Thanksgiving

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I'm spending Thanksgiving alone, I think I'll make like a mini meal with all of the things that I like and a cornish game hen rather than a big turkey. What are you doing? What's your best recipe?

The following is my stuffing recipe, the best sausage and cornbread stuffing in all the land.

2 boxes Jiffy corn bread mix (yes, it's the cheapest, but it's also the best)
1 lb mild sausage or turkey sausage (if you can't find a sausage log, the links work just as well, and they are very easy to peel)
2 eggs
1/8 t pepper
1 large onion minced
2 stalks celery minced
1 t poultry seasoning

Make corn bread, break into pieces while hot. Saute room-temperature sausage while breaking it up with a fork, drain, put back on the stove, add onion and celery and poultry seasoning and pepper, cook a couple of minutes. Add eggs and mix up quickly so that it doesn't cook. Add one cornbread. If not enough, add more.

Whatever doesn't fit into the bird, cook in a casserole dish 350 for 30-35 minutes.

-- Kymm Zuckert (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), November 22, 2000

Answers

Kristin's Mom's Creamed Onions

1/3 C dry white vermouth 2 Tb cornstarch blended in a small bowl with 2 Tb milk 1 1/2 C heavy cream 1/4 tsp salt White pepper 1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese

Add vermouth to the skillet and boil repidly until reduced to a tablespoon. Remove from heat; stir in the cornstarch mixture, cream, seasonings. Simmer, stirring until beginning to thicken, then blend in the cheese and stir until blended and thickened.

You may prepare small white boiling onions yourself OR use S&W canned ones (if you can find them!). The sauce recipe can easily handle two cans of onions. Drain onion juice/water into a container--you may need some of it to thin the sauce.

Combine the onions and sauce in a small casserole. Heat covered in low oven (325-ish) for approx. 30 minutes.

May be made ahead.

Heavenly!

-- Kristin Burns (kristin.burns@stanford.edu), November 22, 2000.


This year... Vegas, Baby! (I'm such a traditionalist.)

As for recipes, I've been dying to do fried turkey for years but I just haven't gotten the hardware together - yet. If you've never heard of fried turkey and are horrified at the thought, there was an article about it in the New York Times Magazine recently (you may have to register before reading it.)

-- Yet another Greg (gberon@yahoo.com), November 22, 2000.


This year I'm going to Gloucester, Massachusetts, again to spend Thanksgiving with with the Hecht family, who have officially adopted me. I used to work for Hecht pere at MIT, and everyone from his fabulous wife Olive down to their five grandchildren the Hechtettes have taken to me, and I to them. I think there will be about 30 people, what with ten Hechts, many members of Olive's family, and assorted strays like myself.

This year they are holding the First All Hors d'Oeuvres Thanksgiving, and Maria is making her famous artichoke dip twice. In the past I've brought a three-day cake, which is make from a white cake mix, coconut, whipped topping, sour cream, and sugar, and is an intense experience of the white-trash cooking variety. If I find the recipe at home I'll contribute it here.

Happy day, y'all!

/Robert

-- Robert (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), November 22, 2000.


I'll be spending Thanksgiving with Mom, Dad, Sydny (my little girl), my girlfriend, Grandpa, his family, my uncle from Chicago, and his wife at my Grandpa's house in Santa Rosa, CA (bout two hours from here).

I don't really have a recipe I've tried but the other day I was watching Alton Brown's "Good Eats" on Food TV and he talked about soaking a turkey in brine (the recipe is at http://www.foodtv.com/recipes/re-c1/0,1724,8865,00.html). It sounds weird at first but he gave some great scientificy reasons why this'll make the bird supper moist. Sounded tres yummy to me.

If you've never seen his show it's pretty funny and full of useless trivia and history. Which, if you are a walking compendium of useless knowledge like me, makes it extra special.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-- Travis English (blackmere@hotmail.com), November 22, 2000.


O, I'm just having a little dinner with my dad and my soon-to-be-ex-stepmother and her mother and their two kids (my dad's and stepmom's, ie my brother and sister) and my husband and his mother. Afterwards we might go over and hang with my mom and her roommate and my other sister and her girlfriend and my mom's roommate.

But I have a recipe story which I heard from my dad. The host of All Things Considered called her mother on Thanksgiving and said, Mom, can you give me your cranberry recipe? And her mother says Sure, just a minute, let me go get it. And she comes back and says, Do you have a piece of paper? And the host says Yes, and by the way, Mom, we're live on NPR, and there are about fifteen million people listening right now. They want your recipe.

So her mother says, Okay, dear, well, you start with a pound of cranberries.

And the host says, Mom, doesn't this have any impact on you, is it totally uninteresting to you that fifteen million people are listening to this?

And her mother says, Look, do you want the recipe?

My father says that that moment defines the realization that your parents will never really think you've made it to the big time.

-- Jessie (blue@avocation.org), November 22, 2000.



I am spending the day with my husband, sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephew. We are making and serving dinner for 25 at a woman's shelter.We have to be there by 9:00am in order to serve dinner at 3:00. We're such "unusual" volunteers that the newspaper is doing a story on us. They're taking pictures of us tonight as we make six pies - oh yeah)(*^@$)(*&@)#(*&

On Saturday, we'll have a small dinner at my house with all the Thanksgiving fixin's and probably too many drinks.

The best recipe I have is to make turkey on the grill - on a charcoal grill, not a gass one. Follow the directions in a grilling book for the length of time. No basting necessary, done in no time (well, almost) and it tastes awesome. The only problem with this is that the house doesn't get that warm turkey smell, but the turkey melts in your mouth and we'll just smell the pumpkin pies!

-- Timi (timir@netwurx.net), November 22, 2000.


I'm having dinner at my mom and dad's house. I'm bringing along most all of the side dishes and all of the desserts.

My best recipe is for pumpkin cheesecake, although the ungrateful wretches I'm having dinner with this year won't get it, cause they'd rather have pumpkin pie!

Here's the recipe:

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Sour Cream Topping for the crust:
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

for the filling:
1 1/2 cups solid pack pumpkin
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 salt
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, cut into bits and softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon liqueur or bourbon if desired

for the topping:
2 cups sour cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon bourbon liqueur or bourbon, or to taste

for the garnish:
16 pecan halves

Make the crust: In a bowl combine the cracker crumbs, the pecans, and the sugars, stir in the butter, and press the mixture into the bottom and 1/2 inch up the side of a buttered 9-inch springform pan. Chill the crust for 1 hour.

Make the filling: In a bowl whisk together the pumpkin, the eggs, the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the ginger, the salt, and the brown sugar. In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and the granulated sugar, beat in the cream, the cornstarch, the vanilla, the bourbon liqueur, and the pumpkin mixture, and beat the filling until it is smooth.

Pour the filling into the crust, bake the cheesecake in the middle of a preheated 350º F. oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the center is just set, and let it cool in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes.

Make the topping: In a bowl whisk together the sour cream, the sugar, and the bourbon liqueur.

Spread the sour cream mixture over the top of the cheesecake and bake the cheesecake for 5 minutes more. Let the cheesecake cool in the pan on a rack and chill it, covered, overnight. Remove the side of the pan and garnish the top of the cheesecake with the

-- Catherine (catcoicrit@earthlink.net), November 23, 2000.


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