What exactly is Oprah trying to perpetrate in this picture she just tweeted? Sweet potatoes with freshly picked rosemary? WTF? I sure don’t believe she is making that herself in her pretty cashmere sweater dress. Clearly, her chef is making multiple pans of it and she’s just tweeting a photo. But I refuse to believe Oprah is going to forgo traditional southern sweet potato casserole replete with marshmallows and or sweet potato pie for this ridiculous yankee fancy pants restaurant chef version. Say it ain’t so, Ope!
I’ve been roasting beets for over an hour and they are still hard as rocks! They are the biggest ones I’ve ever roasted. I’ve got three baseball-sized ones in the oven. Tomorrow, I’ll make an organic salad with beets and goat cheese and two pumpkin pies and then my contribution will be done.
What are y’all making tonight/tomorrow? I tried to get TC to do a blog on her Thanksgiving meal but she was too busy gearing up for it. Maybe she will share her menu here. Warning: It’s always over the top.
Who’s going somewhere? Who’s hosting? And who is ignoring the whole thing? Hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving whatever you do!
Always freeze them. They work best if you start with them hard. I make a lot and freeze a bunch of small bags. It’s an amazing thing to pull out and cook for a last minute get together. And I use peanut oil and a high sided sauté pan. Just about an inch and a half of oil works fine. I found a bag about a month ago in the bottom of the freezer. Thought no way these are any good. Fried them and they were perfect.
Thanks. Do you ever do them ahead of time? It says you can and freeze them. I’d think you could go straight from freezer to deep fryer.
Menu:
Crostini – chicken liver
Olives – stuffed, breaded and deep fried
Capri sticks -Toothpick w tom basil n mozz
Shrimp n cocktail sauce
Prosecco
Old fashioneds
Unsweet tea (for the diabetic inlaw)
Wedding soup
Turkey (stuffed and roasted w herbs, stock and dry white wine)
Stuffing – bread and sage sausage
Gravy
Mashed pots (sil contribution)
Sweet pots cooked in bourbon sauce
Brussels sprouts w/panchetta
Fresh cut Corn w parsley n lime
Roasted acorn squash w Thai seasoning
Cornishons
Cranberry sauce (bought at TJ’s because I realized that no one eats it anyhow)
Dinner rolls w/ Irish butter
Red wine
Coffee
Pies – apple n pumpkin (from Amish market)
Whipped cream. W/frangelico
Frangelico
Cherry liquore (homemade)
Today, it will all taste better to me. And I may not even get out of bed. My house looks like a hurricane hit it. I can’t look. Poor husband has to work today.
How do you do the olives?
My grandmother’s recipe is very similar to this: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ameilias-italian-stuffed-olives/
Only I but pitted olive, cut them in half, roll a ball of the stuffing and stick the two parts of the olive on each side. Ton of work. But worth it.
As beet root color is so strong that it is even used as a natural dye coloring agent, it’s best to cover those babies so they don’t bleed all over your kitchen surfaces or inside of your freezer. Just throw them in a freezer bag for a couple days and you’re set! It’s rock hard enough of a veggie that it will soften so that your teeth aren’t broken trying to eat them, but so soft that they would turn to mush (as many other frozen veggies are prone to do).
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! Obviously I don’t have the luxury o that holiday living across the pond, but my friends and loved ones are slowly becoming accustomed to being carted off to my place for my annual “Dankbar Tag Essen” (Gratitude Dinner) with the bird and all the fixins, and I confess I’m a “tater-traitor” who decades dumped marshmallows in favor of herbs and simple raw sugar glaze (now ducking in case sweet potato is thrown at my head, haha)— but I promise, it’s goood! . BTW, LOVE your idea of the roasted beets! Miss Tamara, next year to save time on them beet balls, peel and freeze those suckers some time beforehand to soften the flesh, and you will cut down on your cooking time considerably without compromising the recipe at all. This method also works well for pumpkins and rock shell varieties of squash.
Whoa Backporchcafe – freeze beets? I would never have thought of that. Do they last a while in the deep freeze? Do you put anything on them before throwing them in there – and what do you put them in? Plastic, tupperware (ye gads, did I say that?) or tin foil??? Dying to know how this works.
Bahaha. Loved this post & I agree. We all know damn well oprah wasn’t making those herself.
Happy Thanksgiving!! Thanks for all of your hard work and writing for us! And to all the commenters- thanks for all the laughs and entertaining posts! You all get me and I’m sure many others through cancer treatments. You all help make my days a bit brighter
I went back home. Helped my aunt cook. Here is our menu, everything is made from scratch – except the water and wine of course:
Thanksgiving Meal 2012
Menu:
Main Course:
Turkey and Dressing/cranberry sauce
Ham
Giblet Gravy
Sweet Potato Casserole
Collard Greens
Cream Peas
Mac and Cheese
Green Beans w/ Caramelized Onions
Potato Salad
Copper Pennies
Devil Eggs
Corn Casserole
Breads:
Rolls and Cornbread
Desserts:
Sweet Potato Pie
Pecan Pie
Lemon Chess Pie
Banana Pudding
Sour Cream Pound Cake
Chocolate Pound Cake
Italian Cream Cheese Cake
Peach Cobbler
Beverage:
Iced Tea
Water
White Wine
Much love and Happy Holidays.
Darn B boy in Harlem – you stole my Gram’s Sunday dinner recipe – and she was from the old country!!! But instead of your deserts, she made this amazing struddle/pastry kinda thing that was filled with poppy seeds, a vanilla icing thingy and slathered with some type of icing over the oblong thing. None of my generation thought to get the recipe for it before she passed, nor our parents. Envious you had Lemon Chess Pie. Rich’s (do you know who they are) use to sell them at their bakeries until they closed in the late 80′s or so.
Having a huge Family Pot Luck at a community center. We started doing this a few years ago. Makes it easier.
Now about that pic of Oprah. She said herself she couldn’t cook. Had Aretha Franklin about to throw her out the kitchen for messing with the Banana Pudding ( y’all know Aretha don’t play when it comes to her food!).
Didn’t Aretha have a restaurant at one time? I know she makes a killer Mac N Cheese!
I have two friends coming over who are bringing veggie side dishes and wine. Lots of wine.
I am making dressing with quinoa and seitan, using homemade veggie stock. Yes, I am vegetarian but the dressing is my favorite part of the traditional meal. Last night I made a Crustless Pumpkin Pie from a recipe I found on the Chocolate Covered Katie website. Supposedly the whole pie has less calories than one slice of the traditional version. I know it smelled delicious as it was baking so I am expecting all of the yumminess with none of the guilt.
Your beet and goat cheese salad sounds delish. The forecast in the ATL is expected to be 70 degrees and sunny, so we can all be thankful for that.
Happy Turkey Day everyone!
We’re having beef roast, corn casserole, and sauteed spinach here. I was gifted so many restaurant-purchased pies and cupcakes that there will be no homemade dessert this year. It will just be me and two of my siblings.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving, my Canookian Friend. Y’all know you are doing it wrong, right?
Happy Thanksgiving, ya turkey! xo
I leave it to my sister to make all of the important things (except pumpkin pie) Turkey, the right cornbread dressing which is never to be altered, she makes real cranberry dressing but there is usually a can for me and the children. lol. I just like a tiny bit because I liked it as a kid. The side dishes are optional except for sweet potatoes of course. Then there will be whatever else people bring or she makes. The food is always fantastic.
The thing is, my sister is a great cook but she cannot time a turkey to save her life. And she wants to do supper, not lunch. I’d prefer to eat and then be home for happy hour. She doesn’t care because she doesn’t have to drive. Anyway she moved mealtime to “5 or 5:30″ this year. Which means the turkey will be ready by 7 and everyone will (except me) will be drinking all day on an empty tummy. Siblings will brawl (not me and mine, her adult kids), little ones will require chicken nuggets at peak oven time…Plus it’s my er…emotional time…:( Now that I think of it, I better ask my gaybor if he has an extra xanax.
Has your sister tried using white wine on the Turkey? I know, sounds like a joke, right? Seriously – a talk radio person in ATL, who will go un-named, said that if you use and entire bottle of white wine (pouring – glub, glub, glub, over the turkey at the beginning, then baste the turkey with it every 45 minutes or so) it was so moist it fell off the bone. So, we tried it. It certainly works, but silly me, I used the drippings when I made the gravy – so you can guess what happened at dinner time and about 15 minutes after. Seriously – it was the most amazing Turkey we’ve had…..enough though everyone was a bit loopy at the end.
Timing – got it. Everyone in our family wants it a different time. Someone one year had it at 1pm – then the next year it was 3pm – finally, it wound up staying at 5pm. I am NOT a fan of a BIG late dinner. So – if we can’t get out of a Turkey Day dinner, we eat a big breakfast, small lunch and very little Turkey dinner. Someone always remarks on it, or has their feelings hurt. However, hubby and I are to the point that we really don’t care anymore. Life is short – if you get your feelings hurt cause I didn’t enough of your turkey you have some BIG issues to work on.
Tam – I love roasted beets, parsnips, carrots! I usually cut the beets up, into oblong strips, toss them in some olive oil & roast @ 400 for about an hour. Works every time.
The first thing is – we have to wake up in time to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I know, sounds lame, but it’s a childhood tradition for me while growing up in NYC. Either Dad or one of his brothers took me, the cousins and my brothers every other year or so. Of course, when you’re a child you don’t realize how freezing cold it is, snow, rain, me in a little snow suit, mittens, etc….me on Daddy’s shoulders so scared by the big balloons that I would cry for the 1st hour – I even have 1 B&W picture to prove it…….ah, childhood. Moving along –
We’re having a traditional Turdukin. Sage/sausage/dressing, Sweet Tater Casserole (like Oprah’s going to skip these – puhlease – smashed cream cheese white taters, turkey gravy, whole cranberry sauce, King’s sweet dinner rolls, sweet peas & Apple Crumb pie w/real whipped cream for desert. Now – the catch – it’s just for me and my hubby. NOT giving away the secret of how we escaped going to any family members house this year!
Ooooh where do you live, Stella? I love learning about new foods. Mirliton? Satsuma? I had to Google!
And the drug dealers (Allegedly!) in my neighborhood just draw teenaged burglars to the hood. You get all the good drug dealers!
sounds like south Louisiana if I would have to guess. we had shrimp mirliton, and oyster dressing as well and satsumas are grown in abundance around here. now Im curious too
Yep, New Orleans! Born and raised. Our neighbors are connected to the Cash Money crew somehow. They hand out turkeys every year in N.O. so we got in on that. (Side note- Those type of alleged neighbors are the best kind. Earlier this summer, the morning after the hurricane he had a crew of guys clearing debris and hosing off everyone’s porches. As you can imagine, he has access to an army of people willing to do anything for $20.)
Mirliton is also called chayote… you could say it tastes similar to eggplant. Stuffed with shrimp is so good, we did a baked casserole thing with breadcrumbs. Satsumas are basically tangerines. The trees are all over, even residential areas, so it was a last minute addition to the homemade cranberry sauce. The recipe is super simple and totally shames that canned jelly stuff. I’m working on turkey and sausage file gumbo now. I missed some parts of RHOA tonight while skimming the fat off my stock. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.
Stella,
I stay literally on bayou Lafourch in Thibodaux. Certified cajun country. Although I actually hale from Hammond. I sure did miss Hammonds traditional fare which is quite different from here. I have wet dreams about Cornbread dressing, giblet gravy and yes even the slimy canahaped gelatenous blob they call cranberry sauce. But I do have to admit for the rest of the year I believe the further south you get the better the food gets. We actually will be in the city for the court of two sisters brunch with Santa on Sunday. Prob have some mirlinton then. Yum Yum. oh and Tam looks like I will be headed your way a couple times a year because my best friend is moving to a suburb of Atlanta at the end of Dec. supposed to be a good neighborhood but she’s not from there and they are pretty much buying blindly.
that was supposed to say “can shaped” not canahaped. stupid virtual buttons
Stella,
I stay literally on bayou Lafourch in Thibodaux. Certified cajun country. Although I actually hale from Hammond. I sure did miss Hammonds traditional fare which is quite different from here. I have wet dreams about Cornbread dressing, giblet gravy and yes even the slimy can shaped gelatenous blob they call cranberry sauce. But I do have to admit for the rest of the year I believe the further south you get the better the food gets. We actually will be in the city for the court of two sisters brunch with Santa on Sunday. Prob have some mirlinton then. Yum Yum. oh and Tam looks like I will be headed your way a couple times a year because my best friend is moving to a suburb of Atlanta at the end of Dec. supposed to be a good neighborhood but she’s not from there and they are pretty much buying blindly.
Happy Thanksgiving TamaraTattles! I want to wish all of you here, a wonderful Thanksgiving and the joy and happiness that brings all your loved ones together on a day that is set aside not for sharing gifts but sharing thanks and love.
I thought the same thing before I even read the text. Sweet potato abuse.
We’re having a less than traditional Thanksgiving. We wouldn’t even have a turkey if it wasn’t for some charity. The alleged drug dealer that lives nearby handed out turkeys to the block a day or two before Thanksgiving. We’ll have that with pork tenderloin, oyster stuffing, roasted mirliton, homemade cranberry sauce with satsuma from the tree outside… and some classics, of course. I might make Tiramisu and/or a berry crumble if I feel so inclined/wake up before noon.
Happy Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a fabulous day whether they eat turkey, tofu or even steak.
Hubs and I aren’t big on turkey, neither of us really care for it but this year I decided to be semi traditional. He was deployed last year so it was just another day of the year for me while he was stuck having horrible turkey something in the mess hall. This year I bought a Butterball package that has white and dark meat in it. I really only like dark meat, he’s a breast man haha. Anyway, so I’ll make that, takes about 2hrs to bake according to the bag it’s in, then I also will make stuffing (stove top cuz we’re lazy and we like it), can of sweet potatoes, of course I prefer fresh but for 1 person (another something hubs doesnt like) it’s not worth the work, and green beans and a Mrs Smith’s Dutch Apple pie.
Friday I’m heating up 4 lbs of snow crab legs and no Black Friday shopping. We hate crowds and shopping. I love amazon.com
Hope the rest of those taters were used for something else,
couldn’t imagine tossing the ends…
We did turkey day last night for our youngest son & family –
works Thursday and we’re all going to one of my brothers
tomorrow- whole family…
Try poking your beets & nuking them then roast them…
Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow…
Be safe on the roads…
Happy Thanksgiving to you too, tam tam….
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you, dear lady. Enjoy!