Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time of year with friends and family gathering together, sharing a meal, counting our blessings, and probably take in some football games.
This year I am sharing some of my Fork-Lore.com favorite Thanksgiving recipes that our family has enjoyed for many, many years.
Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving memories!
My Mother would often find old sheet music at estate sales and bring it home for me to play on the piano. As a result, I have a stack of music that is great fun to look through. A few days ago, I was looking through the stack and ran across this piece, Where the Columbines Grow.
Little did I know back in those days that I would eventually settle in Colorado, now for 33.5 years. Columbines are one of my favorite flowers. While most of the Columbines are now gone from my garden, I can enjoy photos all year-long.
Where the Columbines Grow
“Where the Columbines Grow” is one of the two official state songs of Colorado. It was written and composed by A.J. Fynn, and was adopted on May 8, 1915. In the early to mid-2000s, there was debate over replacing “Where the Columbines Grow” with John Denver‘s “Rocky Mountain High” or Merle Haggard‘s rare song “Colorado”. In 2007, the Colorado legislature named “Rocky Mountain High” as Colorado’s second official state song, paired with “Where the Columbines Grow”.[1]
Meat Loaf is a favorite of mine and feel badly that it’s gotten a bad name. Perhaps people have even too many ‘bad’ meatloaf to appreciate the good. Meat Loaf is not a pretty dish but it is excellent paired with a good baked potato, salad and green vegetable. And, who doesn’t like a good meatloaf sandwich from the leftovers? My Mother always had a slice of raw potato on her meat loaf sandwich and it’s good. Who knew!
Meat Loaf is not easy to photograph…my apologies but I won’t apologize for the wonderful results!
MEAT LOAF
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I prefer ground chuck or sirloin)
3/4 cup quick oatmeal (uncooked)
1/2 cup chopped onion (optional)
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cup milk
TOPPING:
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1/3 to 1/2 cup catsup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Mix all but topping together. Pack firmly into a loaf pan. Spread the topping over.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 60-90 minutes or until done. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.
Oatmeal cake with broiled topping is truly a walk down memory lane. My Mother didn’t make this cake often, but when she did, it was a treat.
This time I decided to bake the cake in two 9×9″ pans and freeze one for later…or so I thought. While the cakes and topping were cooling and while I was trying to settle grandson, Evan, into his afternoon nap, the dogs decided to sample one of the cakes. I was so unhappy, I didn’t take the time to snap one of those naughty dog photos!
Luckily one cake remained and it was delicious! The cake is moist and the crunch topping is so yummy. Top with a dallop of whipped cream.
Thanks, Mom for a great recipe. And to the dogs…I’ll choose to say nothing.
OATMEAL CAKE
1 cup quick oatmeal
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 1/2 cups flour plus 2 tablespoons flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9×13″ (or two 9×9″) cake pans.
Mix together oatmeal and boiling water. Let stand 20 minutes and cool.
Mix flour, brown sugar, white sugar, shortening, eggs, salt, cinnamon and soda. Add cooled oatmeal.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. Prepare topping while the cake is baking.
TOPPING:
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup coconut
Bring all ingredients to a boil. Spread topping over cake while cake and topping are hot.
Put cake and topping under broiler and let topping brown.
Great friend and neighbor, Maribeth, shared this recipe with me several months ago. She had shared with me that Chicken Yum Yum was a family favorite and I was excited to try it. For some reason, I envisioned a Chinese dish but this is true Americana comfort food. I have made it with cooked chicken breasts (a little drier) or with a whole roasted chicken. The roasted (or rotissiere chicken from the store) wins, hands down.
This would be a great recipe to assemble the night before (sans the stuffing), adding the stuffing and butter immediately before baking.
I paired the Chicken Yum Yum with roasted broccoli and it was…YUM YUM!
CHICKEN YUM YUM
1 cooked chicken
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 box stove top stuffing
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 stick (1/2 cup) margarine/butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Place evenly in a 9×13″ greased pan.
Mix together sour cream and cream of chicken soup and pour over chicken.
Sprinkle box of stuffing over soup/sour cream layer.
Drizzle chicken broth over stuffing layer.
Melt 1 stick margarine or butter and drizzle over the top.
Recently our book club read and reviewed ‘Tallgrass’ by Sandra Dallas, a historical novel that addresses the life and times of the small Colorado town and the controversial internment camp that divided the townspeople. It was an great book and spurred an excellent discussion. We all agreed that Sandra Dallas, who lives in Colorado and has family ties to Iowa, has an excellent voice for her characters.
Our book club always begins our gathering with a wonderful potluck typically with a theme associated with book. This evening we enjoyed sushi, edemame salad, fried rice, salads, fruit and much more. After brainstorming with my book club buddies, I decided to make an Old Fashioned Apple Pie in honor of Mary Stroud, a key character in the book.
My favorite Apple Pie is, again, from one my all-time favorite cookbooks. I must confess that I don’t make my own pie crust. I think the Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crusts are excellent and I’d rather spend time on the good part…the filling!
As I was making this pie and cutting the vents for the top crust, I couldn’t help but think of my Mother and the hundreds, if not thousands, of pies that she baked over the years. I carry on her vent design, simple but effective.
The pie is excellent on its own but always wonderful topped with vanilla bean ice cream, too!
OLD FASHIONED APPLE PIE
Pastry for 2 crust pie
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons flour
dash salt
6 cups thinly sliced, pared tart cooking apples
2 tablespoons butter
On lightly floured surface, roll out half of pastry into an 11 inch circle. Use to line 9 inch pie plate, trim. Refrigerate, with rest of pastry until ready to use.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, flour and salt, mixing well. Add to apples in large bowl, tossing lightly to combine.
Turn into pastry-lined pie plate, mounding high in center; dot with butter.
Roll out remaining pastry into an 11 inch circle. Make several slits near center for steam vents; adjust over filling; trim.
Fold edge of top crust under bottom crust; press together with fingertips. Crimp edge decoratively.
Bake 45-50 minutes, or until apples are tender and crust is golden-brown.
Aunts and Uncles are a bit like Grandparents. They get to spoil the nieces and nephews, shower them with affection and love, and leave when they are amped up on sugar and fun. It’s a good gig! I was an Aunt at age 7 and grew up with my niece and two nephews. It was wonderful having playmates and helping out my older sister and brother. A highlight of every year was when they came to stay with us and go to Bible School at the rural Carlton Brethren Church, a half mile from our house. There were sticker charts, ice cream, indoor picnics, dress-up (sorry Jeff and Duane), and so many stories!
Aunt Cathy and Sherri
After college I moved out-of-state and was always sad not to be closer to my family but treasured each of the visits back to see everyone. I was very fortunate to have wonderful Aunts and Uncles as well. Not all of them lived close but my siblings and I always knew we were loved with the hugs/kisses that went with their visits.
At this state of my life, I have 3 Aunts and 1 Uncle. Uncle Jack will be 90 this month and planning a big celebration. Aunt Joyce (Jack’s wife) turned 86 in February. Aunt Lora (also my Mother’s BFF in school) turned 94 this year. Aunt Wilma will turn 100 next June. From these wonderful people I learned the importance of family/loyalty, laughter, music, traditional dishes prepared for holidays and family gatherings.
Several years ago, when camcorders were new to the market, we traveled to Iowa with our newborn daughter to celebrate Christmas. Christmas Eve day several of my family members were visiting at my Mother’s House.
Cathy and Uncle Jack
We turned on the camcorder asked our family members ‘what is your favorite Christmas memory?’ I tear up just thinking about it. The heart-warming, loving, funny, and sarcastic stories were great at the time but are true treasures now.
Stories (Photo credit: Enokson)
This holiday season let’s spend our time BEING PRESENT and sharing stories for our children and grandchildren to treasure. Break out the smart phone and make a video, perhaps the best PRESENT of the season!
The past several weeks have been a little crazy for me. Not only was my first grandbaby expected but I was getting new vinyl siding. No more blue house for me…or as the kids called it…the smurf house. In the ’80s, country blue was big but honestly, it’s been out of style for a long time. The decision to paint/repair or to buy new siding was a big economic commitment. I finally made the decision…vinyl siding.
The kids were a little nostalgic about the change…no more smurf house! I was excited to see my house transformed. The results were amazing.
BEFORE…Smurf HouseAFTER…Is that my house?
You know the old saying that once you start fixing one thing it leads to a host of other needed improvements. I intended to paint the old garage door but after 15 minutes of scraping, I realized this door was not going to stay. My garage was always dark and a door with windows was on my wish list. Voila! Home Depot had the solution. Now when I walk into the garage, my first reaction is ‘I must have left the garage door open since it’s so light in here’ but realize the new door makes that much difference.
Every big job must have at least one issue and mine was the mailbox. So what does a new siding job have to do with a mailbox you ask? During a delivery of siding supplies, the workers knocked over my old mailbox. It was vintage (meaning ready to be replaced anyway), so another trip to Home Depot for a brand-spanking new white mailbox and post. The workers installed it for me while I was away at an appointment (bless their hearts!). Only problem…it was installed hanging about 6-8″ over the sidewalk. Needless to say, I didn’t want to be the owner of a mailbox that took out the neighborhood kids skating down the sidewalk.
Neighbor, Gary, to the rescue. He was kind enough the next day to move it back to the safe zone for our neighborhood. Now, I hope, I’m on the good side of the HOA and my neighbors.
This job now has me contemplating my next project…I think the smurf shed needs a transformation, too!
Fork Lore 