Someone in Shortages Thread said we need a thread for holiday recipes. I agree only any occasion is fine. Last summer I had a bumper crop of butternut squash. Now I'm addicted to it.
Quick and easy Butternut Squash soup or sauce:
Peel a butternut squash (they are in season now so cheap). Use a good peeler and it goes quickly.
Remove the seeds, cut into big chunks, boil or steam then put in blender, add coconut milk and blend.
Serve topped with generous amounts of whatever spices you like. I like grated nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, pepper, maple syrup and a dollop of goat cheese. But butternut squash is adaptable.
Holiday Roasted Butternut squash with cranberries and toasted walnuts or pecans:
- Peel the squash, cut into 1 or 2 inch cubes
- Roast in oven with olive oil dribbled over and under it, as well as dried cranberries, plenty of rosemary, cinnamon, salt and pepper. It's done when it is soft.
- Then serve as a side dish with goat cheese dollops and toasted walnuts or pecans.
@jeanne-mayell I'm a sommelier for carbonated beverages. But if you don't want the "Zero" variety (because some people avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague and with good reason) they make it in the original variety too. You'll love it! IT's got the coke flavor with just a hint of an orange creamsicle.
@earthangel We should keep each other apprised of our our cooking adventures go on Thanksgiving day! I cook year round for my family so it's usually the day I take off. I've never made ANY of the Thanksgiving staples -- let alone the bird before. This is going to be interesting for sure! I'll channel my inner Julia Child "You're alone in the kitchen!"
@dannyboy I usually eat very clean. My main junk food is plain yogurt with maple syrup. But every once in awhile, I need something strong.
@jeanne-mayell @dannyboy @earthangel I am a really good Southern cook if I say so myself..and going by the comments of family and friends they agree. I gave up sodas a long time ago except when I am sick and then I do Cranberry Ginger-ale or Mexican cokes made with cane sugar no HFCS or aspartame or any of that.
My weakness? is I make batches of homemade cookies,pies and cakes and share them so I do not eat them all. Today? I just made a big batch of chocolate chip pecan cookies... and I still have all but one slice of a buttermilk pie. I was thinking of making a poundcake LOL... I can see we are all in to comfort foods these last few stressful days!!!!
I wish y'all lived close enough to help me eat these and save me from myself!!!
@journeywithme2 If there were a messaging feature in here I'd be messaging you my address for some of those cookies :P. I've never had buttermilk pie but I'm curious :P.
@Jeanne-Mayell I went Keto two years ago and have lost 87 pounds (would have lost more but there were some periods there -- including the Pandemic. Hoping to lose a total of 120 and maintain) and since then I have easily given up all my food vices.
But the Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pie cookies -- oh heavens to Mergatroid. That's my go-to for stress eating. I can take or leave anything else (besides popcorn -- I guess that's my other vice) but if those cookies come within my line of sight it's all over. I have three in my car ready to go for Tuesday... if they make it that long. ???
@dannyboy I did keto and now low carb for maintenance - My max carb intake is 60 carbs a day to keep the weight off. Yes... air popped popcorn is my #1 go to for stress eating LOL TBS? This Pandemic and all the changes and stress plus the elections.. have me baking and cooking and giving it away... tho I have eaten some myself... and yes.. I gained 5 lbs back since March :-( most days? I am good and do not have easy access.. and some days? like this week? it's been making and eating :-( TBS? I know my weaknesses and do curtail myself.. if I fall off the wagon a tad around the Holidays... I do know how to cut back and make up for it.
All things in moderation :-)
Buttermilk Pie.. it's a Southern thang LOL Check it out: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13802/buttermilk-pie/
@dannyboy Yes, we should! I’d love to see/hear what people are cooking up (or ordering in). I’m grateful for this community. Truly lightens the load of isolation. ❤️
@journeywithme2 that tends to be reaction to stress. I love baking too. As far as the holidays, my mother's birthday is close to thanksgiving so I try to make special treats off and on through the whole month to celebrate both that way its not too many sweets all at once. For thanksgiving, I usually put together a fruit salad with apples, oranges, pineapple, peaches, and grapes. It's kind of light treat to balance against pies and heavier dinner. I look forward most to Christmas time because my family always had a tradition of baking and making candy together. My great grandmother used to always mail us a big box of cookies that she baked, filled with all kinds of cookies like fresh gingerbread men, wedding cake cookies, and so on. She was this tiny little woman who wore an apron bigger than she was and her whole passion during the holiday season was sending out her love in the form of baking to all us all over the country. I miss those special packages so much. I tried to follow her inspiration and do the same for some of my friends who are like family. I think there is something really special to share your caring through food.
@journeywithme2 oh no. no. If I made that pie, I'd eat the whole thing.
@DannyBoy O.M.G. I could eat about 100 Oatmeal Creme Pies and never look back! They are one of my kryptonite junk foods and therefore I never keep them in the house. I sidestep past the snack cake aisle because I also could eat about 150 Devil Dogs. ?
I am definitely a stress baker. Thankfully I have lots of family and friends around to share my bounty with. One of my best friends bought me an apron early in the pandemic that says "currently stress baking". In April and May I was making bread every other day and a cake or cookies every weekend. My sweets addicted brother told me to stop because his pants were getting too tight. I am the opposite of the stress eater. My stomach gets super jumpy and I subsist on crackers and seltzer.
@jeanne-mayell LOL There may be...not telling on myself... a couple of slices of it eaten tonight!
I actually LOVE cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I always make it, usually it is just the 4 of us, occasionally family from out of town joins us. I have been doing it for years. We make the pumpkin pies a day or 2 ahead of time and 1 or 2 side dishes ahead. I only have one oven so planning is key.
For 3 years when my children were in Middle/High school I also made a complete Thanksgiving meal the week before so they could celebrate a Friendsgiving with their close friends. So, 2 Thanksgivings in one week. Yea, that was nuts, but memorable and they loved it.
Sometimes my birthday falls on Thanksgiving and while I would rather NOT cook all day on my birthday, what can you do? That's life.
One great thing about cooking Thanksgiving dinner is that the house smells wonderful.
For me, Thanksgiving is just that. A time to be with family and reflect on all the blessings in our life. The food is a double blessing, being able to have a bountiful feast, and creating memories of cooking and eating together. Traditions too. After desert we start the Holiday season by singing Christmas carols and a family tradition of creating a song and playing it on crystal goblets filled with water (filled at different levels for different pitches) and recording it for social media.
Ok, now I can't wait for Thanksgiving, can you tell?
Lovely holiday tradition especially Friendshiving (my kids do their own at their houses for their friends the weekend before --or they did! Now with children of their own it's very challenging).
Now with Covid we most likely not going to be able to merge 4 households with work contact upping the danger ante. Sigh.
We all will miss our family of 12 gathering and even harder we probably will have to give up our big family Christmas.
Oh the little losses are adding up too quickly but as long as we have no big losses we will sacrifice and keep hoping and praying!
Oh i love love love your family singing together too! Last year we had the little ones playing with our preschool musical instruments after Thanksgiving dinner. Several of us joining in the clanging, banging and kazooing and spontaneously tried to teach them Christmas carols. It was hilarious.
Each memory of the verses varied and i had to resort to 40 year old Little Golden Books of Christmas stories (Away in a Manger, Jungle Bells, Rudolph, Little Drummer Boy to find the actual lyrics! What a hoot. We laugh until we cried and the preschoolers loved it all!
@lovendures well the week of Thanksgiving I may have to create a Thanksgiving non-intuitive prediction thread so that I can ask you a bunch of questions about how exactly I’m going to do all of this! ??. I like the pie making several days early thing. And call it a hunch, but I don’t think those yams candy themselves.
" And call it a hunch, but I don’t think those yams candy themselves."
Hahahahaha! Oh the stories we all shall have to tell!
Can't wait for yours dannyboy!
Oh my goodness.. were will I post my famous cranberry chutney recipe? its a real keeper.. ? ? ?
@journeywithme2 Deborah Carey is my sister, and her cranberry chutney is amazing! We have done large family Thanksgiving in the past, but this year it will just be the two of us. We will still enjoying cooking the feast together.
@mtgal99 Y'all gonna have to share that recipe!!! We need to start a Holiday post thread!!! Share good memories and recipes of feasts gone by and encourage and support one another for this Thanksgiving and Christmas.. anyone interested in a thread like that?