk
1/8 cup maple syrup

For the Topping:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions
Boil sweet potatoes (or steam) until tender, 10 minutes or so.

Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
Melt 1 stick of butter with the chopped sage in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for 1 minute and remove from heat.
Add butter mixture, milk, and maple syrup to the potatoes. From here decide what you want-- I didn't want two smooth mashes, so I used a hand masher and just slightly chunked the sweet potatoes together with the mixture. You can, alternatively, beat with a blender until smooth.

Lightly toss pecans, butter and maple syrup on low heat in a saucepan, for a few minutes.
Sprinkle the pecans over the top of the potatoes.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until pecans start to brown and edges bubble.

Cornbread Stuffing
This is my favorite stuffing. I made this two years ago as a test, and I'm so pleased. I really like my mother's stuffing, and she's made stuffing the same way since I was a child. However, I'm happy to say I've found my own way and this stuffing is MY stuffing. It's mouthwatering delicious and every day after you make it, it tastes better and better.

Ingredients
1 full cornbread recipe (listed below this recipe, you can use your own recipe if you want)
1 large loaf of wheat or white bread, or 12 slices
3-4 cups of stock (optional 1-2 tbsp white wine or 1 tbsp white wine vinegar)- I say 3-4 cups because sometimes I'll add more if I think I've got too much bread and not even wetness.
1 can cream of chicken
3 large eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup chopped celery (I omitted it this year and added a bit of celery seed instead, I just, didn't have celery and didn't see it at Lidl during my shopping)
Fresh thyme
Fresh sage, both to taste. I usually grab a handful of each to chop up
1/2 lbs of sausage
few strips of bacon, optional

Directions
Cube your corn bread and bread the night before and leave out to go a bit stale. This isn't totally necessary but makes the stuffing a bit more chunky.

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Saute celery and butter in pan, add in sausage and bacon if you choose.

Mix all other ingredients, I whisk it all together. Add in your meat, celery and butter mix. Pour over your cubes in a large pan. Wider the pan, more yummy crispy bits on top, the deeper the pan, the more delicious soft fluffy stuffing.

Bake for 30-40 minutes.


Buttermilk Cornbread
from The Hungry Mouse

I like using this recipe because it doesn't have butter, and well, I'm adding a load of fat to my stuffing already. This cornbread doesn't need it! It's delicious on its own, and if you're buttermilk is low fat its a healthy cornbread recipe to accompany your southwest dishes, too.

ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F/200C and grease your 9x9 pan.

Whisk eggs, buttermilk, sugar, and oil together.
Mix in cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.

Pour in a 9x9 inch pan and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until the center comes clean with a toothpick


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Tart

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking

This came about as a pleasant surprise after a bit slip up on the original recipe I found on a random food blog. The pie was my first bake of the day, and in typical Candi fashion, I made a silly mistake. As I was adding my spices, I picked up the jar of garlic powder instead of ginger (which look incredibly similar, ahem) and as I was dumping it into the mix I realized my mistake. So, halfway through the recipe I flubbed. Thankfully I hadn't wasted any pumpkin puree-- but I did wasted 8oz of cream cheese (the only 8oz I had), so I flipped open my BHG Old-Fashioned Home Baking for a basic pumpkin pie and combined the ideas. I will make this again and try to eliminate the can of condensed milk (probably through using yogurt or cream cheese as that was sort of the way my original recipe did it)... because it was only by strange chance I even had a can of condensed milk at home.
Cormac actually said to me it was the best pie he'd ever tasted. We had vanilla ice cream and whipped cream to go on top. Real whipped cream. Although, the American in me bets this would be topped off perfectly with that fake-o Cool Whip.
And yes, I pureed a real sugar pumpkin for this recipe, not a butternut squash (although...)

Ingredients
For Filling:
2 cups fresh pumpkin puree or 1 16-ounce can of pumpkin
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 can evaporated milk

For Crust:
24 graham crackers or 30 digestive biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 - 1 cup melted butter

For Dollops:
2oz of cream cheese
1 tbsp sour cream or yogurt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F/180C

Crust:
Using a food processor, turn your graham crackers or digestives (I used half and half because you can't buy graham crackers in Ireland, but I DID have half a box left over from my generous friend E) into crumbs. I usually add the sugar in at this stage to get it mixed well. You can go old school and put the crackers in a bag and hit it with a rolling pin, too.
Slowly add your butter. I added a full cup, but I didn't measure my crumbs exactly so you may need less (you should need roughly 1 1/2 cup crumbs, but I like a thick crust so I probably used 2 cups). You want it to be wet enough that the crumbs are clumping together as you mix it.

Grease 9 or 10 inch round pan (you can use a tart pan for the cool crinkle edges, or use a springform pan like I did for ease of removing it).

Pour the crumbs in the pan evenly and pat it down until covered. I just sprinkle it in higher around the edge so I can create/pat the crumbs into a crust.

Stick this in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes to prebake, just keep an eye at it towards the end that it doesn't overbrown or burn. When you take out the pie crust, pop the temp up to 375F/190C.
------------------------
Filling:
In a bowl or mixer, combine your pumpkin, sugar and spices, mix well.

Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.

Slowly pour in your can of condensed milk. Mix well.

Pour mixture into your pre-baked shell (you can obviously use a regular pie crust or one of those store bought crusts if you want).

Mix roughly 2 ounces cream cheese with 1 tbsp sour cream or yogurt (or if you have neither, thin it out a bit with just plain milk). With a tsp, plop dollops along the top of the pie. Mine sunk down a bit because I used real pumpkin puree which is a bit more watery (and I couldn't be bother to strain or cook it down too much) than canned. You can then take a knife or other sharp implement and swirl it around. I'm sure yours will look prettier than mine, but it all tastes equally delicious.

Bake for 1 hour or until the center is set and not wobbly at 375F/190C (and if you didn't skim my direction you'll have already popped the oven up to this temperature after pre-baking your crust ;) )

Baked Bean Chili and Roasted Potatoes

I am aware how difficult it is to make beans look appetizing in a picture, so I made sure you could get a good glimpse of those deliciously crisp potatoes.
We're going away to England next week, so this was a meal of "use up all the stuff in the fridge so nothing will go off" necessity.

I made roasted potatoes and a beefed up version of American-style baked beans, and it was gorgeous. I got a thumps up from Cormac, my measure of delicious, so I thought I'd share it here-- in spite of the fact that the photo doesn't do the taste justice.



Baked Bean Chili

2 cans of beans (I used pinto and kidney, you can use anything you've got in the cupboard)
1/2 cup BEER (I used Guinness left over from my chocolate cakes!)
1/2 cup bbq sauce OR ketchup (I had bbq sauce so it was a bit zippy)
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup dijon mustard
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp Worchester sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red pepper
3-4 tomatoes (I had vine tomatoes, medium sized)
2 strips of bacon
3 slices of ham (can you tell I was using up the contents of the fridge? Obviously, adjust this to suit yourself. I'd say a 1/2 lbs of bacon would be awesome, or a chuck of ham chopped up)

Directions
1. Cook up your ham/bacon in a large pot. Add garlic.
2. Remove from and lower heat, add your beer, molasses, ketchup/bbq, dijon, brown sugar, worchester sauce and stir well.
3. Return to heat, add chopped tomatoes and chopped red pepper. Add rinsed beans.
4. Let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour. The longer, the better-- but keep stirring so nothing sticks to your pot (or maybe you have such a nice non-stick pot that its none of your concern, but I don't, so be forewarned).


Roasted Potatoes in Bacon Fat
That left over bacon I used in the beans was left over from our Valentine's Day breakfast-- from which I saved the bacon grease. It was very little, and I'm sure if you replace that little bit with more olive oil these will turn out just fine.
Ingredients
4 potatoes
3 pinches of sea salt
several large glugs of olive oil
optional: approx 2 tbsp animal fat
polenta/corn meal

toss it all together on a pan, sprinkle potatoes with a tiny bit of polenta, cook 30-45 minutes at 180C (350F). Stir them around occasionally to keep them from sticking. If they are sticking too much, you need more oil.

Roast Veg and Apple-basted Ham

Some nights Cormac arm wrestles me to cook dinner. Sometimes, I let him. Tonight was a delicious little roast. We found the ham we picked up at Lidl was a little meh, however. I basted a ham for New Years from the butcher (it was a smoked joint) and it turned out much, much nicer. So, lesson learned. If you are going to eat pork (which I do infrequently anyways, outside of nice sausages from our butcher in the village), make sure you get a decent cut.




The roast veg are an idea stolen from my good friend, Angelica. At dinner recently she served up the same sort of roast veg. Here we have carrots, sweet potato, white potato, and red pepper. Toss in generous amounts of olive oil, sea salt and pepper, a bit of garlic, thyme and rosemary. Just put this in a very hot oven for about an hour, keep tossing them around so they won't stick (honestly if they start to stick you aren't using enough oil). Delicious. We're going to start making this healthy sidedish more often. It's handy if you are like us and find yourself pathetically staring at one potato, one sweet potato, one carrot and half a pepper in your pantry!

I'll post the ham glaze later when I've got my recipe notebook in front of me.

Ham and Potato Quiche

Another delicious comfort food-- and easy to make! Another recipe born of necessity. What's in the fridge? Left over ham, eggs... any veg... potatoes, spinach... excellent!

Something you will notice is a lack of onions in recipes that scream "onions!". I have a strong distaste for onions. That said, I acknowledge which dishes should have/need them. This is probably one of those.




Ham and Potato Quiche
Filling:
1 cup chopped ham
8-10 sliced baby new potatoes (3-4 diced regular sized potatoes)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
optional: handful of spinach, and an onion

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp thyme (fresh is best)
4 eggs
salt and pepper

Crust:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup plain flour
pinch of salt
-- add milk until forms a non-sticky dough. About a cup maybe? Probably less.

1. Make up crust and line a greased pie pan/quiche pan
2. whip cream, milk, eggs and seasonings
3. add in ham, potatoes, cheese and veg
4. pour into crust
5. bake 30-40 minutes at 180C/350F

Mexican Cottage Pie

I have to explain that a lot of these pictures were snapped quickly before I knew I was really going to start this blog, so I didn't do a whole lot presentation-wise. I promise I will try my best to improve the picture quality!
On to the Mexican Cottage Pie. It is a layer of 1/3 any cornbread recipe, ground beef mixture, topped with a mash of white and sweet potato:



I have the bad habit of making things on a whim, with what is in the cupboard.

I can guess what was in this. Let me introduce you to a staple in my kitchen. It's such a staple, that I bring back several boxes of this every trip I make to the states. Blame my Puerto Rican best friend who introduced me to this in college.



Cook up your lbs of ground beef, with one packet of this (or some other stock cube seasoning-- don't mind that its chicken).

Few pinches of (to taste, just keep sampling it until it tastes good to you)
white pepper
chili powder
cumin
basil
half tube of tomato paste
2 cloves of garlic, I put them throw a garlic press, you can finely chop
shake of Worcester sauce (another staple)
1 red pepper
mix in a rough cup of shredded cheddar cheese and 1/2-1 cup peas.

I actually cooked a 1/3 recipe of cornbread in the bottom of this pan before I added the hamburger meat. Any all recipe will do. You can skip this step, but it makes the pie oh-so-nice. You can make half of a jiffy cornbread mix if you'd like.

Spread the ground beef into a 9x9 or other pan (or on top of your cornbread). Press it down nice and tight.

The top is a mash of both white and sweet potatoes (2 white, on 1 sweet). Steam and mash, spread across the top. Sprinkle some cheddar on top.

Bake 20-30 minutes at 350F

Spoon out and consume, comfort food!