Family Thanksgiving Recipes from Us to You
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, it is not just some holiday in between Halloween and Christmas. It is not one meant to be skipped over and forgotten about. It’s meant to be a time for us to slow down and reflect on what we have and who we appreciate in our lives. This can be friends and family who are far away coming home, or a simple as you’re Miami students coming home from campus for the first time since moving off to college in August. Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving in Oxford or anywhere beyond campus here’s a little Thanksgiving joy from us to you.
Oxford starts to slow down this time of year, stores start to put out their holiday decorations. Everyone has a little pep in their step! The local lions club starts to set up their annual Christmas tree sale raising funds for those less fortunate around town. The seasonal winter igloos have just been installed over every park bench in town. And ever so slowly Christmas decorations are being put on buildings and light pulls everywhere. Outside of town or even in your own homes, many people are preparing for this holiday season in their own way. Whether you have already jumped into the holiday decor, or are a jolly humbug and want to wait till December 1 to put up your Ewell tide greetings here’s some tips on making this the best Thanksgiving yet!
Tell your campus students to plan their flights or travel accordingly. We usually start to get a little bit of snow right around now so roads can be rough. However, your students is likely trying to hold out to come home until Tuesday as Monday night is the largest karaoke night of the year at Brickstreet bar a.k.a. Brick. And I’m sure you want them to come home sooner and they will likely blame it on the professors holding class on Monday and Tuesday, but let’s all be real, they’re enjoying their college life just as much as you did when you were here. In fact, most professors will cancel class on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. Now they’re not lying when they say they have class, there will be one or two stickers who decides to hold class, but we all recognize this excuse a mile away. Once they finally decide to leave town if they are flying, make sure that they are to the airport two hours in advance as it is a very busy travel season. If your students do not have a car on campus, there are plenty of different options available. The university has a few shuttles, though these fill up extremely quick. I have used and highly recommend Vengo car service. She is a local driver who has fleet of vehicles who are driving to and from the airport the whole week. Another very reliable and trust relief service is the Fedora taxi shuttle. Both are very notable around town and your student will likely know these names. Many of them have likely taken their service two or from the bars on a cold windy night or two and from class on a very rainy day.
Once your student arrives home I’m sure you will have plenty of plans to do with them! You want to hear all about everything that’s been going on the last few weeks he might need to visit the stores in case they’ve been hit by the freshman 15 or have been lucky enough to lose their freshman 15 due to walking all over campus! But before you visit your favorite shopping malls and Amazon sites, we recommend you think about a couple other items and locations to think about first. This being what are you eating and who are you eating with for your Thanksgiving feast? Do you have any unique or fun dishes that you are eager to try out!? Do you have family recipes that you are excited to dust off once again this year as part of your annual tradition for Thanksgiving? If not, we have a couple of our family recipes that we are excited to share with you.
Thanksgiving Recipes
The first Thanksgiving recipe that we always love to have and in no particular order, but if you know me, I love my desserts and my sweets, so that’s where we’re going to start. Cherries jubilee is a recipe that’s been in our family for a number of years. We have a recipe in our recipe book dating back to 1958 so we believe this is when the recipe entered our family lineage. This is where we had the first record of it entering our family. It’s a really sweet and savory, all-in-one, slightly messy dessert, but not hard to make in very well worth the gym afterwards. Since this is such an old recipe some of the ingredients have changed, for instance, the original called for Dream Whip, which is all but disappeared from modern shelves, so we have learned to substitute with Cool Whip. The recipe goes as follows:
Ingredients
2 LG packages Philadelphia Cream Cheese
2 LG packages of Dream Whip – or – 1 tub of Cool whip
2 cups of sugar powders
2 packs (2.5 cups) Graham Crackers
1.5 sticks of butter
2 cans of Cherries (without Pits)
Directions
1. Crush the graham crackers
2. Melt butter and mix with graham crackers
3. Spread on bottom and sides of 9 x 12 pan.
4. Mix in mixer 2 cups of powder sugar and 2 pks of cream cheese mixture
5. Mix Dream Whip (or cool whip) as directed on box. Fold into cream cheese mixture
6. Spread cream cheese/dream whip on top of graham cracker crust
7. Spread cherries on top
8. Refrigerate overnight
Basil Olive Oil Sautéed Green Beans
The second recipe that we love to make is our sautéed green beans. This is a recent edition that my brother who is currently a freshman on campus experimented with during Covid. Here we take a little bit of olive oil, you can take regular olive oil or infused olive oil. If you have a few days prior, take a small cup of olive oil and place some basil leaves in the olive oil to allow it to infuse the basil flavor into the olive oil. Then we take, about a tablespoon or so place that in the bottom of our sauté pan. We start sautéing green beans and then at the very end. Sprinkle in a medium amount of Cajun seasoning. You’re probably thinking, “why would I ever do this?” but have faith. It is a flavor explosion in your mouth! Now, if you’re sensitive to heat, you can place the Cajun seasoning in earlier and the heat of the flame will bake out a little bit of the spiciness of the Cajun seasoning. Alternatively you can go a little bit lighter on the Cajun seasoning you can do whatever you’d like to taste.
Garlic Infused Mashed Potatoes
The third recipe that we love to share is another recipe that my brother whipped up during Covid. This being his garlic mashed potatoes. Here we use garlic, infused olive oil in the making of our mashed potatoes. Obviously you boil your potatoes until they’re soft. We then use a hand mixer or stand mixer, whichever you have available to beat the mashed potatoes apart and whip them. During this process, we will mix in about 3 tablespoons of the garlic infused olive oil (or more/less to taste), and it creates a very creamy but flavorful mashed potato. It is absolutely heavenly and delightful! If you decide to mix in a little bit of milk this is useful as it can be used to help neutralize any heat from your green beans in case you want a little heavy on the Cajun seasoning and didn’t realize it.
Fruit Salad
And as promised since we’re working from back to front, the final recipe we have for you is our salad. Now this is another old recipe that we have had in our family for many years. Some argue that it’s not a salad, but by definition it is and you’ll see why. Some argue it’s closer to ambrosia, but it doesn’t follow all the rules so it doesn’t count. And after all it’s Thanksgiving diets can wait till the new year. In our fruit salad, we utilize 2 jars of maraschino cherries, 2 large cans of done pineapple, 2 large cans of mandarin oranges, 1 large bag of grapes, 6 bananas, a bag of mini marshmallows, and the all important 1 tub of Cool Whip. Now you’re sitting here thinking why would I ever eat that! And trust me on paper sounds a little interesting (or borderline crazy), but have faith! It’s just like a Reesie‘s Peanut butter Cup - two great taste that taste great together! Mix these altogether and we have a very delightful fruit salad! In your process, you’ll drain the pineapple juice. In our family, we’ve learned that that pineapple juice is very useful if you want to mix it into other holiday spirited beverages! A little bit of vodka or your liquor of taste, and a healthy amount of pineapple juice helps to settle any comments from strange uncle Joe, or that pestering in law who you wonder why you invite every year!
1809 Napkin and Wine Glass Sets
Now don’t forget as you sit down to eat this delightful feast you’ve slaved over all day, just remember your placements, and your arrangement of food, as you want to ensure that your scene is set for royalty! Do you have matching cloth napkins with your favorite alma mater engraved on? Do you have wine glasses or bourbon glasses that have your favorites social establishment from Oxford printed on the side for you to share? These are great conversation starters that helped to dance around any of the awkward social taboo’s with our family members and remember to check out your favorite alumni store 1809apparel.com. From our family to yours, we hope that you and your family or families have the happiest Thanksgiving.