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!

KFC Biscuits

Did you know that KFC posted their recipe to their biscuits right on their website?!?  I was so excited to find this yesterday that I tried to make them.  KFC's biscuits are my favorite, and there have been many times that I've considered buying them just to make biscuits and gravy with.  SO...I tried them.  They definitely don't look like KFC's!  haha.  I think I just need more practice.  I also think I patted the dough a little thin so I could get more biscuits out of it.  So definitely double the recipe so you don't have to worry about this.  Even with my biscuits being flat, they still tasted amazing!  I can't wait to try these again, I'll post another picture when they turn out right.  Here's the recipe:


INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 425ºF. Sift together flour, salt, sugar and baking powder into mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour mix and add the milk. Add shortening and begin kneading with hands (to cut in) the vegetable shortening and flour in the milk until thoroughly mixed. Add milk, if needed to form, and mix. Turn onto floured board, and knead gently 6 to 8 times. Pat dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut into biscuits. Place on baking sheet and brown in oven 10-13 minutes. Makes about 9 biscuits.

Here the link as well. http://www.kfc.com/tips/ky_biscuits.asp

Perfect Dinner Rolls

I was in a baking mood today!  As you may be able to tell by all my posts today!  It's finally fall here in Arizona, which means I can bake without dying of heat.  I'm so excited to try out new recipes, and put on that winter weight!  haha.  I will be hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year.   Me.  I'm making Thanksgiving dinner all by my lonesome, so I am starting to try out my recipes now.  This is the first one I tried, and I have to say it's a winner! 

By the way, I'm searching for the perfect Thanksgiving recipes, so if you have any please send them my way.  I'm looking for delicious sweet potato, green bean casserole and stuffing recipes.

Yield:  36 rolls

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups warm milk

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons salt

7 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

	Pour milk into a large mixing bowl, and sprinkle yeast over the surface. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. Beat in the sugar, eggs, 1/2 cup butter, and salt; blend thoroughly. Gradually stir in the flour to make a soft dough. Cover bowl, and set in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.
	Punch down the dough, cover the bowl, and allow to rise again. Repeat this step two more times.
	Break off 2 to 3 inch size pieces of dough, roll lightly into round shape, and place in prepared baking dish, edges touching. Repeat to make 36 dough balls. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.
	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
	Bake rolls in preheated oven until tops turn golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. When rolls are finished baking, drizzle melted butter over the top, and serve warm.

This is a time consuming one, but it's worth it!!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Yield:  about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup white sugar for decoration

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, then stir in vanilla. Gradually blend in the sifted ingredients. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in remaining sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Criss-cross with fork tines.
Bake at for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool slightly, and remove from pan.


I baked my cookies for only 8 minutes. 10 just seemed like too long and I like my cookies chewy! And I was right! 8 minutes was the perfect amount of time.