Planning for the Hoildays

Now that the weather is starting to cool off, I am getting excited for the Holidays. I have been purchasing some gifts all year, but now it's time to get down to business and get finished. I would like to be done by Thanksgiving so I can just enjoy the season.

It has been a really long time since I have made any handmade gifts but this year I am working on a few things. Of course I can't share them here until after I have given them to the recipients.

We are going to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with my family and I hope to have all of my decorating done before we leave. We are thinking about going ahead and putting up our outside lights while it isn't so cold. We will not turn them on until after Thanksgiving, but it would be nice to not be freezing to death while we are putting them up, and if we spread the work over a couple of weekends, maybe it will be a little easier.

I have already started purchasing baking supplies so I have what I need on hand. I already have the makings for fudge and chocolate chip cookies. I will still look for baking supplies as they go on sale. The Holiday season is the best time to purchase most baking needs and most of them can be frozen for use throughout the year.

This is also the time of year we stock up on hams and turkeys. I usually buy at least 3 turkeys and 3-4 hams. You just can't buy meat cheaper than when turkey is $.49 a pound. I will bake one several times a year. It is a lot of meat, but there are so many ways to use it. When I bake a turkey and it's not Thanksgiving, I don't usually do the dressing and gravy and all the trimmings or that would spoil Thanksgiving. But I will make mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and rolls and other things to make it a big meal. Then we have sandwiches for lunches a few days, the carcass gets made into stock, there is usually a casserole a few days later and sometimes I make shredded turkey BBQ.

Throughout the year, when I make cornbread or biscuits, I freeze the leftovers for dressing. There is a big bag out in the freezer waiting to be made into dressing. A few more loaves of cornbread should probably be made before the Holidays.

Here is my recipe for Chicken or Turkey Casserole:

2 cups chicken, cooked & cubed
1 can cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, or cream of celery soup (I usually use 1 can cream of chicken and 1 can cream of mushroom)
1 stick of butter
1 small package Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix (I use cornbread)
2-4 cups chicken broth

Place chicken in bottom of a 9x13 pan. Mix cream of chicken soup with one can of broth (2 if you use 2 cans of soup). Pour over chicken.

Melt butter and mix with stuffing mix, add enough broth to make a moist stuffing. Spread over chicken in pan. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

This is actually better as leftovers to me than it is the first time you serve it.

There will be a couple of cookie recipes posted in the next few posts.

Happy Preparations!
Mae