Sweet Crepes

At our house, crepes are often the choice for special occasion breakfasts!

-Dinners for a Year and Beyond

3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

In a blender, combine eggs, milk, vanilla, butter, flour, salt, and sugar. Blend on high for 30 seconds.

Butter an 8-inch nonstick pan and heat over medium heat. Pour about 2 tablspoons of batter to form a thin sheet in the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 30 seconds until the edges just begin to brown and pull away from the side of the pan. Using a spatula, flip the crepe over and brown on the other side for about 15 seconds. Remove from the pan and repeat with the remaining batter.

Fill with fruit and whipped cream, roll and dust with powdered sugar.

Yam and Apple Casserole

-Mom Pulsipher

6 medium yams or 2 large cans yams
3 or 4 green apples, cored and sliced or canned, sliced apples
1/2 cup margarine
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 cups water
2 Tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. orange zest

Parboil yams about 20 minutes. Cool, peel, and slice in layers in a buttered casserole dish, alternating yam slices with apple slices. Melt butter in small saucepan. Add cornstarch, sugars and salt and blend well. Add water. Cook and stir until sauce thickens. Add orange juice and zest, then pour sauce over yams and apples. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. If using canned yams and apple, you can warm in the microwave until bubbly. Makes 8 servings.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Tarts

-Thomalee Abraham from Nestle Classic Recipes

2/3 cup (about 15) crushed ginger snaps
2 T. butter, melted
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Garnish:
2 T. sour cream (optional)
2 T. semi-sweet morsels (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Paper line 12 muffin cups. Combine cookie crumbs and butter in a small bowl. Press scant tablespoon onto bottom of each prepared muffin cup. Bake for 5 minutes. Beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until blended. Add eggs; beat well. Pour into muffin cups, filling 3/4 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove tarts from pan; refrigerate. Garnish with sour cream. Place morsels in heavy-duty resealable bag. Microwave on high power for 20 seconds; knead. Microwave at additional 10 second intervals, kneading until smooth. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to drizzle over tarts. Makes 12 tarts.

Thanksgiving Turkey

We used a 16-lb fresh turkey and it was delicious - moist and flavorful!

Brine
-Allrecipes.com

2 gallons water
1-1/2 cups canning salt (sea salt)
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar

In a large bucket or container large enough to hold your turkey (5 gallon bucket), mix together the water, salt, garlic, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Store in a refrigerator, and soak turkey for 2 days (1 was fine) before smoking or roasting.

Good Eats Roast Turkey
-Alton Brown

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, quartered
1/2 onion, quartered
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
6 leaves sage (or 1 tsp. ground)
(I added 1 celery stalk)
Canola oil

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.
(Our 16 lb. took 2 hours)

Cranberry Sauce & Relish

Cranberry Sauce

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
12 oz. fresh cranberries

Wash and pick over cranberries. In a saucepan bring to a boil water and sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst. Take 1/2 mixture and reserve for traditional cranberry sauce. Chill before serving.

Cranberry Relish
-Thomalee Abraham

Take remaining 1/2 sauce and add:
1 small tomato, finely diced
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1-2 Tablespoons snipped cilantro
Minced Jalapeno, if desired

Macaroni Salad

I've always loved macaroni salad - a perfect combination of sweet and tang, crunch of vegetables and the texture of the pasta - yum! When I was pregnant with Paige I had major cravings for the macaroni salad from Ned's subs. If you make this salad and let it sit overnight, there won't be many people who can tell this apart from a good deli salad. Mayo fans beware - this is on the sweet side!

-Adapted from 'Amish macaroni salad' on Allrecipes.com

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1/4 to 1/3 cup minced onion
2 or 3 stalks celery, finely diced
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 cup Miracle Whip
1-1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoons white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Cook macaroni to al dente, 10-12 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water to cool. Mix Miracle Whip, mustard, sugar, vinegar, salt & celery seed. Stir in egg, vegetables, relish and cooled macaroni. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.

Avocado Dip (Not Guacamole)

-Ingrid Hoffman, Food Network

1 avocado (Hass)
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped.
2 scallions, white and light green part only, chopped
1 lime, juiced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the avocado, mayonnaise, cream cheese, jalapeno, scallions, and lime juice into a blender or small food processor. Blend for 1 minute or until you have a smooth paste. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve as a dip for the Sweet Potato Oven Fries.

Pumpkin Bread with Cheesecake Ribbon

-Joy of Baking

Cream Cheese Filling:
8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Pumpkin Bread:
1 cup pecans or walnuts
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated white sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 - 15 ounce can pure pumpkin
1/2 cup water or milk
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter and lightly flour two - 9 by 5 x 3 inch loaf pans. Set aside.

To toast nuts: Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or until brown and fragrant. Cool completely and then chop coarsely. Set aside.

Cream Cheese Filling: In your food processor, process the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and process just until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, processing just until incorporated. Do not over process. Stir in the flour. Set aside.

Pumpkin Bread: In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add the sugar and melted butter and whisk until blended. Whisk or stir in the pumpkin, water, vanilla extract, and nuts.

Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir just until the ingredients are combined. (A few streaks of flour is fine.) Do not over mix as it will make the bread tough.

Divide the batter in half. Take one half and divide it evenly between the two prepared pans. Divide the cream cheese filling in half and place each half of filling on top the two pans of batter, smoothing the tops. Top with the remaining half of batter. Bake the breads for about 50 - 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Place pans on a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing breads from pans.

Can serve warm, cold, or at room temperature. Store leftovers in the refrigerator or else freeze for later use.

Makes 2 loaves.

Easy Baked Beans

-Anna Hampton

3 slices bacon
½ c. chopped onion
1 31 ounce can pork and beans (Van Camps)
¼ c. catsup
2 T. brown sugar
2 t. mustard
1 t. Worcestershire

1. In a skillet, cook bacon till crisp. Remove bacon, reserving drippings. Drain and crumble bacon and set aside.
2. Cook onion in reserved drippings until tender.
3. Add pork and beans, catsup, brown sugar, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.
4. Bake in a 350 oven for about 1 hour or cook on low in Crock Pot.