Yum. That sounds delicious.

For me, its dressing. Not stuffing, but dressing which is moist and just better than stuffing all around. It takes a bit to make, but it is worth it!

- 1 chicken, or chicken thighs (1-2 lbs)
- 1 stick of butter
- 1/2 loaf white bread, a bit stale
- 1 pan cornbread
- 4 stalks of celery +/-, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- sage, poultry seasoning, a generous amount
- salt and pepper
- 3 eggs


I'll start by buying a chicken, either whole or just the thighs, and boil it down to debone it. Once it's boiled down (a good 4 or 5 hours, depending on size), I'll add a stick of butter to the broth and set aside, although keeping it hot is key. Shred the chicken, and set aside.

I'll also make cornbread (the 33 cent box kind, which I always thought was the best) and set out about half a loaf of white bread. While the bread is getting stale on the counter, I'll crumble the cornbread into a large bowl, and then cube the white bread and add it in. Mix it together well. (I use a huge mixing bowl for all this) I'll add in the shredded chicken, diced celery and onion, and a generous amount of the seasonings, again mixing well with my hands.

Once all that is mixed well, break in the eggs and mix well. Really well. Once the eggs are mixed in, begin pouring the broth in. Do it about a cup at a time, and mix constantly. It will be pretty thick at this point, so I always just use my hands, so the broth should be hot, but definitely not boiling. Continue adding broth and mixing it into the brad mix until the dressing is moist and smooshy. You will want it to be a little more liquid than wouldbe ideal for eating.

Once the consistancy is good, pour it into a large casserol dish. At this point, you can refridgerate overnight before cooking, or bake at 350 until set (10-15 minutes). Don't overcook! :)

Dressing is good hot, but even better as leftovers when you can cut yourself dressing "brownies" the next day while standing in your fridge.

Sounds complicated, but aside from cooking down the chicken (which is mostly for just getting that yummy real chicken broth, easily substituted for ready-made broth) it really doesn't take hardly any time at all.

But, this is my Holiday Dish of choice. Except for Christmas Time Tamales, ofcourse!

I thought I was still full from Thanksgiving until I read that. And now I'm salivating again... gonna have to try that sometime soon. Heh.

That is how I felt about the garlic-mashed in the OP...and your caramel brownies below! Yum!

At the very least, this topic has given me one or three ideas for the upcoming Christmas..oops, sorry, Holiday Season food!

And your right. No such thing as too-gooey brownies. Nothing worse than a crispy, dry brownie!

(I need a new icon, something like a fat kitty or something to use on these food-related posts!)

Those sound divine.

My special Thanksgiving food is also special comfort food: turkey noodle soup using the bones of the turkey and fresh pasta. The original recipe I went by is here, but it can be modified in a variety of ways depending on your tastes. For instance, this year I used smoked turkey drumsticks and a couple of non-smoked thighs for the stock. I also tossed in some fresh cilantro (whole stalks into the stock and finely chopped into the finished soup). Mmmm, yummy.

Since I now have sweets on the brain, I'll share a recipe that's always a winner with my friends and family.

Cream Cheese Cookies

Ingredients:
1/4 cup softened butter
1 8 oz. package softened cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 package yellow OR devilsfood cake mix (I prefer the taste of the cookies made with the yellow cake mix over the devilsfood, but they're both good)

Directions:
Cream together butter and cream cheese. Blend in egg yolk and vanilla. Add cake mix 1/3 at a time. (If using a blender, add the last 1/3 by hand.) Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Drop by level teaspoon on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes.

White chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Sour cream topping. I spent two and a half years getting that cheesecake recipe down and when I make it, it comes out fluffy as cool whip and makes die-hard dieters forget their vows. One year, I had my mother-in-law "forget" to bring it to the family reunion just so she could have it to herself.

I'll post the recipe on my wiki by the end of the week, if you want.

Incase no one else says anything, I am a Devoted Member of the CheeseCake Cult Following, and I would be very interested in the recipe! Currently, my favorite cheesecake to eat/make is the toss up between Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Kahula Coffee (which was much better when I could make the crust out of coffee flavored oreos, but those seemed to have disappeared, to my great dispair.)

http://moonfire.us/Cheesecake

Here ya go. :) Ask questions if it doesn't make sense, it is kind of formatted in the way I cook more complicated recipes.

Yes. Want. Yum.

I've got two.
1. A turkey cooked thigh side up with nothing inside it. I do different things to the turkey each year, but cooking it with the thighs up avoids dry turkey breasts.
2. Roasted Pumpkin Pumpkin Pies. Even a mediocre pumpkin pie recipie is transformed by the simple act of roasting a fresh sugar pumpkin, and if you have a good recipe, it can be made a great one this way.

Tiramisu. Not sure why, but like your garlic mashed potatoes, it's something I brought to a family gathering and was subsequently told I would not be welcome without. I usually don't end up having any because it disappears so fast. This year we half half the people we normally do for Thanksgiving, so I managed to come home with half a pan. Score!

If you're curious, here's how I make it: http://haruspicy.blogspot.com/2007/11/and-for-dessert-tonight-sweet-delicious.html

I used to always make a very basic fruit salad at Thanksgiving as my contribution to the family gathering, but this year I decided to try making a ham with a homemade honey/brown sugar glaze. It didn't turn out bad, mind you, but I know I can do better with it next year. I think what I'll do is get it pre-sliced by the meat market, slow cook it overnight (as opposed to the wake-up-and-incinerate-the-sucker attitude I used this year), and pour the glaze on a bit sooner. As it was, the glaze just didn't settle into the meat quickly enough, so you could only get a hint of the honey glaze where I'd scored it. Blah. But at least it was cooked. That's a plus, right?

As for comfort food, I still love to bake. I don't know if I ever brought cookies or other baked goods into one of your classes, but I love making those sorts of things. I don't make them often, but when I do, I always try to do something a little out of the norm. My favorites are probably my no-bake Butterfinger cookies and my gooey caramel-swirled brownies. The brownies are simple as pie - you just buy a regular ol' thing of brownie mix from the store, prepare it as usual until you get to the point where you pour it into a baking pan, and then you melt caramel and/or any other goodies you might want to mix by using a double pan boiling thingamajig. That way, your caramel doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan when it melts, and you can clean it up way easier. Pour the brownies into the pan, drizzle the caramel in very slowly, and swirl it with a toothpick. Baking times suck to measure in Montana, so I always tend to take my baked goods out at the earliest possible time. Even if they're too gooey (that ain't possible), you can refrigerate them and it should be just fine.

I'm not ashamed to say I started salivating at the mention of the no-bake Butterfinger cookies (and continued to salivate as I kept reading). Would you mind sharing that recipe, too?

Sure! Here you go. It's a pretty common recipe, and certain people will tell you to use chunky peanut butter as opposed to creamy, but texture-wise, I think the corn flakes do a good enough job with that. Here you go:

2 cups creamy peanut butter (Reese's if you can find it is the absolute best for baking or for cookies)
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt (this is NOT necessary)
2 teaspoons vanilla abstract
6 cups of crushed corn flakes (pretty finely)
12 oz of melted chocolate chips (see variance below)

Combine the corn syrup, sugar, and peanut butter in a large pan. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and the corn flakes. If you want bars, take this glop and smooth it into a cake pan. If you want cookies, just drop em onto a cookie pan. Drip the melted chocolate over the top. If it's bars, use a butterknife to smooth the chocolate over the top. Toss 'em in the fridge or just let the chocolate settle, and serve. This should make about one big pan of bars or about 30 cookies, maybe a bit more. Want less, just halve the amounts here.

For variants on the chocolate chips, you can do just about anything, really. Butterscotch chips are great, as is even leaving the bars without chocolate. My personal favorite is to use a heavy dark chocolate on smaller cookies, as the dark chocolate contrasts nicely with the heavy sugary peanut butter. But this can be wayyyy too rich, so just experiment and find out what you like.

Oh yum. Thanks!

Stupid question. I mean, ridiculously stupid question. A head of garlic is the whole enchilada, right? And the clove is the little, um, eighth small part that comes out of a head? Or do I have that backwards?

Yep. One head of garlic = about 10 cloves, there abouts.

There are two things my family must have at any major holiday feast: No Bake Cherry Cheese Cake which we call Cherries Jubilee. (We know that isn't the customary definition of Cherries Jubilee, but this is our "nickname" for our pie.) And Broccoli casserole.

I have the recipie for both memorized.

No Bake Cherry Cheese Cake

2 gram cracker pie crusts

2 8oz packages of softened cream cheese
2 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 tea spoons vanilla (Don't screw around. Use real vanilla.)

2 cans of cherry pie filling.

Add the milk, cream cheese, lemon juice and vanilla together in a large bowl and beat with an egg beater until very well mixed, then mix it again for another five minutes. No, do it some more. Ok that is alright now.

Then take the sweet mixture and put half in each pie plate over your gram cracker crusts. Put them in the fridge and let them set for at least four hours.

Then pour the cherry pie filling over the top.

Now you are ready to serve.

Please note: IF you don't let the pie set up for at least four hours you are going to have a tasty but completely unattractive pie. For best results let it sit overnight.

Also we don't have a recipe for a single pie. THERE IS A REASON FOR THAT! If you have two people or more in your house make two pies. Trust me.

(Ok I got to go, no B. Casserole today.)






Edited at 2007-11-24 02:15 pm (UTC)

Oh, great, I gained a pound just reading that. Now I need to figure out how to shrink that down to one serving :-)

I don't have a Thanksgiving traditional, but I do have one for Christmas, chupe, a Peruvian fish stew that I'm asked to make every year (probably because it's so expensive with all the fish/shellfish in it). Considering it uses a pint of heavy cream and butter and eggs in it as well, it's another one that just getting a whiff of it will make your seams start stretching.

--M

Num! We make regular mashed potatoes every year -- this year we chose Yukon Gold tates, and I only added cream to them, rather than the usual cream and butter, and they were still delish! Yours sound yummy too, although I'd make them without the onion, as onions disagree with my family...