Thanksgiving Sides

To continue with bringing this blog up to speed, here are all the sides!

Candied Sweet Potatoes
     1 bag sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
     1 can golden syrup
     4 strips bacon, chopped into bits
     1 pinch salt  
     cloves, to taste
     aniseed, to taste
     chilli powder, to taste

Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Cook on high heat for five hours, or low heat for twelve hours.

Garlic Green Beans
     400g Green beans
     1/2 white onion, diced
     3 cloves garlic, minced
     Olive oil
     Salt and pepper to taste
     chili powder

Heat up a oiled frying pan and add minced garlic and onion. Add green beans and saute. Season to taste.

• Hint: To spice it up, add slivers of bacon.

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Salad
     1 butternut squash, diced into cubes
     150g goat cheese
     1 white onion, diced
     1 bag rocket salad (or 50g rocket and 100g spinach)
     handful pumpkin seeds
     balsamic vinaigrette

Saute the butternut squash and onion. Add to salad and top with goat cheese. Sprinkle with pumpkin seed and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.

• Hint: Roast the pumpkin seeds before adding to salad.

Halloumi, Radish and Tomato Salad
     200g halloumi, cut into chunks
     10 baby radishes, diced
     3 tomatoes, diced
     100g rocket or spinach
     1 tablespoon olive oil

Fry halloumi. Meanwhile, toss the rest of the ingredients together. Add halloumi and serve.

• Hint: add shredded carrot or beetroot for an added twist.

Thanksgiving continued! (On this side of Christmas...)

Whoops! My personal laptop broke, and I had loads of trouble trying to load pictures from my phone onto my work laptop (I know, excuses, excuses). Well, I finally got my laptop fixed, so onwards with the recipes! But, as an apology, here's a triple whammy:

Bread Stuffing
     1 loaf stale bread, torn into bite-sized pieces
     2 eggs
     2 carrots
     3 stalks celery
     1 red onion
     1 white onion
     1 apple
    100g walnuts
     salt and pepper to taste
     olive oil or stock

Dice the carrots, celery, onions, apples and walnuts. Add bread and toss with salt and pepper, and olive oil or stalk. Beat the eggs until scrambled, then pour over stuffing mixture. Bake on medium heat (gas mark 5) for half an hour.

• Hint: If used to stuff a bird, the olive oil and stock is unnecessary.

Cranberry Sauce
     200g fresh cranberries
     100g brown sugar
     100g white sugar
     500g water
     100g orange juice
     1 cinnamon stick
     cloves to taste
     nutmeg to taste

Boil all the ingredients in a pot until the cranberries burst. To make thicker sauce, add less water or drain boiling.

• Hint: the leftover liquid goes great with vodka for a quick vodka-cranberry.

Mashed Potatoes
     1 bag potatoes
     milk or butter to taste
     dill or rosemary
     salt and pepper to taste

Wash and chop potatoes. Boil potatoes on low heat for an hour (until potatoes became mushy). Mash with a potato masher (or electric mixer). Add milk or butter as you go. Salt, pepper, and spice to taste.

• Hint: the smaller the pieces of potato, the shorter the cooking time and the easier it is to mash.