Easy Thanksgiving Recipes

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year! I love gathering around the table with family and friends, celebrating with delicious food, reliving old traditions, and being thankful for our many blessings. While retailers keep trying to commercialize this special day, I hope that we won’t lose sight of what is truly important!

But preparing this once-a-year meal can be VERY stressful for many cooks, some of who rarely cook throughout the year. The following recipes include some super easy ideas to give a special touch to your holiday meal with minimal fuss, including some you can do well in advance. And I share one unique dessert I pretty much guarantee your guests will have never tasted before. These recipes all come from a recent appearance I did with my daughter, Danielle, on Daytime Tricites, WJHL-TV. To see Danielle’s recipes, go to www.indanielleshead.com.

Whether you make your entire meal from scratch, buy premade food or just go out to eat, I pray you and yours take a few moments to be thankful for your many blessings this Thanksgiving day!

Blessings,

Julie

 

Homemade Whipped Cream

Please don’t buy Cool Whip this year! Nothing against that frozen concoction, but once you’ve tasted the real thing, and once you find out how easy it is to make, you might not go back to that plastic tub ever again!

2 cups cold heavy whipping cream

¼ powdered sugar

Big splash of vanilla

Combine ingredients in mixer bowl and whip with whip attachment, increasing the speed as you go. If you start too fast, it will just splatter everywhere! Continue whipping until cream makes nice, soft peaks. Keep chilled until ready to use. I would make mine right before serving if possible, but you can make several hours in advance. To be honest, I actually don’t measure my whipping cream anymore. I just pour in the cream, and add powdered sugar and vanilla to taste, and let ‘er rip!

 

Cranberry Sauce

This has got to be one of the easiest things you can do to add a gourmet touch to any Thanksgiving meal. As you receive the praise of your guests, you can decide if you’ll tell them how little work this was to make, or not!

3 cups fresh cranberries, sorted and rinsed

1 cup orange juice

1 cup white sugar

Peel from half of an orange

Put the orange juice and sugar in a pot on medium heat, until simmering. Add the cranberries and orange peel. Give a good stir. Cook for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the mixture, lowering the temperature as needed, as it can tend to want to boil over. You’ll see the cranberries split their skins and soften. After 10 minutes, remove from heat. Remove orange peels. If you want whole cranberry sauce, you’re done! Just pour the sauce into a bowl to cool. If you want a smooth sauce, take an immersion blender and puree until smooth. This sauce can be made days in advance and tastes good on many things: turkey, toast, a spoon…..so good!

 

Pumpkin Pie Tricks

To be honest, when it comes to pumpkin pie, I pretty much follow the recipe on the back of the can, with a few twists. I always add vanilla, and I play with the spices. I usually cut the spice measurements in half, following my mother’s example of a less-spicy pie. But I will play with fresh ground nutmeg, maybe some cardamom or coriander in addition to the traditional spices. If you don’t want to make your own crusts, store bought ones will work fine.

Mini Pies

Cut 4 inch circles out of your rolled crusts and fit them into greased muffin tins to create cute little single serving pies.

Kids’ Pie Fun

Even very little people can use cookie cutters, or even clean Play-Doh cutters, to create fun shapes out of pie crust pastry. Take these shapes, dab with a little milk or cream, and sprinkle on large-grained sugar. Bake in the oven on a cookie sheet (I line mine with a silicon mat, but parchment paper works, too), at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until just browned. Place these shapes on top of your prepared pies, and your little ones will be so proud to show Grandma what they did!

Adults can do the same thing, of course, to add a special touch to any pie. And don’t forget to make your own whipped cream to go on top!

 

Cranberry Pecan Dip

This is the perfect thing to serve to hungry guests and annoying husbands who keep smelling all the wonderful aromas of the kitchen and want to eat SOMETHING before the big meal is ready. And it’s easy. And you can make it days in advance. Awesome!

8 ounces softened cream cheese (whipped cream cheese is good, too)

4 ounces softened goat cheese (you can skip this is you don’t like the flavor, or your budget is tight)

½ cup or more of chopped dried sweetened cranberries

½ cup of toasted chopped pecans

Mix the cheeses together first then add the other ingredients. You’re done. For an additional touch, use some of the homemade cranberry sauce, either in the dip, or layered on top, for just a little more yummy cranberry goodness. Lovely served with pita chips!

 

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Brownies

I must give credit where credit is due. Inspiration for this dessert comes from Ashley Holt, winner of Next Great Baker, season 3. She posted a picture of her creation and explained her yummy concept: a combination of your favorite brownie recipe with your favorite pumpkin pie recipe. I decided to try my own version, with a few of my own ideas, namely adding a cheesecake component and chopped pecans. To be honest, this recipe is still in ‘beta’ stage for me, as I want to tweak it further…I’m thinking of adding a little caramel sauce to the top. But when the production staff at WJHL tried this at Daytime Tricities and literally begged me for the recipe, I decided to share what I have so far. If you want to try some of the original, you can contact Ashley at her website, www.sugarmonstersweets.com.

Into a well-greased 9 inch cake pan, put

One pie crust, which should come up about an inch on the sides.

Layer on top of that, your favorite brownie recipe. Here’s mine, proportioned to fit:

Mix together,

½ cup melted butter

1 ½ cups white sugar

2 tsp vanilla

To this, add 2 eggs and stir in gently.

Sift together,

¾ cup AP flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp baking soda

Add these sifted dry ingredients into your wet ones, stirring just until the dry disappears. Add

½ cups chocolate chips

Once the brownie is layered on, pour onto that 2 cups of pumpkin pie mix. To be honest, I just made a regular pie recipe, using 2 cups of it for this recipe, and making mini pies with the rest. Here’s the recipe I used:

¾ cup white sugar

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ginger

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp cardamom

¼ tsp coriander

Good few grates of fresh nutmeg

2 large eggs

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

1 12 oz. can evaporated milk

2 tsp vanilla

Mix your sugar, salt and spices together. Add to pumpkin and beaten eggs. Stir in evaporated milk.

After pouring the pie mixture on top of the brownie, dollop on the following cheese cake mixture, in spoonful’s, swirling it around.

1 8 oz. package softened cream cheese

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. heavy cream

2 tbsp. sour cream

After the cheese cake mixture is on top, sprinkle the whole thing with chopped pecans, about a ½ cup.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until pie/cheesecake component is set. Cool, the refrigerate before cutting. If you want to kick it up a notch, drizzle on some salted caramel sauce.