Thanksgiving!!

I wanted to share a few of my favorite dishes we had for Thanksgiving this year. A couple of them are repeats from previous years & there is a new one I found & changed around this year. Enjoy!!

Gramma's Dressing
This is the dressing that my gramma made when I was growing up. I changed it up just a little bit and added some herbs to it.

1 onion, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
1/2 cup white wine
2 T butter
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
Freshly ground black pepper & salt, to taste

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 loaves of white bread, torn
4 cups chicken broth, approximately
Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.
In a large glass measuring cup, combine the onions, celery, wine & butter. Cook in microwave on high for 8 - 10 minutes or until the vegetables start to become tender.
In a large bowl, combine rosemary, thyme, sage, pepper, salt & eggs. Add vegetables & stir. Add the torn bread & combine with the rest of the ingredients. Add broth a little at a time while stirring bread until mixture is very wet. Transfer to a 3 quart baking dish, coated with cooking spray. Bake for approximately 1 hour or until middle of dressing is set & the top is golden brown.


Tara's Sweet Potato Casserole
No marshmallows here!! Just yummy sweet potatoes with a pecan topping!

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
2 cans (40 ounces each) sweet potatoes, drained & coarsely chopped

In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, butter & vanilla. Gently stir in sweet potatoes. Transfer to a 3 quart baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Topping:
1 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Combine the topping ingredients; spoon over sweet potato mixture. Bake uncovered at 350F degrees for 40-50 minutes or until bubbly & golden brown.

* You may need to slightly stir the casserole half way through the cooking time.


Pumpkin Pie Trifle
This is the newbie for this year. I got the idea from an ad I received from Kroger's. As you can guess, I used their recipe as a guide!

1 box Spice cake mix
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
2 cups milk
1 can pumpkin pie mix
1 12 oz container Cool Whip, thawed
Pumpkin pie spice

Prepare cake per package directions & let cool. (You will have some cake leftover.)
Combine pudding mix & milk. Place in refrigerator for 5 minutes. Add pumpkin pie mix to pudding & stir.
In a trifle dish or other clear bowl, crumble approximately 1/2 of the cake in the bottom of the dish. Spread 1/2 of the pumpkin mixture over the cake. Spread 1/2 of the Cool Whip over the pumpkin. Repeat the layers one time. Sprinkle pumpkin pie spice over the last layer of Cool Whip. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

*I would not make this more than 1 day ahead of time because the cake could become soggy.