The Holiday Kitchen: Thanksgiving dishes: old faithful's and something new

 I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. Let's be honest, Thanksgiving is the biggest food holiday. So much goes into the preparation of this one meal. Some people taking days to plan and make all of the food. 

Are you a purest who likes to make all of the normal thanksgiving foods or do you like to change it up? Add new spices into regular dishes or make something different? 

This year for Thanksgiving at my friends I made 2 dishes. An old faithful and something new, and a twist on something my mom used to make. 

The old faithful dish: Green Bean Casserole. My secret to this dish is I mix half of the fried onions into the bean mixture. 

This year I used a different ration of beans to mushroom soup mix. I used a ratio this year of 4:1. I added half of the fried onions to the mixture and stirred until incorporated. Once baked, I add the rest of the fried onions to the top. 

The twist on a dish: Cranberry Pretzel Salad. My mom used to make the strawberry pretzel salad so this is a twist on a dish my mom would make. 

The Ingredients:

2.5 C crushed pretzels

2 tsp vanilla

2/3 C brown sugar

2 TBSP flour

3/4 C butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and lightly grease a 13x9 pan. In medium bowl, add crushed pretzels, vanilla, brown sugar, and flour, and stir. Melt butter and add to pretzel mixture and stir until combined. Spread into baking dish in an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes and remove and cool completely. 

12 oz fresh cranberries

1/4 C sugar

1/4 C brown sugar

1 TBSP orange zest

1/4 C orange juice

2 tsp cornstarch

In medium saucepan, over medium heat, add cranberries, sugar, brown sugar, orange zest, orange juice, and cornstarch. Stir and bring to a boil and cook until the cranberries burst and thicken up. Remove from heat and let cool. I used my immersion blender to smooth the texture out more. 

8 oz. cream cheese

1 C powdered sugar

8 oz cool whip

In a bowl or stand mixer, beat cream cheese 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy, then add powdered sugar. Beat until well combined and fold in cool whip until combined.  

Once the crust has cooled, spread cream cheese mixture over the crust. Top with the cranberry orange filling and spread evenly.