Seasonal Sundays (Week 47) Thanksgiving

It's Turkey Day minus 11 so best to get organized, yes? For a little extra inspiration, I've collected recipes for my "dream" Thanksgiving dinner, all the staples plus a few surprises.

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

Well. Now that everyone's on board for pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving – right?! – I guess it's about time to put together an actual dinner plan.

Truth is, I l-o-v-e to cook Thanksgiving dinner and have ever since my first at age 16. What mom gives over the kitchen on Thanksgiving? With guests coming? Mine! I imagine she helped hovered but still.

So it's a great sadness in my life that, because this is just how it is, Thanksgiving has become more chore than cheer. I tell myself that it's just one day a year. I tell myself it's not about the food. I tell myself that it's fine, even Enough. (This year? If all goes to plan, it's gonna be way more than "enough"!)

So no wonder, I throw myself not only into sharing Thanksgiving recipes but also organizing what's become an impressive collection. It's like vicariously cooking Thanksgiving dinners in thousands of kitchens!

VEGETABLE SIDE DISHES (MY SPECIALTY!)

• THE COLLECTION My Very Best Thanksgiving Vegetable Recipes Super-organized by the holiday's favorite vegetables.
• Multiple recipes for each vegetable, sorted by cooking methods (oven-roasting, slow cooker, etc.)
• A personal "Pick One" for each vegetable – avoiding search & decision overload!
• Expanded to include Thanksgiving Appetizers, Thanksgiving Salads & Thanksgiving Pies

THE THANKSGIVING MEAL

• THE MOTHERLODE Thanksgiving Menus, Recipes & More Super-organized, of course.
• NOT COOKING A TURKEY? Vegetarian Entrées for Thanksgiving

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SEASONAL INSPIRATION: My Dream Thanksgiving Meal

• THE RECIPE How to Dry-Brine and Roast a Whole Turkey A dry-brined turkey is simple and uncomplicated and produces turkey with dark, crispy skin with moist, flavorful breast meat and dark meat.
• ANOTHER TAKE Slow-Cooker Turkey Breast Plus Turkey Stock and Turkey Gravy.

• THE RECIPE Sausage Stuffing (Turkey Dressing) My grandmother's recipe for sausage stuffing.
• ANOTHER TAKE Spring Stuffing with Leeks & Mushrooms Lovely with roast chicken.

• THE RECIPE Perfect Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes (Party Potatoes) Make-ahead mashed potatoes for a crowd.
• ANOTHER TAKE Three Secrets for Rich & Creamy Mashed Potatoes Easy to remember, quick to do.

• THE RECIPE World's Best Green Bean Casserole Yesterday's comfort food made fresh.
• IT'S LIFE-CHANGING! Happy Thanksgiving from the Green Bean Casserole Lady: A Love Story
• ANOTHER TAKE Make-Ahead Fresh Green Bean Casserole America’s favorite casserole, fresh & convenient both.

• THE RECIPE Squash Puff An old family recipe, traditional for Thanksgiving.
• ANOTHER TAKE Turnip Puff or Rutabaga Puff A family Thanksgiving favorite.

• THE RECIPE Homemade Butterhorns (Thanksgiving Crescent Rolls) My grandmother's recipe, rolled in the traditional cornucopia shape.
• ANOTHER TAKE Homemade Yeast Rolls My mom's soft, golden "ice cream pail" buns.

• THE RECIPE Homemade Whole Cranberry Sauce for the Slow Cooker Sweet aroma of cranberries, fresh ginger and orange zest!
• ANOTHER TAKE Cranberry Orange Relish with Fresh Ginger That old-time recipe with an whole orange, skin and all.

Thanksgiving Sweet Buffet

Pie for breakfast or after the big meal? Check out last week's Seasonal Sundays where the focus was Thanksgiving Pies.

Here are some more ideas. This might be the best part of Thanksgiving!

• THE RECIPE Cranberry Apple Crisp A wintry take on fall's favorite, my signature dessert during cold weather.
• ANOTHER TAKE Extra-Crispy Apple Crisp My very own "perfect" recipe, barely sweet apples firm and tart, topped with an extra-crispy topping, thanks to a secret ingredient.

• THE RECIPE Fresh Cranberry Cake Best made a day ahead.
• ANOTHER TAKE Fresh Cranberry Bars A chewy almost-blondie molasses and spice bar with bursts of juicy cranberry, topped with a scattering of sugar "snow".

• THE RECIPE Fresh Cranberry Bars A chewy almost-blondie molasses and spice bar with bursts of juicy cranberry, topped with a scattering of sugar "snow".
• ANOTHER TAKE Snickerdoodle Bars Snickerdoodle flavors with the firm, chewy texture of blondies.

Made Me Think ...

GROCERY STORE OBSERVATIONS
• Saturday shoppers, wow, so many of us are in a r-u-s-h.
• Saturday shoppers, quite a few adult-child/elderly-parent pairs, the adult children looking strained and stressed, the elderly parent smiling and relaxed.
• Apparently Folgers is trying to seem all cool again? (NPR story) For us, Folgers is totally cool. We love Folger's 100% Colombian, a stronger blend recommended by Cook's Illustrated many many years ago.

WORD DANCERS
• For anyone who's already a subscriber to the New York Times, let me recommend the Frank Bruni newsletter. Most issues, he includes a few brilliant lines from other journalists, mostly sourced from fellow language-loving readers.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
• I love this post from Bev Cooks. She starts off, "I’m just genuinely curious – what makes you the happiest? And I’m not really talking about the broad scope of life – family, friends and health. Not that. Let’s go tiny. Let’s get microscopic. Let’s dig!" And then she lists a few small things that bring her joy.
• Right now sitting outside working on my laptop in an unseasonably lovely November. And a few feet off is a gangly jack o' lantern tucked in among other pumpkins and the last of some summer pots. The whole vignette makes me smile!
• Journal keepers, do keep a page titled Things That Make Me Smile? It's fun to look back upon ...

It's Not Politics. It's Civics.
It's Like Voting Every Day. Legally.

The country needs calm, thoughtful and assertive voices amid the chaos inflicted by a minority hellbent on taking/retaining power by strangling democratic principles and equal rights.

It's time to look up, study up and speak up. Make your voice heard!

Don't get overwhelmed. None of us have to personally change the world.

WE JUST HAVE TO DO OUR PART.

Pick one thing and put it on top of your To Do List this week. Next week, add another.

Here are my suggestions. I'll be adding to this list ...

NEXT WEEK? Stay tuned in but sure, take a short break! It's a lot, what we've been through, what we're in the midst of. It's okay to take a breath, even a short breather.

That said, if you've got time and strength to invest, here's a list of Georgia grassroots efforts, collected by the organizing dynamo Jessica Craven whose daily list of do-able actions is inspiring. Just do one thing, seriously.

Or to directly fund Georgia Run-off Election activities in support of Reverend Warnock and retaining/building the margin in the Senate, contribute to the Georgia Fund. (Walker vs Warnock? really? what a frightening tool that ex jock's been made into.)

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THIS WEEK TAKE STOCK, OFFER CREDIT

What was your polling place like? Ours was packed – cars parked on the street, lines way out the door – but the everybody was cheerful and the election officials were great. I was so happy to see a young poll worker, almost a doppelganger of @OliviaJulianna, the young activist who was body-shamed by a foul-mouthed Florida member of Congress but used the moment to raise more than $2 million to support pro-choice activism. Yay for Gen Z!

After voting, we had movers come to the house, a couple of brawny guys hired to carry heavy pieces of furniture down a flight of stairs. I was feeling kinda high on voting and asked if they'd voted yet. Their answers totally made my day!

The first, who lives in Illinois: "Yes, ma'am. My aunt made sure that I got registered. I'm gonna vote as soon as I get off work."

The second, who lives in Missouri, gave a quick grin: "My girlfriend would kill me if I didn't vote. We're going together after work."

Now I have no idea how these two young guys were going to vote, only that younger generations have so much more at stake than we older folks do.

And note TWO things.

• The importance of women, getting young men to the polls.
• The warm reaction to a stranger asking, pride that their voting plans were in place.

Now not all the candidates I was rooting for prevailed. But here's what I know.

• In a real democracy, every candidate gets a fair shake, every voter gets a fair count. In the 2022 midterm election, the Democrats won some and the Republicans won some. But most importantly, democracy won. [Oh! And the Senate held! Please-oh-please, let the House hold too, avoiding two years of weak-leadership, hyperpartisan chaos.]
• A lot of small drops still fill the rain gauge. Be a drop or two or three. Together we add up to make a difference.

What's New?!

Wondering about a recipe from the last while? Check Recent Recipes from Kitchen Parade and Recent Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture.

• THE RECIPE Turnip Puff or Rutabaga Puff A family Thanksgiving favorite.
  
• ANOTHER TAKE Squash Puff An old family recipe, traditional for Thanksgiving.

A Quick Peek Into a Real-Life Kitchen

Just so you know, everything's not all pretty pictures around here, in the background is a pile of dirty dishes. And just like many (all?) of us, come five o'clock, I too draw a blank about what to make for supper, despite so many recipes I so dearly love. Here's a quick peek from the last week.

• THIS WEEK Is cooking 80% using up what's on hand? Most weeks, we easily go through a full pound of salad greens but for some reason, not this week. Lettuce Soup uses up not-quite-as-fresh salad greens in a small batch of soup that's decidedly thrifty and yet delicious. This week, I used up some already-roasted potatoes and threw in some mini Brussels sprouts, too. This one's quick enough for lunch, not sure I'd serve it for "dinner".
• THE RECIPE Lettuce Soup Never let big bags of greens go to waste again.
• ANOTHER TAKE Saturday Soup Use up all the leftovers!

• THIS WEEK I used up a bunch of Roasted Roma Tomatoes to make a brand-new version of this dressing. Pretty color! Nice to have another way to use the roasted tomatoes.
• THE RECIPE My Everyday Creamy Herb Salad Dressing Never the same twice.
• ANOTHER TAKE Buttermilk Garlic Ranch Salad Dressing A homemade ranch dressing.

• THIS WEEK So good! And so colorful too! I "cleaned out the fridge" and used red potatoes, some wedges of butternut squash and red cabbage. I also doubled the caraway and added some cumin seed. Definite comfort food, full of veggies ...
• THE RECIPE Sausage & Cabbage Skillet Rustic & homey.
• ANOTHER TAKE Italian Sausage with Grapes & Greens A Quick Supper, an unusual combination of familiar ingredients.

Just Updated!

• THE RECIPE Bodacious Brussels Sprouts Prep ahead of time, then finish just before serving.
• ANOTHER TAKE Creamy Brussels Sprouts Gratin An appetizer with toothpicks? A forgiving side dish? Yes and yes.

• THE RECIPE Holiday Fruit & Yogurt Parfait with Cranberries, Applesauce, Pineapple & Kiwi A showstopper for holiday brunches and parties.
• ANOTHER TAKE Apple Yogurt Salad Perfect for holiday & winter brunches.

• THE RECIPE Perfect Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins So healthy! So adaptable! Stays fresh for days too.
• ANOTHER TAKE Gingerbread Muffins Low-fat and low-calorie molasses-y muffins with a moist and delicate crumb.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail (my current address in the FAQs), dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. When you make my recipes, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below or better still, on the specific recipe's page.

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