Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

Like you do, we have a few favorite recipes that make Thanksgiving Thanksgiving around here.  The first is a corn bread stuffing.  I have loved my mother's stuffing since I was a little girl.  I have never liked any others.  A few years ago, like 20, my mother came to Thanksgiving at our house.  I asked her to make her stuffing.  While she was doing it, I said, "Really Mom?  Aren't you doing it wrong?"

"No, this is how I always do it."

Little did I know that in my efforts to duplicate my mother's stuffing, I changed the recipe and I like it better!  Shhhh.....don't tell.  So here it is:

Corn bread stuffing:

Make corn bread the night before.  I have done it from scratch, or you can just use the Jiffy Corn Bread mixes you can get at the store.  (We use three boxes, or double the recipe from scratch.)

Corn bread (already doubled):  2 C corn meal, 2 C flour, 1 C sugar, 2 TBLS baking powder, 1 tsp salt, mix up dry ingredients.  Make a well. Add 4 eggs, 1 and 2/3 C milk (almond or soy), 3/4 C oil.  Mix all ingredients well.  Pour into a greased 11x14 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Let cool.

Saute 4 celery sticks, chopped and one onion, diced in 2 TBL oil.  Crumble corn bread into a bowl.  Put in sauteed veggies, 2 raw eggs, and 1 Cup of chicken bullion (flavored with a little extra bullion).  Mix into the corn bread and wet it to your liking.  Add more broth if necessary, or less if you like it drier.  Cook it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  (If you do not cover it, it will be drier and crunchier, or to keep moist, cover it with foil).

Serve with turkey gravy...delicious!  (If you are allergic to corn, like some at my house are, you can use cream of wheat for the corn meal.  I have done that.  It is alright and works, but I like the corn meal better, obviously.)

Grandma's Salad:

1 head iceberg lettuce, chopped
2 cans mandarin oranges, drained
2 medium avocado, cut into squares, peeled and pitted
1 can of sliced olives
Italian dressing

Mix ingredients and toss dressing into the salad.  Drew's grandmother makes hers with romaine lettuce and adds sunflower seeds.  (Drew doesn't like that part so we don't use it, and he insists on iceberg lettuce.)

add olives to this and get rid of the onions

Apple Pie:
(This is seriously the best apple pie I have ever had---and I don't like apple pie....but I love this one!)

Crust:  1/2 C Brown sugar, 1/2 C oatmeal, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 C melted butter, 2 C all purpose flour.  Combine all ingredients and pull one cup of crust mixture out for the toppings.  Press the rest into the pie plate.

Pie filling:  4-8 or more peeled, sliced apples--granny smith works best, 1 C. water, 1 C. sugar, 3 TBLS corn starch (I use 6 TBL of flour because of our allergies), 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla, a few dashes of cinnamon.

Peel and core apples and arrange half of them on top of crust.  Combine water, and sugar.  Bring to a boil in a sauce pan.  Dissolve cornstarch in a small amount of water until smooth--add salt.  Pour into boiling mixture, stirring constantly as mixture will thicken quickly--about 10-20 seconds.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla and cinnamon to your liking.  Pour over half of the apples. Add remaining apples and remaining sauce.  Work over a cookie sheet so as you lose ingredients they fall onto the cookie sheet.  Add reserved topping from the crust.  Bake 55 minutes at 350 degrees.

Recipe Courtesy of Apple Hill Farms, Northern CA

These are our must haves for Thanksgiving and what I will be spending my time doing while that glorious turkey is cooking!!

Have a beautiful day tomorrow and remember to give your Thanks to the great Creator of all the Earth and for the bounties we enjoy!!

Happy Turkey day!!