Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday, right after Christmas. I suppose it's no surprise that my two favorite holidays have a strong focus on food. Mmmmm.

Every year my coed fraternity hosts a big Thanksgiving meal on the Monday before Thanksgiving. We have all the traditional foods, plus whatever else the members feel like making. This year I made candied yams, creamed onions, and angel biscuits. Sadly, no pictures (I really need to get better about that!!), but I'll post the recipes anyway.

Candied Yams
I had never made these before. I read a few different recipes then made it up as I went along. They came out surprisingly well! I received many, many compliments.

Ingredients
5 large yams (about 5 lbs)
1 - 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar (I didn't really measure)
1/2 cup water
1 stick butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
pinch ginger
mini marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash and peel yams. Slice into approximately 1 inch cubes. Bring to a boil in water, the simmer until just barely tender, drain. Spread into buttered 9 x 13 pan, allow to cool.

Prepare a syrup by mixing together the brown sugar, water, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and ginger in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. When the sugar has dissolved, simmer for about 5 minutes until the syrup thickens. Pour the syrup over the yams.

Bake the yams for 20 minutes. Then, cover the top with the marshmallows and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the marshmallows are lightly browned and gooey. All done!


Creamed Onions
This is possibly my favorite side dish of the big holiday feasts. I can't make them anywhere near as well as my mom does, but I'm working on it. Hopefully some day I'll be able to! I made a lot of these since we were expecting a crowd, but this recipe can absolutely be scaled down to make a side dish. I often make just enough for Charlie and me by using about 10 onions and 1/3 of the cream sauce ingredients.

Ingredients
2-3 lbs pearl or boiler onions, peeled
3 cups whole milk
6 tbsp butter
6 tbsp flour
salt and pepper

Bring onions to a boil in a large pot, then simmer until tender, 10-20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then whisk in the flour. Whisk until the mixture is very bubbly and light brown. Add the milk. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue whisking. The sauce will thicken, at which point it is done and you can turn off the heat. Drain the onions, reserving some of the water. Add the onions to the sauce and stir gently. If the sauce is too thick, you can add some of the onion water (or some milk) to thin it. Add salt and pepper to taste. Voila!