Sides

Cheddar-Jalepeño Cornbread

 Ingredients:

3 ¾ c. AP Flour

2 ¼ c. Quaker Enriched Corn Meal

¾ c. Sugar

1 T. Baking Powder

1 ½ t. Salt

3 c. Skim Milk

¾ c. Vegetable Oil

3 Eggs, beaten

½ Lb. Cheddar Cheese

Jalapeno

¼ Lb. Bacon

Preparation:

Heat oven to 400°. Combine dry ingredients.

Stir in milk, oil and eggs, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Medium-dice the bacon, and render out the fat. Remove the bacon from the pan, and add the diced jalepeño to the bacon fat to sear slightly. Remove.

Mix the bacon and jalepeño into the Cornbread batter and add some of the shredded cheddar.

Pour batter into cast-iron skillet or prepared pan.

Bake 20-25 minutes until light brown.

 ***

Sweet Potato Cornbread

 Ingredients:

6 small sweet potatoes
8 eggs
3 cups buttermilk
1 cup honey
4 cups yellow cornmeal
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter

Preparation:

Set oven to 375 and roast sweet potatoes for about an hour, or until soft.
Remove potatoes and mash. We used a fork and tried to keep some texture to the mix. (Doing so creates pockets of molten sweet potato in the finished product.)
Add mash, eggs, buttermilk, and honey to a large bowl and whisk.
Mix cornmeal, flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together in a separate bowl.
Add butter and mix until most lumps are gone. (Again, we used a fork, but a food processor would have been a welcome addition to the process at this stage.)
Combine the contents of the two bowls, bringing the dry cormeal mixture together with the sweet potato mixture. Stir
Pour into baking tray. For this quantity, we used two 9 by 13 pyrex dishes.
Put into oven, which should still be on 375, for 40-45 minutes. 

 ***

Butternut Squash Soup with Sautéed Brussels Sprouts and Baconbits
Serves 6-8
 

Ingredients:
4 Lbs. Butternut Squash
4 cups water (reserve water after the squash has cooked)
2 tsp. olive oil for vegetables
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
2 slices bacon, finely minced
¼ Lb. Brussels Sprouts, quartered
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp. finely chopped sage

Preparation:

Place squash on a lined baking sheet. Place in 350° oven and bake until just tender (about 20 minutes).

While you’re waiting for the squash, prepare sautéed onions, Brussels sprouts, and bacon bits. In one medium saucepan, sauté half of a medium onion until translucent. In another saucepan, sauté other half of onion until translucent, and add Brussels sprouts, sauté until tender. In a small saucepan, sauté finely minced bacon until crisp.

When squash is ready, remove from oven and scoop the pulp from the flesh. Place squash with sautéed onions, and season with salt, pepper, and some nutmeg. In a blender, or food processor, blend together squash, onions, seasonings, add some heavy cream for thicker consistency; for a thinner consistency, use chicken stock.

To finish, place soup in bowls, and garnish with Brussels sprouts and bacon bits.

 ***

Dessert

Rozanne Gold's Leftover-Cranberry Sauce-Sorbet via GG
Serves 8

After Thanksgiving, if you have a block or two of leftover jellied cranberry sauce, as I often do, then you will enjoy this creative way to use it. Garnish with raspberries or pomegranate seeds. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can prepare this as a granita by freezing the mixture and stirring it with a fork until slushy.

Ingredients:
3 Lemons (large), zest and juice
2 Oranges (large), zest and juice

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
16 ounces jellied cranberry sauce

Preparation
Combine the lemon zest, 1/2 cup lemon juice, orange zest, and 1/2 cup orange juice in a medium saucepan. Add the sugar, vanilla, and 2-1/2 cups water; bring to a boil. Spoon the cranberry sauce, in large pieces, into the saucepan. Bring to a boil and whisk until melted and smooth. Cool, then chill well. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

         This recipe is adapted from Radically Simple (Rodale) copyright Rozanne Gold 2010, www.rozannegold.com

Drinks via Martha Stewart 

Cranberry Simple Syrup
Makes 1 ½ c.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ C. Fresh or frozen cranberries

1 C. Sugar

1 C. Water

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, bring cranberries, sugar, and water to a simmer over medium. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until cranberries are tender but haven't burst, 10 minutes. Let cool, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard cranberries.

Cranberry Cocktails

Ingredients:

For a vodka cocktail, stir together cranberry simple syrup, vodka, and seltzer. Add ice and garnish with lemon.

Preparation:

For a wine cocktail, add cranberry simple syrup to wine

Warm Cider and Rum Punch

Ingredients:

8 cups apple cider
1 apple, thinly sliced crosswise
1 orange, thinly sliced crosswise
2 cinnamon sticks
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups dark rum

Preparation:

In a large pot, combine apple cider, apple slices, orange slices, cinnamon sticks, and ginger. Bring to a boil over high; reduce to a simmer and cook 5 minutes. (Keep warm over low, up to 2 hours.) Remove from heat and stir in rum. Transfer to a punch bowl; serve warm