Thanksgiving 2016 - The Recipes

Ramblings, to begin:

So, I want to keep track of some recipes for the food that I cooked this Thanksgiving.  No, I don't have photos of the food.  It was Thanksgiving, and I was busy making the feast.  But the feast was delicious, and I made some of the recipes up, so I should probably write them down if I ever want to make them again.

Here goes.

But first, a contradictory photo:

This is a photo of the food from our Thanksgiving feast, which I just told you didn't exist.  Also, I didn't make this cake.  So no recipe here.

I didn't actually make any desserts this Thanksgiving.  I took the kids to the local supermarket to buy apple pie and pumpkin pie, and while we were at the bakery, Connor spied this chocolate and caramel cake.  He wanted it, and to be honest, I did too.  So we bought it.  Chocolate caramel Turkey cake?  Yes, please.

Now, for the second photo of food, which I told you didn't exist, but somehow does:

This was the beginning of the cranberry sauce.  I kinda made it up as I went along.  Kevin found a recipe for cranberry sauce online the night before Thanksgiving, after I had already gone shopping for all the things, natch, and he thought it sounded good, but there were a ton of things in the recipe that he doesn't actually eat, so I had to change it up.

And so, now I am pleased to present, without too much further ado, the first recipe in this blog post that was supposed to be all about the recipes, but keeps getting hijacked by cute cakes and whatnot:

The Thanksgiving Cranberry Sauce - 2016 Edition

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
1 Tbsp mustard powder
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 cup candied ginger
1 Tbsp salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup orange juice
1 cup cranberry juice
1 orange, zested and juiced
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 packages cranberries

Directions:

1.  Saute the onion in the vegetable oil, with the seasonings, until translucent.  (See photo above.)

2.  Add cranberries and candied ginger.  Saute for another 10 minutes.

3.  Add salt, raisins, juices and zest, and the brown sugar.  Cook on low heat for 1 1/2 hours, and stir from time to time, until thick and saucy.


Well, now that I think about it, that's pretty much the only recipe I needed to write down.  This is the most disorganized post ever.  Who runs this blog?  Where's the editor?


P.S.  I made sweet potatoes, too.  There was no recipe or plan for them beyond "sweet potatoes."  I apparently like to wing blog posts and Thanksgiving feasts.  So, while the turkey was cooking, and the bone broth was boiling, I set about peeling and dicing some sweet potatoes.  They got mixed with healthy dollops of butter and brown sugar, and then, because I was feeling adventurous, a generous sprinkling of some Penzeys Pie Spice.

P.S. #2  I never ordered any Penzeys Pie Spice, and I never had any plans to use it for anything, but I have two free jars of it in my cupboard, and it suddenly struck me that it would be the perfect spice for Thanksgiving sweet potatoes, and it was.  I was right, of course.  I usually am.

P.S. #3  If you don't order your spices from Penzeys, you really ought to consider it.  Not only do they have the greatest spices in the world, but every time I place an order, I always get free jars of spices to try out.

P.S.  #4  No, they didn't pay me to say that.  Well, unless you count the free spices they randomly send me in every box.  But I think they do that for everyone, not just people who might mention them on their blog without their knowledge.  Their and their.  So many naked pronouns running amok.  Sheesh.  This editor is totally fired.

P.S. #5  Penzeys is also my source for candied ginger.  In case you need a good candied ginger supplier.



And, because I believe in full disclosure, I have no idea how many cranberries were in the sauce.  I bought two of those bags, the ones that seem to be about the size of the bag of brown sugar that I usually buy.  This description only helps me, and is therefore, not helpful at all.  I realize this.  And I didn't actually use all of the cranberries in both bags for the sauce, because I saved one cup of cranberries from the sauce to use in my Dark Chocolate Cranberry Bread.  It's okay to click the link for that recipe.  It's a proper post.  Well edited.  None of this bananas business going on there.  No banana bread, either.  Honest.