Thanksgiving is coming up, and as we all know, the best part of the meal are the sides! 🙂 Here’s a few recipe ideas for your feast next week.
Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Hazelnuts
Adapted from Cooking Light, November 2004
2 lb Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
1/2 C chopped bacon (about 3 slices)
1/2 C chicken stock or water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp chopped hazelnuts, toasted
Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat 4 minutes or until crisp. Remove the bacon from pan, reserving 1 1/2 teaspoons drippings in pan; set bacon aside. Add stock or water to pan; bring to a simmer. Add sliced Brussels sprouts; cook 4 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring frequently. Sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper, tossing gently to combine. Sprinkle evenly with bacon and hazelnuts. Serve immediately.
Tip: Use a food processor’s thin slicing blade attachment to prepare the Brussels sprouts.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Recipe adapted from The Prairie Homestead
12 oz whole cranberries
3/4 C orange juice (about 2 large oranges for fresh-squeezed)
1/2 – 3/4 Choney
1 tbsp orange zest
In a medium saucepan, combine in the orange juice, honey, and zest. Bring to a gentle boil, and simmer for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the cranberries and continue to cook them until they burst (about 15 minutes).
Spoon the cranberry sauce into a mold (or bowl, or whatever you want) and refrigerate for 6-8 hours, or until set.
Roasted Hubbard Squash Pumpkin Pie
Amy Holmes Hehn, 2011 Pumpkin Pie Contest winner
CRUST
Ingredients:
1 1/2 C flour 1 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp butter 5 tbsp shortening
1 egg yolk 2 tsp distilled white vinegar
3 ice cubes 1/2 C cold water
1. Measure butter & shortening onto a plate, put into freezer for about 20 minutes.
2. Measure flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse for a few seconds to mix.
3. Add the butter and shortening into the dry ingredients and pulse off and on for about 1 minute until the fat chunks are pea-sized in the flour. Do not over-process.
4. In a measuring cup, mix egg yolk and vinegar together, add ice cubes and water. Chill for 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Remove flour and shortening from processor, put into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle approximately 4 to 5 tablespoons of the egg-water-vinegar mixture, a little at a time, into in the flour, mixing gently with a fork, until clumps of sticky dough begin to form and hold together. The key to this: you do not want a wet dough, and you do not want to overmix.
6. Place this dough onto plastic wrap, press into a flat disk without kneading or overworking, and chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
7. Remove from refrigerator and roll out, lift into pie pan using a rolling pin, prick bottom with a fork and dress entire crust with egg white.
FILLING
Ingredients:
2 C Hubbard Squash puree
2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 C sugar 1/8 C bourbon (Wild Turkey)
1/2 tbsp molasses 3 eggs and 1 yolk, lightly beaten
2/3 C milk 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp + 2 pinches salt pinch of cinnamon
pinch of powdered ginger 2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds and fibers, cut into quarters. Place the squash in a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake until tender when pricked with a fork, about 40 minutes. While still hot, scoop the squash away from the rind and into a food processor. Puree until smooth.
2. Transfer 2 cups of squash puree to a large bowl and stir in the butter so it melts. Whisk in the sugar, bourbon, molasses, eggs and egg yolk, milk, nutmeg, salt, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla until smooth.
3. Carefully pour the squash mixture into the unbaked crust. Sprinkle the edges of the crust with Sugar in the Raw. Bake the pie until the center is just set, 45 to 60 minutes.
4. Bake center leaf decoration separately and place on the pie when the pie is nearly done (so that it doesn’t sink into the filling).
5. Cool the pie on a rack. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
