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No, it’s not Thursday Thirteen, LOL. I threw a list together offering some cooking and baking ideas that may come in handy during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. You may already know most of these. Feel free to jump in and share some of your own, I’m always eager to learn new ideas. As I think of, or come across others I’ll drop them in the comments.

Hints, Suggestions, Substitutions…

1. When microwaving – Do not salt foods on the surface as it causes dehydration and toughens food. Salt after you remove from the oven unless the recipe calls for using salt in the mixture.

2. Substitutions – One cup self-rising; substitute one cup all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon salt, and one teaspoon baking powder.

3. Equivalency

– One pound powdered sugar equals 3 ½ cups.

– 4 Ounces (1 ¼ cup) Uncooked Macaroni equals 2 ¼ cups cooked

– One medium Onion equals ½ cup

– One medium Lemon equals 3 tablespoons juice

– One cup regular Rice equals 3 cups cooked

4. Icing Cakes – If you sprinkle cake with powdered sugar first icing will remain where you put it.

5. Cream Pies – Sprinkle crust with powdered sugar in order to prevent cream pies from becoming soggy.

6. Do not despair if you oversalt gravy. Stir in some instant mashed potatoes to solve the problem. Just add a little more liquid in order to offset the thickening.

7. To keep celery crisp, stand upright in a pitcher of cold, salted water and refrigerate.

8. To keep cauliflower white while cooking, add a little milk to the water.

9. Use greased muffin tins as molds when baking stuffed green peppers.

10. When baking muffins or cupcakes, fill any empty tins 2/3 full of water to ensure even baking.

11. When adding raw, beaten eggs to hot mixtures and sauces, temper the eggs. Add small amounts of hot mixture to beaten eggs first slowly bringing them up to temperature; such as in making cornbread dressing. This will keep you from having scrambled eggs in your dishes.

12. To avoid tears when cutting onions, briefly place them in the freezer before cutting.

13. When making meringue, egg whites need to be at room temperature for greater volume when whipping.

Bon Appetite
The Backseat Gourmet

Popularity: 4% [?]

I was pleasantly surprised earlier this evening when I discovered we had broken a visitor count record. Everybody’s gearing up for the Thanksgiving Day feast which resulted in a slew of visitors that had searched for “Southern Cornbread Dressing” and landed here.

So, you better hurry up and get to the grocery store ASAP and get your holiday feast groceries if you haven’t already. It always amazes me how those shelves and freezers at the grocery store get wiped out in no time flat at the last minute.

It’s as though everybody comes at once with a grocery vacuum in hand programmed to suck up all the ingredients for a holiday feast at breakneck suction and speed as soon as they enter the door. Hold on tight to your cart and its contents cuz those suckers are mighty powerful!

I bought all of mine last week. I wanted to get that job out of the way AND miss the vaccum totin’ crowd. Also, I ordered a Pumpkin Roll from our locally owned chicken diner, Jimmy’s Chicken, when I saw the sign on the front door of the restaurant. DH and I LOVE their southern fried chicken, cole slaw, and truly homemade pies so I figure their Pumpkin Roll ought to be a treat, too.

We’ll have the usual feast, roasted turkey, southern cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and giblet gravy, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, and rolls along with our Pumpkin Roll and maybe a homemade pie.

I thoroughly enjoy this feast the first time around and for the next couple of days afterward. It always taste GREAT the second and third time around AND, best of all, I don’t have to cook those days.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Hi All! GUESS WHAT’S NEXT WEEK! Yea, I know Thanksgiving, BUT what else? Black Friday, the BIGGEST shopping day of the year! I heard it through the grapevine that Kohl’s Department Stores will be opening at 4 am. Friday, November 23. I LOVE to shop, but I’m not camping out all night at the stores to get trampled going after that one “Hot Item”. No Sirree Bob. Remember what happened the year the cabbage patch dolls came out?

Of course there are those that will camp out at the stores, not necessarily because they are shopping for kids or grandkids on their list. They are looking to capitalize by purchasing those “hot items” that are in short supply only to turn around to resell them on ebay to the highest bidder.

Perusing through the circulars and sale papers, watching football, and just lying around like beached whales is generally the consensus in our family after a big Thanksgiving meal. What are your plans for Thanksgiving, cooking, going out to eat, having your meal catered?

This year I have two Thanksgiving Dinners to cook for, neither of which is at my house; two separate meals on two different days. My contributions will be desserts, side dishes, and finger foods. More often than not I get asked, “will you please bring deviled eggs”? Or sometimes, depending on the occasion, my homemade pimento cheese sandwiches, not that there’s any secret ingredient to mine? Maybe it’s the Miracle Whip. LOL. What do you always get asked to bring?

One of the Thanksgiving Dinners I will be cooking for will be vegetarian. I saw THAT, don’t snarl your nose. LOL. Aside from the absence of a big juicy Butterball Turkey, and, or a Honey Baked Ham, you’d never know this was a vegetarian meal. There’ll be cranberry sauce, rolls, potatoes, rice balls, green beans, corn casserole, etc., etc., and Dressing. Yea, dressing. I won’t be furnishing it for this particular meal, but I have a recipe for Squash Dressing. Okay, carrot cake doesn’t taste like carrots, and squash dressing doesn’t taste like squash. What’s in a name? BTW, you can also make this recipe with chicken if you prefer.

Squash Dressing

2 Cups Cooked Squash (yellow), mashed (you can use canned, drained)
2 Cups Cornbread, crumbled
½ Cup Chopped Onion
1 Can Cream of Celery Soup (you can use Cream of Mushroom)
¼ Cup Melted Butter
½ Cup Milk
Salt, Pepper, and Sage to taste (I use 1 ½ Tablespoons Sage, unless I double the recipe)
Broth (Either “No Chicken” Chicken Broth, or Vegetable Broth)*

Mix all ingredients together adding broth last. If needed, add small amounts of broth at a time to get desired consistency (not too dry, or too soupy). Bake in a 2 quart casserole dish at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until brown.

I always double the recipe when I make it, and bake in a 13×9 inch glass pan lightly sprayed with Pam. I have also made it and added cooked, shredded chicken breasts.

*If preferred, you can use regular chicken broth.

Bon Appetite
The Backseat Gourmet

Popularity: 7% [?]