condiments

Easy Homemade Tartar Sauce

~ Grace ~ 5 Comments

Fish and tartar sauceWe don’t have fish too often, but when we do I like to have tartar sauce to serve with it.  A couple years ago I realized it was rather stupid to keep buying bottles of tartar sauce, use them once and place them in the fridge for next time.  “Next time” usually didn’t come until it was to late to salvage the rest of the bottle or it had been long lost in the depths of the refrigerator.  So I found this easy homemade tartar sauce recipe and we have been using it ever since.

Easy Homemade Tartar Sauce
 
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Recipe type: Condiment
Ingredients
  • 1 cup of mayo
  • 2½ tablespoons sweet relish
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
  1. Put all the ingredients into a bowl and stir.

Tartar SauceIt tastes WAY better than store bought and if we have any leftover I add a little ketchup and it makes a WONDERFUL dipping sauce for fries, tater tots, or pretty much anything you would use ketchup on.  We put it on hamburgers the other night…..yummm!

Fry SauceA great tasting, easy, tartar sauce with no waste!

My Contributions to Thanksgiving Dinner and a Couple Confessions

~ Grace ~ 13 Comments

I have a confession to make……I don’t like turkey.  There,… I said it.  Let me be clear though, I don’t HATE turkey, I just don’t favor it.  I can eat it, especially in a casserole or on a sandwich.  But when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, I want a big fat plate full of stuffing, a couple servings of salad, and then some more stuffing.  Of course this is all after I have grazed on the veggie trays, fruit trays, deviled eggs, olives, and array of other “appetizers” that will be laying out on the counter before the turkey gets done.  Needless to say by the time dinner is over I will be miserable and useless…..but I don’t think I’m alone here.

So, here are my non turkey contributions to Thanksgiving dinner this year. 🙂

Last week I shared a recipe for homemade thousand island dressing and promised to share my grandma’s special green salad to serve with it.

SaladJust add some baby shrimp, a little crab meat, and some sliced olives to your greens.

Thousand IslandServe it with the homemade thousand island and…who needs turkey!?

At most family functions I bring the deviled eggs.  Not because mine are exceptional or better than others, it’s simply because I HAVE TOO MANY EGGS! (Well,… and mine are fresh!)   So that’s my second addition to Thanksgiving dinner.

Deviled EggsNote: If you also have nice fresh eggs and have a difficult time peeling them, click here to read my little “trick” on how to cook and easily peel farm fresh eggs. 🙂

My next contribution is an easy appetizer…maybe my favorite appetizer.  I call them asparagus wraps.

AsparagusThey are simply softened cream cheese spread on a thin slice of ham wrapped around pickled asparagus….and they are DELICIOUS!

Asparagus WrapsLast Thanksgiving I ran out of time and instead of making these ahead of time I took the supplies and made them after I got to my parents.  They disappeared just as fast as I could make them.

Now for my next confession…..I’ve never made pumpkin pie.  Actually I’ve only ever made one pie in my entire life and that was an apple pie.  It was about ten years ago and it turned out kinda weird??  So this Thanksgiving I have decided to try my first ever pumpkin pie!  I’ll be sure to take pictures and let you know how it turns out.

I am sooooo thankful that my parents now have a large, conveniently located house that is perfect for large family gatherings.  This has not always been the case, and Thanksgiving dinners took place at our house.  I think squished and crazy would be the best words to describe those gatherings.  As I shared, turkey is not my favorite meal and therefore cooking one is not my idea of fun.  The last Thanksgiving we hosted, I spent my morning rushing around cleaning, opening doors and windows to fan the smoke out from the ran over turkey drippings.  Oh, and meanwhile Digger was in the bathroom with a small blow torch trying to melt the spilled wax out of the sink (but that’s a story for another post).  I am much happier to make my additions to dinner at home, pack them in a cooler, and leave my messy house.  Then I can enjoy a wonderful meal with our awesome (and large) family at my parents house….and I’m sure my moms home grown turkey will be wonderful…under tons of stuffing and gravy!

What are your contributions to Thanksgiving dinner?  Do you have the privilege of hosting and cooking the turkey?  If so, my prayers are with you. 😉

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.”  Psalms 107:1

Easy Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

~ Grace ~ 10 Comments

It’s November (just in case you weren’t aware), and when I start thinking about Thanksgiving dinner, I start thinking about this salad dressing.  It’s a recipe I got from my grandma many moons ago.  It’s so simple, DELICIOUS, and paired with my grandma’s special green salad, I wouldn’t want to have a Thanksgiving dinner without it!

Thousand IslandAll you need is mayo, chili sauce or ketchup, sweet relish, and one hard boiled egg.

IngredientsI used organic ketchup and I found a sweet relish that didn’t have corn syrup.  Stir everything together and that’s it!

DressingNow you’re wondering what my grandma’s special green salad is….that will be coming next week! 🙂  Have you started thinking about Thanksgiving dinner yet?

5.0 from 3 reviews
Easy Homemade Thousand Island Dressing
 
Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • 3 tablespoons chili sauce or ketchup
  • ½ cup sweet relish
  • 1 hard-boiled egg, diced
Instructions
  1. Stir together all the ingredients and use on your favorite green salad or for a veggie dip.

 

Homemade Spiced Pear Butter

~ Grace ~ 11 Comments

Spiced Pear ButterI’m a big fan of apple butter, so when I had a box of pears that needed to be used up quickly, pear butter kept coming to mind.  I looked up some recipes and then mixed, matched, and tweaked until I had a recipe I was happy with.  I have never made apple OR pear butter before and I was a bit skeptical at first.  But when I smelled that pot of yummyness bubbling on my stove I knew I had a winner!!

First peel and cut up 8 pounds of pears.  This was about 16 medium sized pears.

Spiced Pear ButterAdd just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan to keep them from sticking. About 1/2 a cup.  Cook on medium heat until they are soft, about 30 minutes.

Pear ButterLet the soft pears cool off a bit and then blend until you have a smooth consistency.  You could use a stick blender or a regular blender.

Pear Butter 1When you have a nice smooth “pear sauce” add the sugar, orange zest, nutmeg, orange juice, and almond extract.  Cook on medium heat until it reaches your desired thickness, stir often so it doesn’t stick to the pan.  It will take about an hour.  I let it cool then ladled it into clean pint size mason jars and put them in the freezer.

To can it: Ladle hot pear butter into sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Seal with lids and rings.  Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes to seal.   This made a little over 4 pints.  The recipe could easily be doubled or cut in half.

Spiced Pear Butter 2NOTE:  This recipe uses about half the amount of sugar that all the other recipes for pear butter call for.  It was PLENTY sweet for us but you could add more if you like.  The only thing I will do differently next time is cook it for longer, I would prefer it to be a bit thicker.

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