Thanksgiving Recipes!

Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving Recipes. Be brave...try em' out this year!

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes.

3 Medium Sweet Potatoes (around 2 lbs) *Scrub them well!

5-6 slices of Bacon

2 Tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar

3 Tablespoons butter

2 small shallots

1 teaspoon Fresh minced rosemary + a little extra for garnish

1 large egg

4 Tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 Cup finely grated Gruyere cheese (the recipe calls for about 2 oz...but I always use more than just 2 oz!) +extra cheese for garnish

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

1) Preheat oven to 400. Pierce sweet potatoes with a fork& line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake potatoes until tender...about 45 minutes. Remove potatoes and let them cool while you cook the bacon.

2) Line a baking sheet with foil. Place a wire cookie rack on the aluminum lined sheet and arrange bacon strips on the wire rack. Sprinkle with brown sugar & cook in the 400 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and roughly chop. *I have skipped the whole wire rack/foil lined sheet before & just sprinkled the brown sugar on the bacon and put it in the microwave on paper towels. Both methods have there drawbacks (they kinda make a mess!), but the sweet/crispy/crunchy bacon bits are worth the trouble...trust me!

3) Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a medium heat skillet and add shallots; cook until soft-about two minutes. Add rosemary and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat.

4)Carefully split potatoes lengthwise & CAREFULLY spoon out flesh, leaving about 1/4 inch shell; set the halves on a baking sheet. Place flesh in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment. Add 2-3 more tablespoons butter, shallot/rosemary mixture/ egg/ cream/ and Gruyere. Mix until well combined. Season with salt and pepper.

5) *Transfer mixture to pastry bag fitted with very large star tip. Pipe mixture into shells. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Garnish with extra Gruyere, rosemary, and bacon. Enjoy!

*You can skip the whole pastry bag step if you are not a cake decorator :-) & just spoon the mixture into the shells. Or...you can put the mixture into a large gallon size baggie and cut the tip off the the end of the baggie and pipe the filling into the shells that way!

Caramel Apple Pie.

1 prepared 9 inch pie crust (deep dish). I make my own most of the time, but I won't tell anyone if you use the cheater store-bought ones...I've done it a time or two before (hanging head).

Pie Filling:

6 Medium apples (about 2 3/4 pounds), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced. I use Jonathan apples, and golden delicious apples most of the time.

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

tiny pinch of ground cloves (*don't tell Jon I add cloves or he won't eat this pie anymore!).

*Stir together sugar, flour, and spices. Sprinkle over sliced apples & toss to coat.

Crumb Topping:

1 Cup light brown sugar.

1/2 Cup Flour

1/2 cup (rounded) quick cooking oats

1 stick of butter + 2 Tablespoons (1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons)

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 Cup chopped pecans

*Combine brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon & nutmeg. Keep butter well chilled & cut the butter into small chunks & combine it with the oat/flour/sugar/spice mixture until it is like course crumbs. *Add pecans and stir well.

*Pour sliced apple mixture into well-chilled pie crust.

*Sprinkle crumb topping over apple mixture.

*Place pie on a cookie sheet so the drippings won't burn to the bottom of your oven.

*Cover pie crust with strips of aluminum foil.

*Bake at 375 for the first 30 minutes. Reduce temp to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. You may need to loosely tent the whole pie with aluminum foil during the last 20 minutes if the topping is looking too dark brown.

**You do not have to add the pecans to the crumb topping either. You can add the pecans AFTER you remove the pie from the oven if you want them to be a little more crunchy. Jon likes it when I add the pecans to the top after it's done baking, but it's a little easier (I think) to just throw em' in the topping mixture. It's your choice.

1/3 Cup Caramel Topping

*Let your pie cool for about 15 minutes and then drizzle top with caramel topping! Divine!!