Our Thanksgiving Meal

Here are some photos of our simple but oh so delicious Thanksgiving meal. We ate around noon since there wasn’t much prep involved. Just had to heat the ham and scalloped potatoes, cook the green beans, and the rest was essentially done. And boy, did we thoroughly enjoy our meal! Hope you all did as well. :D

Recipes:

Ham – We used Kirkland Signature (Costco) Hickory Smoked Spiral Ham (in red foil). The Applewood Smoked Spiral Ham (in gold foil) is even better but is more expensive as well. For the glaze this time, we used an apricot-mustard glaze that is absolutely simple and delicious. The recipe can be found here or in “The Naptime Chef” cookbook by Kelsey Banfield.

Scalloped Potatoes – We continue to be pleased with the Main St. Bistro Baked Scalloped Potatoes (made by Reser’s Fine Foods). It is so creamy and cheesy and most importantly, easy to prepare. All we had to do is pop it in the oven. :D We purchased this from Costco as well.

Green Beans – This is a tried and true regular side dish for us. Goes well with Asian or Western entrees. Here, we topped the green beans with Trader Joe’s Gourmet Fried Onion Pieces or if that’s not your cup of tea, try toasted sliced almonds or just leave it plain. It’ll be delicious no matter what.

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1″ to 1¼” length on the bias
Water
Salt and white pepper to taste
Fried onion pieces (optional)

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add garlic and cook until fragrant and light golden brown, stirring constantly. Add green beans, turn heat up to high, and stir-fry for about a minute. Add water, a tablespoon at a time throughout the cooking process, and continue to stir-fry until green beans are cooked (we like ours tender but still crisp). Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Plate and top with fried onion pieces. Serve.

Cranberry Sauce – We can’t forget cranberry sauce because it is probably Keith’s favorite dish of our whole holiday meal (he would probably deny it though but we know better). :D Usually, I would make my own cranberry sauce using America’s Test Kitchen Simple Cranberry Sauce recipe but this time, I decided to try Trader Joe’s Fresh Cranberry Sauce (which can be found in the refrigerated section). We are extremely happy with it – it tasted homemade, not too sweet, and we love that we could see whole berries in the sauce still. It’s definitely a good option if you decide not to make your own.

Cranberry Wheat Bread – One of our favorite breads! We would use slices of this delicious bread in our holiday meals instead of rolls because we just can’t get enough of it. And it is so easy to make if you have a bread machine. This recipe can be found on this blog in a previously published post titled Cranberry Wheat Bread.

For dessert, I made a pumpkin-cranberry cake, which turned out absolutely delicious, except that the layering of the cranberry sauce in the cake didn’t look the way I expected it. So, I will try to get that part right before I post the recipe. In the meantime, we hope everyone is having a great holiday so far. Enjoy your time off and have fun eating all the leftovers (I know we will).

Love,
Chris