Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

This Thanksgiving was my first time creating Thanksgiving dinner! We usually have lunch with my family and dinner with my husband's family, but my husband's family had made other arrangements for dinner. We will be visiting with them on Saturday. Since I was only serving dinner for my husband and myself I created a miniature feast. I opted for smaller portions of various items, and roast split chicken breast instead of a whole turkey.

The Menu:
Roast Split Chicken Breasts
Mashed Potatoes
Stovetop Stuffing
Parmesan Roasted Butternut Squash (which I've blogged about before)
Green Bean Casserole
Mini Sweet Potato Pies with Whipped Cream

The Decisions:
I decided to treat the Chicken similarly to Turkey on Thanksgiving, so I followed Ina Garten's Herb Roast Turkey Breast recipe with my Split Chicken Breasts instead. I had fresh rosemary and sage in my garden, but my thyme was really struggling so I used the dried herb instead.

I won't elaborate too much about my Mashed Potatoes, since they're a fairly common side and my recipe isn't atypical. I peel my potatoes, boil them in salt water, mash them, and then add butter, milk, and pepper before serving. I don't usually add more salt since the potatoes absorb salt from the water, and the butter I use is salted.

Stovetop Stuffing is ubiquitous and I make it according to package directions. My husband loves it, and I've not ventured into the home-made croutons or bread crumbs area yet. Notice I said yet. We will leave his beloved Stovetop Stuffing behind at some point in our lives. I promise.

The Parmesan Roasted Butternut Squash is a recipe I go to again and again. I've discussed it on my blog in the past (see link above) and I've used it in my weekly meal plans several times. It's absolutely wonderful, and a very nice divergence from sweet sugary butternut squash dishes.

I've never made Green Bean Casserole before. Can you believe that? I grew up in North Carolina and still I haven't made it before. Green beans are in season and inexpensive right now, so why not give the casserole a try? I followed fairly closely to Taste of Home's recipe, but skipped the sour cream, and I used ~3oz cream cheese, 2T ricotta, green beans leftover from Sunday and added bacon, season salt and pepper.

The Preparation:
On Wednesday I prepared some thing to make dinner come together faster once we get home from visiting with my family. I accomplished a great deal, and made dinner at the same time. Here's what I recommend:

• Chop the butternut squash & place it in foil covered ramkins in the fridge. 
• Peel and chop the potatoes, put them into a pot, cover them with water, and put them into the fridge. 
• Prepare the green bean casserole (minus the onion topping) and put it into the fridge. 
• Prepare the sweet potato pie (from making pie crust & baking the sweet potato all the way through cooling the pies) and put them into the fridge.

The Big Day:
I wanted dinner to come together about 7:00PM, so I started well in advance. I made sure to pull my prepared items out of the fridge with enough time for the baking dishes to warm up a little. I didn't want to put my ceramic and glass dishes into the oven directly from the fridge. Here's what I did:

• 5:30PM Season chicken
• 5:40PM Place chicken in oven
• 6:10PM Place butternut squash in oven
• 6:15PM Put potatoes on to boil
• 6:30PM Check chicken, cover with foil if browning too much
• 6:30PM Top green bean casserole with onions & bake
• 6:30PM Add cheese to butternut squash, continue to bake
• 6:40PM Drain potatoes, add milk & butter, mash & season to taste
• 6:45PM Start stovetop
• 6:45PM Remove chicken from oven, tent with foil, & rest 15 minutes
• 7:00PM Remove green bean casserole and butternut squash from oven
• 7:00PM Serve dinner

This was a fantastic 2 person dinner. We had leftovers of everything, but they were devoured within a few days. The chicken turned out fabulously, and I'll definitely be using that recipe again! The green bean casserole was about what I expected. I would prefer my green beans steamed and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper next time. My husband really enjoyed them though, and commented about the tasty bacon! Have you ever cooked a Thanksgiving (or other holiday) dinner for a small group of people? What did you do?

Autumn Potluck Recipes

We are having a work potluck soon, and I wanted to pick two items that would be both seasonal and frugal. The first dish I chose was something my friend Chelsea told me I just had to try, and I have made it several times and gotten great reviews from my husband and other dinner guests we've had. It's a butternut squash dish that is lovely and savory rather than sweet and pumpkin-pie spiced. I highly recommend you try Epicurious's Parmesan Roasted Butternut Squash.

The other item I chose is something I had never made before, so this past weekend I gave it a test run. I made a half recipe of TheKitchn's Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats for my test run, and I'm not sure if that influenced the amount of time the mixture should have cooled. By the time I added the additional marshmallows the mixture was so cooled the marshmallows didn't melt at all. I think I'll mix them all in at the same time next time, as I'm not a big fan of whole marshmallows in my rice krispies treats. Also stirring in the rice krispies to the cooled marshmallow mixture was extremely difficult, and I think it would have been easier to mix them all together before the mixture was room temperature (possibly lukewarm instead?). I'll try that and hope that my rice krispies treats aren't soggy (as the recipe states they may be if I combine the ingredients prematurely). The overall flavor was great, and the pumpkin taste was delicious! I must say I'm not exactly disappointed that I'll be trying a second test run before giving them away! I'll write an update once I've created the second batch.

Easy Parmesan Garlic Biscuits

Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 8 - 10 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients:
1 cup Bisquick
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup finely shredded Parmesan
1 T butter, plus more for serving
1/4t roasted garlic powder (more or less depending on your preference)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 450F.

Combine 1 cup Bisquick with 1/3 cup milk and mix well. Add Parmesan and stir to combine. Roll dough into ping pong sized balls, flatten between your palms, and place on a foil lined cookie sheet. Mix 1T butter with garlic powder (I recommend Archer Farms Roasted Garlic Powder) and spread on top of biscuits. Bake in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Note: If you buy Parmesan that's "shredded" you'll want to add it to a food processor, blender, or coffee grinder for about 15 - 30 seconds. If you don't have any of those a knife works fine too!