Posted on 11/20/2003 7:41:46 AM PST by stainlessbanner
Time to start preparing and planning!
Post your best recipes, blessings, and traditions to share with other FReepers.
Let's make this Thanksgiving the best ever.
Here's a start:
Pumpkin Custard Pie
1 ¾ c. pumpkin purée
¾ c. sugar
¾ tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten, at room temperature
1 c. heavy whipping cream
½ c. whole milk
1 (9 inch) unbaked deep-dish pie crustPreheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit. In a saucepan, stir the pumpkin over medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until slightly dry and caramelized. Remove from heat; add the sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Mix well. Add the eggs, cream and milk. Mix until smooth; pour into pie shell.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Allow to completely cool on rack before cutting. Don't forget to top this with as much sweetened whipped cream as you can spoon!
Island Flair Pumpkin Pie
From Bahama Breeze
A delicious and exotic pie, scented with the aromas and flavors of the Caribbean – ginger, cinnamon, orange, nutmeg and rum. The gingersnap crust is an added treat.
For Crust
14 2-inch gingersnaps (about 4 ounces)
1 c. pecans (about 4 ounces)
¼ c. granulated sugar
½ stick (¼ cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooledFor Pie
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 c. (packed) dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
1 ¼ c. heavy whipping cream (see note)
2 tbsp. dark rum
2 tbsp. finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. grated orange peel
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
¼ tsp. saltPreheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
To make crust, combine gingersnaps, pecans and sugar in a food processor, grind. Add butter, blending until combined well.
Press mixture onto bottom and up side of a 9-inch (1 quart) glass pie plate. Bake crust in middle of oven 13 to 15 minutes, or until crisp and golden around edge, and cool on rack.
Meanwhile, whisk pumpkin and brown sugar in medium bowl to blend. Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until blended. Pour filling into baked crust.
Bake pie until filling is set in center, about one hour. Transfer pie to rack; cool 30 minutes. Can be made one day ahead. Cover and keep chilled. If desired when serving, top each slice with additional whipped cream and sprinkle with additional crystallized ginger.
Note: Evaporated skim milk may be used in place of heavy cream, in the same amount. Makes one 9-inch pie. Serves eight.
Pound Cake
My Aunt Ruth used to make the best pound cake in the whole world. It was so rich and creamy. She explained to me that it was called a pound cake because it used a pound of butter and a pound of sugar. This was what made it so rich. Here's my recipe -- hers was very similar.
Ingredients
3 c. cake flour
6 large eggs
1 pound butter
1 pound sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ tsp. salt
½ c. buttermilkSift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar. I use a large spoon for this. Next I add the butter. My grandmother would melt the butter in a pan over slow heat to make it blend easier. You can do this or just let the butter soften at room temperature.
Add the eggs, whole. At this point I break out my mixer and begin mixing on slow. I slowly add my buttermilk, and then the vanilla extract.
After it is thoroughly stirred, I turn the mixer up to medium for a few minutes, and then finally on high. If the mixture is a little thick I add just a touch more buttermilk. If you don't mix things thoroughly you will have lumps that will form air bubbles in your mixture and leave holes in your finished cake.
It was always a matter of pride not to have these air pocket holes in our cakes so we always made sure we got all of the lumps. In the pre-electric-mixer day that involved a lot of whipping the cake by hand. We usually didn't have a hand-cranked mixer that worked well, so this involved a large mixing spoon to whip it.
Some old timers even counted the number of times they whipped the mixture -- sort of made it fun and you didn't notice your arm tiring.
Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit.
Take your standard tube cake pan and oil it with butter. Then lightly flour the oiled pan. Shake the excess flour from the pan.
Pour the mix in, bake the cake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Keep looking at how your cake is doing through the oven door but avoid opening the door too much while it is cooking as I have seen this, or jarring the cake before done, cause it to collapse.
When you think it is done, do the toothpick test. Stick a wooden toothpick into one of the thickest parts of the cake. If it's dry when you pull it out, the cake is done.
Allow the cake to cool 15 or 20 minutes in the pan. Then gently remove it and stick it on your favorite decorative cake plate.
Ginger Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, small dice
1 tablespoon molassesSift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer, add sugar and continue beating until combined. Add egg, both gingers and molasses and beat to combine. Gradually mix in flour, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Be careful not to overmix.
Roll into two 2-inch round logs, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice logs into 1/4-inch slices and bake on a greased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and cool completely.
— Recipe: Alton Brown
Sweet Potato Bisquits
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large sweet potato - cooked and mashed
2 Tbsp honeyPreheat oven to 375 F.
With a good electric mixer, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt till combined. Cream in butter with fingers or a fork until it resembles small crumbs. Add in sweet potato, honey and buttermilk untill mixed through. Don't over mix.
Press the mixture into a 1 inch deep cookie sheet that has been lined with wax paper and refrigerate for 2 hours. Cut out circles with a floured cookie cutter or glass. Place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper again and bake for 10-12 mins until lightly golden brown.
More Great Recipes here: http://www.thanksgivingrecipe.com/
A Thanksgiving Prayer
O, heavenly Father:
We thank thee for food and remember the hungry.
We thank thee for health and remember the sick.
We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom and remember those who protect us.
We thank thee for family and remember the love.
May these remembrances stir us to service,
That thy gifts to us may be used for others and to further your Kingdom, Lord.
With all of our thanks and good blessings, Amen.
A Cowboy's Thanksgiving Prayer
By Steve Lucas
Dear Lord,
This last year was rough on us cowboys
With calf prices bein' low.
And the drought, and the snow last winter
Didn't leave a lot to showFor a lot of really hard workin'.
There were times, I confess,
That I lay awake nights and wondered:
Lord, how do I get out of this mess.But I turned it all over to you, Lord.
Put my trust in your capable hands.
And I thank you that you let us keep on
Makin' a living off of your lands.I thank you for every morning
when the sun rose over the trees,
and spread light over the meadows.
And thanks for that cool summer breezeThat cooled sweatin' backs in the hay fields.
And thanks for new friends I made,
for the joy of seein' baby calves
curled up, asleep in the shade.Thanks for these good friends and neighbors
and the love and the help that they give.
And I thank you Lord for these old cows
and the cowboy life they let me live.And thank you Lord for my family,
my little girl and my wife.
And for the chance we have to raise a child
to live the kind of lifeThat most folks only dream of,
spending days outside,
Feedin', checkin', and sortin', and looking
where old cows hide.So, Lord, on Thanksgiving,
as we take a break from our chores,
We thank you for this year's blessings,
and for what you have in store.
God, the Giver of Victory and Peace. A Thanksgiving Sermon, Delivered in the Presbyterian Church, September 18, 1862, Raleigh, N.C.
For dinner ,I stuff my turkey with thin slices of lemmons, green apples, oranges, red onions, pearl onions, thyme, mint, rosemary, (any herb really). I make stock out the turkey neck and make a stuffing with bread cubes, apriocots which have soaked in brandy overnight, rasins, apples, celery, freshly ground junniper berries , cloves and allspice, thyme, currents.
I make corn spoon bread, and a cranberry relish with dried cherries, dried cranberries, whole cranberries, orange zest, a mild green chili pepper.
This is the favorite for the crowd I feed.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I am thankful for Freerepublic.com.
Gobble, Gobble.
Oh that is too funny, thanks for big laugh.
You'd never know that by reading your post; I believe it's "in it" more than you know.
Well, how about posting the recipe????
However, the truly adventurous may attempt to adapt the following recipe:
CHEERS: Griller's Dream: Beer and Chicken
(Of course, a regular beer can probably wouldn't work for turkey.
You might want to try one of those BIG 25 ounce cans they import from Australia.)
1 recipe of cornbread (I use the one on Aunt Jemima cornmeal)
2-3 cans of chicken broth
1 onion and several stalks of celery - sliced and cooked with water - then pour celery and onion in with cornbread and broth (add as much of the water as you may want)
sage and salt to taste (I use a lot of sage, a little salt)
Bake at 350º til not jiggly.
This was my mother's recipe - so not very exact.
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