we all know that sides are the star of thanksgiving, what's your favorite?
Do you have a family recipe or tips/tricks that you have for making that dish that everybody raves about?
i'll start, when opening the aldi's cranberry sauce make sure your can opener is sharp, nothing worse than a burr maring those perfect ribs at the dinner table...
A nice stiff shot of bourbon does wonders for the yams. Mixed in with the yams, I mean . . .
Broccoli with hollandaise. I mean, it ranks below mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy in terms of importance. But since we can take those as fundamental assumptions...
Jesse Ransom said:Broccoli with hollandaise. I mean, it ranks below mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy in terms of importance. But since we can take those as fundamental assumptions...
Talk about ruining a perfectly good hollandaise. :)
White Castle stuffing.
There is a variety that you can buy at a grocery store, but it isn't nearly as good as mashing up a case of sliders.
Just took out a loan to buy the ingredients for the mac and cheese my kid is going to make - it requires a two-person lift to get it in and out of the oven and you need the ok from your cardiologist before you can eat it. It's good...
Jim Pettengill said:A nice stiff shot of bourbon does wonders for the meal time discussions. Mixed in with the yams, I mean . . .
i fixed it for you...
We always have homemade cranberry sauce and sweet potato casserole.
Segue slightly; I made corn bread stuffing with Jiffy corn bread mix as the basis. Made the cornbread about like normal but baked it extra long so it would be more firm when converted into stuffing. And it was okay... but too sweet for my liking and a bit too dense. I had read about using just corn meal as the basis and I think that would work better.
That said, I'm chopping up some white sub rolls to make croutons with for my next Thanksgiving lunch (first was yesterday, next one is Thursday), but maybe another time when I have the interest I'll try corn bread stuffing again.
In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :
Make cornbread like we do down hyar n crumble homemade biscuits up with th' cornbread to start.
Thanksgiving is for ham and pumpkin pie. That said, my side dish this year is a bottle of Kurvball.
Supposedly there will be stuffing balls and twice baked potatoes, because stuffing should be crunchy, and twice baked with cheese and bacon and stuff beats mashed 8 days a week. Oh, age I guess I'm still on the hook to make buns of some sort.
Maybe I'll make gravy. I have a half gallon of stock from a couple weeks ago, that'll make a nice pint of gravy.
My mother always made the Irish Stufffing; sauteed onion & celery in lots of butter, stale bread cubed.
My wife's family is from near the Canadian border. They always made a stuffing with bread, sauteed hamburger and breakfast sausage, all thickened by mashed potatoes.
Over the years we have married the two for a Canadian type with the meat, but add the onion, celery, bread and LOTS of poultry seasoning.
Haven't made it in years, but always made Tourtiere for Christmas Eve. Hit the meat with an immersion blender to make it finer, don't forget the thick brown gravy!
RevRico said:Thanksgiving is for ham and pumpkin pie. That said, my side dish this year is a bottle of Kurvball.
Supposedly there will be stuffing balls and twice baked potatoes, because stuffing should be crunchy, and twice baked with cheese and bacon and stuff beats mashed 8 days a week. Oh, age I guess I'm still on the hook to make buns of some sort.
Maybe I'll make gravy. I have a half gallon of stock from a couple weeks ago, that'll make a nice pint of gravy.
potato chip Krispie bars. You know. I know. They all should.
RevRico said:Thanksgiving is for ham and pumpkin pie. That said, my side dish this year is a bottle of Kurvball.
Supposedly there will be stuffing balls and twice baked potatoes, because stuffing should be crunchy, and twice baked with cheese and bacon and stuff beats mashed 8 days a week. Oh, age I guess I'm still on the hook to make buns of some sort.
Maybe I'll make gravy. I have a half gallon of stock from a couple weeks ago, that'll make a nice pint of gravy.
potato chip Krispie bars. You know. I know. They all should.
Tourtiere: Tell me you're from way up North without telling me you're from way up North.
Conversation starter:
Sweet Potato pie is 100x better than pumpkin pie, any day of the week. Done correctly the texture is less mushy, the spice/flavor blend works better, and you don't need whipped cream to make it palatable.
At least in my family's tradition, the sides are almost all starches and more starches:
We also usually have pearl onions, but they come in a thick white sauce - more starch.
DW and I have started contributing creamed spinach just to make sure there is something green on the table.
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :
Make it from a real pie pumpkin instead of that canned gloop.
Red cabbage and pickled beets - that's what I grew up with. I loved how it turned my baked potato purpleish red.
This is going to sound weird, but my mom makes a very old-school creamed onions dish with those tiny pearl onions and it has always been a favorite of mine.
The past few years I've been contributing a roasted root vegetable gratin with carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes that admittedly I make because I really like exactly those vegetables. I'd make it even if nobody else ate it.
I also make pumpkin pie from scratch. Sunday was pumpkin roasting an puree-ing day. Tonight I make the pie crust. Tomorrow I assemble and bake the pies.
Main: Turkey
Side: Ham
Cajun Retatouille is my personal favorite
You need a big pan with a top. I have what looks like a large, deep frying pan with a top, not a deep pot.
Any pot large enough to hold all the ingredients will work so long as it has a cover.
I usually use 2 or 3 eggplants but it can be more so long as the pot is big enough. If the eggplants are large then two is more than enough.
It cooks down so it doesn't matter if the top of the pot doesn't close at first.
Two eggplants are enough for two people with some leftovers.
Slice the eggplants into cubes. I slice them in half longways, then slice those into 4 strips longways, then slice crossways every inch or so. I don't skin them though some people don't like eggplant skins.
1 or 2 diced onions, 1 or 2 sliced bell pepper, chopped green onion. 1 diced shallot. 1 slice of bacon chopped up.
At least 4 cloves of garlic sliced up.
Some people put zucchini or tomato in ratatouille, but I think it makes it too bitter tasting and you lose the sweet taste of the eggplant.
If you want meat in it I have done shrimp, sausage, both. My preference is Cajun Andouille sausage. I slice the sausage into small pieces like I did the eggplant. I put in 2or 3 sausages sliced up but add as much as you like.
I start the pan off with about 1/2 a stick of butter plus add olive oil to it mixes, let it heat, and then start adding the chopped up ingredients.
Then I pour probably 1/4 cup olive oil on top, Sprinkle on salt and Cajun seasoning. I use Tony Chachere's but it can be whatever pepper you like
. Use good olive oil, not the cheap stuff. 1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere and 1/2 teaspoon of salt is what I use. (to taste)
Then put a top on the pot with medium heat and let it cook slowly. Its important the top is on so the eggplant gets steam cooked.
I probably stir it up every 15 minutes or so. Higher heat will mean more stirring otherwise it will burn and stick to the bottom.
Once the eggplant goes a limp I taste the broth and see if its seasoned enough. Add more salt/pepper if you want and stir it up so it mixes up.
I leave the top off and let the liquid boil off a little for a while on low heat.
Its really like what the French call a Ratatouille but modified to the veggies I like.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
The weird thing is, in quizzing our guests, everybody was more into the broccoli than a number of other options, and a couple of them don't even want the hollandaise...
Hollandaise is why I grew up never understanding jokes about kids and broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus... Of course, in addition to being lucky enough to have parents that did a good hollandaise, they also didn't boil those things into goo...
With my wife being a vegetarian it's all about the sides in this house. I'm making turkey tenderloins for myself. We haven't even discussed what I'm making for her yet.
In reply to Jesse Ransom :
When I was about nine or ten, I asked my mom to make Brussels sprouts sometime, because I never had them before. She looked at me like I was nuts, she hated them as a kid.
So, one week, she got fresh sprouts and steamed them, and it was glorious, and became a regular side veggie with dinner.
Grandma always got gloopy gross canned sprouts, you see. Fresh is oh so much better.
And then I discovered grilled sprouts. So good!
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