Thanksgiving: the countdown. Start with your cranberry sauce.

For us foodies, Thanksgiving is the best holiday of all. A holiday that's sole and soul purpose is sharing a magnificent meal with people you love or are related to, both if you are lucky.

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week !! How did that happens ?? 

Don't panic yet, unless you haven't made your plane reservations or you are still hoping to paint your house before the family arrives, then you have permission to panic.

If you are hosting the Big Dinner there are plenty of things you can do ahead of time to get ready.
It's great to be able to check things off your list.
First you need to make a list...and delegate as much of the work as you can.

Over the next week, I'll post more of my Thanksgiving recipes and tips.

Today I made my cranberry sauce, it took me all of 20 minutes total and 15 of those minutes were cooking time. IT IS SO EASY !!

Here is a previous cranberry post with some other fun variations.

This year I made it with some of the mandarins from my sister's tree. They are seedless Satsuma mandarins, so sweet and flavorful, you can use tangerines instead or one orange in place of the three mandarins.
Bob licked the pan when I was done and pronounced it excellent. I hope it last until next week ;-)

Cranberry Sauce with Mandarins

Ingredients

8 ounces cranberries*
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
3 peeled and chopped mandarins
1 tablespoon chopped mandarin peel

* If your bag of cranberries is 12 ounces, use 3/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar.

1) Peel and chop three mandarins or tangerines, remove any seeds.

 2) Chop some mandarin peel to make one tablespoon.

3) Place a saucepan 1/2 cup water, 2/3 cup sugar, 8 ounces of fresh cranberries and the citrus and peel.

4) Stir to dissolve the sugar, bring to a boil.
5) Allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until the cranberries have softened.
6) That's it, store until the big day.

Now wasn't that easy ;-)

Thanksgiving: thing to do ahead of time.

Thanksgiving is Genna's favorite holiday, true foodie that she is. And while there will only be four at our table, we will have the complete classic menu: turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts and pecan pie. It's all about the leftovers for us ;-)

There are a few thing you can do way ahead of time to make your Thanksgiving eve and day less stressful.

This morning I baked cornbread for stuffing. You could also make the pumpkin cornbread I blogged about recently. We usually make my sister's cornbread stuffing.

This year we plan to make a hybrid that combines bread and cornbread.

I cubed the whole wheat sourdough bread, so it could begin to become stale. With stuffing stale is a good thing  and an easy thing to do ahead.

I plan to put some of our lovely Granny Smith's into the stuffing.

Cranberry sauce is the other easy thing to make ahead. Every year I plead for homemade cranberry sauce. IT IS SO EASY TO MAKE, THERE IS NO EXCUSE !!

And that way you can tailor it to your own tastes.
This year I decided to go with oranges and cinnamon.

Into my saucepan, I tossed, one 8 ounce bag of organic cranberries, 3 inches of cinnamon stick...

one half of an orange with peel, 2/3 cup water ( orange juice is good too), 2/3 cup sugar.

Mix together, bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust for sweetness. Cool and store, there, it's done and only gets better as it sits.

Here a another post I did last year about cranberry sauce.

So now you have your bread getting stale and your cranberry sauce made, doesn't that feel good ??

Cranberry Sauce, please make your own.

Thanksgiving is one of my daughter's favorite holidays, mostly because it revolves around food !

In the next couple of days I will be sharing a few tips and twists to add to your Thanksgiving menu. 

I'll start with cranberry sauce since you can make it a week ahead of time. The only trick is not snacking on it before hand ;-)

Please, please, please make your own cranberry sauce, it is SO EASY there are not many excuses. You can make it ahead of time in 15 minutes !!

Here is the basic recipe:

In a saucepan place:

one 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries

one cup water

one cup sugar

1) Stir together to dissolve the sugar. 

2) Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes until the cranberries burst. 

3) That's it, refrigerate until you want to use it. Now wasn't that simple ??

There are many way to give cranberry sauce that added boost.

The most common way is to use orange juice instead of water and add orange zest.

There are also lots of fresh cranberry relish recipes.

My favorite twist, use red wine instead of the water and add a small muslin bag with 1 cinnamon stick, 2 whole cloves and 2 whole allspice. 

Add the spice bag once the mixture has come to a boil and remove it once the cranberries are done cooking. This cranberry sauce has an amazing subtle richness I love.

Thanksgiving ideas...

I realize that most of you may have your menus already planned...but I did want to post a few easy and tasty versions of classic Thanksgiving day dishes just in case. There won't be any photos since I have yet to make them myself this year.

To honor the true spirit of this holiday I wanted to share what I am thankful for.

• Living in such a bountiful area, we are so lucky to have so much fresh, local and  organic food here on the Central California Coast.
• Having a career as a massage therapist that I still love to do after over 30 years.
• Best of all, a wonderful family and amazing friends who love and support me in so many ways.

Here are a few recipes we will be making for our feast !!

Cornbread stuffing
My sister makes this cornbread stuffing, it may be my favorite part of the whole meal ( except for maybe the pies ;-)

4-6 days before Thanksgiving I make a pan of cornbread( see my recipe cornbread), and when it is cool, I cut it into cubes (about 1/2").  I let the cubes sit around and get stale or dry them out in the oven.

When ready to make the stuffing, toss with cubes:

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1 cup cut up dried apricots

1 green bell pepper cut into thin, 1-2" strips

anything else you'd like

salt & pepper to taste

Add both melted butter and turkey/chicken/veggie stock until stuffing is desired moistness.  

I use more melted butter than stock.

Place in glass baking dish and bake for 35-45 minutes. 

Candied Yams

6 to 8 servings

I discovered this recipe years ago in Martha Stewart's Living magazine. It has become a staple at our Thanksgiving table. The fresh rosemary makes the dish, it helps to cut the sweetness of the maple syrup.

This dish can be baked ahead of time then reheated just before serving.

2 1/4 lbs. small yams, peeled and  cut into inch thick wedges.

1 1/2 cup apple cider

1/2 cup maple syrup

3 to 4 springs fresh rosemary

3 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 F

Place the potatoes in a enamel pot or cast iron skillet with a lid.

Add the maple syrup, apple cider and toss gently.

Tuck in the rosemary and dot with pieces of butter, sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 45 minutes covered, remove cover and toss gently.

Bake for 15 to 30 minutes more depending on how tender you want them.

Cranberry Sauce with a twist.

Please, please, please make your own cranberry sauce, it is SO EASY there are not many excuses.You can make it ahead of time in 15 minutes !!

Here is the basic recipe:

In a saucepan place:

one 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries

one cup water

one cup sugar

Stir together to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes until the cranberries burst. That's it, refrigerate until you want to use it. Now wasn't that simple ??

There are many way to give cranberry sauce that added boost.

The most common way is to use orange juice instead of water and add orange zest.

There are also lots of fresh cranberry relish recipes. I am going to try one this year, I'll let you know how it turns out.

My favorite twist, use red wine instead of the water and add a small muslin bag with 1 cinnamon stick, 2 whole cloves and 2 whole allspice. Add the spice bag once the mixture has come to a boil and remove it once the cranberries are done cooking. This cranberry sauce has an amazing subtle richness I love.

This year I am making that pumpkin cheesecake tart I just posted as well as the traditional pecan pie.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving whatever you cook up !!