Since Mark moved here, he and I have always gone back to Texas for Thanksgiving. This year we decided to change it up a bit and instead, we are going to Texas for Christmas and New Year’s.
We are seriously considering making our very first Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves and any friends who feel like dropping by.
But, I need your help! Aside from several good macaroni and cheese recipes (and my family’s stuffing recipe which I love and forgot to include when I initially posted this), we don’t really have any good holiday recipes. I’m sure some of you have cooked feasts for your families over the holidays, so I would be eternally grateful if you would be willing to link to or share some (or all) of the recipes you use year after year.
I would love to get a lot of suggestions. If we decide to make one of your dishes, we’ll be sure to take pictures of how it turned out and credit you for the idea/recipe.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you choose to provide!
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I will give side dishes some thought, but I know off the top of my head that every year I either bring a pumpkin cheesecake or carrot cake for dessert at Thanksgiving. They’re both relatively simple, and no worries – neither are vegan.
If you’d like either recipe, just let me know.
I would LOVE both recipes if you would be so kind as to share them.
I make spinach gratin from ina garten (SO YUMMY)
Roasted potatoes courtesy Giada de Laurentiis – I actually cut mine up though
and this whipped sweet potatoes with banana and honey which will make you want to kill yourself it’s so good.
Good LORD I can’t wait for thanksgiving. LOL!
I am a proud Thanksgiving cheater (this year we did steak instead of turkey because it was still nice ou). Do you have something like an M&M Meats? If so, I’d buy a pre-cooked, pre-stuffed turkey breast (they feed about 4 people) and a pumpkin pie. Add a salad (even pre-made from the deli), some cookied veggies and yout mac & cheese and you’re done!
http://www.mmmeatshops.com/
Pumpkin Cheesecake
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Note: This is the easier of the two recipes.
Ingredients
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch cloves
1 9-inch graham cracker crust (store-bought is fine)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350* with rack in center position.
Place the cream cheese in a large bowl. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat with a wire whisk, an egg beater, or an electric mixer until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps, about 40 seconds. Add the eggs, beating for another 20 seconds. Add the pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and continue beating until mixed and smooth.
Pour the batter into the crust and bake 40 minutes, or until the outer rim is slightly raised and has begun to turn a very pale golden brown and there is a silver dollar-sized moist spot in the center. Cool on a rack for 30 minutes and then refrigerate for 3 hours.
Carrot Cake in Two Parts
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1. CAKE
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup cooking oil
4 eggs
Directions
- preheat oven to 350*
- combine flour, sugar, powder, soda, & cinnamon
- add carrots, oil, & eggs
- beat until well blended
- pour into 2 greased and floured 9″ pans
- bake 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean
- cool on wire racks 10 minutes
- remove cakes from pans and cool on racks thoroughly
2. FROSTING
Ingredients
6 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup soft margerine
4 1/2 – 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Directions
Mix cheese and margerine. Add vanilla; beat to light and fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups sugar, beating well. Beat in remaining sugar to make frosting consistency. Store in fridge.
THANK YOU! We are definitely going to be making the spinach and sweet potatoes dishes at some point in the future, if not for Thanksgiving because they just look AWESOME.
Yum! We order from Omaha Steaks every once in a while and they appear to be a similar sort of company to M&M. The stuffed turkey breast on M&M’s website looked delicious (unfortunately I couldn’t find anything similar at omaha steaks)
We’ve cheated in years past for other holiday dinners, but even if it doesn’t taste as good as it would if we bought it pre-cooked from an online supplier, I would really like to attempt doing it from scratch. I know I will probably be kicking myself for that decision Thanksgiving day, but I’ve never cooked a turkey before and never tried to prepare a feast before, so I want to give it a shot. (Even though Mark will probably do at least half if not 80% of the cooking. LOL.)
Yeah, those sweet potoates are going to win you awards they are so simple and so, so good. Take pictures and let me know how it turns out
YUM! Thank you! I can’t wait to try them both. We don’t bake much, but I’ve never even attempted a cheesecake (or carrot cake not out of the box for that matter).
Both recipes are in my “on demand” file, meaning they are the top two requested desserts for social gatherings (regardless of season). I’ve tried to branch out on different occasions, but my friends get pissed and DEMAND these two.
The cheesecake is ridiculously easy – it really is just a matter of mix it all up and throw it in the oven. Hard to screw up and whatnot.
The only things that make the carrot cake more complicated are the shredding of the carrots and the frosting. The frosting is easy to make, it’s just the additional work, but shredding carrots can be a CHORE if you’re doing it by hand with a grater. I have a food processor I always use, but the friend who gave me the recipe hand-grates, meaning she rarely makes the cake (where I make it at least once a year, if not twice). It’s good eats, though, I assure you.
Let me know how they turn out if you make ‘em!!
Oh, thank you. The clarification on the carrot cake being harder is good to know. We too have a food processor, so shredding the carrots will take all of fifteen seconds.
Heh. Real Turkey Tips: Take it out of the freezer at least 2 days before cooking, thaw it by letting it sit in the sink with cold water.
Start EARLY in the day. Even if it means dinner is early, at least you’re not up till midnight cleaning up (I like to serve about 4pm. Everyone’s gone by
Well, my favorite recipe is for cornbread stuffing with sausage and dried fruit in it – it’s totally yummy. It’s a lot like this recipe, plus a roll of breakfast sausage (you could use turkey sausage) cooked, crumbled up and drained and then mixed in with the cornbread and other ingredients. Since you’re a Southerner, I feel you should have a cornbread stuffing in your cooking repetoire!
I’m not sure about the fruit, (I tried an apple stuffing one year for a potluck at work and although I liked it, no one else touched it. I was so upset.) but the combination of sausage and cornbread sounds awesome! I wonder how this would work as dressing with pork chops. Too much pork? Is there such a thing as too much pork?
I don’t have many recipes for Thanksgiving — I usually use boxed stuffing and frozen veggies. *hangs head in shame*
But if you go with a turkey, consider a brine — makes the turkey very tender and tasty!
Mmmmmm. Thanks. I was hoping someone could share methods to prepare the turkey. That looks great and we love Alton Brown!
For what it’s worth, I think the dried fruit has a more potent flavor, which makes a bigger contrast than the apples might. It’s good, but you can always leave it out, and frankly, I think this stuffing is good enough to eat on its own, so I certainly think it will go with pork chops.
What sort of direction are you thinking about going in? We to thanksgiving with the inlaws so I don’t cook, but I have some fun recipes: Pineapple stuffing (there’s usually a turkey and a ham and/or kelbasa), green beans with bread crumbs, baked onions (wrapped in bacon!!!), pea salad, or cooked macaroni salad.
Ohhhhh. Honestly, I’d love to have any/all of those recipes!
Green Beans with Bread Crumbs
Steam green beans (fresh or frozen)
Add butter to coat and stir until melted when done cooking and still steaming hot.
Add breadcrumbs and toss thoroughly. We use enough bread crumbs that they can’t all stick to the beans. It’s an unusual taste and texture!
Baked Onions
Get enough sweet onions for each person to have 1 (or more if you like — I love them) I usually use 1 package of bacon for 4 onions.
Cut top and bottom off onion and peel off out layer of skin. Leave onion whole! Lay out a piece of aluminum foil for each onion — will need to wrap whole onion. Lay out 1 quarter of the package of bacon in a star pattern, crossing the strips in the middle. Set onion on top of bacon. Season with salt and pepper. Place pat of butter on top of onion and fold bacon pieces around onion trying to cover it all.
Bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour. Longer cooking is better as the onions get soft and gooey.
Pea Salad
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayo
32 ounces frozen peas
3 scallions sliced
Bacon (1/2 pack to full pack cooked thoroughly and broken/crushed etc)
DILL to taste (teaspoon or so)
Mix all together aside from peas. In colander run warm water over peas until they are thawed. Then mix everything together. Chill for several hours, overnight is best. This gets better the longer it sits but rarely lasts long enough to get really good.
I’ll have to look up recipes for the macaroni salad and the pineapple stuffing.
Yum! Thank you so much. Those onions sound like they’d be a hit!
i’d have to say scalloped corn is one of my holiday favorites.
i can provide it if you’d like, though most people aren’t as crazy about corn as i am. 
I love corn, but I have no idea what scalloped corn is. I’d love the recipe when you get a chance! Thanks!
Those onions are GOOD!
I’ll try to get you the other recipes later this week.
i’m not sure why they call it scalloped…it’s made of eggs, creamed corn, butter, and crushed crackers and i love it.
my grandmother has been making it for years.
scalloped corn
ingredients:
3 15-ounce cans creamed corn
2 eggs
1 cup crushed saltine crackers
½ cup butter, melted
¼ teaspoon pepper
directions:
preheat over to 350°. butter 8×11x12 inch dish.
in a medium bowl, combine corn, eggs, 1/4 cup melted butter and half the cracker crumbs. pour into dish.
in a small bowl, mix remaining butter, crackers, and pepper. sprinkle mixture over casserole.
bake for 30 – 40 minutes.