Your best dishes for Thanksgiving

I'd love to hear about your best/favorite dishes for Thanksgiving and why you enjoy preparing them. If you have a blog, post your recipe and give us the link. If you don't, feel free to post in the comments. Maybe we can get a head start on figuring out our menus for the big Turkey day. Any special tips on how you cook your turkey, whether you use cornbread in your dressing, best pumpkin recipes, etc. I'd love to hear all about your family favorites. 

Comments

[Deb]

Here you go! I've posted the ever-present-at-our-house Cranberry Relish and also another favorite: Pineapple Casserole. Here's the link:

http://girottifamily.typepad.com/mountain_musings/2006/10/cranberry_relis.html

Maybe someone will comment with a really good turkey dressing recipe. Mine is never the best.

[Rhonda]

Deb, my family insists I make the best dressing--and I make it the old fashioned way just like my mother did--lots of onions, celery, dried bread cubes, salt cornbread (not sweet), one whole container of poultry seasoning, all moistened with cans of chicken broth and seasoned to taste with salt. We bake it separately from the turkey, so the turkey won't dry out. MMMM-MMM good.

[Bet]

Rhonda, if I know Deb, she'll insist on more specifics than that. :) I know you aren't one to follow a recipe, but can you try to give a few more of the proportions of your ingredients? Deb likes to follow the letter of the law in these things, right Deb?

[Rhonda]

Oh, man, that's tough. One loaf of old bread, dried and cubed (I use whole wheat--sometimes dried in the oven when I'm in a pinch); 1 9x13 pan of salt cornbread (I follow the recipe on the bag of cornmeal); 2 cups each onion and celery chopped finely (I used food processor); 1 whole container poultry seasoning; 2 tsp salt; several cans of chicken broth (I keep mixing it all and adding broth until it's very moist but not soupy--usually 4 or 5 cans); then I get Jess to taste it to see if I've added enough salt. Spoon into 2 9x13 pans; bake at 350 until brown--usually an hour or so. Of course, I usually make it on Wednesday and let it set over night in the fridge--I think the flavors mingle better that way.

[Deb]

Rhonda, I have heard about your famous turkey dressing for years--literally! I am copying and pasting your instructions right now and am going to try this. But I'll have to chop since we don't have a food processor, and I'll probably halve this as the guys wouldn't touch it. I will let you know how it turns out. THANKS!!

[Bet]

Silly guys! Don't they know what's good?!!

One more comment, Deb. Anyone who has a mill to grind her own flour should consider getting a food processor. :) I bet you'd find a million uses for it.

[jen]

My family actually started printing a family recipe book, mostly comprised of our Thanksgiving favorites, a few years ago. It comes in really handy at Christmas when we're not all together and we still want to make grandma's candied yams or mom's broccoli salad.

[Bet]

What a great idea, Jen!

[Rhonda]

Deb, Micah ate my dressing when he ate Thanksgiving dinner with us. I bet if you use a food processor to get the veggies really fine, they'll eat it. Or you could freeze one of the 9x13 pans for later. The longer it sits around to mingle those flavors the better. We like to put leftover turkey and gravy on top of one of the pans of dressing, freeze it, and heat it later for Thanksgiving memories! :)

[Deb]

Rhonda, good suggestions! I'll definitely try all this - maybe even put a food processor on my Christmas list to boot! :)

[Jane]

I love Thanksgiving because of my childhood. My mother always made the day special. Beginning with waking up to the smells of the turkey cooking and pies cooling. Not to brag but my mother made the most wonderful dinner. I loved the salads she made, such as "Dump Salad" and Cottage Cheese, cucumber, onion salad.
Dump salad goes like this.
1 large container of large curd cottage cheese
2 small boxes of orange jello
2 cans of (drained) orange mandarin orange slices
1 can (med) of (drained) crushed pineapple
1 large bowl of cool whip

Mix the cottage cheese with the orange jello, add the orange slices and the well drained crushed pineapple. Then fold in the thawed cool whip. Let stand in the ice box for at least 2 hours. Then serve.

Cottage Cheese, cucumber, green pepper, onion salad. This is a favorite of all my guest.
1 large container of large curd cottage cheese
1/2 to 2/4 cup mayo
1 cucumber chopped fine
1 green pepper chopped fine
1 yellow onion chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste
mix all ingredients together and let sit in ice box for at least 2 hours.. Then serve. Wonderful. One other recipe my mother use to serve that my family just loves is - cherry and pecan jello mold.
2 cans of tart red cherries
1 large black cherry jello
1 cup of pecan's (halves)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon brandy flavoring
substitute juicy juicy cherry juice for the water the jello recipe calls for
Drain cherries, put in bowl with the 1/2 cup of sugar. Let set over night.
Next day, prepare jello as on package and add the brandy flavoring then add the cherries and the pecans. Put mixture in a jello mold of your choice. I spray mine with Pam to keep it from sticking. Let sit in ice box until it is well set. I let mine set about 6 hours. Unmold and there you have it.... Wonderful.... Also... My mother use to add to her scratch dressing..... chopped and peeled apples and chopped and peeled apricots. About 1 cup of each as well as 1/2 cup red chopped bell pepper and 1/2 cup orange chopped bell pepper. 2 loaf's of dried white bread ( torn into small pieces) 1 pan of corn bread, 5 stalks of chopped celery, 3 yellow chopped sweet onions. The celery, onion, and bell peppers are all sauteed in 4 sticks of margarine or butter, before adding them to the torn bread and corn bread. Then 1/2 box of sage is added as well as salt to taste and pepper to taste. To make it wet, she used chicken broth. About 5 cans of chicken broth. She use to stuff the bird and put the rest or what was left over, in a backing dish to pop in the oven covered for about 45 mins. at 350 and uncover for about 15 mins. I know this will sound strange, but back in the 60's and 70's and 80's my mother use to put our turkey's in brown paper bags. She would stuff the bird. Sew his neck closed. Bind his legs together. Flip his wings under him self. Oil the bag completely, put the bird in the bag. Then paper clip the bag shut. She would cook him on 325 for 30 mins per pound. No basting, no worry. She would prepare the bird before stuffing by rinsing the bird out, pat drying both inside and out. Then oiling the bird inside and out. Using a combination of salt pepper and paprika in a bowl. Then rubbing this both inside and all on the outside of the bird. Then stuffing, then putting in bag, then cooking. The bird came out every time brown, tender and juicy. I have been using a turkey bag instead of the brown paper bag, just because i heard that they now spray the paper bags with bug spray. Didn't want to poison my family...... Hope someone enjoys the recipes.... It is a tradition at my home, even though my kids are all grown now, and have their own families. They still look forward to coming to Mama's house for Thanksgiving. And by the way, they say it wouldn't be the same without it. My son is trying to learn so when I get to old to do the cooking he can take over the tradition..... Happy Thanksgiving.....