Thanksgiving meals are pretty much a set menu in my family.  There might be a few variations here and there, but largely, it’s turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, biscuits, salad, and pumpkin pie.  But Christmas dinner is a whole different ballgame. We’ve had turkey again.  We’ve had ham.  A couple years, my mother floated the idea of a traditional Christmas goose, but even she had to admit that just because something was traditional didn’t mean it tasted good.  And we’ve had prime rib.

My mother recently pointed out to me how convenient it would be if all my Thanksgiving recipes on the blog were in one place.   A compilation frankly hadn’t occurred to me, so I thanked her for the idea.  She then added that it would also be quite nice if I didn’t wait until the week before Thanksgiving to publish such a compilation; doing it earlier and giving people time to plan for the big holiday feast would be much more useful.  So here we are.  Happy Halloween, and here’s a collection of my Thanksgiving dinner recipes.

When I was a kid, my mother was determined that her children should not be picky eaters, and so she served us a wide variety of food.  And lots of vegetables.  Like my brothers, I was not overly fond of vegetables, much preferring starchy delights like biscuits and man ‘n’ cheese. My mother’s rule was that we had to eat what she put on our plates, no matter how long it took, which is how I often ended up at the dinner table an hour after everyone else was done.  Sometimes, I still hadn’t finished dinner by the time the breakfast meal rolled around, so I got to continue enjoying last night’s dinner for breakfast.

In the summer, when my appetite wanes, I’m always on the lookout for recipes that are a full meal, but aren’t heated, and aren’t heavy.  My Greek Chicken Wrap recipe meets all three criteria and really hits the spot.

I haven’t posted a recipe for awhile, so I thought this might be a good time to publish another quick and easy dinner recipe.  I call this one Quick Korean Beef, which I have adapted from some recipes I found on the interwebs.  I have another version of this that uses cubed beef and cooks in the crockpot, but it’s more work, tastes about the same, and takes a lot longer.  This dish takes about 20 minutes to make from start to finish, assuming you have rice already made up.

Who says sweets can’t be (relatively) healthy? I mean, that’s just nonsense! Case in point…peanut butter balls. I have a good recipe for those, and I love making them, although these days I make them in bar form. But they are super sweet, and super high calorie, while not having much in the of nutritional value.

However, there’s another way.

I mentioned in a previous blog post about the beauty of legumes that I have an absolutely sublime split pea soup recipe.  But the reason I seldom make it is that this particular recipe requires a very meaty ham bone.  Not smoked ham hocks that you can get from your butcher, or cubed up ham, but a real ham bone with lots of meat and fat still on it, and presumably with some marrow still in the bone.

I mentioned kale salad in a previous post and since it’s a family favorite and family gets together around the holidays, I thought I’d present it here in time for Christmas.  I believe I mentioned in the previous post that kale smells like sweaty socks, and therefore palatability can be a challenge.  This raw kale salad gets around that issue with an amazing dressing that tenderizes the kale and renders it absolutely delicious.

I like a convenient, quick breakfast as much as the next person.  Factor in my sweet tooth, and I find that the Quaker oatmeal packets of instant oatmeal are fast, easy, and tasty when I’m in a hurry.  They are not, however, super healthy.

I’m a big fan of the Smitten Kitchen blog. I have been following her almost as long as she has been posting. Fabulous recipes, easy to make, with some entertaining commentary along the way. She’s also written several cookbooks, one of which features in today’s blog post.

I’m not sure why, but I always think of caramel corn as a holiday treat.  Maybe that’s because it was often something my mother would make around Christmas time. Or maybe because I vaguely remember her making “caramel corn balls” (a little bigger than a baseball) to hand out one Halloween.  But there’s no reason you can’t have caramel corn year around…

When I was a kid, after church on Sundays, my family would often eat out at Elmer’s.  I always had (and honestly, still do) one of two entrees.  I’d either have the German pancake [insert link to blog post] or I’d have Eggs Benedict.  The classic, with the layer of ham, poached eggs, and piles of beautiful Hollandaise sauce, all served over an English muffin.  Back in my youth, there was no nonsense about adding things like avocado or crab meat to Eggs Benedict…

Ah, summer…so much variety available in terms of fresh fruit and berries.  And my favorite way to eat a fruity dessert is in the form of a crisp.  For the uneducated, a crisp is a baked dish where the bottom layer is fruit or berries, sweetened as desired, and the topping is a combination of butter, brown sugar, and oats or nuts.

I love strawberries.  Which is why I planted a bunch of them in my deck garden this year: Tristar day-neutral (ever-bearing) strawberries, among the sweetest and most flavorful I’ve ever tasted.  And of course it follows that I love the summer dessert, strawberry shortcake.

“Quesadillas…aren’t those Mexican grilled cheese sandwiches?” Yes. “No, wait, they’re nachos in sandwich form.” Also, yes. More importantly, they are quick and easy to make, delicious, adaptable, and almost universally enjoyed. Do you really need me to tell you how to make a quesadilla? Probably not. Is that going to stop me? Definitely not.

During the heat of the summer, I find it hard to eat. This is always an odd sensation, since at most times, I like eating above most other pleasures. But in the sticky heat of a Pacific Northwest summer, food is unappealing and if I manage to eat a normal meal, heavy in my stomach. But. Humans still gotta eat.

PI Day and St. Patrick’s Day come in quick succession, which is perhaps why I was thinking about pie.  And then green pie.  Which naturally led to Grasshopper Pie.  Thinking about pie led to googling about pie.

The last time I asked my mother to refresh my memory on the details of her deviled eggs recipe, she told me eggs, mayo, salt, pepper, and ground dry mustard.  Then she reminded me that her recipe was straight out of the Betty Crocker cookbook.  I checked my own Betty Crocker cookbook, and sure enough, there it was.

Both my brothers married very well.  By that I mean, not only do they have lovely and talented wives, but in both cases, my brothers have become better men because of their wives.  Okay, there might be a few other factors, but really, I credit the wives.  My youngest brother still lives in California with my favorite sister-in-law, but they do come up to visit on the holidays, and she brings with her a delightful and easy dish, Cheesy Potatoes.

I know, it’s tradition to cook a whole turkey, display it triumphantly to the family on the table, and then return it to the kitchen for carving.  Okay, maybe some people carve at the table but my family switched to kitchen carving many years ago.  Cuts way down on the hassle and mess (and also, the public embarrassment if something goes awry).