As the leaves turn from yellow to brown, the smell of homemade apple pie fills permeates my house. I love opening the door to the smell of butter, cinnamon, apple, and sugar. Apple pie lends a level of nostalgia to the holidays that makes the endeared Thanksgiving pumpkin pie jealous. I’ve heard what sound like fairy tales of my grandmother Ruth’s fried apple pies and her homemade apple pies. I never got to taste these fabled treats, but my mother has kept their memories alive. Unfortunately, she does not have the recipes to pass along – since no one expected her to die so young. The dollops of butter carefully placed on the top of this pie are an ode to the memory of my grandmother Ruth. According to my mother, I still haven’t perfected the amount of cinnamon.
Browsing Category Thanksgiving
Sweet Potato Casserole
Buy fresh turkey from grocery store (with three children in tow). Buy fresh chestnuts. Roast fresh chestnuts. Peel fresh chestnuts (with three children running around the kitchen with assorted rackets and balls). Make chestnut stuffing (while hoping children have found cartoons on TV to watch). Make cranberry dressing. Clean house for guests. Set table with china. Serve Thanksgiving lunch. Put up all food and clean all china (hoping everyone is in a tryptophan induced nap instead of having a shaving cream war in the bathroom). I really don’t know how my mom managed to host Thanksgiving…but she did for years without much complaint.
Frozen Cranberry Salad
My paternal grandmother always served a “salad” with any proper meal. That could be a green salad, fruit salad, Jell-O salad, canned pear with cheese, mayo and maraschino cherry on lettuce, or a frozen salad. I always thought the frozen salads should be dessert! Some had sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream…mercy. They were all delicious and still taste like “childhood.”
This frozen cranberry salad is a holiday tradition in our family. I always wondered why we didn’t have it the rest of the year. Maybe my healthier version will be a little more guilt free! Or, a popsicle.
Cornbread Dressing
In our family, dressing may be the real star of the holiday meal show. I like it fragrant with herbs.
Southern Sweet Potatoes
In Mississippi, we have festivals and beauty queens to celebrate regions based on their respective produce, including Vardaman Sweet Potatoes, Smith County Watermelons, and Delta Catfish, to name a few. Everybody knows the best sweet potatoes in the world come from Vardaman, MS. Seriously, they are the sweetest potatoes with the best texture on the market.
Brined and Roasted Turkey
I started making Thanksgiving Dinner when we first married. I think that I just wanted to take on the challenge. Also, I did not love most turkeys. Back then, whole fried turkeys were all the rage. They were delicious and moist straight from the fryer but lost something essential once they were cold. This turkey is delicious and moist even the next day.