Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

 

 

 

So . . .have you cooked anything delicious this week?  I've cooked two big meals . . .one on Tuesday night for our young adults.  This week we had Mexican.  I cooked six pounds of lean hamburger meat and added spices, etc.  I chopped tomatoes and onions and I made 18 cheese quesadillas.  I also made homemade guacamole (my sister-in-law Alice taught me how to make guacamole!!).  I did cheat a tad -- I called Tecate in Vestavia and ordered a pan of rice and a pan of beans and 60 ounces of salsa.  I love Tecate's salsa . . .and I also love their margaritas!

 

The other meal I cooked was for last night.  We celebrated our daughter-in-law's birthday last night.  Her actual birthday is Monday.  I'll post about that menu an another day.

 

I love Thanksgiving.  It is one of my all time favorite holidays.  It is a time where we can get together with family and friends.  There are no gifts involved.  There is good food . . .and my favorite food in all the world (besides French fries) is dressing (or stuffing . .or whatever you want to call it).  Here in our state . . .or maybe I should say in my home growing up and in Mark's momma's house . . .we have traditional cornbread dressing . . .and GRAVY . . .Gravy is probably my third favorite food.  I know I'm overweight but I promise it is not from eating those three foods all the time!!  I think I love dressing and gravy so much because we eat it so rarely.

 

So . . .over the years, Mark and I have been assigned various food duties for Thanksgiving.  Mark's momma cooks the turkey and dressing and gravy and she makes pies . . . lots of pies . . .at least a pie per person . . .really .  . . she is in her late 80's (I think) and still not slowing down on the pie baking at Thanksgiving.  We bring the sides.  We always make "pumpkin souffle" . . .which is really butternut squash . . .but we have always called it pumpkin.  It is really good.  We don't even attach the word souffle to it . . .which it probably really isn't . . .thinking about what a traditional souffle looks like . . .we just say, "we'll bring the pumpkin."  Everyone knows what we mean.  Sometimes Mark's momma asks us to bring an appetizer (she says she doesn't know how to make appetizers).  The problem is that we don't eat until dinner - until nighttime - while all you people are stuffing your face in the middle of the day . . .we are waiting . . .and waiting!!!  If we have an appetizer, we are all so hungry that we eat way too much of the appetizer . . .and then don't have room for the GOOD stuff (like gravy!!!)

 

A couple of years ago, I made a raw veggie turkey.  (you know - we need some low cal raw veggies to combat the dressing and gravy, right???)  I thought I would share it with y'all today . . .since we are quickly approaching my favorite day of the year . . .Turkey Day . . .Thanksgiving . . .a day to give thanks!  (we need to do that every day . . the giving thanks part!!)

 

 

Nothing fancy . . .and not hard to assemble at all.  I just used a big round glass tray and covered the tray first with large clean lettuce leaves.  I chopped red, green and yellow peppers into slim half circles.  I sliced a cucumber.  I opened a can of black olives.  Then I assembled.  I started with the carrots and worked my toward the "head."  I guess you can tell that I saved 1/3 to 1/2 of the green pepper to use as Mr. Turkey's head.  His beak is a small "chunk" of yellow pepper and his "goozler" (I know the real name . . .I just like "goozler" better)  is a sliver of red pepper.  I think I made homemade ranch dressing/dip (but you could dump some from a bottle or buy some already prepared) to go with the veggies and served it on the side in another clear glass or cut crystal bowl.

 

I would love for someone . . (thanks Robin and Lauren for sharing recipes!!) out there in blog land to share some Thanksgiving recipes with me.  I have a link at the bottom, you just have to link up with us . . .

I love stories, too . . .so if your recipe has a story, please share that with us!!  Do you eat cornbread dressing? . . .or potato stuffing (my sister-in-law in Delaware) . . .or stovetop stuffing??

p.s. (can you p.s. on a blog?? - I guess so since it is mine . .)  I bought the ingredients to bake Robin's date and chocolate chip cake from a couple of weeks ago.  I may bake it this afternoon!!