This is the third in a series of blogs.
1. How To Cook A Turkey Dinner – includes Turkey Roasting Tips and Recipe for Sausage Stuffing.
2. Ideas For a Turkey Dinner Menu – includes salad recipes: Cold Beets, Spinach Souffle Salad, and Cabbage Salad with Yellow Peppers and Peas.
3. More Recipes For A Turkey Dinner Main Course – Includes recipes for Maple Baked Sweet Potatoes, Whipped Red Skinned Potatoes, and Tart Cranberry Sauce with Orange.
4. How to Make the Best Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie and Carrot Cake
Mashed Potatoes, Maple Sweet Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce, and White Grape Juice Fizz… yum
As you can see from the photograph above, the turkey is being carved, and everyone is waiting patiently to fill their plates with mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey and stuffing, and all the trimmings. As the one who cooked, you take a breath and look at all the dishes on the table; everything is ready! You relax just a little.
Guests dig in, and for a few moments, all is silent. It is this little pause as people are eating that you can relax and know that you did it. They are eating, and they like it!
Before I go on, if you read the previous blog, you will note that I forgot to put the Cabbage Salad on the table. I sat there, looking, and thought to myself, ‘what is missing’? It was only when someone asked for more White Grape Fizz that I went to the fridge to get it and noticed the salad sitting there as if to say, “What about me”? To be easy on me here, the fridge was full to bursting; getting everything in there before and during preparations was a real magic trick. The pumpkin pie had to be perched on top of the cabbage salad to have room 🙂
I had forgotten my most helpful tip… Make a list and check it off as you set the table!
Making a list can save you in the middle of all that flurry to get the food on the table. Have it in the corner of the kitchen and check it off as everything comes to the table.
Want to know how to make the very best mashed potatoes? Well, here is the recipe. I usually peel potatoes if they are not the new potatoes and set them in cold water on the stovetop earlier in the day when the turkey is roasting. I used red-skinned potatoes for this meal for two reasons; they were terrific new potatoes from the Farmer’s Market, and cooking and mashing them with the peels added just a little more nutrition. About 45 minutes to an hour before dinner is served, turn the heat on. Bring the potatoes to a boil, and turn the heat down to simmer until the potatoes test soft with a knife.
Now, ‘dinna-fash-yersel’ here lass, some folks say, “ya ne’r should poke the potatoes with a knife,” only a fork will do. But I like a little paring knife; we all have our ways. And everyone’s way is a good one!
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Whipped Red-Skinned Potatoes
Enough Red Skinned Potatoes to fill your stockpot. 5 lbs. for ten people or about 12 medium-sized potatoes. One for each person, 2 for the pot 🙂 Cut out any dark spots.
Cover with cold water. Start to cook them for 45 minutes to one hour before you are ready to serve. Bring to a boil, cover the pot, then turn down and simmer until they test nice and soft. Pour the water off in the sink.
(Here is a tip: to save your plumbing, run the cold water tap as you pour so the plastic pipes won’t overheat)Here is a little trick to delay and hold the potatoes hot (up to 15 minutes) before mashing if you are awaiting a guest or some other delay in the meal. After draining the hot water from the potatoes, add the following ingredients and lower the heat. Cover the pot, and the milk will keep the potatoes warm before mashing them at the last moment.
1. Pour in about 3/4 cup of whole milk,
2. Add about 1/2 cup butter,
3. 1/8th teaspoon of ground nutmeg. (This is the secret, you should not taste it, but once you get used to nutmeg in the potatoes, you will know when it is not there 🙂Whip the potatoes with a hand potato masher or an electric hand mixer until fluffy. Spoon into a serving bowl.
How to make Cranberry Sauce from Scratch…
This is so easy, and once you have made this, you will never buy it in a tin again!
Tart Cranberry Sauce with Orange
- 4 packages of fresh cranberries, about 6 cups.
- 1 orange, juice, and chopped peel
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup icing sugar or granulated sugar. (I used icing sugar to lessen the sweetness)
- 1 cup of cold water
- Stir all together and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Place a fork in clean mason-style jars (so they won’t break) and fill them with the hot cranberry sauce. A handy thing to have is a pouring funnel to keep from losing any sauce. A stainless Steel Canning Funnel will make your life easy for years to come. —Close jars with lids. Let cool and store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
You can add more sugar to your cranberry sauce if you like. This time I made the sauce tarter or less sweet on purpose as many of us are avoiding too much sugar these days. It was delicious, and I think I liked the sweet-sourness of the cranberries; they were pretty refreshing beside the rest of the meal. I always make a lot of cranberry sauce, and my son always says, “Mom, there is never too much of your cranberry sauce!” So now I try always to save some in a mason jar to give him to take home. You can keep cranberry sauce in the fridge for a week or so. It is also an excellent everyday healthy dessert with a bit of yogurt.
Maple Baked Sweet Potatoes
5 Medium Sweet Potatoes baked in the skins. I usually do this a day ahead as the oven is busy with Turkey on a roasting day. You can alternatively boil the sweet potatoes in their skins until soft.
Here is a tip for roasting Sweet Potatoes. Place the washed and dried raw sweet potatoes (skins on) in a casserole dish lined with parchment paper. Cut the ends off or cut a slit in the potatoes so the juices will escape a little. Rub the potatoes with a bit of olive oil with your hands. Bake at 350℉ until soft. The reason for the parchment paper is for easy cleanup. The juices from the baking potatoes sometimes become dark caramelized sugar that is hard to get off the pan. The caramelized sweet potato juice comes easily off the parchment paper and is like a sweet candy taste-treat for kids hanging around in the kitchen.
Peel the baked sweet potatoes and slice them into a buttered casserole dish. An oven-to-table dish is best.
Layer sweet potatoes with 1/8th lb. butter.
Sprinkle with Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
Drizzle sweet potatoes with 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of Maple Syrup.
Place sweet potatoes in the oven after the turkey has been removed and is resting, about a half to one hour before serving to heat through.
Cover if the edges start getting too dark from caramelization. Serve.
White Grape Fizz
- Pour half a glass full of unsweetened white grape juice. You can use red grape juice instead, but if this spills, it does not stain the tablecloth.
- Fill the rest of the glass with sparkling mineral water.
- Add two or three frozen red grapes as a sweet treat instead of ice cubes.
Gluten-Free, You Can Do It -by Trina Astor-Stewart. Contains charts for Trina’s Flour and Bread Mixes. Three Series Of Mixes: Original, Corn, Nightshade, Tapioca, and Rice Free Mixes. Over 300 Recipes.
