Traditional American Thanksgiving 2015

January 18, 2016 by shelley

Traditional Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

We celebrate what is probably the most traditional American Thanksgiving dinner possible (1950’s style)…the kind every baby boomer remembers.

Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner

The Menu:

Turkey and Dressing, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Yams with little toasted marshmallows on top, Green Bean casserole, Jello Salad, Rolls, cranberry sauce and pickles and olives and of course pies! Pies include pumpkin, apple, mince meat and pecan and this year lemon meringue and dixie with ice cream. Our only departure from tradition is no homemade ice cream but Murrays Ice Cream from Westport.

I buy a fresh (not frozen) turkey from the local grocery store. I order it ahead and then pick it up the afternoon before so I don’t have to keep it refrigerated long.

Turkey ready to serve

DRESSING

The dressing recipe is one my mother did (with my own updates until I arrived at one everyone seems to like). I stuff the turkey and make enough to also cook a separate casserole dish full of dressing. I make it the night before and let it refrigerate overnight which seems to help to make it even more flavorful.

dressing

Dressing recipe

Dressing recipe (.doc format) or (Dressing recipe-pdf format)

YAMS with little marshmallows

The yams with little marshmallows on top are the same as what my aunt Lola used to make for Thanksgiving.

Yams with little marshmallows

Yams with little Marshmallows recipe Yams with little Marshmallows recipe (.doc format) and

Yams with little Marshmallows recipe (.pdf format)

GREEN BEAN Casserole

The green bean casserole is right out of the fifties. I think everyone in America served the green bean casserole for Thanksgiving in the fifties…it was so trendy then! I decided to look up the history of the green bean casserole and had to share …so straight from the history channel!

THE ORIGINS OF THE MYSTERIOUS GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

Green Bean Casserole

This mixture of canned soup, frozen green beans and fried onions has graced holiday buffets since the 1950s. But who came up with this trinity, and why has it become so famous?

Holiday tables are often divided over these three little words–green bean casserole. This mixture of canned soup, frozen green beans and fried onions has graced holiday buffets since the 1950s. But who came up with this trinity, and why has it become so famous? This week we’ll take a look at green bean casserole, from its humble origins in a test kitchen to the love-to-hate-it dish we know today.As anyone who’s checked out the kitchen section of an antique store can attest, recipe pamphlets were once a big business. Long before the Internet, home brands like General Mills, Cuisinart and Ball Jars regularly released these pocket-sized magazines full of tips, recipes, and instructions for their products. Glossy covers depicted the cakes or pot roasts detailed inside, and housewives loved them for their price and ease of use: why pay for a heavy cookbook when a recipe pamphlet could provide the same information for less money?The Campbell’s Soup Company had its own kitchen, in Camden, New Jersey, dedicated to pumping out recipe pamphlets. A home economist named Dorcas Reilly worked at the Campbell’s kitchen, and in 1955 she successfully devised and tested the infamous green bean casserole recipe. In numerous interviews Reilly gave years later about the invention of the casserole, she professed to not remember exactly how she came up with that specific dish. Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom variety had been around since 1934. It was widely used as casserole filler in the Midwest, popping up in enough Minnesotan hotdish recipes that it was sometimes referred to as “Lutheran binder.” But no one thought to add frozen green beans to the mix until Reilly came along. The fried onions on top were an easy way to add texture and brighten the color of a grey-green dish, and to add a certain festive touch to the proceedings.Reilly’s recipe was immediately popular. It was the perfect recipe for the holidays, as it was made with minimal ingredients that were almost always on hand, and it could easily be made the day ahead and reheated when guests arrived. And its popularity continues today, even in the face of America’s recent obsession with fresh, locally grown, artisanal foods. Campbell’s now estimates 40% of the Cream of Mushroom soup sold in the US goes into making green bean casserole.My recipe is the 1950’s version straight from Campbell Soup(I usually make it the day before.)

Green Bean Casserole

Green Bean Casserole recipe

MAKE-AHEAD TURKEY GRAVY

This year I had a recipe for make-ahead gravy. I liked having it already made so I will probably use it again. I used a recipe I found on all recipes.com. The only change I made was I used twice as many turkey wings…I like more flavor in my gravy.

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

make-ahead turkey gravy

Chef John’s Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy – Printer Friendly – Allrecipes.com

MASHED POTATOES

Nothing special with the mashed potatoes. This year I tried Yukon Gold variety. I also add a little canned milk and potato water and just a little butter (if I don’t have my low-fat guests attending I use cream instead of canned milk and more butter) and salt and pepper to taste.

Mashed Potatoes with Yukon Gold potatoes

CRANBERRY JELL-O SALAD

Why a Jell-O salad? I grew up in Utah…need I say more?? At least it is not green. If you don’t understand read “Jello-O and Mormonism: The stereotypes surprising origins” or Jell-O Love: A Guide to Mormon Cuisine . During the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City the most collectable pin was the green Jell-O pin.

Olympics Jello pin

(My mom’s favorite Jell-O dish was orange Jell-O with shredded carrots and if she got fancy it also had crushed pineapple in it. We had it often.)

The Jello salad I make every year for Thanksgiving is one my mom used but it has “evolved” ….it is more a fruit salad held together with a little Jello BUT it does have cranberries in it.

Traditional Raspberry Jello Salad

Cranberry Fruit Jell-O Salad

CRANBERRY FRUIT JELLO SALAD (.doc format)

CRANBERRY FRUIT JELLO SALAD (.pdf format)

ROLLS

Rolls

ROLLS

ROLLS (.doc format)

ROLLS (.pdf format)

PIE TABLE

Pie Table

PUMPKIN PIE

Pumpkin Pie

PUMPKIN PIE recipe

PUMPKIN PIE (.doc format)

PUMPKIN PIE (.pdf format)

APPLE PIE

apple pie

APPLE PIE (.doc format)

APPLE PIE (.pdf format)

PIE CRUST

Pie Crust

Pie Crust Recipe

Pie Crust Recipe (.doc format)

Pie Crust Recipe (.pdf format)

S’mores Buffet (S’mores Bar) at our Annual Fourth of July Party! 2014

July 13, 2014 by shelley

S’mores Buffet (S’mores Bar) at our Annual Fourth of July Party! 2014

This year I decided to have a S’mores buffet for our Fourth of July Party.

S’mores

S’mores buffet-variety of chocolate

S’mores buffet-sterno to roast marshmallows

S’mores buffet

S’mores buffet-variety of crackers and cookies

S’mores buffet

S’mores buffet-variety of crackers and cookies

S’mores buffet

S’mores buffet-variety of chocolate

S’mores buffet

S’mores buffet-variety marshmallows

S’mores buffet-giant marshmallows

S’mores buffet-variety marshmallows

S’mores buffet

Extras for buffet chocolate and marshmallow spreads

4th July decorations for annual party

Thanksgiving…a time of giving thanks.

January 27, 2014 by shelley

Thanksgiving decorations

Thanksgiving this year was somewhat quiet compared to other years. Our daughter Becca and her husband came home. My sister and family also had Thanksgiving dinner with us and our good friend Dr. Charles Jessup. Even though not everyone got to come home this year we still kept up with our usual Thanksgiving traditions; lots of homemade pies, homemade rolls, the tradition yams with little marshmellows and green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with turkey gravy and of course the turkey and dressing. Every year I also make a cranberry jello salad that has become a tradition. It is made with raspberry jello (using the juice from the pineapple and a fresh squeezed orange for the liquid), with chopped apples, chopped cranberries, chopped pecans, tidbit pineapple and pomegranates. I decorate it with raspberries.

Cranberry Raspberry Salad

Cranberry Jello Salad a Beatty Thanksgiving tradition.

Thanksgiving Turkey

Our Thanksgiving pie table includes pumpkin, apple, mince, lemon meringue and this year instead of pecan we had a Dixie pie:

Pumpkin pIe

Mincemeat pie (somebody couldn’t wait) with piece missing!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Apple Pie

The Pie Table:

Pie Table

And of course the traditional cookie turkeys:

Traditional cookie turkeys

The Thanksgiving table:

Thanksgiving Table

Enjoying the Thanksgiving Feast:

Enjoying the Thanksgiving feast!

Post Script:

Jen and Adam and family enjoyed Thanksgiving this year in Phoenix, Arizona with close family friends the Esplins. Just wanted to share an adorable picture of Henry, Caroline and Becca on their way back…completely tuckered out.

A tiring trip for Henry, Caroline and Becca

Fourth of July and Popcorn Bar

July 8, 2013 by shelley

It has become tradition on the Fourth of July to have a few close friends come to our home to swim and barbecue. It has become a nice tradition.

Last year I did a hydration station with different flavor lemonades. The year before I did a red, white and blue candy bar. To do something different this year I did a popcorn bar. I used a lot of the ideas from the website pen n’ paperflowers. It turned out to be a fun idea:

Popcorn bar sign

Popcorn bar

I had a big basket of hot air popped popcorn. Brown paper bags were nearby so one could scoop in the popcorn, spritz and then select a seasoning from several choices. I got the popcorn seasonings and spritz from Kernel Seasons.

Popcorn bar

Popcorn bar instruction sign

Popcorn bar

Popcorn bar-seasonings

Popcorn bar

Buckets full of a variety of candies were available to sprinkle on top of popcorn.

Popcorn bar

Popcorn bar-toppings for popcorn.

Candies for popcorn topping.

Popcorn bar

Popcorn bar-caramel popcorn balls

I made Caramel Popcorn Balls from a recipe I have had for years and years.

Caramel Popcorn Balls

1 lb brown sugar

1 cup white corn syrup

1 square butter

1 large can sweetened condensed milk.

popped popcorn (I like the popcorn heavily coated so I make just one large batch of hot air popcorn)

Combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in kettle. Cook until mixture comes to a boil. Add sweetened condensed milk stirring frequently. Cook over medium heat until mixture forms ball when dropped in cold wter. Pour over popcorn and form balls. (remember to cover hands with butter)

Popcorn bar-caramel popcorn balls.

Popcorn bar-red, white, and blue popcorn.

Popcorn bar

The red, white and blue popcorn was made from Koolaid popcorn recipe:

Kool-Aid Popcorn

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

2/3 cups butter

6 quarts plain popped popcorn

2 packages Kool-aid (red is cherry or strawberry, white is lemonade, and blue is ice blue raspberry lemonade)

1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Boil sugar, syrup and butter together for 3 minutes. On a large shallow un-greased baking dish spread out popped popcorn. In a separate bowl, combine the Kool-Aid with the baking soda. Remove sugar syrup from the stove and carefully stir in the Kool-Aid mixture. (Note: This will make the sugar mixture puff up. Be careful not to get burned.) Now take sugar mixture and pour it over the popped popcorn. Carefully mix all till combined. Place it in the oven and stir every 10 minutes. Repeat this 3 more times. Take popcorn out of the oven and when it starts to cool, break it apart into pieces.

(Instead of Kool-Aid you could substitute flavored oils and food coloring, making any kind of combination imaginable.)

The website I used for inspiration also sold the labels and the sign in their Etsy shop.

(The popcorn bar was so popular for the 4th of July I re-cycled the idea for a “pioneer theme” church activity with the Young Women with “Emma Smith” as our guest.)

Another fun 4th of July idea I did this year were chocolate covered Oreos and some of them decorated with chocolate transfer: The red with white strip cookies and blue star cookies are made with a mold. The flag decorated cookies are chocolate transfers. You can find everything you need at Fancy Flours: www.fancyflours.com, molds and chocolate transfer sheets.

Chocolate covered Oreos and chocolate transfer Oreos.

Chocolate covered Oreos and Oreos covered in chocolate decorated with chocolate transfer.

Fourth of July decorations:

Fourth of July decorations

This year I decided to change the decorating from my usual. The swags were put on the front of the house and I got flag bunting for the back to weave in and out of the railing.

Patriotic bunting for the fourth

Waterfall back yard

Patriotic bunting for the fourth

Backyard

Patriotic bunting for the fourth

First Thanksgiving ever away from home…

February 15, 2013 by shelley

Beautiful baby Caroline.

Becca

Caroline and Jen

Becca preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

For the first time since we have been married, nearly 35 years, Bob and I did not have our Thanksgiving dinner in our home. B.J. and Jenn were heading to Los Angeles, Becca and Carl are in Sweden, so Bob and I agreed to travel to North Caroline. It would be two people traveling, Bob and I, vs. five people traveling; Jen, Adam, Becca, Henry and Caroline. We enjoyed a beautiful traditional Thanksgiving at Jen and Adam’s home.