Your best Thanksgiving recipe

[magt]

Hosting for the first time this year. Only thing on the menu for sure is turkey and stuffing. Looking for your most popular side dish recipes. My family is the dumpling and sauerkraut crowd, but we'll keep that at grandmas house. Thanks

[CindyJ]

This PUMPKIN BREAD recipe has earned my family numerous blue ribbons in our local Community Fair. It's also great for making jumbo pumpkin muffins. If you make muffins, shorten the baking time; test muffins for doneness after 55-60 minutes.

Makes one loaf. Recipe may be doubled.

1¾ cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. double-acting baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1½ cups sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup water
½ cup yellow raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour a Pyrex loaf pan, 9 by 5 by 3 inches.

Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon.

In another bowl beat together the eggs, oil, pumpkin puree and water. Add to the flour mixture and beat until the batter is combined. Stir in the raisins (if using). Pout the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Using the tip of a sharp knife, draw a line down the length of the surface of the batter.

Bake in center of preheated oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. (Test after 1 hour and 15 minutes.) Let the bread cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Turn it out onto a rack (if desired) and let it cool completely.

[kattyeyes]

I make "holiday carrots" that my old next-door neighbor taught me. Very simple and just multiply if you need to make more. What makes MY twist on it different? Crinkle-cut carrots. Our family joke is that more flavor gets in all the extra surface area created by the crinkles. HA HA HA! Plus it makes for a pretty presentation.

HOLIDAY CARROTS
1 pound of carrots, peeled–and crinkle-cut (That's right!)
10 dried apricots, diced
1/3 cup golden raisins
a few pats of butter
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
a couple dashes of cinnamon

Combine carrots, apricots and raisins; steam till carrots are tender. Toss with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Serve and wait for compliments. :)

[Delucacheesemonger]

As do not want the 'sweet' sweet potato, recipe, mine is a sweet potato dauphinoise, never breaks down and is always applauded.

[magt]

Thanks for all of the great ideas. Delucacheesemonger, could you post the dauphinoise recipe please? Thanks

[Delucacheesemonger]

Sure,

Ingredients

3 lb. large sweet potatoes, all about the same size.
3 tbl butter
12-16 ounces cave aged gruyere or 36 month comte, the idea is to have a strong cheese not just a source of fat, sliced thinly
4-6 ounces half and half.
Candied orange rind optional

Bake at 325 degrees large sweet potatoes until quite done, cool and slice in 3/4 inch slices unpeeled.
into a large oval gratin pan, place about 3 tbl of softened butter over the sides and bottom
Layer sweet potatoes, the gruyere and continue till all ingredients are used finishing with the cheese.
If using the orange rind, add on top of potatoes.
Pour the half and half over the dish and bake at 275 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until top is crusty.

[classylady]

I make candied sweet potatoes. Tried a recipe with maple syrup but I like to use brown sugar or honey, orange juice and cinnamon with a dab of butter.

[lilmomma]

May I have the sweet potato recipe? Every year I try a different recipe and still have not found "the One!"

[wandajune6]

My family makes a pumpkin flan instead of pumpkin pie. It's been in the family for decades an is amazing. I recommend doubling the caramel though-- people fight over it!

I don't have the recipe handy but it looks very similar to this: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/201...

We play around with the seasonings a bit every year as well.

Enjoy!

[biondanonima]

My stuffing is always the most sought-after dish on the table, but it sounds like you're looking for vegetable sides. I created one last year that was a big hit - a warm sauteed kale salad with chunks of roasted butternut squash, pancetta and chestnuts with a black olive vinaigrette. My husband was convinced he wouldn't like it (he's not a big kale fan) and he licked the bowl clean - he even stole my portion of the leftovers!

[Saluti]

Could you please share the recipe? It sounds like something I would like to make.

[biondanonima]

Sure, here you go! Sorry the amounts are so approximate - I tend to taste and adjust and often forget to write down exact quantities.

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed in 1/2" pieces
2 bunches lacinato kale, stemmed and cut into ribbons
½ c. chicken broth
½ c. oil cured black olives
1 clove garlic
Sherry vinegar to taste
Olive oil to taste
Fresh thyme to taste
Crushed red pepper to taste
8 oz thick cut bacon or pancetta, cut into lardons
4 oz. roasted and peeled chestnuts, chopped

For the dressing: Combine olives, garlic, vinegar and thyme in a food processor and process until smooth, thinning with enough oil/vinegar to achieve a fairly liquid consistency and the acid balance balance you prefer. Set aside.

Toss the butternut squash with a bit of oil and roast at 400 until caramelized in spots. Set aside. Meanwhile, cook the bacon or pancetta until crisp, drain (reserving the grease) and set aside. Heat a tablespoon of the bacon grease in a large skillet and add the kale; sauté briefly, then add chicken broth and cook, covered, until kale is tender. Uncover and add the bacon, chestnuts and squash and cook until liquid evaporates and everything is heated through. Toss with dressing, using a couple of tablespoons at a time and tasting until you are satisfied with the flavor.

[kubasd]

Wow... that kale dish sounds amazing!! Do you think it'd lose too much if I vegetarianize it?

[biondanonima]

Actually, no - I created the recipe with bacon in it just because I love bacon, but you could definitely leave it out - there is plenty going on with the other ingredients. If you wanted a hint of smoke, you could use a little smoked paprika in the dressing or something.

[kubasd]

The smoked paprika is what I normally use when recipe calls for bacon, so perfect! Thanks!

[Thanks4Food]

Biondanonima, feel like sharing the stuffing recipe? I'm looking for a make-ahead dressing. Thanks!

[biondanonima]

Sure, here you go:

2 loaves French bread (approx. 24 oz. total), torn into 1-inch pieces (I make my own, but any decent artisan bread will be fine), dried at room temperature several days before using (or you can dry it in a 200 degree oven for a half hour or so right before you use it)
1 stick butter plus additional for greasing dish
2 c. chicken or turkey stock (more or less)
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms soaked in 2 c. boiling-hot water (optional - I like them but you don’t need them)
1 lb cremini mushrooms, halved or quartered if large
1 large bulb fennel, chopped coarsely
10+ shallots, halved or quartered if large (you really can't have too many of these)
2 large onions, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped finely (I use a food processor because I HATE chunky celery)
2 medium carrots, chopped finely (use food processor; ditto on the chunks)
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 T. dried sage, ground or whole (more or less to taste)
1 T. chopped fresh thyme or to taste
1 T. chopped fresh sage or to taste
1 T. chopped fresh rosemary or to taste
½ c. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lb. sage breakfast sausage (optional)

Arrange shallots, fennel and mushrooms on rimmed baking sheets (in a single layer), drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 400 degrees until golden brown, approximately 30 mins, tossing them once halfway through cooking. Meanwhile, pour boiling-hot water over porcini and soak 20 minutes, then remove mushrooms, reserving soaking liquid. Rinse porcini under cold water to remove any grit, then squeeze out excess water and coarsely chop.

While porcini soak, melt 1/2 stick butter in a heavy skillet over moderately high heat, then add onions and a pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Add carrots, garlic and celery and cook another 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Add drained porcini and cook a moment longer. If using sausage, crumble and sauté in a separate pan until browned. Combine all vegetables, herbs and sausage with the bread, tossing to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pour porcini soaking liquid and stock to taste over stuffing mixture, tossing to coat evenly. Mixture should be moist throughout but not soaking wet (I usually use around 3.5 cups of liquid total, more stock than mushroom liquid. If you’re not using the porcini, just use straight up stock).

Butter a large, deep roasting pan and preheat oven to 375 (if you prefer more crispy pieces, use two pans for shallower layers). Spread stuffing in pan and dot the top with the remaining ½ stick of butter (use more or less as desired). Cover tightly with buttered foil and bake until heated through, about 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until top is browned, 10 to 15 minutes more. Makes A LOT - at least two 9x13 pans full.

If you want to make this ahead of time (as I do), the day before I cook my mirepoix, roast the vegetables, cook the sausage and dump all of that into a tupperware bowl as I finish cooking it. Stick that in the fridge. You can even reconstitute your porcinis and refrigerate them in their soaking liquid (or separately, whatever). When you're ready to bake the morning of, just butter your baking dish, dump in the bread, dump in the vegetables and such from the day before, give it all a good toss and pour in as much stock as you like. Takes all of 3 minutes to assemble if you do all the vegetable prep the day before.

[wattacetti]

The Joel Robuchon mashed potato.

[lilmomma]

My family always requests the corn casserole with the Jify cornbread mix.

[latindancer]

I love the sound of this. Care to share?

[lilmomma]

I have to dig through my cookbook later. But IIRC, its
1 can corn, drained
1can creamed corn
1 stick of butter, softened
1 box of Jiffy corn bread
8oz sourcream

Mix and put in an 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for an hour. I usually double the recipe and put in a 13x9.

Mix all together