One more update...

Okay, so here's the rundown (note that yes, there are a few changes from the last list):

What I've made so far:
Betty Crocker's Rocky Road Fudge (Ehhh. The jury's still out.)
Paula Deen's French Coconut Pie (Looks delicious, like a giant coconut macaroon.)
Allrecipes' Buttermilk Chess Pie
Food & Wine's Lemon Icebox Pie (Amazing. Like key lime pie ice cream.)
Hershey's Gone to Heaven Chocolate Pie
RecipeZaar's Strawberry Jello Pretzel Salad

What I have left to make:
Bobby Flay's Black Pepper-Pomegranate Molasses Glazed Turkey
Southern Living's Cornbread Dressing
Smucker's Cherry-Glazed Ham
Families.com's Sour Cream Potatoes (basically the same recipe my mother-in-law uses)
Epicurious' Buttermilk Biscuits with Black Pepper, Green Onions, and Sea Salt

What others are bringing:
Sweet Potato Streusel Casserole
Creamed Corn Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Broccoli, Rice, and Cheese Casserole
Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Chicken Wings from B-Dub's
Homemade Cream Puffs
Pumpkin Pie and Whipped Cream

Another Turkey Day meal update...

Okay one (or three) more things...

- I'm going to try this rocky road fudge recipe from Betty Crocker, and see if it's more my speed. Like I said, the other one was easy and delicious, but I want to see if this is more ooey-gooey.

- I'm not going to make a green bean or a corn casserole. In fact, I'm not making any vegetables at all. Ha! (No really, we'll have veggies...I'm just not making them. I added them to the list for things we need other people to bring. That takes a little more pressure off me, since I can now make everything except for the biscuits the day before.)

- And, because although I love me some buttermilk chess pie, I may well be the only one north of the Mason-Dixon line who feels that way. So, since I sure don't need to have an entire pie all to myself (haha), I'm going to be substituting the chess pie with this Lemon Ice Box Pie recipe from Food & Wine.

Of Course. (Again.)

Seriously...haha. After talking to some of my co-workers I was convinced of two things regarding Thanksgiving dinner:

1.) Cook the turkey the day before, carve it, and then all I have to do with it on Thursday is just reheat. (Hallelujah, life just got so much easier. Why didn't I think of that myself??)

2.) Instead of cooking one gigantic turkey, cook a slightly smaller turkey, and then do a ham, as well. That way we're not overloaded with turkey, and there's a little more of a variety to pick from. I'm going to be using Smucker's Cherry-Glazed Ham recipe.

And, on a semi-unrelated note, I was making cookies for some good friends of mine in West Virginia last night, and I have a couple of things to share:

1.) This Rocky Road fudge recipe is seriously easy and delicious. It's still not that chewy, fudgy fudge that I like (this is more old-fashioned tasting, like from a gourmet fudge shop), but it's quite yummy.

2.) This cranberry-white chocolate-oatmeal cookie recipe is a FAIL. A big, horrible, messy fail. I followed the recipe exactly, and the cookies turned into oatmeal soup in the oven. Boooooo.

3.) This peanut butter blossoms recipe from Hershey's may well be the easiest, cutest, and yummiest cookie recipe I've come across in awhile. (Yes, I realize this is a "classic" cookie, but no, I've never made them before, until last night.) They were made infinitely better by using Hershey's Meltaway Kisses instead of the regular ones...yum, yum.

Of Course.

I should have known better...I picked out my Thanksgiving recipes a month in advance, but then I had all this time to think and re-think, and look at new recipes. Ha! So, here is the "new" Turkey Day menu (some items remained the same), which I have to stick to this time, because I'm going grocery shopping in a couple of days!

Bobby Flay's Black Pepper-Pomegranate Molasses Glazed Turkey - I even ordered pomegranate molasses from a specialty food store online that's supposed to be delivered by tomorrow. I looooove pomegranate and I looooove black pepper, so I'm pretty excited about this.

Southern Living's Cornbread Dressing - You can't go wrong with a classic. Plus, it's not as aromatic as my usual recipe. I tend to think the large amounts of sage and thyme in my dressing recipe I've been using for years can be a little over-powering if you're not used to it.

Epicurious' Buttermilk Biscuits with Black Pepper, Green Onions, and Sea Salt

My mother-in-law's mashed potato recipe. I'll post it here if I remember to bring in the recipe card. Let's just say it involves instant potato flakes, cream cheese, sour cream, butter, and paprika. O.M.G. Soooooo good. Plus, with the amount of potatoes I need to make (oh yeah, we have at LEAST 16 people coming...!), the "cheat" of being able to use instant saves me a ton of time peeling and boiling potatoes. I swear, you'd never know these things were instant...they're so yummy!

Turkey gravy. I totally cheat and use either a McCormick turkey gravy packet (just add water), or a jar of Heinz gravy, but there's a reason or two...1) it's a lot healthier (instant or pre-packaged gravies are typically very low-fat); 2) I don't have to touch, look at, or think about giblets; and 3) not to worry, I "season" it up by using just a tablespoon or so of drippings from the cooked turkey, so it's not so bland and reminiscent of something you'd find at Furr's or Luby's.

Either Southern Living's Creamy-Fried Confetti Corn (honestly, this has been my go-to casserole for probably 5 Thanksgivings in a row now, and it's gonna pain me to give it up, if I ever do!), or, just good ol' Campbell's Classic Green Bean Casserole. (The deciding factor will be depending upon what some of our guests decide to bring. I put "corn or green beans" on the list, so I'll make whichever one they don't.)

Sweet Potato Streusel Casserole from my friend Jen. Slight note...I grew up making a sweet potato casserole that consisted of sweet potatoes (duh), pineapple preserves, a touch of brown sugar and butter, and then topped with mini-marshmallows. I pretty much thought this was heaven on a plate, UNTIL I had Jen's delicious concoction for the first time last year. OMG. This dish is a tradition in her family, and I'm not sure what exactly goes in it, but instead of marshmallows, it's topped with a brown sugar-butter-flour-pecan streusel. So, so, so, delicious. I could eat a whole pan of it, I swear! :-)

Strawberry Jello Pretzel Salad. There are several variations of this out there, but I'm thinking I'm going to go with the strawberry-pineapple concoction listed here on RecipeZaar. This is totally an upper-midwest thing...it's as common up here as fried okra is down south. In the past, I have topped it with an additional layer of Cool Whip, but I think I'll just do it as-written for Thanksgiving, since we have so many sweets already. (And no, this isn't typically served as a dessert...you put it on your dinner plate right along with the turkey and taters and green beans...haha.)

Garden Salad and Dressing. (This is something on the list for guests to bring, so yay! Less work for me!)

Cranberry Compote, purchased from the SuperTarget deli. I'm not a huge fan of cranberry sauce to begin with, but I really can't stand the Ocean Spray stuff from a can, be it the soupy kind or the can-shaped, gelatinous stuff. I feel like it's not Thanksgiving if we don't have cranberry sauce, even if I don't eat it, so oh well. (Side note: last year, I spent the evening before making a wonderful-smelling Cabernet Sauvignon cranberry sauce for my guests, but it didn't get passed around the table once we all sat down, so no one knew about it, and it went to waste. Boo.)

We're also having some Buffalo Wild Wings (ohhh yeah...we have some serious wing eaters in our group of guests), a selection of wine (probably a Pinot Grigio and a White Zin, chosen off my wine rack), and anything else our friends want to bring, which may even include some homemade macaroni and cheese, if last year's history repeats itself. (I hope it does...it was so yummy.)

Now, for dessert. This has changed a bit, just because I keep coming across such fabulous recipes!

Pumpkin pie and whipped cream (to be brought by one of our guests)
All Recipes' Buttermilk Chess Pie (in memory of my great-grandmother--one of my earliest memories is trying this at her house for the first time)
Food & Wine's Double-Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
My Baking Addiction's Cranberry Crumb Bars (uhh, have you ever checked out this blog? Baking WIN. I'm in love.)
My Baking Addiction's Easy Caramel Apple Cake (I have a "thang" for caramel apple desserts, and this cake sounds just lovely.)

I know it sounds like a TON of food (and believe me, it is), but we have a ton of people (many of whom can put away some food, y'all!), so I think it'll be just fine. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving, in advance

With Halloween just a few days away, yes, I have already started working on my Thanksgiving menu. This will be my second year in a row to host the meal, mostly on my own, and I'm already really excited. There will be a few changes this year, however...one thing I learned from last year is that many of my southern-fried family favorites didn't go over so well with a mostly Midwesterner and Northeasterner crowd. So long, fried corn casserole, green beans seasoned with bacon grease, sausage-and-cornbread stuffing, and cream cheese mashed potatoes. That's okay. We could all stand to be a little bit healthier, plus, this gives me a chance to try out some new, more gourmet recipes.

In case you were looking for Thanksgiving inspiration for your own meal, I'm going to share links to my recipes for this year below. Enjoy!

Tyler Florence's Oven-Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter - This is a repeat from last year. It was DELICIOUS.

Another Tyler Florence find: Carmelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing - Since the sausage wasn't such a hit last year, we're trying the recommended stuffing to go with our sage buttered turkey.

Williams-Sonoma's Mashed Potatoes with Bacon and Chives - Yum. I'll also make a batch with no bacon for our Jewish or non-pork-loving friends.

Epicurious' Buttermilk Biscuits with Black Pepper, Green Onions, and Sea Salt - After a big, fat FAIL at making homemade dinner rolls that didn't rise last year, I decided to stick with what I know...and I know these are GOOD.

We're also having green bean casserole, my friend Jen's oh-so-scrumptious sweet potato streusel casserole, garden salad, cranberry-mango compote (to be purchased from the SuperTarget deli, since no one ate my homemade Cabernet Sauvignon cranberry sauce last year...haha), turkey gravy, another vegetable, and a midwestern-favorite, the strawberry jello-pretzel-cream cheese salad. Oh, and we're going to talk my lovely sis-in-law, Hannah, into bringing us some B-Dub's wings to accompany the turkey, since she has to work there that morning anyhow. :-)

Now, for dessert. No explanation needed. Yum.

Paula Deen's Caramel Apple Cheesecake (I realized the potential for this just being really messy, and not-so-pretty. I'm sure it would taste amazing, though.)
Eating Well's Glazed Chocolate-Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Food & Wine's Double-Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Smitten Kitchen's Silky Smooth Pumpkin Pie
All Recipes' Buttermilk Chess Pie
Food & Wine's Cranberry-Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

I think that's about it. I'm hungry just posting this...no good at all!! Share your Thanksgiving favorites with me--maybe I'll be inspired to add something else new to the menu this year!

Banana Cake

Since I've been in such a holiday baking mood lately, I decided I'd try a new recipe, as a possible dessert for our Thanksgiving feast that we'll be hosting again this year. (More possibilities to come in the next week or two...) We always, always seem to have overripe bananas around here, and I get tired of the same ol' banana bread I usually make. So, I came across the My Baking Addiction blog yesterday, and saw her recipe for Banana Bars. Oh my yumminess...I HAD to try these...

Banana Bars (that are more like cake, really)
From: My Baking Addiction

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2-4 mashed ripe bananas

Frosting:
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 lbs. powdered sugar (yes, I know...)
2 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla.

3. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into the batter. Finally, mix in the mashed banana. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow bars to cool completely before frosting with the cream cheese frosting.

To make frosting:
In the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth and creamy. Stir in vanilla extract. Spread on cooled cake.

My notes:
- I didn't use the paddle attachment for the frosting - the regular, old beater on my KitchenAid worked just fine.
- For the love of all that is holy, use real butter and not margarine. Please.
- The recipe made about twice as much icing as you actually need for a 9x13 pan. Don't get me wrong - I still used it all, but there are places on this cake where there is literally an inch of frosting! (Yum....)
- This recipe is definitely cake-like...not bar-like at all. If you were to make it in a jelly roll pan, though, you would probably get bars, plus the icing would be more appropriately distributed.
- Aaron's evaluation: "Oh my gosh, this is amazing." Take that how you will, but we think it turned out quite tasty!!

An Update?

Guess what...I think it's time to start the ol' cooking blog back up again. I'm in a holiday baking and cooking mood, for whatever reason. Perhaps it's the cool and dreary fall-is-here-to-stay weather we've been having here in Grand Forks, or perhaps it's just been awhile since I've cooked anything worth writing about. Nonetheless, here I am. I'm going to try a new recipe tonight, so look for an actual post within the next day or two!