About Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes

Thanksgiving is a time of food. It’s a celebration of the Pilgrim’s early successes in America, won through hard work to tame the land in what was for them a new world. The menu is usually the same. Turkey, sometimes ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls or bread, pumpkin pie and apple pie, and a variety of other trimmings adorn the holiday table. Families gather not only to celebrate the historic event, but just to catch up with everyone’s lives. The food may be similar, but Thanksgiving dinner recipes have as much variety as the colors of the leaves on the November trees.

How about this Thanksgiving dinner recipe for a delicious appetizer? It’s a pretty simple Pumpkin soup.  Add butter and oil to a pan over medium heat. Add three sliced leeks (only the white) and saute until the leeks are soft. Pumpkin puree, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and salt join the party.  Now stir in some vegetable broth. Add brown sugar.  Use low heat to simmer it for 10 minutes. If desired pour a tsp or so of cream or half and half into the bowl before adding soup and a dash of cinnamon.  That soup is a real treat.

For the main course try frying the turkey instead of broiling it. Don’t worry, fried turkey isn’t greasy. The oil is so hot it sears the skin, thus the oil can’t penetrate it. For this task a big oil pot and propane burner are used. Turkey fryers can be found in stores like Walmart. A meat thermometer is also needed, along with a deep fry thermometer to check the oil for the correct temperature. Make sure to fry outside in a clear area. Heat the oil to between 325 degrees and 350 degrees F. The turkey takes about three minutes per pound to fry to about 170 degrees F in the breast. It’s common to inject spices into the turkey during frying, but the dressing is usually not fried along with the turkey.

For some other Thanksgiving dinner recipes for soup, try curried pumpkin apple soup, butternut squash soup, or pumpkin and sausage soup. But there are other good appetizers for the meal.  Cheese wrapped asparagus is delicious.  Both sliced and spread cheese go into this one.  One idea is swiss cheese slices with a softer blue cheese spread.  Spread the soft cheese on the slices, wrap it around a few asparagus spears, then cook in a 230 degree C oven for about 15 minutes, or until the asparagus is soft.  The asparagus prepared this way loses its health appeal.  Thanksgiving is a time for a little fun.  So live it up.

Many more delicious Thanksgiving dinner recipes are available on the Internet.