Thanksgiving sides: Please post your finest!

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
21

I just threw up a little in my mouth

22

I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m thinking of doing a take on a potato gratin with mushroom and gruyere, maybe trying to find a good variety of nice mushrooms.

The recipe I’m basing it on can be found on Epicurious - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Potato-Gratin-with-Mushrooms-and-Gruyere-361811" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the corn recipe Bob.

23

Wild Rice Casserole

1 cup Wild Rice
1 Medium Onion - diced
1 Green Pepper - diced
4 oz mushrooms – sliced
1 can Cream Chicken Soup
¾ - 1 lb Bacon - diced
Salt & pepper to taste

Cook wild rice, drain and put in bowl
Brown bacon – remove and drain.
Saute onion, mushrooms and green pepper in some of the bacon drippings.
Combine cooked ingredients with wild rice saving some bacon to sprinkle on top. Stir in cream soup and sprinkle reserve bacon on top.
Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes

24

Here is a dish I have enjoyed over the years. Other family members are not excited about pearl onions or peas. I say, I’m cooking and I’m fixing what I like after all is said and done. Giving thanks to that!

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  • Exported from MasterCook *

Minted Sugar Snap Peas and Pearl Onions

Recipe By :Bon Appetit - November 1993
Serving Size : 12
Categories : Thanksgiving Vegetables

Amount Measure Ingredient – Preparation Method

1 pint pearl onions
2 pounds sugar snap peas – stringed
1/4 cup butter, unsalted – 1/2 stick
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
salt and pepper – to taste

MINTED SUGAR SNAP PEAS AND PEARL ONIONS IN BROWN BUTTER

Cook onions in saucepan of boiling water until crisp-tender, about 7 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to bowl of ice water. Return water in saucepan to boil. Add peas; cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain. Transfer to bowl of ice water and cool. Drain onions and peas. Peel onions. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover vegetables; chill.)

Cook butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat until butter browns, about 2 minutes. Add onions, peas and mint and saute until heated through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 74 Calories; 4g Fat (48.2% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 10mg Cholesterol; 72mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Vegetable; 1 Fat.

NOTES : A winner!
Formatted by Nancy Dolce

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Love the extra commentary, Squire Fleming. [berserker.gif]

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Some things I used to make before our store took over my life.

Cran/Raspberry/Port oranges. I would hollow out the oranges an make a gelatin with jellied cranberries, raspberry preserves and port. I’d cook it with Knox gelatin so it would set and pour it into the hollowed out oranges. Put them in the refrigerator until they set. Take them out and cut them as you would an orange into wedges but the filling was the Cran/Rasp/Port. Everyone loves them.

When I did my pumpkin pies instead of traditional crust I would use ginger snaps and raw oats. The spice from the ginger snaps gave it a great flavor along with the pie spices.

My regular cranberries always get a little orange zest, freshly ground cinnamon, clove & nutmeg. I’m not crazy about them but they have become a favorite for everyone else.

27

I feel like the grizzled old man, sitting on the park bench, remembering all the great treats I had in my younger years, when I was man of the house, the bread winner and husband. Now I’m the janitor and bottle washer but, I can’t complain, I still remember! flirtysmile

28

Careful, there. I grew up in Utah, which is famous for being the #1 consumer of Lime Jello per capita in the world. What Bob posted counts as the “vegetable” dish. neener

Several years ago, some friends and I were comparing our humble backgrounds and we decided to do a White Trash Thanksgiving before we all went home for the real deal. I don’t recall all of the dishes, but here’s what I vividly remember:

Frito Pies - complete with Hormel Chili and pre-shredded cheese
Pigs In A Blanket (made with Vienna Sausages)
KFC buckets - complete with all the sides and SPORKS
Green Bean and Cream of Mushroom Soup Casserole with French’s Onions on Top
Mozzarella Sticks with Ragu for dipping
Green Jello Salad
Hostess “Fruit” Pies
Dirt: crushed Oreos, Dream Whip, instant vanilla pudding layered in a flower pot. Plastic flower stuck in, and Gummi worms poking out

In fact, we all agreed that the White Trash version was somewhat more memorable than the real ones we all went home to. rolleyes

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[rofl.gif]

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Take that nasty picture of the green thing out of all further replies. I can’t take the torture! [soap.gif]

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I am finding this absolutely fascinating, reading and re-reading the recipe.

What corporate Nazi thought that combination was food?

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Hi Christine! I remember hearing about your White Trash TG. Thanks for the listing of dishes.

That lime jello treat is bad, but you can have minutes of fun pouring over the gross looking pictures from a Weight Watchers recipe album from the '70s. Here’s the link to one that really bothers me:

Here’s the whole album from Candyboots.com: Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974

And what Thanksgiving meal would be complete without this abomination?

650×606 83.6 KB

For lots more, with brilliant commentary, check out the wonderful Gallery of Regrettable Food: LILEKS (James) :: Institute :: The Gallery of Regrettable Food

33

Oh, my. I’m speecless. (rare occasion)

One more thing to be thankful for…my parents were foodies before it was fashionable! No green bean casseroles or Jell-O sides ever!

34

Love the Regrettable Food book. Hilarious.

35

Making this vegan side for my Daughter today. (I don’t know where I went wrong with my parenting, so don’t ask [swearing.gif])

2 pounds Brussels sprouts
1/2 cup dry red wine
3 tablespoons agave nectar
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water

De-stem and halve sprouts. Mix all but cornstarch and transfer to saucepan. Simmer covered for 15 min then uncovered for another 10 min. Dissolve cornstarch in a bit of water, add to pan and cook another 5 min until sprouts are well glazed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

36

What do you think “seafood salad” means to the person who wrote that Jello recipe…fish sticks and canned tuna with tartar sauce?

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Easy on the canned tuna, big fella. newhere

38

I have a little story about my Keller butternut squash dish. I found perfect Shiitake mushrooms at my local Korean store, and cut up a couple of big butternut squash. This was to go for 14 people so first I did it as Keller suggests, using only the straight shaft (which allows you to keep the pieces even and rectangular) – and then realized I needed more so I used the round bulbs as well.

But the sticking point is always the Parisian gnocchi, which are completely different from any other gnocchi. They don’t use potatoes, but are flour-based and very rich with grated Comté cheese and herbs. You pipe them from a pastry bag into a big pan of boiling water, and in my experience you have to make a huge mess, and at the end there is smeared batter and butter and flour all over the kitchen. And getting the texture right is rather difficult. Given all the other stuff going on in my life I finally decided to punt. But I figured out a compromise, and sort of smothered the squash with herbs (chives, tarragon, and parsley) and grated Comté which melted over the hot squash just before we took it to the party. So I got some of the flavor of these elegant little gnocchi into the squash without going through the torture of making them.

There was a girl at the party who is a good cook but who had never heard of Thomas Keller. She recognized the combination of Shiitake mushrooms and butternut squash, and said “Oh, I make that too!” I said “you DO??? What do you do about the gnocchi?” “I just buy them. You get them in a little plastic bag in the freezer section…”

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Great story, Frank. My guess is you will make this again soon with frozen gnocchi!

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No, no, no!! I am completely familiar with frozen gnocchi.

The whole point of the Keller gnocchi is to introduce those extra flavors in among the squash and mushrooms. Those gnocchi are little flavor bombs full of tarragon, chervil, and cheese and the flavor is just extremely elegant.

I was shocked at the suggestion of using potato gnocchi, I can’t even see the point of doing that, except to add a little textural variation. What I did yesterday was way better…

Actually I will probably make another batch of the Keller gnocchi, since we will be in Butternut Squash season for a few more months. If I hadn’t been up against eleven separate deadlines I would have made them this week. The disadvantage is that they are difficult, but the advantage is that his recipe makes hundreds of the little boogers, and you bag them up and freeze them, and the NEXT time you want to make the squash recipe you just yank 'em out of the freezer.