Last night I was thinking that, rather than reinvent the wheel, I would did into past blog posts to bring you a few great recipes for Thanksgiving. And at the end, a glimpse into the Thansgivings we experienced growing up - such happy holidays for all nine O'Farrells!
Be sure to open each link for not only the recipe, but the memories which are just as delicious!
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies!
1. Fool-proof Make-Ahead Gravy, thanks to Jody Shepson!
I would LOVE to hear comments, so please add your thoughts below! And be sure to use that search bar on the left for any recipes you don't see here. There are a lot of them!
I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year. It hasn't been "my" holiday to host in many years. I think the last one was Thanksgiving 2001, the year before we lost our mom. After that, I let different people take over. Most recently, either my daughter Katie or my ex-husband Gene and his wife Kathryn have hosted, and it's been very nice. Still, I can't help wanting to read recipes for this special day. I think about what I would serve, or what I can contribute.
This year, Gene and Kathryn are hosting and my contribution is stuffing. I'd always been a "Pepperidge Farm" devotee when it comes to stuffing. We grew up enjoying it. I'm going to make it my own this year by adding a few traditional ingredients, including chicken stock, sauteed onions and celery, and also some plumped-up dried cranberries. I thought about adding walnuts, but there are a lot of people coming to dinner, and nuts are an "iffy" thing when you're serving a crowd. So, yep, I cheat a little bit - no stale, cubed bread, no giblets, no Bell's seasoning -- and the results will be as good or better than any totally from-scratch recipe. Pepperidge Farm makes a great stuffing, seasoned perfectly, a success every time. I can't wait for left-overs to make my Thanksgiving sandwich: layers of sliced turkey breast, stuffing, lettuce, and cranberry mayo between two slices of whole wheat bread. YUM!
One of the very best short-cuts is a recipe given to me by Jody Shepson, two Thanksgivings ago. It's a recipe for make-ahead gravy and I wrote about it in 2009. If you really want one thing that's going to cut down on stress and make your Thanksgiving day, this one is it: Click here for the link to fool-proof Make Ahead Gravy...
If you want to get your mashed potatoes out of the way ahead of time (or if you're bringing them to someone else's house), try making Mashed Potato Casserole (link here) - it's from Cook's Country and Katie and I made it last year. It's great, and easily portable!
Another short-cut I allow myself at holiday time is using Pillsbury Pie Crusts - an incredible time and mess saver. They're great, too. So if the thought of mixing pie crust dough, chilling it, rolling it out, and getting it to fit the pie plate and stay in one piece is freaking you out, then buy a couple boxes of Pillsbury's pie crust. It's great and you won't be sorry. I usually make a couple of easy pies for Thanksgiving, too. One is pumpkin, the other chocolate cream. My pumpkin pie recipe is a short-cut as well. I buy Libby's Pumpkin Pie Mix, a can of pumpkin already spiced with the perfect amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. All you add is evaporated milk and eggs, mix gently, and pour into a pie crust, and bake. Simple as can be, and when served with real whipped cream -- heavenly!
For my chocolate cream pie, (my family's traditional favorite) I use cooked chocolate pudding - 2 boxes makes one nice pie. I pre-bake a Pillsbury pie crust or you can buy an Oreo crust ready to go. Pour the hot pudding in, cover it in Saran Wrap, chill, and top with whipped cream prior to serving. Classic.
Try one or a few of these time-and-stress savers, and enjoy your Thanksgiving along with everyone else!
This recipe comes to us via good friend Jody Shepson. It's her most-shared recipe from an old issue of Women's Day magazine, discovered in the waiting room of her dentist's office many years ago. Women's Day notes that it is their most requested holiday recipe. You can make this well-ahead of time and know that the one most complicated and uncertain task of your Thanksgiving dinner is going to be perfect and done before the turkey is even purchased! This recipe can change Thanksgiving forever!
Jody's words: "I was always gravy challenged. My mother or mother-in-law handled the Thanksgiving gravy, I never really learned all the secrets of good gravy, and in my mind, it was a very stressful, last minute thing that did NOT have guaranteed results. That flour shaker thing and the skimming of the fat, stirring….what if the bird didn’t produce enough drippings, what if it’s too floury or watery, no flavor, too greasy……to me, gravy was always a very scary thing. And….it’s the thing that ties the whole meal together. Once I started hosting the Thanksgiving meal, I would assign the gravy to someone else; but there was never any sense of confidence about how the all-important gravy would turn out.
Then…I was sitting in the waiting room of Dr. Palmer’s dental office one April day, while some of my kids were having their teeth cleaned. I picked up the November Woman’s Day magazine, which happened to be on the table next to me, and leafed through the Thanksgiving recipes and tips. I came across this recipe for “Make-Ahead Gravy” that’s foolproof and delicious. I read it excitedly and vowed to remember it when Thanksgiving rolled around again. (Of course, I did not do that) Luckily, computers had been invented, so I searched on “Make-Ahead Gravy” and there it was. I tried it, and the vat of rich, perfect gravy was an incredibly beautiful sight to behold.
I’ve given this recipe to countless friends and family members, and even a few strangers. I’ve also gotten more thank yous for this recipe than any other! One friend writes every single year, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, to tell me she’s just made the gravy, and to thank me once again for taking the last-minute stress out of Thanksgiving. It’s just so wonderful to have that pot of gravy simmering on the stove, smelling great, and to not have to worry about all the stirring and skimming right before dinner. I also make a batch every now and then and freeze it in small containers. It’s great to thaw one out and make hot turkey sandwiches with very little effort. There’s still the mashed potato stress, but they’re not nearly as scary as gravy used to be!!"
Makes: 8 cupsTime: About 3 hr (mostly unattended)Planning Tip: Make up to 3 months ahead and freeze in an airtight container. Refrigerate 2 days to thaw. Reheat in a saucepan, whisking often.
4 turkey wings (about 3 lb)
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
1 cup water
8 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped carrot
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp stick butter or margarine
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1. Heat oven to 400°F. Have ready a large roasting pan.
2. Arrange wings in a single layer in pan; scatter onions over top. Roast 1 1/4 hours until wings are browned.
3. Put wings and onions in a 5- to 6-qt pot. Add water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups), the carrot and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 hours.
4. Remove wings to cutting board. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Discard skin; save meat for another use.
5. Strain broth into a 3-qt saucepan, pressing vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables; skim fat off broth and discard (if time permits, refrigerate broth overnight to make fat-skimming easier).
6. Whisk flour into remaining 2 cups broth until blended and smooth.
7. Bring broth in pot to a gentle boil. Whisk in broth-flour mixture and boil 3 to 4 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper. Serve, or pour into containers and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 6 months.
Per 1/2 cup: 52 cal, 2 g pro, 6 g car, 0 g fiber, 2 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 4 mg chol, 516 mg sod
