The holiday at hand: The Menu

Turkey Time

Alton Brown's Good Eats Turkey (recipe link)
Last year we discovered the delights of brining the turkey. Sure it adds an extra step, but oh is it worth it! Additionally, the use of a digital probe thermometer is absolutely ESSENTIAL for not over or under cooking the turkey. We didn't use the candied ginger or the allspice, and I don't think the aromatics really added much, but the rest was superb. We used our camping food chest to hold the brine.

We've always done a small (but whole) turkey, even though it's just the two of us. But neither of us eats dark meat, and truthfully I don't eat a whole lot of white meat. And I think boiling the carcass for soup was one of the most disgusting byproducts of Thanksgiving and Christmas. That is one thing I don't think I'll ever be able to do with meat/bones... So this year we thought we'd buy just the turkey breast with ribs. We'll still brine and follow the same general process set out by Alton, but it will just be a lot quicker. Less waste. We'll see how it turns out.

To dress or stuff?

I myself prefer dressing. I don't like the idea of eating something that's been stuffed inside the skeleton of something else. It's the same thing, just in a side dish.

My family's traditional dressing is a cornbread stuffing. Honestly, growing up, the look of it kind of grossed me out. I like it well enough now, but I think I prefer a white bread dressing. I haven't yet found my perfect recipe, so this year will be another new creation. Last year I made sourdough stuffing from scratch. It was pretty good, but this year I will use french bread.

I don't want apples or sweet things in it. I will omit sausage if the recipe calls for it. I just want it to be bread, vegetables, broth and seasonings. I think I might just try this one.

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

A must have from scratch. Russet Potatoes. I wanted to buy a potato ricer this year, but Matt says he likes a few lumps here and there. So they will be mashed rustic home style by hand. Since we'll have no drippings this year due to our turkey change, we'll have to make a gravy out of chicken broth, a roux from butter and flour, and seasonings. We've done this before and it's worked nicely.

Green Bean Casserole

This was a Bras(s) fam. addition since I never had it growing up. I enjoy its presence on the table.

GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE—serves 4 grown people
Ingredients
¾ C. milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 (16 oz. or so) bag frozen green beans, thawed (can also used canned, but I prefer frozen)
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 can French fried onions

Directions
Mix together milk, soup and pepper. Stir in beans. Stir in some of the onions, but keep some out for the topping added at the end of baking. Bake in a casserole dish on 350* for 20 min. or until it is hot and bubbling. Top with remaining onions and bake 5 min. longer or until crispy.

No Rock, just Rolls

I think we've done rolls differently every year. I've made my mom's wheat rolls, regular white rolls, frozen rolls, etc. I haven't decided yet what I will do this year. Mom's are really good though, so I'll put down the recipe.

MOM’S WHEAT THANKSGIVING ROLLS--makes about 3 dozen
Ingredients
2 ½ C. warm water
2 Tbsp yeast
½ C. sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 C. oil
2 eggs, beaten
4 C. wheat flour
3 ½ C. white flour
butter melted to dip

Directions
1. Mix the yeast and a little sugar into the water. Let sit about 10 min. or until bubbly. Add the rest of the sugar, salt, oil, and eggs. Mix with an electric hand mixer.
2. Add the flour in one cup at a time, starting with the wheat flour. Use the hand mixer for the wheat and knead in the white. Put in a clean, oiled bowl. Let it rise once to double (about an hour). Punch it down and roll out thin.
3. Cut out circles with a cup. Dip ½ of the circle in the butter, place on a greased baking sheet and fold over to make a half moon shape. Let them rise until double and bake in a preheated oven at 350* for 15 min.

Something for the Pie Hole

I have tried many pie crust recipes. Butter crusts, butter-shortening crusts, shortening crusts. You name it, I've tried it. I think the most frustrating part of pie crust making is the water. Recipes always say to use as little water as possible, just until it sticks together in a ball. Unfortunately, this often leaves people with a crumbly mess because they don't put enough liquid in. It's always better to use a little too much water than not enough. I promise.

I got the best crust recipe from my friend Pam this year. I was surprised to see the recipe because it was an all shortening crust (which I generally don't prefer). The last few years I've gone to shortening-butter crusts, but this year I'll replace it with Pam's recipe. It's different from other shortening recipes because it includes vinegar, an egg, and enough water. It makes 3 crusts at a time, so you can either freeze the extra or make a couple pies! The only thing I altered was the salt. Her recipe didn't call for any, and since there's no salted butter in it, I really think it a necessary addition. The crust was flakey, hearty, easy to work with, and baked up beautifully. This year I will make 3 pies because I will have 3 crusts.

Pam's Pie Crust

This recipie makes enough crust for 3 pies.
5 cups flour
2 cups shortening
1 TBSP vinegar
1 cup water
1 egg, beaten
1 1\2 tsp salt (I always use kosher salt when baking)

Combine flour, salt and shortening with a pastry blender or two knives until it resembles coarse crumbs. Mix together, vinegar, water, and egg then add to flour mixture. Mix until just blended and forms a nice ball. Separate into 3 equal sections. Form each 1/3 into a ball. Place between two sheets of waxed paper and flatten into a disk by hand. If it seems a little sticky, sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and lightly rub to cover. Continue to roll out in a circle with a rolling pin. Flip you pie pan upside down and roll the crust 2 in. bigger than the lip of the pan. Place in pie pan. Be sure to poke holes in bottom of crust.

1. Pumpkin Pie. Brasfield's recipe. A must. I'm using fresh sugar pumpkin. A question arose on my sister's blog about using large pumpkins for pies. I have used large pumpkins and it works great too. I truthfully didn't notice a difference in taste. The large pumpkins take longer to bake since they're about twice as thick. And you'll have tons of pumpkin. But that's not a bad thing since it freezes well. Both sugar pumpkins and large pumpkins are noticably better than canned. I was shocked to see the difference in color, smell, and taste when I compared canned and fresh pumpkin side by side. Canned isn't horrible, just not as good.

To cook fresh pumpkin:
So, cut the top off, clean out the pumpkin, cut it into chunks and cook it on a cookie sheet at about 350 for an hour or more (depending on the thickness) until it's tender. Peel off the skin and puree in the blender or food processor with a little bit of milk.

Pumpkin Pie filling:
Ingredients
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 can evaporated milk
2 C pumpkin puree (canned or fresh-if canned, make sure it's not pumpkin pie filling, just pumpkin)

Directions
Combine the pumpkin with the milk and other liquid ingredients. Add all the other ingredients and whisk or beat well until smooth. It will be very runny, but that is how it should be at this point. Pour into an unbaked pie crust. Cover the crust (not the whole pie, just the crust) with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 425* for 15 min. Without opening the oven, reduce temperature to 350* and bake for 45 min. Take the foil off the last 10 min. or so of baking.

2. Pecan Pie. Waterman's recipe. I've had a lot of bad pecan pies, but my mom's recipe is great. Very rich, but not too runny or gloppy or anything.

Ingredients
3 eggs
2/3 C. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C. melted butter
1 C corn syrup
1 1/2 C. pecan halves

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375*. Beat the first 5 ingredients together. Place pecans on the bottom of an unbaked pie crust and pour liquid mixture on top of the pecans. Bake 45 min. (You might want to put foil under the pie pan to catch any drips.

3. Some new creation. I love watching the Food Network pie bake off, and think it would be awesome to come up with a great new creation to compete with in the competition. Past Thanksgivings I've made coconut cream pie (I'm not so good at those. The custard is hard to master.), and I've also tried buttermilk pie (a favorite of my sister's family), but it was just a little too rich for me. I made an apple pie a couple months ago, so I don't think I'll do that (but I do have a great apple pie recipe if anyone wants it).

So I'm looking for a good new creation. Something I've never made before. Anyone have a good suggestion? In reality, I'll probably not have time for the third pie, but I wouldn't mind finding a great new recipe.