We have officially begun the holiday season! It is a busy time of year but I am hoping to bake as much as I can over the next few weeks. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Living in Arizona, while the rest of the family is back in Illinois, can be difficult around the holidays. However, we were still able to carry on most of those traditions including the big Thanksgiving meal. However before we began a crazy day of cooking we enjoyed a delicious brunch. For brunch I made a Pumpkin French Toast Casserole. In order to reduce the amount of things that actually had to be baked on Thanksgiving day, I prepared the casserole ahead of time. The night before, I put together all the ingredients so I could put it in the oven quickly before we began the day. I was able to wake up at 8:30, pop it in the oven, and enjoy a nice brunch before baking. Here is the recipe for the casserole: http://www.littlespicejar.com/pumpkin-french-toast-casserole/.
Before we began the cooking I went out to my wildflower garden and was able to put together a beautiful bouquet of flowers to use as the centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table. They were the perfect colors for Thanksgiving.
Oh and Cleo decided to help too...
The Thanksgiving meal included the turkey, green bean casserole, brown butter mashed potatoes, the Pioneer Woman's soul sister (taters), pumpkin creme cheese bread, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. All of these recipes were very good and not to difficult to make.
However the best part about Thanksgiving was when my sister offered to help me cook the meal. Since she is in college she does not get to experience all of my fantastic cooking, so it was a lot of fun having her help me put together our Thanksgiving dishes. The total preparation time for our meal was probably around 4 1/2 hours. It was a little difficult managing my time because all of the recipes have different baking times and settings, but we got it done and it all tasted sooo good.
So the turkey was bought on Monday at our local Fry's, frozen. We were a little worried it would not be thawed in time for Thursday, but we were able to make it just in time. Although we did have to stick it in a cool water bath early on Thursday. I opted not to brine my turkey, however I did use the Pioneer Woman's recipe for Turkey. I had watched the episode where she used this recipe and wanted to try it out myself. Here is the recipe I used for the turkey: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/roasted-thanksgiving-turkey-recipe0.html.
Along with the turkey we made three sweet recipes. One of the recipes I used was found on Pinterest. It is for creme cheese filled pumpkin bread. I would highly recommend this recipe and it would be very delicious for breakfast. It did take a few extra minutes than the recipe called for in my oven. Here is the recipe for the bread: http://www.averiecooks.com/2014/08/cream-cheese-filled-pumpkin-bread.html.
Of course my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the potatoes. I chose my favorite mashed potatoes recipe (originally from Pinterest) to use on Thanksgiving. They were fantastic and the leftovers are perfect for many different recipes including Potato Waffles, which is the recipe I will be using this weekend. Here is the recipe for the browned butter mashed potatoes: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/browned-butter-mashed-potatoes.
Another recipe included in our meal was sweet potato casserole. My mom always makes this dish and uses her own recipe, however this year she decided to try something a little different. She used the Pioneer Woman's recipe called Soul Sweet (taters). It is very good and once again is perfect as leftovers and can be eaten anytime of the day, including breakfast! Here is the recipe for the Pioneer Woman's version of sweet potato casserole: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/soul-sweet-taters-step-by-step-recipe/.
Although it is not necessarily the most favorite dish of Thanksgiving, my family and I still felt it was necessary to include stuffing. I am not a huge fan of stuffing, so I decided to try a new recipe I found on Pinterest. I figured it would be good, considering it was named "Best Ever Stuffing". It was actually very good. Here is the recipe for the stuffing: http://www.chef-in-training.com/2014/11/best-ever-stuffing/.
Another must for the holiday meal is green bean casserole. This is my oldest sister's favorite dish of the day. We generally just use the recipe off the back of the green bean can, but I thought it would be fun to try a new recipe. My sister panicked when we had to actually make the cream of mushroom soup. To her surprise this recipe was delicious and ten times better than the can. However, I did choose to use canned green beans instead of fresh. It was very very good. Here is the recipe for the green bean casserole also found on Pinterest: http://www.thenovicechefblog.com/2013/11/the-best-green-bean-casserole/.
Last but not least was the pumpkin pie. I did slack off on the pie and chose to just use the can recipe. It was just as good and took less time than other recipes. I did get a little crazy and put a fancy crust across the top. With the help of my sister we were able to get it done in less than fifteen minutes. I used refrigerated pie crust and cut out tiny leaves which I then used to decorate the crust. If you have a leave cutter you can save lots of time...
Overall the meal was delicious with lots of sweet, salty, and flavor! I got ten thumbs up from my family, so I would say it was a success.
Even college students have big appetites...
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends, and food. Be looking for my next few blog posts before the holidays with lots of delicious recipes. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and check out our Etsy over the weekend. We will have a 20% off coupon for small business Saturday and Cyber Monday! Use code: shopsmall20. Happy holidays and happy baking!
Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/izzabeleandcompany
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