Our Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

Press release from the Lynnfield Public Library:

November 25, 2020

Marilyn’s Pumpkin Pie!

With Thanksgiving coming up, we wanted to share our favorite parts of Thanksgiving Dinner! This is a hard year and we love to remind ourselves of all the little things we can be thankful for (pie – the answer is always pie). While we will be gathering with only a few friends or family in our bubbles this year, we can all be grateful for food and the memories that food provides us.

Marilyn: Dessert! (see her pumpkin pie, pictured above!)

Patty: Dark meat turkey

Carolyn: Butternut squash semi-souffle

Barbara C.: Cranberry Relish

Recipe:

• 1 bag cranberries
• 2 seedless oranges
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar

Grind oranges, with skins and cranberries in a food processor. Add sugar and then let stand for a couple of hours in refrigerator before serving

Kat: Mashed potatoes with gravy

Pat: Beer!

Barbara K.: One of my favorites at Thanksgiving is the stuffing for the turkey. I was married, in grad school and living in a third floor college-town apartment. Having grown up in a family that cooked at least a 20 lb turkey each year, that’s what I purchased for me, my husband and our two guests. It never dawned on me to consider the size of the oven in my small kitchen. The turkey did fit but with less than one inch oven space surrounding it on the top and sides! Woman’s Day was published during that time (1970) and these images are from the Thanksgiving insert from which I found the recipe for the stuffing, a recipe I have used ever since!

Pauline: The stuffing

Nicole: Mashed potatoes

Lauren: Scalloped Corn! It looks pretty gross to be honest, but it is always the most popular dish… we usually need to double the recipe.

Here’s the recipe (it’s a very family recipe – just “mix everything”):

Ingredients:
-1 egg well beaten
-1 can creamed corn
-1 cup milk
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/8 teaspoon pepper
-2 Tablespoons butter
-1 cup crushed cracker crumbs, plus more for the topping (Ritz or Town House)

Mix everything and pour into a buttered 8×8 baking dish. Scatter more crushed cracker crumbs on top to make a crunchy topping.

Place the baking dish in a larger baking dish or pan with warm water in it. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Jen: My mother-in-law’s mashed potatoes with a gazillion extra calories. Potatoes are mixed with cream cheese and yogurt or sour cream. Then covered with a layer of butter/cheese/paprika and baked. So yummy. We only have them a couple of times a year because they’re devoid of nutritious value.

Jillian: I’m #TEAMSTUFFING. I love using my grandmother’s recipe with classic ingredients like Bell’s seasoning.

Abby: My favorites are my dad’s apple pie with pecan streusel topping (secret family recipe) and my mom’s yam and apple casserole, which is basically a dessert, but we pretend it is a side dish. I think it’s from Betty Crocker, but I use a copy my mom made me when I moved to Massachusetts and it is now stained from use.

This press release was produced by the Lynnfield Public Library. The views expressed are the author's own.