The Anders Ruff Team's Thanksgiving Meal Traditions

If you are looking for some last minute Thanksgiving recipes, or want some insight to our team's family secrets, look no further. I asked our girls to give me one of their favorite Thanksgiving recipes along with their favorite memory...

(In case you can't read my templates, I'm posting the info below each one!)

Enjoy!

"Grandma's Gonna Need Some Bigger Pants" From the Kitchen of Becky

In Becky’s family, she has always been the expert baker. Each year she would bake several pies for all of her family to enjoy at their Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners. One year Becky decided to make an extra pie to send home with her grandparents.... and guess who ate the entire pie??? Sweet little old GRANDMA!!!

Now Becky has started a new tradition with her own kids & husband. She bakes apumpkin cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and the beauty of it is that it serves plenty of people (hint hint, GRANDMA)

Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

5 TB melted butter

1 cup plus 1 TB sugar

24 ounces softened cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup canned pumpkin

3 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

whipped cream

Preheat to 350 degrees. Combine the graham cracker crumbs and butter and 1 TB sugar to make it crumbly. Press into the bottom and 2/3 of the way up up a springform pan. Bake for 5 minutes and set aside. Then mix the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth. Add in pumpkin, eggs and spices and beat until smooth. Pour into crust and bake for 60-70 minutes. Allow to cool, then refrigerate. Slice with unflavored dental floss to make a clean cut and serve with whipped cream!

"Best Casserole EVER, Unless you Hate Mushrooms" From the Kitchen of Carrie

Each year at Carrie’s Family Thanksgiving, everyone would wait anxiously for the ever-so-popular“Green Bean Casserole”. In fact, it was such a hit that her brothers would fight over the last serving. Poor little Carrie, though, never got to enjoy her family’s tradition because as everyone knows, to make a good greenbean casserole, you need Cambell’s condensed Cream of Mushroom soup and poor little Carrie HATED mushrooms.

Green Bean Casserole

1 can Campbell's condensed Cream of Mushroom soup

1/2 c. milk

1 tsp. soy saucedash pepper

2 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen green beans, cooked and drained

1 can (3.5 oz.)

French fried onions

Cook green beans, drain. In a 11/2 qt. casserole, stir soup, milk, soy sauce and pepper until smooth. Mix in green beans and 1/2 can onions. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, stir. Top with remaining onions. Bake 5 more minutes.
Makes 4 cups

"Who Knew Potatoes Could Be So Fun?" From the Kitchen of Caryn

In Caryn’s family - they have a hillarious holiday tradition. When bringing your “food item”, if you don’t have a name for it, the food item gets called “Party - (insert food item here)” i.e. Party-Snacks, Party-Caserole, Party-Beans... you get the point! Hope you enjoy Caryn’s favorite “Party-Potatoes”

Party-Potatoes
Caryn says “This isn't a fancy recipe but they are SO good and SO bad for you! ”

9 - 10 cooked potatoes - mashed

1/2 pint sour cream1

(8oz) pkg cream cheese softened

1 teaspoon onion powder1

teaspoon garlic salt
*will also need chives and paprika

Combine ingredients and put in buttered baking dish. Butter top of mixture. Sprinkle top with chives and paprika. Store in refrigerator overnight or until ready to use. Bring to room temperature prior to baking if you plan on refrigerating overnight. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 35 - 40 minutes or until hot.

"Grandma Dottie Takes it to a New Level" From the Kitchen of Maureen

At holiday time in Maureen’s family, everyone was assigned to make or bake their favorite dish, except Grandma Dottie. No-one would ever eat her food because it was either burnt, dry or underdone, so they would assign her, a no-fail cranberry jello mold recipe. Who can mess up jello, right? They would ooohhh and awww over her jello even though it was still yet to be desired. She was particularly proud one year, because she changed it up a bit and added strawberries to it. Grandma Dottie had taken it to a new level.

However, she had not accounted for the frozen stawberries, which had watered down the jello.... and when Grandma Dottie insisted on flipping over the jello mold, an explosion of red cranberry and strawberry liquid flooded the nicely decorated Thanksgiving table. To no avail, Grandma Dottie had sabotaged a classic jello recipe - The table was a mess, there was no cranberry jello, and Aunt Penny peed her pants (litteraly peed, from laughing so hard).

Bill Cosby would be sadly dissappointed.....and on a side note - don’t mess with the cranberry jello!

In lieu of the cranberry jello mold, Maureen wanted to share with you a fabulous Martha Stewart Recipe for: Salli’s Cranberry Tartlets

3/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts, plus 5 tablespoons for sprinkling

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pans

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon pure almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

Amber or crystal sugar, for sprinkling

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.with a rack in center. Spread all the walnuts on a baking pan. Bake until fragrant, about 7 minutes. Transfer nuts to a bowl; set aside to cool. 2. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees. Brush tartlet pans with melted butter. In a large bowl, whisk together the 12 tablespoons melted butter, sugar, eggs, almond extract, and flour. Batter will be thick. Stir in cranberries and 3/4 cup toasted nuts. 3. Fill each mold with 1/2 cup batter. Sprinkle each top with 1 teaspoon walnuts and amber sugar, if desired. Bake until golden and slightly crusty on top, 30 to 40 minutes. A cake tester inserted in the center should come out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack. Once cool, remove tarts from pans.These are best served within a day.

"I'll Have the Meat with a Side Of Meat, Please" - From the Kitchen of Adria

If you are looking for a non-tradtional Thanksgiving Meal, come on over to Poppie Steak’s house for a whole-lotta meat! Adria’s quirky little Italian Dad (known as Poppie Steak) serves up some serious meat selections every Thanksgiving - Prime Rib or Leg of Lamb is a must, along with Turkey, Ham and Salami... His assortment of meat is always to die for, however, plan to arrive early and stay late, because there is never a “Meal Time”. No-one is allowed to eat until the meat is cooked to perfection.... and you never know when that will be - no joke! ...not to mention if you aren’t there to eat it fresh out of the oven, you won’t get any... he eats every last drop of whatever is left, straight out of the pan! In any event, if you love meat with a side of meat, enjoy Poppie Steak’s mouth-watering Prime Rib and Leg of Lamb recipes.

Poppie Steak’s Prime Rib or Leg of Lamb

(both are cooked the same way)

Prime Rib or Leg of Lamb

Meat Thermometer

Vegetable Oil

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Salt

Oregano

Preheat oven 325 degrees. Generously rub vegetable oil (do not substitute) all over the meat. Then season entirely with salt, pepper, garlic salt and oregano. So simple, yet so good! Now comes the hard part - pulling it out of the oven at the perfect time! When cooking either the prime rib or lamb, please note that the length of time in the oven depends on the lbs. A rough gauge is 15 min/lbs. The meat is best served at medium rare temperature - but please note that you will need to pull the meat out of the oven slightly under your desired temperature because it will continue to cook for a little bit as it sits on the counter. Good luck and don’t over cook it!!!

We hope you enjoy our Thankgiving Traditions!

xo - The Anders Ruff Team