Thanksgiving The CSA Way!

We had many Thanksgiving invites this year and they sounded stress free and DELISH! But after weeks of running around and fighting sickness as well, we were just all too happy to stay home and do NOTHING! So that was the plan...that is, until our CSA basket came this week. Yams, green beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, lettuce, garlic... it was sounding so much like a Thanksgiving feast to me... just add turkey!
Well, "sounding like a feast" was really about all it was doing at first. I thought about it though...Did I really want to cook all that by myself for our little family of 3 and do so essentially from scratch? I mean I've only ever made a Thanksgiving dinner one time, four years ago and that was a HUGE feat for me. When I did it then I used all canned and frozen foods too. NOTHING was fresh. But I've come a long way in four years...from Cup O Noodle and PB&J's to homemade doughs and scratch meals regularly. I could do it! Besides... I would be cooking all that produce anyway...

SO I DID IT! Actually, we did it. My husband, who is brilliant at cooking cold cereal and microwave meals chopped, steamed, baked, basted, washed, boiled and helped cook a fabulous, nearly scratch Thanksgiving Day Meal like the best of 'em!
Here's what our CSA T-Day Meal looked like:

CANDIED SWEET POTATOES
Betty Crocker

6	medium sweet potatoes or yams (2 pounds)
1/3	cup packed brown sugar
3	tablespoons butter or margarine
3	tablespoons water
1/2	teaspoon salt

1.	Scrub sweet potatoes, but do not peel. Place potatoes in 3-quart saucepan. Add enough water just to cover. Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 20 to 25 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool slightly. Slip off skins. Cut into 1/2-inch slices.
2.	Heat remaining ingredients in 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly. Add potatoes. Gently stir until glazed and hot.

FRENCH'S GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

Ingredients: 1 (10 3/4 oz.) can CAMPBELL'S® Cream of Mushroom Soup 3/4 cup milk 1/8 tsp. black pepper 2 (9 oz. each) pkgs. frozen cut green beans, thawed* - we cut up and steamed out CSA green beans SO YUMMY AND FRESH! 1 1/3 cups FRENCH'S® Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions - *we used one of our onions and lightly sauteed them then baked the dish with them on it

Directions:

1.MIX soup, milk and pepper in a 1 1/2 -qt. baking dish. Stir in beans and 2/3 cup French Fried Onions. 2.BAKE at 350°F for 30 min. or until hot. 3.STIR. Top with remaining 2/3 cup onions. Bake 5 min. until onions are golden.

Tips 1.Tip: You may substitute 2 cans (14 1/2 oz. each) cut green beans, drained or 4 cups fresh, cooked cut green beans. 2.Look for FRENCH'S® French Fried Onions in the canned vegetable aisle!

TURKEY
We used a bone in turkey breast, salted it liberally, used half of a bulb of garlic and tucked the peeled cloved into parts of the turkey and throughout dish, then covered with honey.
we added 1 1/2 onions quarterd and spread through dish with 4 stalks of celery and 3 carrots
The result was a very moist lightly sweetened turkey and gravy! YUMMY!

STUFFING
OK, I cheated...I used Stove Top BUT I did add 2 celery stalks and a carrot and half of an onion then topped with fresh parsley.

We stopped at that but we will also be making GARLIC MASHED POTATOES & SALADS when our other leftovers run out!

It was a very successful Thanksgiving for us! My, how I've grown in 4 years! And to think...we would have missed out on this if we hadn't been a part of a CSA. I am THANKFUL for our CSA!