Share your tried and true Thanksgiving recipes

Care to share your favorite tried-and-true Thanksgiving recipe with Chicago Tribune readers? We'd love to have your offerings!
Please email them to me at CTC-GoodEating@tribune.com. put "attn: Robin Jenkins" in the subject line, so i'll be sure to snag it.
Of course we'll credit LTH forum, and we'll need your name (for publication) and city (for publication) and telephone number (NOT for publication, but in case we have questions).
Can't guarantee all will be used, but I can guarantee that every one will be read by me, at least, and probably by the Good Eating staff.
Recipes can be for anything, including the turkey. If you adapted it from someplace else, please say so.
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your Vikings!

Imperial Jello

There is nothing like a Jello mold for a great visual impact and taste of Americana. I don't favor the lime Jello with the grated cabbage, which is just a sneaky device to get vegetables into reluctant kids in my opinion. I want bells and whistles with lots of production quality.

Photo* courtesy of Erik M


Some years ago I found a recipe in Jane and Michael Stern's Real American Food, which seems to be the cookbook companion to Roadfood Goodfood. I have never made the recipe precisely as stated because I don't like canned cherries too much. Freshly frozen raspberries or canned mandarin oranges is quite another story, I like those ever so much.

Raspberry Imperial Jello

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons cold water
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large containers of raspberries packed in sugar
1 3-ounce package raspberry jello
dash salt
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup heavy cream

Soften 1/2 tablespoon unflavored gelatin in 1 tablespoon cold water. Combine a saucepan milk, sugar and vanilla, then warm over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove saucepan from burner, add the softened gelatin and stir until dissolved. Cool to room temperature, the add the sour cream until it is thoroughly blended. Pour mixture into an 8-inch cake pan and chill.

Drain raspberries and put aside. Measure one cup of the reserved syrup, either adding water or putting aside any extra syrup. Heat the reserved syrup to boiling, then add raspberry Jello, salt and lemon juice. Soften remaining unflavored gelatin in remaining 2 teaspoons cold water, added to hot Jello and stir until dissolved. Measure 1/2 cup reserved syrup or cold water and added to Jello. Chill in a bowl until it reaches the consistency of egg whites.

Cut the refrigerated vanilla cream into 1/2 inch cubes, then set aside.

Whip the cream then add the jello, which is the consistency of egg whites, to the whipped cream and beat until smooth. Add the drained raspberries and vanilla-cream cubes, mixing very gently to avoid breaking the cubes.

Pour Jello into a 4-cup mold and chill until set.

Unmold by placing mold in warm water in the sink for 20-30 seconds, depending on water temperature, then slide your serving plate on top and flip. If it doesn't drop down, then return to the warm water for a bit longer.

Variations: I will use canned mandarin oranges and orange jello instead of raspberry; which looks like orange cream ice cream and tastes better. I have also made a strawberry variant, which was fine though not as good as the raspberry. I could see making one from fruit cocktail and peaches, using a peach jello as the base. The fruit cocktail now that I think of it would look really cool.

*I allowed the Jello to harden just beyond egg white consistency and didn't have the patience to melt it properly. A happy mistake which produced a mosaic look.

My extended family loves this Jello mold. I started years ago with placing only one on the Thanksgiving table, which disapeered promptly. The next year, I made two and lucked out on getting a small bite. I now make 3, which seems to allow most everyone to get a fair shake at it.

A friend from Culinary Historians is pretty expert on the history of Jello. She claims Royal Jello has better flavors when compared to like flavors of Jell-O. Though I haven't done a 1:1 comparison I have switched where I can to Royal.

More to come as I have time!

Regards,

Here's my (somewhat elaborate) Thanksgiving recipe story. I always want to try something different with sweet potatoes because I find the candied/marshmallowed kind too cloying. So I've tried curry powder, rosemary, brandy, all kinds of things to give them a little more grownup and sophisticated taste.

A couple of years ago I found a recipe in Camille Glenn's Heritage of Southern Cooking that called for baking layers of sweet potato slices between orange slices (along with the usual copious amounts of butter, brown sugar, etc.) Apparently a traditional southern way of cooking them.

Okay, but my main oven was booked for the day, so I thought, here's my chance to try out the actual baking/convection oven capabilities of my fancy microwave, which I had never used that way before.

And haven't used since. Because it totally burnt the top layer, charred black. As I dug through the disaster, however, I realized that the sweet potato slices below the charred layer on top were not only fine but had absorbed a nice, slightly bitter cooked orange flavor-- exactly the sort of grownup accent that sweet potatoes needed.

The only problem was presentability, the picked-apart dish didn't look very good, so I simply scooped the rescuable sweet potatoes into the Cuisinart and made the usual Thanksgiving sweet potato puree. And so, minus the step of turning some of the sweet potatoes into the bottom of the space shuttle, that's my recipe now: bake sweet potato slices (well ahead of time) with orange slices and butter and brown sugar, then remove the sweet potatoes, puree and reheat closer to serving time.

Hi,

I've been phoning my family this evening to get their suggestions for Thanksgiving dinner. This is the holiday where I introduce 1-2 new dishes a year in the hopes one might become a new favorite. A few years ago I introduced creamed spinach, which I thought would a one-timer. Nope, it was requested by 3 different people so it is definitely on the menu.

Sweet potatoes has been brought to the table in many variations over the years. For a long while I favored sweet potatoes seeped in a mixture of pecans, butter and brown sugar. Another time I spied a recipe where you alternated sliced apples and sweet potatoes, then added orange juice and baked. Nobody was especially crazy about any of these. Three years ago, I finally hit on the combination that has been requested ever since:

Praline-Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes

Bag of mini marshmallows

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Bake unpeeled sweet potatoes until tender with fluids coming out a bit. Peel sweet potatoes, then place in a large mixing bowl. Mash with butter, brown sugar and orange juice to taste.

Praline:

1 1/2 cups pecan pieces
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Mix nuts, sugar, and flour in bowl. Add 1/2 cup butter; mix with fingertips until coarse crumbs form.

Potatoes and streusel can be made 1 day ahead. Cover separately; chill.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Butter a serving dish very thoroughly.

On the bottom the baking dish, arrange mini marshmallows, then spread on top the mashed sweet potatoes. Sprinkle streusel over potatoes. Bake until top is golden brown and potatoes are hot, about 25 minutes.

***

The marshmallows melt and blend into the sweet potatoes effectively disappeering.

To avoid industrial cleaning measures: I spread aluminum foil underneath the baking dish because sometimes marshmallow will bubble over. You have been warned.

(I will edit in pictures after Thanksgiving)

Regards,

I got this from their web site...

White Castle Turkey Stuffing


10 White Castle hamburgers, no pickles
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
1 1/4 tsp. ground thyme
1 1/2 tsp. ground sage
3/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup chicken broth


In a large mixing bowl, tear the burgers into pieces and add diced celery and seasonings. Toss and add chicken broth. Toss well. Stuff cavity of turkey just before roasting. Makes about 9 cups (enough for a 10- to 12-pound turkey). Note: Allow 1 hamburger for each pound of turkey, which will be the equivalent of 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound.


Submitted by White Castle Management Co.

I think I'm going to help tip this thread in the direction of favorite recipes we're NOT doing for Thanksgiving.

My parent's standby thanksgiving dish is sherried sweet potatoes - a truly simple, delicious dish that has none of the cloying features of many sweet potato dishes. Basically, you roast sweet potatoes, scoop them carefully out of the shells, mash them with cream, butter, salt, pepper and dry sherry to taste (part of the fun of this dish is the constant tasting it requires)- then scoop it back into the reserved sweet potato shells and serve.

Unfortunately, both Sparky and the Uberspouse hate this recipe (Sparky doesn't like the potatoes and the 'spouse likes them straight) and I have finally given up on it this year...

My other favorite dish we may or may not do this year (all of us love it:) Watercress and pomegranate salad. Simply enough, de-seed a pomegranate (sometimes this is easier inside a bowl of water) wash and pick over a large bunch of fresh watercress, discarding woody stems, and combine with pomegranate seeds. Dress with simple viniagrette of your choosing, for instance 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup good extra-virgin olive oil, ground pepper and salt to taste.

The dish resembles holly leaves and berries, and is a great palate cleanser.

You know, I bet this would be really good - the onions representing the usual mirepoix, and the steamed buns should really soak up the broth and seasonings. If I had the balls to do this, I'd do pickles, however.

Are they even open on Thanksgiving?

Mhays wrote:My other favorite dish we may or may not do this year (all of us love it:) Watercress and pomegranate salad. Simply enough, de-seed a pomegranate (sometimes this is easier inside a bowl of water) wash and pick over a large bunch of fresh watercress, discarding woody stems, and combine with pomegranate seeds. Dress with simple viniagrette of your choosing, for instance 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1/4 cup good extra-virgin olive oil, ground pepper and salt to taste.

The dish resembles holly leaves and berries, and is a great palate cleanser.

I have done a variant of this using green beans instead of the watercress arranged in a circle on the plate to look like a wreath. I got the idea from a Trib article from Carolyn Buster of The Cottage in Calumet City. If I did it again, I would dress the green beans in advance, then let them drain. I didn't and the dressing drifted into the middle of the plate looking messy.

I like the idea of watercress!

Regards,

My family (from Louisiana) always does a spinach madeleine for Thanksgiving. It's basically creamed spinach but with cheese and a little bit of a red pepper kick. Not sure about the origin of this or why it is associated with Louisiana, but it is a fairly popular holiday side down there.

Here's a link to a recipe. The River Road Recipes cookbook I mentioned in this thread also has a similar recipe.