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| Dinner - the night before Thanksgiving. Gotta have room for pie. |
We liked every recipe we tried this year, so I’ll do this in three parts. Let’s start with appetizers. We always spend Thanksgiving day with our oldest daughter, Jenny, and her family. We get together at noon, have appetizers, watch football, and cook. That’s the schedule: eat, football, cook, repeated as often as necessary.
A few days before Thanksgiving, I asked Jenny if she’d take pictures of her recipes too, so you’ll get all sorts of yummy recipes with pictures. And her hands are really pretty.
We’ll start with the menu; who made what, and the timeline:
APPETIZERS:
Kim:
Baked stuffed jalapeños
Pesto and onion crostini
Cranberry salsa
Jenny:
Fruit dip and fruit
Chips, salsa, dip
Bean dip
DINNER:
Kim:
Turkey
Mashed potatoes, gravy
Cornbread stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Caramelized carrots and onions
Cranberry spiced butter
Jelly
Hot garlic dill pickles
Jenny:
Rolls
Green beans
Butternut squash with spinach/blue cheese
DESSERT:
Kim:
Pumpkin pie
Chocolate chile molten cakes (remember the ones I made for the dinner party? I made extra just in case we wanted even more food and dessert for Thanksgiving).
Jenny:
Chocolate torte
I don’t know what Jenny’s timeline was, but mine looked like this:
TUESDAY:
Shopping
Make pie crust
Get out chicken stock from freezer
Make brine so it can cool
Make cornbread
WEDNESDAY:
Brine turkey
Roast garlic
Get out pesto from freezer
Make cranberry sauce
Make pie
Caramelize 9-10 onions
Make mashed potatoes
Make stuffed jalapeños
Set table
THURSDAY: Dinner was planned for 5:00pm. Did that happen? No. It was after 5:00. Well after. But we tried. This is what Thanksgiving day looked like:
Make stuffing
Cook turkey – 22.5 lb. turkey = about 5 hours (3.75 hours at 275° and about 2 hours at 375°. We’ll talk about this later, but I’m really glad I allowed extra time)
Pesto and onion crostini - noon
Cook jalapeños - noon
Get out potatoes – 2:00pm
Carrots and onions
Cook potatoes – bake at 4:00pm
Cook stuffing – 4:00 pm
Bake rolls 4:15 pm
Cook cranberry salsa – 4:00
Make punch
Get out butters, jelly, pickles – 4:30
Gravy – 4:30
Cook molten cakes after dinner
Make whipped cream after dinner
The appetizers were fabulous. We especially liked the stuffed jalapeños – some were hotter than others, but they were like jalapeño poppers, but not fried. Yummy!
BAKED STUFFED JALEPENOS
12 jalapeno peppers
¼ c. minced onion
¼ c. chopped fresh cilantro
1 package cream cheese
1 ½ tsp. cumin
1 tsp. salt
2 oz. jack cheese, cut into 2 ½” long strips
You can either slice the jalapeños in half lengthwise or you can slice off the top 1/3 (lengthwise) of each jalapeno to make a boat shape out of each pepper. If you make a boat, mince the tops and add them to the filling if you want extra heat. Scrape out all the seeds and ribs from each jalapeno with a spoon.
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| Note the blue hand. This is a good time to wear gloves! |
Mix together all the filling ingredients except the jack cheese.
Pack the filling into the peppers and place a strip of jack cheese on the filling of each one.
Arrange the peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet. I covered them and put them in the refrigerator for the next day.
Arrange the peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet. I covered them and put them in the refrigerator for the next day.
Oven - 375°. Bake 20-30 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and lightly browned, and the peppers are cooked.
Cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Jenny’s fruit dip and fruit made a nice contrast to the heat in the jalapeños.
CREAMY STRAWBERRY DIP AND FRUIT KEBABS
1 (8-ounce) can pineapple chunks in juice, undrained
2 Red Delicious apples, cored
16 tangerine sections (about 2 tangerines)
16 (1/2-inch) slices banana (about 2 small)
16 seedless green grapes
8 fresh strawberries, each cut in half lengthwise
Creamy Strawberry Dip
Drain pineapple through a sieve over a bowl, reserving juice. Set aside 16 pineapple chunks and 1/4 cup juice, reserving remaining pineapple and juice for another use. Cut apples into 16 (1-inch) chunks.
Thread fruit alternately onto 16 (6-inch) plastic drinking straws or wooden skewers. Brush with reserved 1/4 cup pineapple juice. Serve with Creamy Strawberry Dip.
Cooking Light, JANUARY 1998
STRAWBERRY DIP
1/2 cup tub-style light cream cheese
1/2 cup strawberry low-fat yogurt
1/4 cup marshmallow crème
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat at low speed of a mixer until well-blended. Cover and chill 2 hours.
Note: You can try other yogurt flavors.
These crostini took all of 5 minutes to make since I already had the pesto.
PESTO AND ONION CROSTINI
1 baguette
About 1 c. pesto
2 yellow or white onions, sliced thin and caramelized
Note: I caramelized all the onions I needed on Wednesday. Why and how do you caramelize onions? Caramelizing them brings out the natural sugars and makes them a rich sweet color and flavor.
How:
Slice as many onions as you want. Remember they cook down quite a bit so one onion may not make enough.
Use a wide pan. Cover the bottom with olive oil, or olive oil and a bit of butter. Add the onions. Cook over low or medium low for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with some salt. You can also sprinkle with a bit of sugar to aid the caramelizing process – not more than ½ tsp. to 2 onions.
If they start to dry out, add a bit of water or oil. Cook for 30-60 minutes over low heat. Don’t stir too much though, because you want them to get nice and brown. After about 30 minutes, you might need to stir more often so they don’t stick on the bottom of the pan. At the end, you can add a bit of balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan, if desired. These are so so good.
So back to the crostini: Slice it on the diagonal in ½”-3/4” slices. Toast them lightly. Spread each with pesto. Place on a baking sheet lined with foil.
Add a tablespoon or so of onions on the top of each one. Bake them in the oven at 350° until they are hot, about 5-10 minutes.
We also love salsa, chips and dip. Jenny brought this wonderful bean dip.
Black-Eyed Pea Dip
1 can (14-ounce) Can Black-eyed Peas
¼ whole Onion, Chopped Fine
¼ cups Sour Cream
8 slices Jarred Jalapenos
1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
3 Tablespoons Salsa
Hot Sauce, to taste
Salt And Black Pepper To Taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain black-eyed peas and partially mash, leaving some whole.
Add all other ingredients, stirring to combine.
Spread into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until hot and bubbly.
Serve with tortilla chips.
*Note: if you have them available, you can use the canned black-eyed peas and jalapenos (they’re canned together.) If you do this, you can omit the extra jalapenos.
You might notice that we like lots of spicy hot food. Most Thanksgiving food is on the mild side, so we like to kick it up with the appetizers. This cranberry sauce is great because it serves double duty – as an appetizer salsa, and as a sauce with dinner.
Spicy Cranberry Salsa or Sauce
1 small red onion, quartered
1 clove garlic
1 tbs. canned jalapeno pepper slices (I used a fresh jalapeño)2 tbs. chopped cilantro
12 oz. bag cranberries
1 c. dried cranberries
2 tbs. lime juice
¼ c. agave syrup or honey
¼ tsp. ground cardamom
¼ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
In food processor, combine onion, garlic, jalapeno, and cilantro.
Finely chop. Add both types of cranberries. Coarsely chop.
Whisk together lime juice, honey, salt, and pepper. Add cranberry mixture, stir well.
If serving as a salsa, serve immediately or refrigerate. If refrigerated, let stand at room temp for 30 minutes. If serving as a sauce, place in saucepan, bring to boil, then simmer about 10 minutes. Cool till ready to serve.
Or these
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