Thanksgiving Side Dishes

We all know we're going to have turkey and gravy on Thanksgiving, but that's not what I get excited about eating.  I really get excited about the side dishes.  My mom's fabulous stuffing, Emily's super delicious cranberry sauce, Jen's amazing sweet potato souffle.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I wanted to send out a challenge to you--post your favorite Thanksgiving side dish recipes or tips before the big day.  May all our Thanksgivings be more thankful and delicious than the last.

My contribution is a recipe I came up with a few years ago.  I wanted green beans in a butter sauce, but couldn't find a recipe, so I experimented and came up with this one.

Garlicky Green Beans in Butter Sauce

2 Tbsp. butter
2 garlic cloves, sliced very thin
2 tsp. flour
1/2 c. chicken broth
2 cans green beans
1/4-1/2 c. sliced almonds
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and saute until golden brown.  Stir in flour and cook for a minute to take away the floury taste.  Stir in chicken broth.  Cook until thickened, one to two minutes.  Add green beans and heat through.  Off the heat, add almonds and season to taste.

Here are my tips and suggestions:
--Don't leave the garlic alone, it will go from pale to burnt quite quickly.  Also, don't be tempted to turn up the heat to make it go faster (I always do that.), the burnt will happen quicker.
--If you don't like garlic, either leave it out, or fish it out of the butter before adding the flour.  The second option will give you a subtle toasted garlic flavor.
--The butter sauce is made to be 1 Tbsp butter, 1 tsp flour, and 1/4 c. broth to 1 can green beans, but if you make the recipe as I have it here, you could probably add another can of green beans and have the sauce cover it.
--I usually make the sauce, add it to the green beans and microwave it.
--This can be made ahead of time.  Make the sauce, pour it over the beans and put it in the fridge until you're ready to eat it.  Then, nuke, add the almonds and season.

Green Beans and Spaetzle

Growing up, one thing we always had at holiday dinners was Birds Eye brand green beans and spaetzle.It may have been my favorite part of the meal, there never seemed to be enough. Sadly, they don't make it anymore so I had to find another way to have it this year for Christmas dinner. I decided to try and make it myself. It turned out pretty good so I thought I would share what I did.

I found dried spaetzle in the store so I just boiled that like pasta. In the last few minutes of boiling, I added the green beans. I think I even threw in a little bit of chopped garlic that I had left over on the cutting board. Once they were done, I mixed in butter, salt and bacon bits. I used the real bacon that comes in a pouch, not the crunchy bacon bits that go on salads. As I was thinking it through, I thought I would need to put in more of something but it turned out quite yummy. This may need to become a staple.

Green Bean Casserole

Green bean casserole is one of those things that remind people of their childhood holidays. It's usually something their mom always made and as such they have a very distinct idea of what it should be like. Similar to potato salad, everyone makes it just a little bit differently and thinks theirs is the best. I did not grow up with this (we had green beans with spetzle for holiday meals) so I can be objective in these recipes. I found one on Allrecipes.com that did not involve cream of mushroom soup and I liked it a lot. Naturally I made a few changes which are reflected here.

2 T butter

2 T flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white sugar

diced onion

1 c sour cream

one big bag frozen french cut green beans (it called for three cans, steamed fresh beans would also be good)

2 c grated cheese (calls for cheddar, I used leedermeyer because it was what I had)

1/2 c crushed Ritz crachers

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter and saute onion. Mix in flour and cook for one minute. (This was a bit odd, it would probably have been good to cook the onion, set it aside then melt the butter and add the flour.) Stir in salt, sugar and sour cream. Add green beans and stir to coat. Mix in about half of the cheese.

Transfer to a casserole dish. Spread the remaining cheese on top with the crushed crackers. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden and cheese is bubbly.