Honestly, Thanksgiving is all about the obvious: food, seconds of the food and last but definitely not least, thirds. It’s always been a favorite holiday of mine and besides the excessive amounts of food being made, the thought of coming home to a grossly big family that I haven’t been able to see since Rosh Hashanah break is music to my ears. Below are just a few of my family’s (and mine!) favorite recipes that make it possible to get through the rush of Thanksgiving before it comes to an end just as quickly s it arrived.
1. Spicy Loaded Sweet Potatoes: You already know that with Thanksgiving, comes the everlasting sweet potato recipes that will keep you wondering how and why it was possible to mix that with a spicy, South Asian kick.
Ingredients:
- 4 sweet potatoes (per serving)
- ¼ cup of melted butter (unsalted or salted)
- ¼ cup of spicy curry (for the kick mentioned above)
- ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
- ¼ teasponn of ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup of brown sugar
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Line baking sheet with foil.
- Place half cut potatoes, with insides carved out, bottom up onto the baking sheet.
- Place into the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, periodically checking on them from time to time.
- In a small bowl, whisk and mix together the sweet potato carvings, butter, spicy curry, vanilla extract, nutmeg and brown sugar until it becomes a thick consistency.
- Take out potatoes to add in the mixture, along with lining potatoes with a thin sliver of butter.
- Set the oven to broil and put in the potatoes again until broiled to desired choice. (Recommended: 3-4 minutes)
- Serve immediately to take seconds, thirds (and fourths obvi).
2. Mashed Potatoes (with an almond-y twist)
Ingredients:
- 6 potatoes of your choice
- 2 cups of almonds (toasted, unsalted, your choice)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 clove of garlic
- ½ lb. of butter (again, your choice)
- Salt and pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 345 degrees.
- Soak potatoes in cold water until brought to a soft broil (Check: a fork pokes into them comfortably).
- Heat the milk and garlic until steamy and set aside for later.
- Peel potatoes and blend whilst slowly adding in milk every so often.
- Cut butter into large cubes (size of standard ice cubes) and gradually add butter into blender, all the while adding in salt and pepper.
- Place now mashed potatoes onto baking dish and sprinkle with almonds.
- Bake altogether for 5 or so minutes until a desired golden brown.
- Start munching and crunching.
3. Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake: Not being a fan of pumpkin at all, but when incorporated with cheese and dark chocolate, you can go ahead and sign me up.
Ingredients:
- Any number of 8-oz. blocks of softened cream cheese (My sister uses 3 blocks for one session of baking with any brand of softened cream cheese, emphasis on softened).
- 1 15-oz. can of pumpkin puree
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ sugar
- ½ brown sugar
- ¼ sour cream
- 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 10 bars of dark chocolate (frozen)
- 6 tbsp. melted butter (any brand, your choice)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and make cheesecake mixture: In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy but smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, sugar, sour cream, flour, pumpkin spice and vanilla extract until everything is visibly combined. Set aside.
- Crust: in a large Ziploc bag, crush the frozen dark chocolate until crumbly. Move crumbs into bowl and mix in with melted butter and stir until the crumbs are completely mixed in with butter.
- Cover flat baking pan with cooking spray and press dark chocolate mixture, tightly packing it in. Pour the cheesecake that was set-aside onto the baking pan.
- Bake for about an hour and a half.
- Once done baking, serve cheesecake with any toppings and syrups. My favorite thing to do is drizzle it with dark chocolate syrup with crushed almonds and whipped cream on top.
Along with the orgasmic recipes mentioned above, there are a plethora of other recipe’s my family and I concoct, sometimes sticking to old ones that are tried and true but honestly, where’s the fun in that?
