Your best Thanksgiving side dishes - you know it's time, we need to shop

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

I'm looking for those special sides that make people say, we'll ask (your name) to bring her/his _____________________

Or the ones you know you would choose to bring if someone asked you to contribute a side dish to the table.

My 2 are

Roasted Glazed Carrots

and

Balsamic Onions with Port and Currents

If anyone feels like they are interested, I will post the recipes.

[The empressof all]

1. My Spinach Pie

Basically it's a creamed spinach with extra onions, shredded swiss or equivalent layered in phylo. Very easy and very very yummy.

[murphymom]

2. Greek Salad Plus

Over the years that's become my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws. It goes back to the first time my husband took me to Thanksgiving dinner with his family. On the table there was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, bread dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes with the marshmallows, rolls, corn and the obligatory jelled cranberry sauce out of the can. Nothing but meat, sweets and and starch. The only thing green on the table was a lime jello mold with pineapple and cottage cheese in it. For a type-1 diabetic like me it was something of a culinary minefield. The next year I volunteered to bring a salad (partly so I would have something to eat that I could actually fill up on) and the tradition was born.

I throw in all the standard things for a Greek salad: romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, greek olives, feta cheese, plus a few extras like kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and whatever else in the produce section looks good and would work. It's gotten to the point now that if I don't bring it, I'm not sure they'd let me in!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Lime jello molds! It's true.

Will younger generations believe these tales? So green! So wobbly! So . . . weird.

[hippywife]

9. We have a friend who tells

of the horror of his grandmother's lime jello mold filled with Veg-all. Yuck! :puke:

[wryter2000]

28. My grandmother made that

There was actually a celery jello for a while for such salads. :scared:

[sandnsea]

16. I made it for my kids -- once

After they had grown up actually, and for some reason I was missing it. I'm over that.

They were just like...

:wtf:

:rofl:

[GardeningGal]

3. I'm curious about the balsamic onion recipe.....

Not sure my family would be receptive but it sounds intriguing to me.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. Here you go!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Onions-with-Currant-Port-and-Balsamic-Glaze-15652

That's the recipe I've always worked off of, even though it never seems to go quite as as planned - I'm always adding more butter, more sugar, etc, until it seems to be the way I want it, but the core idea is great. The thyme is a critical component.

If you make it, 2 pkgs of thawed frozen pearl onions works great if not better than raw pearl onions. I've done both.

It is really tasty and is also good with a beef roast as a compliment to a standard horseradish cream.

[Warpy]

6. Butternut squash in large but bite sized cubes

steamed until barely fork tender, then tossed in melted butter with salt, pepper, and finely snipped parsely.

It was to die for and nobody could believe they were eating SQUASH.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Canned green beans with Durkee's fried onions and cream of mushroom soup.

:)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Intriguing! I wonder what that would taste like?

I wish that I could only imagine. I admire the food pioneers among us. Some had to be the first one say

Green beans, canned soup, canned onion rings = Nirvana!!!

[Warpy]

30. I know what my dad said about it

"Should I or did I?"

[hippywife]

10. Liar, liar...pants on fire.

:rofl:

[Sparkly]

11. What pants? nt

[hippywife]

19. ...

:wow:

Hope he isn't frying bacon! :rofl:

[htuttle]

12. I made Alton Brown's version last year

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/best-ever-green-bean-casserole-recipe/index.html

This is definitely not my mother's "Green Bean Hotdish":


For the topping:
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Oil or Nonstick cooking spray

For beans and sauce:
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 pound fresh green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Combine the onions, flour, panko and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine.
Coat a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, approximately 30 minutes. Toss the onions 2 to 3 times during cooking. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside until ready to use. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.

While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans. Bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in an 8-quart saucepan. Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately plunge the beans into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute.

Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans. Top with the remaining onions. Place skillet into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.


It was really good!

[blue neen]

13. That sounds yummy!

I think I'm going to give it a try. :)

[sandnsea]

15. Big Bite Guy just did a variation

except he fried the onions. He also fried up bacon to create the sauce, and then crumbled the bits on after he put the fried onions on. Luckily we all like plain old-fashioned green beans and bacon so we never go through this. I'm not sure that I've ever had green bean dish. :silly:

[sandnsea]

14. Sweet Potatoes

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, divided
1/4 cup cane syrup or agave nectar
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 pounds sweet potatoes

Peel potatoes, cut in 1" chunks, put in pan with an inch water, tablespoon orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg. Steam for about 1/2 hour. Remove to 13x9 pan.

Add remaining ingredients to pan, simmer into a syrup. Pour on potatoes and gently toss.

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 cup chopped pecans

Mix and crumble on top of potatoes. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes at 400.

[tigereye]

43. we had the Thanksgiving Feast at my kid's school today

and a number of parents made sweet potato casseroles... wow were they good!


This is not something that we ever had in my family.

[grasswire]

17. waldorf salad

Diced good apples (I use a combination of braeburn and golden delicious)

Diced celery

Chopped nuts -- walnuts are traditional, or pecans

Dried cranberries or golden raisins

Mayonnaise

A bit of lemon juice

A bit of sugar

It's always on our Thanksgiving table.

[TygrBright]

18. oooooooo, thanks for the reminder!

We are on our own for Thankgiving this year, which is a wonderful luxury but rather disorienting as I'm usually cooking for the family. We did order a SMALL turkey from our poultry CSA since we love having real roast turkey at least once a year, but we were trying to strategize what else to have that would make it "special" and "traditional" but not too much work or too heavy for two.

Turkey, mashed taties, crangberry sauce and waldorfs sounds like the ideal menu for a Thanksgiving for two!

happily,
Bright

[kestrel91316]

20. Cooking Light had a recipe a few years ago that I tried and loved:

Sauteed Sweet Potatoes. Peeled and sliced and pan sauteed/kind of braised. Plenty of cranberries and pecan pieces and some brown sugar and butter and a little rum...........Very different and far superior to the supremely icky canned sweet potatoes with marshmallows crap I grew up with......

[sandnsea]

21. Really?

I have a sweet potato in the frig. I am going to try that for dinner tonight, with a chicken breast. Except I'll use some orange juice in place of the rum and some of the sugar. I hope it turns out. I love sweet potatoes.

[kestrel91316]

23. It's delish. Be aware the sweets take a while to cook, even sliced.

You slice them fairly thick.

[hippywife]

24. Now that sounds wonderful!

Minus the rum, tho. I might give this a try. We tend to be a little traditional about this meal so I might just be shot down. LOL

[BamaGirl]

22. Mine are

ham, potato salad, dressing, and fudge.

[badgerpup]

25. Green bean casserole...BUT...

a bit different.
You will need:
Frozen (not canned) french-cut green beans, fresh mushrooms, white wine (I like chablis), sliced blanched almonds, cream of mushroom soup, onions, salt, pepper, and tarragon.


Start out with a couple bags of frozen french cut green beans...let them thaw and drain. This is important; you want them as near to dry as possible when you start doing stuff to them.

Slice the mushrooms and onions. Saute them in butter and a bit of chablis to translucency for the onions...the mushrooms should be right up there as well...or you can cook them separately.

Thin the cream of mushroom soup with a very little (1-2 tablespoons, maybe?) bit of the wine...and don't dilute it any further. Keep in mind that baking will bring a lot of liquid out.
You don't want this to be watery when it's done baking.

Mix the soup, beans, almonds, onions and 'shrooms until everything is evenly distributed and coated.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and tarragon. Turn out into covered baking dish and bake for about 25-30 minutes at 350 (or so).


You can garnish with the French-fried onions if you want (I don't care for them, so I don't) or crumbled bits of bacon...real or Bac-Os. :9

[Richard Steele]

26. Among other things, I'll be making Oregano-Cumin Pumpkin stuffing:

It's a recipe I first made about 2 years ago, to accompany
the first chicken I ever roasted (Which was done with
much advice from this C&B group, for which I am eternally grateful!)

It's been a big hit every time I've made it, and since I'll
be spending Thanksgiving with some family I haven't seen in years
I figured I'd go with a known winner:


1 egg
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 coarsely chopped carrots
2 coarsely chopped celery stalks
1 chopped tart apple
2 1/2 cups cubed day old bread


In a large bowl beat the egg. Add the chicken stock, melted butter, pumpkin puree, and spices. Mix well until smooth. Add the carrots, celery, and apple. Toss lightly. Add the bread cubes and toss until the bread is thoroughly coated in the pumpkin mixture. Bake in a well greased casserole at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

32. I think that sounds really good and very different

I don't think we'll make it for Thanksgiving (basically because we're not in charge of the dressing anyway) but I will definitely try this in the future. Thanks.

[Arkansas Granny]

27. Mine is a cheesy mashed potato casserole. You can eat it as is or

pour gravy over it.

Make regular mashed potatoes to serve 6-8. Add a 3 oz. pkg of cream cheese, 1/2 C. parmesan, 1 C. shredded Swiss, 2 beaten eggs and a handful of fried onion rings that are crushed up a little. Put it in a baking dish (I find a shallow one to work best). Sprinkle a little more Swiss and onion rings over the top and bake at 350F until it's hot all the way through.

We've used cheddar instead of Swiss and find that it's a really good go with for ham.

[leftyclimber]

29. My nana's mustard green beans

My nana is a recipe hog and refuses to share anything with anyone. One time when my mom was house-sitting for her mom (my nana) she went through her little notebook of recipes and swiped this one along with all the others (my great-great grandmother's pie crust recipe, for example). This one's good when you're looking for taste with little work.

2 cans of green beans, drained
1 T butter
1 T sugar
1 T white vinegar (apple cider is OK, too)
1 T prepared yellow mustard

Stir all ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat until butter melts and beans are coated and heated through.

I haven't tried this with fresh beans, so YMMV. I'd have a go at it, but I mainly do this recipe at Thanksgiving, when fresh = a zillion bucks a pound.

[Hekate]

35. Good for your mom! Recipes shouldn't be lost to the next generations!

[mtnester]

31. Ahem - sweet potato casserole

My hubs family are not huge sweet potao fans, but THIS they love

It is more of a desert, rich as heck, and will put you into a swoon pretty quick:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/11/pioneer_womans_sweet_potatoes_1.html


includes pictures of each step as well..nice

[Hekate]

33. Sourdough bread stuffing with lots of butter

Loaf of good sourdough bread, cubed
Celery and onion, chopped
Butter, melted, up to 1 cup
Salt and paprika

Toss all the ingredients together and stuff the bird. It does not get easier than this.

[Hekate]

34. Pecan topped sweet potatoes--NO marshmallows

From my ex-sister in law. The first time I had this for TG at her house I was sold on it.

3 pounds sweet potatoes/yams, boiled and peeled
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar, divided
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp each salt and cinnamon
Orange juice, frozen, undiluted, up to one cup
1 cup pecan halves

Mash sweet potatoes. Beat in eggs, 1/4 cup brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. If dry, beat in orange juice (great taste). Put into flat casserole, 1 1/2 to 2 qts size. Arrange pecans on top, sprinkle with remaining brown sugar and melted butter. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes if ingredients are still hot, longer if they've cooled off. You want the eggs set and the sugar to get kind of bubbly.

[Catshrink]

36. I need to cook me some "leftovers" because I won't get any to take home.

:cry:

It's just me so I was thinking of buying a turkey breast and cooking it. Sprouts had some fresh breast halves so I wouldn't have so much. OTOH, I'm sure I could put away a larger one.

My problem is I have no clue how to cook it. Maybe I should do the Butterball thing with the popup timer. Those seem fool (make that catshrink) proof.

I don't really care about the other stuff -- except the cranberry sauce. I actually know how to make that. Open the damn can.

I'm useless when it comes to cooking real food -- baking, no problem. I have the butt to prove it.

[hippywife]

37. You could always get a young turkey

and freeze the leftovers. You could even do Stovetop stuffing since it's just for one.

Real cranberry sauce is so easy to make. The instructions are on the back of the bag. It's just one cup of water, one cup of sugar and one bag of cranberries. Couldn't be easier, really.

[sandnsea]

38. Oooh, oooh, idea!

You take the turkey breast and hammer it out flat. Then you put some stuffing and herbs in it, and roll it up, tie it with meat twine. Bake for 2 hours. That way you get the basic turkey dinner without a whole day of cooking and mess. I've been watching them do this on food channel and it looks like a brilliant idea.

But if you want to do a whole turkey, the easy way is to get a can of swansons chicken broth. Pour it in a roasting pan. Butter up your turkey, salt it, sit it in the pan. If you're using an aluminum one, cover it with tin foil. Otherwise, just put the lid on it. Put it in the oven on 350 for the appropriate time. You can take the foil off to brown it the last half hour. That's all you really need to do. You can throw some celery and onion and poultry seasoning in the cavity if you want. The main thing is to not overcook. It's easy.

[likesmountains 52]

39. Can you post the carrot recipe too please? Thanks

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

40. Here you go! These are totally addictive - sometimes I make them as a snack!

The recipe is originally from America's Test Kitchen, I think.

Roasted Glazed Carrots

This is supposed to serve 4-6

Preheat oven to 475. When oven is up to temp put in your empty rimmed baking dish and heat it for 10 minutes

1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and cut into uniform 2" x 1/2" piece (not slices but more like sticks about the size of your baby finger, I would say. Do NOT use those prebagged baby carrot things - they are loaded with excess water and this recipe does not come out the way it is supposed to with them)

2 T melted unsalted butter
1 T dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Mix the melted butter, sugar, salt and pepper together first. Dump in your cut carrots and coat well. (Try to time this so you are just done when your empty pan is finished preheating.)

Take hot pan out of oven. Throw carrots in pan in hopefully a single layer. Nice sizzling sound if all is right.

Roast carrots in 475 oven for 15 minutes. Take pan out, toss carrots around a bit, put back in oven for another 2 or 3 minutes.(Sometimes the second bit of oven is necessary, sometimes it isn't. You be the judge.)

The trick is in getting these to the table at all, because everyone tries to eat them right out of the pan. Make more than you think too, because they tend to shrink a bit in the oven.

[likesmountains 52]

41. Oh, thank you! I would be making this tonight if I had any carrots in hand..sounds great.

[Retrograde]

42. Brussel sprouts

fresh off the stalk, into boiling salted water for a few minutes, then drained. The only way to eat them - I've had people fight over them. The farmers' market is just getting the new stalks in.