Thanksgiving is a time for festive decorations, spending time with family and eating incredibly good food. There is always anticipation around the classic dishes of stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and turkey. In my family, we have a double meal where we go to my mom’s family for lunch and my dad’s family for dinner. There is so much joy and good spirits radiating throughout both homes and the food that is displayed is unmatched. However, considering Americans do Thanksgiving differently, there are many different versions of the “classic” meal: here are a few of my family’s favorites. 

Ima’s Parve Pumpkin Pie: 

With a creamy filling and graham cracker crust, it is hard to go wrong with the classic pumpkin pie. Since Thanksgiving is a holiday when my family consumes a lot of meat, we make a dairy-free pumpkin pie to adhere to Kashrut and enjoy a sweet dessert to top off our meal. My mom always loves to bake these, it is one of her best desserts and she always spices it up slightly differently every time. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 large eggs

1 can (15 ounces) LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin

1.5 cups of almond milk

1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell (graham cracker preferred)

Directions: 

1. Mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, salt, ground ginger, eggs, LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin and almond milk in a large bowl until it is fully mixed
2. Pour mixture into pie shell
3. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes
4. Cool and enjoy!

Pama’s Classic Brisket:

While a bit untraditional, my mother’s family loves to blend our Jewish roots with our American ones. My maternal grandmother (named Pama in my family) has a famous brisket, as it offers an alternative to turkey and lamb. It even has the famous name of “Pama Steak” as coined in our family. As my maternal grandmother is not one for recipes, one of her few recipes is this brisket and it turns out beautifully every time. 

Ingredients: 

8 lbs. of the finest cut of brisket

2 teaspoons of salt

3/4 teaspoons of pepper

12 teaspoons of minced garlic

3 sliced onion

5 cups of water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees
2. Line the bottom of a large baking pan with half of the sliced onions
3. Add the brisket to the pan and rub the minced garlic into it
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
5. Cover the top of the brisket with onions
6. Place in the oven for 15 minutes at 475 degrees uncovered to sear the meat
7. Add the water and cover the pan tightly
8. Place in the oven at 325 degrees for 4 hours
9. Cool the brisket before cutting so that it doesn’t fall apart

Nonna’s Rolled Stuffed Turkey Breast with Marsala-Shitake Gravy: 

The famous Thanksgiving dish must be done right, so my paternal grandmother (Nonna in our family) always makes the perfect turkey with ideal juiciness. To add her own touch, she mixes up the standard gravy recipe with a wonderful touch of shitake mushrooms to bring an extra ingredient that leads to a flavorful dish. In addition to the delicious food, Nonna takes great pride in decorating and displaying the Thanksgiving spread, so I recommend doing the same when making this recipe. 

Ingredients:

1/2 boneless turkey breast (2 1/2 to 3 lbs)

FOR STUFFING:

2 t olive or vegetable oil

1 cup onion, finely chopped

1 T garlic, minced

1/2 t minced orange peel

10 oz stemmed spinach leaves, rinsed, drained, cut into pieces

salt and freshly ground pepper 

freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

FOR GRAVY:

1 T olive or vegetable oil

6 oz fresh shitake mushrooms, stemmed, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices

1 T fresh parsley, minced

1/2 t fresh sage, minced or 1/4 t dried, crumbled

1 small garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup dry Madeira

Directions:

1. Cut skin from turkey; rinse meat and pat dry.
2. With long sharp knife, butterfly breast from thinner outer side cutting toward thicker side, leaving thick side intact.  Open breast (as for book) and cover with sheet of plastic wrap. Pounding with mallet or rolling pin, flatten turkey to rectangle about 13 inches long and 10 inches wide, concentrating on thick center portion.  Remove plastic. Trim edges to form 11×8-inch rectangle; discard trimmings (or reserve for another use). Transfer turkey to large sheet of heavy-duty foil.

FOR STUFFING:

1. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over low heat.
2. Add onions and saute until transparent, about 8 minutes; do not brown. Stir in garlic and orange peel and saute 1 minute. Add spinach. Cover and cook until spinach is tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Uncover, increase heat to medium-high and cook until all liquid evaporates, pressing with back of spatula to extract as much liquid from spinach as possible, about 2 minutes.
4. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir in pine nuts. Cool stuffing slightly.(Can be prepared 1 day ahead.  Cool stuffing completely. Cover and refrigerate. Cover turkey separately and refrigerate.)
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spread stuffing over turkey, leaving 1/2 inch border. Starting at one short side, roll up turkey jelly roll style, enclosing stuffing completely.
6. Wrap turkey lightly in foil, folding foil along top and at ends. Transfer to roasting pan. Roast until thermometer inserted into turkey through foil registers 165 degrees F,Photo by Faith Wolf, my paternal grandmother. This is one of her dessert spreads for Thanksgiving about 1 hour.  Remove turkey from oven; let stand in foil for 15 minutes.
7. Carefully unwrap turkey and pour juices from foil and any juices in pan into bowl.  Rewrap turkey in foil.

FOR GRAVY:

1. Heat oil in heavy medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add shitake and saute until lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
2. Add parsley, sage (if using dried sage, mince with parsley for better flavor) and garlic and saute 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to plate.
3. Add Marsala to same medium skillet. Bring to boil over medium heat, scraping up browned bits.
4. Boil until reduced by half, about 30 seconds. Stir in reserved turkey juices and boil until very slightly reduced.  Stir in shitake mixture and bring to boil. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to gravy boat.
5. Carefully carve turkey into 3/8 inch thick slices. Overlap slices on warm platter. Serve, passing gravy.