Traditional Homemade Thanksgiving Recipes

For those of you just need just the basic side dishes and desserts for your Thanksgiving dinner, here they all are in one spot.

If you need a fantastic roast turkey recipe or you need to know how to roast a turkey, you can find it here!

Mashed Potatoes

5 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk

In a large saucepan, place potatoes and enough water to cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 10-15 minutes depending on your altitude). Drain. Transfer potatoes to a mixing bowl and mash. I use a hand mixer for this but you can use a potato masher.  Add butter, milk, sugar and salt. Beat until smooth. Serves 5-6.

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 cups sweet potatoes, mashed
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Topping
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup pecans
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, melted

Mix all the ingredients and put in a buttered 9×9 casserole dish. Sprinkle on topping. Bake uncovered at 350° for 20 minutes. This is a great dish for holiday dinners and potlucks because it can be made the day before and then baked the next day. Serves 8-9.

Homemade Stuffing

This is my Grandma Tatum’s stuffing recipe (Jill’s Mom). It has been in our family for years and is a family favorite! -Tawra

I have hesitated to include our stuffing recipe because it is one of those recipes where it is hard to give exact measurements. You can adjust any of these ingredients to suit your taste and if you want, you can add different things to the dish.

For example, you can replace some of the bread with cornbread or you can add mushrooms, celery, apples, or giblets and many other things according to your own taste. This is one of those recipes that looks complicated but is really easy once you make it.

For a drier stuffing, use less liquid and for a moister dressing, add more butter. Butter doesn’t evaporate and won’t make your dressing "soggy" instead of moist the way liquid will.You can also add a little milk if the stuffing seems too dry.

When you bake stuffing inside a turkey or if you cook it in a covered pan, it won’t dry out so keep this in mind when testing for moistness.

If you want your stuffing to be fluffier, beat the eggs in the recipe before adding.

Here is the basic recipe:

8-10 cups dried bread, cubed or torn (You can use anything including hot dog buns, dinner rolls or French bread.)
1/2-1 lb. pork sausage
1/2-1 onion (or onion powder to taste)
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups broth*
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/4-1/2 cup margarine
3 heaping tsp. ground sage
salt and pepper
1 small bag or box of seasoned croutons

Cube and tear bread, place in a very large mixing bowl and let it set out overnight if not dry enough. Fry sausage and onion. I don’t like celery in my dressing but if you do you can add it at this time. Drain and add to the bowl of bread. Pour broth into a large measuring cup. Add margarine and bouillon cube and heat in the microwave to melt margarine and bouillon cubes. Pour this mixture and eggs over bread. Add sage, salt, pepper and onion powder if not using onions and croutons. Using your hands, mush it all together until well mixed. Place in a well greased casserole dish or pan. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

If you like your stuffing soft on the inside with a crispy crust, just remove the cover for the last 15 minutes. If your dressing seems too dry, add a little milk for more moisture.

*For broth, I simmer the neck and giblets in a pan of water for an hour or two as soon as I take them out of the turkey. Then I use this water and some broth from my turkey, which has been cooking, to make my 1 1/2 cups.

If you are baking your stuffing in the turkey and can’t tell if it is done, just test with a meat thermometer and it should be 165 degrees.

Turkey Gravy

3-4 cups turkey juices/drippings
1/4 cup flour
Salt, pepper to taste

Pour turkey juices/drippings into a sauce pan. Whisk in flour. Add salt and pepper. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring once in a while until it is the right consistency.

If the gravy is too strong or you need to stretch it just a little, you can add a small amount of water. Another way I used to make turkey gravy (either way works) is to dissolve the flour in 1/2 cup of cold water and then whisk it into the turkey juices.

Pie Crust

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 cups shortening, cold
1 egg, cold
1 Tbsp. vinegar, cold
5 Tbsp. water, cold
sugar

Mix flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or 2 knives (I use my fingers). Add egg, vinegar and 3 tablespoons water. Mix lightly. If dough is too dry, add more water. Mix with hands. Don’t over mix. Mix just until the dough sticks together.

Divide into thirds. Roll out to make 3 pies crusts. When using the crust for the top of the pie, sprinkle sugar on top and poke with a few steam holes. Crust can be frozen in balls and then defrosted and rolled out when ready to use. Makes 3 crusts.

Pumpkin Pie

1 pie crust
2 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

Bake pie crust at 350° for 1-2 minutes until crust starts to puff with small bubbles. Watch carefully. Then remove from oven. Blend all ingredients together in a bowl. Pour into pie crust and bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350° for 45 minutes. When a knife is inserted into the center of the pie and comes out clean, it is done. Makes one pie.

Pecan Pie

1 stick butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
dash of salt
1 1/4 cups pecans, chopped
1 (8-9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Brown butter in a pan until golden brown. Do not burn. Cool. Add other ingredients in order given in a separate bowl. Mix well. Blend in cooled butter well. Pour into pie crust. Bake 10 minutes at 425° and then 40 minutes at 325°. Makes one pie.

For more traditional homemade scratch recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.

Photo By: Cameron Nordholm

Related Photos

I admit it, I hate pie crust, that is all pie crust except mom’s "very best" pie crust! Here’s mom’s famous pie which really is the VERY BEST! Tawra

The Very Best Pie Crust

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 cups shortening, cold
1 egg, cold
1 Tbsp. vinegar, cold
5 Tbsp. cold water
sugar

Mix flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or 2 knives. Add egg, vinegar and 3 tablespoons water. Mix lightly. If dough is too dry, add more water. Mix with hands. Don’t overmix. Mix just until the dough sticks together. Divide into thirds. Roll out to make 3 pie crusts. When using the crust for the top of the pie sprinkle sugar on top. Crust can be frozen in balls and then defrosted and rolled out when ready to use. Makes 3 crusts.

For more home cooked scratch recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.

Related Photos

Homemade Pie Baking Tips

If you love baking pies from scratch and have the time to do so, then go for it, but don’t feel guilty if you can’t. There are many ways to get that homemade taste without as much work. For example, say your family loves pumpkin pie but every year you notice that they only eat the filling and leave most of the crust. Then, this year, don’t put your pumpkin pie filling in a crust. Just pour it into a well greased baking dish or pan to bake. This will save you time and calories.

If your family loves apple pie but you don’t have time for a crust then make an apple crisp instead.

For homemade cinnamon rolls: Use frozen dough — most people can’t tell the difference. I’ve told this story before but it is a perfect example of what I mean. My grandmother-in-law made the best "homemade" noodles that everyone fought over and raved about at every family get-together. No one made noodles like grandma’s. One day I decided to ask grandma what her secret was and she took me to her freezer and laughingly, pulled out a bag of frozen egg noodles. Everyone assumed that she had made them from scratch.

Make your life easy and take shortcuts when you can. It is much less expensive to use convenience foods sometimes than to go out to eat.

Here are some more pie tips for experienced bakers and beginning bakers:

• For something different, try serving your apple pie with butter pecan ice cream instead of the usual vanilla and/or top it with a little caramel ice cream topping.
• Replace 1/4 of the white sugar in your apple pie recipe with brown sugar and/or replace your regular spices with pumpkin pie spice *(below).
• You can give canned apple pie filling more of a homemade flavor by adding apple pie or pumpkin pie spice* to it.
• Lime juice works much better than lemon juice to prevent fruits like apples from turning brown.
• When making fruit pies, microwave the filling for 5-7 minutes before pouring it into the crust. This prevents the crust from becoming overly brown before the filling is completely cooked. In the case of an apple pie, you won’t have to worry about partially cooked apples.
• When making pumpkin pie: Before you pour in the filling, bake the crust for 2-3 minutes just until it starts puffing a little on the bottom. Watch it carefully because it only takes a minute and you don’t want to totally cook it. This really helps prevent those sometimes very soggy pie crusts.
• If you like cheese with your apple pie, mix 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese into your pie crust and then layer the apple filling with another cup of grated cheese.
• If your pies are too runny, add 1 Tbsp. of tapioca to your filling.
• When making pecan pie, melt the butter in a saucepan until it turns golden brown. Watch it so it doesn’t burn. This adds the most wonderful caramel like flavor to your pie. For my favorite pecan pie, check out page 254 in our cookbook Dining on A Dime. I received this recipe many years ago from my sister-in-law Mary and have yet to taste one that comes close to it for flavor.
• When making a graham cracker crust, add a little cinnamon to the mix.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. cloves

Mix ingredients well. Makes 1 teaspoon. Use in any recipe calling for pumpkin pie spice.

• When you need to make a graham cracker crust, crush enough crumbs to fill a large container or coffee can. The next time you make a crust, you can just scoop out the amount you need.

For more quick and easy recipes and cooking tips, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook!

Photo By: Tamara Manning

Related Photos

Tips:

• Cool weather is on its way, which means yummy soups and stews. If your children’s soup is too hot for them, add a few frozen vegetables to it. The veggies cook and, at the same time, it cools down the soup.
• For a quick and different dessert, top a brownie with ice cream. Then top it with chocolate syrup mixed with chunky peanut butter. You can add as little or as much as you want.

Menu:

Potato Flake Chicken Tenders*
Easy Vegetables*
French Fries
Soda Cracker Pie*

With football season here, this recipe will come in handy to serve not only for dinner but while watching the game.

Potato Flake Chicken Tenders

1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 (7.6 oz) pkg instant garlic flavor potatoes
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 lbs. chicken tenders

While oil is heating in skillet on medium heat, beat egg and milk together in a bowl. On a piece of wax paper or a small plate, mix potatoes and seasonings. Dip chicken into milk mix; then roll in potato flakes. Fry 7-10 minutes, until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Note: You can add some Parmesan cheese or other seasonings you might like to the potato flakes. You can use regular instant potatoes and just add garlic powder to season them.

Easy Vegetables

Broccoli florets
Cauliflower florets
Green beans, with the ends trimmed
Red Pepper, cut into strips
Italian Dressing
Parmesan cheese, shredded

Take any amount of first three vegetables you want and drop into boiling water for 2 minutes or until they are bright in color and still crisp. Do not overcook. Drain immediately and rinse in cold water. Drain well. Add pepper strips, cover and chill. Before serving toss with dressing and cheese.

You can serve this pie with just whipped cream or you could leave out the nuts and top with lemon, blueberry, cherry or any other pie filling. You can also use Ritz, graham or saltine crackers in place of soda crackers or add chocolate chips. Someone suggested spreading it with jam and sprinkling with brown sugar.

Soda Cracker Pie

3  egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
20 soda crackers, finely crushed
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecans or nuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (165 degrees C). Beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold in all the rest of ingredients. Spoon into a greased 9 inch pie pan and bake 25-30 minutes. Cool.

For lots more quick and easy home cooked recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.

Photo By: Robert Banh

Related Photos

Tips:

• Meat can be expensive. One great way to save and stretch it is to chop it and mix it with other things. We do this often with casseroles but today’s recipe is a different twist on the usual casserole and shows there are other ways to stretch it.
• The next time you bake potatoes or boil some water for something, wipe down the inside of your microwave. There is usually enough steam left in there so that it’s easy to wipe clean.
• If you use mayonnaise in a squeeze bottle or want to get every last bit out of the jar, add a little milk to the bottle and shake it. Then pour it on something like potato salad. You can do the same thing with ketchup except add water, shake and pour into your spaghetti sauce.

Menu:

Roast Beef Potato Salad*
Veggie Stir Fry*
Sliced Tomatoes
Banana Cream Dessert*

Recipes:

Today’s main dish recipe is a quick, easy and unusual way to use leftover roast beef and potatoes. This is a great way to stretch any meat when unexpected company shows up.

Roast Beef Potato Salad

2 cups roast beef, cooked and cubed
2 cups potatoes, peeled, cooked and cubed
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. pimentos, chopped (optional)

Dressing:

1/3 cup vegetable oil
2-3 Tbsp. vinegar
2 tsp. prepared mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Mix dressing in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss with dressing. Chill 1 hour. Serve on lettuce leaves. Makes 4 servings.

Veggie Stir Fry

4 cups fresh broccoli florets
3/4 cup fresh baby carrots, quartered lengthwise
2 tsp. canola or vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste

In a nonstick skillet, stir-fry broccoli and carrots in oil for 5 minutes. Add zucchini, salt and pepper. Stir-fry 5 more minutes or until vegetables are tender. Makes 4 servings.

Banana Cream Dessert

4 medium bananas, sliced
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) instant vanilla pudding
1 carton (12 oz.) whipped topping
1/3 cup pecans or other nuts
1 graham cracker pie crust (9 inch)*

Toss bananas in lemon juice. Drain well. Set aside. Beat sour cream and pudding on low speed for 2 minutes. Fold in bananas and whipped topping. Pour into pie crust. Chill for at least 6 hours or over night. Sprinkle with pecans.

*Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

Combine and press into a pan. Use a spring form pan if you have one. Alternatively, a 9 inch pie pan will work, too.

You might also try this recipe without the crust and drizzle it with a little chocolate sauce.Yummy!

Photo By: MinimalistPhotography101.com

Related Photos

Pumpkin Frosting Pie

1 can vanilla frosting
1 (15oz.) can pumpkin
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 small carton of whipped topping
1 graham cracker crust that has a little cinnamon and nutmeg added to it

Mix all but whipped topping and crust. Then fold in topping and pour it all into crust. Chill

photo by: vegan-baking

Related Photos

Tips:

As much as we love to envision our grandmothers in the kitchen peeling, chopping and baking every little thing from scratch, in reality, they often worked long, hard hours just like us. Most of the time, they worked even longer hours than we do. They had just as much stress worrying about their children, money (jobs were very hard to come by at times) and how to make ends meet. In some ways, they were so much wiser then us. We really need to learn from them and try to put into practice their ideas in our own homes.

One of the things our grandmothers did was keep their menus and lives simple. One way they did that was planning a regular routine. For example, they would have roast on Sunday, pork chops on Monday, stew on Tuesday, chicken on Wednesday and so on and they did this every week.

If you are having a hard time planning menus and cooking meals, you might try this method for a while. Don’t worry about your family getting bored because, as I have said before, most families like having the same 10 meals over and over.

This doesn’t mean you have to have the exact same menus each time. For example, Wednesday’s chicken could be roasted one week, chicken and dumplings another week, chicken soup, chicken sandwiches and so on. The key is that because you know what the main meat dish is, you are halfway there.

Kids like routine and often there is a feeling of security and comfort in doing the same things over and over. How often do you hear someone fondly recall how, "Every Sunday my grandma had roast, potatoes and carrots" or "Thursday was always meatloaf night."

You don’t have to do this forever but it can help jump start you and get you into the habit of making meals at home.

Another thing that might help is to run your kitchen like a restaurant. The most successful restaurants have only a few items on the menu and serve very good tasting food with the minimum amount of expense and work for them. Think about that and then apply it to your home. In some ways we need to run our home more like a business, a business founded and based on love, comfort and security.

Menu:

Cheesy French Dip Sandwiches*
Chips or French fries
Dilly Cucumbers*
Fruit
Raspberry Lemonade Pie*

Recipes:

Cheesy French Dip Sandwiches

Roast, slow cooked
Garlic butter
Grated cheddar cheese
Sandwich buns

Make some garlic butter either by sauteing a little garlic in some butter or sprinkling some garlic powder (to taste) into some soft butter. Spread each side of the bun with the butter and sprinkle with grated cheese. Broil until cheese is melted. Lay thin slices of roast on one bun and top with the other. Serve some of the roast broth on the side to dip the sandwiches in.

Dilly Cucumbers

1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dill seed
1 1/2 tsp. parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. dill pickles, chopped
Dash of pepper

Mix and pour over cucumbers, peeled and sliced thin.

This recipe calls for you to use raspberry lemonade, but you could really use any flavored drink mix you like and change the crust to any cookie, graham, or regular pie crust (or use no crust at all). Cherry or strawberry flavor is a good flavor change to go with the chocolate crust if you prefer.

Raspberry Lemonade Pie

1/3 cup sweetened raspberry lemonade drink mix
1/2 cup water
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1 8 oz. carton whipped topping
1 chocolate crumb pie crust (9 inch)
Chocolate syrup, optional

Mix water and drink mix. Add ice cream and beat on low until blended. Fold in whipped topping and pour into crust. Freeze 4 hours until firm. Remove 10 minutes before serving to make cutting easier. Top with chocolate sauce.

Photo By: Rick

Related Photos

Menu

Blue Cheese Hamburgers
Potato Salad
Corn on the Cob
Green Beans
Banana Split Dessert

Recipes

Blue Cheese Hamburgers

Crumble blue cheese into your hamburgers before make it into patties.

Banana Split Dessert

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

Mix and press into a 9×13 pan.

1st Layer:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs (may use egg substitute)

Mix and beat for 2 minutes then pour over crust.

Topping:
3 bananas, sliced
1 cup strawberries, sliced
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
3 cups whipped topping
1 cup nuts, chopped
Chocolate sauce and cherries

Top filling with bananas, strawberries and pineapple. Cover with whipped topping and sprinkle with nuts. Chill for at least 12 hours. Serve with chocolate sauce and cherries.

Photo By: Victori?

Related Photos

Delicious Ice Cream Pie

Crust:

20 Oreo cookies, crushed 1 stick margarine, melted

Mix ingredients and press into a pie pan.

Topping:

Ice cream, slightly softened (the amount depends on how high you want to pile it)
Ice cream topping
Whipped topping
Shaved chocolate, sprinkles or nuts (to sprinkle on top)
A cherry, to top it off

Pile the ice cream on top of crust. Pour on topping. Layer with the rest of the ingredients and freeze.

photo by: joyosity

Related Photos