Posted on 11/02/2017 4:05:32 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Thanksgiving is a time when people don’t seem to want ‘new’ - they want ‘traditional’, the food they’ve always associated with the holiday. But it’s also an opportunity to slip in at least one new and different dish, to perhaps broaden your guests’ gustatory horizons – and give the cook a little diversity in the annual labors ;-)
My first introduction to anything vaguely ‘Indian’ was this Hot Curried Fruit that my Aunt used to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It seems to be a somewhat traditional ‘thing’ in Virginia and parts South; and whenever I’ve made it for office parties, people have wanted the recipe for something easy to take to the extended-family Thanksgiving, or to a potluck. There are many variations on it – you can use different mixtures of canned fruit – but here is Taste of Home’s version, which is typical of those that I’ve seen:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/hot-curried-fruit
Many decades ago, when I was responsible for cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner - and the first to entertain my brother’s new bride - I wanted to do something different with plain old green peas. Somewhere, I had found a “hot cheese sauce” for vegetables, and used it with frozen green peas and pearl onions. The recipe makes 1-1/2 cups, and of course you can multiply the ingredients to suit the amount of steamed peas and pearl onions - or other vegetables - that you will need for your guests.
Hot Cheese Sauce for Vegetables
Heat ½ C. milk and 1 8-oz. package of cream cheese over low heat, stirring until smooth.
Blend in ½ tsp. Onion salt and ¼ C. Parmesan Cheese.
-JT
We’ve also used parchment, and those turned out well; that’s generally more expensive though. (LOL! I re-use foil when it’s not real messed-up, too.)
http://www.thehungrytravelerblog.com/veggie-packets-vegetables-in-parchment/
I’m wondering if you took the fish and placed in the freezer for a half hour or so....it wouldn’t be so slimy or wet feeling for the vacuum sealer..
BUT I love to make them..I love the mixing, the baking, the smell of them and the look of them and I love soaking them in rum...
I'm thinking I'm going to start soaking my candies and nuts tomorrow and let them soak for several days and make them up later next week...
I'm obsessed with lemons...
I've got some in a jar with with salt and I'm trying to make preserved lemons for future use....
anybody have any exp. with preserved lemons...???
In my Childhood, mom was a member of a ladies club which met about once a month. Always enjoyed accompanying her to these gatherings - Why? THE FOOD. The pot luck meals were always winners. One favorite dish was a cherry, coke salad made with jello and Coke. IIRC there was pineapple and pecans in it as well. Never found a recipe which came close to that served. But still on the quest. Mention black cherry jello and this dish would be the first to remember. Always served anytime around the Christmas holiday. :-)
My mom always made a lime green jello dessert which I have tried to duplicate. Lime jello, cream cheese, walnut chips and chopped pineapple (from a can I’m sure). We scarfed it up, mostly because she rarely cooked or made dessert. Dad was the cook in the house.
Ooh! Turkey sandwiches. On Christmas night, hours after lunch, my grandmother and mother would make us wonderful sandwiches on this white bread called White Mountain Loaf (from NYC bakers). So delicious.
Vegetable packets in foil. Add a hamburger patty with the veggies making it a Hobo’s meal. These were cooked and eaten a lot way back when. Recipe was in the recipe cards found in the Betty Crocker recipe box (remember those - and the laminated plastic cards in a plastic box? McCall’s had a box of cards as well...a tad more ‘exclusive’ ie: Crepes Suzette. Hobo’s easy in prep, pop in the oven and eat. One could use favorite vegetables in making it to their liking.
It’s very nice if you aren’t a tourist hanging around by the tree - wildly crowded.
We have used the vacuum seal with beef. With fish, it works differently.
Here is how my husband freezes fish:
Into a small ziplock baggie, he puts a few ice cubes to give it a “chilling” head start. Then he puts the fish into the bag, fills it with water, and adds about a 1/4 teaspoon of salt. The salt preserves the meat, and the water protects it from freezer burn.
For fish with large blood lines, it is best to trim ALL the red meat off, as the red meat will taint the flavor of certain species such as red snapper, striped bass, and redfish.
Our experience has been that when properly bagged, the fish still has a fresh taste over a year later.
I’ve always thought that the leftovers from the Thanksgiving turkey dinner were better than the meal itself.
Weren’t Hobo Meals a Girl/Boy Scout skill?
It’s true!
The Broccoli Blue Cheese Bake looks very good:
https://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/03/broccoli-blue-cheese-bake.html
Possibly. Never a GS so ignorant on that proclamation.
A new site just found~
How to Make How to Can, Freeze, Dry and Preserve Any Fruit or Vegetable at Home - PickYourOwn.org
https://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm
We had to be careful with home canned green beans and stuff with eggs and mayo though, much as I love potato salad and tuna.
I can't think of what your jello could be. I heard of something like that but never tried it.
What I did love was "Girl Scout Stew". We all contributed to the pot with veggie prep which was buried in hot coals and covered over the top with dirt, let cook for hours. It did burn some on the bottom, and by the time we could eat I was starving so that almost anything would taste good, but that stuff was delicious, the way the flavors blended together.
I did try to make that once in the oven, didn't even come close to what I remembered. And I don't like ground beef in much stuff except meat loaf, chili, and top-of-the-stove pasta quick fixers and spaghetti sauce.
The GS stew was celery, carrots, potatoes, onions, hamburger, canned tomatoes or juice, salt and pepper, nothing exotic.
Thanks for the memory. Just a pinch had a bunch of packet meals, new and different; some looked really worth trying.
Here are the packet meals that came in my inbox not too far back:
https://www.justapinch.com/blog/articles/read/192561/22-easy-and-delicious-foil-packet-recipes
I like dill a lot, that might help. It sure needs something. I definitely set the oven too hot, cut the veggies in too small of pieces (except maybe carrots), and may have lost a lot of the flavor from overcooking and the sweet in the balsam vinegar burned to my nice pan; I'm working on that now. Was a mistake to choose that pan but otherwise perfect for it.
I waited until this morning which is about noon I go to bed so late and tackled the dirty dishes. The pan it's hard to see the burned on crud, but I scribbed and scrubbed, was going to just live with it but decided to fill it half with water put it in a hot oven, get it hot, turn off and let it sit. Then I thought I'd better put some vinegar in it so it won't dull the finish of those kind of pans.
I bought it mainly so I would have something large for a bain-marie for bread pudding and the like, haven't gotten around to that yet.
Long ago I learned with barbeque which I aim to do soon to grease the pan well, lay foil over it, and grease the foil. It will clean up a lot more easily. I won't use that pan for it though.
Back to my sauce, maybe it needs the garlic pressed into it. I don't think the soy was a mistake. The balsamic I haven't used before so it's not unpleasant, but not what I had hoped for. I was thinking of some Thai carryout I had a few weeks ago. The sauce on aa couple dishes had this unique sweetness; and delicious flavor; I will never figure out what they used. Otherwise the place wasn't that great.
I do like the veggies a little browned, and they aren't a good choice for a T-giving side because people need oven space that day.
Sharing my cranberry-raspberry sauce makes me hungry for that though so I think I'll make myself some it is that good and a beautiful red natural color.
The beef - believe soy sauce, Worchester, or Heinz Steak sauce was added when forming the shape. These were made more than once
Betty Crocker has some tasty foil packets found on her web site
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/preparation/grill-recipes/foil-packs
The Dijon Chicken and rice sounds tempting.
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/dijon-chicken-rice-and-garden-vegetable-foil-packs/7578e8e9-44de-45fc-9c3f-eec857f5fea0
Green Chili and Cheddar Burger (love cheddar cheese!)
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/green-chile-cheddar-burger-foil-packs/6d3f0544-8702-42b6-8424-ddcef8f23745
Honey Dijon Chicken and sweet potatoes.
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/oven-foil-pack-honey-dijon-chicken-and-sweet-potatoes/01d73e4d-263c-4f3f-894c-f7585499072c
She’s many different ideas shown Just like owning your own TV dinner mfg. company :-)
These caught my eye and taste buds.
Do believe THIS! may have been the Coke/Cherry Jello Salad:
Old Fashioned Cherry Coke Salad
http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2010/11/old-fashioned-cherry-coke-salad.html#axzz4xYMGH26P
We shall soon see if it’s one and the same (fingers crossed)
The Deep South Dish site is filled with these remembered southern recipes from those childhood years :)
This is another I remembered eating:
Grape Jelly Cocktail Meatballs
http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2008/12/grape-jelly-cocktail-meatballs-or.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.