Some Alternative Sides for Thanksgiving Dinner

[craigmar]

Well it's almost that time again for a Thanksgiving Dinner Feast. I have already mentioned in another post last year about how I cook my turkey in the dishwasher and thought that I would share a couple of side dishes I make to go with the dinner. I have three daughters who cook for the family get together with the husbands and the kids, grand and great grand parents and so the usual sides are made such as sweet potato's green bean casserol, corn, mashed potato's etc. I always try to come up with something a little different and seem to get a yearly request for the following dishes.
Fried Brussel Sprouts (taste like little cabbage's)
1-1 1/2 pounds of brussel sprouts
4-5 slices of thick cut bacon
1 medium onion thinly sliced
1-2 pinches of sugar (you can use a couple of more pinches if you like the sweetness like I do)
1 can of water chestnuts

Wash and trim the sprouts, trimming the outer leaves and cutting out the stems. smaller sprouts can be left small and larger sprouts cut in half length wise. (if you prefer, you can cut all the sprouts into length wise shreds such as shreded cabbage)

Cook the bacon until just crisp and then remove from the pan and drain on a papertowel.

In the pan of bacon grease, add the medium onion which has been thinly sliced and then add the pinches of sugar to help carmelize the onion, stir the onions and sugar while cooking until they have cooked to a translucent state then add the brussel sprouts and cook until the sprouts are cooked through and are tender

Remove the contents of the pan with a slotted spoon to drain excess bacon drippings, wipe out the pan and then add the drained sprouts and onions

Crumble the bacon and add to the sprouts

Add the can of water chestnuts which have been drained and heat until the chestnuts are warmed up

Serve and enjoy


Fried Butternut or Acorn Squash, Potato's, Onions and Pecans

1 Squash about 2-2 1/2 pounds
3-4 medium size potato's
1 large onion finely diced or chopped
3-4 tablespoons of butter or cooking oil (I prefer the butter)
1 cup or so of chopped pecans ( I also like to use pinenuts as well rather than the pecans)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1-2 pinches of cinnamon (or just use some all-spice to flavor according to you taste)
Chopped parsley and tyme (about 3 or four good pinches of each)

cut the squash in half, deseed and then cut out the meat, dice it into cubes about 1/2 " . dice the potato's as well ( I like the skins peeled but thats your choice as well)

heat the butter in a large pan and then add the onion which has been finely diced or chopped and cook until tender

add the squash and potato's and cook until tender adding salt and pepper to taste

after the squash and potato's have cooked, sprinkle the brown sugar on the pans contents as well as the cinnamon. add half the pecans or pinenuts as well as some of the parsly and tyme and stir the mixture to coat everything

just before serving sprinkle the top with the remaing nuts and herbs and serve

You could also use pumpkin as a substitute for the squash as well as rutabaga or parsnip for the potato or even add the previous two choices to the pan for a good variety of fall veggies.
*Just a note*
For my dinner, I diced up the following, 1 Butternut Squash, 5 Red Potatoes, 2 medium Parsnips, 2 medium Rutabaga's. I cheated a little when it came to cooking though because I was runing out of time so I heated up some oil in the fry daddy and cooked all the veggies individually in batches so that they were all cooked inside tender and outside crisp sort of like a french fry, then added them all to the melted butter and brown sugar, stiring or mixing so that everything was covered with the melted sugar and butter, after everything was done, took it all over to my daughters house for dinner and as no suprise, there were no leftovers of the above two dishes.
My wife dropped a Honey Due on me about a Christmas Party and bringing a main dish and veggie so I again used the above diced veggies because their simple to prepare and again no leftovers and lots of requests for the recipe. People who didn't eat or know what rutabaga's or parsnip's were or tasted like were even asking for the recipe so I guess it's a real keeper.
For the main, I used a variation of an earlier post (Quick and Easy) mixing up a can each of cream of mushroom and cream of chicken, added a can and a half of chicken stock instead of water, added a large package of mixed veggies and four chicken breasts cooked and cut up into bigger than bite size pieces, put the pastry shells on the side and everyone just filled the shells with the Pot Pie Mixture and this too was a hit, with no leftovers.
It shouldn't come as a suprise but I think that Quick, Easy and Comforting Foods are really what most people prefer, especially those that bring up memories of good times.

[Alaskan]

Hey....neat post

I missed it till today....I think next year we should all meet at your house Craig