Sweet Potato Pudding

Enjoying a moment away from the holiday cooking frenzy with Bruno, the CatBaby.

Sweet Potato Pudding

This is a recipe for people who love sweet potato or pumpkin pie but would like to feel a little better about indulging.   I test-drove this on two picky family members who won't settle for some holier-than-thou bran-flake-and-cedar-shavings substitute.   These are people who don't give two whoops if it's good for you or not if it tastes bad.  (Nothing wrong with that -- food that's good for you shouldn't taste bad.)

And away we go.

Equipment you will need:

• 9" x 13" glass baking dish
• electric hand mixer

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash
• 2 good-sized sweet potatoes
• 4 eggs or 1/2 of a 16-oz. carton of egg substitute
• 3/4 c. milk or fat free half and half
• 3/4 c. honey
• 1/4 c. molasses (light or dark -- we like the dark)
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1 tsp each ginger, cloves, nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. salt or salt substitute (or leave it out -- up to you)

Cook squash and sweet potatoes in regular oven (350F for about 70 minutes) or microwave until tender.  Let cool.  Scoop into a large mixing bowl, cut into small chunks and add eggs, milk, honey, molasses, spices and salt.  Beat with hand mixer until pureed.  Pour into greased baking dish and bake at 325F for about an hour -- can be put in the last hour the turkey's baking.

Makes about a dozen servings.  Serve as dessert, warm with whipped cream or topping or vanilla ice cream, or as a side dish to your dinner.   No crust, not much fat (depending on your egg mixture and milk choice) and lots of fiber, vitamin A and a little iron, too.

Dirty Aul' Mashed Potatoes

Black Irish Friday, a new Thanksgiving tradition

Himself carves the bird.

One of the best things about this Thanksgiving was that the next day, instead of rushing to the malls, etc., we spent it together instituting a new tradition, Black Irish Friday.  (If you don't know what "Black Irish" is, here's the general idea.)  This pretty much means that we had a laid-back Thanksgiving-style dinner with just whomever happened to be at the house.  This year it included our neighbor, who's a Cleveland police officer, our daughter Arah and her boyfriend Sam, and of course, us.    It was a lot of fun and we plan to do it next year if I don't do the big Bredenbeck Family Thanksgiving, which is gonna be another blog post in itself.

And of course, it wouldn't be a laid-back meal without fuss-free food, and it doesn't get much more fuss-free than Dirty Aul' Mashed Potatoes.

Equipment you will need:

Steel stock pot, 5-quart or 8-quart
Good cutting knife
Hand mixer
Spatula

Ingredients:

5 lbs. russet, redskin, Yukon Gold or any other white potatoes
2 T powdered chicken or vegetable bouillon (we like Wyler's, Vegeta or Jamison's Soup Base)
1 2-oz. container dehydrated onions
1 T McCormick's Vegetable seasoning blend
12 oz. light or regular sour cream
1/2 c. real or fake bacon bits (optional)

Cut up the potatoes any old way you like, with the skins on (gasp!  yes, it's true!), put into the stock pot with about 4" of water in the bottom, add bouillon or soup base and dehydrated onions and simmer, covered, until potatoes are tender.  Using hand mixer, mash and then beat the potatoes.  If it looks like there will be too much liquid,  drain a little off; you can use it for gravy now or soup later.  When the potatoes are fairly well mauled, throw in the sour cream, the McCormick's and, if you like, bacon bits. Turn mixer to high speed, scraping sides of bowl.  At some point, you will have to stop and remove potato peels from the mixer blades, but hey -- you didn't have to peel potatoes, did you?   When everything is nicely blended, return to stove top and continue to beat over low heat for about 2 minutes until potatoes are very hot; serve.

Makes plenty for 6 hungry people and a ton of leftovers.   If you want to get all fancy and make potato pancakes with the leftovers next day, we won't stop ya.

Note:  Once the potatoes are whipped, do NOT set this back over a lighted burner unless you are beating it with the mixer.  At best you will scorch the bottom, at worst -- well, you know that cake they made on "The Little Rascals"?  Yeah.  BOO-WOW, baby, all over the stove and, if the Kitchen Gods are really up for some fun, the stove hood and even the ceiling.   If you're not serving it immediately, keep it on the stove center, which should still be hot from the turkey or whatever beast you're roasting.  (You could put it in a large Pyrex or glass serving bowl and zap it in the microwave at the last minute, too, but remember, there is air beaten into the mixture, so cover it with Saran wrap to avoid the Boo-WOW Factor.)

The MFing Cranberry Sauce, I Kid You Not

My God; it's full of stars....

Every year, I get asked to bring cranberry sauce to my sister-in-law's home for Thanksgiving.

Over a few years of making it, I developed what is probably more a technique than a recipe.  It generally includes a lot of cursing and swearing, since a.) I do not like cranberry sauce b.) I do not like the "Growing Up Walton"-style production pressure invoked by most major holidays and c.) I especially do not like peeling and chopping apples, which this recipe involves.  You Have Been Warned.  

It became known as the MFing Cranberry Sauce because, well, that is what it usually ends up getting called, at least once or twice, some years more than others.  This ingredient is quite optional and I assure you its omission will not affect the quality of the end product, though if you're like me, you might not have as much fun making it. 

OK, let's get started.   You will need:

4 poly bags of cranberries

2 12-oz. cans frozen apple juice concentrate

2 c. water

1 quart orange juice

5 cups cane sugar (or more, to taste)

1 15-oz box golden raisins

6 small or 5 large Macintosh or Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped

2 large navel oranges 

Equipment:  Huge enamel pot, wooden spoon vegetable peeler, tiny cookie or canape cutter in star shape

You presumably have the first hard part out of the way in having the apples peeled, cored and chopped.  Let's get the next PIA out of the way by dealing with the oranges.  Remove the peel in the largest intact pieces you can take off, or halve the oranges and scoop them out. Remove membrane and chop orange pieces.  Use a tiny-tiny cookie cutter, as for canapes, and cut small star shapes out of orange peel (or you can do this freehand with a scissors if you're good at it).   Set aside. 

Put cranberries, water and orange juice in large (8-quart) enamel or stainless pot with lid.  Cover, set burner to low and bring to a simmer -- you will hear the cranberries popping, which is why you keep the lid on.  If you don't have sense enough to keep the lid on, you will next year. 

When most of the berries have popped and are starting to look mushy, add sugar and apple juice, stir in and dissolve. Add apples and oranges.    Simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently.   The mixture should thicken up a bit (this is because the fruit pectin is doing its thing, the same as when you make jelly).  Add raisins and orange peel stars, cook another 10 minutes, until "stars" are translucent, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and pour into a large glass serving bowl.   Pick out a few of the stars and arrange on top.  This keeps pretty well for a few weeks in the fridge, so you can apply liberally to T-day leftovers.   You can also freeze a bunch and trot it out again at Christmas.