A Feast for Pilgrims and Indians (Dots Not Feathers)

With Thanksgiving being this Thursday, I had to honor our nation's oldest holiday (it began in 1621 by the settlers at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts) in this Monday's Crockpot dinner. Aside from the fact that I just love to celebrate holidays, this gave me a chance to prepare for the real Thanksgiving celebration with my family on Thursday. Call it a scrimmage or a practice round.

For this Thanksgiving feast, I invited a few more guests. In addition to my usual dinner mates, Bindi and Amish; Dolly, Snehal, Valerie and Alan (of http://www.alanandval.blogspot.com/) came over. Now you may be tempted to make allusions to the original Thanksgiving with our dinner party of Pilgrims (those of European-descent) and Indians (dots not feathers). Well, that's just racist. I'd like you to know that the Indians were the ones bringing me alcohol, not the other way around.

This dinner had a lot of elements of the traditional Thanksgiving dinners I have with my family. There were copious bottles of wine, painful childhood memories were discussed (like the time my sister tricked me into eating a dog biscuit), and the topic of conversation eventually came around to 'why isn't Jen dating anyone and what can we do to change this?' Many of Amish's comments on this subject have led me to rethink his longstanding invitation to Crockpot Mondays. :)

But, the best resemblance this meal had to those of years past was, of course, the food. I made two crockpot dishes: Classic Bread Stuffing and Five-Spice-Glazed Sweet Potatoes. Both of these recipes came from The Best Cookbook Ever. To accompany these dishes I bought pre-marinated turkey tenderloins from Kroger and grilled them. I also made steamed green beans and carrots.

 I have to say the meal was pretty good for a quick-and-easy Thanksgiving. This stuffing was excellent. It is what it claims to be - Classic Bread Stuffing. I would definitely make it again. The sweet potatoes were tasty as well. It depends on your taste, but I like that these sweet potatoes are not as sweet as your usual sweet potato casseroles.

We followed the meal with sugar cookies and ice cream that Dolly made/brought. 

I think this pre-Thanksgiving meal was a success. It reminded me how thankful I am to have good food on my table and wonderful friends to share it with.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The recipes go a little something like this....

Classic Bread Stuffing
Coat the slow cooker insert with nonstick cooking spray.
Place 8 cups stale white bread cubes (I used a combination of bread cubes and stuffing mix croutons) in a large bowl and set aside.
Melt 1 stick butter in a large skillet over med-high heat.
Add the following to the skillet:
   2 medium onions, finely chopped
   4 stalks celery, finely chopped (I used 6 stalks)
   2 tsp finely chopped fresh sage
   2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
   2 tsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
(I chopped all these ingredients the night before and placed them in a ziplock freezer bag, so it was ready to go on Monday)
Saute until the onions and celery begin to soften.
Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the bread and stir to combine.
Whisk together 2-3 cups chicken broth (I used 2 cups which is one small can), 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper and 3 large eggs which have been beaten. Pour this over the bread mixture and stir until well combined.
Add the stuffing to the slow cooker insert and cover.
Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to low. Cook for 4 to 5 hours on low.


Five-Spice-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
Coat the insert of a slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
Arrange 4-5 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges, in the slow cooker insert.
Combine the following ingredients (I modified the measurements for the sauce) in a bowl and mix...
   4 TB butter, melted and cooled slightly (I used 6 TB)
   2 TB vegetable oil (I used 4 TB)
   2 TB soy sauce (I used 4 TB)
   2 TB rice wine or dry sherry (I used 2 TB of rice vinegar because that's what I had on hand)
   2 TB light brown sugar (I used 4 TB)
   1 tsp Five-Spice Powder (I used 2 tsp - This can be found in your grocery store as Chinese Five Spice powder)

Pour this over the sweet potatoes. Cover and cook on low for 5.5 - 6 hours. After 4 hours I checked on the sweet potatoes and had to stir it well because the potatoes on the bottom were  becoming soft but the ones on top were still uncooked. Then I turned the crockpot to high for the remaining 2 hours.