November 28

Thanksgiving Sides

Menu

• Brined Turkey
• Gravy
• Garlic Cream Mashed Potatoes
• Oyster Dressing
• Vegetarian Bread Fruit Dressing
• Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • 6 cups sweet potatoes (drained)
  • 12 tablespoons butter (divided)
  • .5 cup sugar
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • .75 cup coconut (divided)
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • .5 cup pecans
  • 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
  • .25 bag marshmallows

  Instructions

  We start by pre-heating the oven to 325 degrees.

  We bought one small can (29 oz.) and one large can (40 oz.) of yams (they really are sweet potatoes!). We reserve the remaining 1-2 cups of sweet potatoes for another use. The drained sweet potatoes we put into the bowl of our KitchenAid mixer since we were being lazy. This of course could have been done in a large bowl.

  We melt 8 tablespoons of butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave (2 minutes at 20% power). We add this to the bowl of sweet potatoes, along with the sugar and milk. We beat this on low power and then we add the eggs, one at a time, and beat on medium speed until incorporated. We add the vanilla, stir well with the mixer, and then remove the bowl.

  We spread half of the mixture into a 9 inch x 13 inch glass baking pan. To the rest of the mixture, we add the .5 cup of coconut and stir well with a rubber spatula.

  In the glass measuring cup, we melt the remaining butter in the microwave for 1 minute at 20% power. In our food processor, we combine the flour and pecans. We pulse until the pecans are crushed. Next we add the brown sugar and pulse to combine. With the machine on, we pour in the butter through the feed tube. We then add the rest of the coconut and pulse to combine. This is the topping for the sweet potatoes that are mixed with the coconut. This made a lot of topping, so maybe next time we can cut this in half, but.....it is thanksgiving!

  We spread the coconut-sweet potatoes into the other half of the baking dish and top these with the pecan-coconut topping. We bake this in the oven for an hour. We want it bubbling, the crust hardened, and the sweet potatoes that are not covered lightly browned. We are not eating right away, so we cool it for about a half hour and then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

  About 40 minutes before it is to be served, we reheat it at 350 degrees. Originally, we thought we could microwave it, but decided against it because of the sugary crust. Next time, we could try refrigerating it unbaked and then bake when ready. When it is hot, we add the marshmallows to the sweet potatoes without the coconut, spreading them in one layer. We bake for about 5 minutes and then broil them, watching carefully, until the marshmallows are golden.

• Orange Cranberry Sauce [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • 18 ounces cranberries (rinsed and picked over)
  • 1.5 cups orange juice
  • 1.5 cups sugar
  • 1 medium orange

  Instructions

  We start by picking over the cranberries and rinsing them in a colander. We had bought 2 bags of cranberries, but many of the cranberries were bruised (we discard these) so we ended up with about 1.5 bags, or 18 ounces of cranberries. For 2 12-ounce bags of cranberries, we would have used 2 cups of orange juice and 2 cups of sugar.

  We heat up the orange juice and sugar in a medium pot over medium-high heat. We stir and when the mixture comes to a boil, we continue to stir to dissolve the sugar for 30 seconds. Then we add the cranberries and lower the heat to medium-low. We simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. We skim the foam off the top with our skimmer and then pour the mixture into a large serving bowl. We let it cool for about an hour and then refrigerate it covered with plastic wrap.

  A few hours before we are ready to serve the cranberry sauce, we rinse an orange and pat it dry. We zest a little of the skin and then cut the top and bottom of the orange off. We put the orange cut-side down on a cutting board and cut the remaining skin off with a paring knife. Then we section the orange; going between the membranes with our knife, to get just the orange sections. We arrange these decoratively on the surface of the cranberry sauce and keep it refrigerated until it is time to eat!

• Canned Cranberry Sauce (for Boppy)
• Corn Pudding
• Vegetarian Garlic Green Beans
• Proscuitto Garlic Green Beans
• Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette, Pears and Manchego Cheese
• Homemade Yeast Rolls
• Apple Pie
• Pecan Pie
• Pumpkin Pie
• Apple Tartlets
• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Homemade Whipped Cream