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FOOD & DRINK: Locals share nontraditional Thanksgiving ideas
food & drink
NONTRADITIONAL THANKSGIVING
We asked local women what their favorite nontraditional dish is to shake things up at Thanksgiving. If you want to think outside the mashed potatoes and green bean casserole – even though we all love those favorites – here’s some fun ideas for you!
Want a new dish for your holiday table? Get ideas with the recipes on the following pages.
"Prime rib!” — Deanie Sexton
“Key lime pie.” — Clancy Bambrick
“Crab fritters with red pepper mayo. Yum!!” — Maria Joy
“I make my grandmother’s fruit salad recipe every year.” — Magi Thomley Williams
“Every year we make chicken and dumplings from scratch.” — Lisa Sharp
“Crab legs.” — Donna Gail Spencer
“Carrot souffl é. Delicious. You’d never know you’re eating carrots...swear. It’s my family’s favorite dish.” — Sherry Halford, who provided her family’s recipe – with handwritten notes that include every Thanksgiving and Christmas they have made the recipe. “It’s a piece of family history,” Halford said.
Carrot Sou é
Provided by Sherry Halford • 1 pound carrots, sliced • 1/2 cup butter, melted • 1 cup sugar • 3 tbsp. flour • 1 tsp. baking powder • 1 tsp. vanilla • 3 eggs • Salt
Cook the carrots until tender in salted water. Drain. Add the butter and mash the mixture (it is easiest to mash in a blender or processor). Mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla and eggs. Add to the carrots and blend well. Pour into a greased 1-quart casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Serves 4 to 6.
NOTE: This recipe may be doubled but cooking time must be increased.
Grandma ' s Homemade Chicken and Dumplins
Provided by Lisa Sharp Lisa Sharp’s grandmother, Gwen, started the tradition of making chicken and dumplings for Thanksgiving in Bogalusa, Louisiana. They even have a dumpling pot that’s been handed down through the generations. Lisa’s mom made the dumplings and now Lisa has been making them for the last six years.
Ingredients
• 1 whole chicken • 1 stick of butter • 1 egg • 2 cups of plain flour • 4 cans of chicken broth • Salt and pepper to taste • Pinch of baking powder
Most important: take one can of chicken broth and put in the fridge and get it really cold. It helps set the dumplings in the flour.
Put the chicken in a large pot and almost cover the chicken with water. Add salt, pepper and the stick of butter. Boil and cook chicken all the way through. When done, take chicken out to cool. Once cooled, pull the chicken meat off the bone and place the meat back in the pot.
Low boil.
Put the flour in a bowl, add a pinch of baking powder and pinch of salt and mix together. Then make a hole in the middle for the egg.
Knead flour and egg with hands – adding small amount of chilled chicken broth as you go, you don’t want it to get too runny – until you get a consistent ball of dough (similar to bread dough). If it’s sticking to your fingers, add a little bit more flour.
Then pour rest of chicken broth in the pot with the chicken.
Lay out a sheet of wax paper. Pinch off 2-inch pieces of dough and roll them out (first put flour on the rolling pin – keep the flour handy!). Keep a little flour on the wax paper and rolling pin so that nothing sticks. Roll dough until it is paper thin. Use a butter knife to cut into strips (about one-inch wide, don’t worry about precision of size). Make sure to wear an apron!
Gently place the individual dumpling strips into the boiling broth with chicken. Let cook until the dumpling strips are fluffy and tender. Do not stir, instead slowly roll.
Pause to sip champagne.
Continue to cut the dough and place all of the strips in the pot. Keep slowly rolling so that the dumplings do not stick to the bottom of the pot. Cook for about 30 minutes. Do a taste test to make sure the dumplings are cooked all the way through.
Spoon into a bowl, top with sprigs of parsley and enjoy!
