Thanksgiving Recipes

Parent Cafe
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<p>In honor of T’giving, I will try to give you a recipe for chicken dressing. For the non-Southerners out there, most families in the deep South would not have “stuffing” with the turkey, unless they are coastal, and have oyster stuffing - we eat “dressing”. Dressing is as much a main dish as a side, in fact as a kid we often had this as a main dish.</p>

<p>Chicken dressing
1 fryer (or a pack of thighs and split breast)
1/2 half onion
2 ribs of celery
1 1/2 tsp of salt
black pepper
1 1 tsp poultry seasoning
Water to just cover
Quarter the onion and celery, place in stewpot with chicken, water and seasoning, stew until meat falls off the bone, and you have rich stock. Remove meat from bone, onion and celery. I usually strain the stock, but you want the fat to go in the dressing, so don’t remove too much of the fat.</p>

<p>Cornbread
Make a 12" cast iron skillet of cornbread. Use buttermilk, 3 eggs, and white (very important) cornmeal mix. You may have noticed I’m not measuring. Cornbread batter should be the consistency of very thick pancake batter, or thinnish muffin batter. For 12" of cornbread, I’d use about 2 1/2-3 cups of mix and 1-1 1/2 cups of buttermilk, plus the 3 eggs.
Cool and crumble into the biggest bowl you have.
Tear up 2-3 slices of stale loaf bread, and add to the corn bread crumbs.</p>

<p>Saute 1 large onion and 3 ribs of celery finely chopped (including the tops) in 3 tsps of the stock. When the onion and celery is soft and becoming translucent, add 2-3 tsp of cayenne pepper and 2 tsp of ground sage. Pour on top of the crumbs.
Crack 3 eggs into the crumb/veggie mixture. Pour on the stock. You want the final consistency to be like lumpy muffin batter, thick but still pours, barely. Add the reserved meat of the chicken (all of it, yes). Mix with your hands.
This is way not OK, but anyway - my Mama would now taste the dressing for salt, pepper and sage, yes taste it raw, it’s not bad. It should taste like chicken flavored cornbread - not too salty, definite kick from the pepper, but not spicy, with the sage in the background. It is very easy to over season, especially the sage, and you can’t get the taste back, so she always under seasoned, then adjusted.
Pour into at least a 13X9 dark roasting pan, do NOT press down, just pour it in and spread out.</p>

<p>Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. You MUST use a dark pan - cast iron skillet, or dark aluminum roasting pan, etc. The crust is the best part, so aim for the dressing to be only about 2-3 inches thick - thicker will cook longer and have less crust. It is done when it is set firm, golden brown surface with dark edges.</p>

<p>Delicious hot or cold. Can make broth, chicken, and cornbread ahead. Can mix up whole thing ahead and bake on T’giving, but doesn’t reheat well - leftovers better cold or room temp (we didn’t worry too much about food poisoning.
May need to add some chicken broth to get consistency right, that’s fine, I’ve even made it with canned chicken and ckicken broth, but don’t use only fat-free chicken broth, it has to have some richness.</p>

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<p>Ahead of time, I’ll suggest that everyone make a Turkey Carcass Soup.</p>

<p>Cover the picked-over turkey with water and a bay leaf, adding lots of chopped root vegetables (parsnips are essential; I also love onions, carrots, leeks, celeriac, and parsley root). Add fresh herbs of your choice. Simmer for an hour or two (it doesn’t really matter), then take the turkey bones out and clean the remaining meat into the soup pot. Salt and pepper the soup to taste. Add uncooked rice, barley, or noodles and simmer until done.</p>

<p>This is good for what ails you, freezes beautifully, and doesn’t feel like you’re eating the same old turkey over and over.</p>

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<p>Turkey sandwiches</p>

<p>Homemade bread is great. Store-bought rye with seeds is, too. Toasting is key.</p>

<p>We love using homemade cranberry/orange relish instead of mayo (H also puts in mayo). Put some stuffing in the sandwich. Sometimes a little diced onion. Sometimes a little bacon. Always a good bit of lettuces and other greens. </p>

<p>Have watched my nephew add mashed potatoes and some gravy. </p>

<p>We like to cut most of the turkey off, cover it well, and store it in the refrigerator (solves the problem of how much room the carcass takes up), and start the carcass for soup. A good bit of the meat and gravy go into “glop” and we serve that on Sunday mid-afternoon over broad noodles before a long nap.</p>

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<p>Mmm those sandwiches sound great…the best part of Thanksgiving in my humble opinion. Mayo is a must though :D</p>

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<p>Thank you for the turkey soup recipe, I will make that!</p>

<p>We love the turkey sandwiches made with whole grain bread toasted (whole wheat/flax is a current favorite), with dijon mustard, whole cranberry sauce (Trader Joe’s has a delicious orange cranberry one in a jar), butter lettuce, and turkey. Also if you can find cranberry mustard, that is a good substitute. Sometimes we add a bit of jack or jarlsberg cheese too. </p>

<p>Happy Thanksgiving to all. All of my kids have SO much homework over the break–high schoolers and college student alike. Hopefully they can relax a little bit over the winter break (although only one will be finished with finals)…</p>

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<p>

YEP!! I just made two loaves! Here’s the recipe. This comes out looking and tasting like bread from the finest bakery!</p>

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<p>Berurah, What is the VERY hot water for??? Jump starting the rise? I ask because I’ve made bread before and killed the yeast by making the yeast dissolving water a little too hot. I love homemade bread, and never have time to make it.
Do you have a recipe that allows you to freeze the dough, then thaw and rise?</p>

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<p>cangel~</p>

<p>Know what you mean about the yeast. I make homemade bread, pizza dough, soft pretzels, etc., and when I first started making the pizza, I killed the yeasties once or twice! <em>lol</em> :rolleyes:</p>

<p>By trial and error, I found out the perfect temp for the water for yeast is to run it from the tap warmer and warmer on the inside of your wrist until it is hot (and leaves your skin pink) but where it is still tolerable–scientific I know. I know that there’s a certain temperature range for water that will dissolve with the yeast but not kill it, but since I don’t go by a thermometer, I use the above way. </p>

<p>The VERY hot water in this recipe is not for the yeast. It is to mix with the first three cups of flour into a smooth, paste-like consistency, so it has to be hotter than the water you use for the yeast.</p>

<p>One of the things I like about this bread recipe is that it takes much less time than other bread recipes. There is only one rising, and many times, depending upon the weather and such, it doesn’t take a full 45 minutes. Once you get used to making this recipe, it can be done really quickly, but I’ll admit that since I’d never known anyone who baked homemade bread, it took me a bit longer as I had to do everything by trial and error.</p>

<p>And…It comes out GORGEOUS. No comparison, aesthetically, to a bread machine, but like bread you’d bring home in a long brown bag from a fabulous bakery.</p>

<p>I’ve never frozen the dough either before or after rising, but I know you can freeze doughs of all kinds. I’m just not sure of the exact process or whether it should/could be frozen before or after it rises.</p>

<p>~berurah</p>

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<p>When I use dry yeast for homebrewing I hydrate the yeast in 90 degree water. It seems to work nicely. I also chill my wort to 70 degrees before I pitch my yeast. Anyway, if you have a thermometer to check your tap water I would say you would be safe anywhere between 70 and 90 degrees.</p>

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<p>I use a warmer temp for the yeast than wharfrat…about hot tub temp, definitely over 100 degrees, but not over 115.</p>

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<p>

:eek: I have reported this post as offensive. You should be hearing from the Mod Squad soon.</p>

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<p>^^^^ <strong><em>roflmao</em></strong></p>

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<p>My recipes are slightly less involved . For a post breakfast pre-dinner dessert taste treat I recommend something from my new book Dining at the Refrigerator Door. Take one can of RediWhip Whipped Cream. Remove the cap. Place the nozzle directly into your wide open mouth. Fill to capacity. Swallow. Repeat until you are caught. Run like Hell.</p>