These two sides are easy to make and add so muck variety to the meal. The sweet and savory sweet potatoes adds a new flavor and texture to the meal. The beets offer a warm earthy flavor that tastes great with the sweet and natural honey, and once roasted, you can taste the natural sweetness in the beet too. Both these dishes can be made from jarred products and, in my opinion, taste just as good as homemade. If you choose to buy canned sweet potatoes, you can either buy sweet potatoes or yams. Yams are very uncommon in the U.S., so a container labeled yams contains sweet potatoes.
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Add your pickled beets into your small dish. Top with honey and coating each beet. Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes, or just until warm. Serve immediately.
2. Add your strained sweet potatoes to your bread pan. Top with marshmallows. Bake for 15 minutes or until marshmallows begin to melt. Serve immediately.
This year Thanksgiving wasn’t normal, however though we didn’t have any family over, we still did our full spread. Every year Josh gets a free turkey from work. Last year, he got a 20 pound turkey, and this year we got a 21 pound turkey. This year, I also made doubled the stuffing I made last year, because I love stuffing and it goes very fast, so the recipe below is how to make double stuffing, and how to cook the turkey once you are done. I always start with the stuffing to season my roasting pan, then I work on the bird. This was also my first year of not stuffing my turkey, and I have no regrets about that! Stuffing in the bird gets way too moist and almost a weird flavor from all the turkey drippings. Some people also use a roasting rack for their turkey. I don’t find that necessary or helpful. Without the rack, my dark meat always gets done, and with basting, my white meat always stays juicy, and by the time I was done, the wings had already begun to fall apart they were so tender.
1. Place dutch oven over medium heat. Add butter, celery, and onion, and cook until onion is translucent.
2. Add cubed bread to roasting pan. Sprinkle sage and thyme over the top of the bread. Pour butter mixture over bread. Stir together until everything is moistened and coated in seasoning. Transfer stuffing to casserole dishes. Cover and place in the fridge, or enjoy a bowl.
3. Heat oven to 350 F. Clean out your turkey, removing giblets, neck, and make sure you can go straight through the turkey. Rinse gently under cool water, then transfer to roasting pan. Stuff with 1 cup stuffing, or with 1/2 an onion, cut celery stalks, and a sprinkle of sage and thyme. Top turkey with 4 Tbsp butter. Cover with foil then add to oven.
4. Cook Turkey for the first hour without basting. Baste, then cook for remaining time, but basting every 45 minutes. Cook your turkey about 10 minutes per pound of turkey. Make sure internal temperature of the thigh and several other places is over 165 F.
I made these baked beans with a smoked ham hock. Though this recipe seems easy, the flavor is absolutely fantastic. After about 5 hours cooking on high, you can remove the meat from the ham hock. This meat is tender and full of flavor. It comes apart like pulled pork, and after cooking for so long, the fats of the meat make a delicious baked beans. Ham hocks also have some skin on them, and after cooking for so long, the skin and fat melt away in your mouth. I made these beans as the recipe below is written. I will say, I had a very big ham hock, but my beans were almost more pulled pork than baked beans. Finally, the sauce was delicious, with a good balance between sweet and savory. It’s a really good barbecue recipe, that’s for sure! This recipe made 8 large side servings.
1. Place your beans in your seal-able container, and cover with an inch of water. Let sit out at room temperature for 12-24 hours. Strain and rinse your soaked beans. To your slow cooker, add your beans and the rest of your ingredients and stir together.
2. Let it cook on high for 6 hours stirring about every hour. If too much liquid boils off, add water 1/2 cup at a time. After 6 hours on high, reduce your heat to low. Cook for another hour on low before serving.
One-pan meals are easy to make and greats a great tasting dish. This one-pan meal is no exception. The chicken broth is absolutely delicious in this dish, then the milk and parmesan add a bit of creaminess to the sauce. The spinach also has it’s own flavor though it imparts a bit to the broth, then the shrimp don’t get much time to add to the over all flavor, but they do add a unique flavor, so not every bit is the same. I made some alterations to the recipe since I made it. I added too much broth at the beginning, so my dish was very runny, almost a sou;p. I also altered the order of adding the ingredients in the beginning. I added the pasta first, but I should have started with the spinach first, because I wanted the spinach to boil for at least 15 minutes total, but the pasta only needed about 14 minutes. This dish was absolutely delicious! It made 4 large adult sized portions.
1. Begin by placing your broth in your pan and heating it over medium high heat until it boils. Add your spinach, let cook for 2-3 minutes, and then add your pasta. Let boil for another 13-15 minutes until your pasta is finished cooking.
2. Reduce your heat to medium, remove pan from heat and add your milk. After about a minute return your pan to heat, let cook until almost boiling. Add your shrimp, and stir into pasta. Turn off heat and remove from burner. Plate your pasta, then top with some shredded Parmesan before serving.
Almost any seed or nut can be turned into this peanut butter state. Most nuts and seeds have oils that come out once they are crushed and with just a bit of additional oil, you can get a nice and smooth peanut butter alternative. For this recipe, I used the roasted pumpkin seeds I made a week ago. These pumpkin seeds were crisper than store bought seeds and had more of a roasted flavor. The quality and flavor of your seeds will greatly affect you butter. This recipe was made with 1 cup of seeds, made 1/2 cup of butter, and is enough for 2 sandwiches.
1. Add Seeds to Blender. Add sugar, then blend for 3 minutes on high. Slowly add oil 1/2 Tbsp at a time, and blending 1 minute between additions. Blend until desired texture is reached. Transfer to a small storage container and store in the fridge.