Thanksgiving Edition: Fancy Green Beans

Once my family tasted this recipe, there was no going back to green beans with mushroom soup and french fried onions. The bacon will win people over every time.

1-2 bags frozen green beans
1 lb. bacon cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced

Brown the bacon until very crispy. Remove beans from pan, and drain grease from pan (save for later).


Saute onion in a little bacon grease. Add green beans and onion and cook until beans are done. If necessary, add extra bacon drippings to green beans as they are cooking.

Add bacon back in with the beans before serving.

Thanksgiving Edition: Sweet Potatoes

Do you have sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner? I know some people like marshmallows on top of theirs. My friend Emily lives for the sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving, and she swears by this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.

3 large sweet potatoes (2 lbs.) peeled and cut up
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. melted butter
1/4 c. milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/4 c. flour
1 Tbl. melted butter

1. Wash and peel sweet potatoes. Cut off woody portions and ends. Cut into quarters. In a large saucepan, cook potatoes, covered, in enough boiling salted water to cover for 25 to 30 minutes or until tender; drain.

2. Preheat oven to 350. Transfer potatoes to a large mixing bowl. Mash lightly, "so it's still a little chunky," says Emily. Stir in sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Transfer sweet potato mixture to a 2-quart casserole dish.

3. In a small mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, pecans, flour, and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Sprinkle over sweet potato mixture.

4. Bake, uncovered in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Thanksgiving Edition: Rolls

I have three roll recipes on this blog. Any of them would be delicious for Thanksgiving dinner. Here are links for the first two.

Easy Homemade Rolls

Lite Lion House Rolls

If you are looking for something extra special, go for my favorite. The last few years, we've had orange rolls. They are a little more work, but this is where we choose to put forth the extra effort. Most of the pies? Marie Callendar's. But I think the orange rolls are my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.

I love the tang of the citrus mixed with the sweetness of the frosting and the soft buttery roll. They are a little more work, but so worth it. You can get full instructions here.

Here's somebody's plate from last Thanksgiving. No idea whose.
I'm just glad they chose to put the roll on their plate.
Unlike this person.

Thanksgiving Edition: Mashed Potatoes

I'm realizing I don't have pictures of all the dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. I'll post the recipes for now. Those that don't have pictures? Rest assured they will after Thanksgiving Day.

Here's how we make our mashed potatoes. My favorite.

Peel your potatoes. I like the large baking potatoes from Costco. They are so big they are a cinch to peel.

Cut the potatoes into similar sized chunks, about 1 to 2 inches wide. Often we'll get the potatoes ready to this point and then keep them in a bowl or pot with water covering them potatoes until we're ready. For our Thanksgiving dinner, it just helps to do the prep earlier.

Boil them in a large pot with water just covering the potatoes. Simmer, covered, until soft when poked with a fork. (about 15 to 20 minutes)

Drain off the water, and transfer potatoes to a large bowl. Add butter, cream or milk, and salt to taste. This will of course depend on how many potatoes you make. For my sake, make them creamy.

I love gravy on my mashed potatoes. That recipe, of course, is for another day.

Thanksgiving Edition: Grandpa's Pecan Pie

Welcome to Thanksgiving Edition of Lovin From the Oven. Stay tuned for a full week of posts with all you'll need for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

First on the list is my Grandpa's Pecan Pie.


Are you impressed with my grandpa? Me too. He is famous for his pecan pie.

First, you'll need 1 cup pecans, broken or slightly chopped. Place the nuts in a Marie Calendar's Deep Dish Frozen Pie Crust.

3 eggs
2/3 c. sugar
3/4 c. light Karo syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. light vinegar
2 Tbl. melted butter

Beat the eggs in a bowl, but don't let them get foamy. Ad other ingredients and pour over pecans.

Bake at 325 for 50 minutes.

Award!

I got my first two awards in the same day. About a month ago. I really was (am!) excited about it, it just caught me in one of those blogging droughts. You know the kind where real life gets busy, and all of the recipes you make lately (or the pictures of them) don't turn out. Thanks to Laura from Real Mom Kitchen and Clouse Cousins Cookin'. I didn't know you were reading my blog, but I'm so glad for the award because it pointed me to your sites and I like them so much I'm going to visit you often!

So now comes the part where I get to pass on the award. Isn't this just a chance to say to the blog author "I like your blog" and tell everyone about some other great blogs? Here goes.

Here are the rules for this award. If you choose to participate, please find at least 10 more blogs, of any kind that you love to read. Write a post about the blogs you picked, linking back to me and to them. Once you’ve posted, return here to let me know your post is done and be sure to let them know too! (If you don't come up with 10, that's fine too.)

I tried to stay away from personal family blogs, because I couldn't single any one out over another. So while some of these may be personal blogs, they have a certain theme or specialty going on.

Food Related Blogs:

1. Lydia at Put a Lyd on it. I think the name of her blog is so clever, and she makes real food.

2. Andy at Dinner's On Me. I like her style: writing style, food pictures, blog appearance. Also her intro about herself: "I'm no food snob. We're a real family that eats real food and then I blog about it." Perfect.

3. Laura at What's For Dinner? Because everything she makes is so delicious and half of her recipes are on my blog anyway. Maybe in another ten years we'll be like the Clouse Cousins. (Sorry to most of you because this is a private blog, which I tried to avoid, but this was the special exception.)

4. Amy from Super Healthy Kids. I learn all sorts of stuff from her about how to get a little bit of nutrition into my kids. She has lots of practical advice on fruits, veggies, and more.

5. Katie and Molly over at Sister Skinny, who keep me motivated to work off all the calories after eating. They're on a hiatus right now (with good reason!), but I think they will be back when the time is right. Their archives are great too. Love this site.

Other specialty blogs I love:

6. Rachel at Testosterhome. Her specialty is boys. Part of me relates to her real life stories, and part of me appreciates the insight of what to expect as my boys get older. A must read for any mom of boys.

7. Angie at Poppy Joy. Angie and I share the uncommon experience of losing a child to Trisomy 18. The thoughts she records on her blog are full of hope, and I have been impressed and encouraged by her faith through difficult circumstances. Thanks for sharing your story, Angie.

8. Stephanie at a Daily Scoop. While we differ in the details, I appreciate her thoughts on losing a child from a gospel perspective. We are members of the same church, and I find myself drawn to her writing. She is accomplishing a lot of good by sharing her experience and testimony.

There you go. That's much more information about myself than I usually share, in the context of just a few of many from the bloggersphere who inspire me.

Stephen's Gourmet Hot Chocolate

'Tis the season for sipping my favorite hot chocolate


in one of these.