Thanksgiving Favorites

Emilie decided to spend this Thanksgiving with Grandmama (Steve's mother) in Roanoke, Virginia. She'll return to BYU-Idaho this weekend for two weeks and then she'll be home in Oxford until April for her semester break. She's been studying hard and having fun, so I know she's lovin' being spoiled by Grandmama! (Can you tell I'm being brave in the face of missing my girl?)

Emilie's not the biggest Thanksgiving-foods fan. She admitted one year that she did not like dressing (or stuffing), to which I replied, "Dressing is a delicacy. It's like dessert; and you do not have to eat it. In fact, you may not eat it if you don't like it." Maybe one reason that I love Thanksgiving so much is because I LOVE all Thanksgiving dishes! I used to stand in the kitchen when my mother pulled the turkey out of the oven with a fork in my hand, and start snitching little bites of the dressing while it was still in the bird. Mother made her dressing very rich and dark, prepared with with homemade stock made from the neck and other innerds that came stuffed inside the frozen bird along with onions, celery, and carrots. She'd add chopped apples and nuts to store bought herb stuffing mix; and cover the turkey with bacon strips. It makes my heart sigh and my mouth water to think of it.

My Dad made his dressing with a lighter homemade stock, the same herb stuffing mix, and lots of onions and celery. Steve likes for me to use Dad's recipe because he cannot stand the thought of eating organs. Even if they aren't actually in the dressing!

Last year we found a most delicious recipe for the Best Ever Green Bean Casserole (Alton Browns, Food Network). It is really very, very tasty to make this holiday recipe completely from scratch; and it's fun to make fresh (baked) "french fried" onions!

A few years ago, Steve started getting steaks for our Thanksgiving meal, because we could no longer fit a turkey in our ailing oven. He wanted to do the same this year, so we ate our steak with sauteed fresh mushrooms, green bean casserole, and baked sweet potato as a late evening thanksgiving meal when I got home from tending to Dad.

Steve's been working feverishly on two grants that he has to submit by Monday and my dad's wound-care needs escalated to every-waking-hour monitoring of his every movement, reminding him to "keep your feet off the floor," and "Use your arms" to propel his wheelchair instead of paddling it like a duck. So, ours was a working holiday this year. But we are very happy and grateful for all that we have, which is so very much!!

With all of our distractions this year, we forgot to get the ingredients for must-have favorite holiday side dish: Fresh Cranberry Orange Honey Relish...which we eat more as a salad. It's tangy and tart, perfect for cutting the other rich Thanksgiving fare! However, we recovered our foible by remembering that the first Thanksgiving was actually a three-day feast. We will be making our traditional double batch on Friday to eat with the smoked turkey John gave us (Thank you, John!)

Fresh Cranberry-Orange Honey Relish

Chop together in a food processor or grind in a meat grinder:
1lb fresh cranberries (12 oz bag + 1 cup)
1 navel orange, including rind

Add:
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup nuts, chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves

Stir and refrigerate for several hours. Taste before adding a sprinkle of sugar to cut the tartness (we never add the sugar).