Sunday, October 21, 2012

10-21-12 Thanksgiving practice

So, we're back from the Disney trip, which was the requirement before I would start talking about Thanksgiving, and here we are.

We've made the move back to butter and whole milk, as well as organic and cage-free eggs. I keep wishing I lived on a farm where I could have my own chickens and milk cow, but alas, this is as good as it gets for now.

In the vein of more natural, we've also been trying to get away from meals with so many ingredients, especially preservatives, so I was keen to try a few recipes that didn't rely on so many canned goods for the Thanksgiving feast.

Tonight we did a trial run of a green bean casserole and a sweet potato bake. Both will be making the cut for the big turkey dinner.

The sweet potato dish was so good. Canned sweet potatoes have had almost every nutrient killed during their processing, with additional preservatives pumped into them to keep them from "turning".
Yechhhh. Don't get me started on the marshmallows typically plopped on top with their gelatin and corn syrup. It was time for something a little fresher.

One big sweet potato, peeled, cut, and boiled to soften, whipped with cream, butter, sugar, vanilla, cinnammon, nutmeg, topped with a brown sugar, butter, and flour mixture made the most amazing dish. It was so simple and so.freaking.good.

The green beans were fresh, so I'm still learning how long to cook them. Tonight's trial run they were still a little crunchier than I wanted, but honestly, look at a can of green beans and compare it to this:


And instead of a can of mushroom soup, a cream sauce that was really delectable: butter, milk, flour, with bacon, garlic, and onion sauteed and mixed in with sharp cheddar. You could make one heck of a soup out of this stuff.


So, add a turkey breast and voila -- Thanksgiving practice #1 gets a grade of B, for too crunchy beans and, obviously, not having any of Dad's spiced apples!



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