I’m cooking a Thanksgiving meal at my house this year. Not the Thanksgiving meal. Actually, not even on the Thanksgiving. LilZ spends Thanksgiving with his Dad this year, MrZ’s parents will be in Slidell and none of our siblings will be in town or if they are, they have other obligations. Basically, on Thanksgiving Day, it will just be MrZ, myself, AndyZ, NikkiZ, and at some point during the day my Mom will arrive. So – we’re just going to call it Thursday and do a nice family dinner with those who are here. Our Thanksgiving meal will be Saturday night, when everyone will be here.
Sidenote: One of the things about being divorced and sharing a child with a parent you’re no longer married to, is that you learn to be flexible with the celebration of holidays. It’s actually a very valuable skill as you learn that when you celebrate is not as important as how. On the holidays we don’t have LilZ, we simply move the celebration or do it twice. But we always do it just as thoroughly if we can, so that he still gets the holiday with us…just maybe on a different day.
So…I will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. This won’t be my first Thanksgiving Dinner. It’s funny, for being a newbie in the kitchen, I actually have my basic recipes I use every year that I feel no real need to adjust. They’re nothing fancy, but they’re good. I do the basic green bean casserole, the much-loved Cheez Whiz rice/broccoli casserole, my own dressing (I don’t stuff the Turkey) that changes slightly every time I cook it, and then the Turkey. I guess after enough years of doing Thanksgiving, I’ve developed my own dependable arsenal.
BUT…I consider myself a real cook this year. So, I feel like I need to use a few new recipes. I already tested Pioneer Woman’s Mashed Potatoes and I loved them. They’re a perfect recipe because I can prepare them the night before. I usually do my potatoes from a box, (What? I also use gravy from a jar which is so yummy I’ll never do it from scratch.) so I don’t really want to add to my That Day tasks. I usually do my Sweet Potatoes in the crock pot to clear up room in my oven…but Pioneer Woman’s Sweet Potatoes look really good. I don’t know. I’m torn. I’m torn between messing with a good stress-free menu that has worked every other year, and the urge to really test out my new cooking skills.
So…I thought I’d throw it out there to you guys. Do you have any Sweet Potato or Carrot recipes that can either A) be made the night before or B) be cooked somewhere other than my oven. If you have any other Go To recipes for Thanksgiving that fills either requirement feel free to suggest them, but I’m really hoping for something with Sweet Potatoes and/or Carrots. I need more orange in my meal…I already have plenty of green. And I may not be an expert yet, but I do know the value of a variety of color in a meal. As a matter of fact…if you have any purple side dishes? That would be awesome.
Easy-peasy carrots (maybe too easy?).
You can peel and slice the carrots (slice on the diagonal to look prettier) the night before and put in cold water in the fridge.
The next day, boil the carrots (5-7 minutes?); drain. Add a couple of tablespoons of butter, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a splash of orange juice.
Stir ’til melted/combined.
For sweet potatos, if you’re doing whole sweet potatos, and not looking for a casserol kind of deal, you can always bake them the night before, 375 degrees for 60-75 minutes, and then just re-heat them in the microwave for a few minutes the next day. They taste just as great that way, as they do fresh out of the oven, if I do say so myself!
Get some purple cauliflower and do the biggest loser Parmesan-Roasted Cauliflower-it’s really easy, really good and you can make it the night before and reheat it in the microwave!
http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/parmesan-roasted-cauliflower/485449c924526110VgnVCM10000013281eac____/weight.loss/diets/biggest.loser/biggest.loser.recipes
the whipped sweet potatoes from the gourmet cookbook are delicious…they include adobo sauce, which is a bit spicy, but would be just as delicious without. You can do every step but the baking the night before.
First you need to make the whipped chipotle sweet potatoes
5 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes (about 4 large) scrubbed
1Tablespoon minced canned chipotle in adobo (about 2 chiles)
mashed to a paste (I put in a lot of adobo sauce, too)
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter (I actually use only about 1)
1 teaspoon salt
Put rack in middle of oven and preheat to 450, line a baking sheet with
sides with foil.
Prick potatoes with a fork. Bake on foil-lined sheet until very soft -
1 – 1 1/2 hours. (after about 75 minutes, watch closely because the
sugar in the sweet potatoes starts to burn, which you don’t want). Set
aside to cool slightly and reduce oven temperature to 350F (or turn off if you are going to bake the next day).
When cool enough to handle, halve potatoes lengthwise and scoop out
flesh into large bowl; discard skins. Add chile paste, butter, and salt
and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
Butter a 2-quart or ceramic baking dish and spread potato mixture in
dish. bake until hot, 20-25 minutes
**The whipped potato mixture can be spread in the baking dish up to 1
day ahead and refrigerated, covered. Bring to room temperature before
baking.
What if you just put some food coloring into your mashed potatoes and ate them that way? I knew a guy who did that once. It was pretty fun.
Have you made PW’s butternut squash puree? It’s heavenly and a great dish you can make ahead of time. Also, I highly recommend my good old standard, cream cheese corn.
Simply melt one block of cream cheese into about 4-5 cans of corn. That’s it. Everyone it’s that stuff up and it’s so cheap and easy.
of course I meant to say “everyone EATS that stuff up”
Are you and those other crazy ladies going to do a Thanksgiving dinner at 3 in the morning again anytime soon?
You can always make purple potatoes. I found some at my local Publix. They taste more or less like regular potatos, but with a dark purpley/blue hue.
http://www.foodsubs.com/Potatoes.html#purple
okay so it’s not carroty but i have a lovely corn casserole recipe that you can mix up and bake the night before or just mix it up and then bake it on the day. if you wanty the recipe just email me!
You should try Pioneer Woman’s Butternut Squash Puree. It’s simple but heavenly.
We always make our sweet potatoes on the stove top – peeled and cubed, add a little water, butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and chunks of lemon and orange (with the peel). Sweet, tangy goodness.
I was also going to recommend using purple potatoes, if you can find them. (They are not the red-skinned potatoes, but are actually bluish-purple in color, inside and out.) They cook up pretty much like regular new potatoes and you can definitely use them as mashed potatoes.
I made Pioneer Woman’s Sweet potatoes last year and they were delicious! Worth all the effort!
You can try my “sweet” carrots, as my son calls them. I dump a bag of baby carrots into a pan, add 1/4 c. (1/2 c. of I use the big bag) of brown sugar into the water, and simmer them for about an hour. They come out so tender, you can cut them with a fork, and the brown sugar makes them sweet. To serve them, I drain off the water, dump them in a serving bowl, and add a little butter to make them glossy.
I found purple potatoes at Whole Foods a couple of weeks back… F-U-N!!!!
I made Pioneer Woman’s whiskey glazed carrots last year. They were delicious and have been requested again for this year. They are a stove top recipe and pretty easy.
I have been making Pioneer Woman’s Whiskey Carrots for a year now and they are a HIT with my friends and family. Everyone asked for them at Canadian Thanksgiving this year and they want them again at Christmas. And how can you beat WHISKEY on vegetables. Answer: you can’t. They cook on the stovetop in a skillet and take less than 20 minutes.
You.will.not.be.sorry.
If you’ve got a crock pot, put your sweet potatoes in it. I’ve used this recipe a couple of times now, easy peasy. The hardest part is getting the sweet potatoes cut – either make sure your man is available to do that or buy small sweet potatoes. Or, you know, try an axe, lol. The grown ups like it because it’s good, sweet but not TOO sweet, but if the kids are looking for pureed sweet potatoes with toasted marshmalows on top, this is not quite the one to use. Good stuff nonetheless: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/01/crockpot-candied-sweet-potatoes-recipe.html
I have never had to do a Thanksgiving, and I live in fear of the day I might have to. As far as purple goes, though… is there any purple Jello? That’s about my speed.
I’ve made the whiskey glazed carrots as well – aside from my grandfather’s little fit about using perfectly good whiskey to COOK with! *gasp* they were quite the hit haha.
Beets woman! I AM NOT KIDDING. They’re so easy. And so good. Slice them and place them in a pyrex bowl add in some balsamic vinegar and olive oil (google knows how much I’m sure), add some herbs de provence and out them in the fridge. A few hours (or even the next day) put them in the oven in the pyrex bowl for 45ish minutes on 375. I wish I had better instructions for you but my husband in the beet maker in our home.
In the vein of TMI, too many beets can make your pee red/purple. And if you’ve forgotten you ate beets you might think you’re dying.
I made this carrot souffle recipe one Thanksgiving to rave reviews (don’t worry…NOT an actual souffle!).
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=385174
CARROT SOUFFLE (LOVE IT)
Ingredients
2 lbs carrots, chopped
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar (for dusting)
Directions
1Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
3Add carrots and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.
4Drain and mash.
5To the carrots add melted butter, white sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla extract and eggs.
6Mix well and transfer to a 2 quart casserole dish.
7Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
8Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
I make a sweet potato/butternut squash with balsamic vinegar that was a BIG hit last year. It is a dish that I make quite frequently for a regular dinner in our usual rotation but it has chicken. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, I just leave out the chicken part. It has to be made in the oven, but you could make it the night before and reheat it. It reheats and travels well!
Link: http://rancidraves.blogspot.com/2009/01/arent-library-fines-really-just-non.html
Paula Deen’s Sweet Potato Balls have joined the required list (with my Nanee’s Dressing) in my family. I always get them ready on Wednesday and then just put the whole sheet pan in the fridge. They only take about 15 minutes to cook, so I take them out of the fridge when I put the dressing in (so they’ll come back to room temp) and then put them in the oven as we’re getting everything else on the table.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/sweet-potato-balls-recipe/index.html
Did you see the roasted carrot recipe on PW’s site this morning?
I love The Minimalist, Mark Bittman of the NY Times. He always has simple, delicious recipes that use only a few good ingredients. He has 101 make-ahead recipes for Thanksgiving if you want to peruse…and you can always try them after TG with your awesome new cooking skills!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/dining/18mini.html?ref=dining
Pastor Ryan posted a carrot recipe on the PW Cooks web page that I thought yummy.
My go to favorite holiday recipes is
Potato Cheese Casserole
2 lb. pkg. Ore Ida hash browns
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 medium onion chopped
1 pt. sour cream
24 ounces of sliced American cheese chopped into smaller pieces
In a large casserole, combine all ingredients except potatoes. Fold potatoes into well blended mixture. Top with crushed corn flakes and 1/4 cup melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.
It’s a little fancier twist than mashed potatoes and what’s not to like about cheese and sour cream!
PW’s Whiskey glazed carrots are super yum!
and I dont even LIKE carrots