Thanksgiving Recipes

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Arthur and I went to my brother and sister-in-law's get-away weekend farm in Missouri for Thanksgiving. We had a pleasant drive there on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I hoped to help with a lot of the cooking on Wednesday. They were having the roof on their house and studio redone by one of their Amish neighbors who ran out of shingles. This meant my brother and I needed to make a trip to Menard's in St. Joseph for more shingles. Unfortunately its a 90 minute trip each way. Cut down a lot on our cooking time.

I did however make two of the dishes that were served and both of them were big hits so I thought I'd share the recipes. Both of them used produce from our CSA farm.

The first one is a great sweet potato recipe which is delicious and also very easy:
Bourbon-Walnut Sweet Potato Mash
(adapted from Epicurious)

4 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes or yams or whatever kind you have
1/2 cup whipping cream
6 tablespoons butter (3/4 stick)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Roast potatoes on rimmed baking sheet until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Cool slightly. Scoop flesh into large bowl; discard skins. Mash hot potatoes until coarse puree forms.
Heat cream and butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until butter melts, stirring occasionally. Gradually stir hot cream mixture into hot potatoes. Stir in syrup, bourbon, and all spices. Season with salt and pepper. Saute nuts in some butter until very slightly browned. Top potatoes with nuts.

DO AHEAD: Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm in microwave.

This is a great pie. Everyone at dinner loved it. You really can't tell the difference between pumpkin and squash when its in pie with all the spices.

Pumpkin Pecan Pie
(adapted from Penzeys.com)

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell (I made a 1/2 butter, 1/2 lard pie crust)
2 cup cooked and pureed pumpkin (I used a kabocha squash from our CSA farm)
1/3 Cup brown sugar
1/3 Cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. CHINA CINNAMON
3/4 tsp. POWDERED GINGER
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 Cup milk
Topping:
1/4 Cup butter
1/2 Cup brown sugar
3/4 Cup coarsely chopped pecans


Preheat oven to 350°. In a food processor combine the pumpkin (or squash), brown sugar, granulated sugar, CINNAMON, GINGER, salt, VANILLA, eggs, and milk. Mix until well blended. Pour into the unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Meanwhile mix the topping ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle the topping on the pie and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool before slicing. Excellent served with real whipped cream flavored with vanilla.

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