Holiday Meals To Remember

• Witches Brew Wine And Pumpkin Pie
• Mashed Potatoes And Gravy
• Tater Tot Casserole Or Green Bean Casserole
• Turkey And Stuffing
• Greens With Ham Hocks

You might not believe it, but I did not grow up with all of these recipes. Some of the recipes I grew up with, however, some of the recipes I learned about spending holidays with other people than who I grew up spending holidays with.

Some of these recipes we strictly reserve for the holidays, but I included a couple that I eat mostly around the holidays, but can be made other times if wanted. I should also mention that this is not an exhaustive list before I get into the recipes and why I picked them.

Witches Brew Wine And Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie is a classic timeless desert that has been on holiday tables for centuries, however, witches brew wine is something I discovered at the store this year during the pandemic. Who would have guessed I would find something new during a pandemic? If you are reading this, don't try to answer that its rhetorical.

I know many of you have your own way of making pumpkin pie, and if it gets messed up there is always the store bought pie. Speaking of this, I buy a pumpkin pie every year, but this year, I decided I wanted to learn how to make a pumpkin pie. Needless to say, my pie did not turn out as planned at all. I tried to find a recipe online and I watched several people make them on YouTube, and it was still a flop. Maybe next year, I'll try again, but for the rest of this holiday season, I'm sticking to store bought.

I did learn that when choosing a recipe to follow you need to make all components the same, but I had a conundrum. I prefer graham cracker crust over pastry crust, yet I could not find a single recipe using graham cracker crust. I only found recipes using pastry crust or no crust at all. Other conundrums where less relevant, but did occur. I wanted to use natural pumpkins not canned, and found a nice balance of both real and canned recipes. My fiancé wanted butter in the filling, and I did not find a single recipe with butter in the filling, so I did not use it. Other ingredients were a much simpler fix.

Mashed Potatoes And Gravy

This dish was a childhood favorite of mine, but I don't eat it much anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love mashed potatoes and gravy. I make mine with real potatoes not boxed potato flakes.

I start by rinsing/washing my potatoes, then I peel them (peel not required). After I peel the potatoes I look for eyes in the potato, that's where the roots start growing, and scoop the eyes out. I do this because the eyes left in taste like dirt mixed with metal. After removing the eyes of the potatoes, I cut them up to cook faster. Now I rinse them and set them aside for later.

Next, I set two pans on the stove. Pan one I fill with water which we will bring to a boiled for the potatoes to boil. Pan two is the pan I use for making gravy. I have several gravy recipes depending on the type of gravy I am making. Once the water is boiling, then the potatoes go into the water. I cook them until they are fork tender. Once the potatoes are fork tender the gravy should also be properly condensed and done too. Not, I turn both pans off, and drain and rinse the potatoes, while also covering the gravy.

Once rinsed, I place the potatoes back in the same pan they cooked in. In the pan with the potatoes I add butter, milk, and any desired seasonings to taste. Once all the ingredients are added to the pan, I shart mashing the potatoes and mixing the ingredients at the same time.

Tater Tot Casserole Or Green Bean Casserole

These two dishes depends on who is making them, and what their budget is. I love a properly made casserole. I know some people on a budget will cut corners and make it taste bad , but the best will never have corners cut.

I've made both before, but would you believe I only grew up with one of them. The other one I learned about in high school.

Green bean casserole was a staple on my dads holiday table. I Make it with fresh green beans, never canned because canned makes it taste tinny. I make mine with cream of mushroom soup, however, it can be swapped out for cream of celery.

One mistake I've seen people do, that you should never do, is swap out the creamed soup for mayonnaise. If you cut this corner it will taste disgusting.

When I was in high school my mother had some guests staying with us. One of those guests introduced me to tater tot casserole, and showed me how to make it. Most of the same rule apply to both casseroles. The one major difference between these two dishes is that you are swapping out green beans and tater tops.

With tater tot casserole you can make homemade tater tots or use frozen ones. The frozen tater tots will save time in the kitchen, however, homemade ones are typically lower in sodium.

Turkey And Stuffing

Turkey is one of those things that was on the table at the very first thanksgiving and has been on holiday tables ever since. Stuffing on the other hand may go great with turkey, but this was not discovered for many years later.

Most people stuff the bird with stuffing, however, some people make it on the side only. Some people like myself make stuffing as both a side dish and turkey stuffer. I prefer the stuffing in the bird, while my fiancé prefers the side dish instead, so I make both.

This combination also goes great with gravy as mentioned above in another section of this article.

Greens And Ham Hocks

I had always bought ham hocks for my dogs and never knew they were good for humans too. I had even eaten greens, but never knew how to prepare them fresh. When I met my fiancé he introduced me to this dish on our second holiday together.

Now fast forward to today, we make this dish for most of the late fall, winter, and early spring holidays. We don't make this dish for summer holidays because this dish heats up the house and our blood stream, and we do not have air conditioning.

Before I get too far into my story about this dish, I should give a wonderful disclaimer. This dish is great for people with anemia, and I only know this because I have anemia. Now back to my story...

I buy pre-smoked ham hocks, and I do this for two reasons. Reason number one is because it saves time, and reason number two is because I don't own a smoker. If you own a smoker then it is always better to buy fresh and smoke them yourself. I also buy fresh greens, for the same reason I buy fresh green beans.

When deciding to buy ingredients you should know that for every four ham hocks you will need fourteen bushels of greens. It can take several hours, but when it is time to get started we use two stockpots, and a double kitchen sink. Both stock pots also will need lids.

When ready we rinse of any excess salt from the ham hock and place them in the smaller of the two stockpots, covering them with water. The ham hocks must be placed on high heat, and water added frequently. They also need to be flipped often enough to keep them from sticking.

When the ham hocks have been cooking for a few hours, it is time to start the green process. We use the opposite side of the sink to rinse the greens and remove and large stems or bad leafs. Once this part is done, I break up the rinsed leaves and place them in the large stock pot. Once the stock pot is full of greens where they can't be pressed down anymore then it is time to add water to the stock pot and turn them on.

It will take several hours for both stock pots to cook. After they are both done, and the ham hocks are falling off the bones, we dump the ham hock pan into the greens pan stir and cook at least another hour.

The Perfect Holiday Conclusion

I had plenty of other holiday pairing I would have loved to have talked about, but I just did not have enough time to get to everything. Maybe someday I'll come back and give more food inspiration, but for now I hope you are willing to try any of the dishes on my list that you have not tried yet. Please, have a safe holiday season, and if a dish has an ingredient you are allergic to please swap it out for something you can safely eat, and I won't be offended.

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