Our Texas Thanksgiving

I'm Whooped.  How about you?  It has been a crazy busy few days, well, months truthfully, and now it is beginning to slow down....until Tuesday.  Then it starts all over again.  My daughter's wedding next Saturday in Kauai and I cannot wait to forget my name and finally relax.  So I'm sure we are all Turkey-ed out, so I will keep this short.  I just finished my Turkey and Cranberry Sandwich and I am now officially back on my healthy eating. Quickly, here was the menu:

Assortment of cold snacks + Jalapeno Deviled Eggs + Artichokes with Lemon Mayonnaise
Brined and Roasted Turkey (roasted upside down so the juices run to the breast, not very pretty, but very effective for super moist turkey)
Gravy
Mom's Cornbread Dressing (recipe to follow)
Corn Souffle' (recipe to follow)
Spinach Artichoke Gruyere Bake (recipe to follow)
Bailey's Mashed Potatoes
Collin's Sweet Potatoes
Cranberries with Cointreau
Green Pineapple Salad
Waldorf Salad
Pumpkin Pie (with grated orange rind and Cointreau in the pie crust)
Apple Pomegranate Pie
Lemon Creme Meringue Pie
Apple Tart in Puff Pastry
Mincemeat Pie (with toasted Pecans and Bourbon in the pie crust)
Bourbon Pecan Pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie

Mom's Cornbread Dressing

1 lg + 1 sm pkg of Pepperidge Farm Cornbread dressing
1 lg onion, small diced
4 ribs celery, small diced
2-3 T butter (to saute onion & celery)
1 stick butter, melted
1 1/2 pounds of Jimmy Dean HOT sausage, crumbled, browned and drained
1 T Poultry Seasoning
Salt and Pepper
Basil, Oregano, Savory and Majoram (use any combination or all)
1 T Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning (or to taste)
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 Apple, chopped
1/2 C pecans, broken
2 cans Chicken Stock, heated
3 eggs, slightly beaten

Place cornbread dressing in a large bowl.  Saute onion and celery until translucent, pour over in bowl.  Brown sausage and pour into bowl.  Add to bowl seasonings, pecans, mushrooms, apple, melted butter, eggs and toss lightly together.  Lastly, add chicken broth as needed to make dressing fairly moist.

Start this recipe early and let sit covered until liquids are absorbed.  Lightly spoon dressing mixture into pan(s).  DO NOT PACK. 

Bake at 350 degrees covered for 30 minutes and uncovered for 15 minutes more.  I add some of the drippings from the Roasted Turkey when they are available.

Corn Souffle' with Caramelized Onion Sauce

Souffle':
6 ears of corn - remove from cob, save liquid
1 lg onion, diced
1 C Heavy Cream
6 T butter
2 tsp cornstarch
Salt and Pepper
4 eggs

Onion Sauce:

3 lg Onions, sliced
3/4 C Heavy Cream
1/2 stick butter
1 T Soy Sauce

Saute onion and corn with liquid - do not brown.  In a food processor (yippie), combine 1/2 of corn and onion mixture with eggs, cornstarch and cream until smooth.

Transfer to a bowl and add reserved sauted corn and season with salt and pepper, mix together.

Pour corn mixture in buttered baking dish.  Cover with parchment paper or waxed paper to keep from forming skin.  Bake in a water bath 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.  When done it will slightly jiggle.

For Onion Sauce, saute onions in butter until caramelized.  Add heavy cream and cook until reduced my half.  Season with salt and pepper and add soy sauce.

To serve, spread caramelized onions over souffle'.

Spinach and Artichoke Gruyere Bake

3 pkgs frozen spinach, cooked according to pkg directions and drain thoroughly
1 pound bacon, sliced and trimmed on most of the extra fat, browned and drained
2 T butter
2 med onions, diced
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced (use your favorite variety)
1 lg jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Cayenne Pepper, to taste
Nutmeg, freshly grated, to taste
1 tsp dry mustard
Lemon juice of 4 lemons and grated lemon rind from1 lemon
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 C gruyere cheese, grated
1/2 C parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 C dry bread crumbs
2 T butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Saute onions and mushrooms with seasonings.  Combine sauted mixture with spinach, artichokes, soup, lemon juice, lemon rind and gruyere cheese.  Pour mixture into buttered baking dish.  Combine parmesan cheese with bread crumbs.  Sprinkle on top of spinach/artichoke mixture, dot with butter.

Baked covered for 30 minutes and uncovered for 15 minutes until browned.