Today, as I do every Thursday morning, the chat with Matt Swaim, Sonrise Morning Show/Sacred Heart Radio, centered around food and its Biblical roots. We talked about Thanksgiving and our favorite foods. Matt shared his roasted Brussels sprouts recipe (check out the Sacred Heart site for that) and Annie is sharing her family’s stuffing (that’s below).

For Thanksgiving, now even though fowl/chickens were part of the ancient diet (along with eggs), there would have been no sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, or mashed potatoes swimming in gravy.

Today we shared listener favorites, along with our own family’s. Here they are for you (some are repeats so bear with me), and our wish is that you and yours are abundantly blessed with an abundant table and loved ones in the chairs.

One more thing, no worries that everything is perfect. It never is. Put those worries in God’s hands – be more of a Mary than a Martha – and parsley and whipping cream making super culinary bandaids!

Here you go and in no particular order:

With all the recipes I could share for Thanksgiving, I didn’t think pumpkin pie would be top of mind with some of you, but I’ve been getting a fair amount of queries so let’s get the pumpkin pie situation under control. 

Some questions were about dairy – evaporated or condensed milk? And there were spice questions – can apple pie spice be used? 

First, pumpkin pie can be made using evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk. Evaporated milk is canned milk with water removed. That makes a lighter, mousse-like filling.

Condensed milk is evaporated milk sweetened with sugar. That makes it thicker and higher in fat, which creates a creamy, more dense filling. It bakes up faster. 

As far as spices, both apple and pumpkin pie spices may include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. The difference is pumpkin also contains cloves. So you could use apple pie spice and add a dash of cloves.

Use unsweetened, pure pumpkin puree, NOT pumpkin pie filling for these recipes.  

There’s a range in the spices amount for both pies, so before you add eggs, taste and adjust spices if necessary.

You’ll start baking pumpkin pie at a higher temperature to let the bottom crust set, then the temperature gets lowered to finish baking the filling.

Now, just for you, I made both versions. Some folks loved the pie with evaporated milk. My husband, Frank, gave 2 thumbs up for the condensed milk version. Choices…

Pumpkin pie with evaporated milk

Ingredients

1 pie shell, 9”

15 oz can pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling

12 oz can evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar OR 3/4 cup granulated sugar

1-3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice OR 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon powdered cloves)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425. 

Whisk puree, milk and vanilla together until smooth.

Whisk in sugars, spice, salt and vanilla until smooth. 

Whisk in eggs until smooth.
Pour into pie shell and bake 15 minutes. 

Reduce to 350 and bake until knife inserted near center comes clean but center is a bit jiggly, 40-50 minutes. This helps prevent cracking as the pie cools.  Pie will continue to firm as it sets.

Place on rack and cool completely at room temperature, then refrigerate, covered loosely, for up to 3 days.

Serve with whipped cream, maybe sprinkled with a tiny bit of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.

Frank’s favorite pumpkin pie (with condensed milk)

Ingredients

15 oz can pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling

14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice OR 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon powdered cloves)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Instructions

Whisk puree, milk and vanilla together until smooth.

Whisk in spices and salt and blend until smooth. 

Whisk in eggs until smooth. 

Pour into pie shell and bake as directed with evaporated milk, but after you lower temperature to 350, check after 30 minutes.

Sweet Potato Coins

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-1/2” rounds

1/4 cup olive oil or more if needed

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

2 generous teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon salt
Extra sprigs of thyme

Preheat oven to 400. Toss potatoes with oil, thyme, garlic, pepper and salt. Place standing each coin up on sprayed cookie sheet. Add extra thyme sprigs around potatoes. Roast 40-45 minutes. Serves 4. 

Here’s one from listener Karen Lance. Her story makes me smile.

“I know you always like a good recipe.  You mentioned you hate Sweet Potato casserole, and I laughed.  I love marshmallows but hate that casserole too!

Years ago, my now 91 year old Aunt and God mother made this recipe.  Oh my gosh…so good!  I now make two every year:  one for my family and one for a dear friend who is the pickiest eater I know and this is her favorite thing in the world.

I’m sure the high amount of sugar and butter lend to being a family favorite.  I make it the day before and bake the day of.  Hope you enjoy!!”

God Bless,

Karen Lance

Consecrated Laity SSCM 🩵

ANNIE’S FAMILY STUFFING

FYI: SAGE

Sage is not mentioned by name in the Bible, but scholars believe there is no doubt that this is the herb referred to in Exodus 37:17-18 about the making of the candlestick of pure gold, 6 branches going out of the sides: 3 on one side and 3 on the other with a central shaft.

Look at the menorah – there is a type of sage called Jerusalem sage – and that sage plant if pressed flat, has been likened to the 7-branched candlestick/the menorah. This type of sage grows about 3 feet and can still be found today in most of Israel. I have a nice specimen of it in the Bible portion of my herb garden.

Here’s Annie’s tips:

1. We probably make 10x the recipe for our family – it’s a favorite.  I think that my mom, in the past, has cooked some in the turkey, but that would never be enough for us, haha.  The vast majority we just throw into the crockpot to allow for more oven space.  

2. We use the cheapest of cheap bread that you can buy at the grocery store – like the loaves that you buy for less than a dollar…a combination of white and wheat bread.  I have many memories of laying out dozens of slices of bread on tables a couple of days before Thanksgiving so that they go stale.  Then on Thanksgiving morning we break them into pieces – obviously they are not perfect cubes.

3. I couldn’t say exactly, but I think we probably quadruple the amount of celery that this recipe calls for (and we don’t cook it in butter)… and we use homemade chicken broth that we’ve saved/frozen from stewing chicken – much better than canned chicken broth.

4. It’s a lot easier to get in there with your hands to keep tossing and tossing until everything is moist.

Rita’s Clone of Cheesecake Factory’s Cheesecake

This cake is so rich that I use a 9” pan. If you use an 8” pan, plan on baking a bit longer. An 8” pan makes thicker slices, and they look almost as high as Cheesecake Factory’s.  The taste is so similar you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference!

Crust:
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 tablespoon or so of sugar

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

5 tablespoons melted butter

Mix until crumbly, not pasty.  Pat into 9” springform pan going up the sides a bit.  Set aside while making filling:

Filling:

1 pound cream cheese, room temperature 

1 cup sour cream

1-1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons brown sugar

15 oz canned pumpkin

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

4 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until smooth.  Add pumpkin and spices and blend. Add eggs and blend until mixed.  Pour into pan.  Bake 40-45 minutes until center is almost set but still wobbly.  Turn oven off but leave cheesecake in with oven door shut for 30 minutes more.  This will finish the baking process and prevent a lot of “cracking” on top.  Refrigerate several hours or up to 2 days to complete firming up of cheesecake.  Garnish with whipped cream and nuts if you like.  Serves 10-12.

Fresh Cranberry Sauce with Cinnamon (a bible spice!) – I just add a cinnamon stick to the generic recipe when cooking on the stove

Do-ahead mashed potatoes

I get more requests for this than any other recipe. You can do this a couple of days ahead. 

Ingredients

4-5 pounds potatoes, peeled if you want and chunked up

8-12 ozs cream cheese, softened, regular or light

1 cup sour cream, regular or light

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 stick melted butter or margarine

Instructions

Boil potatoes until tender, drain and mash. Add everything but butter and mix well. Pour into sprayed casserole or baking dish. Let cool and store in refrigerator, covered. Before baking, bring to room temperature if you can to speed up rewarming. Pour melted butter over. Cover lightly and bake in preheated 350 or 375 degree oven for 40-60 minutes or until hot.  Or microwave, lightly tented, on medium heat until hot.

Even easier: make your mashed potatoes in the usual way. Keep warm in sprayed crockpot on low for several hours.  They may need a bit more milk.