The First Thanksgiving

I've been super busy for the past week, so my apologizes on creating a Thanksgiving blog over 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. Oh well, though. It's close enough.

So this year was the first Thanksgiving we spent without my dad. To be honest, I spent the morning as if it were any other day. It was hard to accept the fact that my father wouldn't be around, so I tried to stray my mind off of the subject. Ultimately, however, my surroundings quickly took over. I decided to embrace the day and give thanks for all of the beautiful people in my life who offer their constant love and support. My mom, brother and I spent the day at our closest family friends' house. I've known this family since I was 8 years old and they have become family of my own. 

They are the most amazing people and I am so grateful to have them as such a huge part of my life. Although the day was surreal and tough to get by, I wouldn't have rather spent it with anyone else. We were surrounded by love, remembrance and gratefulness.  It was so nice to spend the day with people who knew and loved my father. We shared stories and laughs and beautiful memories and I am so thankful for that. Although this was our first Thanksgiving without him physically, I know my dad was with us and he wouldn't have wanted us to spend it any other way. 

I want to give a special thanks to all of the people in my life, both new and old. I don't know where I would be without any of them and I appreciate everything more than I could ever describe. I am also very thankful for a specific new friend that has come into my life, someone whom I think I will be friends with for a very long time. Her name is Nicole!

{{ Nicole, I knew when I met you that we would become friends. We instantly clicked and I feel like I've known you forever! We definitely get one another and I am so happy to have a friend as real and sweet as you. You are such an amazing person and I cannot express enough how grateful I am that we've gotten as close as we have in such a short period of time. I truly appreciate your honesty, humor, wittiness, generosity and kindness. You tell it like it is and you leave the bullshit aside. I also want to thank you for helping me to start writing in my blog! Without you, I definitely would not have progressed as much as I have. I love that we are the same person and that we get along so unbelievably well. We are undoubtedly soul sisters and I hope it stays that way! }} 

As we all know, Thanksgiving is not just about giving thanks, it is also about the huge meal that has taken hours to prepare. Delicious, home cooked, family style dishes are something I look so forward to each year. I love looking for new recipes to try and perfecting ones that I've made in the past. It's so rewarding to watch the people I love enjoy all the food that was carefully prepared for them. This year, I made 4 different dishes: 3 of which I had made before and 1 that was completely new. I made an appetizer, main dish and 2 desserts. The amount of food we had was ridiculous, but I'll get to that later. For now, here are the recipes that I made. 

I started off with my quick and easy, creamy artichoke dip. This time, I made sure I had fresh scallions on hand. They definitely make all the difference by adding a bite of that pungent onion flavor. 

It took only a few minutes to prepare and the end result was a definite hit. Delicious.

Now, since I obviously wanted to contribute to Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to go all out...one recipe definitely wasn't enough (although it should have been considering the amount of food we had). So, I thought I would bring over a bunch of different things. Now that my appetizer was complete, it was time to make a main dish. 

Introducing my all time favorite: cornbread casserole.

Let me just start off by saying... yum. 

Yum.

Yum.

Yum.

If you like cornbread, or even if you don't, chances are you will love this recipe. It combines the richness of a traditional cornbread with the creaminess of an oven baked casserole. The mixture is phenomenal. Seriously. It's super simple and I promise, everyone will be going back for seconds...and thirds...

Creamy Cornbread Casserole:

1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained 

1 (14 oz) can cream corn

1 (8 oz) package Jiffy corn muffin mix 

1 cup sour cream

1/2 stick salted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups shredded monterey jack and cheddar cheese

I always make 2, 9 X 13 in casserole dishes of this each year because of how popular it is, but one serving is just enough for a family of 6 or 8.

I begin by draining the can of whole kernel corn and add it to a large bowl, along with the cream corn, Jiffy, sour cream, melted butter and 1 cup of the shredded cheese.

I make sure to mix all of the ingredients together and remove any clumps from the Jiffy mix.

After this, I pour the mix into a buttered casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes or until it is golden brown. Now, this is when I add the rest of the cheese. I gradually sprinkle it on and place the casserole back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling. The end result is mouth watering. Next, I take it out of the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes (in order to make it easier to cut without it falling apart). Finally, it's finished.

Now it's time to enjoy.

This was gone within minutes...needless to say I was happy I made 2 dishes. Although, it really wasn't necessary. The food that we had for Thanksgiving dinner was insane. Literally, everything was so delicious and plentiful... I was just full off of appetizers alone. From stuffed shrimp that my mom and Nicky made, to sausage and broccoli bread, baked lobster wantons and stuffed mushrooms, our abundance of appetizers was incredible.

I was psyched that my dip was such a hit and when it came time for dinner, I was also glad that everyone enjoyed my cornbread casserole...especially since there was so  much to choose from! Of course, I had to try a little bit of everything. 

Everything was spectacular. It was so nice to be around the people that I love on the most thankful day of the year and to be surrounded by such delicious food. I know my dad would have loved it.

Now that I had made 2 savory dishes, I had to balance it out with something sweet. After all, what's Thanksgiving without some desert? So, I decided to make my pumpkin cheesecake and by request, I made an apple crisp. Glen, who is an amazing man that is my second father figure, loves apple crisp,  so I decided I was going to make him one. It was a bit different from the norm, as I added fresh orange and lemon juice, but the combination of flavors were killer. Needless to say, I will definitely be making it again next year.  Here is my recipe.

Citrus Glazed Apple Crisp:

Ingredients:

5 pounds of Macoun Apples ( 2 large bags )

Grated zest of 1 medium orange

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

For the Topping:

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup oatmeal 

1/2 pound cold butter, diced

Serves: 8-10

First, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees F and I buttered a 9 X 14 X 2 in oval baking dish. Next came the fun part: peeling, coring and cutting the apples.

It's a bit time consuming, but the final product is so worth it. Since I've never made this before, all of this work really made me appreciate all of the time and effort people put in to making dishes like this one. I will say, that if you don't own an apple corer, I highly recommend buying one. I didn't realize that ours was broken until I came to this step... and it wasn't the best surprise. It's definitely possible to core the apples by yourself, but, please, save yourself an extra 20 minutes of cooking time by going out and buying one.

After I peeled, cored and cut the apples, I mixed together all of the zests, juices, sugar and spicesr. I then poured the mixture over the apples and spread it all into the buttered casserole dish. For this last step, I used my hands to evenly coat the apples with the citrus mixture. 

Then it was time to make the crumb topping. To be honest, this is my favorite part of the desert. The golden brown lumps of sugar perfectly crisped by the butter is mouth watering. I had to make sure that this came out as perfect as possible.

I combined all of the ingredients with the cold, diced butter and poured it into the food processor with the paddle component attached. Now, I don't usually bake...so this next step was completely foreign to me. I was nervous that it wouldn't come out right, but it was way easier than I thought. I simply pulsed the mixture until it became crumbly and the butter was about the size of peas. 

Next, I evenly scattered the mixture on top of the apples. It was pretty full, so to be sure it didn't bubble over in the oven, I put the casserole dish on top of a sheet pan. 

I placed it in the oven and let it cook for about an hour and fifteen minutes, until the crust was crispy and the apples were bubbling. Finally, it was finished! I took it out and let it rest until it was time for desert. Unfortunately, I was rushing at this point to get over to my family's house, so I didn't even contemplate taking a picture of the final product. I didn't remember this until a little after desert was served, so I was unable to get a finalized picture of my sweet and crunchy masterpiece. This was my piece though...and let me just say...wow.

The bright citrus tang from the lemon and orange mixed in with the sweet apples and sugary crumble was spectacular. The first warm bite was incredible. The crunch from the apples mixed with the caramelized citrus and buttery crumble was a flavor explosion. This will definitely become a Thanksgiving tradition.

My final recipe was for a pumpkin cheesecake. I've made this a number of times before and it has always been a hit. The ingredients are simple, it's easy to make and the final product is divine...here is my recipe.

Pumpkin Cheesecake:

Crust:

1 1/4 cups Keebler Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

Pumpkin Pie Filling:

3 packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 (15 oz) can pureed pumpkin

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

pinch ground cloves

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp organic vanilla extract

Serves: 8-10

First, I pre-heated the oven to 350 F.

For the crust, I melted the butter and combined it with the graham cracker crumbs and sugar. 

I pressed it down flatly into a 9 in springform pan and set it aside.

For the filling, I beat the cream cheese until it was smooth and added in all but the flour and vanilla. After a quick mix, I added the rest of the ingredients and stirred until it was smooth and creamy. Next, I poured the filling into the prepared pie crust and put it in the oven for 1 hour.

After an hour, while the cheesecake was still jiggly,  I removed it from the oven and immediately ran a butter knife along the inside of the pan to avoid any cracks.

The end result was perfect. Super creamy, smooth and sweet with a zing from the pumpkin puree. I love cheesecake and for the Holiday's, this is a great recipe. I promise, you won't be disappointed! 

This year was probably one of the hardest Thanksgiving's it ever will be, but we got through it and pulled together as a family. Again, I am so grateful to everyone who was there for my mom, brother and I and I know with their help and our strength, we will get through this together. 

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

Miss you, Daddy

I love you more than I could ever possibly describe, Daddy.