Happy Thanksgiving!

We will be having the family over today for Thanksgiving.  Jessica, Pat and the boys will be here as well as Jeff's mom and Aunt Joy, and Jeff's dad and Robin.  Justin will be here but Sarah is still in Spain on her 5 week work/vacation.  She is due home on Saturday.  She's been to London, Spain, Portugal, Casablanca, Morocco among other places.  We'll be having the traditional menu of turkey, dressing (this year I'm making dressing with cranberries and apples,) mashed potatoes and gravy, my special yam casserole, Aunt Joy's Zesty Carrots, steamed French green beans with slivered almonds, a kale side dish with asiago cheese in a bechamel sauce, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls and a green salad.  Our dessert is never the traditional pumpkin pie as most of the family can really take it or leave it so I'm auditioning a White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cake from Costco.  If we like it, we'll have it for our Christmas Party next month.  Here's a tiny photo of it from the Costco website.  You can see that it will make a nice Christmas dessert!

So what to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers?  Can't beat a good turkey sandwich with cranberries on the side but if you have a lot of leftovers from all the dressing and side dishes, you can make what I call a "Pilgrim Pie!"  It's similar to the British Shepherd's Pie.  You basically line a casserole dish with leftover dressing, add turkey, top with some gravy, add leftover veggies and make a top "crust" with mashed potatoes.  Here's a more formal recipe but you can pretty much improvise and it'll turn out great!

~ Pilgrim's Pie ~

2 cups leftover stuffing

2 cups cooked turkey

1 cup gravy

2 cups leftover cooked vegetables

2 cups mashed potatoes

Preheat oven to 350°F

Press stuffing into a greased casserole dish

Layer with turkey, chopped into bite sized pieces

Pour gravy over top

Top with leftover cooked vegetables

Finish with a crust of mashed potatoes

Bake in 350°F oven for 30 minutes or until warmed through

Serve with cranberry sauce

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all my USA friends a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.  Thought I'd post two of our family favorite recipes that we make every Thanksgiving.

~ Special Yam Casserole ~

4 cups hot mashed yams (use fresh or a good quality canned)
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk

Topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup moist coconut
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 T flour
2 T melted butter

Combine hot yams, butter, eggs and milk in bowl and beat with
mixer until consistency of mashed potatoes. Spoon into baking dish.
Mix pecans, coconut, brown sugar and flour in small bowl. Stir in butter.
Sprinkle over yam mixture. Bake for 1 hour at 325º

 Try it- it's a nice change from the standard marshmallow-topped recipe. It's all about the topping!

~ Auntie Joy's Zesty Carrots ~

8 medium carrots, sliced thin into strips
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons grated onion
2 tablespoons horseradish
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 350º F.
Steam the carrots and until crispy tender.
Combine all ingredients in a 1-1/2 qt. buttered casserole.
Sprinkle on the bread crumbs.
Bake about 15 minutes until top is toasted

This dish always gets raves! Even if you don't think you like horseradish,
the combination with sweet carrots is delicious! Another family must-have!

Last year's turkey!  Hope this year's turns out as well!

Keen-wah!

Guess what... another superfood post.  I was mispronouncing Quinoa- I was saying "kee-a-know-ah" but it's "keen-wah!"  I bought a big bag of it at Costco and looked for recipes online and I also checked my good old "Better Homes & Garden Cookbook" and found a recipe there that sounded interesting.  The recipe is HERE but if you can't get to that link I've copied it below.  Jeff and I both loved it and thought it seemed like a very gourmet way to eat quinoa.  If you're worried about fat from the avocado, it can easily be made without the avocado.  I wouldn't omit the feta cheese, though!  I bought the low-fat variety of feta.  


Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad

Ingredients
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained* 
1 cup water 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 cup shredded fresh spinach
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion (1 small)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Spinach leaves
2 ripe avocados, halved, seeded, peeled, and sliced**
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions
 1. In a 1-1/2-quart saucepan combine quinoa and water.
Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
2. Transfer quinoa to a medium bowl.
Add tomato, spinach, and onion; stir to combine.
In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, oil, and salt.
Add to quinoa mixture; toss to coat.
3. Place spinach leaves on 4 salad plates.
Arrange avocado slices on spinach leaves.
Spoon quinoa mixture over avocado slices.
Sprinkle with some of the feta.

Makes 4 main-dish servings.

Note *Rinse quinoa thoroughly before cooking to remove a bitter substance called saponin that coats the seeds.
Note **Brush avocado slices with additional lemon juice to prevent browning.

Why is quinoa good for you?  I had to answer this for Jeff.   "Quinoa is very high in protein and has every one of the nine essential amino acids. These nine essential amino acids are the ones that your body cannot synthesize in quantities sufficient to sustain good health, so they need to come from food sources. Qunioa is the only plant-based protien to contain all 9 essential amino acids. Many people think that quinoa is a type of grain, but it's not. Quinoa is actually the seed of a plant related to spinach. This food staple is grown in the mountains of Ecuador and was once called "the gold of the Inca's" because of how it increased stamina."