Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Turkey Cake

November 21, 2017

This is about the closest thing I am going to get to a Thanksgiving turkey this year. And I am totally okay with that!

We had friends over for a little Friendsgiving this past weekend and I used it as an excuse to make this Thanksgiving turkey cake. I had seen quite a few similar cakes on Pinterest and Instagram, so I thought I would throw my hat into the ring.

I think he turned out rather handsome, if not a little goofy looking. But there is nothing wrong with goofy.

To make him, (Yes, I decide that it is a “him” and I named him Tom. Tom the Turkey.) I made one batch of this pumpkin spice cake. I also whipped up a batch of my cream cheese frosting for the filling. Since I wanted his outer layer to be brown, I made a chocolate ganache which I then whipped to form a frosting.

Chocolate ganache is actually pretty simple to make. However, I totally understand if you want to run out and grab a can of chocolate frosting or bake your own chocolate buttercream.

All you do is pour hot cream over chopped chocolate and let it melt. Once it has completely melted, you toss it in the fridge to harden. I recommend doing this overnight as it does take a few hours. When it is nice and set, transfer it to a bowl of a stand mixer and whip it up. Ta-da!

I used that whipped chocolate ganache to completely cover my entire cake.

Then I stuck in the feathers that I made with my red, orange, and yellow candy melts.

Added some eyes using leftover cream cheese frosting.

And a beak and a little red thing….anyone know what that’s called?

Now you can make your very own Tom the Thanksgiving turkey cake! But you don’t have to name your’s Tom. You don’t have to name it at all. It’s kind of weird to name your food.

Recipes used:

Supplies used:
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Sweet Potato Meringue Pie

November 16, 2017

Sweet potato pie is one of those Thanksgiving traditions I was completely oblivious to until I moved to the South. The extent of my knowledge of sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving started and ended with sweet potato casserole. You know, that super sweet “casserole” that is topped with loads of marshmallows and somehow always gets served as a side dish and not as a dessert. Yeah, I never quite understood sweet potato casserole.

I totally understand sweet potato pie! If you are going to dress sweet potatoes up with sugar and butter, call it what it is! Dessert! Put it in a pie crust and call it a pie. It’s delicious. And, if you just can’t seem to get on board with sweet potatoes without the marshmallows, I’ve got you covered! Just top that baby off with a healthy meringue topping that is just as good (dare I say, better?) than a marshmallow topping.

It’s the best of both worlds!

Here’s how I made it:

Starting with the pie crust, I rolled out my favorite pie dough and transferred it to my pie dish.

Then I covered the pie dough with tin foil and filled it with pie weights to partially bake (par-bake).

Note: I was a little hasty in par-baking the crust and didn’t freeze it beforehand so it ended up shrinking. To prevent shrinkage (hold the jokes), freeze the pie dough in the pie dish before placing it in the oven.

While the pie crust baked, I microwaved the sweet potatoes until they were completely soft and I could easily spoon the potato away from the skin.

I added the sweet potatoes, along with sugar and butter in a large bowl and gave it a good whisk until it was smooth. Then I added the egg, egg yolks, cream, vanilla, and spices and gave it another good mix until it was completely smooth. Then all of that got poured into the par-baked pie crust.

Custard pies can be a little tricky to know when they are completely done baking. The pie should still have a little wiggle in the middle, but the top should be totally dry and the pie closest to the crust should be set.

Once the pie reached that point, I removed it from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. It will continue to set as it sits out and cools.

I used the waiting time to clean up and make my meringue. I used the French method, which I describe in detail in this buttercream post. Once the meringue formed semi-stiff peaks, I just dumped it right onto the pie.

You can spread your meringue out however you like. I wanted it to look a little spiky so first spread the meringue our across the pie, then used the spatula to form little peaks across the top by pulling the spatula up in short quick motions.

Finally, I placed the pie back in the oven under the broiler to caramelize the meringue. You could also use a kitchen torch if you wanted to have more control over your caramelization.

But, you know, I like to live life on the edge sometimes. I just stick my pie under the broiler and wait to see what happens.

I loved cutting into this and seeing that meringue piled high on top. The meringue may be my favorite part of this pie!

Meringue is just so perfect on top of a dense custard pie like sweet potato pie. That super soft meringue just balances everything else out. It’s like a lighter version of a whipped cream topping. It provides a little extra sweetness, but not nearly as much as a marshmallow topping would, and helps cut through the richness of the pie itself.

Have I convinced you to make this for Thanksgiving? Well, I certainly convinced myself!
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Chai Spiced Pumpkin Pie

November 10, 2017

A Thanksgiving table isn’t complete without pumpkin pie, right?

Well, can I admit something to you? This is a safe space right? Pumpkin pie….is not….my favorite.

There, I said it. If this were grade school and we were picking teams for kickball, pumpkin pie would be the kid in class I picke last.

I think it’s because I had a bad experience with pumpkin pie as a kid that I just haven’t completely gotten over. But I have made some major progress over the years. For instance, I have jumped on board the pumpkin spice bandwagon, just like every other millennial female. Also, I do a lot of baking with pumpkin. It’s just when it’s in pie form, well, that’s when I lose interest.

Until….

This chai spiced pumpkin pie. This pie was a turning point for me. While chai spice is essentially pumpkin pie spice with some cardamom, the added cardamom takes the average pumpkin pie to the next level!

This chai spiced pumpkin pie would not be picked last for my kickball team.

I will also admit to you (again, safe space), that I was debating over whether to use store-bought pie crust or make my own. Clearly, you can see which one won. And I am glad it did. It offered me the opportunity to add ever more chai spice to the pie crust!

Making pie crust really isn’t all that hard. Actually, my version is pretty easy because I let the food processor do all the work for me (work smarter, not harder, kids). After the pie dough has a chance to chill in the fridge for a bit, all you got to do is roll it out and trim it.

Next is a very crucial step. How crucial? Well, do you want a soggy bottom pie or a not crispy crust pie? No one wants a soggy bottom, so to avoid that you must partially bake your pie crust. It only takes a few minutes. Just cover your pie crust with a layer of foil or parchment and fill it with pie weights. Pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes, and you will have a just barely cooked pie crust. But it’s enough that once you add your super wet filling, it will be able to crisp up even more while it bakes.

Meanwhile, you can make your filling!

The filling for this pie is almost exactly like the classic pumpkin pie. Except in place of pumpkin pie spice, I added chai spices. For those of you who aren’t familiar, chai spice contains:

Cardamom
Cinnamon
Ginger
Clove

Sometimes it also contains nutmeg or allspice. In this case, since I was adding it to a pumpkin pie, I did add both. I also added a bit of tumeric to boost that color. It doesn’t add a whole lot of flavor, so you can easily leave that out.

Once all the filling ingredients are mixed up and smooth, pour it into your partially baked pie crust and then pop it back into the oven.

While the oven bakes, kick back and relax. Have a glass of wine. Or get back to work concocting some sort of pie cruat design to put on top.

It’s clear which one I did.

If you are like me, and follow a lot of bakers on Instagram, you may be seeing a lot of amazing pie crust designs. I absolutely love them! However, since I rarely make pies, I never get to recreate my favorite pie crust designs.

This pumpkin pie created an opportunity to do my very own pie crust design. Since I was making a chai spiced pumpkin pie, I wanted to create a simple mandala-like design on top. I used my extra pie crust to make various shapes, mostly circles (using the ends of my #10 piping tip) and tear drops (using a clay cutter from the craft store). I assembled them in the design i wanted on a piece of parchment, then put them in the freezer to chill.

Trouble is, pumpkin pie (or any custard pie), isn’t the best pie to add a crust design on top. If you put pie crust on top of the pumpkin pie filling, the pieces will just sink to the bottom. But if I am one thing, it’s ~~persistent~~ stubborn, and I will get it done no matter what.

There are two methods to adding a crust design on top of a custard pie.

1. Bake the pie until it is almost done, mostly set from the crust in, then take the pie out and add your pie dough design on top. Then put it back in the oven to continue baking. (This is what I did)

2. Bake the pie dough pieces seperately in the oven. Then when both the pie crust pieces and the pie itself are completly baked, remove from the oven and assemble. (This is what I wish I had done.)

Either way, the pie turned out beautiful and delicious! And the latter is what’s most important.

And boy is it! I have never finished even a slice of pumpkin pie before. With this pie, I not only finished 1 slice, I had another. I also may or may have also eaten it straight from the pan. Don’t judge. We all have our weaknesses. Mine is dessert.

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Cornbread Stuffing and Turkey Bake

November 21, 2016

Ok, let’s clear something up. I realize I have titled this post “Cornbread Stuffing and Turkey Bake”, when most people would not consider this stuffing. It has not been stuffed anywhere. The cornbread and sausage mixture was baked in a baking dish, which most people would consider “dressing”. Who the heck came up with those rules, anyways? Why can’t we all just come together and decide to call it one or the other. And if I have a vote in this proceeding, my vote is for “stuffing”. Dressing sounds like something we should be putting on a salad.

Whatever you call it (I am going to call it stuffing from here on out), I’ll venture to guess that it is one of your favorite Thanksgiving side dishes. It is certainly mine! Which is why I decided to make my husband and I a little pre-Thanksgiving feast that is basically 75% stuffing, and 25% turkey.

My favorite kind of stuffing is cornbread stuffing. One that is slightly soggy, but still has some drier chunks, and loaded with lots of savory vegetables, some sausage, and some slightly sweet fruit, like apples or (in this case) cranberries.

I could literally forgo all other Thanksgiving foods and just eat a plate of stuffing. Okay, maybe I will save some room for green bean casserole. Those little crispy fried onions are delicious!

But I digress…

As for the “turkey” and the “bake” of this cornbread stuffing and turkey bake, I first seared off some large turkey breasts that had been marinating in the same herb mixture I used for the stuffing. Then I just stuffed the turkey right into the stuffing (see what I did there?), so they were almost completely covered.

I find that cooking the stuffing/dressing this way gives you the best of both worlds. You have the stuffing that is directly around the turkey that soaks up all the turkey flavor and stays nice and moist. Then you have then stuffing around the edges of the pan that is drier, and a little bit crispy.

When it comes out of the oven, you basically have your entire Thanksgiving meal in one pan. I should have called this “One Pan Thanksgiving”. Oh well, I’ve already come this far….

This would not only make a delicious Thanksgiving meal for just a small group, but it would also make a great diner for those days when you are just craving some comforting turkey and stuffing. Which for me, is about once a month.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:99]

Pecan and Herb Crusted Pork

November 16, 2016

Every so often I get on these kicks where everything I seem to make has the same ingredients. Last month, it just about everything I made had pumpkin. This month, it seems like everything I’ve made has had pecans in it. Well, not just pecans, but maple syrup, too. First it was this cake. Now it’s this pecan and herb crusted pork tenderloin. And it’s not the last pecan recipe you will see this month, either.

I have been trying to come up with some Fall recipes that could also double as a Thanksgiving turkey substitute. I know…no turkey on Thanksgiving is practically un-American. But 1) not everyone likes turkey, and 2) not everyone wants to commit to to making a turkey if they aren’t serving a dozen or more people.

Since my husband and I rarely travel home for Thanksgiving, this pecan and herb crusted pork is something I would make for just the two of us and still feel like we are having a hearty Thanksgiving meal. In fact, the crust itself smells just like Thanksgiving. It has all your those delicious Thanksgiving flavors you’d probably find in your favorite stuffing recipe: sage, thyme, rosemary, pecans….yum, right?

To get the pork nice and flavorful, I first, marinated it in a puree of the herbs, olive oil, garlic, and maple syrup. After the pork had rested overnight, I rolled it in some crushed up pecans. Since the pork was covered in the sticky herb pesto (thank you maple syrup!), the pecans stuck right to it.

Now all that was left was to roast the pork.

I placed the pork loins on a baking sheet and covered them with tin foil so that the pork stayed moist and the pecan crust wouldn’t burn. Since the pork took an hour or so to roast, I decided to use that time to multi-task and roast up a nice side of maple coated brussels sprouts. Why not put maple syrup on everything?

This pork recipe lived up to every expectation. I didn’t even miss the turkey. Sorry, turkey…you’ve been replaced. What I love about the pork is that it stays so much more moist than turkey, and this particular recipe had so much flavor! Sometimes I am disappointed with my Thanksgiving turkey because not only is it dry, but it’s kind of bland. Which is why I make sure to have a bite of stuffing along with every bite of turkey. But this pork is practically coated in all the flavors in stuffing….and….it’s actually pretty healthy!

And if you are like me, that means you can have an extra helping of pie later.

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:97]

Mason Jar Pumpkin Pies

October 28, 2016

Pumpkin pie and I have’t always seen eye to eye (and I swear I didn’t try to make that rhyme). Maybe it was because Thanksgiving wasn’t really my favorite holiday. Or because, as a kid, I didn’t want my dessert to have vegetables in it. Now that I am older, not only have I grown to like pumpkin pie, but I also like the idea of having a serving of vegetables with dessert.

I will add, though, that my favorite part of pumpkin pie (both then and now) was the crust! That’s what I really like about these little mason jar pumpkin pies….the ratio of pie to crust is strongly in my favor. It’s almost 50/50! But, if you aren’t a crust-lover like me, you could skip the bottom crust and just fill the entire mason jar with the pumpkin pie filling and just top it with a little bit of crust.

But is definitely not what I did. I started by making my own pie crust (super easy, btw, when you make it in a food processor!), then cut out little rounds of crust and pushed them into the bottom of the mason jars. I pricked the pie dough with a fork, the par baked for a few minutes. I then poured the the pumpkin pie filling in to the jars and baked them on a baking sheet until they were set up around the sides, but still a jiggly in the center.

At that point, I added some additional crust on top then continued to bake the pies until the top layer of crust had browned.

Once they came out of the oven for the final time, I added a special touch that I learned from Alton Brown – bruléeing some brown sugar on top to create a crunchy, sugary, crust. This was my first time trying this technique, and I will never NOT add a brulée topping on my pumpkin pie again! I would have never thought of it on my own, but it really put this relatively ordinary pie over the top.

The other thing I love about these pies is that they are the perfect portion size. If I had a whole pie in front of me, I would “limit” myself to a sliver, then continue to cut off more and more slivers until I had practically eaten half the pie! These little pies are already portion controlled…and portable!

I think these would be so fun for a Friendsgiving or holiday party, don’t you!?

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PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Ideas

November 25, 2015

I have a feeling that most of us will have plenty of leftover Thanksgiving turkey on our hands tomorrow. Even if you aren’t hosting or roasting a bird yourself, you will probably be sent home with enough turkey to make a hearty sandwich.

We just make so much turkey, it is inevitable that we have so much left over that we can make a whole other meal with it. Well that is exactly what I have rounded up. What to do with all that leftover Thanksgiving turkey! Sure you could make a turkey sandwich every day for the rest of this week AND next. But there are so many more creative ideas out there.

Because there are so many, I have broken them up into sections. If you are just looking for a delicious sandwich recipe, well I’ve got a handful of those. But if will have family around for the next couple days and want a to use the turkey for a whole other meal, I’ve found lots of those, too.

SANDWICHES

Grilled Turkey Florentine Sandwich via Love Grows Wild

Turkey and Brie Panini via The Brewer and the Baker

Turkey Apple Brie Panini via Nutmeg Nanny

Green Goddess Roasted Turkey Sandwich via Noming Thru Life

The Gobbler via Buns in My Oven

Avocado Pistachio Chicken Salad via Follow the Ruels

SOUPS

I should point out that some of these recipes may be call for chicken instead of turkey, but you can easily substitute turkey in these recipes.

White Bean and Chicken Chili via Hip Foodie Mom

Light Turkey Corn Chowder via Cookin’ in Canuck

Turkey Pot Pie Soup via Handle the Heat

Turkey Barley Soup via The Food Charlatan

Chicken Chili Verde via Follow the Ruels

Chicken Enchilada Soup via Follow the Ruels

Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup via Jo Cooks

ENTREES

French Onion Turkey Casserole via Nancy Creative

Chicken Enchiladas with White Sauce via Raining Hot Coupons

Leftover Thanksgiving Wedge Pies via All Recipes

Turkey Enchiladas via Le Creme de la Crumb

Turkey Noodle Casserole via Creole Contessa

Turkey Tetrazinni via She Wears Many Hats

Turkey Stuffing Bake via Betty Crocker

Turkey Pot Pie via Roth Cheese

Turkey Hash via Creole Contessa

Chicken Pot Pie Turnovers via Spicy Southern Kitchen

Leftover Turkey Pizza via Baked by Rachel

Turkey Tikka Masala via the Delicious Cook

Also, check out all these recipes and more on my Thanksgiving Pinterest board!

Follow Lindsey’s board Thanksgiving on Pinterest.

Healthier Thanksgiving Side Dishes

November 20, 2015

Thanksgiving is not a day to be healthy and count calories. Like my mom always says, “calories don’t count on holidays”. Which may explain my battle with the scale this time of the year.

But even though we should indulge a little on Thanksgiving, we don’t have to OVER indulge and completely fall off the wagon. There are lots of delicious yet healthier Thanksgiving side dishes that will help balance out all the junk food.

I’ve compiled a few of my favorite healthier options below. I wouldn’t classify all of them a health food, but they are at least a lighter, slightly healthier version that some of the more traditional (read: full of butter) Thanksgiving side dishes. I hope they can inspire some of you to add a healthier option to your Thanksgiving table.

Apple Cranberry Walnut Salad via Le Creme de la Crumb

Bourbon Maple Glazed Carrots via Cooking and Beer

Baked Asparagus Fries via Damn Delicious

Skinny Broccoli Salad via Skinny Mom

Cinnamon Roasted Butternut Squash via Chew Out Loud

Skinny Sweet Potato Casserole via Jessica in the Kitchen

Roasted Mushrooms with Garlic and Thyme via Cakes Cottage

Coconut Sweet Potato Pie via Back to Her Roots

Green Beans and Beets with Balsamic Reduction via The Roasted Root

Low Calorie Thanksgiving Stuffing via Laa Loosh

Baked Apples via Prevention

Fall Harvest Salad via My Recipe Magic

Pumpkin Pie Dip via Follow the Ruels

Hasselback Sweet Potatoes via The Healthy Foodie

Shredded Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad via Eating Bird Food

Green Beans with Cranberries via Natasha’s Kitchen

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Mash via The Fit Fork

Spinach Gratin via Skinny Taste

Garlic Roasted Carrots via Damn Delicious

Vegan, Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole via Hummusapien

I have compiled these as well as some other options to my Thanksgiving Pinterest board. Follow along to see everything I pin! Plus, I will be pinning some great recipes to make AFTER Thanksgiving soon, too.

Follow Lindsey’s board Thanksgiving on Pinterest.