POTS AND PANS CITY BLOG

No-one ever knows what to do with the left-over turkey carcass from that great Thanksgiving turkey.  Here is a recipe for a very flavourful soup that you can serve after the holiday is over.  You can add any left-over meat into the soup as well, or you can buy extra turkey legs from your supermarket to add to the taste of the broth.

Ingredients:

• Turkey giblets and bones (carcass from roasted turkey)
• Or 2 Turkey legs (Hint: you can purchase these separately at your grocery store)
• 1 TSBP. Cooking oil
• 2-3 onions, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 6 cups waters
• 3 chicken bouillon packets
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. sage
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup frozen corn
• ½ cup frozen peas
• 3 cups chopped fresh spinach
• 1 cup medium flat egg noodles

In a large stock pot, heat oil and sauté onions and turkey giblets (if using).  Add water. Bring to a boil and skim liquid of fat.

Reduce heat and add all remaining ingredients, except corn, peas, spinach and noodles.  Simmer, covered for approximately 2-3 hours. 

Add egg noodles, corn and peas, and cook for another 15 minutes.  Stir in spinach and cook for 5 minutes more.

Serve hot.

Instead of using that purchased canned sauce, here is a recipe for homemade cranberry sauce to serve this holiday season. It is perfect to serve with roast turkey, with its vibrant color and sweet-tart taste (much tastier than the canned version!). And it is very easy to make. You can make it ahead of time and keep it in sterilized jars until the holiday season comes along.

Ingredients:

• 1 orange
• 2 ½ cups whole, fresh cranberries
• 1 ¼ cups white sugar

Grate the rind from the orange, taking care not to remove any of the white part as this will be bitter. Squeeze the juice from the orange into a medium-small pot and add the orange rind. Add in the cranberries, sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Reduce to a simmer, and let simmer for about 12-15 minutes. You will know when the sauce is done when the berries start to burst. Let cool before serving (or pour hot into sterilized canning jars).

Note: If you like a smoother sauce, simply puree the sauce in your blender.

There are so many types of stuffing you can use in your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey, most of which use the giblets as a base. Here is a recipe for chestnut stuffing for those who don’t like traditional turkey stuffing. Sweet and delicious with a slight nutty flavor!

Ingredients:

• 3 TBSP. butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 can water chestnuts
• ¼ lb. fresh chestnuts
• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 3 TBSP. orange juice
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg
• ½ tsp. sugar
• Salt and pepper

To prepare chestnuts: Arrange fresh chestnuts on a baking sheet. With a sharp knife, cut a slit in the top of each chestnut. Bake chestnuts in a hot 425° oven for about 8 minutes, until they are a little browned. Remove from oven. Cool for a few minutes until you can handle them without burning your fingers. Remove the shell from each chestnut. Chop the chestnut meat into a rough chop. Set aside to cool.

Drain the can of water chestnuts (reserve a little of the liquid) and put them into a blender. Blend until smooth (you may need to add a little of the liquid from the can to help the puree process).

Heat the butter in a medium-small pot and sauté the onion for about 3 minutes until translucent. Remove the pot from the heat and mix in the chestnut puree, breadcrumbs, orange juice, nutmeg and sugar. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool.

Add the cut-up chestnuts to the puree/bread crumb mixture and stir together. Stuff the neck end of the turkey with the chestnut stuffing before baking.

The Kindle edition of Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes for Entertaining by Julie Kaufmann is available (probably for a limited time) for free in Kindle format.  If you don’t have a Kindle you can also read it on Amazon’s Kindle for PC reader application which is free to download and use.

Amazon has a number of other cookbooks available in Kindle format for free or less than $1.00.

Many people believe the white meat of the turkey is the best tasting part of the bird.  If it is cooked just right, it can be succulent, juicy and very tasty.  Below are the instructions for cooking a turkey breast (when you don’t want to cook a whole turkey).

Ingredients:

• Turkey breast
• ¼ cup butter, softened, plus extra for rubbing on the skin
• Salt & pepper
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 TBSP. dried sage
• 1 tsp. dried basil

In a small bowl, add the herbs and cream together with the ¼ cup of softened butter.  Gently loosen the skin on the turkey breast with a wooden spoon (try to leave the edges of the skin attached to the breast).  Insert the herb mixture under the skin.  Pat down the skin to spread the butter mixture evenly over the entire breast. 
With your fingers, rub more softened butter over the skin of the breast.  Season with salt and pepper.
Wrap the whole breast in aluminum foil and seal the edges tightly.  Place in a roasting pan. Place in the oven and bake at 350°.  The baking guidelines suggest 20 minutes per pound, or until an internal meat thermometer temperature reaches 160°.
When done, open the foil wrappings carefully to avoid burning yourself with the escaping steam.

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated on December 13th, 1621 to give thanks for a bountiful harvest after a harsh winter of starvation for the Pilgrims who landed in the New World.  It was a three day feast meant as a celebration of life, and has carried on to remind us all of everything that we have to be thankful of. 

Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends and a feast of our own.  There are, however, certain Thanksgiving traditions that are carried on to each of our family tables.  For example, it is traditional to serve turkey in the main course of the typical Thanksgiving dinner.  Along with that, it is also typical to serve some sort of soup, potatoes, berries, harvest vegetables and pie for dessert.  All of those foods are in line with what the first Thanksgiving celebrants ate and so we carry on with those same traditions today.

Keeping in line with the modern age and the foods of today though, your Thanksgiving dinner may be modified to fit your individual and present tastes.  For example, the traditional turkey may not appear on your table, but may be replaced with goose or duck.  Roasting your bird of choice in the oven to get that a crisp outer skin, a succulent tender inside and stuffed with your family’s secret recipe for stuffing, is considered one of the best parts of long-established Thanksgiving meals.  As they say, all the rest is ‘gravy’.  But what great tasting ‘gravy’ can come along with that delicious bird! 

Serving soup as a prelude to the main meal is also a traditional part of a Thanksgiving dinner.  The first soup served in olden days was probably a broth with meat from the turkey and vegetables thrown in.  Today, however, the soup can be any type and can consist of a turkey noodle soup or a creamy vegetable-type soup, or even a seafood soup (as it has been suggested that even lobster may have been served at the first Thanksgiving feast). 

The berries that were served initially at Thanksgiving were probably whortleberries.  Today the berries at your table most likely take the form of cranberry sauce.  You may also include berries in your dessert course as in a pie.

When you think of the side dishes that accompany the main meat you serve, you get into a wide variety of choices that are geared to each family’s individual tastes and traditions.  A type of corn pudding was probably eaten by the Pilgrims, as well as boiled or roasted squash or pumpkin.  The harvest vegetables of today can include anything that is suggestive of a fall crop, like corn, squash, beets, brussel sprouts, pumpkin or cauliflower. But with all the various vegetables available in today’s marketplace, your choice is really unlimited.  The vegetables can be served boiled, steamed, baked, roasted or in casseroles, with a wide array of herbs and spices to lend them flavorsome uniqueness.

The potatoes of today’s tables can be made in various ways also, like mashed, boiled, roasted or even in casseroles.  The Pilgrims’ meal probably included sweet potatoes and it is typical for today’s cook to include them with the Thanksgiving feast.  Sweet potatoes baked and flavored with maple syrup is a long standing favorite.  Or potatoes mashed with creamy butter and milk, served with scrumptious gravy, is also traditional. 

The dessert of the first Thanksgiving that is still fairly typical of today is pie.  The Pilgrims meal would have included pumpkin or apple pie because of the crops in season at the time.  Although those are still the traditional favorites on today’s Thanksgiving tables, other pies are also fairly common.  Pecan or nut pies are often served, as well as other desserts like puddings or crisps.

With today’s modern ways of eating, there are also many vegetarian dishes served in today’s Thanksgiving holiday dinners.  Meatless main course dishes are often geared to include harvest vegetables and mushrooms (for the protein).  You can also find mock-turkey (often called tofu-turkey) that can take the place of the traditional turkey-meat main course.  Or commonly, cheese dishes are served to appease the vegetarian appetite—and as a note, cheese may also have been one of the items served during the original Thanksgiving dinner.

Whether you stick to the traditional foods that were eaten at the first Thanksgiving or not, the main focus of your Thanksgiving feast is the sharing of a meal with family and friends.  The food (though not to be taken lightly) is the binding factor that brings everyone together.  Giving thanks over a meal is a fantastic way to bond and get closer to those you love.  Nothing brings about happiness better than sharing good food with friends and loved ones.

A favourite at Thanksgiving and Christmas tables, this sweet potato casserole dish is easy to make and sure to please, especially for those with a sweet tooth. It is so good, it is almost like a dessert, but is typically served with the main meal. Ingredients:

• 4-5 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into rounds
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 TBSP. melted butter
• Salt & pepper
• 3 cups miniature marshmallows
• 2 TBSP. melted butter

Preheat oven to 375? F. Place sweet potatoes in large flat (9’ X 13”) casserole/baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle salt and pepper over sweet potatoes, then top with brown sugar. Mix together lightly. Gently pour first 2 TBSP. of melted butter over all. Cover with tin foil and bake for approximately ¾ hour. Remove from oven. Test that potatoes are done (tender when pierced with a fork). Mix together marshmallows and second batch of melted butter. Remove foil from baking pan and spread marshmallows over top. Place oven on broil with rack mid-way in oven. Place potatoes back in oven and broil for 3-4 minutes, watching closely that marshmallows don’t burn but are browned and golden. Serve hot.

Served at the start, soup gives a satisfying feeling to any meal. A rich, creamy soup like the Cream of Squash soup below is a great way to begin a fall meal, add to a Thanksgiving dinner or you can even serve it on its own, with a loaf of crusty bread to sop up the delicious flavours.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP. butter
• 1 onion
• 1 stalk celery
• 6 cups water
• 2 cups steamed squash (like Butternut or Acorn Squash)
• 3 cubes of chicken bouillon
• 1 tsp. ginger
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• Salt & pepper 1 cup half & half cream

Melt butter in large stockpot. Chop onions and sauté in butter until onions are transparent. Cut celery into chunks and add to pot. Add water, crumbled bouillon, squash and spices. Bring to a boil and then reduce to medium-low heat. Simmer for approximately 30 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and let cool for about 15 minutes. In 3 batches, purée soup in blender. Pour soup purée back into stockpot and return to stove. Over medium heat bring soup back to a simmer. Turn heat to low and add cream. Stir until all the cream is blended. (Do not boil.) Serve immediately. Top each bowl of soup with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Note: You can use an infusion blender to puree the soup in the pot.

This vegetarian dish is ideal to serve as a main course at a holiday dinner. It combines great taste with the protein that vegetarians need in their meals. It is packed with taste and healthy foods that everyone—even non-vegetarians—will love!

• ½ medium butternut squash, peeled & boiled until soft
• 1 pkg. soft or medium tofu
• 1 ½ cups ½ & ½ cream
• ½ tsp. garlic powder
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• Salt & pepper

Beat above ingredients together until smooth.

• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into rounds ¼” thick
• 4-5 table potatoes, peeled and cut into rounds 1/4 “ thick
• 1 pkg frozen spinach, defrosted & excess moisture squeezed out
• Salt & pepper
• Garlic powder
• 1/3-cup breadcrumbs
• ½ tsp. paprika
• 3 TBSP. grated Parmesan cheese, separated

Spray an 8-quart casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Layer One: Using both sweet potatoes and table potato rounds, place 1/3 of potatoes in one layer in bottom of casserole dish. Top with 1/3 of creamed mixture. Spread ½ of spinach over this, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder and 1 TBSP. Parmesan cheese. Layer Two: Repeat layer one. Layer Three: Top with remaining potatoes & remaining creamed mixture. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then sprinkle 1/3-cup breadcrumbs and 1 TBSP. Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake in 450? oven, uncovered, for 1-½ hours.

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