What's Thanksgiving without Pumpkin pie (p. 686)? This is usually one of the items that mom makes before I get to town. The problem with Tday is that we tend to drive in so late on Wednesday that I can't get any prep work done. This Tday we came in a little earlier so I decided to make the pumpkin pie.
I also decided that since I was operating on limited time, I might as well use a store-bought shell instead of making it myself (even though making pie crust is pretty easy). The pie crust requires pre-cooking:
The filling was simple: pumpkin puree, heavy cream, sugar (both white and brown), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.
I filled the pie crust and it looked perfect.
What isn't shown is the foil crust-protective-covering, which I totally recommend, if you don't like burnt crisps. I assume that would include everyone. Or you can buy one of those expensive crust-protectors but foil does the exact same thing!
Mom and I kept checking the pie because it didn't see done. When I shook it, it still shook like jello! Eventually I took it out anyway. And it WAS done. It had probably been done for a few minutes.
The pie was pretty good, it was your typical pumpkin pie. Nothing special but good.
One of the biggest problems with taking years to cook through TJOC is that I'm running out of common holiday recipes, such as cranberries. This year we decided that mom would make her cranberry sauce (our Italian version) and I would make Molded cranberry sauce (p. 175), which was conveniently on my randomly selected list!
Gelatin always smells so bad.
It was a little boincy pad after softening in water:
The cranberries were cooked in a little orange juice until their skin popped and sugar and salt were added.
The gelatin was added in and it was poured into the mold and allowed to set:
Green bean casserole is one of those typical Tday dishes that we never actually make. That being said, when our guest list went from 4 to 6, I needed to add a side dish or two and thought Green bean casserole II (p. 251) would be perfect. I could see immediately why it is so popular for Tday--it was extremely fast and easy.
I mixed green beans (I used frozen), milk, cream of mushroom soup, and those canned onions together in a casserole dish.
More onions on the top and into the oven it went:
And done! Fast and easy, which is really helpful when you are making so many different dishes. I thought it was really tasty too--I kinda like GBC. Simple and homey. And the crunchy top is always delicious.
I thought another easy side dish would be Braised carrots (p. 266), which is essentially glazed carrots with less sugar and no brandy.
The carrots were really good but not as good as the glazed carrots, so I probably won't make this recipe again (although I will remake the delicious glazed carrots). Every single time I eat carrots I wonder why I don't eat them more often--carrots are easy, really nutritious, and taste terrific coated in butter.
The side dishes were good! I made mashed potatoes (I use my own recipe) and mom made candied sweet potatoes. So much delicious food!
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