Winter has hit most of the nation with quite a punch and nothing can warm the tummy better than a hearty bowl of hot soup. My version of a quick vegetable soup came to me one cold day when it was snowing and sleeting outside. It was getting late and I wanted the family to have some hot soup when they came in from the cold at the end of the day.
Christmas memories and traditions during the holiday have always meant a lot to me. My family had instilled in me many traditions for Christmas. Naturally, our Italian Catholic heritage plays a big part in these traditions.
We would decorate our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve after all the children were asleep, which meant the tree went up and was decorated very late, practically into the wee small hours of the morning. When the children would awake on Christmas morn they would view with bewilderment a beautiful lighted and decorated evergreen with gift wrapped presents under the tree. Gee, how come they never wondered how Santa had time to do that?
When cooking a large meal, such as Thanksgiving dinner, I try to find as many shortcuts as possible. One that works well and is just as delicious as starting from scratch, is turkey gravy made with a packaged dry seasoning mix.
I use turkey gravy mix and add chicken broth, dry white wine or dry vermouth, and finish it off with butter to enhance the flavors and give the gravy a homemade touch. Quick and easy is the way to go!
Ingredients:
Serves: 8
What’s Thanksgiving dinner without a serving of cranberries? There are numerous ways to prepare cranberries, fresh, frozen or canned and I have prepared many a cranberry dish but my all time favorite is my Cranberry Gelatin Mold with a simple cream cheese topping.
In fact, my daughter Allison, who was not fond of cooking, did take this recipe with her when she was on her own and entertaining or needed to bring a dish to a dinner. This was one she would fix and received raves. It was a joy for me to see her prepare this recipe. It can be made days in advance and unmolded just before serving. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and do you find yourself going through magazines and television food shows searching for new and different recipes to make for Thanksgiving dinner? Each year I find myself doing just that but in the end I still find myself cooking our traditional favorites.
One recipe which my Mom made every year, and my sister followed the tradition, is her Italian sausage and bread stuffing. Mom always cooked from scratch and I knew my sister made this stuffing every Thanksgiving so when I asked her for the recipe she was happy to pass it on, but her first statement was “I can give you the ingredients and the procedure but the amounts I leave up to you”.
