Thanksgiving

This is my family's traditional holiday dinner (typically for Thanksgiving & Christmas), with some updates for my allergies, stuff my wife likes, and cooking for not-a-crowd. Note: I substitute fake butter anywhere a recipe says "butter", and it works perfectly - the leftovers even keep better, especially for mashed potatoes & stuffing. Also, according to my dad, real butter is getting worse & fake butter tastes better than comparably priced real butter now (this was not the case 5 years ago).

Dishes

  1. Crockpot turkey breast
  2. Gravy
  3. Stuffing
  4. Mashed potatoes
  5. Green bean casserole
  6. Sweet potato casserole
  7. Cranberry sauce
  8. Crescent rolls
  9. Vegetables
  10. Applesauce
  11. Pie

Recipes/tips

Crockpot turkey breast

This recipe is based on my mother-in-law's, but jazzed up a bit. The idea is to be dead-easy, free up the oven for the casseroles, and let me forget about the turkey all day instead of babysitting it.

Ingredients
Directions

Gravy

Homemade gravy is so much better than store bought and it's actually not too hard! You should make this right before eating, but it actually keeps quite well for leftovers.

Ingredients
Directions

Stuffing

I use the pepperidge farm stuffing recipe. It works with any boxed stuffing; I just get what's available.

Mashed potatoes

I prefer simple, no-frills mashed potatoes. I use a mashed potato recipe I found online. I sub the heavy cream with a vegan heavy cream (country crock or trader joe's - they're the same)

Green bean casserole

I use the campbell's green bean casserole recipe. I replace the total liquid volume (condensed soup + milk) with an equivalent volume of a vegan mushroom or celery soup, whatever I can find.

Sweet potato casserole

This is my mom's recipe. It is the best sweet potato casserole recipe ever. You can prep it a couple days in advance & just pop it in the oven the day of.

The liquid should add up to about a cup, and I use half oj / half spiced rum. It tastes good with only orange juice, but not with only rum.

The ingredients without amounts are to taste / how you like it.

I make a half batch, and it fits perfectly in my large rectangular pyrex with room for marshmallows.

Recipe

Cranberry sauce

This is my mom's recipe. I really expanded the directions because once I figured out what I was doing, I didn't want to forget the things I did to make it work. I also had to adjust it for shrinkflation - the original recipe was for 16 oz of cranberries and a standard bag is now 12 oz.

Compared to canned cranberry sauce, this is sweeter, just as smooth, and has a much brighter color.

If you are doubling the batch, you will have to cook the cranberries (step 2) longer - I had to decrease the cooking time compared to the original recipe. For reference, the original recipe with 16 oz of cranberries was 20 minutes instead of 15.

If it doesn't gel properly, it's still really yummy & is really good in holiday cocktails & mocktails!

Ingredients
Directions
  1. Boil the water in a medium saucepan
  2. Add the cranberries, turn the heat to low, and cover. Let them cook for 15 minutes. Every time the cranberries bubble to the top of the saucepan, remove the lid, stir the cranberries, and replce the lid. (Notes for this step: This is how you cook the cranberries for long enough without burning them or losing too much liquid. The cranberries should pop pretty quickly - it sounds kind of like popcorn. Once the cranberries pop, the pulp will mix into the water.)
  3. Use a mesh strainer to strain the cranberry skins/seeds (whata you discard) from the pulp (what you keep). Do this just a little at a time, discarding the skins as you go to keep the strainer from clogging. Use a spoon to push the mixture through the strainer since it should be quite viscous.
  4. Return the strained puplp to the saucepan & add the sugar.
  5. Bring the mixture up to a boil. It will be a pretty gentle boil because of how thick it is.
  6. Pour the sauce into the container you want to serve / store it in.
  7. Let it cool to room temperature. The sauce should already be starting to gel.
  8. Cover the sauce & place it in the fridge to finish gelling. Overnight works best.

Crescent rolls

Remember to note the cooking temp/time before opening the package because it is annoyingly hard to find that information on the internet. They generally cook at the same temperature as the casseroles, so you can stick them in at the same time if there's room.

Vegetables

I include 2-3 vegetables that are easy to prepare. As an adult, I ended up actively wanting something green on my plate to contrast all the casseroles.

Applesauce

My wife really likes applesauce so we serve it. It ends being similar to the vegetables in that it provides a nice contrast to all of the casseroles. I'll forget to make sure we have some if I don't list it.

Pie

I have really cut back on pie baking because I was making way too much pie for a house with just 2 people. I'll typically make 2 of the following now.