Thanksgiving Recipes

Thanksgiving is a major family holiday. While your grandmother’s cooking and making everyone feel welcomed, your dad’s screaming at the television because his favorite football team is losing, your mom’s already tipsy, gossiping about other family members and your cousins are running around the house like packs of wild dogs.  Even with all this chaos everyone comes together for the most delicious feast of American comfort food. 

A traditional Thanksgiving Meals consists of:
-Biscuits
-Gravy
-Roasted Turkey
-Mashed Potatoes
-Pumpkin Pie

Here are recipes for each. Try them for a delicious Turkey Day with or without your family! 

Biscuits:

Ingredients:

-2 cups all-purpose flour 
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon sugar 
-8 tablespoons butter, cubed
-1 tablespoon baking powder 
-3⁄4 cup milk

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 425°F
-In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Add butter into mixture until it begins to look like cornmeal.
-Make a well with the flour mixture and slowly add milk into the middle. Knead dough with your fingers and add milk when necessary. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll to desired thickness. Cut with small biscuit cutter.
-Butter bottom of skillet and place biscuits in pan. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.



 
Mashed Potatoes:

Ingredients:

- 4 or 5 average sized potatoes
- 1⁄2 or 1 cup of milk
- 2 or 3 tablespoons butter
- Salt to taste

Directions:

- Wash the potatoes
- Peel and cut each potato in half or in quarters
- Boil them for about 15 minutes, or until potato falls apart when you poke it with a fork.
- While the potatoes are boiling, heat up milk until warm and get some butter out of the fridge.
- Drain the water from the pot and place back onto the stove.
- Add butter and start mashing the potatoes with a masher until they’ve turned into a puree.
- Add a bit of heated milk and continue mashing and adding milk little by little until potatoes have reached the desired creaminess.

 
Roasted Turkey:

Ingredients:

- 1 (18 pound) whole turkey 
- 1 1⁄2 quarts turkey stock
- 1⁄2 cup unsalted butter, softened 
- 8 cups prepared stuffing
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 325°F. Place rack in the lowest position of the oven.
- Remove the turkey neck and giblets, rinse the turkey, and pat dry with paper towels. Place the turkey, breast side up, on a rack in the roasting pan. Loosely fill the body cavity with stuffing. Rub the skin with the softened butter, and season with salt and pepper. Position an aluminum foil tent over the turkey.
- Place turkey in the oven, and pour 2 cups turkey stock into the bottom of the roasting pan. Baste every 30 minutes with the juices on the bottom of the pan. Whenever the drippings evaporate, add stock to moisten it, about 1 to 2 cups at a time. Remove aluminum foil after 2 1⁄2 hours. Roast until a thermometer inserted in the meaty part of the thigh reads 180°F, about 4 hours.
- Transfer the turkey to a large serving platter; and let it stand for at least 20-30 minutes before carving.


Gravy:

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup broth

Directions:

-Heat 1 cup of broth in a pot over medium heat
-Put butter and flour into a small bowl and mix together until creamy
-Add the butter-flour paste to the stock, whisking vigorously
-Turn down the heat to low and wait for it to thicken
-Season to taste


Pumpkin Pie:

Ingredients:

- 3⁄4 cup sugar
- 1 1⁄4 cups evaporated milk
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 1 frozen deep-dish pie crust
- 1 can (15oz) pumpkin

Direction:

- Heat oven to 425°F. In large bowl, mix filling ingredients. Pour into pie crust.
- Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake 40 to 50 minutes longer or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool 2 hours. Serve or refrigerate until serving time. Store in refrigerator.

- Maggie -