This is my new favorite bean salad recipe.  I know it's got the word Christmas in it's name, but that's not going to stop me from making it anytime I feel like it.  It's the balsamic vinegar that makes this low fat recipe work so well.  And the next time I make it, I'm going to throw the green and red bell peppers on the grill first to get them good and smoky.

I've eaten this as a cold side to fajitas, all by itself at room temperature, and tossed with cooked brown rice. Christmas Bean Salad rocks all the way round!

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

For 6 hungry folks

• 3 cups cooked Great Northern Beans  or navy
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped with green tops

• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped or 1 tablespoon dried

In a large salad bowl, toss together beans, peppers, and onions.  Whisk the orange juice, vinegar and basil together and pour over salad.  Toss well for a good coating.

Let stand for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to marry up.  Good made a day ahead.

CLICK HERE to WATCH ME MAKE THIS SALAD.

One Thanksgiving, I decided to do something different and we had Mexican food for our dinner.  It really turned out great; everyone enjoyed it!  We are in a new home this year and are going to have the traditional turkey dinner.  I am sending you a recipe for squash dressing that Mom got from a friend.

Squash Dressing

• 2 cups cooked summer squash, mashed
• 2 cups cornbread, crumbled
• 1 stick butter or margarine
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp. chopped green bell pepper (optional)
• salt, pepper and sage to taste
• approx 1 cup cooked chicken or turkey white meat (optional - this makes it a meal in itself!)

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.  Pour into greased casserole dish (1 1/2 quart).  Bake 40 minutes at 400ºF degree.

Kathy McDonald

This recipe comes from one of my favorite sources for learning how to cook things the right way, Cook's Illustrated.  Although they call this recipe, The Best Sweet Potato Pie, I have to disagree.  It's good, but it's not the best.

This recipe has the texture of a pumpkin pie with its dense filling.  I followed the instructions for the filling, minus the bourbon.  I don't like alcohol in my desserts.  I didn't over mash the sweet potato as was directed, leaving lumps of potato to float to the top in the final product.  I made my own pie crust from scratch.  Their suggestion for pie crust was too much trouble and I knew my recipe was stress-free.

I actually baked this recipe along side another from my friend, Lynn Jarvis.  Lynn's recipe beat this one buy a hundred miles! Her recipe is simpler, calls for less ingredients and made a much prettier pie in the end.  See the photo below.  The pie up front is Lynn's recipe.  The other is Cook's recipe.

No, my pie crust is not even looking. I never try to make perfect edges with symmetrical designs.  If I did, it wouldn't look homemade.  But rest assured, my pie crust recipe tastes great! Everyone who has tried it, loves it.

Now, on with Cook's idea of sweet potato pie.

Ingredients

Their suggestion for pie crust is long and complicated.  I'll spare you.  Try my recipe or use your favorite ready made pie crust.

Sweet Potato Filling

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 5 small to medium)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
• 3 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 2 - 3 tablespoons bourbon
• 1 tablespoon molasses (optional)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

Instructions

Heat oven to 350ºF degrees.

Prick sweet potatoes several times with fork and place on double layer of paper towels in microwave (see illustrations below). Cook at full power for 5 minutes; turn each potato over and continue to cook at full power until tender, but not mushy, about 5 minutes longer. Cool 10 minutes. Halve each potato crosswise; insert small spoon between skin and flesh, and scoop flesh into medium bowl; discard skin. (If potatoes are too hot to handle comfortably, fold double layer of paper towels into quarters and use to hold potato half). Repeat with remaining sweet potatoes; you should have about 2 cups. While potatoes are still hot, add butter and mash with fork or wooden spoon; small lumps of potato should remain.

Whisk together eggs, yolks, sugar, nutmeg, and salt in medium bowl; stir in bourbon, molasses (if using), and vanilla, then whisk in milk. Gradually add egg mixture to sweet potatoes, whisking gently to combine.

Heat partially baked pie shell in oven until warm, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle bottom of pie shell evenly with brown sugar. Pour sweet potato mixture into pie shell over brown sugar layer. Bake about 45 minutes, until filling is set around edges but center jiggles slightly when shaken. Transfer pie to wire rack; cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, and serve.

Simple, quick to bring together, and truly a sweet potato pie.  This recipe comes to me by way of my hardworking farming friend, Lynn Jarvis at Jarvis Farm.  This is NOT one of those recipes that turns out tasting like a pumpkin pie.  This sweet potato pie recipe allows all the reasons why we love the sweet potato to come through.  The texture is smooth, but in a mashed sweet potato way.  The sweetness is mild and the amount of spice is enough to enhance the earthy sweet potato without covering it up.  Give it a try and see for yourself.

Ingredients for one 10-inch deep dish pie

Pie Crust

For a super quick pie, use your favorite ready made pie crust.  If you want to make a pie crust from scratch that won’t let you down, we recommend this recipe:  Simple Homemade Pie Crust that Won’t Let You Down

Pie Filling

• 2 cups cooked sweet potatoes, mashed
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 350ºF degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, stir all the ingredients together.  Pour into pie crust shell.  Cover edges of pie crust with a foil ring.  Bake for 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.

CLICK HERE for the recipe for Fresh Whipped Cream Topping!

COOK'S NOTES:

The first time I made this pie, I was out of whole eggs.  I had enough egg whites (6 tablespoons egg whites = 2 eggs) to substitute.  I whisked the egg whites until they had formed soft peaks.  I made sure all the rest of the ingredients were well mixed in a large bowl, THEN I folded the egg whites into the sweet potato mixture. The texture of the pie was creamy, not heavy, and it turned out beautifully.

A quick way to have cooked sweet potatoes is to prick them with a knife or fork several times, then pop them into the microwave.  Small sweet potatoes (5-inches long, 2-inches in diameter) take about 3 to 4 minutes to become soft in the microwave.  A bigger sweet potato (8-inches long, 2-inches in diameter) takes 6 to 8 minutes to become soft.  And it's better to microwave two to three small sweet potatoes at one time than trying to cook one big one.  Trust me.

Are you bringing a dish to a potluck Thanksgiving dinner this year?

Celebrating quietly at home with a few of your favorite people?

Or are you playing the Hostess with the Mostess this round?

Well, whatever the case, I wanted to help you out before the big day.  I went ahead searched out all the best tasting recipes and proven family-pleasing-dishes on SimpleDailyRecipes.com and listed them here for you.   You may have to double some recipes.  You may have to cut them in half to suit your needs.  I can assure you they all work and they won't let you down.

SIMPLE THANKSGIVING RECIPES

Roasted Chicken with Garlic

Homemade Dinner Rolls

Loaded Potato Potluck Favorite

Hominy Among Friends

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Butternut Squash

Simple Homemade Pie Crust That Won’t Let You Down

German Chocolate Pie Recipe

Simple Pecan Pie Recipe

Simple Traditional Pumpkin Pie

Frozen Cranberry Dessert

Simple Pumpkin Yogurt, Breakfast or Dessert

My family LOVES, LOVES, LOVES eggnog.  My kids often lament over the grocery stores only selling it during the holidays.  I agree.  I really don't understand why we don't enjoy it as often as we enjoy vanilla ice cream.

What brought me to making eggnog at home was the lack of consistency in store bought eggnogs.  I noticed last year that dairy producers were making it watery, calling it "lite", or injecting it with coloring and pseudo alcohol flavors.  Good eggnog is not suppose to be "lite", or chemically altered with artificial flavors.  Give me a break!  It wasn't broke.  There wasn't any reason to mess with the recipe.  *uurrgh*  In the kitchen I go.

Now before I get started, I want you to know that you can use store bought homogenized milk and heavy cream, as well as, store bought eggs in this recipe.  But honestly speaking, I believe the reason this eggnog recipe is so incredibly thick and wonderful is because I used fresh milk and cream that came straight from the cow, and eggs that shot right out of a chicken's butt.  A chicken, mind you, that spends her days foraging on grass and insects.  Her deep orange yolks are beautiful and add a noticeable creaminess that marries with the richness of the fresh milk and cream.

LET'S MAKE EGGNOG

enough to make 12-16 servings

• 6 large fresh eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• 4 cups fresh, all natural whole milk

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup fresh heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

In an electric mixer bowl, whisk eggs, yolks, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt.  Stir in milk, one-half cup at a time, blending well after each addition to ensure a smooth custard.

Transfer custard to a heavy 3- or 4-quart saucepan.  You will need a thermometer to ensure that the custard does not over heat.  Heat SLOWLY over LOWEST heat setting, stirring constantly, until custard registers 160ºF degrees on the thermometer, thickens, and coats the back of a spoon, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Pour custard through sieve into a large pitcher; stir in vanilla and nutmeg.  Cover with lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, about three hours and up to three days.

Just before serving, whip cream in medium bow to very soft peaks and gently fold into custard mixture until blended.  Garnish with a smig of nutmeg on top.

COOK'S NOTES

• To prevent curdling, do not heat custard beyond 160ºF degrees.  If it does begin to curdle, remove from heat immediately and pour into a bowl set over a larger bowl of ice water to stop the cooking, and proceed with recipe.
• If you wish to add brandy, bourbon or dark rum, add an extra 1/4 cup of heavy cream for every 1/2 cup alcohol.

Making Pecan Pie from scratch is A LOT EASIER than you might think.  For years now, I've avoided baking this pie.  Mainly because I've listened to distraught homecooks tell of their good intentions to make the infamous "Grandmother's Pie" only to be let down and left with an overly brown crust holding a runny filling.  No thanks, but that's not the kind of baking experience I need during the holidays.

I read and read and read Pecan Pie recipes until I was completely UNcertain which way to turn.  I didn't feel I could trust any recipe, until I went to my most trusted source for cooking.  I don't know why I didn't think to read there first, it's my happy place of learning and it has never steered me wrong.  I'm speaking of course of Cook's Illustrated.  I've read their magazine for YEARS.  Sure enough, they had the perfect pecan pie recipe.  So I followed their technique for baking the filling.

The outcome was a perfectly firm pecan pie!  I had no doubts or worries when I pulled it out of the oven.  It was very apparent by touching the top, hot out of the oven, there was success waiting to be sliced out.  The pecans shined so beautifully and the crust was light and flakey.  It look so perfect, it almost didn't look real at all.  My son even asked me, upon his inspection of my cooking, "is that real or did you make a fake pie?"  Coming from a nine year old, I took that to be a compliment.

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES
Serves 8

• 1 unbaked pie crust to fit a deep pie dish

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup light corn sirup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole pecans (8 ounces)

Heat oven to 275ºF degrees.

Fill a medium saucepan with 1-inch of water and heat to below a simmer over medium-low heat.  Use a medium size, heat-proof bowl that will sit on the saucepan but not touch the water or bottom of the pan. If you actually own a double-boiler, well then of course, use it instead. ;D

With the bowl set on the pan, melt the butter.  Make sure the water below maintains below a simmer.  Remove bowl from pan; mix in sugar and salt with a wooden spoon until butter is absorbed; remove any clumps of brown sugar.  Beat in eggs, then corn sirup and vanilla.  Return bowl to hot water pan; stir until mixture is shiny and warm to the touch, about 130ºF degrees.  I used a thermometer to be absolutely sure. Remove from heat; stir in pecans.

Pour mixture into the pie shell.  BAKE 50 to 60 minutes, until center feels set yet soft, like gelatin when gently pressed.  Transfer pie to rack and cool completely for at least 4 hours.

The directions say, if you want to eat warm pie, you still have to allow the pie to cool completely.  Cut your slice and warm it in a 250ºF degree oven for about 20 minutes.  (Like that's gonna happen!)

COOK'S NOTE:
If you happen to use salted butter in this recipe, omit the 1/2 teaspoon salt.

My beautiful friend, Cheryl, brought this incredibly addictive salad slash dip to our party the other night.  She carried it in a BIG ol'bowl.  I thought she might have gone overboard and made too much.  It turned out, she knew exactly how much to make.   We couldn't get enough of this tangy sweet collage of goodness.  We walked past it dipping our chips all night long.  And when it was time to eat our grilled fajitas, we went back to the bowl to make it a condiment. I was lucky there was just enough leftover that I could photograph it in good light the next day.

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

• 1 (14 oz.) can sweet corn with liquid
• 1 (14 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (14 oz.) can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
• 1 small jar diced pimentos with liquid
• 2 bell peppers, red, green, yellow or mix, cored, seeded, medium diced
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1 cup celery, finely diced (optional)
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded, finely diced

Mix all the vegetables in a large bowl.

• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

In small saucepan over medium heat, bring remaining ingredients to a boil.  Pour dressing over vegetables and toss to coat evenly.  Marinade in the fridge 4 hours or overnight.

Serve with tortilla chips as a dip.  Most scrumptious as a condiment with fajitas or as a side salad

Makes 10 cups.

This recipe has been sponsored by the cool crowd over at One2One Network in partnership with Nestle Carnation The Cooking Milk.

Can I just tell you this is the CREAMIEST potato recipe I have ever made? When Cassie from One2One Network asked me to make two recipes using Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk in place of regular milk, I didn't think it would make much of a difference.  I was wrong.  It made a WORLD of difference to the texture of the recipes.  All my years growing up, watching my Memaw add Carnation cooking milk to her recipes, I never put the two together.  It was the secret ingredient that wasn't really a secret at all.  Memaw knew; she kept several cans of cooking milk in her pantry year round.

We, generally, think of using cooking milk in holiday recipes, more specifically, dessert recipes.  Pumpkin Pie is the first recipe that comes to mind for me.  But after thumbing through the Nestle Carnation Holiday Recipe Booklet, I was up to trying this recipe, Loaded Potato Potluck Favorite.  I knew my family would dig it.  Who doesn't love mashed potatoes with cheddar cheese and bacon bits? What I didn't expect was the incredibly creamy texture.  It was what I've always wanted my mashed potatoes to taste like, but never did.  I knew right away it was because I used the cooking milk instead of regular milk.

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

• 8 medium potatoes (about 2 1/2 to 3 lb. total), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 cup CARNATION Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 2 cups (8-oz. pkg.) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 6 slices cooked bacon, crumbled, divided
• Sliced green onions (optional)

Place potatoes in large saucepan.  Cover with water; bring to a boil.  Cook over medium-high heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until tender; drain.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Grease 3-quart casserole dish.

Return potatoes to saucepan; add evaporated milk, sour cream, salt and pepper.  Beat with hand held mixer or mash by hand until smooth.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups cheese and half of bacon.  Spoon mixture into prepared casserole dish.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until heated through.  Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese, remaining bacon and green onions.  Bake for an additional 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Makes 16 servings.

COOK'S TIP
This casserole can be assembled ahead of time and refrigerated.  Cover with foil and bake at 350ºF for 40 to 45 minutes or until heated.  Uncover; top with cheese, bacon and green onions; bake for an additional 3 minutes or until cheese is melted.

EXTRA BONUS!
Download your own free copy of the CARNATION-Holiday Guide
for more savory dishes like this one.
Click here: CARNATION - Holiday Guide.pdf

If you're looking for a creepy, cool Halloween idea for your table setting, try making eyeballs with Swan gourds.  The kids really got into this art project and had a blast!  I did, too.

Keep an eye out for Swan gourds at your local farmers' market or the grocery store.  I recommend picking gourds with the most dark green color you can find, and the smoother the better.

• Use a sheet of newsprint to cover your table.
• Craft acrylic gloss paints, black, blue, white/silver, and dark red
• small paint brushes
• small fan to quickly dry the paint

Start with a base coat of white for the eyeball area and dark red for the neck of the Swan gourd.  Allow each coat to thoroughly dry before painting the next layer.

Paint the iris and pupil of the eye next.

Finally, add fine lines with the dark red paint for the blood vessels in the eye.  The more vessels the better it looks.  Practice making fine lines on the newsprint with your brush, before starting on the gourd.  It helps.

HAVE FUN!