We have a great local DJ, Doug (Dougie) Hitchcock, on Thunder Country. He does the late afternoon into 7:00 p.m. show and always has tidbits to share as well as good music. Right before Thanksgiving, he said that yes, survey results were that the favorite holiday meal side dish was the green bean casserole. I wasn’t surprised and the friends who hosted this year did theirs with bacon added. That was a variation we certainly enjoyed.

Moving on though to the traditional sweet potato casserole also usually found on the table/buffet line. Notwithstanding our deep Southern roots, neither Hubby nor I are sweet potato fans. We definitely don’t like the usual method of adding even more sweetness to with brown sugar or maple syrup and topping with marshmallows. However, a few years ago Hubby ran across a savory version that included part of a chipotle pepper in adobe and lots of cheese. Now in all fairness, any time you use chipotle, it can be tricky because the peppers vary in intensity of heat. An option is a quarter teaspoon red pepper flakes or leave it out altogether. The rest of the recipe should work if you prefer no heat. I do take a short cut as our Publix has containers of mashed sweet potatoes in refrigerator section.

Step one. Rough chop half a small onion. Peel two whole cloves of garlic. Coat with favorite olive oil or use olive oil spray and roast in 350 oven approximately 20 minutes until caramelized and soft. Mash the garlic with a fork and mix in with the onions. While those are roasting, take one container of prepared sweet potatoes. Follow the directions for microwaving them for 1-2 minutes less than the full time. When partially cooked, place the potatoes in a bowl. Stir in two tablespoons butter/margarine and half teaspoon kosher salt. Add the roasted onions, garlic and spicy pepper (if desired). Stir in 1 cup grated cheese (whatever you like; we use a six-cheese Italian blend). Put mixture into buttered casserole dish and top with grated Parmesan (can use any hard Italian cheese). Baked covered (can use foil) for 25 minutes and check. If top not lightly browned, bake for another 5-10 minutes uncovered.(You may need to add 1/4 milk to mixture before baking if it is really stiff. The butter and roasted onions/garlic should give enough moisture)

Ah, the many years of roasting the turkey – what a tradition with the regional elements I’ve encountered being assigned to different places. Being raised in the deep South, dressing was the given and quite frankly, stuffing was never considered. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my maternal grandmother’s dressing – mostly cornbread of course – was terrific. Like so many family dishes though, she didn’t follow a precise recipe. One reason was because she used cornbread and leftover biscuits and the amount of moisture in them did vary based on the batch. Subsequently, the amount of eggs and broth needed to attain the correct consistency varied and how much spice to add was based on the volume of the dressing. It was very much a matter of her “sensing” what was required. My sister had the patience to observe and experiment enough to finally get really close with a written recipe. Stuffing was something I didn’t experience until traveling to the Northeast, and while I enjoy it, given the choice, I do prefer dressing.

The roast turkey of course was always the centerpiece and came with all the good and bad of managing the thawing, seasoning, timing, and carving. I never actually did a turkey on my own as I, then we, usually spent the holiday with family. Hubby and I started hosting what we referred to as “orphans” those times when we didn’t travel. In a military setting, there are almost always singles around who appreciate an invitation.

Smoking turkeys became a thing for a period of time even though we didn’t attempt it. We weren’t really on board with the frying technique initially until Hubby’s cousin by marriage did one and oh my, it was delicious. I may have previously posted about the Christmas when I bought him a turkey fryer. There are a couple of big parts and the box is fairly large. Fortunately, we had a three-quarters bath in the basement of the townhouse that we never used and it fit perfectly in that shower with the curtain drawn. Hubby doesn’t go with fried all the time as it is quite the process. This is going to be one of those years and the appropriate number of gallons – yes gallons – of peanut oil are on-hand ready to look positively medieval as it achieves the right temperature. It does have to be carefully controlled and safety is important.

I have mentioned on numerous occasions about my “picky eating” in the sense of not caring for quite a few things considered “normal” by most people. I brought this up not long ago as I explained about our banana plant finally bearing fruit. As an update, these are the small sugar bananas. They still seem to take quite a while in ripening on the tree and we aren’t entirely certain what the optimum point for bringing them is. Hubby’s trying different times to experiment since we have quite a few. Some, he’s only been able to one or two bites from, but says they are delicious. In all fairness, at their size, four bites is about the max anyway.

On to the subject of eggs. I think I did once explain when Hubby and I were in our early stages of dating the first dinner he cooked for me was this wonderful stuffed game hen dish. He was disappointed to learn about me not eating eggs because he does make a great omelette. (He’s since converted to frittatas, but that’s not the point here). Although his normal breakfast continues to be leftover pizza, he does periodically take the time to make a real breakfast. There were some TV ads not long ago about the “Just Crack An Egg” product. It’s a microwavable round container where you crack and stir in one egg, recover the lid and zap for a nice hot dish. There are different flavors and rather than dehydrated items, they have them in packages inside the container. For example, a little packet of real sausage bits or diced peppers for the Denver Scramble. He’s gotten several of those and liked them. This week he discovered “Sausage, Cheese, and Egg Balls”. Similar concept in the pre-made balls are in a round microwavable container. He said they are good. For both products though, since they don’t use dehydrated items, you do have to check the use-by date.