Tag: thanksgiving

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Gobble, Gobble : Turkey and Apple Sandwiches

Today we welcome a new food columnist, Fran Hill, to the South Dakota Magazine site. You may remember her from our Mar/Apr 2010 issue. Fran’s been sharing recipes and stories from her kitchen in Colome on her blog On My Plate since October of 2006. In her first column for us, she shares some of her leftover turkey secrets.


By Fran Hill

With Thanksgiving comes turkey, and with turkey comes leftovers. It is only natural for my food thoughts to turn to turkey sandwiches.

I love a mini turkey “slider” (although, truth be told, I was eating these long before “sliders” became popular and hit every trendy menu from here to eternity). King’s Hawaiian Rolls are purchased just for sandwiches with leftover turkey. Dressing (yes, dressing with giblets, celery, and lots of sage) gets piled on with slices of turkey and big dollops of cranberry sauce. The sandwich gets tossed into the microwave just for a few seconds to heat the dressing, and I am almost in danger of throwing out my jaw in order to open my mouth wide enough for the first bite. It is pure post-Thanksgiving heaven for me.

However, there are several other sandwiches that rank highly for the turkey that makes it past the Thanksgiving table. A Turkey and Apple Sandwich slathered with Cranberry Mayonnaise is awesome, too. I love the crunch that crisp, fall apples provide against the creamy tartness of the cranberry mayonnaise. Spinach is a nice addition, and thinly sliced red onion or even a slice of sharp cheddar are also great.

What is going to be on YOUR turkey sandwich?

Turkey and Apple Sandwich with Cranberry Mayonnaise

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2-4 tablespoons cranberry sauce (homemade or canned; I have used both because who makes cranberry sauce from scratch when you want a turkey sandwich in May?)

Dash of cayenne pepper

Sliced turkey (leftover roasted is the best, but deli turkey works for those non-Thanksgiving cravings)

Baby spinach, thinly sliced red onion, sharp cheddar cheese (or whatever floats your boat on your sandwich)

One tart apple, thinly sliced

Whole grain bread (I used Ciabatta sandwich rolls this time, but any good, hearty bread is suitable.)

Combine the mayonnaise, cranberry sauce and cayenne in a small bowl. Taste. Add a little salt, if you desire, or more cranberry sauce to up the pucker. Spread a portion of the Cranberry Mayonnaise on one slice of bread. Layer sliced turkey and your choice of fixings on the mayo-slathered bread. Top with the thinly sliced apple (and more mayo, if you desire). Crown each sandwich with another slice of bread. Enjoy.


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Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

Cinnamon rolls are a good treat any time, but these pumpkin cinnamon rolls seem tailor-made for early Thanksgiving morning. The sweet cream cheese frosting pairs well with the spicy holiday flavors of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove, and the addition of whole wheat flour and pumpkin puree allows you to pretend they’re nutritious. Mary Elsen, one of our circulation assistants, brought a pan in recently to share. She says that they don’t raise as high as traditional cinnamon rolls because of the whole wheat flour, but you can make up for their lack of height with extra cream cheese frosting and no one seems to mind.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

By Mary Elsen

Ingredients:

Roll Dough:
1/3 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar

1/3 cup warm milk
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup pumpkin puree, either fresh or canned
1 tablespoon butter
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Filling:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves

Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Sprinkle yeast and 1 tsp. sugar onto water in a large bowl. After 5 minutes (when mixture is foamy) stir to combine. Heat milk in microwave until bubbly but not boiling over, then add butter and stir until melted. Add the milk-butter mixture, egg, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and ginger to the yeast mixture. Mix well. Add the cup of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of the all-purpose flour. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, until you have soft dough.

Grease a large bowl with a generous teaspoon of butter. Add the dough and turn it until the entire ball is coated with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place until doubled, approximately 1 hour.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in another bowl, set aside. Transfer the risen dough to a lightly greased work surface, and pat or roll it into an 18″ x 12″ inch rectangle. Spread with the butter/sugar/spice mixture.

Starting from one of the long sides, roll the dough into a log and cut into 12 generous slices. Place in a greased 9″ x 13″ inch baking pan (I prefer to use a metal pan — if you use a glass baking dish, you may need to reduce the oven temperature). Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 375∞F oven. Bake about 20-30 minutes, until the rolls are brown around the edges and beginning to turn golden brown across the center.

While the rolls are baking, prepare the cream cheese frosting. Beat together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and lemon juice until well combined. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, until desired consistency is reached. (I used 3 cups powdered sugar.)

Frost warm rolls with the cream cheese frosting and serve immediately.


Pumpkin Puree From Scratch

by Mary Elsen

When I have the smaller, sweeter pie pumpkins growing in my garden, I like to make pumpkin puree from scratch.

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Next, line a large (rimmed) baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil, and spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray. (If a rimmed baking sheet is unavailable, I would suggest folding up the edges of the aluminum foil, and crimping the corners, because the pumpkin can release a noticeable amount of liquid while baking, and this is not something you want dripping all over your oven!)

Select a solid-looking pie pumpkin. Knock off the stem, and cut the pumpkin in half. Scoop out the pulp and seeds (save them for roasted pumpkin seeds — they are delicious!) Place each half, cut side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until pumpkin is soft and can be easily pricked with a fork, and begins to collapse (this can take 1 to 2 hours — it just depends on the pumpkin.) Remove the pan from the oven and let everything cool until it can be handled comfortably.

Scrape out the soft pulp and discard the skin. At this point you can pulse the pulp in a food processor if an even puree is desired, or use it as is, if a more rustic texture is preferred. Either way, I always cook the pulp on the stovetop over medium-high for an additional 15 minutes or so, to evaporate away extra liquid and get closer to the consistency of canned pumpkin used in most recipes. During this step, try to use a non-stick pan and stir constantly, to avoid burning! When the pumpkin appears thickened, you are ready to proceed with your recipe.

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You Have To Earn Your Pumpkin Pie Around Here

By Lee Schoenbeck

Now the perfectly good warmth of a Thanksgiving morn in front of a roaring fire with Snoopy and Bullwinkle and the rest of the Macy’s Parade ensemble is no more for many in our community, due to the Hiedeman family. As first impressions go, Steve and Patty seem like a normal couple, blessed with four beautiful and accomplished daughters, but there’s something a little unusual about the Hiedeman household. A few years ago they decided that the excesses of Thanksgiving dinner should be preceded by a family run — taking in the late November beauty that a northeastern South Dakota community has to offer. Over time, the little family run grew to an annual community event — the Hiedeman Turkey Day 5k. Until last year, the event was staged from the family garage in Northeast Watertown, plus a porta potty in the driveway. The awards ceremony took place in the two-stall garage, with the premium spots located near the space heaters. Awards are — of course — pumpkin pies. The good news — everybody that is there at the end gets hot apple cider and a piece of pumpkin pie.

But, this is no ordinary little run. In 2008 over 190 runners participated. Runners are encouraged to share their bounty, by bringing food stuffs for a local church food bank.

The field includes several NCAA Division I distance runners. The Heidemans’ daughter Caitlin married former SDSU standout quarterback, Ryan Berry, and Caitlin made her mark on the college running scene. Besides Caitlin’s friends and teammates, NDSU cross country coach Ryun Godfrey is a Watertown native, who apparently brings his team from Fargo to Watertown for the Heideman run, with the additional lure of a turkey feed at the home of Watertown running coach and father, Vic Godfrey.

In addition to the D-I caliber athletes, there are also the Very-Not-D-Anything “athletes” that heavily populate the 5k run and 2 mile walk — as well as the many family and friends there to cheer on the field. A buddy of mine dutifully trains for this event each year, always wondering if the first aid crew will be good enough to assure him survival to at least one last turkey dinner. It is ominous that the course routes the wheezing, frost-bitten participants through the local cemetery — seriously. To date, the Hiedemans’ web site reports no fatalities, and precious few egos injured in this festive community event.

Last year the infectious nature of the whole affair was tested by forecasts of deep sub-zero wind chills. Due to the growth of the event, prior to the forecast it had been relocated to the local Cornerstone Methodist Church Hall. As the weatherman predicted, the wind chill for the 2010 event was 28 degrees below zero, which made moving the start closer to the local cemetery seem even more fortuitous.

At this point, in more temperate climates, the Macy’s parade would have won out and the sane crowd would stay home. But up here on the Coteau, the rules are different. In true homesteader bloodline fashion, 107 South Dakotans (there were also a few North Dakota athletes looking for free turkey at the Godfrey house, and a guy and two gals from St. Joe, Missouri!) still competed. The crowd included housewives, children, whole families — and of course some not-exactly-D-Anything Athletes. You couldn’t help but wonder if the local mental health counseling program wasn’t a little under-promoted as these hardy souls raced in slightly clad running gear, at temperatures that cause perfectly good engines to seize up. But, the event was a frozen and smashing success.

A few years ago I started participating in this foolishness, and last year one of my college age children joined me in the race. Having cleared a half century and possessing two bad hips, I don’t train for these things. At my age, nothing good happens to your body from all that extra running, so. I focus on power-walking for the cardio endurance, and Aleve for the hips. Plus, because there is a farmer in my age group with nothing better to do all year than run down his township road like a bounding deer — I can’t win anyway.

But in the deep freeze of 2010 two special things happened. First, I beat my daughter to the finish line. Ok, I’m a realist. These are pyrrhic victories — eventually math and the calendar will change the placing in those finishes, so I take my victories while I can. But even more importantly, we’d left before the awards ceremony. Later that day a victor’s pumpkin pie was delivered to our home. Immediately realizing that the speeding farmer was surely the rightful owner of the over-50 pie, I did what any AARP-eligible athlete does when faced with the prospect of having to return a mistaken trophy — I took a bite out of it. There’s no chance they’d make me give back a pie that was missing a piece. Besides, all those calories wouldn’t affect my form, but surely would throw his lean frame off.

So now we approach 2011. The weather is forecast to be in the 40s, the kind of temps that even the folks south of the Mason-Dixon Line would run in. Having already won a pie, there’s little left to prove, almost. BOTH of my college age kids have now been training for this race. Dad’s time on top of the family running victor’s stand is probably numbered. Sure, I’ve already started my regiment of Aleve, and paced myself with a 5k warm up run last May (the hospital’s Heart Attack Hill Run is a story for another day). But the real power of writing is being able to pick when an epic ends.

Thursday is Thanksgiving. While I can’t predict the finish for tomorrow’s race (I’m just hoping they don’t have reason to leave me out in that cemetery) Today, I still feel good enough to share the Thanksgiving prayer from 1:Thessalonians:”In all things give thanks…”

Lee Schoenbeck grew up in Webster, practices law in Watertown, and is a freelance writer for the South Dakota Magazine website.

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Holiday Recipe: Prairie Sage Dressing

By Emma L. Willey

Sagebrush grows wild in South Dakota. Often farmers have to clean it off the prairie to make room for their crops. But sagebrush survives to add great flavor to many foods. My favorite use is in a recipe for turkey dressing at Thanksgiving; it’s a flavor you won’t soon forget.

Even better yet, it can be stuffed inside a wild prairie chicken, grouse, sage hen or pheasant, all birds native to South Dakota. My brothers often brought in some of these wild birds for our family to enjoy.

As kids, my sisters and I went out on the prairie and stripped the leaves off the branches of the sagebrush plants. We took them to the house, spread them out on newspapers to dry for about a week, and then placed the dried leaves in a jar Mama kept in the pantry to add to her sage dressing for the holidays. If you’ve ever eaten dressing with the delectable flavor of wild sage, you will never buy the store brand again.

Celery and onions, other ingredients in the stuffing, also grow on the prairie but they are not quite as easy to find as sage. We only found those in the spring and would stop to pick them on the way home from school.

We collected wild chokecherries, buffalo berries and plums every summer for the most mouth-watering jams and jellies. They have flavors you can’t find elsewhere.

My family also enjoyed several wild vegetables during the Depression. Mama made a wilted salad using fresh young dandelion leaves. She fried a couple slices of bacon until crisp, crumbled them, added salt, pepper and a splash of vinegar and poured the hot liquid over the dandelion leaves. We also used lambs quarter, pigweed or purple sour dock as a substitute for spinach. When the plants come up in the spring, the tender leaves make wonderful hot greens for dinner. Just put them in boiling water for about five minutes, drain, add a splash of vinegar and garnish with hard-boiled eggs. The pioneers in South Dakota often made do with things that already existed on the prairie.

Emma’s Wild Sage Stuffing

6 cups dried and cubed English muffin bread
3 eggs
Turkey giblets (boiled until tender and chopped)
Broth from the giblets to soften bread cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup dried, crushed sage leaves
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/3 cup chopped celery, including some of the leaves
1 apple, peeled and chopped

Mix all ingredients together and stuff into the cavity of the turkey. Roast for 20 minutes per pound in a 325 degree oven.

Editor’s Note: Emma Willey learned about finding food on the prairie while growing up on her family’s homestead near Zeona in Perkins County. After serving in the Women’s Army Corps in World War II, she and her husband Orman settled in Rapid City, where they had three children. Willey lived in Oregon for several years and passed away in West Virginia just before Thanksgiving in 2014. This story is revised from the November/December 2010 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call (800) 456-5117.