Thanksgiving, the time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude has finally arrived. Scrumptious cozy dinners, hot roasted turkeys, corn meals, and  tasty dishes, that’s what thanksgiving is all about. Everyone has their ideas and plans for a relishing thanksgiving dinner.  To to bring you the best of thanksgiving dinner menu, we have got the best of recipes for you to try, and make your dinner special.

APPETIZER

Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

3 to 3 1/2 pounds butternut squash, approximately 2, seeded and quartered
Unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus 1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper, plus 1/2 teaspoon
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the quartered squash onto a half sheet pan, brush the flesh of the squash with a little butter and season with 1 tablespoon of the salt and 1 teaspoon of the white pepper. Place in the oven and roast for 30 to 35 minutes or until the flesh is soft and tender.

Scoop the flesh from the skin into a 6-quart pot. Add the broth, honey and ginger. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Using a stick blender, puree the mixture until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream and return to a low simmer. Season with the remaining salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

MAIN DISH:

Honey Brined Smoked Turkey

Ingredients

1 gallon hot water
1 pound kosher salt
2 quarts vegetable broth
1 pound honey
1 (7-pound) bag of ice
1 (15 to 20-pound) turkey, with giblets removed
Vegetable oil, for rubbing turkey

Directions

Combine the hot water and the salt in a 54-quart cooler. Stir until the salt dissolves. Stir in the vegetable broth and the honey. Add the ice and stir. Place the turkey in the brine, breast side up, and cover with cooler lid.. Brine overnight, up to 12 hours.

Remove the turkey from the brine and dry thoroughly. Rub the bird thoroughly with the vegetable oil.

Heat the grill to 400 degrees F.

Using a double thickness of heavy-duty aluminum foil, build a smoke bomb. Place a cup of hickory wood chips in the center of the foil and gather up the edges, making a small pouch. Leave the pouch open at the top. Set this directly on the charcoal or on the metal bar over the gas flame. Set the turkey over indirect heat, insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the breast meat, and set the alarm for 160 degrees F. Close the lid and cook for 1 hour.

After 1 hour check the bird; if the skin is golden brown, cover with aluminum foil and continue cooking. Also, after 1 hour, replace wood chips with second cup.

Once the bird reaches 160 degrees F, remove from grill, cover with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 1 hour. Carve and serve.

SIDE DISH:

Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
16 fluid ounces (2 cups) half-and-half
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 ounces grated Parmesan

Directions

Peel and dice potatoes, making sure all are relatively the same size. Place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Cook until potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
Heat the half-and-half and the garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
Remove the potatoes from the heat and drain off the water. Mash and add the garlic-cream mixture, salt, and Parmesan; stir to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes so that mixture thickens and then serve.

DESSERT:

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

For Crust:

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick melted salted butter

For Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:

In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.
Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Food is something we can’t imagine of live without. We come across different kinds of food on daily basis. But do you know there are many hidden facts about food that are fascinating and definitely worthy of knowing. Below is a nice trivia list about some interesting and informative food facts:

1) An average person eats almost 1500 pounds of food a year. On an average, that is comprised of 150 pounds of meat, 290 pounds of milk and cream, 35 pounds of eggs, 48 pounds of chicken, 68 pounds of bread, 125 pounds of potatoes, and 80 pounds of fruit.

2) ‘Fast Food’ was even enjoyed in ancient times. The remains of fast-food shops have been found in ancient ruins! Even ancient Greeks enjoyed take-out. The only thing that is new is the mass production, standard menus and recipes of fast-food ‘chains’.

3) Salt, our taste maker and preservative, was extremely rare in the past. So rare, in fact, that it was often used as ’salary.’ and today, salt is so common that restaurants give it away for free, and packaged food contains so much that it’s far too easy to eat too much salt.

4) Sometimes frozen fruits and vegetables are more nutritious than fresh. The longer that fruits or vegetables are kept in stores to be sold or eaten, the more nutrients they lose. But fruits and vegetables grown for freezing are usually frozen right after they’re picked. Therefore, they have less time to lose their nutrients.

5) Apples, potatoes, and onions all taste the same when eaten with your nose plugged. This shows the nose plays the incredibly important part in the sense of taste. The fact that the three items have a similar consistency makes it virtually impossible to identify them without the sense of smell.

6) When an egg floats in water, it is gone rotten and should not be eaten.  When an egg is extremely fresh it will lie on its side at the bottom of a glass of water. But as it ages,gases build up inside the shell making it more buoyant and the egg will begin to point upwards, and will finally float completely when it has gone bad.

7) Vitamin A is known to prevent night blindness, and carrots are loaded with Vitamin A. One carrot provides more than 200% of recommended daily intake of Vitamin A.

8.) Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.

9) To make one kilo of honey bees have to visit 4 million flowers, traveling a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.

10) Peanut oil can be processed to produce glycerol, which is then used to make nitroglycerin, one of the constituents of dynamite.  However, there are other processes that can be used to make dynamite without using peanuts at all.

Imagine you’ve gone for grocery shopping and there you find a great sale on food items, fruits and vegetables. You add all these  foods to your cart, but at home as you unpack the food, you realize you cannot use all this food before it spoils. But if you follow some smart steps to store the food correctly in freezer bags or plastic containers, you will always have a home-cooked meal that can be piping hot in minutes.

Save Space in the Freezer

• To make the most of freezer space, freeze food flat in freezer bags, then stack the bags horizontally or vertically in the freezer. Freeze fruits and vegetables in freezer bags on a cookie sheet to keep them from sticking together.

• Get the air out of the freezer bag to not only save room in the freezer but also to keep food from developing freezer burn. It is recommended to remove the maximum amount of air from the freezer bag by closing the top of the bag almost all the way, inserting a drinking straw and sucking the air out of the freezer bag.

• Use a freezer thermometer and keep the freezer at 0 degrees. Leave some space around frozen food packages so air can circulate to keep the freezer running efficiently.

• Remember to mark freezer bags with what the contents are and the date frozen before you place food in the bags. Then keep a list of what you have stored in your freezer.

Storing Meat, Poultry and Fish

These can be stored by wrapping  in freezer paper or plastic wrap and then putting into a freezer bag. If you are freezing meat, poultry and fish in store packaging, wrap the package with plastic wrap before placing into freezer bags, because the store packaging tends to develop very small holes between the store and your freezer.

Freezing Bakery Items

Breads, cookies and cakes all freeze well. Be sure to use a freezer bag or air tight container that keeps  to prevent bakery items from tasting dry and stale when thawed.

Freezing Milk and Cheese

To freeze milk, just place the unopened container directly in the freezer. The plastic carton will expand as the milk freezes, so be sure to leave plenty of space around the milk jug. While freezing cheese, cut it into smaller portions so you don’t have to thaw the entire block when you want a piece. Store each portion in plastic wrap and then put all the portions in a freezer bag.

By learning these easy and wise steps to store food and other necessities, you can save food and bucks for uncertain times and keep your family safe in crisis.

With Swine and other kinds of flu spreading worldwide, we need to protect ourselves and our loved ones by taking protective measures such as taking a flu shot, using hand sanitizers, wearing gloves, and opening less public doors. Well apart from adopting these protective measures, it is  the time to ramp up our body’s immune system to fight these growing menace.

Here in our first blog post, we thought of bringing up in your notice, some immune booster foods that should be in your flu season diet in order to increase your immunity level to fight flu.

Green Tea: The list of green tea’s health benefits also includes fighting the flu. Green tea is high in anti-viral activity against influenza. Green teas contain higher levels of the flavonoids (substances that are responsible for plants’ colors, as well as many of their health benefits) which are thought to be responsible for tea’s antiviral properties.

Chicken Soup: A steaming bowl of chicken soup is known to be the cure for every ailment, from the common cold to a nasty scrape on the knee. To get the anti-inflammatory and other health benefits of it, doctors suggests making chicken soup with vegetables at home.

Foods with Vitamin D: A sufficient amount of vitamin D offers protection against flu such as swine flu as it produces antimicrobial substances in the body. Milk, malted drink mixes,  fortified cereals, roasted sockeye salmon and other good seafood etc. all provide vitamin D.

Yogurt: Probiotics the friendly bacteria found in yogurt and some other foods helps in boost the body’s immunity and reducing cold and flu symptoms. You can get probiotic bacteria naturally by eating yogurt with active cultures and fermented foods such as miso, tempeh, and kefir.

Spicy Peppers: Spicy peppers are also a great source of vitamin C  and have antiviral properties and stimulate antibody production. They have the power to reduce the incidence of pneumonia. Eating foods rich in chilli is a great kick start to your immune system as well as your taste buds.

Foods Rich in Beta Carotene: Beta carotene is an organic compound which is known as an immune system enhancer. It produces  natural infection fighting cells that help and protect your body from invaders. Sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, mangoes, papaya and squash are foods high in beta carotene and should be included in the diet.

In addition to above mentioned foods, make sure you eat plenty of whole grains, fruit, vegetables and low-fat protein to keep your immune system strong. Think of nutritious foods as part of your diet, and you’ll be ready to do fight whenever illness strikes.