This is an excellent take-along for a potluck dinner.
Preheat oven to 350. Thaw potatoes in large bowl. In separate container, combine remaining ingredients. Fold into thawed potatoes. Bake in 9″ x 13″dish for 1 to 1 ½ hours.
Serves a crowd.
These are mashed potatoes, Southern Style, and sized for a crowd!
Peel potatoes (if desired) and cut into chunks or slices. Place in large pot, then fill it with water to 1″ above tops of potatoes. Turn on high heat until water comes to boil. Cook on medium high heat until potatoes are soft when poked with a fork. Drain out water.
Using a mixer, add in butter, cream cheese and half-and-half. Add onion powder, garlic powder, and seasoned salt to taste.
Makes a lot of potatoes!
Last weekend’s Thanksgiving feast almost blew our collective minds with how tasty everything was. Actually, as we tried to express how good everything was, we kept trying to find just the right superlatives. We agreed that we should establish a sort of best-of book, since so many of the recipes were the best we had ever had. We jokingly titled this hypothetical publication, Obscenely Good Recipes, due to the responses elicited by the taste testers.
Allow me to elaborate our menu:
We had the best ever Pecan Crunch Pie to start off the weekend. It actually got sampled Wednesday night, because we figured it might get overshadowed on Thursday. And that was an excellent decision, although our taste test ended up being half the pie!
The turkey was incredibly moist, even though it had been cooked without a tent. We suspect this was due to the sage butter infusion: Dawn softened some butter, stirred in chopped fresh sage, molded it into a log, and froze it in a sandwich bag for 10 minutes. Then she sliced the butter into dimes and slid the pieces between the skin and the meat. The center cavity of the turkey also was stuffed with some savory items, including a whole onion. Add to this a studious attention to basting the bird, and it came out with so much flavor it made us weak in the knees.
When it came my turn to sample the sausage stuffing, my only response was to pick up the dish and run from the room, shouting €œI’ll see you tomorrow!€ Then I relented and returned it, seeing that there was more than enough to share and I wanted to pair it with the turkey. But it was that good.
Whit made her sweet potatoes with walnut crunch topping for the third year in a row. Same recipe every time, but we all agreed that these turned out the best ever. Perhaps the third time is just automatically charmed.
I tried a new recipe for roasted vegetables. Due to a kitchen time-share scheduling conflict, I ended up actually fire-roasting them outside on the grill. I used carrots, parsnips, turnips, baby tomatoes, whole garlic cloves and fennel. It was both a pungent and flavorful treat! However, my personal opinion of the result was that they should be part of a simpler meal, so they can shine instead of competing with the traditional Thanksgiving spread. Next time I might also use fewer different vegetables, so the ones that are there can speak for themselves. But I can promise you, there will be a next time. Roasted veggies are going to become part of my regular lineup.
Other indulgent dishes were spread out over the weekend. On Friday, we had Next Day Turkey Soup with Dumplings for lunch, followed by Dawn’s famous Artichoke Dip, served with Wheat Thins and crudites, during the game. I love the word crudite (CROO-dih-tee), because it makes cut up veggies sound so exotic!
While we decorated the tree Saturday evening, we snacked on peppermint bark (new family favorite), spiced pecans, and sugar plums. All are simple to make and store well. I also think they are a complimentary trio. Unfortunately the item which goes the fastest, the pecans, are also the most expensive. Maybe a cup of peanuts or mixed nuts served alongside the pecans would make them last longer?
And for Sunday brunch, Dawn made stuffed french toast. Again, this is a simple dish. It is assembled the night before, to allow the eggs to soak into the bread. It can be served with syrup, but it is certainly sweet enough to stand alone. I think the perfect companion for this breakfast would be a bowl full of clementines and a pot of coffee.
Hard to believe, but I think that covers all the exceptional recipes we trotted out over the weekend. Maybe you found something there to inspire you for a future event, even if it is as ordinary as a Saturday morning.
This completely inauthentic take on English sausage and potatoes is enormously well received by my family.
Combine potatoes, sausage slices, green onions, pepper and garlic powder in crock pot. Stir gently to mix.
Stir together soup and milk. Pour over potato mixture. Top with shredded cheese.
Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serves 4-6.
I was amazed to find that this ordinary dish from my childhood went over so big with my own kids. And it is so easy!
Preheat oven to 350. Brown ground beef and onion together in skillet. Drain off fat. Place mixture in a layer in bottom of 13″ x 9″ baking dish.
Layer green beans on top of beef mixture. Stir together soups and layer on top of green beans. Arrange tater tots in layer on top of all.
Bake 30-45 minutes.
Serve 4-6 with salad and a loaf of crusty bread.
This recipe would double well, and could also be made ahead of time and frozen. Just put the topping mixture in a plastic bag and store it with the baking dish. Thaw in refrigerator overnight.
Preheat oven to 350. In medium bowl, stir together potatoes, 1/3 cup melted butter, sugar, and 2 Tbsp brown sugar. Beat in orange juice, beaten eggs, and milk.
Place potato mixture in greased 2 quart baking dish. In small bowl, combine pecans, remaining brown sugar, flour, and remaining butter. Sprinkle over potato mixture.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until bubbly around edges.
Serves 4-6.
In soup pot, saute leeks in butter until tender; add garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add broth and potatoes. Cover and simmer 30 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
Remove from heat. Puree soup until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with parsley and crumbled bacon.
Serves 4 to 6