Pre-Thanksgiving Ideas

Well, Erma, here we are at Thanksgiving Week. That wonderful holiday when all we have to do is cook. NO presents to buy or wrap, not a lot of decorating the house, no cards or thank you notes, no butchered favorite Christmas carols on the radio. Just food, food food!!

As always, the women’s magazines are full of advice for cooking that Perfect Turkey. Eeee gads. Could anything be easier? The only trick to a huge Thanksgiving dinner is timing–especially if you don’t have 2 ovens.

And don’t you just love it when the magazine writers suggest a small turkey breast so, “You don’t have leftovers.” Leftovers is what that huge turkey meal is all about.

Maybe Food Editors don’t want any leftovers, but I certainly do.

My friend Martha always gives away everything that is not eaten for dinner. What a dodo!

Fix enough for Thanksgiving Day, and you don’t have to cook for at least the rest of the weekend. How much better does it get? In fact the rule at my house is, all that I will do is reheat things until at least Monday, and then we get turkey sandwiches for the lunchboxes.

To me it isn’t Thanksgiving without that faithful Leftover Turkey Pie recipe you shared with me a lifetime ago. And what could be easier? Take a pottery pie plate or casserole, line it with leftover mashed potatoes, put down a layer of dry dressing, top with an inch or so of turkey bits left from stripping down the carcass, and pour over some leftover gravy. Top with foil or a lid and bake for about 25 minutes .Slice and serve with cranberry relish and reheated rolls. Divine!! And Easy!!

All good cooks have a Basic Casserole recipe that they pull out around Thanksgiving. Here is mine. Note that the amounts and ingredients are just general. As they say in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie about the rules for parley, “They’re not exactly rules, they are more like guidelines.” And Guidelines is what this dependable recipe is all about. You can use chicken, turkey, crab, imitation crab and two cups is just a guideline. The crumb topping can be anything you like, including crushed potato chips, chow mein noodles, or canned French Fried Onions.

I like to use some green onion tops and some chopped red pepper (Remember that if you are as thrifty as we are dear, you have frozen some onion tops and red pepper back when we were trying to give it away?) Mostly they just add a bit of color. Like any casserole, here is the chance to use up those bits of dried out cheese.

I usually halve this and it makes 3 dinner servings and 3 smaller homemade TV dinners for the next day. So, yep, it reheats in the microwave well.

The BASIC Casserole:

2 cups chopped Meat (Turkey, Chicken, Crab)
1 can (10 ounces) cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup mayonnaise
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup shredded cheese (any kind, but cheddar gives a yellow tint to the casserole)
½ cup crushed cornflakes (buttered cracker crumbs, dry bread crumbs, even dry dressing)
2 tablespoons melted butter
Paprika
Choose From the following:
2 celery ribs, chopped
8 ounce can drained and chopped water chestnuts
Half a red pepper, chopped
Tops of several green onions chopped
Sliced almonds

Mix the meat, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, mayonnaise, eggs, mushrooms, onions, lemon juice. Select some items from the Choose From Section depending on your taste and what you have in the kitchen. Stir all together and place in a greased 13 x 9 inch casserole. I make half of this and use a 9 x 9 or 10 x 10 inch casserole. Sprinkle on the cheese.

Melt the butter and mix with the topping of cornflakes, cracker crumbs, or dry bread crumbs. Dust on some paprika. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until bubbley.

Serves 8 generously. More like 12 to 14 unless you are feeding fieldhands.

Country Music's Carolyn Dawn Johnson's Favorite Recipe

Shades of that old saying,” You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Only with you, Erma, it goes: “You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the girl.” You went to Las Vegas and ending up eating Black-eyed Peas at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill! So, why did you go to Las Vegas in the first place?

Why don’t you just mosey up to Dutch’s Corners and eat at Mel’s Diner. It has all the Country Music that is fit to play–and some that is not.

Mel collects recipes from Country Music stars and often uses them at the Diner. This is one he brought to a community pot luck supper a while back. Mel plays Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s “Got A Good Day” all the time down at the Diner, and he says that she should change the title of the song to “Got A Good Recipe” for her Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole.

Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole:

1 ½ pounds fresh asparagus spears, cut in half
Cooking Oil
4 boneless, chicken breast halves–rather thin, not the monster ones
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 can light cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon curry powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.

In a large sauce pan, boil the asparagus for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain well in a colander, and place in the casserole. Arrange the chicken breasts over the asparagus.

In a mixing bowl, mix the soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry powder. Pour over the chicken. Place the lid on the casserole and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle on the cheddar cheese. Return to oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serves 6.

Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole

You made bread yesterday to celebrate the return of cool weather, and I cranked out an old Mennonite chicken recipe. I was busy picking up the house, doing laundry, and getting ready to work outside in the gardens pulling weeds, so I needed a take-care-of-itself kind of recipe.

Long ago, in another life, I worked with a reference librarian who demanded that the library buy a Mennonite cookbook as our standard reference tool. Jasper insisted that all basic cooking questions could be answered from this old classic and he was right. We didn’t have Mennonites in our section of Kentucky, but their style of cooking was just like the home food that I grew up with.

As is typical of Mennonite cookery, the ingredients are things that you always have in the kitchen, are cheap (few meats are cheaper than chicken thighs), and the result is a comfort food you associate with your childhood.

Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole:

¾ cup white rice
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons minced celery
1 tablespoon minced carrot
¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter
1 ½ cups water with 1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in it
¾ cup milk
4 large chicken thighs
Seasoned salt that has paprika
Paprika

Grease a casserole that has a tight fitting lid, about 9 x 9 inches. Sprinkle on the rice. Mince the onion, celery and carrot and sprinkle on the rice. Dust on the flour and salt. Chop the butter into small cubes and place in the casserole. Carefully pour in the liquids. Arrange the chicken pieces on top and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Cover tightly and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours until the chicken is tender. Toward the end of the taking, sprinkle on additional paprika for color. If the mixture is still too runny, remove the top for a few minutes additional baking and a nice golden top.

Serves 4.

Mrs. Michie’s Brunswick Stew

Fried Green Corn is tasty, and surprisingly, not well known. Guess we just gorge out on Corn on the Cob in the summer. With today’s improved genetics, corn stays sweet for several weeks. In the past, it got too tough to eat on the cob really fast.

Here is another really old recipe from Virginia and the Michie Tavern: Brunswick Stew. Somewhere on our trip, we saw a sign saying that this place was the home of the original Brunswick Stew. Stew was a staple from the first days at Jamestown until the days of refrigeration and modern stoves.

Mrs. Michie’s Brunswick Stew:

This stew was originally made with squirrel. However, chicken or rabbit is generally used in place of squirrel today.

6 lbs. Chicken or rabbit, cut up
1 med. Onions, chopped
2 lbs. Ripe tomatoes, cut into eights
1 lb. Lima (butter) beans
2 lg. Potatoes, diced
2 lbs. Corn (about 4 cups)
1 lb. Okra, cut up (optional)
2 tsp. Sugar
4 tbsp. Butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Simmer the chicken or rabbit in 2 - 3 qts. Water for approx. 2 hours or until the meat can be easily boned. (The amount of water used depends on your desired thickness of the stew.)

Remove the meat from the broth and allow to cool. Add the vegetables to the broth, stirring occasionally; simmer until the potatoes, onions and beans are tender. Add the butter. Dice the boned meat (optional) and ad to the broth. Add the sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Let the stew simmer for 2 hours over low heat. Serve.

Yield: 8 - 10 servings.

Note: It is believed that the flavor of the stew improves if allowed to “set” overnight and served the next day.

You know Max, that originally this recipe would have read (more likely, the cook would have been told), “Take whatever fresh meat you have around, and whatever vegetables are in the garden, put in the big stew pot and cook all day.”

Coconut Chicken with Fresh Fruit

Max dear, I love your Hawaiian recipes. Only someone like you would have taken the dream Hawaiian vacation and spent it prowling through museums and collecting recipes. Did you actually ever get to the beach?

Let me guess, you did not eat a single meal at the hotel or chain food restaurants, did you? Tell me, do you think this Coconut Chicken with Fresh Fruit is REAL Hawaiian food? All I know is that it came from someone who lived in Maui for a number of years.

Coconut Chicken with Fresh Fruit:

1/3 cup coconut
2 tablespoons butter
8 large boneless chicken breasts, skinned
1 tablespoons fresh ginger
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup whipping cream
3 large ripe bananas, quartered
1 ripe papaya, peeled, seeded, halved and sliced
3 limes, cut into wedges

Toast the coconut in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet like the FarberWare Nonstick Baking Sheet. Set aside to cool.

Chop the fresh ginger very fine in a food processor, or if fresh ginger is not available, substitute 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

In a large skillet with a cover like the KitchenAid Covered Stir-Fry Pan, brown the chicken breasts in the butter. Sprinkle on the ginger, 3 tablespoons of the toasted coconut, and salt over the chicken. Add the cream, cover and cook over medium heat for 12 minutes until the chicken is done.

Place the chicken on a large platter and arrange the fruit around it. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle on the remaining toasted coconut. Garnish with limes to be squeezed over the chicken and fruit.

Serves 8.