A Few Thanksgiving Day Side Dishes

Priscille's homemade cranberry sauce.  Like nothing
from the can.  (Photo credit/Bergeron Image)

Every family has its preferred list of side dishes to accompany the traditional turkey meal in celebration of America’s Thanksgiving Day.  There are many which accompany our own family choices, but at least two have been popular accompaniments on our table:  Cranberry Sauce and Butternut Squash.

Both should be prepared at least a day earlier.  Sorry about the late recommendation.  Think Christmas.

Cranberry Sauce:   This one is a true winner, a new recipe which Priscille tried out this year.  I tasted it this afternoon after I had finished preparing the squash.  All I have to say about the result is “C’èst magnifique!” (It’s magnificent!).

I no longer care for the canned variety, whether whole or jellied, mainly because both are too sugary, a practice which kills the tart flavor of the berries.  Neither of the canned product tastes like cranberries should.


The Internet recipe – click on the link above – calls for ¾ cup of sugar, but Pris substituted a Splenda® Sugar Blend.  I suggest that you make a double or triple batch – it doesn’t take any longer, and you’ll have plenty for other meals.

Costco sells three-pound packages of these little scarlet gems.  Sounds like a lot, but not if you like it.  Prepare more than you need for one meal, and freeze the rest for another day.

Oh, and I nearly forgot:  this recipe also calls for a full cup of Port wine.  We used Sandeman Founder’s Reserve Porto.  You won’t find that in a can!

Butternut Squash:  This dish requires little preparation but, because it demands the unenviable task of difficult peeling, scooping out the seedy innards, and cutting up the hard, skinned squash into small cubes for boiling and mashing, not many people want to put forth the effort.

Cubed butternut squash, ready for a little water
to be placed in the bottom of the pan before
cooking.  (Photo Credit/Bergeron Image)
 

If there is only one cook doing all of the work, it’s usually off the menu (unless one is inclined to purchase the pre-packaged, store-bought variety for which the peeling and cubing have already been done) – but, the resulting taste is not the same.

Consequently, that’s my job each year – one, incidentally, which I thoroughly enjoy.  It relieves the other cooks of preparation time that they don’t have. 

After the freshly cubed squash is cooked and mashed (before cooking add a small amount of water to the pan, just enough to thoroughly soften the cubes), all that’s then needed is a very little amount of brown sugar, and it’s ready for the table or refrigerator.

As I suggested for the cranberry recipe, make a large batch and freeze the rest for post-Thanksgiving day meals.

Thanks for reading.  Have a grateful Thanksgiving and, to our Jewish neighbors happy first night of Hanukkah as well.