Grab your grocery list and a shopping cart. The holiday season is here, and Thanksgiving is the first stop on the trip.

A uniquely American celebration, Thanksgiving is the favorite holiday of the year for many of us. We gather to feast and give thanks for a bountiful harvest — of food, family, friends and fellowship.

The turkey is in the spotlight of traditional Thanksgivings, the Norman Rockwell painting, an idyllic textbook picture of the American feast.

But true to form, Americans get creative with their celebrations — filling their tables with the old, time-honored recipes alongside what’s new and delicious.

Turkey at center stage

There’s a world of turkey choices out there — the cooking options range from ambitious to a no-fuss phone call for a prepared meal. Deep-fried turkey continues to be popular. Local smokehouses prepare hundreds of smoked turkeys for their customers each year. You can buy a turkey from them, or supply your own and also choose whether you want the turkey whole, or sliced, with or without the bones. Oven roasting a turkey, old style, is still a treasured ritual in many households.

For small gatherings, or folks with little time or inclination to cook a feast from scratch — check out the prepared dressing, gravy and traditional veggies in the grocery store refrigerated deli section. It’s a quick and personalized fix to tweak these with the addition of some fresh chopped onions, celery, chicken broth, boiled eggs, mushrooms, slivered almonds, pecans, etc. You can even put your name on the list for some of the rotisserie turkey breasts that are cooked fresh daily — these are delicious all year-round.

(See related feature for alternate turkey cooking methods — click here).

Cornbread Dressing

Cornbread

1 cup self-rising cornmeal
1/2 cup self-rising flour
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Dressing

7 slices white bread, dried in warm oven
Cornbread
1 sleeve saltine crackers
2 cups chopped celery
1 large onion, chopped
8 tablespoons butter
7 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried sage 
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning 
5 eggs, beaten 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

To make the cornbread, combine all ingredients and pour into a greased shallow baking dish. Bake for approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. 

To make the dressing, crumble dried white bread slices, cornbread and crackers. Mix together and set aside. Sauté chopped celery and onion in butter until transparent, approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Pour over cornbread mixture. Add stock, mix well and add salt, pepper, sage, and poultry seasoning. Add beaten eggs and mix well. Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

For vegetarians, The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant publishes its original tofu turkey recipe at cookingvegetarian.com. There’s also the restaurant’s tofu chive dip recipe — a great alternative to mashed potatoes.

Remember that food safety is crucial when preparing the Thanksgiving dinner, whether your turkey is fried, smoked, roasted or grilled. Information on food safety, as well as cooking instructions, recipes, correct handling, cooking and storage is available at butterball.com. Select the ‘tips and how-to’ tab, then ‘safety.’

SIDE DISHES:  Turkey’s supporting cast 

Karyn Miller, president of Gourmet Gallery, a locally owned gourmet cooking store, offers her foolproof recipe for potatoes along with some prime suggestions for the leftovers (if there are any). “My mom and I think this is the richest, best choice for an all-around crowd-pleaser,” she said. 

Gratin Dauphinoise

(Gratin Potatoes from the Dauphine)

2 pounds potatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground white pepper
2 1/2 to 3 cups heavy cream
1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised
1 tablespoon softened butter
Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Peel the potatoes and slice them on a mandolin to inch thick. Pat dry and season with the salt and pepper. Place the potatoes in a saucepot with the cream. (They must be covered with cream). 

Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat. Simmer the potatoes over low heat for five minutes, shaking them from time to time to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

In the meantime, rub a baking dish with the bruised garlic and discard the garlic. Heavily butter the dish with the softened butter. With a slotted spoon, carefully layer the potatoes, covering each layer with some of the scaled cream and dash of nutmeg. Bake the potatoes until the top is nicely browned, approximately one hour.

“These are almost always the most popular dish at our family holiday meals,” Karyn said. “With eight grandkids, we have to make a huge batch. If there should be any leftovers, it makes a mean potato soup.” (Just mash up the potatoes — or not — and add chicken broth. Serve with salad).

At Hank and April Cole’s house, the couple enjoys a Thanksgiving meal of beef tenderloin, haricots-verts and mashed potatoes. For daughter Allison, it’s traditional holiday fare all the way, straight by the book, April said. “One dish we all enjoy together is chipotle cranberry sauce — a Stephen Pyles recipe,” she said. “It’s wonderful with turkey and dressing, we keep it on hand all year to go with smoked pork tenderloin and pulled pork sandwiches.” 

Chipotle Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry in bowl and cranberry sauce in glass. Focus on glass. SDOF. Close-up.

1 cup craisins 
1 cup water 
1/4 cup brown sugar 
1/4 cup lemon juice 
1/4 cup brandy or cognac 
1 tablespoon Adobo from canned chipotles (I add one chipotle pepper for extra heat). 

Bring to boil and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let set (covered) for 20 minutes or until cool enough to puree in blender. Serve cold or warm.

Waco’s Les DuPuy said he’s sampled all the different types of turkey and likes the original roasted version the best. “My favorite green vegetable on Thanksgiving is steamed broccoli with lemon butter. Chocolate pie tops my list for dessert,” he said.  

Family members are often assigned the same dish for decades — and remembered for their culinary contribution even after they are gone. Shelly Smith, of Woodway, said a dessert tradition that started with her grandparents is still going strong more than 80 years later.  

“When they were newlyweds in the 1920s, my granddad asked my grandmother to make him a pie everyday. She did and soon became very good at it,” Shelley said. “To this day, no one in our family will eat pie unless it’s one of her recipes — it’s got to be Grandma Watt’s Pie.”

Grandma Watt's Pumpkin Pie

2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ginger 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1 teaspoon salt 
No. 2 1/2 can (1 pound, 13 oz) pumpkin 
4 eggs 
3 cups milk 

Mix all dry ingredients together until all the lumps are gone, add pumpkin, mix thoroughly. Beat eggs until light, then add to pumpkin mixture. Add milk slowly until all is mixed. Pour into pie shell, sprinkle with nutmeg. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then 325 degrees until done, and knife in middle comes out clean. 

Sometimes, a last minute add-on to the holiday table makes a huge hit. Wacoan Kay Vinzant said last year’s celebration was a good example. “After frying the turkey, I deep fried corn-on-the-cob (about five minutes), put butter and Cajun seasoning on it and added it to table,” Kay said. “It cooked to a beautiful golden color, perfectly browned. It looked just like autumn. Aunt Nona said it looked like the first Thanksgiving. It was a huge hit. The kids loved it.” 

RELATED WEBSITES:

Recipes.alot.com

whatscookingamerica.net

pillsbury.com

Texascooking.com

cajungrocer.com

foodnetwork.com

chefpaul.com

chefinyou.com

turkey.RecipesBar.com

Catalina Cranberry Chicken

Recipe from the Home of Jan Hale

Ingredients

8 boneless chicken breasts
1 can (16 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
1 bottle (8 ounces) Catalina dressing
1 envelope onion soup mix

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in baking dish(es). Mix cranberry sauce, catalina dressing and onion soup mix. Pour over chicken.

Bake about 1 1/2 hour.

Grandkids even liked this new recipe. Enjoy.

Pasta and Peas

Recipe from the Home of Frank Dicorte

This Italian recipe has been handed down in my family for four generations. It is a quick and inexpensive meal.

Prep time about 20 to 25 minutes.

Ingredients 

1 12 ounce package elbow macaroni
1 15 ounce can Lesuerur very young small early peas (do not drain)
2 tablespoons olive oil cup butter (stick)
Grated Parmesan cheese
Nature’s seasoning to taste

Directions

In a sauce pan warm the Lesuerur peas, olive oil and butter. While it is warming, with a fork or flat spoon smash about half the peas in the sauce pan.

Cook the elbow macaroni according to package directions.

After the pasta are cooked, drain but do not drain dry. Leave a small amount of pasta water in with the macaroni.  

Add the peas, olive oil, butter with the pasta, sprinkle with natures seasioning to taste. Let stand a few minutes over a warm burner. Serve with grated parmesan cheese and Italian bread.

A good choice for wine would be a Pino Grigio, Orvieto or a Chardonnay.

Makes 4 servings

Southern Carrot Cake

Recipe from the Home of Honey Rader

One 8-inch round tart or tube pan with removable bottom. Soak cup of raisins overnight in dark rum, drain any remaining rum — do not squeeze raisins. Have all ingredients at room temperature. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Soak 1 cups grated carrots in pineapple juice from small can of diced pineapple for 30 minutes. Drain remaining juice. Do not squeeze or press carrots.

Ingredients

Sift before measuring:

1 cup all-purpose flour (unbleached or bleached)

Resift with:

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix together and add to flour, stirring well:

cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 beaten eggs

Directions

Add and blend-in well: Strained raisins and strained carrots

Bake in greased and floured pan about 1 hour and 25 minutes. Cool on rack, slide knife around edge of pan and lift bottom to remove cake from pan.

Frost cake with standard cream cheese frosting:

3/4 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
3 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend until smooth.

If you prefer, omit vanilla and add diced pineapple to frosting.

Funny Yummy Turkey Legs

Recipe from the Home of Waco Today

Servings: 12

Your little ones will be thankful for these funny, yummy turkey legs. Crunchy, chocolaty and peanut-buttery. They are fun to make and even more fun to eat!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 package (10 ounces about 40) regular marshmallows
6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal
Peanut butter
Cocoa Rice Krispies Cereal

Directions

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2. Add Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated.

3. Cool slightly. Using buttered hands shape mixture into twelve small drumsticks.

4. Spread peanut butter on large end of each drumstick, then dip in Cocoa Krispies cereal. Refrigerate until firm. Best if served the same day.

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