One down, 10 more to go

Have any of you started thinking about Thanksgiving? I have for sure. Matter of fact I nearly got my Christmas shopping done on Sunday. Hate me if you want, but I can't stand to wait till the last min. I waited too long last year and no turkeys were left. Seriously... I found a fresh one at walmart.. but I was not prepared for NO Butterball turkeys left. How do you explain a turkey shortage?  Thanksgiving I guess. So I got mine already. Along with my list of all the sides. And you know what I did today?

I made my sweet potato casserole with the pecan crust, and its in the freezer. Potatoes freeze wonderfully. Green beans are not as forgiving. I will be making the dough tomorrow for the sourdough fresh bread that I will bake off that morning. The longer the dough sits, the tastier it gets.

Do you have one side dish that you must have or else its not Thanksgiving? I do. Its my grandmothers sweet and sour red cabbage. I love the stuff. The first time she brought it over, I gobbled it up and asked for the leftovers to stay at our house. Then each year I would call her and ask her to make it for Thanksgiving.

I invited a bunch of people for Thanksgiving as I do every year, except this year they actually said YES. So we are having a Cuban/American Thanksgiving. Roast pork with black beans and rice and turkey and stuffing and green beans, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. I am thinking of a salad of Nappa cabbage, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds, green onions with Kens Asian dressing. Oh the kicker is two packages of crushed ramen noodles go on top just before serving. Crunchy, easy and Yummy. Go ahead, steal the recipe and serve it to your friends and see if they love it. We do. 

So what is your favorite dessert? Mine use to be Pumpkin Pie. But now I have discovered it usually the dessert I haven't tried yet. I get so bored with the same old stuff. I need to change it up a little, ask people to try new things. Have you tried anything new that you were just wow wow about and have been telling everyone you meet? I will share one that sticks in my mind. Its called the Pilgrim.

Leftover turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce.  Spilt a hard water roll or a Chicago hard roll and place warmed up turkey, stuffing and some gravy on top. Top it with a slice of cranberry sauce, canned or homemade is fine. This is probably something you might have already tried but OH my is it good on the heavy duty hard roll to hold all the weight. 

Have you ever heard of a Monster Cookie?? The recipe is crazy. They are so big you use an ice cream scoop to measure out dough for one cookie. I will post it... but not today.

This is Girl Schmuck signing off.