Recipes for Thanksgiving Desserts

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and all the hosts seem to have been all-set to plan for the Thanksgiving dinner. If you too are hosting a get-together and are deciding about the dessert menu, we are here to help you with it. Thanksgiving Dinner is not complete without a dessert dish. . If you are planning to try your cooking skills and surprise your guests with a few mouth watering, delicious desserts on this Thanksgiving day, you can go through the following suggestions. 

Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes:

Apple Pie Cake:

Ingredients:

• 4 apples peeled and cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp grated orange
• 1 cup oil
• 2 ½ cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 ½ tsp baking powder

Procedure:

Pre heat the oven at 350 ⁰ F. Grease and flour a large pan.

Mix the chopped apples and 5 tbsp sugar in a large bowl. Combine the left over sugar, vegetables oil, eggs, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla essence in another large bowl. Whisk so as to blend the mixture well. Add the salt, baking powder andflour into the mixture and stir it well. Spread 1 ½ cup batter into preheated pan. Top it with half of apple mixture. Again add a layer of 1 ½ cup batter and top it with the remaining apple mixture.

Bake this mixture until the top turns golden brown in color. It will take around 1 1/2hour to bake. Cool the cake for 1 hour before serving. If you wish you may also dust the apple pie cake with confectioner’s sugar.

This dish can serve around 8-10 guests. . It tastes much like apple pie but in the cake form.

Honey-Vanilla Ice Cream:

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup milk
• ¾ cup honey
• 1 ½ cup cream
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg

Procedure:

Mix honey, milk and cream into a saucepan with a heavy bottom. Stir continuously while it boils. Honey and cream will dissolve in the milk within 5 minutes. Add vanilla extract to this mixture and keep this mixture into a large bowl placed again into another large bowl filled with ice. Stir continuously until the mixture is chilled.

Take the egg white in a separate bowl and whisk till it is soft. Also, whisk egg yolk in another bowl. Now mix both, beaten egg white and egg yolk. Now mix egg mixture into the milk and honey mixture until well blend. Take an ice cream maker and process the ice-cream mixture as per the user manual. Serve this soft and delicious ice-cream to your guests after it is fully frozen.

Rice Pudding:

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp short grain rice
• ¾ tbsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 6 cup milk
• 10-12 Raisins 

Procedure:

In a bowl soak rice in water for 30 minutes. In a heavy-bottom saucepan, mix milk and vanilla extract with soaked rice. Cook it on medium flame. Stir often and let the milk be absorbed by the rice. Bring the mixture to boil once and add sugar and salt to it. Stir continuously until the rice is tender. It will take around 20-25 minutes. Remove the saucepan from heat. Add raisins and keep it for cooling. Serve chilled to the guests.

Thanksgiving is the feast time and you can enjoy cooking some special dessert dishes for Thanksgiving Day. Buttery sweet desserts are delicious to taste and mouth-watering too. Above given are some useful recipes that you can try to please your guests while you host the Thanksgiving dinner. www.ethanksgivingday.com here are some useful ideas for you. Hope you like them and have a fun-filled celebration this year on the Thanksgiving Day.

 

Over the weekend (30.06.12) I was lucky enough to attend the cookery school at Swinton Park to learn how to do dinner party cooking with John Rogers the cookery school head chef.

The day its self was amazing, I learnt new techniques and recipes that will stay with me for the rest of my life just small things that will stay with you and the change the way you think about food and cooking.

But one of my favourite things was a fennel puree, now I know what you’re thinking it’s just a puree its simple, maybe your right but this was different.

A puree is there to help bring the dish together but with this it elevated it to something beautiful that just made the dish sing and it was all down to Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Dressing. This stunning little vinegar is all that’s needed to lift this puree, and here’s how to make it

Serves 8

Ingredients

4 fennel finely sliced

Vegetable stock to cover

100ml olive oil

100 g of butter

4 tablespoons of fennel seeds

500ml of double cream

4 tablespoons of Womersley lemon basil bay and juniper dressing

Salt to season

Method

1. Sweat the fennel with the oil and butter. Add the stock and simmer until the fennel is very soft, make sure you boil this hard and fast to keep in all of the flavors.

2. Put the fennel into the blender, when smooth add the olive oil and the butter and then the cream, then add the Womersley lemon basil bay and juniper dressing. Pass through a fine chinios and season.

Heres the final dish

To find all of the products and the dressing from Womersley visit www.womersleyfoods.co.uk

Any questions you know where to find me

Every so often I’m going to be asking people to write a guest blog for me on how they discovered their love of food, their relationship with food and most importantly their earliest food memories and the family recipes they love the most.

This weeks blog comes from Jessica Edmonds

Isn’t it funny how food memories start with grandparents? Like Adam, my tastes in food have been influenced by Gran, my maternal grandmother.

 

Growing up, there were three things that Grandpa loved: porridge (made with oats, bran, water, & salt) for breakfast, soup as a starter every day (yes, even in Summer), and fruit pies for dessert. These things must have influenced my mother, because my childhood is filled with them, and in turn I’ve carried them with me into my own family cooking.

 

When I was a child we had half an acre of land, most of which was dedicated to growing vegetables and soft fruits. We didn’t have a lot of money, but Mum worked wonders with the produce she grew. Excess was frozen, and soup was a standard. It’s something I still love to make and eat, and it’s unbelievably easy! Once you’ve mastered a basic method then you can vary it for whatever veg you have to hand.

 

Because leeks are in season now*, and old potatoes are cheap and plentiful, I’m going to share a recipe for leek & potato soup, the way my Mum makes it.

 

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 small leeks (or 3-4 large ones)

5-6 small potatoes

1 – 1 1/2 pints stock**

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

large knob of butter and/or olive oil

Directions

1. Wash, trim, and rough slice the leeks.
2. Melt the butter/olive oil in a large pan over a low heat and add the leeks. Stir to coat them in the butter/oil, cover, and leave to sweat for 15 mins or so. They should be soft but not caramelised.
3. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes and chop into bite-size cubes.
4. Add the potatoes and stock to the leeks, season, and bring to the boil.
5. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 mins, or until the potatoes are soft.
6. Optional: blend to your liking – sometimes I blend all the soup until smooth, sometimes I don’t blend at all.
7. Adjust seasoning to taste. Enjoy!

 

 

* A note on seasonality:

City living means that few of us grow our own these days, but Adam’s community allotment project is fantastic. It’s a little far for me (I live in Leicester) so we belong to a sustainable vegetable co-operative called Community Harvest Whetstone. Each week we get a box of vegetables, grown in Whetstone, seasonal, & often just pulled from the ground that morning. You can find out more at http://www.community-harvest-whetstone.org.uk/ where you may also notice a recipes page. If you like the leek & potato soup recipe above, you’ll find more ideas from my kitchen to try. Happy cooking!

 

** A note on stock:

You can of course use a stock cube dissolved in hot water. The way Mum did it was to keep the water when she’d boiled/steamed vegetables (except potatoes as they’re too starchy). It’ll keep in the fridge for a few days, and if it develops a layer of fat on the top just scrape that off and the stock underneath will be fine.

 

 

One of my earliest food memories is being at my grandma’s house when I was about 5-6 years old watching her stand over a stove for hours and hours just cooking and stirring a huge great metal pot, She was cooking a childhood favourite, Rabbit Stew, Now as a small child you wouldn’t think this would be your first choice as a dish but if you’ve ever met my grandma then you will quickly realise she isn’t a woman who’s food you refuse to eat.

She’s what you would describe as your typical Northern Grandma, She’s bossy, Loud, stubborn and she doesn’t take any crap from anyone just like my mum and that’s why I love them both and respect them like I do, as with most grandmas she’s the head of one side of the household but my god can that woman cook!

Over the last few years as I’ve developed my love of food and of cooking her and my Mum have been the 2 people that I’ve really looked up to and as with most family recipes they get passed down through each generation so that they can live on through the next person that is going to cook them and feed their family……..Not in this house they don’t, They are a closely guarded secret of my Grandmas and one of the things I have been trying to get her to give up over the last few years is her recipe book.

Over the last few years one of the things that has really stood out to me out of that book is her Meat Loaf recipe, I’m not sure why I think it’s the big bold flavours but it feels so comforting as you eat and takes me back to been a Kid and stood in the kitchen with her looking at all the amazing food she had cooked for us all (a part from the bread and dripping) I have in the last year been lucky enough to be given that recipe by my Grandma and I would like to share it with you, It’s a family recipe but it’s one that should be shared with everyone

I’ve added the photo in for you to work from as I don’t want you to think that this is just something I’ve pulled off the internet and I’ve not written that, trust me my hand writing isn’t that good

30g of butter
1 large onion finely chopped
750g of lean minced pork
1 Courgette grated
1 potato peeled and grated
8 tablespoons of Fruit Chutney
2 table spoons of chopped parsley
1 Large beaten egg
1 Clove of garlic

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees/Gas Mark 6

Add the butter to a frying pan and gently cook the onions for about 7-8 minutes until soft, After 5 minutes add the garlic do not let the garlic burn or start to colour, you just need to soften it. Allow this to cool

Then in a large mixing bowl add the Mince,Onion,Garlic,Courgette,Half of the Chutney,Parsley,Potato and the Egg, Season well with salt and pepper

Press the mixture into a large loaf tin and spread the remaining chutney on the top

Bake for around 45-50 mins, Drain off any excess fat from the pork.

Serve hot or cold

And that’s it, the one recipe that I have had passed onto me, I’m 100% sure that she is holding out on me with all of her special recipes but it’s a privilege just to be given one and hopefully one day she will be happy to let me have access to more of them.

Let me know if you have a favourite family recipe and the story behind it, email me amb.23@hotmail.co.uk and I’m happy to share them with everyone as everyone’s food story is unique and just as interesting as the next

 

 

So as all of you with children know, Its Half Term. For a lot of you this means days out at various attractions around the UK, now for the average family of 4 this could mean a lot of money just for the day and a large proportion of that money will quickly disappear on feeding those hungry kids after an action packed day, But how much does it all add up to and is worth packing a picnic for the day instead?

I’ve had a look through some prices for a few attractions around the uk and this is what ive found out.

Alton Towers

4 Medium Cokes @ £2.60 each= £10.40
4 Jumbo Hotdogs @ £4.40 each= £17.60
4 Panini @ £4.35 each= £17.40

Total= £45.40

Thorpe Park

Cheese Burger and Chips @ £7.75 = £31
Large Cokes @ £2.50 each = £10.00

Total= £41

Twycross Zoo

Breakfast @ £3.25 each = £9.75
Lunch @ £5.75 each = £23

Total £32.75

Now I’m not saying that this is what everyone will be eating when they go, there may be more there may be less but as you can see from the cost it all adds up to one expensive day out. It’s always worth checking on the web site for each attraction to see what the cost of food is going to be, If you have a lot of mouths to feed then it could be worth considering a picnic instead especially with the ticket price on top.

I know with buying food on site it does come with a certain level of convenience, No bags to carry, nothing to make the night before and no carrying your rubbish round with you afterwards but at the same time that small inconvenience could be the difference between £40-£60 on top of everything else that you have bought that day.

I welcome all feedback and I would love to hear from you If you’ve had an expensive day at an attraction or if you didn’t buy food on site how did you get around it?

 

You will be able to see that from the time line that this is my first visit and entry in quiet a while now, Its not because I don’t want to write an entry but as with most things its all about time.

I just wanted to keep you all informed and up to date on where we are with the project at the moment, As I wrote last time Morrisons supermarket have made a donation to the project they have given us a Greenhouse, Compost and seeds to help get us started. This has been a welcome donation to the project as we are hitting a lot of road blocks at the moment in terms of funding and help.

I have however received some welcomed news from Mars UK who are looking to help with the project and make donations to us as well, So watch this space for updates on that.

The land donation to the Primary school went brilliantly and I have been asked to go and speak at there school assemble soon to explain to them about the project and why we have donated some of the land to them. I think that its important that food education be part of the schools curriculum and that each child knows where there food comes from and is given a choice on what they eat.

Every fortnight we will choose one of the school pupils who are apart of the project to do a guest blog via my blog so that they can record all of the things that they have been doing on there own site at the project, This is a great way for friends and families of the pupils and the school to see all of the amazing work that they will be doing.

This week I also got my 15 minuets of fame with a brief article written on the project in the local paper The Melton Times Ive attached the link for those of you who would like to read it http://www.meltontimes.co.uk/lifestyle/home-garden/go-ahead-for-community-allotment-1-3891942

This has been a great piece of publicity for us and has raised a lot of awareness about what we are doing and will hopefully get more people involved. If you would like to make a donation to the project or would like to get involved at all email me at amb.23@hotmail.co.uk

And as always your feedback and comments are always welcome

This is completely irrelevant to anything that I’ve been writing about before but also something thats been bugging me for a few weeks now, Are we starting to lose the art of communication and conversation? NOW, I realise that as I write this I am writing to people I’ve never met and people that I haven’t sat down with and had a face to face conversation but sometimes it is good to put down on paper (meaning laptop) whats in our heads or what we have been doing.

What I mean by loosing it this, Just under 2 weeks ago I was at a local food event in my town centre, It was an Artisan Cheese Fair which by the way was amazing! For anyone thats been to anything like this before you will all know that the exhibitors are edged to the side of the halls where they can display what they are selling, and we as the consumer have to join the very long, very british line to get round the event.

In front of me and my wife stood a man and his friend, a seemingly ordinary chap just blending in with the rest of the crowd, Like everyone we shuffled along, ate some cheese and shuffled along again and as we were moving from stall to stall I could see the ordinary chap just jotting a few things down on a small black notepad.

After 15 minutes or so we came to a beautiful little stand where they sold Ewes Milk Cheese, It had a parmesan type texture but a beautiful meaty flavour to it, Anyway as we were eating we all stopped and chatted to the owner of the stand about where they are located, how they came about the farm and so on and I was fascinated how a complete stranger was happy to talk about their life and share stories with people she had just met after a few minutes she turned to the ordinary chap and asked him what he thought about the produce, and with a single dismissive cheese filled breath simply replied “You’ll have to read my blog to find out” and left!

Now as you can see from the entries below this I’m all for blogging and tweeting its great it truly is, but this woman who had clearly worked so hard to produce something so beautiful and unique was just looking for the validation of people who were clearly there to celebrate a love of food and all she got was the back of a very rude very ordinary chap.

Im not knocking the use of Twitter, Facebook and any blogging site for that matter I think its great that we can still keep up with each other regardless of our schedules or timezones, But next time a stranger engages you in conversation don’t be like the Ordinary Chap and just dismiss them as you may find that you’re missing out on a great story with what could be a truly amazing person, and thats something that you woudnt get on Twitter would you?

So in the biggest will they, wont they since Ross & Rachel (Yeah I watch Friends) We have finally been allocated a large plot of land. Its taken a lot of meetings and a lot of hunting around but we’ve done it.

The plot is at our local country park in Melton Mowbray and is a lot bigger than we ever imagined it would be, Its 200ft long and 65ft wide. There is no clearing needed so we are ready to get growing as soon as possible.

We’ve had some amazing support on this not just from Melton Borough Council but also from the residents of Melton and people that Ive spoken to about it, They have all seen this as a positive thing that I have started and going forward we hope to make this a wider project and get a lot more people involved.

We are in the process of completing a funding application so that we can start to buy materials for the site. The biggest thing we need at the moment is fencing as its pretty exposed up there right now. We’ve had a donation already from Morrisions supermarket in Melton, they have sent us a greenhouse, seeds and some compost, this has been such an amazing help and goes to show that there really are some generous people out there.

We are still relying on donations from people to help get this off the ground so if you know anyone or you yourself can help then please please get in touch with me, this really is a great cause my email address is amb.23@hotmail.co.uk or if you want to get in touch with any feedback is welcome as always.

Ive also come to the decision that im going to sign over part of the land, approx. 30ft by 65ft to a local primary school so they too can start to grow on the land and start to run classes for the pupils of the school and hopefully educate them on where their food comes from. It will mean that from an early age they will show an appreciation for their food and make them think about what they are eating and where their food comes from.

I’ve also been thinking about the future and where this project is going as I don’t want this to become something that doesn’t grow and reach a wider audience, So I thought what if dotted around the town centre we had some small flower boxes filled with different types of veg so that if you walking through the town then you can just help yourself to what ever is in the planters, Some will be filled with salad leaves that you can just pick a few bits off hear and there and then other boxes that may have some potatoes in or other veg, the ideas are endless with it and its another way that we can reach the town and the people that walk through it everyday to get them involved in the project as well.

For now, really thats all ive got to tell you just wanted to give you all an update on where were at with this, hopefully next week I will have more for you now Its always difficult thinking of a way to sign off when you’re writing a blog, but one thing I will leave you with and I want you to think about is this, Where does your food come from and what can you do to reduce your food miles and help educate the people around you?