.... Kitchen Table Creatives: November 2012

Happy Thanksgiving #3

After getting the turkey in and the sweet potato casserole made we started on the house. Beth decorated the lounge and we switched up the rooms to make space for everyone.

Re-using our pumpkin tins for table centre pieces.

And she found the dessert bowls in a charity shop last year for Thanksgiving.

I wish I had pictures here of us all, but once the food was ready and people had arrived I forgot about the camera. Oh well, there’s always next year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of people brought different dishes for our Thanksgiving meal, which helped out a lot in our little kitchen. My dish was Sweet Potato Casserole. This was the first time I’ve made it and it was very out of my tradition when it came to adding the marshmallows on top of mashed potato, but I’m a convert. So here’s the recipe...

This was to feed about 20 people.

5kg Sweet Potatoes

1/2 cup milk

2 cups sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 eggs

Peel, chop and boil the potatoes, then mash. Add the sugar, milk and spice, and mix together. Add the eggs and mix. Pour the mixture into a dish.

For the topping we did one casserole with marshmallows and one with a crumble top. The crumble topping was

1 cup light brown soft sugar

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup melted butter

Mix these together then sprinkle on top of the casserole, or lay marshmallows on top instead.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at gas mark 4/350 F/180C.

* one handy hint, in the UK we tend to sell marshmallows in packets that have a mix of white and pink. So I found I needed 2 packets to have enough white ones for the topping. Now I’m left with lots of pink marshmallows. But that’s no problem, they’ll be fine for the hot chocolate in the coming months.

The result. 2 sweet potato casseroles. Sweet and delicious. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Since Beth is American, we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Leeds. But this wasn’t just make a turkey and we’ll have some pie. Thanksgiving is a really big deal in the States, so I learned, and most people have the Wednesday before and Friday following off work too. We didn’t go that far, but we started the night before and took all day Thursday to prepare for the meal in the evening, watch American football, decorate the house, and get in the holiday mood before friends came over to share it with us. There will probably be a few posts about this day!

Beth made 4 Pumpkin pies and Doug baked crackers for the appetizers and tear and share rolls.

The recipe for Pumpkin pie was the Libby's recipe. Here it is...

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 large eggs

1 can (15 oz) Libby's pure pumpkin

1 can (12 fl oz) evaporated milk

(This recipe uses a bought pastry base, or you can make your own shortcrust pastry using 125g/4oz plain flour, pinch of salt, 55g/2oz butter, 2-3 tablespoons cold water. Rub the butter into the flour and salt. Stir in just enough water to bind the dough. Chill the dough for 10 mins. Roll out.)

Mix the sugar and spices together. Beat the eggs. Mix together the eggs, spices and pumpkin. Gradually stir in the evaporated milk. Pour into the pie base. Bake at 425F/Gas mark 7/ 220C for 15 mins, then reduce the temperature to 350F/Gas mark 4/ 180C and bake for another 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.