TryingSoHard

Ok all you foodies out there... let's get this holiday train rolling! I'm one of those people who starts planning for Thanksgiving oh, about now LOL! I'll even make a spreadsheet to track what I'm cooking, when it needs to be prepped, how long it needs to cook, etc to coordinate prep times and cooking times! Yes, I am a nerd.

So let's offer each other recipes, ideas, suggestions and anything else helpful for the next 6 weeks of eating pleasure!

least

I have no recipes as I hate to cook. Love to eat tho and will be happy at eldest kid's house with her family for the T.giving week. E.k. has become quite a good cook in her married years and can whip up a good meal for five adults and two kids with no problem! I'm going to really enjoy all her meals and the family-at-the-table atmosphere. what fun! I won't be here from Mon 11-24 to Mon 12-1, but I'll be having a blast.


I'll really miss my dogs tho.

Rella927

Great Idea Trying! I will work on getting a couple of my good ones out for the thread!

CarolD

For those who choose to eat and yet abstain
from alcohol.....from my files

Cooking and Alcohol

A study conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory calculated the percentage of alcohol remaining in a dish based on various cooking methods. The results are as follows:


Preparation Method Percent of Alcohol Retained

alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat 85%

alcohol flamed 75%

no heat, stored overnight 70%

baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture 45%

baked/simmered, alcohol stirred into mixture:

* 15 minutes 40%

* 30 minutes 35%

* 1 hour 25%

* 1.5 hours 20%

* 2 hours 10%

* 2.5 hours 5%

Now, it may be that the amount of alcohol in a dish is modest to start with, but the fact that some of the alcohol remains could be of significant concern to recovering alcoholics, parents, and others who have ethical or religious reasons for avoiding alcohol.

And you can try these..

Booze Flavoring In Cooking...Subsitutes
This was in the September 2003 issue of theAA Grapevine.

Sweet or s seni sweet red wine - Carbonated cranberry drink.

Dry red wine - ½ cup carbonated cranberry drink, plus 1 Tbsp. lemon juice.

Sweet white wine - White grape juice plus 1 Tbsp. corn syrup.

Brandy - 1/4 cup apple juice plus 1 tsp brandy flavoring, or 1/4 cup apple cider with 1 tbsp peach or apricot syrup.

Rum - 1/4 cup apple juice plus 1 tbsp rum extract, or 1/4 cup pineapple juice or syrup flavored with 1 tbsp almond extract.

Sherry - Orange or pineapple juices with peach sirup.

Amaretto - 1 tbsp light corn syrup plus 1 tbsp almond extract and 1/4 cup clear apple juice.

Kirsch - Syrup or juices from cherries, raspberries, boysenberries, currnats or cider.

TryingSoHard

I have another substitution chart for alcohol in cooking somewhere... I'll have to find it. Thanks, Carol!

Lenina

This new thread is a great idea. If you are planning to bring a covered dish to a holiday gathering or just having it at home, I really recommend the corn casserole dish I posted in the other thread. It's easy and never fails to impress. My cousin first made it some years ago and it's been served at every holiday meal since!

Manga!

Lenina

Eclipse

I need a good recipe for sweet potatoes. I had one once with nuts and I can't remember what else, but it was SO good. I don't care for the out of the can/corn syrup marshmellow stuff. Any good recipes for sweet potatoes?

Eclipse

Lenina,

That corn casserole looks REALLY good. I just added it to my recipe book. Thanks!

TryingSoHard

Eclipse, I have 3 or 4 sweet potato casserole recipes. What do you like and what do you not like? There are recipes with a marshmallow topping, pineapple topping, nut topping, and/or brown sugar/crumble type toppings. I'm sure I can dig up something to make you happy.

I also have a recipe for scalloped potatoes (kind of like a baked au gratin) that alternates layers of sweet potatoes and regular potatoes. It's very tasty and a nice alternative.

Rusty Zipper

wheres the Butterball Hot Line!

TryingSoHard

LOL RZ! Somewhere out there in InternetLand is a list of all the wacky questions they've gotten from people who've called in (most on Thanksgiving day, some the night before). It is hysterical to read! I'll see if I can dig it up anywhere.

TryingSoHard

Here's a link to snopes.com's story about it (and confirmation of several of the calls): snopes.com: Turkey Hotline Calls

As a side note, snopes.com is one of my all-time favorite web sites. I highly recommend it - it should be your first stop any time you get an email and you think to yourself, "Nawww.... not really, huh?" Usually the answer really is nope, not really.

Eclipse

Yea that's what I like with the nuts/crumbles, etc. I'd like the scalloped potatoes too!

Thanks TSH!

Lenina

Oh yes, please! I'd love to have the scalloped sweet potato recipe too!

Thanks!

Lenina

TryingSoHard

Ok, I have some recipe-digging to do today.

I'm having lunch with my daddy - I'll see what I can find this afternoon and hopefully get stuff posted tonight!!

Jersey Nonny

OMG! I thought I was the only one!

I had a file for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday...complete with shopping lists, recipes, work schedules.

Of course, I don't do any cooking now, and I miss it...in spite of all the work involved. I was very disappointed last year when we didn't have a "real" Thanksgiving dinner. I honestly expected them to carve up some roasted birds!

So, this year I organized some residents and we requested something more than sliced turkey roll. On Thursday, we're going to have fresh roasted turkey with all the fixings for about 40 residents. They can't do it for the entire population...a lot are on pureed food...others have to be fed. It will be a week ahead, but at least it will be something special.

bstt03

mmmmmm..... sweet pototoes......

Rusty Zipper

yams! lol

TryingSoHard

YAMS!

Ever watch the episode of Good Eats in which Alton Brown tells what the difference between sweet potatoes and yams is? (They really are two different things...) I've seen it at least 5 times but I can never remember! LOL

Rusty Zipper

yams and sweet potatoes are both angiosperms (flowering plants), they are not related botanically. Yams are a monocot (a plant having one embryonic seed leaf) and from the Dioscoreaceae or Yam family. Sweet Potatoes, often called ‘yams’, are a dicot (a plant having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulacea or morning glory family.

Yams
Yams are closely related to lilies and grasses. Native to Africa and Asia, yams vary in size from that of a small potato to a record 130 pounds (as of 1999). There are over 600 varieties of yams and 95% of these crops are grown in Africa. Compared to sweet potatoes, yams are starchier and drier.

Sweet Potatoes
The many varieties of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are members of the morning glory family, Convolvulacea. The skin color can range from white to yellow, red, purple or brown. The flesh also ranges in color from white to yellow, orange, or orange-red. Sweet potato varieties are classified as either ‘firm’ or ‘soft’. When cooked, those in the ‘firm’ category remain firm, while ‘soft’ varieties become soft and moist. It is the ‘soft’ varieties that are often labeled as yams in the United States.

Why the confusion?
In the United States, firm varieties of sweet potatoes were produced before soft varieties. When soft varieties were first grown commercially, there was a need to differentiate between the two. African slaves had already been calling the ‘soft’ sweet potatoes ‘yams’ because they resembled the yams in Africa. Thus, ‘soft’ sweet potatoes were referred to as ‘yams’ to distinguish them from the ‘firm’ varieties.

Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires labels with the term ‘yam’ to be accompanied by the term ‘sweet potato.’ Unless you specifically search for yams, which are usually found in an international market, you are probably eating sweet potatoes!



ppsstt! are ya sorry you asked! lol