Average Jane’s Day of Eating

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For some reason, my husband and I were both up by 7:00 a.m. yesterday, so I made bacon, scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. We tried to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but lost interest due to the vast imbalance between anchor blah-blah-blah and actual views of the floats.

Because our Thanksgiving dinner was really at dinnertime, we had a much smaller feast at midday:

For the big dinner, I made cranberry sauce and pomegranate salsa. I made some modifications to the cranberry sauce recipe based on a recipe at Kitchen Craft. I liked the idea of having some spices in the sauce, so I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger to my regular recipe. It was quite tasty! I’ll have to add those ingredients as options on my recipe post.

Besides the well-received pomegranate salsa, the other appetizers were assorted olives, boiled peanuts, and fresh mozzarella marinated with sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and olive oil. The dinner consisted of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, my cranberry sauce, green beans sauteed in butter with shallots and red pepper strips, ambrosia fruit salad, and French bread. We had pumpkin pie for dessert. I ate some of everything.

Today I’m planning on making turkey pot pie with some of the leftovers (keeping enough turkey aside for turkey sandwiches, of course). I don’t know what to do with the leftover sweet potatoes. Any ideas?

Comments

8 responses to “Average Jane’s Day of Eating”

November 23, 2007

Smiler

I make a really good Shepherd’s pie using mashed sweet potatoes instead of regular. But that might be more trouble than what you have in mind. Colleen sent me to say hi!

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November 24, 2007

East Coast Girl

Make them into sweet potato pie instead of pumpkin pie; or sweet potato cake, muffins, biscuits, or doughnuts (Gale Gand has a recipe for Ricotta Sweet Potato Beignets); maybe sweet potato pancakes, waffles, or fritters. How about sweet potato bread (instead of banana bread) with some raisins and/or nuts thrown in. Even sweet potato cheesecake, or sweet potato pudding.
If they were savory and not sweet, you could turn them into a cream soup or chowder; or a sweet potato gravy to serve over pork chops (Emeril Lagasse).
Go to the Food Network website, and search on sweet potato — there are plenty of recipes to choose from.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cooking/

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November 24, 2007

East Coast Girl

Another possibility is a pumpkin pie alternative I discovered last year that you make with yellow cake mix sprinkled on top to give it a really nice crunch. Just substitute your sweet potatoes instead of the pumpkin. This has become a favorite in my house.
Pumpkin Pie Cake
Makes 12 servings
Prep: 20 minutes
Bake: 1 hour
Ingredients
1 29-ounce can pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
3 eggs, well beaten
1-1/2 cups half-n-half or whipping cream
1 package 2-layer-size yellow cake mix, sifted
1 cup chopped nuts or toffee chips (optional)
1 cup butter or margarine, melted (2 sticks)
Directions
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin, sugar, salt, and spice. Add eggs. Beat lightly until mixture is just combined.
2. Gradually stir in half-n-half / cream; mix well. Pour into a greased 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
3. Sprinkle or sift cake mix all over pumpkin mixture, covering evenly; sprinkle with nuts (if using). Drizzle with melted butter or margarine.
4. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until edges are firm and center is almost set. Cool on wire rack. Store in the refrigerator. Makes 12 servings.
NOTES:
1. Though I prefer using half-n-half or cream, you can substitute a 12-oz. can of evaporated milk.
2. Also, if you do not have pumpkin pie spice, you can substitute using: 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon ground ginger.
3. As an alternative to chopped nuts, can use oatmeal, granola, or even rice crispies as a topping for added crunch.

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November 24, 2007

Keith

They televise the Macy’s parade ??? I would like to be in NY to see it sometime. I missed it by a few days on one of my seldom visits.

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November 24, 2007

East Coast Girl

Found this recipe for Sweet Potato Pound Cake with Cranberry Walnut Streusel (made in a bundt pan) on Peabody’s blog, and I thought I would pass it on — as it sounds perfect for your leftover sweet potatoes.
http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2007/11/19/gobble-gobble/

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November 24, 2007

The Misanthrope

What happened to the parade? When was the last year it was actually a parade rather than just a promo for Broadway and NBC TV shows?

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November 26, 2007

Average Jane

In case anyone’s wondering, I ended up making turkey pot pie with a mixture of mashed potato and sweet potato piped on top, a la Shepherd’s Pie. It was quite tasty and used up all my leftovers!

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November 28, 2007

Big Momma Pimpalishisness

Hot dogs and mac & cheese, seriously, one of my kid’s favorite meals.

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