So every year for Thanksgiving I go on a three-day cooking craze starting with a 2 day brining process for the turkey and I start baking my desserts and prepping for other dishes.
Every year there are some standard dishes that I cannot go without like Turkey (obviously), then comes the Pumpkin Soup with Sour Cream, Stuffing, Mac n Cheese, Sweet Potato Casserole, and Both Potato and Sweet Potato Fries (crowd pleaser).
For the secondary main and sides I like to switch it up a little. This year I made Creamy Mushrooms, Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Parmesan, Roasted Tomatoes with Rosemary, Spinach Bechamel, a Wild Rice Salad with Cranberries and Pecans and Finally Braised Beef on Creamy Herbed Polenta (that’s all a mouth full…no pun intended).
For dessert I opted to go a not so traditional route by not baking any pies (saved the pie making for Christmas). On the dessert menu there was Cranberry Bread (one of my favorite holiday breads which I bake all through the holiday season), White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies, Pumpkin Pie Filling Muffins, Chocolate Truffles, Pecan Pie Slabs, Pumpkin Preserve and Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Dulce De Leche (heavy on the pumpkin, I know, was a continuous theme I had going through all courses).
I wont be posting all these recipes at once but I will space them our over the course of a few weeks, and some you will find on last years thanksgiving post (here is the links Thanksgiving (part 1) 2014 and Thanksgiving (part 2) 2014)
Here are a few of the side dishes…
Creamy Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- 2 g whole white mushrooms
- 6 tsp of minced garlic
- 8-10 tbsps of Cream Cheese.
- 3-4 teaspoon of dry herbs, such as tarragon, basil, parsley
- salt & pepper
- 3-4 teaspoon of Olive Oil
Directions
- Heat a pan with the olive oil and add the mushrooms and garlic on medium heat. Stir and toss until soft and a little liquid is released from the mushrooms. If the mushrooms do not release any liquid, add a couple of tablespoons of milk or broth. (In my case I added a splash of milk).
- Then add the cream cheese and combine. Add the herbs and taste, season to your taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve straight from the pan, or you can transfer to an oven dish and place in the oven (covered) to keep warm until you are ready to serve.
Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Parmesan
Ingredients
- 1 kg of asparagus
- 8 cloves garlic, chopped
- 4 Tbsp of olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C)
- Break or cut off the woody ends of the asparagus spears.
- In a large bowl, add the olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and asparagus. Toss to coat.
- Spread the asparagus spears on a large baking sheet and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.
- Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until the spears begin to brown, turning once.
Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Rosemary
Ingredients:
- 8 cups of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 2-3 tsp of olive oil
- 1-2 tsp of crushed dried rosemary
- Coarse salt and ground pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 F (230 C)
- On a baking sheet, toss tomatoes, oil, and rosemary.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Roast until tomatoes are browned on bottom and begin to collapse, about 15 minutes.
- When ready, toss with some more rosemary (fresh or dry) and serve.
Many more recipes to follow, stay tooned!