Friendsgiving

Saturday was the annual Davidson sister's Friendsgiving. It is a pot luck, and I wanted to bring more than one dish as I was excited about a few.

Autumn is the time when cranberries are in season and they are one of my favorite fruits, so I often buy them on every grocery store visit. Usually I make plenty of cranberry sauce because that is an easy way to get a cranberry fix. This year I have been experimenting with a cranberry crumble and in previous years I usually make a fair amount of cranberry bars. By the time I announced my attendance to Friendsgiving, the dessert slots were all filled. So I made a small batch of cranberry sauce as one of my dishes. I use the America's Test Kitchen recipe, but reduce the amount of sugar, as I like the tartness of the cranberries to stand out more. This time I added some orange zest and Grand Marnier.

Then I proceeded to make two separate dishes of mashed sweet potatoes. One savory, and the other sweet. The savory mashers, which I made last year (but forgot I had) are a recipe from celebrity chef Alton Brown. They are chipotle mashed sweet potatoes. I don't vary from the recipe that much except for adding more chipotle than he asks for. This time I added a bit more butter too, but that was because I expected to use more potatoes, but cut the quantity shorter after having already added the butter. These were a hit last year, and again this year.

The other dish was to duplicate the mashed sweet potatoes my mom used to make for Thanksgiving. I called her for a recipe, but she didn't give me any specifics. She just said, "Make mashed sweet potatoes, then cover with marshmallow." So I started out. She called while I was in the process and added that she also used brown sugar. So without a definite recipe I made mashed sweet potatoes with cinnamon and brown sugar and put them in a dish so I could cover them with marshmallows and broil them. They came out great and Jennifer already wants me to make them again.

In addition, Jennifer made a recipe she found on the Internet that turned out great. I think the recipe was called "Mushroom Wellington." It involved mushrooms, butternut squash and goat cheese in a puff pastry. She made four, and sadly there was none for us to take home.

Other food at the dinner included a turkey, vegetarian shepherd's pie, and the classic green bean casserole. Highlights for me were the vegetarian stuffing, and my dishes. The mulled wine was good too.