Thanksgiving Pizza Recipe — an oddball new tradition for your house!
So, I actually made all the traditional Thanksgiving foods earlier in this week because my boyfriend Justin is driving home to Arkansas today to enjoy the holiday with his family tomorrow. Justin can be a picky eater, which means I always need to be creative with leftovers as he doesn’t like having the same thing twice in a row…but I can repurpose ingredients in different ways to make new meals he’ll like. I also try to keep things interesting for him, since he ends up having two holidays (one here in Chicago with me…and one with his family a few days later) and I like doing something different from what his mother’s going to cook.
I found a smart way to avoid even having leftovers to begin with by approaching each meal strategically and deciding what I’m going to do with all the food well in advance; this way, nothing’s ever wasted and I don’t have to scramble to think of things to do with all the stuff in the refrigerator before it goes bad. I also can save a lot of money on groceries by shopping according to a multi-day plan (my budget is $10/day for the two of us and I achieve this with no problems even during holidays by treating things like Thanksgiving foods as a 3-day cooking event instead of just one giant, expensive meal).
On Monday, I made all the traditional Thanksgiving foods the classic way: turkey and sweet potatoes (cooked in a crock pot I bought a few weeks ago and have been experimenting with), cranberry sauce (nothing fancy…just right out of a can), green beans, and stuffing (Stove Top, out of the box…just like mom used to make back in Cleveland). When all the food was ready, I divided it up for the next few days according to my plan: the first day we’d eat it normally, the second day we’d have Thanksgiving Sandwiches, and the last day (today) we’d enjoy a Thanksgiving Pizza.
This might be basic for a lot of you, but it was a revelation to me when I started doing it a few years ago: taking the time as soon as the food is ready to portion it out for the next few days is a great time and energy saver. Literally, while I am plating up our food for today’s meal I am also carving it all up and putting it into bowls for the next few days too. I don’t like Tupperware so I just use large serving bowls and aluminum foil to set things aside…and I never have any problems because I’m going to use all this stuff in the coming days. I keep any sauces or things that shouldn’t be mixed together in separate containers, covered and sealed for when I’m going to use them. But taking the time as soon as the food is all ready to reserve things for future meals feels like much less work than putting everything away after we’ve eaten. It just feels like part of the cooking process when I do it BEFORE we sit down to eat…as opposed to it being part of the laborious cleanup process after dinner.
Another tip I picked up years ago when working for a chef here in Chicago is something you might already do in your house (but if not, you should start today): clean as you go, in terms of the pots and utensils you use…so that when you’re done cooking there’s no giant mess or stack of pans in the sink. Justin still doesn’t know why I do this, as he’s used to having to wash a bunch of pots and things at his house after his mother’s done making dinner…but there’s no mess when I cook because as soon as something’s out of a pan then the pan is scrubbed, dried, and put away where it belongs. No mess means less work for me later in the day.
Thanksgiving Sandwiches have been around for about a decade or so, with chains like Cosi or Potbelly here in Chicago featuring them every holiday season. Literally, they are “Thanksgiving in a Sandwich”…with leftovers from the Thanksgiving meal assembled into a sandwich using whatever bread you happen to like. I like shopping at a store called Dominick’s that features a very good bakery…and they always have interesting breads to choose from that are baked right there in the store. For our Thanksgiving Sandwiches yesterday I used an asiago cheese bread…but in the past I’ve used French bread, cheddar bread, or any of the other kinds they have. It’s whatever you like, really. And then you just layer the Thanksgiving ingredients you have onto the bread in the way that you like. I start with the cranberry sauce, then I add the turkey, and I put some potatoes and green beans or whatever’s there on top of that. And it’s a simple and easy sandwich that has all the Thanksgiving flavors for the day after we had the big, classic meal.
The idea of a Thanksgiving Pizza is something that I first encountered here in Boystown at a little restaurant called Pie Hole, which was originally located at Roscoe and Halsted in the heart of the city’s strip of gay bars. Pie Hole has since relocated and seems more mainstream these days…but once upon a time it was a very eclectic and lively place that featured a different holiday-themed pizza every month. November’s was always “Thanksgiving Pizza”, which fascinated me and gave me all sorts of ideas to try at home. In the years since I’ve seen different Food Network shows present Thanksgiving Pizzas…and everyone does it a little differently.
Pie Hole used gravy for the pizza sauce…which is something I don’t do, mainly because I don’t like gravy and that was never part of Thanksgiving at my house growing up (as my mother didn’t like gravy either). Instead of gravy, we’d always have cranberry sauce with the turkey…so that’s the sauce I use as the base for my version of the Thanksgiving Pizza.
I invite you to alter the recipe you’ll find below to incorporate the things you make for Thanksgiving and how your own family likes to celebrate the holiday. What’s great about a pizza is that there’s very little chance of it being bad, no matter what you add or subtract. One solid rule in life is that if it’s a pizza, chances are it will be delicious…or at least edible (though you should always strive for delicious). I think your family will love having something new and fun to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers…even if like me you decide ahead of time that you’re going to make a Thanksgiving pizza and reserve the ingredients to do this…so it’s less “leftover” than it is “reserved for this purpose ahead of time”.
Thanksgiving Pizza Recipe:
NOTE: As detailed above, I’m writing this assuming you have made all the traditional Thanksgiving foods and have either put some aside for the express purpose of making a Thanksgiving Pizza the next day (or two days later) or you have Thanksgiving items leftover and are looking for something to do with them. So we’re going to operate with the assumption that you have almost everything you need to do this already. The only exception might be the pizza dough.
If you aren’t someone who makes his/her own pizza dough at home you might be intimidated by it…I know I was the first time I thought about trying it, but it’s a GREAT way to save a lot of money. After trying a lot of different recipes and having varying degrees of success with them, I realized my favorite recipe of all was THIS ONE...which is a homemade approximation of the Papa John’s pizza dough. If you don’t want to make your own dough then you can buy pizza dough at your local grocery store; different stores have it in different places so ask someone if you can’t find it (but here in Chicago it’s almost always either by the cheeses or it’s with the cooked pasta/Italian foods cooler where you’ll also find different fancy meats and cheeses). You can also use those Boboli pizza shells they have ready-to-use that are okay (but you sacrifice some flavor for the convenience of using one of these…and they are more expensive than making the dough yourself).
STEP ONE: Make up your dough and get that ready to put into the oven just like you’d make any pizza. I make all pizzas at 450 degrees and need to heat up the oven in our apartment for a few minutes so things turn out the way I want them. Adjust this to however your own stove works.
STEP TWO: While the oven is heating, you can get the cranberry sauce ready for the pizza. Some of you will hate how I describe a recipe because I don’t measure things…I just eyeball them. I take the cranberry sauce and put it into a small sauce pan and I judge how much of it I have…if I need to stretch out the sauce and I don’t have another can of it leftover I just use either wine or orange juice to make more of the sauce. You have to be careful doing this because you don’t want the sauce to be too liquid…but you also don’t want it so viscose that it’s clumpy and doesn’t spread over the whole pizza. I make a lot of pot roasts so there’s usually a box of cheap-o Franzia burgundy or cabernet in the house that I use when cooking…and a little of this (about a 1/4 cup or less) is usually enough to add to the cranberry sauce in the pan to turn it into a pizza sauce. Don’t worry about the alcohol…it burns off as you cook the sauce on a low flame until it starts to boil and then you let it simmer a bit until it’s a nice consistency. If you don’t have wine, use orange juice. The idea is to get the cranberry sauce to be the consistency of a regular pizza sauce (or a BBQ sauce if you like making BBQ pizzas).
STEP THREE: Once the sauce is ready the oven should be hot enough for you to put the pizza dough in. I bake the pizza crust for 5-10 minutes or so and eyeball it to make sure it’s ready to top. Don’t sauce it until it’s baked a little first because it won’t turn out right that way (a mistake I learned the hard way).
STEP FOUR: After the dough has baked into a crust, take the pizza out and sauce it with the cranberry sauce the way you would normally sauce a pizza with tomato sauce. I like to add the turkey next, and I sprinkle that around the pizza so that every piece will have a nice helping of turkey breast pieces. The next thing I add is the Gorgonzolla cheese…but you could use asiago or provolone if you like those instead. Cheddar might be good as well, but I think the Gorgonzolla goes the best with the turkey and the cranberry sauce. Cheese is not a normal part of a Thanksgiving meal so you can take creative license with this as you like. Goat cheese might be interesting too, but it’s overpowering so I’d be careful if you go there.
STEP FIVE: Next up is the more controversial additions to a Thanksgiving Pizza that some of you might be reluctant to try…but trust me, they really do add to the flavor profile. My boyfriend Justin is the kind of guy who thinks he won’t like something if he hears the ingredients…but then ends up loving it when he tastes it. He wanted nothing to do with Thanksgiving Pizza until he actually tried some, and of course he loved it. One of the big things he resisted was the sweet potatoes and marshmallows I put on the pizza…but when the marshmallows melt in the oven they add these little firecracker pops of sweetness that complement the tartness of the cranberries. The sweet potatoes add a nice texture here and there, too…and I like the orange coloring they give when sprinkled around the pizza. I try to always keep at least three vibrant colors in anything I’m making…and this Thanksgiving Pizza ends up looking gorgeous with the red of the cranberries, the orange of the sweet potatoes, the white of the turkey meat and the Gorgonzolla, and then the green of chopped up green beans (if I have them) to add another little accent color. I never put too many sweet potatoes or marshmallows on the pizza…just a little here and there so that every slice will have a bite of it and it will be a little “wow” moment that people might not be expecting.
STEP SIX: When I make the stuffing, I leave a little to the side uncooked for the Thanksgiving Pizza. I actually buy Stove Top Stuffing and use it as croutons in salad because I like how flavorful it is (and it’s actually cheaper than buying regular croutons, oddly enough). I like sprinkling the Thanksgiving Pizza with the uncooked, dry Stove Top stuffing croutons as the final step before it goes into the oven…but if you are reading this and don’t have any uncooked Stove Top you can use the cooked stuff too and sprinkle that around the pizza. The uncooked, dry stuffing just adds a nice crunch to the pizza here and there…which is a fun texture to have. I think the stuffing really makes it feel like Thanksgiving.
STEP SEVEN: Bake the pizza to your liking. This should be about 5 minutes. Justin likes his pizza very well done and I like mine less done, so I have to find a compromise for us. I’m sure that’s true at your house too.
I’ve never had anyone not like Thanksgiving Pizza…though 90% of people think it’s odd when they first hear about it. 99% of them fight me on the marshmallows because they just can’t imagine that tasting good…and 100% of them end up admitting they were wrong and that — yes — the marshmallows here and there combined with the tartness of the cranberries really is something special.
The Pie Hole pizza joint was also famous for many years for making an “After School Special” pizza that had sausage and marshmallows on it (which is another pizza I love that Justin resisted for about a year until I finally made it one day and left it on the stove, not telling him what it was…and he ate it and loved it…and had to admit the marshmallow and sausage combination was a winner).
If you try a Thanksgiving Pizza this year, be sure to let us know how it turned out. I really like finding fun ways to use leftovers so that food’s not wasted and I can save money on groceries. I kept track of what I spent making Thanksgiving foods for Justin and myself and it broke down to something like:
* Turkey = $12 (for a butterball half breast that I cooked in the crock pot)
* Cranberry Sauce = $2 for 2 cans
* Sweet Potatoes = I already had these in the fridge, but they are about $1 a potato and I used three potatoes…so that’s $3
* Green Beans = $4 for a large bag (that I already had)
* Stove Top Stuffing = $1 for a box (which I already had)
* Marshmallows = $1 for a small bag (which I already had…and a bag lasts a long time since I use so few of them)
So, that’s $23 to make the Thanksgiving meal on Monday…and then I stretched that to actually cover three meals between Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. All I had to buy after that was:
* Bread = $2 for an asiago cheese loaf from Dominick’s (to make the Thanksgiving Sandwiches)
* Pizza Dough = bought from Dominick’s this time because I didn’t have time to make my own today (it was about $3.50)
So, I easily brought dinner in under budget for Justin and myself Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday by just planning ahead to stretch the Thanksgiving cooking over these three days.
I take a lot of pride in making creative, interesting things for the two of us on a very tight budget…and I really like when a holiday presents itself as a chance to do something unique, fun, and different one week like a Thanksgiving Pizza that I know Justin won’t have when he’s down in Arkansas with his parents for the actual Thanksgiving holiday.
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UPDATE – Someone in comments asked me to create recipes page on HB to collect some of the foods I talk about over and over and include recipes for them. I’m really touched there’s an interest like this in making the stuff that Justin, my friends, and I love so I am happy to oblige this. It will take me a while to write-up all the recipes but I hope to fill out this page in the weeks ahead. I think I will use the weekends to do this and will just write these up as I make them for Justin and myself. You can access this page at the top under the ADVENTURE tab or by clicking HERE.
Please tell me in comments below on this page or on the Recipes page if you want to know a recipe for anything in particular and I can add it to the list of things I need to write-up.
© 2012, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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With your many friends, I’m sure you won’t be alone tomorrow. But it’s too bad Justin’s family isn’t more accepting so you wouldn’t have to be apart on the holiday. You can go out for the High Drinking Holiday tonight.
Ok, that sounds amazing. I’m a mixer when eating Thanksgiving supper…a bite of turkey, a bite of cranberry (I’m not a gravy person, either), maybe a mouthful of something else. The way the flavors play together is too good and part of the charm of the meal.
I never thought of making a pizza (and I watch a good bit of Food Network), so the idea is quite novel to me. But it sounds amazing. In my house, my mom is a bit of a soup guru, so we do 1 day of traditional meal leftovers and then she whips up the turkey rice soup. But this sounds like something fun worth giving a whirl. At least, maybe I’ll do a small, individual version just for me. We always do have copious amounts of the sides leftover.
Now I’m hungry…going to take my late lunch and daydream about tomorrow’s yummy meal (though, not about the cooking that lays ahead at my house, lol, why I decided I want to make everything from scratch is beyond me, lol).
Please let me know if you try the pizza.
You will really like it.
I do a Christmas Pizza too that I will write up in the weeks ahead. I like making it all Christmas season. That one has honey-ham, a candy-apple sauce for the pizza, and other sweet treats and savory goodies for Christmas.
I will be hitting the road soon to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family but had to make a stop here before starting my journey. Happy Thanksgiving to Kevin, Tamminator, readers and all who keep this wonderful site up and running. Please remember to keep our troops and their families in our thoughts and prayers. God Bless and be safe!
This sounds so good! We are busily cooking our turkey(s) in the weber bbq. I love the smoked flavor that it gives. We got our free turkeys from the local grocery store with coupons and are preparing for the weeks ahead with meat in the freezer.
Happy Thanksgiving! We are all so very thankful for this site and the labor of love it is to provide HB ohana (family) with a smart, witty and relevant place to gather. Much aloha to you and everyone at HillBuzz.
Kevin,
Don’t you do something with the turkey carcass? I take the bones, put them in my crock pot , add water to cover and add some vegetables and herbs to the pot and let cook for several hours until I have a nice broth. Then I strain , pick any meat off the bones, add some fresh veggies and noodles and have a hearty soup. I found that doing the bones in the crock pot produces and clearer broth as it never has a chance to boil .
Verna –
I have not made a whole turkey in many years. I get these Butterball turkey breasts that are just the right size for two people. They are boneless.
I am still learning things to do with the crockpot…but I have to admit I love the thing. I resisted it for the longest time because of two reasons: (1) I already had an oven, so I thought it was a waste of money to get a crockpot when I could just use the oven and (2) I had an irrational fear it would catch fire because of stories I was told as a kid of this happening. I still am not comfortable leaving the crockpot on and going out and doing things…but I have been putting it on at night and nothing bad has happened. It was a big step for me to get over the fear of the crockpot…but it really is great and fear is something you should always stand up to.
AND the crockpot does a much better job than the oven for pot roasts and turkeys. I think next week I am going to try a pulled pork in the crock pot.
Maybe after Thanksgiving when the bigger birds are on sale I will try one with bones in the crockpot if I can find one that fits.
I’m so happy to hear you are starting to love the crock pot!
Have fun with the pulled pork — it turns out great there.
I really am loving the crockpot.
What’s funny is that it’s such a great conversation piece too. Today I went to the bank to cash a check and the teller and I started talking about my making a turkey in the crockpot for tomorrow. She didn’t believe it could be done…and in a few minutes like 3 other tellers had gathered around and i told them how I was doing it and they were telling me about getting a rotisserie oven to make roast beef in.
It was so wild. I’d never had food conversations at the bank like that before…but I walked in there to cash a check and walked out with like five new friends.
Justin is very shy and kind of hates when I get into conversations with strangers…but better a food conversation than a fistfight, I say.
Great recipe idea Kevin, we’ll have to try it. Careful heating up that aluminum foil on your left-overs, good for storage but food picks up the metals which is ingested. Too bad, it’s so convenient. Happy Thanksgiving to you and all.
I’ve never heated anything with the foil on it. I just like using the foil to cover the food in the fridge.
I am just going to admit this: I am challenged when using that cling wrap clear stuff. I never get it to stay right and usually end up wasting a lot of it before I get a dish covered. The foil works great for covering food for me…but when I heat anything up I put it in a pan in the oven.
I used to work for a chef and have not used a microwave in about 15 years. We have one that Justin uses to heat up coffee but I won’t touch that thing.
Yum! Sounds delicious!
Now that you have a crockpot Kevin, have you tried Crockpot Freezer Meals? I first learned about it on Pinterest where I found recipes. Each recipe makes two meals for the freezer that feed four people.
A few Sundays ago, I went food shopping, got home, cut, chopped and threw ingredients together in freezer bags and made 14 freezer meals. It took me about 4 hours and that included the food shopping.
I calculated that each dinner for four cost apporoximately $10.00
I take a frozen bag out of the freezer, place it in the crockpot before work and come home to a meal that is cooked with little clean up or mess.
I have made beef tips, chickan divine, beef fajitas, beef stew, spaghetti sauce and other fabulous meals.
If you go to Pinterest, type in Crockpot Freezer Cooking, a number of recipes including shopping lists will appear.
I highly recommend it to everyone! It is revolutionary.
By the way, Happy Thanksgiving to all! God Bless!
I have not gotten to the point of making things to freeze them. I will have to get into that.
What I do now is cook something big for the next three days…or even four days.
When I make a lasagna, Justin and I have that for four days.
A roast beef/pot roast is good for three days for the two of us.
A turkey is good for like three days too.
And all of these break down to $10 or less when I look at them feeding us for three days or more. Some of them are even as cheap as $6/day!
When I buy us a honey-ham from the Honey Baked store I cringe because the ham is a $50 purchase…but it lasts us about 6-7 days if I plan it well.
* Day One = ham straight up, with some veggies and pineapples
* Day Two = ham sandwiches and carrots or green beans raw
* Day Three = BBQ ham sandwiches (just ham chopped up and fried in a pan with BBQ sauce like pulled pork and served on rolls)
* Day Four = pasta with ham, broccoli, bell peppers, and alfredo sauce
* Day Five, Six, Seven = red beans and rice with ham and hambone renderings.
To be honest, my favorite days are 5-7. I just love when the ham is almost gone and I can put it into my gumbo pot I bought in New Orleans a decade ago and boil all the fat and meat off the bone. Then I reduce the liquid (reduce just means to boil it down so that the water level decrease) and I use a strainer to get all the meat out.
Then I chop up the meat really fine and remove any gristle or gross tendons and things…and return the meat to the pot.
And then I use about three packs of Knorr Cajun Sides to make the red beans and rice. I used to use Zatarans and still do sometimes but I can buy the Knorr brand for $1 each…so three of those gives us more than Zatarans would for less money. And I actually like the taste better.
That red beans and rice made in the ham stock is SO GOOD. I make some cornbread from a box for Justin and myself and we eat that happily for three days in a row after the ham is used up.
So, I think over 7 days that honey-ham and the other stuff I used to make the meals ends up being like $8 or so a day…which is not bad at all.
would you consider putting a tab on your site for recipes? You are full of great ideas.
What’s so funny is that I don’t measure things, so every time I put a recipe up I cringe a little because I would hate for anyone to make it and not like and it have them waste food and money like that. But I can find a place for these along with the disclaimer that everything I make is eyeballed and not measured and that people should use their own judgment.
But that is sweet of you to let me know that you enjoy these things. That is so nice of you.
I don’t say this a lot, but hearing that people like what I do means a lot to me. This takes up most of my life and is very hard to do sometimes…so hearing people like something just means the world to me. Especially when they like a recipe for something that I enjoy because that makes me feel like something that brings joy to Justin and me here in Chicago is being enjoyed elsewhere and becoming part of other people’s lives and that’s so special to me.
I want you to know, Kevin, that I, like so many of your hillbuzz fans really appreciate all that you do and all the work you put into your writing. Everday after work I enjoy coming home and visiting hillbuzz for your insightful commentary.
Most of all, I love reading about you and the special ways that you take care of Justin. I love that you trust your readers so much that you share so much about yourself. Though you don’t know me, I truly care about you.
I am thrilled that you are willing to post your recipes! I can’t wait to try them out.
God bless you and Justin. May His light shine brightly upon you. I pray he blesses you in the same way you bless all of your fans everday.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Katrina aka gfan
http://hillbuzz.org/adventure/recipes
I went ahead and made a recipes page.
It will take me some time to populate this…but I really appreciate the idea from you. I will look forward to doing these on the weekends or as I make some of these items. It would be a nice little hobby for me on the weekends.
you sound so organized, I’m impressed. If you feel like driving over to the Michigan thumb, you can have your second turkey dinner with us!
Love the pizza recipe! What a great idea.
Kevin, I love to cook, too, but my sons won’t be here so I’m going to a nice buffet with a friend! I, too, am OCD about cleaning as I go along when cooking a big meal because I can’t stand the clutter and there’s usually plenty of time to hand wash a pots and pans while food’s cooking. I admire your organizational skills and determination not to let leftovers go to waste by actually planning your next couple of meals and putting them away in portions that are ready for using! I could stand a lesson or two in that department! Funny you don’t like gravy because it’s my favorite part. One thing I have done with leftover turkey is to make a bernaise sauce to add a completely different flavor the next day. The turkey’s also great for salads! By the way, Kansas, I didn’t read Kevin complaining about not being invited to Arkansas to spend Thanksgiving with Carol Ann….sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder! LOL! Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Thanks for everything you do for us! Whether you’re writing about recipes, money-saving ideas, or politics, you are a spark plug and a real joy.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving, Kevin! When I share what I’m grateful for, you’re now on my list!
Kevin – I remember reading about how much you liked Piehole pizza with marshmallows. Because I don’t like them much, it didn’t sound good to me. However, your recipe gave me some ideas. Sausage-onion-celery enriched stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey and sweet potatoes might just hit the spot…
Cate007 –
I have to tell you that I moved to Chicago in 2005 but I had been visiting here every two weeks or so for a few years before that because I dated a guy who lived here…and so from about 2003 until 2008 I resisted the After School Special pizza from Pie Hole because I thought it would be gross. But, yet, it fascinated me.
Back when Pie Hole was at its height of popularity they used to have drag queens delivering orders on Tuesdays. So, you could order a sausage and marshmallow pizza and a full-on drag queen would deliver it. It was fabulous. But I never would get the After School Special because I was scared.
And then one day I was out with two friends and they wanted some food after the bars and we went to pie hole and they were going to get an After School Special and I decided to be brave.
I was apprehensive…but the first thing you notice is that you don’t even see the marshmallows on the pizza because they melted and disappeared into the cheese. So, you just see the sausage. But when you take a bite, here and there you encounter the sweetness of the marshmallow with the tang of the sauce and the savory of the sausage. It really is kind of magical. It’s kind of like walking down the street and hitting a patch of ice…but you don’t fall…you just slide along and end up having fun while doing it…and then you keep walking like normal but are giggling because of the exhilaration of hitting that icy patch.
Sausage and Marshmallow pizza is not an every day thing. It might be an every two years’ thing. But it should definitely be a Try It At Least Once thing.
It’s so conflicting emotionally writing about Pie Hole. I really used to love that place…and then its owner made a lot of really strange and bad business decisions…and he actually lashed out at me personally and others afterwards. Which is a shame because for a few years there that place was pretty magical. Now, after its move, it’s a ghost of its former self and is no longer really a part of the night scene.
It doesn’t do the drag delivery anymore either and no longer makes the special monthly pizzas.
Such a shame.
Kevin,
Have you ever made cranberry sauce starting with the fresh berries?
It’s easy and better than what comes out of the can. All you have to do is wash the berries, add them to a saucepan, add sugar and boil! It doesn’t take long. Every package has instructions The berries make a popping sound as they burst!
Many people add grated orange rind after cooking, but I like to use grated lime for a slightly different citrus flavor.
A lot of people have never seen cranberry sauce being made–they can draw a crowd!
Qatmom –
I’ll have to try that on Friday.
It’s funny, but I’ve actually never made the Thanksgiving Pizza for my good friend Althea and her kids, and I am babysitting on Friday while she and her sister go shopping…and the kids asked if I would make them the pizza.
So I’m going to teach them how to make it and I will make the fresh cranberry sauce for the first time with them. I think it will be fun for them to learn it with me, so thanks for the idea.
I really don’t like using canned stuff when I can help it…but sometimes the canned stuff really comes in handy. It’s usually cheaper to make things from scratch and more fun if I have the time to plan for it.
I think I will try the limes like you suggested.
I actually have limes in the fridge almost always because I like to add lime wedges to ice water and drink that instead of pop. One lime lasts me the whole week.
Kevin,
I’ll bet you never thought that your ideas are great for the rotten economy along with the high price of food – like depression recipes my mom told she made all the time to make sure nothing was ever wasted. I try to make sure I use all of leftovers but you have a some great creative ideas I’m going to do, especially the ham ideas!
Have a WONDERFUL holiday and bless you for being you!
Kevin for inspiration pick up Tim Ferriss’ new book “The 4-Hour Chef”. I am about 100 pages in and I am loving it so far and tried one recipe, Kale chips. It was a fail because I added to much oil and salt but I will make them again tommorow. I can buy them in the store but at $56/lb I’ll make them myself.
$10/day for 2 people is ridiculously cheap. In the Seattle area we have the highest food prices in the nation and I think the grocery stores gain cred by being the most expensive.
Full disclosure: Justin and I only eat one big meal a day though. I know that nutritionists will be all over me for this, but it works for us. I have never been a more than one meal a day guy.
I also have a weird schedule because I freelance so I’m usually up all night and I sleep in the afternoon. This started when I was in college and worked nights in a hotel and had class in the morning…so I’d sleep from like 2pm until 10pm and would be at work at 11pm. I more or less have the same schedule now.
Justin’s a freelancer too in graphic design/architecture and he typically works from home as well…so we eat at weird times.
Dinner’s probably at 9pm or 10pm. If I get hungry later on, I just have some vegetables or fruit. Justin LOVES cottage cheese and will eat that all day, every day. I also like oatmeal with some fruit for a snack.
All the fruit and veggies we eat as snacks or mini-meals are things that I also use in the meals, so the costs for those are built into the $10/day.
I only make one meal a day, and I usually eat it between 3 and 4. That leaves me time to get chores done, then I might come in and have a salad or bowl of soup. I also like to eat fruit for my evening snack. I’ll probably do that today. We’ll eat around two, go out and play with the horses, then come in and have a sandwich and leftovers.
I usually fast for 16 hours a day and then have an 8 hour feeding window from 12pm to 8pm. It is tough to pack in a day’s worth of calories but I kind of like the intermittent fasting schedule. It’s a great way to skip the meal upon waking (aka breakfast) and lose weight. A lot of people are using this schedule and working out on hours 14 and 15 on an empty stomach to blast more fat. Ask around in Boystown and see how many people are doing it.
The key is not to eat any high glycemic carbs that will make you hungry in two or three hours. A lot of times I’ll eat 4 to 6 eggs cooked in two tablespoons of butter as a bedtime snack.
Folks, don’t try my egg snack at home if you are eating lots of bad-carbs. This is a recipe for high cholesterol. High fat diets are fine as long as you eliminate certain foods and get a full lipid panel every few months. If you learn enough and structure your diet accordingly it is fine, otherwise it could be accelerated death.*
*Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, I just can’t read fiction so I read about diet and nutrition. Seek professional guidance.
Kevin, check out these sites each day for listings of free Kindle books — almost every day they have at least one crockpot cookbook (you don’t need a Kindle, as you can read the books on your PC or smartphone or tablet with a free Kindle app):
http://fiberarts.ca/blog/
http://adventuresofathriftymama.blogspot.com/
If you are on Facebook, you can subscribe to the following pages for the list too:
https://www.facebook.com/joybileefarm?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/adventuresofathriftymama?fref=ts
Allrecipes.com has a lot of crockpot recipes and you can sign up to get an e-mail a day with recipes. cdkitchen.com is another good site (I found a recipe there for making brownies).
I’ve cooked turkey’s in a crockpot with the bones in & found out that you have to be careful, because the smaller bones become very soft and it’s not always easy to find them all.
I haven’t made pulled pork in my crockpot, but I have made shredded roast beef (bottom round, bottle of your favorite bbq sauce & a cup of root beet for 8 hours on low). Shredded chicken is also very good, and you can add bbq sauce to some leftovers and put them into crescent rolls & back (found this one on the Pillsbury site).
I hope you have a good Thanksgiving! You’ve brought a lot of smiles my way since I found your site 4 years ago. Keep up the good work & don’t let the you-know-what’s get you down.
Darn it! I said root beet & it should’ve been root beer!!!
I love allrecipes.com. I’ve found some of the best dishes on that site. Man, I haven’t even put the turkey in the oven yet and I”m already drooling in anticipation.
And for you lefse lovers out there, I made a huge batch. As my Mom would say, “Uff-da, that’s a lot of lefse!”
A recipes page is a terrific idea. A few years ago I started making Ina Garten’s cranberry sauce recipe, cutting back the sugar to one cup. You can also leave out the raisins and nuts. My husband hates all cranberry sauce except this one. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cranberry-fruit-conserve-recipe/index.html
One other thing, Kevin, Reynolds makes bags that will fit up to a 5 quart crockpot. It keeps the mess to a minimum & you won’t have to deal with burned food sticking to the sides (you’ll still have to wash the cooker, as some liquid will seep out, but it’s still easier & quicker to clean). The box says Slow Cooker Liners & I find them on the same aisle that has aluminum foil.
I haven’t had any issues with the crockpot at all yet. I think I have used it about 15 times now, including today’s turkey. There has been no spillage or burns at all. The stoneware is black and has a big enough lip that it doesn’t let anything spill into the metal crock pot below. I’m very careful when I ladel out the contents of the stoneware and I wipe everything down as soon as the crockpot is cool enough to do that.
I never heard of liners but so far I haven’t had a need for one but thanks for letting me know about that. I really want this crock pot to last for a very long time.
I was always taught to take care of equipment and to buy the best one I could afford at the time…and then make that thing last for 20 or 30 years or longer so I’d never have to buy another one again as long as it still worked.
I’ve been reading up on slow cookers and recipes, and I am fascinated by the concept.
Unfortunately, I am also terrified of fires (My father’s idea of Big Time Fun in the 1950s was to grab me and go look at areas flooded by the Ohio River and go to watch Big Fires, including ones set by the fire department for training. As a result, I have always 1)chosen to live on high ground & 2)been wary of starting a fire. I had a fire in my lab once, and happily, I coolly went to a fire extinguisher and used it properly) so I never, ever leave my kitchen while something is cooking.
Apparently, slow cookers have a great track record for safety. I’m trying to get past my fears and at least cook up beans and lentils while I am upstairs. So many possibilities…
Kevin, you DO unplug your toaster when you aren’t using it, yes? They’re cheaply made, and a prime source of ignition in house fires.
Qatmom,
I was terrified of the Crock Pot for 35 years! That’s 80% of why I never bought one. I still don’t think I will ever leave the house with it on, but I have been cooking stuff overnight while we sleep. We have like three smoke detectors so I feel safe at night.
My grandmother was terrified of fire…to the point where there could be no lights on the Christmas tree. She drilled it into me every day that this or that could light the whole house on fire. No appliances besides the fridge were ever left plugged in. Even lamps were unplugged after they were used. She must have had a friend who died in a fire as a child.
I don’t own a toaster. I make toast in the oven the old-fashioned way. But if I had one, it would not be left plugged in.
When it’s not in use, the Crock Pot is unplugged, cleaned, and put away. The microwave is used so seldomly it’s also unplugged when not in use.
I will tell you that I am very glad I bought the Crockpot. The quality of meat that’s coming out of that thing is just unbelievable.
It’s restaurant-quality stuff.
SO MUCH better than anything I ever could make in a roasting pan. I never in my life could get my pot roast to come out melt-on-the-fork tender, but the Crock Pot does that ever time. And the turkey for Thanksgiving was the best I ever made in my whole life.
I have a pork shoulder in the Crock Pot right now smothered in BBQ sauce and cooking for tomorrow. I’m going to have pulled pork for the next 4-5 days while Justin’s in Arkansas with his family for the Thanksgiving weekend. I have never made pulled pork before, but have always wanted to. You just can’t do this in an oven.
I am really excited to know how it turns out.
Loved the pizza! Had a 4 year old and 1 year old love it too! Marshmallows a BIG hit!
Thanks!
Really glad you liked it.
That was so awesome of you to let me know. I appreciate that!
This is very simple and tempting recipes for pizza.