Thanksgiving Spread and Sweet Potato Casserole

Happy food hangover day! Or something of the sorts...

I had such a great Thanksgiving and have enough recipes to get me through several weeks of blogging!

I packed all my goods into a large (and I do mean large!) shoulder bag on Thursday and headed over to my friend India's apartment, where I found her assembling her father's recipe for homemade stuffing.

We assembled and baked and cut and diced and played around in the kitchen the entire afternoon and had fun arranging all our dishes in the oven.

Mid afternoon our friend Diandra joined us and made a delicious Walnut Soup and salad for us. Of course, we had to assemble all the food on India's kitchen table for picture time. Smile food!


In case you are wondering what all is on the table, here is our list:

Brisket (random, I'm aware)
Green bean casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Stuffing
Wheat rolls
Salad
Macaroni and cheese
Cornbread

We filled our plates to the nines and I (brilliantly) remembered to photograph my plate full of deliciousness. Jealous? You should be!


Even through all the rich food we inhaled, there was no way we weren't ready for dessert (obviously). India made her Dad's Apple and Berry Crumble (which I sheepishly didn't get a picture of) and a Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake from yours truly.

I probably don't need to tell you that we didn't even make a dent in the food that night and had so many leftovers its a bit out of control. Hope your Thanksgiving was as coma-inducing as ours was. Here is the recipe for the Sweet Potato Casserole I made. It is probably my favorite holiday dish and demand it every time I go home.

Sweet Potato Casserole
All Recipes

5 sweet potatoes (I used 3 extra large ones)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 by 13 inch baking dish.

Bake sweet potatoes 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until they begin to soften. Cool slightly, peel and mash.

In a large bowl, mix the mashed sweet potatoes, salt, 1/4 cup butter, eggs vanilla extract, cinnamon, sugar and heavy cream. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup butter, flour, brown sugar and chopped pecans. Mix with your fingers to the consistency of course meal. Sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.

Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until topping is crisp and lightly browned.

Thanksgiving Cookies

T-minus 24 hours until Turkey Day!

Or, in my case, Lack of Turkey Day.

I've was never a huge fan of Thanksgiving growing up. Despite the fact that I like to eat, Thanksgiving food never really did it for me. I'm not a huge fan of turkey, I don't like those marshmallowy sweet potatoes and there are many other things I would rather eat than mashed potatoes and gravy. I used to pile my plate high with green bean casserole (please tell me you know what this is) and then eat a ton of pie (typical).

Nowadays I have expanded my horizons and with a little help from some great cooks (ahem, JP, ahem), I now have some dishes that I simply CANNOT do without! That's why I'm super excited this year to be making Thanksgiving dinner! Well, MY version at least. Several of my friends and I are getting together and each bringing our favorite dishes. I'm super excited to not only try out their favorites, but have mine all together in one place!

Needless to say, upon arrival at chez Sugar tonight, I will be baking and cooking up a storm until tomorrow morning. Get ready to hear all about my adventures next week!

These little gobblers were made for Annie Bananie and her family to enjoy. Or, more specifically, to keep the kids quiet. Or something.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

I used this cookie recipe and this icing recipe.

Pumpkin Cookies, the Sequel

A friend at work who is always (ALWAYS) standing right behind me faxing house seat orders asked for some pumpkin cookies with chocolate chunks. Yes, she was very specific about the chunks, chips would not suffice. With my current affection for all things pumpkin and Thanksgiving just around the corner, I obliged.

These cookies turned out cakey and very flavorful. I preferred the other pumpkin cookies I made by a landslide, because I prefer my cookies on the chewy side more than the cakey side. The chocolate chunks were great too and added another flavor to the pumpkin and spices.

Pumpkin Cookies with Chocolate Chunks
Joy the Baker

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray.

Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth, about 1 minute. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Scoop 1/4 cup mounds of dough onto cookie sheets, spacing about 2 1/2 inches apart. Flatten lightly. Bake cookies about 16 minutes, or until tops feel firm. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mint Brownie Cookies

Don't you just love it when you bake something, take it somewhere for others to partake and then you feel like a rockstar all day because you get so many compliments on them?

If you love that feeling, then make these cookies and take them to work. I had people asking me for the recipe, telling me I should open a bakery and generally making "yummy" noises at me while rubbing their tummies. In conclusion, I was a rockstar.

These cookies were very fudgy like a brownie and I absolutely fell in love with the mint chips I used in them (they are Hershey's Dark Chocolate and Mint chips). They were my perfect cookie: Chewy on the inside and crisp on the outside. Very impressive. Go cookies!

Mint Brownie Cookies
Adapted from Baking Bites

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package Hershey's Dark Chocolate and Mint Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together melted butter and sugars. Mix in the eggs, stirring them in one at a time, then add the vanilla.

Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture, until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are set and tops are slightly cracked looking. Cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

I'm not going to lie. I love pumpkin. I think that's pretty obvious here. Strangely enough, however, I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie. Don't get me wrong. There's sugar in it, I'll eat it. I'd just rather something else.

I found this recipe for pumpkin pie bars and thought they would be a welcome change. I really liked the bars. The filling was like a pumpkin pie filling, but a little creamier. The crust was great! I liked the oatmeal in it. And the butterscotch chips on top really made did it for me! 

I wolfed down about half the pan of these, but Annie Bananie, my only other tester, didn't really care for them. She REALLY didn't like the butterscotch chips. Decide for yourself:

Pumpkin Pie Bars

Joy the Baker

1 1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup cold butter

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats, uncooked

1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened

3 eggs

1 15-oz can pumpkin

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

butterscotch chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13 by 9 inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides; grease foil. Mix flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar in medium bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oats.

Reserve 1 cup oat mixture; press remaining onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 minutes. Beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, eggs, vanilla, pumpkin and spice with mixer until well blended. Pour over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture and butterscotch chips.

Bake 25 minutes; cool 10 minutes. Use foil to transfer dessert from pan to wire rack; cool completely.