Holiday Feast

Salads

FROZEN CRANBERRY PINEAPPLE SALAD
Printed from COOKS.COM
2 c. fresh cranberries, ground
1 c. sugar
1 (16 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/2 c. miniature marshmallows or more
1 c. whipping cream, whipped
Combine cranberries, sugar and pineapple. Let stand 30 minutes until sugar dissolves, stir marshmallows into cranberry mixture, fold in whipped cream.
Spoon into large round ring pan, cover and freeze at least 8 hours. Remove from pan and slice. 12 servings.

Spinach Salad With Candied Walnuts
Poppy-Seed Dressing and Candied Walnuts — The Domestic Art website - Patricia Schocker Wright

This is one of my favourite salads to serve at a dinner party. It's not only yummy but adds a burst of colour to the menu. Because the dressing is zippy I like to serve the salad with a simple pasta and chicken so that the flavours aren't competing with one another. I always hope there's some leftovers for me to enjoy later the next day but it's such a hit there's never even so much as a nibble of anything left! This recipe serves 8.

Ingredients

Salad:

* 2 good size bundles of fresh spinach
* 1 pound of grated Swiss cheese
* bag of dried cranberries
* candied walnuts
* poppy-seed dressing

Poppy-Seed Dressing:

* 1 1/4 tablespoons poppy seeds
* 3/4 cup of vinegar
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
* 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
* 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

Candied Walnuts:

* 6 tablespoons of light corn syrup
* 3 tablespoons of sugar
* 1 teaspoon of salt
* 2 1/2 cups of walnuts

Directions
Spinach Salad: I make each person's salad individually rather than mix it all together. It's one of those salads that you want to have a certain amount of each ingredient for it to be yummy. I serve the dressing on the side in a small jug. Put spinach on the plate, sprinkle grated cheese, then the dried cranberries, and finally the candied walnuts.

Poppy-Seed Dressing: Mix everything together in the blender and serve. Dressing lasts up to 3 weeks in the fridge but I never have any left over!

Candied Walnuts: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine corn syrup, sugar, and salt. Add nuts and toss well to coat. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet that has been coated with cooking spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 5 minutes - just make sure they don't burn. Immediately scoop nuts onto a sheet of foil. Spread nuts apart to cool thoroughly.

MAPLE CANDIED YAMS
Printed from COOKS.COM
1/2 stick butter
4 or 5 large fresh yams or sweet potatoes
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon OR 1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp. freshly grated ginger root
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 to 2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows (optional)
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Peel yams or sweet potatoes (either may be used). Cut into 1 inch cubes or wedges.
Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish generously.
Arrange yams in baking dish.
In a saucepan, melt butter, and stir sugar until dissolved over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup water and spices.
Bring to a boil, add maple syrup; reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes. Pour butter mixture over the yams, turning them over to coat well. Cover the yams tightly with aluminum foil and bake on center rack in oven, basting the potatoes with the butter syrup once or twice during the baking for about 45 minutes or until fork tender.
Cooks Note: If adding mini-marshmallows, spread them evenly over the top of the potatoes at this time, and broil for 5-10 minutes or until lightly browned, otherwise proceed with next step.
When the potatoes are done, remove foil. Bake on the upper third of the oven at 475°F until the syrup has thickened and the potatoes are just beginning to caramelize (about 20 minutes - but watch carefully and do not allow them to burn; if they are browning too quickly reduce oven temperature).
Baste with additional butter before serving.
Variation: Use honey or Karo syrup instead of the maple syrup; add 1/4 cup frozen orange concentrate. Omit cinnamon; use vanilla.

Baking a Turkey with Stuffing

Level:Easy

Serves: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

1 turkey, with giblets removed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus extra for rubbing on turkey
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning turkey
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning turkey

Directions

*Cook's Note: The bag is optional. Once the stuffing is made, you can place the stuffing into the bag and then place the bag into the cavity of the turkey.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the turkey into a deep, high-sided bowl on its end with the stuffing end up. Set aside.

Prepare stuffing by mixing all ingredients together as directed in the recipe. Place in a heat-proof, microwavable bowl. Heat the stuffing in a microwave on high power for 6 minutes.

While the stuffing is heating, rub the bird with oil. Working quickly, place the stuffing into the cavity of the turkey to avoid losing heat. Place the turkey into a roasting pan, on a rack, and season with salt and pepper. Place the roasting pan on the middle rack of the oven. Roast for 45 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and cook for another 60 to 75 minutes (for a 10-12 lb bird) or until the bird reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees F (larger birds will take longer, plan accordingly). Remove stuffing from bird immediately and serve.

Printed from FoodNetwork.com on Sun Nov 14 2010

Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe

If you don’t mind garlic breath then you will love garlic mashed potatoes :) …no, this is not the best way to start this garlic mashed potatoes recipe. Lets start this way. Adding garlic to mashed potatoes is great, it makes them tastier, gives them a special twist and it’s pretty easy to do. So if you are after something a little bit different when it comes to mashed potatoes – try garlic mashed potatoes.

For Garlic Mashed Potatoes Recipe we will need:

3 pounds russet or yukon gold potatoes (why these two?)
1 whole bulb garlic
1/2 cup half and half (half milk half cream)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

First turn on your oven and set it to 350 degrees F (180C), we will need it later for baking garlic.Making garlic mashed potatoes is no different than making any other mashed potatoes.

First you need to peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. Don’t make the pieces to small. Small pieces will absorb more water and make your mashed potatoes watery. True, smaller pieces will cook faster but we don’t want to sacrifice speed for taste, right?

Now put the cut potatoes into a pot and cover them with cold water (cold, not warm!). Water must cover all the potatoes by a good inch. Add salt and put the pot on high heat until the bater boils. Then turn the heat down a bit and let the potatoes simmer until they are done.

While the potatoes are boiling and simmering we will take the garlic bulb and cut the top of the whole garlic head. Oh, the garlic is still un-peeled, you don’t need to peel it. Wrap the garlic in aluminum foiland put it into the oven.

How long does it take for garlic to bake? About the same time that it takes the potatoes to cook so you can do this simultaneously. Garlic is baked when is soft and as I said it will take about 20 minutes.

When the garlic is done let it cool down a bit. A little later you will squeeze the garlic out of it’s cloves with a fork and add it to the drained potatoes.

How do we know potatoes are done? We pierce them with a fork and if they are cooked they will be soft and tender. It usually takes potatoes 20-30 minutes to cook.

Now we want to get rid of the water. Drain the potatoes and put them back on low heat so even more water evaporates. Leave them for a minute or two, just make sure you don’t burn them.

In the meantime mix milk, cream and butter and heat them so the butter melts (but not to boil). Don’t mix your hot potatoes with cold milk or cream – this can make potatoes gluey.

Now it’s time to add the garlic. Add milk, cream, and butter mix and mash the potatoes with wire masher or potato ricer. Enjoy!

Traditional Bread Stuffing or Dressing

Fresh bread is like a sponge, able to absorb many times its own weight in liquid, until it practically disintegrates. That’s why you must always toast bread thoroughly for stuffing. If not, the stuffing will lack texture and the amount of liquid in the recipe will never be adequate to moisten all of the ingredients. Use to stuff two medium chickens or one medium turkey.

1 tbsp. Butter

1 cup Minced Onion

2 stalks Celery, sliced

1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled and diced

1 tbsp. chopped fresh Parsley

1 tsp. dried Sage leaves, crumbled

½ tsp. dried Thyme leaves

½ tsp. dried Rosemary leaves, crumbled

Pinch of freshly grated Nutmeg

4 cups toasted bread cubes, croutons, or stuffing mix

Chopped cooked giblets from a turkey or chicken(optional)

4 cups chicken broth

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and celery and sauté until tender, but not brown, about 4 minutes. Add apple, parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, and nutmeg and sauté for one minute.
Add bread cubes, giblets, if using, and 1 cup chicken broth and mix to moisten. If too dry, add remaining ½ cup broth. Season liberally with salt & pepper and cook, stirring, until heated through. Let cool before stuffing into bird, or bake in a casserole dish and serve hot

Makes about 8 servings

Variations: Cornbread sausage stuffing: substitute an equal amount of toasted cornbread cubes for the bread and chopped fennel instead of celery. Crumble in cooked sausage

Apple Sage Stuffing: Follow preceding recipe deleting the rosemary, doubling the sage and apple, and using ½ cup apple cider in place of ½ cup chicken broth