Thanksgiving Meal Tutorial

We got back home from our work trip just in time for Thanksgiving and I told dear hubby that since we were cutting it so close that I just wanted to come up with a meal plan using things we already had on hand. 

Well, I promised I would do a tutorial on how I made the dishes for our Thanksgiving meal and used what we had in our freezers and pantries. I wanted to share with you because I always have so many people ask how we cook with our garden produce we can or freeze, so here we go.

We freeze our corn whole on the cob. Any time I get ready to cook with it, I just take out a bag,  and let it thaw out. If I want whole kernel corn, I just take a sharp knife and cut the kernels off the cob into a sauce pot and add a little water, butter and salt. I cook it on medium heat until the corn is done. If I want cream style corn, I cut the kernels off first, then scrape the cob to remove excess milk. I use the same process as the whole kernel corn to cook. If I want corn on the cob, I cut the vacuum seal bag open and leave the cobs in the bag and add a few pats of butter and seasonings. I place the bag in the microwave and steam 3 minutes on each side. This is why I love our vacuum sealer and vacuum seal bags. This is the easiest way ever to fix your corn. I made whole kernel corn for the ones who didn't like it on the cob and I reserved some for those who like corn on the cob. 

I used our frozen squash to make squash dressing. I took two packages of our squash and steamed them in the microwave in the vacuum seal bag. After they steamed, I squeezed the excess water out. I made a pan of cornbread. I crumbled the corn bread into a large bowl, added the squash, two eggs, can of cream of celery soup, sage, milk and chicken broth. I mixed all this together and poured into a casserole dish and baked on 375 degrees until the dressing was set and golden brown. 

I made home made pumpkin pie from scratch using one of the pumpkins my granddaughters had. It was a little pie pumpkin. I lined a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and cut the pumpkins in half , scooped out the strings and seeds, and laid them flat down and roasted at 400 degrees until the pumpkin was soft and tender. After cooling,  I removed the skins and placed the puree into a bowl and mashed with a potato masher. I then  set the puree into a cheese cloth. I tied the cheese cloth and hung it up over a bowl and let it drain the excess water out over night. If I was using my frozen pumpkin puree, I would have thawed it out, poured it into a cheese cloth, tied it up, hung it up over a bowl to let it drain the excess water out overnight. 

I prepared the crust by using the  pie crust recipe below.  I put all the ingredients into my food processor (except water) and pulsed until it became crumbly, then I added the water and pulsed until it formed and came together into a ball. It doesn't get any easier than that. 

I took out the dough ball and put it onto a floured surface. I floured my rolling pin and rolled out the dough to a 9 inch circle. The easiest way to transfer a pie crust to a dish is to roll the dough around the pin and pull it over to your dish and roll it out backwards.  I formed it into the pie dish and smoothed every thing out and crimped the edges. Then I took a knife a removed the extra hanging off. Do not discard this. I'll show you what I did with it. 

 I got the ingredients ready for my filling. You can use the recipe on a can of pumpkin puree if you like or there are tons of recipes online for pumpkin pie using fresh pumpkin. I mixed all my ingredients together in my stand mixer, and poured the filling into my piecrust then spreaded out smooth. Baked at 375 degrees until the filling comes out clean when you stick a knife into the middle. It was smelling delicious in my kitchen. Had had that fallish vibe going on. 

Now for those pie scraps, I divided that dough and made two dough balls that I spreaded out, spreaded a dollop of Nutella in it, folded the crust into a half moon and crimped closed. Placed on a baking sheet and baked until golden brown. Made cute bite sized chocolate pies for my granddaughters. 

Now for my homemade rolls recipe. I use a recipe from The West Ladies on YouTube. I watched them before I even heard of YouTube. They have a set of DVD's of their own and I bought the whole set. I will link the channel and place you can get their dvds below. I just used their recipe and mixed the dough in my stand mixer. I rolled out the dough and cut out my rolls. I placed them onto a baking sheet and baked according to directions. After removing from the oven, I brushed with melted butter. My family tore them up. 

I used two jars of my home canned green beans and made your normal green bean casserole 

I used two jars of my home canned dry packed potatoes. I opened them and  put them into a sauce pan and added water and boiled until really tender. I drained and mashed with a potato masher first. I added butter, salt, pepper and milk and used an immersion blender to puree all together. I had extra fixings on the island in case anyone wanted to make loaded mashed potatoes. 

I used a simple recipe online and made sweet potato casserole. I used two bags of frozen sweet potato puree I had. I let it thaw, hung in a cheese cloth to let it drain and used as normal for the recipe. I did half with marshmallows and half not for those who couldn't eat them. 

This is how it all came together. Dear hubby had smoked the ham all day in our smoker and deep fried two turkey breasts in our deep fryer. They were finger licking good. The chocolate pie is courtesy of my momma. She makes the best and she knows it is my favorite. I forgot I opened an extra jar of green beans for our granddaughters. They do not like green bean casserole. And I made deviled eggs. We had a few extras for the girls too like zucchini pickles I canned and pickled okra I canned. And that was our awesome Thanksgiving dinner. 

We had a really good time with our family and enjoyed our holiday. I hope you all did as well. I hope you can use some of these ideas and I hope I have given you some inspiration on how to use your home canned and frozen goodies. Even the cat had to get in the picture. 

The West Ladies website Homestead Blessings DVD's  They also have a recipe book I have too. 

The West Ladies Art of Breadmaking DVD with recipe from Amazon

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