Cranberry Sauce



Picture by Skinny Taste 

Well it was always something I overlooked at the Thanksgiving table when I was a kid. That cranberry sauce, with the lines from the can still visible, never appealed to be. It came as a surprise to most people however because I love cranberry anything, juice, bread, muffins etc... but not cranberry sauce. That is until I had real fresh cranberry sauce. Now I can't have a Thanksgiving meal (or leftovers) without it. I have made it in the past the traditional whole cranberry way, with water, sugar, and cranberries boiled on the stove. This year I am going to be making a new recipe that I got from my favorite healthy cooking blog Skinny Taste (you will recall the sweet potato pie came from that sight too). This gal has done a knock out job on making delicious recipes with less fat and calories without adding fake phony food and keeping the taste.

So this year to lighten up our cranberry sauce by reducing the 2 cups of white sugar that is usually used to sweeten and extract the juices from the cranberries, we are going to be having a Cranberry Pear Sauce. The recipe still uses the whole cranberries but uses ripe pears to help sweeten the cranberries and also uses Agave Nectar.

I did a little research on why agave nectar was being used as a substitute for sugar and found basically two big points. The first is that it is sweeter then sugar and less viscus then honey so it

makes for a good sweetener, the second was that it doesn't effect blood sugar levels like sugar does. So even thought packs 60 calories per table spoon (vs 40 calories in sugar) it isn't swing blood sugar levels and it is 1.5 times sweeter then sugar so you can use less and still satisfy that sweet tooth. I guess it really isn't that new a thing but I'm not diabetic and don't know many who are (that I'm making food with at least), so it is new to me.

I can't wait to try this recipe and please check out Gina's Skinny Taste as well.

Pumpkin Vs Sweet Potato

Well as I said before I wasn't sure earlier what pie I was going to make for Thanksgiving this year. But after an experiment last night my husband and I decided Sweet Potato will be on our menu for this year. My husband was shocked when I told him what was in the pie, he couldn't believe it was so creamy and good. We have done pumpkin pies in the past and to get a really creamy taste we usually have to use half and half or cream and white sugar in the filling, that was simply not the case with this sweet potato pie recipe that I got from Skinny Taste.

I could tell you how to make this pie but it seems silly to do so when Gina has done such an excellent job. So here is where you want to go to get the recipe and step by step instructions.

I will say I forgot to add the vanilla and it still tasted great, I also miss read the ingredients and used twice as much potato as I should have (probably why it took longer to bake and didn't all fit in the pie crust) but because of that I will probably take 1/3 a cup of sugar out of the recipe (it was sweet enough for me as it was) when I make it again. For now we will just suffer through with our less then perfect sweet potato pie.

Thanksgiving Cooking Timeline

For us and our particular situation like, we have Wednesday off and don't eat our Thanksgiving dinner till Mid afternoon (usually around 3-4 o'clock), this is how we plan to make the food and have it hot on the table at the same time. You may verywell need to adjust this to fit your particular meal, situation or kitchen layout (maybe you don't have room in your fridge for much ect...)

From the traditional American Thanksgiving meal from my last post there are some items that can be preped days before the big meal (the challeng in that not eating them in the days that follow). Those items are...
Cranberry Sauce, is ideal 2-3 days before the meal
Cornbread, rolls or biscuts, can be 1-2 days before
Dumplings I admit to knowing nothing about these balls of dough with stuff but I think they could be preped or made here I could be wrong
Pies, can be made up to 2 days before the meal

Some things to get ready or make the daybefore...
Stuffing, you get all ready then stuff the bird but theprep is all the day before
Casseroles, like green bean or anything that you might be doing
Squashes and Potatoes, these can be reheaten in the microwave, oven or on the stove top)

Somethings need to be day of...
Turkey you may have to wake up early to put that bad boy in the oven esspecially if you are eatting earlier in the day (that maybe why we don't)
Gravy (you need the drippings from the turkey for it)
Fresh veggies to be steamed

So this is how I would be breaking down my meal into smaller more manegable amounts of work.

Thanksgiving Menu Planning

Well the first step in planning a Thanksgiving meal is to plan the menu. There are some items that are fairly widespread traditions when it comes to Thanksgiving meals. They are:

Turkey (like you didn't know that)
Stuffing and gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Corn on the cob
Green Beans (sometimes in a casserole)
Winter Squash
Peas
Carrots
Turnips
Cornbread, Rolls or Biscuits
Dumplings

Pies: apple, chocolate meringue, mince, pecan, sweet potato (yam), pumpkin

Now your dinner may also contain  traditions that have been passed down in your families through generations. That's great. We do not include all the things listed above in our meals and we sometimes add other things.

My husbands family usually has A Lime Pear Jello salad, home made rolls, from a secret family recipe that I wont be giving on here (cause we probably wont make them this year but Shh don't tell my mother in law), salad and some of the other traditional items.

In my family Oreo ice cream pie has become a tradition, (my family tends to be a little more on the traditional side though).

So this year with no family coming into town we have the freedom to break traditions, or really start some of our own. We will be bringing with us some of our favorite pieces from our family's meals and creating our own unique to us dinner.

On our Menu:

Breakfast: (Oh yeah it's an all day affair)
Cinnamon Rolls - These are a husbands family tradition.

The main meal:
Turkey - a big 25lb job cause we love lots of leftovers.
Stuffing - This is my mother in laws recipe that is the only stuffing in the world I have ever liked.
Gravy- 'nuf said.
Mashed Potatoes - We do the "not good for you" white potatoes here (something from my family).
Cranberry Sauce - The recipe for this I am taking from here and is for a pear cranberry sauce
Butternut Squash- Gotta have some orange on your plate.
Peas - They are our 4 year old's favorite and something green.
Rolls - These probably wont be the ones from the secret family recipe cause I recently learned how to make bread and rolls in a super easy way and will do that cause it saves time.

Dessert:
Sweet Potato Pie or Pumpkin we haven't quite decided yet
Apple Pie

Next I'm going to address how we handle cooking all this food and what can be made ahead of time and suck. Remember this is only our 2nd Thanksgiving all on our own so if we can do it you can do it too.

We are also deciding now who to invite to dinner, so if you want an invite put in your application now (heh heh)

Introducing.... Preparing Thanksgiving Dinner...?

You are thinking, you know what Thanksgiving dinner is nothing new, The Pilgrims and Indians celebrated it hundreds of years ago. I know that, I do, really. But when I was growing up we almost never had Thanksgiving at my house and even if we did we didn't prep all the food ourselves, other family members would bring dishes to contribute. I grew up with all my family living about 30 minutes away from me, my Grandparents (on both sides), aunts, uncles and cousins. So every year I eat a lot of Thanksgiving dinners. We would have one at my moms side and one at my dad's side. When I was in my 1st year of college I also started to attend a dinner at my boyfriends families as well. Then I got married (to previously mentioned boyfriend), and not only attended the two dinners at my grandparents, and my in laws but my parents also started to have one with just my sister, me and my husband (and our kids once they came along). So "in my prime" I was eating about 4 FULL Thanksgiving dinners every year.

If at this point you are tired of my "life story" then you can skip to the point of this blog that will be marked with *** down towards the bottom.

Then something wonderful happened 2 years ago in 2009 my husband had to travel for work the first week in November for 2 weeks. It promised to be a hard, grueling and torturous assignment so for moral support I accompanied him. We sent our, then 2 1/2 year old, daughter to her grandparents. Then we packed up our bags and got on the plane and flew to Hawaii (I told you torturous). I spent my days lounging on the beach of Waikiki, strolling the open air markets, visiting the pool, taking naps, and seeing the Polynesian Center, while my husband worked. At night we went out for walks on the beach, nice diners, drives up the coast and swimming in the ocean.

When we got back we were exhausted. I do mean that literally. In once sense we were recharged in another we were so tired of travelling. So we told out families (to their disappointment) "We are not coming to Thanksgiving this year!" To that we were kinda given the "well can we come down to see the grandchild" And we said "No!"

That is how it all began.

So now we are getting ready for our 3rd Thanksgiving "On our own." Last year both of our families came down and we had more people here then we had beds for and more people here then we had chairs for at dinner. To top it all off I was 8 month pregnant with our 2nd daughter.

Our 1st year was just us, but we didn't have lots of time to prepare for it, plan menu items and prep food. So it was a "small" (the turkey was a 20lb+ number) meal with few items on the menu but plenty of food.

Our 2nd year we got something from everyone and it was a large meal and very hectic (did I mention I was 8 month pregnant?).

*** This year we are planning ahead. We are not having any family in from out of town and haven't invited any "locals" over (yet). And that brings me to the point of this blog.

I am going to be giving recipes for our menu items here and helping you (who are not veteran Thanksgiving meal makers) prepare for the big day.


Today is step 1. If you choose to get a fresh turkey then NOW is the time you need to be ordering it. Call a local butcher or such and get that baby ordered. Then you just pick it up when you are ready (for us that will be Wednesday before Thanksgiving).

My Other Martha Hat (no I'm not Martha obsessed)

So I made the "jester hat" for my older daughter but for my younger one (who can't make her own decisions) it will be a simple standard 1 pom-pom hat.

As I mentioned in my 1st post. These hats are both taken straight from Martha Stewart's website. The link is here if you would just rather look there. I am using the Solid color hat pattern and there are no mistakes that I found in this pattern (unlike the jester hat where I did find she missed one step).

So what did I need:
Fleece (not much but I bought a yard and could make many)
Matching thread
Pins
Sewing machine (or lots of patience)
Tape measure
Scissors

Step 1: Cutting
I did measure my child's head to know what size to make. K is almost 1 so I wasn't sure if I should use the 6-12 Month size or the 1-3 years size. I went with the larger size of the 6-12 and use 19".

If you are measuring instead of using the given measurements then please add 1/2" to the measurement for the seam allowance.

Cut one piece the width of the head you are fitting (or use Martha's size suggestions), by the length of 10 for a child and 13 for an adult hat.

My piece was 19x10

Step 2: Sewing

All but one section turned up 3" and under 1/4"

1. Pin the long side  (though mine is actually the short side but it is the side of the length of the hat) with right sides together.
2. Sew up the side a 1/4" seam allowance
3. Trim very close to the seam
4. Turn up the hat (to make the cuff) 3" then under turn 1/4" (so no raw edges are showing.)
5. Pin and sew very close the the hem of the cuff.
6. Now pin and sew the top of the hat with a 1/4" seam.

Step 3: Finishing
1. Turn hat right side out.
2. With a needle and thread sew the two corners of the hat together  at the top of the hat.

Step 4: Pom Pom
1. Cut a piece of fleece about 4"x24" (for a large pom pom I used about 17" for a little smaller pom pom)
2. Fold the strip in half width wise and cut frays into the fleece.

3. Roll the fleece.

4. Sew it together by putting the needle through from one side to the other then wrap the thread around the pom pom a few times and re thread the needle through the pom pom.

5. Attach the pom pom to the top of the hat.

Here is your finished hat (actually this is my hat but yours is done now too).