At Favorite Day, we are pretty big fans of Thanksgiving. The entertaining… the family….
And the food. Definitely the food.
We decided to put together some of our favorite recipes for you! We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
Laurie’s Favorite: Sausage Stuffing
I’ve made this stuffing (or dressing if you prefer) for the past few years instead of the traditional bread stuffing. The flavors may seem unusual, but they work. Seriously, it’s amazing. I got the original recipe off of the All Recipes web site a few years back, but I’ve made quite a few alterations since then. The initial recipe called for homemade bread crumbs and chicken broth, but honestly, I’m far too lazy busy for that. I’ve found that canned broth and boxed stuffing work just fine. Also, the added benefit of using boxed stuffing is that it’s already perfectly seasoned. This recipe is really forgiving and quite adaptable to your own personal tastes. If you don’t like onions (I don’t), leave them out. If you LOVE apples and cranberries (I do!), then add more. If you’re looking for extra texture you can throw in some walnuts or pecans.
Apologies for not having a fancy final product photo to show. The stuffing is best right out of the oven so I won’t actually be making this until Thursday morning.
Ingredients:
1 lb ground sausage (I use pork, but turkey sausage would work too)
5-6 cups boxed dry stuffing mix (I use Bell’s)
1 can chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 onion, chopped
1 tart apple, chopped
3/4 cup dried cranberries
4 tablespoons butter, melted
sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley -to taste
Tip: If you want to jazz things up a bit to impress your friends/family you can rehydrate the cranberries in a bit of brandy or rum beforehand to give them a little extra kick.
Ingredients at the ready!
Preheat the oven to 350. In a large pan on the stove top cook the onion and sausage, stirring to break up lumps, until the sausage is browned. Pour off some of the grease if there is an excessive amount. Add celery, apples, and cranberries and cook for a few minutes to heat everything through. Season the mixture to taste with the above spices, but remember that the dry stuffing is also seasoned so you don’t want to over do it. Pour the dry stuffing mix in a large bowl and add the sausage mixture, butter, and enough chicken broth to bring the stuffing to your desired consistency. How much you use will depend on how much sausage grease you left and how much juice your apples gave off. I find that I often use about 3/4 of a can of broth. You do want the stuffing to be a bit on the moister side as some of the liquid will evaporate in the oven. Spread the stuffing mix in a baking dish and cook for 20-30 minutes or until the top is nice and crispy. Dig in!
Sarah’s Favorite: Butternut Squash Soufflé
My family has made this dish for years. But, I can’t lie, this isn’t my recipe. It is my mom’s (shout-out to Momma Sue). This sweet and savory dish is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
3 or 4 cups cooked, mashed butternut squash
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp melted butter
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Topping (in a separate bowl):
6 tbsp soft butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Preheat oven to 350. Remove stem from squash, cut the squash into 4 pieces; remove and discard seeds. Cook squash in boiling water to cover in a large saucepan over medium-high heat 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well; and let the squash cool. Remove and discard peel and mash up the squash. Next, beat eggs until frothy and add remaining ingredients. Pour the ingredients into greased casserole dish and cover with topping. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Voilà! Butternut Squashy goodness!
Renee’s Favorite: Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie
I love pumpkin flavored anything, but for me, pumpkin pie is usually just TOO much pumpkin and not enough texture. Also I love gingersnaps. So when I found a recipe for gingersnap pumpkin pie awhile ago on the internet, I had to try it. The result was a crunchy, spicy crust with the sweet and creamy pumpkin filling. So good! Over the years have adapted it to fit my taste, so it’s now an amalgam of probably 5 different recipes, and I have no idea where they came from.
Crust:
2 Cups Ground Gingersnaps
3tbsp Butter, melted
2tbsp sugar
Filling:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon (I like cinnamon. You can cut down to 1 tsp if you’re not a huge cinnamon person)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 15 ounce can pumpkin
most of a 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk (use the whole thing if you like things sweet. I usually cut it to about 3/4 of the can.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients for crust in a bowl. Mix together until everything is well combined and JUST moist. If the crust is too dry and crumbly, add more butter. If it’s too wet, add more crumbs. Press into a pie pan. I press it in so there’s a pretty thick crust. Put the crust only into the oven and bake for about 5 minutes.
Keep the oven on. Combine ingredients for filling. Pour filling mix into the prepared gingersnap crust. Bake for around an hour, or until filling is set.
If you’re feeling fancy, serve with homemade whipped cream (a cup of VERY COLD super heavy whipping cream and 2 tbsp of sugar, whipped real good). If you’re feeling SUPER fancy, add a little bit of whiskey – or brandy, or whatever you’d like- I like whiskey – to the whipped cream (only 1-2 tbsp, so it doesn’t weigh it down too much).
FUN TIP! If you pre-chill an aluminum mixing bowl in the freezer and use it to make your whipped cream, it will come together more quickly and produce more volume! I’m sure science has something to do with it. Yay science!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Have you tried one of these recipes? Let us know how it went! Leave us a comment!
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