Thanksgiving favorites

I hate winter with a passion.  But I do enjoy cooking and baking, so I guess it balances out.  There are all sorts of recipes floating around Twitter right now for Thanksgiving, so I figured I'd put some of my favorite dishes here & share.  


This Colcannon recipe is amazing.  I add 8 pieces of bacon instead of 4, and add fresh garlic when cooking the cabbage & onions, but everything else stays the same. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dianes-colcannon/detail.aspx

Once upon a time I heard that pumpkin pies made with fresh pumpkin tasted better.  So I searched allrecipes and found this amazing pie recipe that I've used for six years now.  I will never go back to canned pumpkin after this.  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fresh-pumpkin-pie/detail.aspx

The next two recipes come from A Kitchen Witch's Cookbook by Patricia Talesco and are fabulous.


Corn Bread with Honey (Journey cake)


1.5 cups cornmeal
.5 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
.5 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey
Dash of cinnamon (optional)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, & salt in a mixing bowl.  In another bowl beat buttermilk, oil, and eggs.  Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients ; mix thoroughly.  Pour batter into a greased baking dish.  Bake for 25 minutes.  While cornbread bakes, blend the butter, honey, and cinnamon.  Baste the top of the bread with the butter mixture during the last 5 minutes of baking.  Serve hot or cold.



Zucchini-Cranberry Bread


2 medium zucchini, shredded
2.5 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
4 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons grated orange peel (sub lemon if you're out of orange)
3 cups whole wheat flour
.5 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cranberries, chopped (dried cranberries are much easier)
.5 cup chopped nuts
.5 cup raisins (Optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease the bottom of a loaf pan.  Beat the zucchini, sugar, oil, milk, eggs, vanilla, and orange peel in a large bowl using an electric mixer.  Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt in a small bowl.  Add the dry ingredients to the liquid.  Fold in the cranberries, nuts, and raisins.  Pour into the loaf pan.  Bake until it's done in the middle (use the toothpick trick) about 60 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.


We always have our Thanksgiving meal in the evening & for lunch I do meat & cheese & fruit trays.  The kids get a kick out of them because they get to "pick their own food."  We're doing a brine for the turkey this year, so I'm hoping it turns out well.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!