There are many reasons to like pumpkin pie, from the flavor of the pumpkin itself to the spices to the consistency. The consistency is probably the most unique thing about pumpkin pie. It is a custard - made with eggs and milk - but one that is made thick with the addition of pumpkin puree. Sweet potato pie is just about the only other pie that shares this texture. Should these two orange vegetable-based pies the only pair of pies to have this smooth, yet satisfying consistency? I think not. I used a jar of Smuckers Cider Apple Butter to make Apple Butter Pie.

Apple butter, and all fruit butters, are very thick fruit purees. They have no butter in them and get their name from their smooth consistency. They can have an intense fruit flavor because the pureed fruit is thickened so much before the butter is finished. The Smuckers butter is no exception. It contains apple cider and apples and is a variation on the recipe that The original Smucker used to found the jam company about 100 years ago. It has a dark color and an almost caramel apple flavor to it, but it isn’t too sweet on its own. You can use another brand of apple butter if you prefer, but look out for this one in stores (it’s a seasonal item) if you don’t.

I made my own crumb crust with vanilla wafer cookies. A graham cracker crust would work just as well, as would a traditional pie crust. Any crust you use must be prebaked before filling. I also used a fairly standard 9-inch pie plate. If you use a deeper pie plate, your pie might need a few extra minutes in the oven.

Since there is sugar added to the apple butter I used (and to most commercial apple butters), I treated the apple butter as though it were a pumpkin pie mix that already had sugar added. It had a great flavor, so I didn’t tamper with the spicing. The result was one of the easiest pies I’ve put together and it tasted great. It may have looked like a pumpkin pie, but the smooth filling smelled and tasted like a delicious apple pie! This pie is going into holiday rotation for its ease of preparation and flavor. It might be hard to resist digging into a fresh jar of apple butter - but well worth it when you can dig into a slice of pie instead.

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Stuffing is one of the many foods that just never looks as good as it tastes. Actually, I should say that it starts to look very good but only after you know how it tastes. When I was a kid I always shied away from the stuffing. It looked “wet” or “icky” or there was “stuff” in it. Now, the exact same stuffing recipe makes my mouth water when I see a batch, because I know how good the flavorful bread and veggie mixture really is.

This particular stuffing is a Roasted Garlic Stuffing, and one of my Thanksgiving side dishes for this year. It looks plain, as stuffings go, but has a lot of flavor. I used an entire head of roasted garlic in the stuffing, so it tastes a bit like garlic bread mixed in with the sage and vegetable mixture I used as a base. It goes great with both turkey and gravy. It has a crispy top and moist interior, as this is baked in the oven in a casserole dish before serving. I used a mixture of whole grain and plain white bread for the stuffing pictured and would recommend using white bread or another mild-tasting bread for this stuffing because a strong, multi-grain bread might overwhelm the flavor of the garlic a bit.

The only problem with baked stuffings is that you usually have to wait until the turkey is done before putting them in the oven. One of the best things about this recipe is that it allows you to multi-task by roasting the garlic while the turkey cooks, so you can have everything ready to go in when the bird comes out.

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There is no doubt that the cans of refrigerated crescent roll dough that you can buy in the market are tasty, but it’s always nice to be able to take the option of a homemade version. Happily, I can say that it is not difficult to bake up a batch of homemade crescent rolls from scratch, even on a busy weeknight. They’re not quite as quick as the premade biscuits, but they are certainly very quick for a yeast bread dinner roll recipe.

The packaged crescent rolls are quite like little croissants, light in texture and buttery. This version, a variation of a Red Star Yeast recipe, has the same look, but has a slightly different feel to the dough. They’re soft and buttery, but have a texture that is more like a fluffy dinner roll than a flaky croissant. They’re easy to split and spread with butter or jam, and are great for soaking up things like cranberry sauce and turkey gravy during Thanksgiving dinner. They will also keep well for a day or two, so you can make them a day in advance and store them in an airtight container, reheating them before serving, the next day.

Shaping the rolls is much easier than you might think. All you need to do is roll out the dough into a big circle so that it resembles an untopped pizza. Then, using a pizza cutter, divide up the dough into 12 pizza slices. Starting with the “crust” edge, roll each slice of pizza towards the center to form the rolls, then curve them slightly when you lay them on the baking sheet. I brush the rolls with melted butter for a little extra buttery flavor, but you could also brush them with a lightly beaten egg for a little shine.

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There are more ways to cook turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner then there are turkeys being eaten on the last Thursday in November. Everyone - and their mother - has a strategy and the vast majority of them involve the turkey being in the oven for at least a few hours. I don’t think that there is only one perfect way to cook a turkey and so I am very open to trying new methods when I am ready to roast a big bird. I try to aim for a crisp (or at least not soggy) skin, relatively moist breasts and moist, tender dark meat. My usual method of high heat to start followed by a slow roast at a lower temperature works pretty well, but this year I decided to try an ultra-high heat cooking method to see how the turkey would turn out.

The high heat method, which I’ve mostly heard about as a good option for roasting chicken, not turkeys, calls for cooking a turkey at a high heat the entire cooking time. In theory, this seals in the juices while producing a crispy skin - and gets the turkey done in as little as 90 minutes! I skimmed through some of my past notes on the subject and decided to go with an old New York Times article as a guideline. I popped my turkey into the oven at 500F and sat back to watch it cook.

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Sweet potato pie is probably the most obvious choice of baked good when it comes to sweet potatoes, but these veggies are surprisingly versatile and it’s worth branching out from the standard to try other recipes, like Sweet Potato Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies or this Sweet Potato Coffee Cake with Dried Cranberries. This is one of my new fall favorites, and a great addition to a holiday brunch menu. I’d use canned sweet potato puree (plain, unsweetened) if I were going to bake a batch just before a big holiday meal and homemade cooked sweet potato puree (unseasoned) as a way to use up leftovers after the feast.

The coffee cake is easy to put together, with a moist cake base and a crisp streusel topping. The sweet potato contributes a lovely orange color and a round, naturally sweet flavor to the cake, but it’s biggest impact is on the texture. Compared to a plain coffee cake, this version is more moist and a bit denser. Much like the denseness in a pound cake, the finished cake actually tastes very rich, not heavy, because it is very tender. The dried cranberries add in some additional sweetness to the cake and add a little bit of texture, too.

Since I wanted the flavor of the sweet potato to really shine, I only added spices to the streusel topping. This adds just a hint of spice to the coffee cake and doesn’t overpower the natural taste of the sweet potato.  By this, I really mean that it keeps it from tasting like just another cinnamon-spiced coffee cake! The cake will keep well for a couple of days when stored in an airtight container, so feel free to make this a day or two ahead so you have something to munch on - or serve to company - as you keep the kitchen turning out tasty treats over the holidays.
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Once you’ve made some Spiced Apple Cider, or if you simply happen to have a bottle of storebought cider in the back of the fridge, it is a snap to make one of my favorite wintertime drinks, Caramel Apple Cider. I was first turned onto this drink on a visit to Starbucks, where it is generally available year-round but is often featured on the menu boards during the winter. The drink seems to retain heat much better than just about anything else, so not only does it taste great, but it keeps your hands warm when it is snowy outside!

The Starbucks version of this drink is made by steaming apple cider until it is very hot, then adding caramel and whipped cream. I start mine with homemade cider and heat it up in a saucepan if I am going to be serving a crowd and in a mug in the microwave if I’m only serving myself. Once the cider is steaming hot, stir in about 1 1/2 tbsp caramel sauce, then add whipped cream and another drizzle of caramel. Use any kind of caramel for this drink, whether it’s homemade sauce or your favorite topping brand - I’ve even melted solid caramels into it in a pinch and it turned out very well. I often add a very small pinch of salt to the caramel on top for that salted caramel effect, too.

The sweetness of the caramel highlights the sweetness of the apples in the cider, while the whipped cream on top is a nice, cool contrast to the steamy beverage below. And the caramel on top? Why, that’s just an excuse to eat even more caramel. As though I needed one.
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