By Kiley Garrett
Finding recipes online and knowing that they work are two entirely different things, and with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, a lot of college students don’t have the time or resources to test 50 of the internet’s most popular recipes. That’s where I come in. Over the past couple of years, I’ve tested hundreds of recipes in an attempt to appease the appetite of myself, my fiancé, and our dogs (who always get their own plate on holidays). So, without further ado here are three Thanksgiving recipes that have worked for me.
Ham
Now, depending on your family and their traditions, you may have grown up with a nice big turkey every year for Thanksgiving. Personally, my family had both a turkey and ham, not because we had a huge family or anything, my grandpa just refused to eat any kind of poultry. When my grandpa passed in 2015, we still bought the ham and cooked it, which led to many tears and a lot of laughter as we realized there was no one to eat it that year. We all ate a piece even though most of us don’t like ham all that much, and the tradition of the Thanksgiving ham continues in my family.
Because I went home last year for Thanksgiving, I didn’t get the chance to make a ham of my own until Christmas and when my fiancé picked out a bagged brown sugar ham from Walmart, I was a bit confused about how it would cook. After some tweaking of the instructions (and some help from cafedelites.com) I came out with a recipe that works just right, but of course, every oven is different and you’d be impressed with how that affects how things cook.
Ingredients:
- Bone-in Ham, about ½ lb per person
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 3 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- 3 cloves crushed garlic
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 300°F and place racks on first and third spaces from the bottom. Score room temperature ham in a diamond pattern. Sprinkle 1 cup of brown sugar all over and line a deep baking tray or glass dish with tin foil or parchment paper. Cover with foil and place on the bottom rack of the oven for 30 minutes.
- In a medium saucepan, roast garlic until fragrant, then add butter and whisk until browned. Add remaining cup of brown sugar, Dijon mustard, and spices. Remove from heat once brown sugar has completely dissolved.
- After the ham has baked for 30 minutes, remove from the oven and increase the temperature to 425°F. Remove foil cover and brush over some of the butter mixture. Pour over the remaining butter mixture and bake uncovered for 35 more minutes basting every 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!
Homemade Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Another staple in my house growing up was homemade mashed potatoes with gravy. For the longest time, my mom used those great value brown gravy packets that never tasted as good as real homemade gravy. When I turned thirteen, I was put in charge of the whole potato shebang and that included the gravy, and boy was I ready to improve my family’s Thanksgiving with some homemade gravy.
Unfortunately, that didn’t go so well. I somehow messed up the gravy and we wound up using the packets again that year. As years passed, I eventually had homemade gravy and mashed potatoes down pat. The perfect blend of different recipes with my own twist and as it turned out, my great-grandma Petcher made it first. After years of struggling, my lovely mother and grandmother point out that I was just making weird versions of my grandma Petcher’s gravy, which she had apparently found on the back of a box of turkey stock sometime in the 1960s. So, to not subject you to any of the experiments I pulled, I’m just going to give you the recipe since it’s been tested and worked for decades before I ever came into existence. The potatoes are a recipe of my own, but you can pry the recipe from my cold dead hands. Or, you know, just write it down from this article, whichever you prefer.
Ingredients:
Potatoes
- 5-10 lbs russet potatoes (about ½ lb per person)
- 4 sticks of butter
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup sour cream
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Gravy
- 6 cups Turkey Stock
- 2/3 cup turkey drippings
- 2/3 cup flour
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp parsley
Instructions:
- Peel, rinse and cube potatoes, add to a large pot filled with room temperature water. Bring to a boil and let cook until a fork inserted into the largest cube comes out easily.
- While potatoes are boiling, add turkey stock and drippings to a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add herbs and mix until fragrant. Add the flour last and mix until the gravy is slightly runnier than desired.
- Drain cooked potatoes and mash in the pot. Add butter, milk and sour cream. Mix until well combined, season to taste, and enjoy with or without gravy.
Drink
Now, I for the life of me could not find the name of this drink. It’s been something my family has done for ages, a fun treat for the kids who think they’re drinking the same thing as the adults, and an even more fun thing for the adults who must deal with those kids. For now, I’m calling this the Vacation Breeze, because pineapple breeze was already taken.
Ingredients:
- Pineapple juice
- Sprite
- Optional: Vodka/Rum/Any clear/light liquor.
Instructions:
- For individual glasses, pour one shot of your liquor. I recommend vodka but anything you have on hand should work. For 1+ gallon pitchers, 1 solo cup should be enough. Skip this step for the non-alcoholic version.
- Fill the container up ¾ of the way with sprite. Fill the rest of the way with pineapple juice.
- Mix well and enjoy responsibly!
Those are three of my family’s recipes that I’ve had the chance to test, so you don’t have to. Thanksgiving can be difficult, especially for a college student not traveling home for the holidays, for maybe the first time. Like any recipe, putting your own spin on it or tweaking to fit your preferences is encouraged.
