50 Mashed Potato Recipes : Recipes and Cooking : Food Network.
For most of us, having mashed potatoes is a crucial part of the Thanksgiving meal. There of course is the simple and classic way of making this dish, but Food Network has come up with 50 different ways that you can jazz up this traditional dish to make it a little different for your meal. Check it out!
While I did not make this side dish with the turkey I made recently, it is one that would go well with your Thanksgiving meal and look really nice on the table. Any type of winter squash would work well for Thanksgiving or any Fall or winter meal, and doing one like this can make a Sunday dinner look nice or your holiday table. I got this recipe from Bon Appetit and you really have your choice of what type of winter squash you want to use, so use what you like best and what is most available in your area.
Winter Squash Bowl
1 medium butternut squash ( about 1 1/2 pounds)
5 small winter squash (about 1 pound each; such as acorn squash, carnival, delicata or sugar pumpkins), divided
4 1/2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
3 teaspoons pure maple syrup, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the butternut squash in half crosswise. Set the top half of the butternut squash aside. Remove the seeds and strings from the bottom half of the butternut squash and discard them. Place the bottom half of the butternut squash on 1 baking sheet. Remove the caps from 3 of the small squash by cutting a circle 1 inch around the stems with a small serrated knife (just like you were carving a pumpkin). Slice off and discard the strings from the bottom sides of the caps. Scoop out the seeds and strings from the centers of the squash and discard.
Cut a thin slice off the bottom of the 3 hollowed-out small squash so the squash will sit evenly on a flat surface; place (with the caps on) the squash on a baking sheet along with the bottom of the butternut squash. Drizzle the insides of the squash with 1/4 teaspoon of olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of maple syrup. Season the cavities with salt and pepper. Bake the squash until a paring knife inserted into the squash meets no resistance, about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, remove the stems from the remaining 2 small squash and cut the squash in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and strings from the small squash and the top half of the butternut squash and discard. Peel and chop the squash into 1/4-inch pieces and place them in a large bowl. Add the remaining 4 1/4 teaspoons of olive oil and toss to coat them well. Season the squash pieces with salt and pepper. Spread the squash pieces in a single layer on the remaining baking sheet and bake, stirring once, until the squash is tender, about 30 minutes. Transfer the baked squash to a large bowl and toss it with the remaining 2 3/4 teaspoons of maple syrup, the butter and the thyme leaves. Divide the baked squash among the hollowed-out butternut and small squash and serve warm or at room temperature.
I did change this recipe up just slightly. Since I was making this for less people, I did not need to use all this squash. What I actually did since I had a very large butternut squash is cut it into 3 sections, hollow out part of it, and used 2 sections of the butternut squash and one acorn squash to fill with the remaining squash. I have to say the squash I had was pretty solid and did have a lot of seeds, so I had to do some hollowing out on my own, which took a little work, but it was worth it. The squash was wonderfully roasted and tender and had great flavor from the maple syrup. It also looked very nice in the squash bowls itself. I think you could easily do this with just one squash of any size if you wanted something smaller and elegant for a weeknight meal.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I have a pork chop casserole recipe I just tried, some homemade french bread, a great turkey pot pie for your turkey leftovers, another turkey recipe, chicken and waffles and much more to come so stay tuned. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Let me start off by saying that I feel I have never been much of a baker. It is only until recently that I have begun to try my hand at baking bread, and I like doing it, it comes out better (most of the time) than what you can buy in the store and it is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying bread at the store. That being said, I have never been much of one to make things like pastries, cookies or cakes. However, I did decide that this year I was going to give one a try to see if I could make a cake for Michelle’s birthday. She likes lemon cakes, so I thought I would try this one that I saw in Saveur magazine for a lemon layer cake. It seemed easy enough to try for my first foray into the land of cakes.
Lemon Layer Cake
For the Cake and Syrup:
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for pans, sifted
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
4 eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
For the Frosting:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup lemon zest
1 teaspoon kosher salt
10 egg yolks
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cake: heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans and set them aside. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set the bowl aside. Whisk together the milk and vanilla in a bowl and set it aside. in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream the butter, 1 1/2 cups of sugar and the lemon zest on medium-high speed until it is pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients in 3 batches and the wet ingredients in 2 batches. Increase the speed to high and beat the mixture until the batter is smooth, about 5 seconds. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula; drop the pans lightly on a counter to expel any large air bubbles. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool for 20 minutes in the pans; invert the pans onto wire racks and let the cakes cool. Using a serrated knife, halve each cake horizontally to produce four layers; set the cakes aside. Bring the remaining sugar and lemon juice to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Remove the syrup from the heat and set it aside.
For the frosting: Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and salt in a large saucepan. Add the yolks and whisk the mixture until it is smooth; stir in the lemon juice. Stirring often, bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat; cook, stirring constantly, until it is very thick, about 3 minutes. Remove it from the heat, allow it to cool and transfer it to a bowl; chill the lemon curd. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter and 1/4 of the lemon curd on medium-high speed until it is fluffy and smooth, about 1 minute. Add half of the remaining lemon curd, beating the mixture until it is smooth, and then add the remaining lemon curd and vanilla. Increase the speed of the mixer to high; beat the frosting until it is pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cake stand and drizzle it with 2 tablespoons of the syrup and spread it with 3/4 cup of frosting; top this with another layer of cake, drizzle it with 2 tablespoons of the syrup and spread it with another 3/4 cup of frosting. Place another cake over the frosting, drizzle it with 2 tablespoons of the syrup and spread it with another 3/4 cup of the frosting; top this with the remaining layer of cake and drizzle this with the remaining syrup. Cover the top and the sides with the remaining frosting. Chill the cake to firm the frosting then serve the cake at room temperature.
I do have to say for my first time out of making a cake that it turned out pretty well. Granted, there are people who are much better at making and decorating cakes than I am, but for a novice dad trying to make a cake I think it turned out pretty well. The frosting was fluffy and smooth and there was great lemon flavor throughout the cake thanks to the zest in the batter, the syrup drizzled over the cakes and the lemon curd frosting, which I really liked. Could it have been better? Probably, but I’ll cut myself some slack and say it will look and taste even better next time around. All in all, I think this was a pretty easy one to start with and those who ate cake seemed to enjoy it.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I still have lots to share, including some Thanksgiving ideas as well as some every day dinners to try. I just got the latest issue of Cook’s Country, and that always inspires some to try some of their ideas, so look out for those. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Best Thanksgiving Appetizer Recipes : Recipes and Cooking : Food Network.
Appetizers are something that can get easily overlooked when you are planning your Thanksgiving Day meal. Food Network gives you some of the best and easiest appetizers, most of which you can put together without working up a big sweat so you can be sure you are covered. Check it out!
I still have some side dishes that I made recently that would be great for your Thanksgiving table. I made both of these recently for Michelle’s birthday dinner and both were very simple to do. I think you want to try to keep the side dishes as easy as you can and even make them ahead of time if at all possible to save yourself some time on Thanksgiving when you are focused on family and the turkey. You can always simply re-heat your sides in the oven while the turkey is resting. This can give you more than enough time to get your sides heated properly and get everything on the table while it is hot. The first one for today is a very easy recipe for some maple glazed carrots.
Maple Glazed Carrots
12 medium carrots, with the greens attached
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup water
Salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Trim off all but 2 inches of the green tops of the carrots. Put the carrots, butter, sugar, water and salt to taste in a large skillet. Cover the skillet and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Maintain the boiling until nearly all the liquid evaporates, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Uncover the skillet and add the maple syrup. Cook, shaking the skillet over the heat frequently, until the carrots have obtained a nice glaze on them, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve.
You could certainly leave out the maple syrup and still get something of a glaze on the carrots using this method and they would be good, but I think the maple syrup adds a really nice flavor to the carrots. You could also substitute honey for the maple syrup and get a nice glaze from that as well. Since this recipe was so easy, I did not need to make it ahead of time and simply made these on the stove top while the turkey was resting.
The second recipe is one I picked up from the cooking blog A Wee Bit of Cooking. It is a Finnish dish that is often used for the holidays called Lanttulaatikko. This is a turnip casserole that makes use of rutabaga, or yellow turnip. We have often eaten rutabaga on Thanksgiving in my family. It has a very distinct flavor to it and some people are put off by the aroma it can give off, but I love the flavor that you get from it. I often make it during the year, simply mashing it up, but this recipe adds a little bit more and is just as easy.
Lanttulaatikko (Turnip Casserole)
1 large rutabaga or yellow turnip
2/3 cup cream
1 egg
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Peel the turnip and cut it into 1/2-inch chunks. In a medium saucepan, place the turnip and cover with salted water. Bring the turnips to a boil and boil until they are completely tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the turnips.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the turnips well with a potato masher and then run them through a potato ricer. Combine the cream, butter, honey, nutmeg and egg and mix until blended. Add the mixture to the mashed turnips and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the turnip mixture to a small casserole dish and smooth the top with a fork or spatula and dot with the butter. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 40 minutes until golden and crisp on the top. Serve.
Since the turnip can take a long time to soften and get tender and then to bake, I made this dish the day before our meal and simply re-heated it in the oven while the turkey rested. You get the flavor of the turnips along with the honey and nutmeg and it is a simple, sweet flavor. I would make this any time of year as a side dish for poultry or beef.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for even more recipes. There’s still time before Thanksgiving and I still have recipes to share. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
30 Super-Simple Thanksgiving Sides – Photo Gallery | SAVEUR.
You need lots of options when it comes to the side dishes for your Thanksgiving meal, so here are another 30 recipes that are very easy and simple to make from Saveur Magazine. They cover all kinds of vegetables and potato dishes so you can liven up your menu with little effort. Check it out!
There seems to be an endless supply of Thanksgiving side dish possibilities. There are so many great Fall vegetables that you can use in so many different ways that the combinations you can come up with can help you to tailor your meal to fit whatever likes you may have or whoever may be coming over for dinner on that day. In my trail run dinner that I made for Michelle’s birthday, I made a lot of side dishes this year so I could try different things. One of her absolute favorites is one that often gets overlooked on the dinner table – creamed pearl onions. I actually got this very simple recipe from chef Thomas Keller and with just a few ingredients, you can have this dish made easily.
Creamed Pearl Onions
2 cups peeled pearl onions
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon minced chives
Combine the pearl onions, chicken stock, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer the mixture until all the liquid has evaporated and the onions are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the heavy cream and cook until the cream has thickened. Stir in the chives and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste before serving.
It is very easy to make and you can do this while your turkey is resting so you can get it ready easily or you can even make it the day before and just lightly simmer it on the stove to heat it through. You get a nice, thick creamy sauce with the great flavor of the pearl onions. If you can get frozen pearl onions, you can save yourself the aggravation of having to peel the onions yourself. I couldn’t find any frozen onions, so I did buy the fresh ones, but there is an easy way to peel them. Simply place the onions in two cups of boiling water for 2 or three minutes. Remove the onions to an ice water bath or cold water bath to cool them off when you strain them off the stove. Once they are cool enough to the touch, simply cut off the root end of the onion and give the onion a gentle squeeze and it will pop right out of the skin. It still takes some time to do all of them, but it is a lot easier than trying to peel the paper off of all those tiny onions.
I also made a simple Brussels sprouts recipe. Even though sprouts may get a bad rap, we love them in our house and they make a great Fall or holiday side dish. And nothing seems to be better than some roasted Brussels sprouts with a little bit of bacon to add some flavor. This quick recipe is from chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Maple Bacon
1 pound Brussels sprouts, bottom trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
1 ounce maple syrup
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 ounce olive oil
4 ounces bacon, cut into quarters in strips
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the Brussels sprouts in the olive oil, salt, peppers and smoked paprika.Place the Brussels sprouts on a baking sheet and roast until they are browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.
In a medium skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon until it is crispy, about 5 minutes. Drain the bacon of the fat and toss it with the maple syrup and the roasted Brussels sprouts. Finish the dish with a pat of butter over the top or just serve immediately.
Again, you can roast the Brussels sprouts a day ahead of time, like I did, and while the turkey rests before carving simply place them in the oven to warm them through with any other side dishes you are also warming to save yourself some time. The maple flavor along with the smokiness of the bacon and the paprika make this a fantastic side dish. If you want to try to keep it lighter and vegetarian, you can simply omit the bacon and roast the Brussels sprouts alone on a baking sheet or even in a cast iron pan and make them that way.
Unfortunately, I had so many side dishes when I made everything that there were a few things I forgot to take pictures of in all the rush to get things on the table. Sorry about that, but the pearl onions and Brussels sprouts got away from me. I do have pictures of the next 2 sides I will be posting tomorrow though.
That’s all I have for today. Keep checking back for some more holiday recipes and ideas. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
There are some things you may not think of as a great holiday appetizer unless you just happen to have everything fall into place as far as ingredients and what you have on hand. This was one of those recipes for me. I had some meatballs on hand already that I had made and frozen, so it really just became a matter of putting them together with the rolls and some cheese and we were all set. Now, if you wanted to make this recipe ahead of time and use it for a holiday appetizer, it is certainly easy to do. This is the meatball recipe that I use most often, but you could easily use any meatball recipe you prefer or even use some frozen meatballs you may have on hand to make things even easier.
Meatball Sliders
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic
1 cup fresh parsley leaves
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 large eggs
1 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 28-ounce cans tomato puree
2 large sprigs basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Slider rolls
Brush a baking sheet with olive oil. Pulse the celery, carrot, onion, garlic and parsley in a food processor to make a paste. Transfer half of the vegetable paste to a bowl; add the ground beef, ground pork, eggs, breadcrumbs, 1 cup of the Parmesan cheese and 1 teaspoon of salt and mix with your hands until it is just combined. Form the mixture into about 24 two-inch meatballs; transfer the meatballs to the prepared baking sheet. Bake the meatballs until they are firm but not cooked all the way through, about 10 minutes.
To make the sauce, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the remaining vegetable paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until it looks dry, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree; rinse each can with 1 cup of water and add it to the pot. Stir in the basil, oregano and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then add the meatballs and simmer until the sauce thickens and the meatballs are cooked through, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the basil.
Place 1 or 2 meatballs and sauce inside each of the slider rolls and top each with mozzarella cheese. Serve.
It is a very simple recipe to put together and the sliders were devoured when I made them in no time at all. You could easily do the same thing with sausage and peppers if you had some on hand or wanted to make some ahead of time and then simply re-heat the sausage and peppers and put them into slider rolls. For me, it was just a matter of warming he meatballs and sauce on the stove top for about 5 to 10 minutes just to heat them through and then assemble the sliders.
That’s all I have for today. Keep checking back as there is plenty more along the way leading up to Thanksgiving. I have lots of side dishes to share, some desserts, breads and even things to do with leftovers. Keep checking back to see what is next. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
You want to try to remember to have some appetizers on hand for your holiday or Thanksgiving meal to keep everyone happy before the big meal comes out. There are lots of things that you can do that are easy, like making a simple antipasto platter, some shrimp cocktail, crackers and cheese or even just some onion dip and chips. One thing that can be a little different and look fancy is this recipe I got from Cook’s Country for broccoli dip in a bread bowl. It is really easy to make and you can make the dip a day or two in advance and then just put it all together right before you serve it.
Broccoli Dip in a Bread Bowl
12 ounces broccoli, florets cut into 1-inch pieces, stalks peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons minced shallot
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2/3 cup whole Greek yogurt
1 (8-inch) round bread (whatever type you like)
Combine the broccoli stalks and 1 tablespoon of water in a bowl. Cover the bowl and microwave it until the stalks are tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the stalks to a colander, rinse under cold water, and drain thoroughly. Transfer the stalks to a clean dish towel and pat dry. Combine the broccoli florets and 1 tablespoon of water in the same now-empty bowl. Cover the florets and microwave until just tender, about 3 minutes.Transfer the florets to a colander, rinse them under cold water and allow them to drain thoroughly. Transfer the florets to a clean dish towel and pat them dry. Keep the stalks and the florets separate.
Combine the stalks, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, shallot, garlic, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper in a food processor and process until the mixture is finely ground, about 30 seconds., scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the florets and pulse until the florets are finely chopped, about 4 pulses. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, stir in the Greek yogurt, and refrigerate the dip for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
Using a paring knife, cut into the top of the loaf of bread at a 45-degree angle, about 1 1/2 inches from the edge. Continue to slice around the bread at a 45-degree angle in approximately a 5-inch circle. Remove the cut top of the bread and cut it into bite size pieces. Make vertical slices through the perimeter of the bread bowl at 1 1/2-inch intervals, stopping just shy of the bottom crust. Transfer the broccoli dip to the bread bowl. Serve, using bread pieces and crudites to dip.
I did make one slight change to the recipe itself. Instead of using mayonnaise I used some sour cream and I think it came out just fine. The slices into the bread bowl allow people to pull out pieces of the bread to dip into the dip itself. The goal is that you won’t actually have anything leftover from the whole set up, though I did have some extra broccoli dip left that did not fit into the bread bowl, so we have been able to have that with some cut-up vegetables like carrots, celery, peppers and the like. I think you could also easily substitute spinach for the broccoli in this if you prefer to have a spinach dip to serve. In either case, I really liked the texture thanks to the yogurt and the flavor of the broccoli and shallots was great. You really do need to blanch the broccoli for this to work out well. Raw broccoli would be too woody and I think frozen broccoli is just too mushy to use.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. There’s still lots to come that you can use to help plan your Thanksgiving. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
One of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal has always been the stuffing. Even the famous Stove Stop stuffing has its place, but if you have a little bit of time and want something that tastes a whole lot better, then take the effort to make the stuffing yourself. it is not as tough as you think it may be to make one and you can even do it a day ahead of time and just warm it up in the oven to save yourself some time. There are a lot of recipes out there for stuffing and have a few favorites of my own, but I tried a new one this weekend when I made roast turkey for Michelle’s birthday. Like the turkey, this one also came from Saveur Magazine and is for a very simple apple, sage and sausage stuffing.
Apple, Sage and Sausage Stuffing
8 tablespoons butter
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 pork sausages, casings removed
3 apples, peeled and chopped
1 loaf white bread, crust cut off, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and toasted (about 8 cups)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage
2 cups chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery and the onion, Cook until the vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, using a wooden spoon to break the sausage into small pieces, until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the apples and continue cooking until the apples are soft, about 5 to 7 minutes more. Stir in the bread crumbs and the sage; add the chicken stock and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Stuff the stuffing into the turkey cavity, if you wish and roast the turkey according to plans or instructions. Take the remaining stuffing and place it in a baking dish and bake until it is golden on top, about 20 to 25 minutes.
I personally did not put any stuffing in the turkey. I have never been a big fan of stuffing that way and it makes the turkey have to cook even longer and the turkey does not always roast evenly with the stuffing inside it. If you are going to stuff the bird, you want to make sure that any stuffing you use is cooked already. If you want to make this stuffing ahead of time, instead of putting it right into the oven after mixing everything in, place the stuffing in a baking dish, cover it with foil and refrigerate it until the next day. Then, when you take the turkey out to rest, you can place it in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes to cook and heat up. You’ll want to take the aluminum foil off the dish so the bread crumbs crisp up nicely. You may also need to add a little bit of moisture back into the stuffing because the bread will have absorbed a lot of it. I did not add any in and the stuffing tasted just fine, but it depends on how you like it. I loved the mix of the apples and sausage with the bread and the sage added just the right touch to the dish. I think it would be really good if you used a challah bread with this stuffing as well.
That’s all I have for today. Keep checking back for some more recipes that will be great for Thanksgiving. There’s lots more to come. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
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