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.

Dutch Oven Potatoes

Kirk Farmer made these amazing potatoes at the Bingham family reunion. He graciously shared his recipe with me. This makes a ton of potatoes!

Dutch Oven Potatoes

10 lbs potatoes, sliced thin (Kirk does his on a salad shooter, a mandolin might work just as well, you can keep the skins on or take them off, whatever you like.)
1 lb bacon, diced
1 lrg onion, diced
1 cube butter
water
shredded cheese (Kirk says he often uses Velveeta, because it melts so nicely. He also said the Mexican Velveeta is good in this too.)
14" Dutch oven

Cook the bacon in the dutch oven until crispy, transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Cook the onion in the bacon drippings until translucent. Add the potatoes and stir to combine with the onions. Add a little water to help the potatoes steam. (Sorry, I don't think he told me how much he adds, I would imagine 2-4 cups would work. If you try it, let us all know what you used and how it turned out.) Dot the top of the potatoes with the butter. Cover and let cook for 45 minutes. Take off the cover and add the cheese and bacon. Cover and cook until the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I apologize if I have gotten anything wrong. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the recipe when Kirk told it to me, and I haven't tried it yet to see what I may have forgotten. I will let you know what happens when I do try it. Also, if you don't have a dutch oven, you could make this in the oven. I would try it at 350.

Pork and chive pot stickers

I got this recipe from my Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine, October 2009. My family absolutely loves these, but I'll admit they're time-consuming - especially for a side dish. I recommend making them ahead of time then frying them right before it's time to eat. Goes great with a stir-fry and egg drop soup for a fabulous Chinese feast. I'll have to post Dave's soup recipe at some point because it is the best. I've already doubled the amounts, because we found that 1 batch wasn't enough. You can freeze raw dumplings on a cookie sheet, then store in bags up to 3 months. Cook them frozen.

.

1/2 pound ground pork (hamburger would be good too)
2 Tbsp minced chives/green onions
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp dry sherry (I just use water)
2 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp sesame oil (I don't usually have this, so I just use regular oil)
1 tsp cornstarch
36-40 wonton wrappers (usually in the produce department)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
In a bowl combine pork, chives, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, oil, cornstarch and 1 Tbsp water. Place a heaping tsp of pork mixture in center of a wonton wraper.Lightly wet edges of wrapper, fold over and press to seal (I usually press edges with a fork). Repeat to form remaining dumplings.

In two batches, cook dumplings in a large pot of boiling water for 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Make sure they're not touching or else they'll stick together. Some will fall apart in the process, but you won't mind eating the mess-ups.
4. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Gently pat dumplings dry with paper towel, then cook until browned, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Serve warm with soy-ginger sauce:

Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce
I've never actually made this b/c the pot stickers are yummy on their own and I'm usually running out of time, but it sounds good:

In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce, 3 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger, 2 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp sesame oil.

Greek Couscous Salad

I came up with this one day when Anna needed lunch and just used what I had on hand. Later, I added a few more things after thinking about it.

Cooked couscous
Can of chopped tomatoes, drained
Sliced olives - I used black but can use kalamata if you want more of a kick
Crumbled feta
Seasoned chicken (optional)
Sliced fresh basil

Mix it all together in proportions that you like.

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.

Surprisingly Good Greens

I was trying to come up with a snack for Anna to eat and came up with this. She didn't like it all the much but I thought it was great.

1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
Chopped Kale
Baby Spinach
Olive Oil
Garlic Salt

Heat oil in a sauce pan. Add the pepper and saute for a bit. Add the kale (in batches if you are doing a lot) and wilt then add spinach. Season with garlic salt.

There are a number of variations you can do: use butter, add onions or any other kind of pepper, change up the spices.