Recipes for a Holiday Feast

Ingredients:

About 2 to two and a half pounds of sweet potatoes, peeled

One third of a cup of water

One quarter of a cup of bourbon

One whole stick of salted butter, approximately 4 tablespoons

One cup of dark brown sugar, tightly packed

One half teaspoon of salt

One teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Method:

Slice the peeled sweet potatoes into disks about a quarter of an inch thick. Put the sweet potatoes in a ten inch skillet in a single layer if possible. Add the water and salt and turn the heat on to medium.

Cook the sweet potatoes uncovered until the water is almost boiled off, turning and flipping them frequently. It should take should take between five to ten minutes to boil off the excess water and to make the sweet potatoes tender. Watch the skillet carefully as the water can boil off quickly and allow the sweet potatoes to burn. As soon as the water is almost gone immediately reduce the heat and add the butter, stirring until the butter melts.

Allow the sweet potatoes to cook in the melted butter until soft and lightly browned. Then add the brown sugar and the bourbon. Be careful as the bourbon is flammable! Don't spill any on the burner. Pour the bourbon into the center of the skillet to avoid potential flare ups. If the bourbon flames up, cover the skillet with a lid until the flames stop. If the bourbon has caught fire, all is not lost, once the flames subside just add a few teaspoons of water and proceed as directed.

Cook the mixture of sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar and bourbon until the sauce has thickened and begins to stick to the slices of sweet potato.

Pour the sweet potatoes and their bourbon glaze into a serving dish and dust with ground cinnamon. To serve, spoon onto plates and drizzle with the glaze adding another dusting of cinnamon if desired.

This dish serves six to eight - depending on how much everyone likes sweet potatoes!

Ingredients:

One cup Merlot wine, it doesn't need to be the best available

Two cups fresh cranberries

Three and a half cups of granulated sugar

Three one quarter ounce packets of dry, unflavored gelatin

One quarter of a teaspoon of table salt

Method:

Choose fresh, ripe cranberries. They will be bright and glossy, as well as firm and unwrinkled. Another test is whether or not they bounce - bouncing cranberries are fresh!

Pick off any stems or foreign materials and discard any berries that don't appear to be fresh. Then rinse the cranberries well by putting them in a colander and running water over them in the sink. Bring the merlot wine to a boil and add the cranberries and salt. Boil the cranberries in the merlot wine until they are softened. Remove from heat and allow the cranberry sauce mixture to cool enough to be handled. Then pour the hot cranberry and wine mixture into a blender. Use the liquefy setting until the mixture is smooth. Add the packets of unflavored gelatin and pulse to blend.

Return the mixture to the pan and heat on medium, bring the pot to a simmer, stirring frequently to dissolve the gelatin. Add the sugar, stirring as you pour it in. Stir until the ingredients are mixed in thoroughly and the sugar appears to be dissolved. Pour into molds or serving bowls and chill for 8 or more hours or until firm. This cranberry sauce recipe can be prepared several days in advance if kept well covered and refrigerated.

Unmold or slice to serve and garnish with fresh mint if desired.

If desired, all-natural grape juice can be substituted for the Merlot wine.

Ingredients:

One 12 to 14lb turkey, fresh or completely (absolutely!) thawed

One bunch of fresh rosemary

8 leaves fresh sage or one teaspoon dried sage

One half teaspoon dried thyme

One dried bay leaf

One clove of garlic, crushed

One medium onion, peeled and quartered

Two sticks (8 oz) of butter, softened

One cup white wine

Two cups of chicken stock

One teaspoon of liquid smoke

Kosher salt

Cracked black pepper

Method:
Rinse and dry the fresh rosemary and sage. Remove the leaves from six sprigs of rosemary and set aside the stems for later use. Put the rosemary leaves from the six stems into a medium bowl with the softened butter, sage, thyme, the crushed clove of garlic, a half teaspoon of Kosher salt, and the liquid smoke. Stir these ingredients together to blend them well. The flavors seem to come out best if this mixture is made up at least a few hours before preparing the turkey.

Wash the bird inside and out with cool water and pat dry with paper towels. Gently loosen the skin around the breast by sliding your fingers slowly under it. Rub the turkey inside and out with salt and pepper.

Stuff the butter under the turkey's skin, over the breast and use the reserved rosemary stems to pin the skin back down, shoving them deep into the breast meat. To make them easier to insert, cut the end of each stem at a sharp angle.

Put the quartered onion and the remainder of the fresh rosemary into the body cavity of the turkey. Set the turkey onto a shallow wire rack inside the roasting pan. Pour the white wine and the chicken stock into the roasting pan and add the bay leaf. Cover the roasting pan with its lid, or if it doesn't have one, two layers of foil.

Here's where we depart from traditional bird preparation technique: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and cook the bird until the thigh temperature reaches 175 degrees. For a 12 to 14lb turkey this should take about 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours 30 minutes. When the turkey has about half an hour of cook time left remove the covering and baste the turkey liberally with pan juices. Allow the turkey to finish uncovered until the skin is golden brown and the temperature when measured at the thickest part of the thigh reaches 175 degrees.

Ingredients:

3 cups turkey pan drippings

3 tablespoons cornstarch

One quarter cup of cold water

Salt to taste

Method:

Bring the pan drippings to a simmer in a sauce pan over medium heat, stirring frequently. Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water, stirring well. Stir the cornstarch and cold water slowly into the pan drippings. Return to a simmer, stirring constantly. Simmer until the mixture turns from cloudy to translucent. Salt to taste.

Pour into gravy boat and serve.

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