My Thanksgiving Dinner

I was brave this year and hosted Thanksgiving all on my own.  Unfortunately I was so busy I forgot to snap pictures of all the food!  Just know that it all looked amazing!  I posted some of the recipes I made below.  I also made the previously posted Perfect Dinner Rolls, Perfect Pumpkin Pie, and Ridiculously Easy Banana Cream Pie. I cooked my turkey in a turkey bag (no real recipe there, but it turned out so juicy!), and my mom made the stuffing and gravy.  For the mashed potatoes, I used the Pioneer Womans recipe...soooo good.  I always make my potatoes this way...always. Enjoy the recipes posted below!  You will want to make them for the rest of the holidays!

Apple Cake

This is one of the desserts I made for thanksgiving.  I found it by searching through Paula Dean's recipes.  I love her and her love of butter.  This was delicious and the first dessert to dissapear!  I also make Pumpkin Pie, and Banana Cream Pie.  Both are found in the dessert section of this blog.

Ingredients:

Cake:
Butter, for greasing pan
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups peeled and finely chopped apples

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease a tube pan.
For the cake: in a large bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, oil, orange juice, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract; and mix well. Fold apples, coconut, and pecans into batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a tester comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours.
Shortly before the cake is done, make the sauce: Melt the butter in a large saucepan, stir in the sugar, buttermilk, and baking soda, and bring to a good rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Pour the sauce over the hot cake in the pan as soon as you remove it from the oven. Let stand 1 hour, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Servings: 16 to 20 servings
Prep Time:
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 min

Not your traditional Green Bean Casserole

....but it's from now on my tradition!  This was the first thing to be gobbled up at my thanksgiving, and I had NO leftovers! 

Ingredients

• 1 (10 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup (I hate mushroom)
• 3 ounces processed cheese (i.e. Velveeta®), cubed
• 1 tablespoon real bacon bits
• 2 (15 ounce) cans cut green beans, drained
• 1 (2.8 ounce) can French-fried onions

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Heat the undiluted cream of chicken soup in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the processed cheese and bacon, and continue stirring until completely melted. Remove from the heat, then stir in the green beans until evenly coated. Pour the mixture into a casserole dish, and top with the fried onions, leaving a 1 inch margin around the sides.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until heated through and bubbly. Check near the end of cooking to make sure the onions aren't getting too brown.

Sweet Potatoes

These sweet potatoes were holy moly, oh so delicous!  They were so sweet and scrumptious, I feel like I should have served them with the desserts!

Ingredients

• 2 (15 ounce) cans sweet potatoes
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place sweet potatoes in a 10x6 inch shallow baking dish and pour orange juice over.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt; mix together and cut in margarine. Sprinkle over sweet potatoes.
4. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle with marshmallows and broil until browned.

 --Also I totally spaced on the orange juice.  I bet it really adds to the flavor!