FROM THE KITCHEN: Enjoy a turkeyless Thanksgiving
I love the holidays, and Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite. There’s not really any holiday better, because Thanksgiving is focused on giving thanks and eating to show appreciation for all we have. I know there are lots of people out there who don’t get to eat like I do on Thanksgiving, so when I make food for the holidays, I try to share it with everyone within grabbing, texting or driving distance that I possibly can. With that said, I’m grateful I have the money to make not just my basic food necessities, but some extra treats as well.
Mundle bread is one such treat. Mundle bread is a sweet bread, and it has no yeast and it doesn’t have to rise. It’s superbly easy to make, it doesn’t take more than ten minutes to whip together and it cooks for a half hour. It is delicious and a little decadent. I usually eat this bread either for breakfast or with a nice hot chocolate or tea.
My mom passed this recipe to me from her best friend’s mom, so it’s been around for a long time and is tried and true. It’s one of the few recipes I have written on an actual recipe card in a recipe box.
MUNDLE BREAD:
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup total of nuts, chocolate chips and maraschino cherries
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 cups flour
2 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice
I went to the store to buy the nuts, chocolate chips and cherries because I just don’t keep those things on hand. At Smith’s I bought the chocolate chips on sale for $2, the nuts for $3.50, and the cherries for $2. If you hate nuts of any kind, cut them out. They’re optional, because I know nuts are not everyone’s favorite.
I used a special kind of sugar called Sugar in the Raw. It’s natural cane sugar and is brown with more of a maple syrup flavor, but normal sugar is good too.
I usually mix the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together in a large bowl first to get rid of any chunks. In a smaller bowl, mix the butter, eggs, cherry juice and vanilla together then pour them into the dry ingredients. Mix up the two, but not all the way.
This is where you want to dump in your cup of specialties: cherries, chips and nuts. When they’re in, you can stir it all together to mix it all in evenly. If the dough is still flaky and doesn’t stick together when you press on it with a fork, you should add some maraschino cherry juice by teaspoon increments. Once the dough looks like it could be patted into a loaf, reach your hands in and grab some. Make sure your hands are clean, because no one wants dirty hands on their food.
Shape the loaves into 2 ovals and place them on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Let the bread cool for at least ten minutes before eating, or for 30 minutes if you’re going to put the loa
ves in bags or something for other people. I cut the loaf into strips, like biscotti, and eat it that way.
Mundle bread is delicious, but it of course is by no means healthy. It’s not supposed to be. However, there are ways you can be healthy during the holidays and still eat delicious food.
As a mostly-vegetarian in the world, Thanksgiving can be difficult to find a delicious substitute for turkey. I mean, turkey day without turkey is weird. But that seems to fit my personality pretty well, and over the years I’ve found some really delicious ways to tie in Thanksgiving classics in a new way since I have a less-than-traditional dinner.
One of these is corn pudding. It sounds gross, but it’s not sweet pudding. It’s savory and it’s always gone at the end of a Thanksgiving feast. The recipe is from a fancy restaurant in Ithaca, N.Y. called Moosewood.
CORN PUDDING:
2 cans cream-style corn
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 cup saltine crumbs
black pepper to taste
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Take about half a sleeve of saltine crackers, put them in a bowl and crush them up – but not to the point of powder. You want them still a bit chunky, like they would be if you just broke them to put in your chicken noodle soup.
Combine all ingredients in a greased 9-inch by 9-inch pan or whatever oven-safe casserole container you have and bake for an hour.
Thanksgiving dinner isn’t quite the same without cranberry sauce, right? Well, I have a delicious dessert-like version I always make. It is the single thing I can’t go without at Thanksgiving dinner. I just can’t.
CRANBERRY SAUCE DESSERT:
4 ounces plain cream cheese, softened.
2 tablespoons mayo
1 can whole cranberry sauce (whole cranberries)
1 small can pineapple tidbits, drained.
handful of walnuts (optional, but recommended)
cool whip, thawed
The can of cranberry sauce has to be the whole-cranberries can. Don’t get the jelly. Don’t get the crushed cranberries. Get whole cranberries. The pineapple tidbits are in a can about an inch tall. You can get the circles if you need to, but the tidbits just cut out a lot of work.
Mix all the ingredients and then pour into a freezer-safe container. My family has a specific mold we use for this, a mold we use twice a year – Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last year I wasn’t at home, so I used a bundt cake pan. For those of you who are really confused right now, it’s the cake pan with a hole in the middle. You can also use a plain circle pan, or anything with a design.
Cover it with aluminum foil and freeze it overnight. This needs a good 14 hours to set, so it’s easiest just to make it the evening before your big meal and then it’s one less thing you have to worry about. Make sure the foil isn’t touching the cranberry stuff, because it will freeze and you’ll eat it, and I’m sure it can’t taste very good.
There you go: all the things you need to make a delicious and slightly unorthodox Thanksgiving. As always, if you love my recipes – or hate them – let me know.
– april.ashland@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @AprilAsh2012