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A Great Homemade Salsa Recipe to Make Your Thanksgiving Celebration Even Better

Article by John Weisenberger

Fall has arrived and come the fourth Thursday of November, families all over the United States will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Originally Thanksgiving Day was a harvest festival where the early American settlers gathered together to express their gratitude to God, not only for the fall harvest, but for all the other blessings they had received over the previous year thus making this holiday a semi-religious one. For instance, the members of one early American community held a formal mass on Thanksgiving Day in 1541 to express their gratitude for being able to safely cross a portion of the Texas wilderness.

Today in the United States, however, most people relate this holiday to the day in 1621 when the English settlers shared a meal with the Wampanoag tribe that saved the settlers from starving after a brutal winter the prior year in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This first Thanksgiving feast was held in honor of the Native American Indians as a way of expressing the Settlers thanks for teaching them how to hunt and gather food in the new land.

As a result, while Thanksgiving today is becoming more of a secular holiday, people usually still give thanks for whatever good things they have received over the past year by starting their Thanksgiving dinners with a prayer that the host or hostess leads rather than going to a formal religious service first.So now that you know a little more about the history of Thanksgiving, let's talk about the history of the traditional food that is served - especially the traditional boring Cranberry sauce.

Up to this day there are certain traditional foods that are always served on Thanksgiving such as baked or roasted turkey with a stuffing made of bread and/or vegetables. That's why many people refer to Thanksgiving Day as Turkey Day. Other foods that are served during traditional Thanksgiving dinners are mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, vegetables that are abundant during fall, pumpkin pie and, of course, cranberry sauce that has traditionally been used as an moist accompaniment for the turkey which can sometimes be a dry meat.

So this year, to make your Thanksgiving dinner a little less boring, here is a great homemade salsa recipe that you can easily make yourself with minimal effort. It's really very easy to prepare and it's guaranteed that your family and friends will be delighted with your creative innovation on this new form of Cranberry "sauce."

Cranberry Salsa

Ingredients

1

A Great Thanksgiving Appetizer Recipe by Burning Peppers? How?

A great Thanksgiving appetizer recipe can be the start of any reason to celebrate.  Whether a holiday dinner, birthday, or weekend party, offering attractive and delicious yet simple appetizers can get any gathering off to a great start.

Appetizers, or "hors d Oeuvres" are small bites of food to stimulate the eye and palate.  "Hors d' Oeuvres" in French means "outside the meal".  These appetizers were originally prepared by the wait staff in early banquets, using the leftovers and scraps from the meal to be served.  While the chefs were working, the waiters were offering tastes "outside the meal".

One of my favorite small bites outside the meal can also be a simple Thanksgiving appetizer recipe.  These Roasted Red Pepper Pinwheels involve making a soft cheese filling to line a roasted, skinned and filleted bell pepper.

Roasting red, yellow and orange bell peppers is a simple procedure, but it's necessary that you use direct, conductive heat.  In other words, you need a flame.  A gas burner atop your stove is preferred, but a barbeque grill or even electric broiler will work.  An oven supplies indirect, convective heat and won't accomplish the charred skin we desire.

To make this Thanksgiving appetizer recipe a success, the peppers must be completely charred black.  Any skin on the pepper that is not completely burned to a black color will not come off when the pepper is shocked in cold water.

You'll be amazed at how tough the skin of a pepper is.  The outside is burned beyond recognition, but behind that is a bright, colorful, soft fruit.  The dramatic change in temperature causes all the burned skin of the pepper to rub right off.

To create a filet of roasted bell pepper, cut a slice along the length of the pepper from stem to blossom, keeping your knife behind the flesh but in front of the white pith cage that holds the seeds in place.  When you have done it correctly, you will have left the cage and seeds behind, revealing a flat filet of flesh.

Now, any type of soft spread able cheese and your favorite herbs can be mixed and spread on the pepper filet.  I prefer goat cheese, thyme, oregano, basil, salt, and white pepper.  Your hands are the best tool for this job, so you can create an even depth of ¼ inch of cheese on top of the roasted pepper.

When you roll the pepper over on top of the cheese, creating a spiral design within, you'll begin to realize why this is such a great Thanksgiving appetizer recipe.  It's simple, you can use the ingredients you desire, and it involves your own creativity along with a basic cooking method.  Those are the best recipes of all, the ones you create yourself.

The stuffed rolled pepper should be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerated for 2 hours, allowing the cheese to solidify.  Once removed from the cooler and unwrapped, eighth-inch slices cut along the pepper's latitude will reveal the contrast of the colorful pepper and white cheese in a spiraling pinwheel design.

The Red Pepper Pinwheels can be placed on crackers; artisan toasts, or used to top a pizza or broiled bruschetta.  I think it's a fantastic Thanksgiving appetizer recipe, but you can use it any time of the year you'd like.

www.WebCookingClasses.com This Thanksgiving Appetizer Recipe is so simple, but will make you look like a chef at home. Roasted Red Peppers are stuffed with a cheese mixture and turned into elegant pinwheel Thanksgiving appetizers.
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Recipe for Mincemeat Pie - Thanksgiving Recipe

Recipe for Mincemeat Pie is a Thanksgiving Recipe. It can be prepared with just a little effort. Ingredients and simple directions:

RECIPE FOR MINCEMEAT PIE

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups mixed dried fruit such as pears, apricots, apples, prunes, peaches, and figs (about 3/4 pound total)
1/2 cup pitted dates
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries (about 3 ounces)
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons brandy
Pastry dough
3/4 cup pecans (about 3 ounces)
1/2 tablespoon water
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon sugar

DIRECTIONS:

In a food processor coarsely chop mixed dried fruit and dates with spices, salt, and sugar. In a heavy saucepan combine dried fruit mixture, cranberries, and 2 cups water and cook at a bare simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes, or until fruit is tender (mixture will be very thick). In a small bowl stir together cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water until combined well. Stir cornstarch mixture into dried fruit mixture and simmer, stirring frequently, 2 minutes. Stir in brandy and cool mincemeat. Mincemeat may be used immediately but will improve in flavor if kept, covered and chilled, at least 1 day and up to 1 week. Bring mincemeat to room temperature before proceeding.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Keeping remaining dough chilled, on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin roll out half of dough into a 13−inch round (about 1/8 inch thick). Fit round into a 9−inch (1−quart) glass pie plate and trim edge, leaving a 1/2−inch overhang. Chill shell, covered, 30 minutes, or until firm.
Coarsely chop pecans and in a shallow baking pan toast in middle of oven until a shade darker, about 4 minutes. Stir pecans into mincemeat and spoon into shell, smoothing top. Roll out remaining dough 1/8 inch thick and arrange over filling. Trim dough, leaving a 3/4−inch overhang, and fold overhang under edge of bottom shell, pressing to seal. Crimp edge decoratively.
In a small bowl whisk together 1/2 tablespoon water and yolk and lightly brush crust with egg wash. Sprinkle crust with sugar and with a knife cut several steam vents.
Bake pie in middle of oven until crust is golden, 30 to 35 minutes, and transfer to a rack to cool. Pie may be made 8 hours ahead and kept at room temperature. Serve pie warm or at room temperature.

Follow this simple directions carefully. Hope youl ike this Thanksgiving recipe. Wish you all happy thanksgiving with your family and friends. 

Max and Rebecca share tips and recipe twists to liven up your Thanksgiving menu. They're cooking turkey, a stuffing stand-in adapted from Bon Appetit & Molly Wizenberg of Orangette, and more. Links:www.bonappetit.com, http www.bonappetit.com www.bonappetit.com Working Class Foodies is a weekly show on the Hungry Nation network with great food, organic recipes, and affordable cooking tips. Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: www.twitter.com Website: www.hungrynation.tv
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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