Thanksgiving Meal: Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Cream Pie

I got my pumpkin pie recipe from Martha Stewart. Again, not a huge fan of this traditional Thanksgiving dessert but I love love LOVED it!! I even made it again a couple of weeks later. Although I put the link, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 Basic Pie Crust, rolled and fitted into a 9-inch pie plate (I used a premade Pillsbury pie crust to save time and energy)
• 1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for serving
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-ounce envelope)
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

The gelatin part might sound weird, but it helps the homemade whip cream keep its shape. You can’t taste it so no worries!

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Press a sheet of aluminum foil onto crust, draping over rim of pie plate. To blind-bake: Fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake until edge of crust is firm, about 20 minutes. Remove beans and foil; let crust cool completely, and set aside.
2. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Make filling: In a medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, pie spice, vanilla, and salt; whisk in cream. Pour mixture into cooled crust; place pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until filling is set, about 1 hour. Let cool on a wire rack, 1 hour; refrigerate to cool completely, about 2 hours.
3. Make topping: Place 3 tablespoons cold water in a small saucepan; sprinkle with gelatin, and let soften, about 5 minutes. Place pan over very low heat; stir until gelatin dissolves. Let cool slightly. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream and sugar until very soft peaks form. While beating, slowly add gelatin mixture; continue to beat until soft peaks form.
4. With a rubber spatula, mound topping in center of chilled pie. Refrigerate at least 1 hour more (or up to 1 day). Sprinkle with more cinnamon before serving.
   

Take Home Gift: Potted Pumpkin Pies

I found this really cute idea for a party favor here and had to try it! I used the Martha Stewart Pumpkin Cream Pie recipe but then just put it in little mason jars for people to take with them. It was a hit!

You can find the directions here to make your own!

 

And that was our Thanksgiving Dinner!!

Hope you enjoyed the little walk through. Let me know if you try the recipes and how you like them!

Thanksgiving Meal: My Mother’s Famous Rolls

My Mom’s World-Famous Rolls

This may not be the best picture…. but I’m telling you these rolls are GOLD!! And I’m going to share the recipe (from my mom’s own words) with the blog world right now. You can thank me later :)

Full Recipe (Half Recipe in parentheses)

• 5 cups warm water (2 ½ cups warm water)
• 4 tablespoons yeast (2 tablespoons yeast)
• 1 cup sugar (½ cup sugar)
• 2/3 cup instant powdered milk (1/3 cup instant powdered milk)
• 1 cup canola oil (½ cup canola oil)
• 4 eggs (2 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons salt (1 tablespoon salt)
• 16 cups flour (5 pounds) (8 cups flour) (My mom likes bread flour)

This is in my mom’s words (she does this by memory, by the way):

I run the water out of the tap until it is at its hottest. Measure 5 cups hot water into a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Add the sugar and mix with a spoon or whisk. Let the yeast mixture sit for about 20 minutes to let the yeast grow. Halfway through the yeast mixture “sitting” sprinkle in the instant powdered milk, canola oil and eggs. After 20 minutes, add 6 cups of flour (3 cups if using the half recipe). Mix until everything is smooth. Add another cup of flour and the salt. Mix again until smooth. Keep adding a cup of flour at a time. If you are using a Bosch mixer, change the whisk attachment to the dough hook when the dough becomes too stiff for the whisk. (I can’t remember how many cups of flour this would be.) After changing to the dough hook, keep adding the flour until it doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl. Then knead for 8 minutes.

Grease a large bowl with shortening or a tablespoon of oil. Put the dough in the bowl and turn to coat all sides. Cover with a clean towel and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled. Punch dough down and turn again in the bowl and let rise until doubled.

Shape into rolls and place in pans greased with cooking spray. Spray the tops of the rolls with the spray and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. It all depends upon your oven.  Take the rolls out and cool on in the pan on a cooling rack.  Rub the top of the rolls with Crisco shortening on a paper towel while they are still hot.

Thanksgiving Meal: Ham & Turkey

 Ham

This was easy enough. We just bought a large ham from the store and followed the heating directions. Adam also poured honey over it and then put it in the oven for a couple more minutes to heat up. Good stuff!

Turkey Breasts with Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 frozen turkey breast
• 1 can cranberry sauce (I used a can of whole cranberries)
• I packet of instant onion soup mix

Directions

• Place frozen turkey in crockpot
• Mix cranberry sauce and soup mix in bowl then pour over turkey
• Cook on HI for 2 hours then LOW for 4-6 hours

I don’t have a picture of the turkey but it was SO GOOD! My sister gave me this recipe from when she made it one year for Thanksgiving. I am not a fan of turkey either cause I think it’s too dry and has no taste. But this recipe was not the case. And it’s so easy! LOVED IT!

Thanksgiving Meal: Mashed Potatoes

Garlic & Herb Mashed Potatoes

 

Ingredients:

• 5-6 large potatoes, peeled and boiled until soft, (I can’t remember how many exactly I used… especially cause the potatoes I had were smaller. But just go by how many people you are serving)
• Butter and milk to mash potatoes
• 1 5.2oz. container of semisoft cheese with garlic and herbs (I used the Laughing Cow cheese wedges with Garlic and Herbs. It worked really well. I think I used about 6 wedges to get the ounces right.)
• 3 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley (I cheated and used dried parsley)
• Canned French-fried onions (optional)

Directions:

• Cook potatoes until soft enough to mash. Mash with butter and milk (I don’t measure so just enough to your liking)
• Stir in cheese and parsley. If desired, sprinkle with French-friend onions

Makes 4-6 servings

Thanksgiving Meal: Sides

Salad

• Head of lettuce or Romaine lettuce
• Baby spinach
• Green onions
• Red onions-sliced very thin
• Tomato
• Cucumber
• Feta cheese
• Walnuts
• Croutons

Toss all ingredients together with Caesar dressing

YUM!

My mother-in-law helped me with this. She seriously makes the best salads! It seems really simple and maybe everyone knew that you could put all this stuff, but my salads were always really boring. So thank you Mom Robinson for telling me your tricks!

 

Oh-So-Good Corn Bread Stuffing

I found this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens when I was trying to decide my menu. I’m not a big stuffing girl but this was awesome!

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped, peeled, raw sweet potatoes
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 tablespoon snipped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 5 cups coarsely crumbled corn bread
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 to 4 tablespoons chicken broth
• 1/4 cup margarine or butter

Directions:

1. In a large skillet cook sweet potatoes, onion, and celery in hot margarine or butter for 5 to 7 minutes or until just tender.
2. Spoon mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in cilantro and ginger. Add cornbread and walnuts; toss gently to coat. Add enough chicken broth to moisten.
3. Use to stuff one 8- to 10-pound bird (didn’t do) or place stuffing in a 1-1/2 to 2 quart casserole.
4. Bake casserole, covered, in a 375 degree F. oven about 45 minutes or until heated through. Makes about 6 cups stuffing

(10servings).
Make-Ahead Tip: Prepare stuffing; cover and chill up to 24 hours. Do not use to stuff bird. Bake in casserole as directed.

Thanksgiving Meal: in parts

Since it was voted on my home blog that people still wanted to know what we did for the holidays, I figured I would post our menu and recipes for Thanksgiving dinner.

This Thanksgiving I really wanted to go all out. {At the time} I thought it was going to be our last Thanksgiving here in Provo with our cousins and friends. And since we had extra grocery money, I really wanted to try to cook it all from scratch!

And I did!

[minus the pie crust]

Here is what was on the menu:

Salad

Corn Bread Stuffing

Garlic & Herb Mashed Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole*

Corn*

Sweet Potato Casserole*

Jello Salad*

Turkey

Ham

Rolls

Pumpkin Pie

Key Lime Pie*

*made by guests

Hope you enjoy it!