With the holidays so close, we thought what better theme to have for today’s What’s for Dinner installment than sharing some of our SLOCA family’s favorites. We are so excited to have Hilary Graves, a member of our Board of Directors and a fourth generation farmer, join us today with some of her favorite recipes.
Hilary, and her husband, Simon, hosted a Dinner Party with a Purpose event on their farm a couple of years ago and if you were there or read about it, you are probably excited to try her recipes.
Let’s jump right in!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday to cook for! Fourth of July is a close second. Here are some of my tried and true standby recipes. The great thing about them is that most of them can be made ahead of time. I am a pretty casual cook so some of these are not really recipes, just guidelines and estimates. I do have two ovens, which I find is essential for Thanksgiving. That way, you can have the turkey in one oven and heat up the rest of the dishes that you have prepared ahead of time in the other oven. This year, I am going to attempt smoking my turkey in my Traeger. My mom is the most amazing baker, and she always brings one pumpkin and one pecan pie. Pecan is my favorite by far. My mom also usually brings corn pudding as a side dish for dinner.
Schedule:
A few days ahead
- Make the Cranberry sauce (I always make this first! It signals to me that it’s time to get into a festive mood.)
- Make the mashed potatoes
The day before Thanksgiving
- Make the sweet potato casserole (don’t put the topping on until just before you are going to put it in the oven)
- Make the cornbread dressing
Thanksgiving Day
- Get the turkey going
- Make green beans
- Bake the sweet potato casserole, cornbread dressing, and mashed potatoes
- Make gravy
Recipes:
Cranberry Sauce
- 1.5 c sugar
- 2 cups water
- 1 pound fresh cranberries
- 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
Bring to a simmer and stir every once in a while. Berries will start to pop. I like some whole and some broken berries so I take it off the stove when it looks like the right combo to me.
Mashed Potatoes
- About 10 medium to large russet potatoes
- one 8 oz block of cream cheese
- one stick of butter
- a few big spoon fulls of sour cream
- salt and pepper
Peel and cut the potatoes into fourths. Boil until they are soft enough to mash. Drain and put in a big bowl. I like to use a potato masher to break them up by hand. Let as much steam escape as possible. While they are still very hot add as much cream cheese, butter, sour cream as you think looks good to make them creamy and tasty (I like the whole stick of butter for sure, maybe more, at least half the cream cheese, and a generous amount of sour cream, maybe a cup?), still just using the potato masher to mix it in. Don’t overwork it or they will get gummy (that’s also why I don’t use a mixer). When it’s all mixed up put it in a covered casserole dish, let it cool and put in the fridge until you are ready to bake them. I usually take them out of the fridge a couple of hours before I’m going to put them in the oven. I bake them at 350-375 for an hour or two, as long as it takes to get them hot in the middle.
Sweet Potato Casserole
Perhaps my all time favorite cookbook is the Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. This is the best sweet potato casserole ever. Also really good with ham, so I make it every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I make the casserole ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until I’m ready to bake it. Put the topping on just before you put it in the oven or it gets soggy and doesn’t have the required crunch factor.
Cornbread Dressing
- One batch of cornbread (not Yankee cornbread, which means no sugar. That’s sacrilege. I use Miss Edna’s recipe from the Gift of Southern Cooking)
- A package or so of good quality dinner rolls cut into chunks and left out overnight to get a little stale
- two onions
- couple packages mushrooms
- lots of Italian parsley
- salt and pepper
- dried sage
- chicken broth
In a big saucepan melt a stick of butter, add chopped onions and mushrooms and cook until soft and saucy. Set aside. Break up your cornbread and mix it in with the dinner roll chunks. Add the cooked onions and mushrooms to this and mix it up. Add parsley, salt, pepper, sage to taste. Mix it all up and then slowly add enough chicken broth so that the bread sticks together but isn’t saturated. This is something I do by feel. Transfer to a casserole dish with a cover and add more chicken broth until it feels right. You want the final product to be sort of a savory bread pudding consistency with crispy edges. I keep this in the fridge until a couple of hours before I’m going to bake it. Bake at 350-375 for an hour or two, or however long it takes for the edges to be crispy and the middle to be hot. Timing will depend on what kind of casserole dish you put it in. I like a 13×9 or similar because I like as much crispy edges as possible.
Mmmm…it all sounds so delicious! Thank you so much, Hilary, for these amazing recipes! Well, friends, only a few things thing left to do…time to head to the market, gather the whole family, put on stretchy pants and enjoy! 🙂
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