Thank You: Thanksgiving Menu and Recipes

THANKSGIVING FOR THE DEENA AND BILL WELLS FAMILY
Palm Harbor, Florida, 1999

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Menu

Nibbles:
Celery sticks with pimento cheese/blue cheese stuffing
Little sweet pickles
Seafood Salad on crackers
Olives

Stuffed Turkey with optional oyster dressing
Cranberry sauce
Candied yams
Tomato/onion/mozzarella salad with balsamic vinegar dressing
Baked acorn squash

Cranberry salad
Pumpkin Pie
Spanish Bar Cake
Rolls (premade from the deli or bakery)Day after:
Turkey Pot Pie

We're trying to cut down on our carbohydrate consumption, so we've included mostly healthy carbs like squash and sweet potatoes. No mashed white potatoes and gravy this year, I'm afraid.

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Timeline
November 1 - Order fresh turkey
November 1 through Thanksgiving - scan supermarket ads for best buys on canned goods
Tuesday before Thanksgiving: pick up seafood salad and Turkey at fresh market
Tuesday before Thanksgiving: pick up perishables at grocery
Wednesday: make cranberry salad, cranberry sauce, pies,
Spanish Bar Cake, squash, yams
Thursday: make stuffing, stuff and roast turkey. Make tomato/mozzarella/onion salad,

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Shopping List

Acorn squash (half a squash for each adult, less perhaps for children)
Apples (4 cups chopped, with peel is fine)
Baking mix like Bisquick (1 cup)
Crackers, one box of any for serving seafood salad on
Cream cheese (for frosting on cake)
Baking soda
Balsamic vinegar
Blue cheese (same size as cottage cheese)
Brown sugar (1/2 cup, firmly packed, for yams)
Butter (better have 2 pounds on hand)
Celery, chopped (3/4 cup)
Celery sticks for nibbles
Cheddar cheese, finely shredded -- 1 cup
Cherry Jell-O (1 large box, sugar free if you'd like)
Chicken broth (3 cups total -- 1 for pot pie, 2 for stuffing)
Cinnamon, ground
Cloves--ground
Cool whip (8 oz carton)
Cottage cheese--small carton, small curd
Cranberries (2 bags)
Cream of celery soup (1 can)
Dinner rolls (Purchase these. Your oven is full enough as it is)
Eggs (7)
Evaporated milk (2-12 oz cans)
Frozen vegetables (1-10 oz package)
Ginger--ground
Honey
Lemon pepper
Mayonnaise
Milk (3/4 cup)
Mustard (any kind will do--use your favorite)
Nutmeg
Oil
Olives, sweet pickles, etc. for nibbles
Onion (1/2 cup chopped)
Onion powder
Onion slices (same number as tomato and mozzarella cheese slices)
Optional: For yams--mini marshmallows, pecans
Orange juice
Oysters (one pint, if desired for stuffing)
Pepper
Pie crusts - 2 each for pies, 2 for turkey pot pie
Pimentos (2 oz jar, diced)
Pineapple, crushed (1 cup)
Powdered sugar (1 pound)
Pumpkin (29 oz can)
Raisins (1 cup)
Salt
Mozzarella cheese (sliced kinda thick, one slice per serving for salad)
Stuffing mix--one 14 oz bag
Sage and onion Brownberry, made by Arnold Foods is my preference
Sugar
Tomato slices (same number as onion and mozzarella cheese slices)
Turkey: Plan on about 3/4 pound per person (raw weight in the package) for generous servings with not very much left over. If you like to have more leftovers, plan on 1 to 1.5 lbs. per person. You're going to need 3 cups leftover diced, for pot pie). Also, make sure it's Grade A. The non-Grade As can have skin blemishes and be ugly when you're ready to carve.
Vanilla
Walnuts (1 cup for cake, 1 cup for cranberry salad)
Yams (40 oz, canned in light syrup)

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Recipes

Cranberry Salad

2 cups cranberries, ground
2 cups apples, chopped
3/4 cups sugar
1 large box cherry Jell-O
3 cups water (2 cups boiling, 1 cup cold)
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup crushed pineapple
1/4 cups chopped celery

Mix cranberries, apples and sugar and let stand for two hours. Make Jell-O, using 2 cups boiling water and only 1 cup cold water, and add the pineapple juice from the crushed pineapple. Partially set the Jell-O, and add the cranberry mixture, the pineapple, nuts, and celery.

Spanish Bar Cake

2 cups finely chopped apples with peel on--use food processor
1/3 cup boiling water
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 heaping teaspoon nutmeg
1 heaping teaspoon ground cloves
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (food processor)
1 cup raisins (soak in orange juice till rehydrated)

Mix all together. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and ice with Cream Cheese Icing (below)

Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 package cream cheese (do not soften)
1 stick butter (do not soften)
1 pound powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Pumpkin Pie
(per Libby's label) makes two pies

2 pie shells (9 inch, 4 cup volume) deep dish pie shells
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups (29 oz) Libby's pumpkin
3 cups (two 12 oz cans) evaporated milk

Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in medium bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and the sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shells.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 350 and bake for another 40 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Serve immediately or chill. (Do not freeze, or the crust will separate from the filling.)

Turkey Pot Pie

3 cups cooked, diced turkey
1 10 oz package of frozen vegetables
1 can cream of celery soup, undiluted
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup baking mix
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted

Mix turkey, vegetables and place in bottom of baking dish. Stir soup, broth and pepper together and pour over turkey mixture. Combine biscuit mix, milk and butter till smooth in another bowl. Pour over the turkey and broth mixture. Bake at 400 for 45 to 50 minutes, cool 10 minutes before cutting.

Turkey

For safety and doneness the internal temperature, as registered on a meat thermometer, must reach a minimum of 180 degrees F. in the thigh (make sure it's not touching the bone). The center of the stuffing should reach 165 degrees F in the cavity, and the center of the breast is done at 170 degrees. You can also prick the leg joint with a fork, and if the juices run just slightly pink or clear, the turkey is done.

This is the USDA Timetable for turkey roasted at 325 degrees. These times are approximate and should always be used in conjunction with a properly placed thermometer. Be sure to check the thermometer about 3/4th of the way through the time indicated so as not to overcook. Do not cook the turkey with the thermometer in it unless you are positive that it's been approved for full length baking. If you're using a pop up thermometer, you still should check it with a real meat thermometer. It's too risky to count on someone's faulty timer.

Stuffed Weight - Roasting Time
8 to 12 lbs - 3 to 3-1/2 hours
12 to 14 lbs - 3-1/2 to 4 hours
14 to 18 lbs - 4 to 4-1/4 hours
18 to 20 lbs - 4-1/4 to 4-3/4 hours
20 to 24 lbs - 4-3/4 to 5-3/4 hours

Lightly stuff the turkey. DO NOT PACK. Coat the skin with softened butter. Shield the bird with a tent of foil, removing it the last hour so the skin will brown. Baste the bird every 30 minutes.

Stuffing

1 (14 oz) bag of premade stuffing mix. I prefer Brownberry's Sage and Onion (made by Arnold Foods)
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cups chicken broth (out of a can is fine and easy)
1 pint oysters, chopped (if desired. Otherwise omit)

Brown onion and celery in the butter. Add chopped oysters and the liquid from them if desired.

Heat chicken brother until boiling and remove from heat.

Add stuffing. Toss lightly with a fork until moist throughout. Stuff turkey lightly until cavity is filled. Any remainder can be placed in a small foil pouch and baked beside the turkey in the roasting pan. (My dad likes to drag this pouch out and eat it about 3/4 of the way through the cooking process when the turkey smell is driving him nuts!)

Cranberry Sauce

This is simple and tasty, and good for those who don't like cranberry jelly out of a can.

1 bag raw cranberries.
1 cup sugar (or use Nutrasweet or Equal, only don't add
Equal until after it's cooked or the Equal won't be sweet.
I think I used about 15 or 20 packets last year)
1 cup cold water
1 medium seedless orange, peel and all

Wash and sort berries, discarding any that look disreputable or are soft.

Put the orange, peel and all, in the food processor until evenly chopped. If you are using sugar, put it in now, but if you are using the sweetener, don't. (Did you know that most any sweetener other than saccharine loses its sweetness when cooked?) Boil rapidly until berries pop open (five minutes or more, and it will thicken a bit as it cools so don't try to boil it down). Refrigerate. This makes about 4 cups of sauce.

Nibbles

In our family there are traditional nibbles that the cook puts out on the countertop in the kitchen. They aren't formal appetizers per se, they're just to keep the famished fingers out of the main dinner entrees. The smell of roasting turkey brings out the worst in our family! I was going to do formal appetizers this year, but Bill says its the presence of these that changes, in his mind, an ordinary holiday dinner into a feast!

Nibbles include olives, sweet pickle midgets, and any other "snatchables." This year I'm purchasing a good seafood salad we like a lot and putting it out with crackers, creating a new Florida twist to traditions. Our other two traditional options are prepared ahead of time and served on celery sticks--pimento cheese, and blue cheese filler.

To make pimento cheese:
1 bag finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese (1 cup)
Mayo
Lemon pepper
1 small jar (2 oz) diced pimentos
Onion powder

Combine the cheese and pimento in a bowl. Stir in enough mayonnaise to make it all stick together. Sprinkle liberally with onion powder and lemon pepper and mix thoroughly. (You can also grate fresh onion, but I prefer the powder as it distributes itself better.)

Fill celery sticks with this mixture and put out for nibbles.

For the blue cheese filler,

1 small package of blue cheese
1 small carton of cottage cheese, small curd
Salt, pepper and lemon juice OR lemon pepper
Mayo

Combine a small package of crumbled blue cheese with a small container of small curd cottage cheese (you want about equal parts of each, so purchase containers accordingly). Season with a little salt.

Also season with EITHER lemon pepper, or pepper and a little lemon juice poured in.

Bind this together with mayonnaise. Fill celery sticks with this mixture and put out for nibbles.

Candied Yams

1 (40-oz) can of cut sweet potatoes, yams, whatever you call them, in light syrup
Butter
Brown sugar
Optional: Pecans, Marshmallows, coconut

Heat oven to 350. Drain yams, reserving juice. Place yams in an ungreased baking dish. On top of yams, place dots of butter (probably half a stick, total) on yams, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Some people sprinkle on mini marshmallows, or put pecans on top of yams. I always put about half of the juice from the yams in the bottom of the pan to keep them from drying out. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until bubbly. I bake this the day before, then microwave them to get them hot again right before I take the turkey out of the oven.

If I want to use pecans, I'll wait until the serving day before I put them on (pecans can get a little soggy overnight in the fridge). Once it's hot in the microwave, I'll move the yams to the regular oven for the 15 minutes or so it takes to let the turkey rest and absorb its juices again, get it transferred to a platter and on the table. This sort of toasts the pecans before I serve them. (I brown my dinner rolls at the same time I'm reheating the yams in the regular oven.)

Tomato, Mozzarella and Onion Salad

This is an easy salad to make. All you need is a very shallow baking dish, and an equal number of slices of mozzarella, tomato, and onion.

Layer these in nice spiral layers in your baking dish. Then pour over the whole thing a dressing made of balsamic vinegar and mustard and honey. I can't tell you how to make that--just add until you think it tastes good. If it's too sweet, add more vinegar. If it's too sour, add more honey.

Acorn Squash

This is simple to do, too. Cut your squash in half (it doesn't matter which way you cut). Scoop out seeds and rinse out cavity. Put the squash in a deeper baking dish. In each cavity place a pat of butter, some salt and pepper, and a small spoon of brown sugar. Cut bacon strips into smaller strips and drape the strips along the cut edges of the squash. I like to put some water in the bottom of the dish, but I'm not sure if that's really necessary. Bake at 400 until tender, 30 to 45 minutes. You can bake these ahead of time, and just pop back in the oven to crisp up the bacon.