Help me Plan Thanksgiving Dinner.

November 19, 2006 8:43 PM

[Thanksgiving Filter] Anyone have any great recipes for Thanksgiving?

I'm looking for recipes for this coming Turkey-day. Specifically, I want to know a killer recipe for stuffing. We lost our tried-and-true recipe for stuffing, and every time since then, our stuffing has come out really dry (we prefer our stuffings pretty moist). I'm also looking for dessert recipes: a killer apple or cherry pie, and a killer sweet potato pecan pie.

Also if anyone has any all-time favorites, that would be helpful too! I'm trying to mix it up this year...

My family eats anything, so no dietary, meat/veg restrictions or anything like that.

Thanks!

posted by unexpected to food & drink (14 comments total)

my wife has a really incredible linguica/cornbread stuffing recipe - email me and i'll send it to you - hundertwasser at yahoo dot com. i make my turkey with a maple syrup / chx stock / chili pepper / butter glaze that works very well also.
posted by luriete at 8:58 PM on November 19, 2006

I just went to a Thanksgiving potluck with friends, and I brought green beans in red pepper butter. This has been a family staple as long as I can remember, and it adds a nice twist to something (green beans) that most people have anyways.

There's not much of a recipe to it; you prepare the green beans as you normally would. At the same time, you slice a red pepper and sauté it in butter until it's reasonably soft. Then you pour the pepper and butter into your blender and purée them, and toss the green beans in the resulting sauce. Or that's how I was taught to make it.

Here's another sauce recipe for roasted red pepper sauce.
posted by anjamu at 9:02 PM on November 19, 2006

Alas ... my favorite meal of the year comes two days AFTER Thanksgiving, when all the viable slices have been taken from the turkey. That's when you take the chunks, shards, broken pieces and what's left of the gravy ... and make Turkey Croquettes.
posted by RavinDave at 10:49 PM on November 19, 2006

Moist you say... have you tried oyster stuffing?
posted by Pollomacho at 12:18 AM on November 20, 2006

If you follow stuffing recipes that are designed to be cooked in the bird, then they will be very dry, since they are designed to soak up the juices of the bird. This is especially true if it's vegetarian.

Find a recipe that looks tasty. If it is too dry, add some chicken broth (veggie broth will do, but find some good stuff that isn't just tomato water). Lots of butter helps, or even a splash of sweet sherry, port or vermouth. If the bread is still dry going into the oven, it will be dry coming out.

If you can add meat, a little sausage helps add moisture, as do apples.

Also remember that the bread will absorb herbs and spice flavors, so over-spice your dry stuffing.
posted by allan at 6:04 AM on November 20, 2006

Crock Pot Stuffing.

I've made this for a couple of years and it's a)tasty, b)moist, c)doesn't take up any room in the oven, and d)won't poison anybody (I'm paranoid about that whole stuffing-the-bird thing). For the bread, a mixture of torn-up challah and french bread works well--you can tear it up and toast it the night before.

For the turkey carcass: Turkey Bone Gumbo!
posted by paleography at 9:13 AM on November 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

A few years ago, we found out the secret of Grandma's Famous Cranberry Relish: it's printed on the bags. It's a great alternative to the jelly.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 9:35 AM on November 20, 2006

The best "moist" stuffing recipe bar none...


...and never, ever, ever do canned cranberry again...

Port Cranberry Sauce

1/2 cup of port wine
tbsp of orange zest
1/2 cup of orange juice
one bag of cranberries
3/4 cup of sugar

In a medium saucepan (preferably stainless) combine the port, zest, and OJ and bring to a boil. Add the cranberries and boil until they start to crack/pop. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved then simmer until the sauce begins to thicken...maybe 20 minutes. It should be served at room temperature but it refrigerates nicely for a week or two and makes a really nice gift dish to bring to someone else's fancy dinner.
posted by cyclopz at 10:33 AM on November 20, 2006 [3 favorites]

Use Pepperidge Farm Hebed Stuffing and follow the directions. Double the onion and celery, using at least a cup of each, well diced, and saute them in the butter over medium-low heat for a long time. Use chicken broth, never bouillion cubes. Have plenty of extra chicken broth on hand for the gravy and to moisten stuffing that gets too dry.

You can add sausage, cider (substitute for some of the broth) and/or diced apples to stuffing.
posted by theora55 at 10:39 AM on November 20, 2006

Stuffing/dressing is one of those things that really doesn't need a recipe, you just have to know the method and what it should look like before you put it in the oven. Make sure that you add enough liquid so that it basically looks like slop. The liquid will cook out slowly and leave you with delicious moist stuffing.

My family always makes very simple Cornbread Dressing. Chop up a bunch of celery and onions as finely as you can, and sautee until soft. Put in a large baking dish. Take a loaf of homemade cornbread that has sit out for a day and tear it into chunks. Place the bread chunks into the baking dish. Add a couple of cups of either Peppridge Farm stuffing or any type of bread you have on hand. Shake in some poultry seasoning or other herbs. Pour chicken broth/stock over the cornbread and mash it together with a potato masher. Continue adding broth until it looks like slop (about 3 cans). Bake for 45-60 minutes at 375F until it looks brown, moist, and yummy.

Now that you can see a basic recipe, do whatever you want with it! Hate cornbread? Use a type of bread you do like. Like fruit? Chop up some apples and sautee them with dried cranberries and the onions. Like sausage? Sautee that first then use the rendered fat to cook the veggies. Shake things up and use apple cider for some of the chicken broth. Make it southwestern with chorizo, corn, and chilies. The variations are endless.
posted by gatorae at 12:00 PM on November 20, 2006

I also second using the Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing, it is yummy. My aunt makes her dressing with Pepperidge Farm, and it is a huge hit. I will post the recipe if you interested.

My husband's uncle makes a stuffing with Italian sausage. It's even better than the Pepperidge Farm. He is a chef, and just throws things together. I don't know if he has an actual recipe written down, but I will definitely ask. Allrecipes.com also has some sausage recipes with very good reviews.

I make Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes every year. It's definitely not gourmet, but people go nuts.

I also love Tyler Florence's Whipped Sweet Potatoes. They are divine.

My MIL makes the best ever Pecan Pie. It's the recipe on the back of the Karo Syrup bottle. The only deviation is that she adds and extra cup of whole pecans. She makes a fabulous crust too, so that may be it. People line up for this pie. It's very, very popular.

My MIL has also made Ina Garten's cranberry conserve for the last two or three years. Definitely delicious.

Can you tell we like the Food Network?
posted by LoriFLA at 12:20 PM on November 20, 2006 [1 favorite]

I just stumbled across this recipe for apple cider pie, and if I wasn't going to be getting home super late on Wednesday for Thanksgiving, I'd totally be making it. But I won't have time, so why don't you and let me know how it turns out? :) Even before I read the recipe, I knew it would be awesome.
posted by AlisonM at 3:49 PM on November 20, 2006

I love acorn squash stuffed with a wild rice pilaf. Wild rice and acorn squash are native to the Americas, so I feel like I'm honoring the food of this land's early people when I eat it. It feels especially important to recognize Native Americans/Indians/Tribes on Thanksgiving, since it's the day that honors the help they gave to a society that eventually committed genocide against them. Plus, it's really tasty.

I halve and seed the squash, and cook at 350 degrees or so for an hour or so, cut side down in a pan with an inch of water at the base. It's done when it's easy to poke with a fork. I usually buy a pilaf-from-a-box kit. Slice the squash into rings, put the rice in the hole, slather on large quantities of butter. mmmmmmm
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:32 PM on November 20, 2006

Not quite what you asked for, but it is a Thanksgiving recipe and two members of my family in two different states will be trying it for the first time this year: AND IT LOOKS EASY!

Nantucket Cranberry Pie
This dessert from Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking (Harper Perennial 2000) is easy, pretty and delicious. From NPR website 11/15/06
Serves 6 to 8
For the Filling:
Butter, to grease a pie plate
2 cups chopped cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
For the Topping:
2 eggs
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place the cranberries in a buttered, 9- or 10-inch pie plate. Toss the sugar and walnuts, and sprinkle over the berries.
Mix together the eggs, butter, sugar, flour and almond extract until smooth.
Pour the topping over the cranberry mixture and bake for 40 minutes
posted by nnk at 7:06 AM on November 21, 2006 [1 favorite]