Finally recovered from my food coma enough to post (and think) about food. The extended food coma might have something to do with me actually eating left overs the day after. I usually wait like a day or three to eat more of the same. So here we go Thanksgiving food preparations.
When doing food prep on Thanksgiving day, my usual charge is the cranberry sauce. This is mainly because I make it differently than my mom would ever think to. In order to make the cranberry sauce in this special way, I also have to make a sour cherry streusel pie.
I’m sure a few of you are going ‘huh?’ trying to make the corrilation. My foodie friends out there might have an idea dawning, so let me just bring everyone up to speed. When you buy cherries they come in a jar in a light syrup, I use this syrupy cherry juice for the cranberry sauce in the place of water. Get a normal bag of ocean spray cranberries and follow the directions on the back only use the cherry juice instead.
Now since I’ve got all these cherries, which no longer have a jar of syrup to call home, this is where I start to make a pie.
Here’s the recipe I used.
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| Preparation: I used a 10″ deep dish frozen pie crust. For streusel: Mix first 5 ingredients in bowl. Add melted butter and vanilla; run in with fingertips until small clumps form.Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 375F. Place foil-lined baking sheet in bottom oven to catch spills. Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add cherries; toss to coat. Let cherries stand until cherries begin to release juice, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Transfer filling to chilled crust, mounding in center. Sprinkle streusel over, covering completely and pressing to adhere.
Bake pie 20 minutes. Tent loosely with foil. Bake until filling bubbles thickly and streusel is golden, about 1 hour 10 minutes longer. Cool on rack. |
I usually make a few alterations to the recipe. I always add a couple splashes of lemon juice to the cherries to give it a bit more depth. This year because I couldn’t actually find sour cherries around here, I only used 2/3 of a cup and added some more splashes of lemon to the filling. End result: perfection. I also cut down on the amount of cinnamon I used by 1/4 a teaspoon in filling and streusel but that’s only because I’m have an allergy to cinnamon and get sick if I eat too much of it.
Usually this would be the end of my charges for the Thanksgiving meal, however my Dad and I ended up doing all the cooking so I got to try many more things. I started out with asking my mom if I could do a rosemary, rock salt, and cracked pepper rub for the turkey. She initially shot it down and told me to make the cranberry sauce. After making the sauce, my Dad and I were talking about possibly adding brandy or cognac to the sauce next year. He then mentioned that we needed a topping for a gluten free cheese cake that was made for my aunt. Since we had about 1/4 of a bag of cranberries left we decided to try this brandy adding idea. He also suggested to throw in a bag of frozen blackberries. This is why I love cooking with my Dad, we just bounce ideas off each other and make really awesome dishes. The tossed together recipe went something like this:
1/4 a cup of cherry juice
1/4 a cup of sugar
1/4 cup brandy
bring to a boil
add in cranberries and blackberries then continue to boil and reduce for about 8ish minutes. We wanted it more liquidy than the cran sauce so we didn’t really time it. When it was finished and put into a bowl my Dad folded in another dash of brandy, and then let it sit on the counter until time for dessert. My Aunt loved it, though she called last night to let us know that it’s MUCH better the second day and that next year we should make it the night before. So happy 2 of my desserts now have approval to be made time and time again. (My streusel was the first pie to vanish)
After Mom tasted our blackberry cranberry topping she came in and announced. “Do whatever you want to the bird” yay! so I got to do my rub though i think I need to use more rosemary next year to make the flavor more intense. I’m also going to look at what to use besides crisco and vegetable oil to cover and bast the turkey with. Don’t judge to harshly we’re Southern. Crisco is in our veins..literally. All in all it was a really great meal. Along with the topping, our venison and mushroom in a red wine reduction starter was a hit and has been requested again for next year. At the end of the day I was exhausted but had such a great time cooking all day. 🙂
The Adventures of Kittie 