Ingredients:
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 cup English Almond Toffee International Delight Coffee Creamer(r) (If you are unable to find this particular flavor, you can substitute French Vanilla, or 1/2 cup milk.)
1/2 cup melted butter
Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions:
Combine first 6 ingredients. Pour into a buttered 1 1/2 to 2-quart casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot and browned. Serves 6 to 8.
Sweet Potato Cups
Ingredients:
8 oranges
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
Miniature marshmallows
Slice top off oranges about a 1/2 inch from top. Hollow fruit out of the oranges and set aside in a container in refrigerator. (You will use the oranges later for ambrosia recipe I have added below.) Place empty orange shells in the freezer until frozen. While orange shells are freezing, combine the other ingredients. Remove frozen orange cups from freezer. Scallop orange shells at the top with small paring knife. This will be easy to do since oranges are frozen. Fill with potato mixture and bake 30 minutes, topping with miniature marshmallows and baking until brown, usually an additional 10 minutes.
Southern Ambrosia (The food of the gods!)
We serve this with cake, usually pound cake or coconut cake. It's delicious, and this recipe has been in our family for over 100 years and it's very simple to use!
8 oranges - remove fruit, membrane, and seeds.
1 cup shredded coconut.
1 8 ounce jar maraschino cherries.
Optional: 1-8 ounce can of pineapple chunks.
You can also spike ambrosia with sherry or Grand Marnier liqueur.
Mix the fruit from 8 oranges in a large mixing bowl. Add a cup of shredded coconut and chill in the refrigerator. Just before serving, add maraschino cherries. Serve in crystal sherbet dishes or champagne glasses with cake.
Southern Pound Cake
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 & 1/2 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour
pinch salt
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
INSTRUCTIONS: Grease/flour/spray a 10-inch tube pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of pecans in the bottom. Set aside. With a mixer cream together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar gradually and mix until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Next, add cake flour and salt. Mix; then, add vanilla and pecans. Pour batter into pan. Bake for about an hour and twenty minutes or until done. Cool the cake in the pan for about 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a wire rack.
Orange Date Nut Cake
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter
3 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk
3 Tbsp. grated orange rind
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 packages chopped dates (8 oz. each)
2 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
6 cups flour
Glaze:
3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup orange juice
2 to 3 tablespoons finely grated orange peel
Instructions: Cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light. Beat egg yolks until lemon colored and add to creamed mixture. Add buttermilk and grated orange peel; mix well. toss dates and pecans with 1 cup of the flour. Mix remaining flour with other dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture, along with nuts and dates. Beat egg whites until stiff; fold gently into batter. Pour into greased and floured Bundt cake pan and bake at 400° for one hour and fifteen minutes, or until toothpick or cake tester inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven, invert on plate and glaze while hot with a mixture of 3 cups granulated sugar, orange juice and 3 tablespoons grated orange peel.
TURKEY TRIVIA
1. When, why, and where did the Pilgrims come to America?
Answer: In 1620 the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts to escape
religious persecution in England
2. What was country in Europe did the Pilgrims originally flee to prior to coming to America? And why didn’t they stay there?
Answer: Holland. Discovering Holland’s lack of morality, they arranged to come
to America.
3. What crop did the Pilgrims bring with them from Europe that failed to grow in
Plymouth?
Answer: The wheat that the Pilgrims brought with them would not grow on the
rocky soil.
4. After 102 Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, how many people survived the
first year? How did the others die?
Answer: Only 56 Pilgrims survived. Of the original 102 Pilgrims survived, and 46
died of starvation and disease their first winter.
5. What Indian tribe helped the Pilgrim’s survive? How did they help?
Answer: Wamponoag Indians. They provided food for the Pilgrims. The Indians introduced them to corn and showed them how to cultivate the land for crops. They showed them how to tap maple trees for syrup. They educated them on the poisonous plants and plants used for medicinal purposes. They also demonstrated how to hunt for fowl and deer and how to fish.
6. Name of the two Indians who initially came to the Pilgrim’s aid?
Answer: Samoset greeted the Pilgrims and later returned with his friend, Squanto.
7. What did Squanto and Samoset do that shocked the Pilgrims?
Answer: They greeted them in English. The Pilgrims were terrified when Samoset
appeared, but delighted when he greeted them in English. When Samoset returned
he brought his friend Squanto with him, who spoke better English than he did!
They had learned the language from earlier explorers when they had traveled back
to England with them.
8. When and where was the first Thanksgiving?
Answer: Fall, 1621 at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. Exactly when the festival took place is uncertain, but it is believed to have been in mid-October.
9. Governor William Bradford, the Pilgrims’ leader, organized the first Thanksgiving
dinner for giving thanks for what?
Answer: The harvest. After a severe crop failure their first year in America, many of their group died, so a successful harvest was a cause for thanksgiving!
10. Name some of the foods on the first Thanksgiving menu?
Answer: Pheasant, duck, turkey, venison, pigs, chicken, lobster, clams, lobster, corn, squash, dried cranberries, boiled pumpkin, potatoes, corn mush, and wild blackberries. Some Pilgrims were afraid potatoes were poisonous.
11. How many Wampanoag Indians attended the first Thanksgiving dinner?
Answer: Their chief, Massasoit, and 90 braves attended the celebration.
12. How long did the Thanksgiving dinner last?
Answer: Three days.
13. Besides eating what else did the Pilgrims and Indians do at the first Thanksgiving?
Answer: They played games, ran races, marched and played drums. The Indians
demonstrated their bow and arrow skills and the Pilgrims, their musket skills.
14. What American statesman and politician argued on behalf of the turkey against the
bald eagle to become America’s national bird?
Answer: Benjamin Franklin proposed that the turkey to be named the national bird, instead of the bald eagle, because the turkey had saved the Pilgrim's for starvation. Ben, if we’d been there, we would've sided with you!
15. Turkey was on the Pilgrim's menu at the first Thanksgiving, but what did Astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have for their first meal on the moon?
Answer: What else . . . Turkey!
16. What Sesame Street character’s costume is made out of turkey feathers?
Answer: Big Bird! His costume is made out of 4,000+ white turkey feathers dyed
yellow.
17. How did the American Indians use turkey feathers?
Answer: Indians used turkey feathers for their ceremonial clothing and headdresses, and turkey’s spurs on their arrowheads---OUCH!
18. Where do turkey’s sleep?
Answer: In trees, roosting upon the branches.
19. What time do turkey’s go to bed?
Answer: Sundown.
20. Do turkey’s fly?
Answer: Yes! Wild turkeys fly at speeds of 55 miles per hour to elude their hunters. And they can run up to 25 miles per hour.
21. How much did the world’s largest turkey weigh?
Answer: According to the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largest turkey
weighed a whopping 86 pounds--the size of a large dog. Talk about leftovers!
22. Why do turkey’s have such good eyesight?
Answer: A turkey’s eyes are situated on the sides of their face, so their vision is
270 degrees, which enables them to see movement up to 100 yards away. This is why how elude hunters.
23. What is the most dangerous sport in America?
Answer: No, it’s not NASCAR racing or even football. Biking accidents send
more people to the hospital, but turkey hunting has more fatalities! Because of
wild turkeys' great eyesight and sense of hearing, hunters must stay very still,
quiet, and also camouflage themselves, so they are often shot by other hunts.
24. Is it true that turkey can drown if they look up in the rain?
Answer: Nope, that's a myth. Turkey's eyes are on opposite sides of greater field
of vision . . . so they don't normally look up.
25. What is a leading cause of death for turkeys?
Answer: Same as humans . . . heart attacks. When the Air Force was testing the
sound barrier they discovered literally fields of turkey's that had dropped dead of
heart attacks.
26. We're having turkey on Thanksgiving! Are you? What percentage of Americans has turkey for Thanksgiving dinner? Christmas dinner?
Answer: 90% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving and 50% eat turkey on Christmas Day.
27. How many dollars worth of turkey are sold in America each year?
Answer: $4 billion of turkeys are sold in America each year!
28. Which country consumes the most turkey's per capita!?
Answer: Israel.
29. What is a male turkey called? A female? A baby turkey?
Answer: A male turkey is a tom, a female is a hen and a baby turkeys is called a poult and what sounds do each one of them make?
30. What sounds does a male turkey make? The female? The baby?
Answers: The male tom gobbles, the female hen clicks or clucks, and
the baby peeps.
31. What sound does a turkey make when it is frightened?
Answer: When frightened, a turkey sounds like they are saying, "Turk, turk,
turk" . . . so this is where the name turkey originated!
32. Turkeys once became extinct in America. When? And why?
Answer: In the early 1900's, because of over hunting and cutting down trees to
make way for farmlands.
33. Age and sex are determining turkey taste factors, so which turkey . . . the young
turkey or the old turkey and male or female has the best taste and tenderness?
Answer: Old toms are preferable to younger male ones, because their meat is
stringier. Sorry ladies, but younger hens are preferable to older ones . . . sound
familiar? The old birds are tough, but not old toms!
34.Why do we get so sleepy after Thanksgiving Dinner?
Answer: Don’t blame the turkey! Although turkey meat contains an amino acid called L-tryptophan and it is known that this amino acid can make you sleepy, there is not enough in a turkey to make you snooze! The real reason is that Thanksgiving foods have a lot of carbohydrates -- those are nutrients found in things like bread, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. These foods can help make you sleepy. And you probably eat a bigger meal than normal at Thanksgiving. That makes your stomach work harder to digest the food, and more blood flows to your stomach and away from your brain. All together, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is designed to make you sleepy!
