Thanksgiving Recipes

Here are some of the recipes from the Thanksgiving meal we juts hosted - all tried and tested and DELICIOUS!

First - the turkey dressing (did you know, t's called that if you cook it outside the fowl, and stuffing if you cook it inside the bird's cavity - some general knowledge for you!). Go on over here, and take a look - it was yum!

Grandma Ople Apple Pie (No idea whose Gran this is, but it is an awesome pie!)
Ingredients

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I used Braveheart's Gran's recipe for the pastry, can't buy no pie crusts here that I know of!))
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

K's Pumpkin Crisp

Ingredients:
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 package butter flavor yellow cake mix -- I couldn't find this and used vanilla cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter, melted
whipped cream (optional)

Stir together the first five ingredients. Pour into a lightly greased 13 x 9" baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle evenly with the pecans. Drizzle butter evenly over pecans. Bake at 350° for 50-55 min. or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and let stand 10 min. before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg if desired. (it's also good served warm with ice cream)

CL's Mouthwatering Sweet Potato Casserole

1  c  sugar
1  can sweet potatoes  or 3-4 fresh potatoes  (mashed)
2  eggs-beaten
1 stick butter-melted    

 (She tries to use a little less than this! Also, a stick of butter here equates to about 8 Tablespoons)
1/2 cup canned evaporated milk
1  tsp  vanilla

Mix above together & pour into baking dish.

Topping:

1  c  brown sugar
1/3   c  flour
1  c  chopped pecans
1/3   c melted butter

Mix together & pour over potato mixture.

Bake 350*F (baked it on 180*C here in SA) for 35 minutes (or until bubbly and brown on top).

 Enjoy!

Thanksgiving!

I cannot get this text to go above this photo which is driving me dilly, but anyway! So, after creating one massive table for the 18 adults, and two smaller tables for the 10 children, the festivities began! There were only about 6 South Africans (if you can call us that, let's rather just say Africans!). Some of the Americans brought turkey decorations and serviettes which made it feel a little more Thanksgiving-ish.

And this is the food! Everyone had brought their favorite side dish for Thanksgiving
and may I add that they were ALL delicious! 

One of the kiddies tables - King Arthur, Aragorn and Belle joined by a friend

Feasting!

The thankful guests! One thing that just amused me greatly was
that no one seemed particularly fussed about the turkey - it's
the sides that appear to be everyone's favorite!

I was continually thankful for the blessing of this house.
It absorbed people - everyone melted into the rooms they felt most comfortable
in - here are some kids doing some Thanksgiving
colouring-in in the inside/outside room.

Some kids (and an adult!) watching a dvd towards the end of the day

Adults having fun on the trampoline

Pudding time! Awesome deserts - my apple pie rocked,
will have to post a recipe!

Outside time!

And to round off the evening for the kids we did sparklers,
although in Cape Town how can one wait for dark?!
Isn't Belle just gorgeous?!

So there you have it! I'll post the recipes - delicious food and fun to celebrate something else from another culture. Such lovely people too, with incredible callings on their lives - more to come on that too!

Turkey Talk!

Thanksgiving, 2010. For Americans it's a big deal, one fo the few times they get to make a four day weekend out of public holidays - it's a longer break than Christmas. And from all the movies/books we've been exposed to, yes, everyone really does try and get home for the holidays.

So when M married K, we really felt for her being here for this important holiday, and so offered to host her very own Thanksgiving dinner at our new place. She and another good American friend L did the planning and organizing with a few chirps from me! It was meticulously planned - everyone contributed money to the turkeys, brought traditional sides and puddings and that was it.

So, the first part looked like this -

So this is us...the morning of Thanksgiving, K, L (the true Americanas) and I, prepping the turkeys we'd been defrosting for two days. Can you tell how smelly they were - classic photos! But they really were smelling disgusting. We phoned Braveheart's father later in the day and got him to come and smell them as they came out the oven, and thankfully our nightmares of having to go out and buy cooked chickens melted away! They were perfect!

Next installment tomorrow!