<p>Spending Thanksgiving with the in-laws in Nashville then going to the Tennessee-Kentucky game in Lexington on Saturday.</p>
<p>RE: sweet potato recipe. Giada is making sweet potato gnocchi with butter and maple syrup sauce on Food Network right now. It looks really good so far. The recipe should be on her site.</p>
<p>All I ever do to sweet potatoes is mash them and add a lot of butter, salt, pepper and orange juice.</p>
<p>My second favorite way to eat them is as sweet potato pie.</p>
<p>Here is my kid’s favorite: Sweet Potato Casserole (Freeze and Bake)
Prep time: 2 hours,
Number of Servings: 10-12</p>
<p>Ingredients:
15-20 sweet potatoes (need 9 cups mashed)
2 1/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 teasp. salt
15 regular marshmallows
3/4 cup margarine
6 tablesp. milk (opt)
3 teasp. grated orange rind
2-3 cups crushed pecans (or corn flake crumbs if nut allergic)</p>
<p>Instructions: Boil sweet potatoes for 1 1/2 hours or until soft. Peel skins. In very large bowl, mash sweets with butter/margarine, milk, orange rind, sugar and salt. Spread a one-inch layer of sweet potato mixture on bottom of a 9 X 13 (X 4) aluminum pan. Put marshmallows on next layer (about 12 -15) spacing them about 2 inches apart. Put another layer of sweet potato mixture next. Sprinkle pecans/corn flake crumbs on top. Cover with aluminum foil and freeze. Bake frozen at 350 degrees for 2 hours (uncover after first hour).</p>
<p>We’ve done Thanksgiving with another family at their house for the past few years. This year my son is in his apartment for the first time, doing his own cooking (and experimenting more than I thought he would – fried okra! shrimp tostadas! made his own paneer cheese!). We were talking about Thanksgiving plans and he asked, “Shall I bring something?” Awww.</p>
<p>Moominmama: Smiling right now over that image! Young child becomes competent adult who wants to help out and be part of the solution. Isn’t that what we all long for??</p>
<p>On last year’s Thanksgiving thread there were a number of sweet potato recipes: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/250202-thanksgiving-recipes.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/250202-thanksgiving-recipes.html</a></p>
<p>Maple and Tarragon sweet potato recipe. From Vegetarian Gourmet, Fall 1995:</p>
<p>4 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced (I don’t use quite as much)
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 canola oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dried tarragon</p>
<p>*preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a shallow 2-qt. casserole dish
*Arrange sweet potato slices in overlapping rows in dish.
*combine next 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Pour evenly over potatoes and sprinkle with tarragon.
*Cover and bake until easily pierced with a fork but still firm, about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until glazed and golden around the edges, about 25 minutes.</p>
<p>Serves 10</p>
<ol>
<li> Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Pears (Bon Appetit Nov 1994)</li>
</ol>
<p>5lbs red skinned sweet potatoes</p>
<p>6TB unsalted butter room temp
4 large firm and ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1/3 inch thick slices
3/4 cup (or more) pear nectar (Goya makes some)</p>
<p>1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp (generous) ground cardamom</p>
<p>Preheat Oven 400F Butter 13x9x2 inch glass baking dish for final cooking</p>
<p>Pierce potatoes all over with fork, place on cookie sheet, bake til tender when pierced with knife, about 1 hr…remove from oven, reduce heat to 350F</p>
<p>Meantime, melt 2TB butter in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium high heat, add pears, sautee until they start to soften, about 5 min, then add 3/4 cup nectar, bring to simmer…reduce heat to med low, cover and simmer til very tender, adding more nectar if mixture sticks to skillet… stir often about 4 minutes…transfer to food processor and puree…</p>
<p>Peel sweet potatoes, place in large bowl of electric mixer,
Add 4 TB butter, beat til smooth…
Mix in pear puree, sugar, cinnamon and cardamom
Season with salt & pepper
Transfer to prepared, buttered baking disk…can be covered and chilled for up to 1 day ahead…</p>
<p>Bake uncovered until just heated thru … about 20 min</p>
<p>8 servings…enough for normal Thanksgiving crowds as folks take a little of everything…I like these because they are lighter than most sweet potatoe dishes…so many things are “heavy” that these are a nice variation…
(posted by maineparent)</p>
<ol>
<li> Pecan Sweet Potatoes</li>
</ol>
<p>1 can sweet potatoes, drained (2 cups mashed)
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
3 T melted butter
1/4 c. sweet milk
1 t vanilla
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/2 c. chopped pecans
3 T flour
3 T melted butter</p>
<p>Mix sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, egg, melted butter, milk and vanilla and pour in greased casserole, Then mix sugar, pecans and flour. Pour in melted butter and mix. Put on top of potatoes. Bake 35 minutes at 350.
(posted by roshke)</p>
<p>and to complete your lovely dinner…Ham soda pop. Last year they featured turkey, gravy and even sweet potato pop.</p>
<p>[Comcast.net</a> News - Odd - Mmmmmmmm: Fizzy, Bottled Ham](<a href=“Discovery Hub - News & Technology”>Discovery Hub - News & Technology)</p>
<p>yuk.:)</p>
<p>How about butternut squash bisque?</p>
<p>Now this could be interesting . . . </p>
<p>S1 just called to chat and, by the way, he said, would it be OK if he brought someone home with him for Thanksgiving?</p>
<p>What? What?!! Who??? Is it a female person? Holy cow!!</p>
<p>Stay tuned.</p>
<p>Looking for stuffing recipe that does not use sausage, or corn bread.</p>
<p>VeryHappy, you are absolutely right. Raising Kids Who Contribute is indeed the goal. And you’re getting an actual GIRL guest at your T-day table? Another milestone! Keep us posted.</p>
<p>We watch “Home for the Holidays” the week before Thanksgiving.
It makes any dysfunctional family look like the Cleavers, but it’s also
sweet and romantic in the end.</p>
<p>Then we are going to visit my brother who lives outside of Boston
for the long weekend, and get that good Over the River and Through
the Woods wintertime chill experience. My sister-in-law will stuff us
with recipes out of The Silver Palate cookbook, and will be generally
funny and gracious (How did my brother ever deserve such a wife??
Ah well, good for him.) And then, we return home, 5 pounds heavier.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, for stuffing we use:
1 bag Pepperidge Farm Herb stuffing
1 cup celery
1 cup mushrooms
1 cup onion
1 cup walnuts
1 can chicken broth
1 cup organge juice
1 stick butter/margerine</p>
<p>Bring broth, OJ, and butter to a boil. When butter is melted, remove from heat and add stuffing and chopped celery, mushrooms, onion, and walnuts.</p>
<p>TheAnalyst, this is just what I was looking for. I wanted something easy, as I have so many dishes to make. Thank you! Also, you can you make this the day before and then reheat or do you really recommend making it on Thanksgiving?</p>
<p>We make it in the morning and actually stuff the turkey (which I know some people don’t do any more). But we always have some that won’t fit in the turkey. It is great as a side if needed and in subsequent days so I don’t think there is any problem making it the day before. The veggies are not cooked in the water so are crisp enough to stand the reheating. I would add a little butter and OJ when reheating, however, to keep it really moist.</p>
<p>I used to try to cook as much as possible in advance and then reheat, but have switched techniques in recent years as I am always ready to eat as soon as the turkey is finished and don’t have the patience to wait for all the reheated sides to get really hot. I do take Wednesday as a vacation day and cook the pies (because the oven is taken up with the turkey on THE day) and set the table in advance, but get up at 5:00 a.m. and just spend the day cooking on Thursday. My mother comes from out of town and helps with the chopping and peeling, as does H (particularly for those hard as nails rutabagas) and it is a nice social activity with the Macy’s parade on in the background. I am trying to get each of the boys to prepare a signature dish since they both enjoy cooking but they have avoided getting involved at Thanksgiving for some reason. They may have decided it is worth avoiding the kitchen on that day as I can sometimes get snappish. I need to learn to “chill” as they would say.</p>
<p>My favorite Thanksgiving activity is preparing the main table centerpiece and flower arrangements for the dessert table. For the big table, I use things from things the yard–Nandina, Dusty Miller, fresh herbs, Impatiens, etc.–that I arrange in big platters with small floating candles. Then I have several large arrangements with Acuba, Holly and other plants from the garden. This year, I have a lot of black eyed susans still in bloom and even some roses. I love Thanksgiving. I have cooked it at our house for 23 years, missing only the year S1 was born (11/22 birthday).</p>
<p>The Analyst- If you only get snappish I think my family would rather come your way! I get a bit out of hand as we have anywhere from 23-35 for dinner. I have been know to raise my voice and get mad as the clean up that my children are suppose to do, doesn’t happen as quickly as I would like. Of course, everything gets done, just not as early as I would like.</p>
<p>As Thanksgiving is the only big holiday that I host my kids prefer to stay in their rooms until is it time for company to arrive to avoid the wrath of mom!!</p>
<p>For years we’ve gone to my brother and sister-in-law’s house in Austin for Thanksgiving, but my Dad does not travel well anymore, so I get the honor of hosting Thanksgiving this year. It will be 12 of us – including my son’s roommate from China (who will be celebrating his first American Thanksgiving).</p>
<p>I think I’m going to make a pie (or two – I just got a Kitchenaid stand mixer and want to make everything) to take to my in-laws’. My MIL really enjoys staying up all night before holidays and cooking up a storm, so I’ll have to stake out and defend a spot in the fridge if I want to take anything.</p>
<p>I’m the dessert queen in my family–I love making pies and cheesecakes. Yum.</p>