My Thanksgiving Menu

Oh man. I've been so bad about posting here lately. I'm the Google Apps for Education coordinator at work this year. If you don't know what that means, just know this. Google is my kung fu. And it is strong. But yeah, doing computer stuff all day means I'm pretty sick of looking at one when I get home. So I haven't been around here as much as I'd like. But I'd be remiss if I didn't make at least one post about the Foodie High Holiday of Thanksgiving.

No knead rolls

Typically, I don't have much to say about cooking for Thanksgiving. I do have some recipes you are welcome to try, but usually I'm enjoying my in laws cooking in far off and distant Texas this time of year. But this year we aren't able to make the trip, so instead I'm cooking at home with my parents and siblings coming over.

It's an interesting mix to cook for. The big potential pitfalls are that my dad and husband are both Type II diabetics. And my youngest sister is a vegetarian. So in a large, argumentative family of picky eaters, those are really the only ones I'm going to attempt to please. So I put together a menu that's... well, not healthy. It is a holiday, after all. But it's heavy on vegetables and low on processed carbs and sugars. No sodium hangovers this year.

I've provided links to recipes when I have it. I'm digging out some of my old stand by, as well as introducing some new favorites.

Appetizers (Because I need you to get out from under my feet)

• Hot Crab Dip and crackers
• Hummus and raw veggies
• Cheese tray from Roswell Provisions

Main Event

• Smoked turkey (Ordering a smoked turkey from Greenberg's is a Liang family tradition that's grown on me. Picture this: A perfectly cooked, flavorful turkey that isn't taking up half your oven for five hours. It being delicious seems almost secondary.)
• Small roasted turkey breast, with butter and herbs tucked under the skin.
• Curry Roasted Acorn Squash (recipe here)

• 

  Curry roasted acorn squash

• Roasted brussel sprouts (done simply with oil, salt and pepper)
• Cauliflower cheese (recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)
• Slow cooker green beans with bell pepper and tomato (Oddly enough, I've never blogged this staple recipe. I'll have to fix that.)
• Chili Lime sweet potato wedges (Recipe here)
• No Knead rolls (recipe here)
• Salad (I had three heads of lettuce in my CSA this weekend. We are eating salad. Everyone is eating salad. Forever.)

Dessert

• Sour cream pumpkin pudding (recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)
• Apple crisp (The recipe I posted here several years ago is seriously out of date. I promise you a better one someday.)

The big appeal of many of these recipes is that I can do much of the prep work ahead of time. The sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and acorn squash can be prepped ahead of time and kept in the fridge. The rolls are better if mixed a day or two ahead of time. The desserts can be made the morning of, with the apple crisp just needing to be popped into a warm oven to reheat while we eat dinner. The green beans will cook happily in my giant crockpot and not take up a burner or space in my oven at all. 

Anyways, thats my Thanksgiving plan. What's yours?

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Curry Roasted Acorn Squash

Fall is finally here, which means I no longer have to feel guilty about turning on my oven. I love fall in north Georgia. It's the prettiest time of year and it has all of my favorite foods.

Big Trees Forrest Preserve in Sandy Springs

Look how pretty that is! And it's not hot and sticky outside anymore and all the mosquitoes are gone! This is my favorite time to be outside in nature. 

Thanks to Georgia's long growing season, the best foods are being harvested now. Crisp apples, savory winter squashes, fresh kale... The list goes on and on. 

And oh those winter squashes. Look, I've tried with summer squash. I've had them all, zucchini, yellow crookneck, patty pan. I've tried them grilled, fried, baked, sautéed and more. The only way I've been able to enjoy them is in zucchini bread. And if you have to chop it up really small and hide it inside a cake, you aren't really enjoying that vegetable, are you? 

But winter squash... savory, sweet. Blended into a soup or roasted in the oven. I was ridiculously excited to see the first acorn squash of the season in the Roswell farmer's market last Saturday. I was less excited when the farmer suggested I drench it in butter and brown sugar to eat it. I mean, yeah sure, butter and brown sugar make everything taste better. But there are just some things that just don't need it. 

My version of roasted acorn squash forgoes extra sugar and fats in favor of a hearty dusting of curry powder and drizzle of olive oil.  Curry powder goes amazingly with winter squash. Trust me. You'll like it better than sugar. It's simple enough to have any night of the week, but looks fancy enough to sneak onto the Thanksgiving table. And don't tell the carnivores, but it's actually vegan, so your hippy friends will love you. This is worth waiting for winter squash season. 

Curry Roasted Acorn Squash

2 acorn squash, sliced in half long ways and seeds removed

Extra virgin olive oil

Curry powder

Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice your squash, carefully, because those suckers are tough and scoop out the seeds. Brush with olive oil, then sprinkle generously with curry powder and salt. Place on a cookie sheet and roast for about 20-30 minutes, or fork tender. To eat them, fluff up the insides like a baked potato and scoop it out with your fork. Makes a great side dish and fantastic leftovers. 

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Chili Lime Sweet Potatoes

I think I've mentioned my disdain for "traditional" sweet potato recipes, drenched in butter, sugar and marshmallows. Sweet potatoes are naturally flavorful, needing only a little salt and oil and a good roasting in a hot oven to bring them to life. That's not to say that they don't pair well with other flavors, but I'm definitely a "less is more" kinda gal when it comes to this vegetable.

I don't recall where I found this recipe, but it's been part of my repertoire for a couple years now. It's an easy side dish for the holidays, or a nice pairing with a couple pan fried pork chops and turnip greens during the week. Really, the possibilities are endless on this one. You've got the sweetness of the potatoes, the smoky chili powder and a hint of acid from the lime cutting through all of it. It's a lighter take on sweet potatoes, but still full of flavor.

The easiest way I've discovered to prepare this is with the help of a zip top bag. The diced, raw sweet potatoes go in, along with your chili powder, salt and some cooking oil. Squish everything around a bit and pour it out on a cookie sheet to roast. You can even do that step a day before, if you decide to make this for Thanksgiving, and keep the bag in the fridge until you are ready to roast.


Chili Lime Sweet Potatoes

3-4 peeled and diced sweet potatoes, enough to make about three cups
2 tablespoons chili powder (we like the Medium blend from Penzey's, but whatever chili powder you like is fine.)
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons cooking oil
juice of one lime

Peel and dice sweet potatoes. In a zip top bag or large bowl combine with chili powder, salt and cooking oil until potatoes are evenly coated. Spread on a cookie sheet and roast at 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes, until sweet potatoes are soft and the edges are crispy. Remove from oven and squeeze lime juice over the potatoes. Serve.

Easy No-Knead Dinner Rolls

I think every home cook out to have at least one seemingly impressive "I made this from scratch!" recipe in hand, especially around the holidays. Too many people just whack some crescent rolls out of a can for Thanksgiving, when its surprisingly easy to make dinner rolls the night, or even several days before. These simple rolls can be whipped up in just a few minutes, require no kneading (meaning no messy, floured counter tops) and can sit in the fridge for up to three days before you need them. In fact, they taste better the longer they sit.

This is an enriched dough, which means butter, eggs, sugar and milk are incorporated into the dough. This gives the yeast extra sugars to feed on, as well as imparting flavor to the dough. The longer the rise, the more time the yeast have to play, which means a slight sourdough note to your rolls. Much better tasting than the fake butter in the canned bread dough you usually buy.

No-Knead Dinner Rolls (Adapted from Joy of Cooking, sixth edition)

3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup milk

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup warm water

1 packet active, dry yeast

1 egg 

Slowly heat milk on the stove, being careful to not let it come to a boil or simmer. Dissolve butter, sugar and salt completely in the warm milk. Add warm water and yeast. Let it sit for about five minutes to allow yeast to activate. Add beaten egg. Make a well in your flour and add milk mixture. Mix until flour is thoroughly incorporated. You can get about a dozen rolls out of this, by either shaping them by hand and dropping them into a nine inch round pan, or spooning dough into a lined muffin pan. Cover the pan loosely for at least two hours on the counter, or ideally overnight in the fridge. If you refrigerate overnight, allow them to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. 

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Holiday Baked Brie Appetizer

Like a boss.

It came to my attention recently that I don't have enough Thanksgiving themed recipes on this blog. My excuse is that I don't host this holiday very often, because we usually spend it with my in laws in Texas and they do all the cooking. But last year was a rare year when I got to host in my own home and tried out some new things.

One of them was this super fancy, yet surprisingly easy baked brie appetizer. It's a wheel of brie, a layer of jam, some pastry and crackers or apples for dipping. It looks extremely elegant, but took very little time to assemble. Most of my prep time was spent making my own pastry sheets, but you can skip that by buying frozen puff pastry dough. I've done this both ways and the frozen stuff is pretty darn close to homemade. If you do want to make your own, I used Michael Ruhlman's 3-2-1 Pie Dough recipe, from his Ratios cookbook (One of the best Christmas presents I've ever received. Thanks husband!)

This is the only thing I know how to draw.

For very simple dishes like this, the ingredients you use matter. That's why I made sure to pick out a brie wheel from Roswell Provisions, a really gorgeous wine, cheese and meat shop in Historic Roswell. I'm actually shocked I haven't written about them yet here, considering how often I stop by. Provisions stocks brie from Caly Road Creamy, a local, independent goat and cow's milk dairy. They make all their cheeses in house at the storefront in Sandy Springs. For the jam, I used one of the jars of red pepper jelly I always buy at the farmers market each summer. The combo of sweet red pepper jelly and creamy, melted brie is really just amazing. You need to try this.

Baked Brie 

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed OR pie dough
1 wheel of brie
1 tablespoon jam or jelly of your choice
One egg, beaten and thinned with a tiny bit of water.

Assembly is simple. Roll out your pastry dough. With a very sharp knife, cut out a circle a bit larger than your brie. Reserve the excess. That's for arts and crafts later. Spoon a bit of your jelly or jam onto the cut pastry and place your cheese on top. Fold over the pastry and flip your cheese over onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Use your pastry scraps to decorate the top. I did a very simple flower design, because cutting semi-straight lines is the best I can do. You could use a cookie cutter if you want a more complicated decoration. Use a pastry brush to brush on the egg wash, then pop it in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until pastry is golden brie. Served with sliced fruit and crackers, because you'll want to scoop up every bit of that gooey, melty cheese.

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Best Thanksgiving Recipes

I don't have many Thanksgiving recipes. I usually spend this holiday in east Texas with my in laws and they do all the cooking. That suits me just fine. Thanksgiving cooking is less about meal prep and more performance art, so it's nice to not have the pressure. But here are some recipes you might consider adding to your own table this year.  Several of them were already featured in my Fall Recipe feature last month, so feel free to peruse that for even more seasonal inspiration.

Pie is usually how most of us enjoy our pumpkin during the fall. But for those who can't get enough pumpkin flavored baked goods, here's a recipe for pumpkin muffins featuring rye flour.  Pumpkin Curry Soup would make a delicious, yet slightly untraditional starter course for the big meal.
Sweet potatoes are an important part of Thanksgiving. Here's a casserole combining sweet potatoes and orange juice for a treat that's delicious, but not as a heavy and gooey as the traditional one with the marshmallows.

Apple crisp is an easy, but still seasonal alternative to pumpkin pie for dessert. And it tastes good with ice cream.
That doesn't seem like very many recipes, does it? Looks like I have some work to do this month.

UPDATE: True to my word, I've written up more of my Thanksgiving appropriate recipes for your eating enjoyment.  It's still not a huge amount, but I'm feeling more respectable now.

If you are looking for a non-traditional take on sweet potatoes, try these Chili Lime Roasted Sweet Potatoes. I guarantee you won't miss the butter and marshmallows.  For a bread course, check out these No Knead Dinner rolls. They are so easy, I make them for weeknight dinners. And if you need an easy to prepare, but super fancy looking appetizer, you definitely want to use my Holiday Baked Brie. It uses spicy pepper jelly for a surprising twist on a traditional appetizer.

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