30 Thanksgiving Sides and Appetizers!

Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal of the entire year. I am not exaggerating. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my wedding because I love turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes so much. But even I can admit, that sometimes you need to change things up. Maybe try a new stuffing or a different dinner roll. Or add something newin to the old lineup.

Appetizers:
1. Cream Cheese Ragoons


2. Jalapeno Popper Wontons


3. Spinach Balls with Spicy Tomato Dipping Sauce (one of our all time favs)


4. Snowflake Tortilla Chips (really fun for kids)


5. Parsnip Chips (if you're looking for something healthy)


6. Cheese Puffs for Cheese Lovers


7. Cheesy Twists


8. Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip


9. Sugared Nuts


10. Chocolate Covered Cranberries (I wish I could eat these all year long)


11. Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip (This has become my go-to for holiday potlucks. It's always a hit!)


12. Apple Pie Salsa



Breads:
13. Pull Apart Spinach and Cheese Bread


14. Soft and Chewy French Bread


15. Sour Cream Dinner Rolls


16. Homemade Breadsticks


17. French Fried Onion Rolls (my husband and FIL's fav)



Side Dishes:
18. Butternut Squash Soup


19. Pumpkin Soup with Sage Croutons and Bacon


20. Roasted Potatoes, Sausage, and Peppers


21. Savory Baked Apples stuffed with Sausage and Sage


22. Alfredo Green Bean Casserole


23. Bacon Barbecue Green Bean Casserole


24. Simply the Best Mac and Cheese (from scratch)


25. How to Make Boxed Mac and Cheese Taste Homemade (if you're looking for something really simple and yummy)


26. Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes


27. Ranch, Cheddar, and Bacon Potatoes


28. Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes


29. Cranberry Sauce Three Ways


30. Sourdough Cornbread Stuffing with Bacon


Enjoy!

Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

Oh brown butter, you are one of the best culinary discoveries I stumbled upon on Pinterest. It's an easy way to change up a recipe and add complexity of flavor. So when I served mashed potatoes at Christmas dinner, I decided to change them up a bit by making brown butter to pour over them. So, so good. Between these brown butter mashed potatoes and my spiced rum cookies, I've got my mom hooked on brown butter.

Ingredients:
Unsalted Butter (2 sticks makes 1 cup)
Mashed potatoes (homemade, frozen, or boxed--garlic, cheesy, how ever you like your potatoes)

Directions:
Over medium heat, melt butter in a medium sauce pan. Continue to cook it until it turns a dark golden brown and gives off a nutty aroma, stirring occasionally.

Pour brown butter over mashed potatoes.

Any extra brown butter can be put in an airtight container and stored in the fridge or freezer (I have some in my freezer right now!)

That's 2 sticks of butter.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Check Out More Brown Butter Recipes:
Spiced Rum Brown Butter Cookies
Brown Sugar Cookies
Pasta with Summer Squash, Tomatoes, and Brown Butter Sauc

Spiced Rum Brown Butter Cookies

These cookies absolutely wowed me. I mean . . . they are out of this world good. Eric tried one and said, "There goes all that weight I lost." I think he was home from work for less than five minutes and had already devoured four or five of them. And he doesn't even care for spiced rum. But the spiced rum is the key to these amazing cookies. Their spice profile is like nothing I've had before. It's not the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice that I'm familiar with yet my first bite made me think of Christmas. There is a warmth to the flavor of these cookies which makes them perfect for a cold snowy day. And the brown butter adds a nuttiness and complexity. Don't even get me started on how amazing the cookies smelled while cooking in the oven.

Recipe is from here.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons spiced rum*
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups flour
pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 1/2 cup white sugar in a shallow dish and set aside.

Over medium heat, melt butter in a medium sauce pan. Continue to cook it until it turns a dark golden brown and gives off a nutty aroma, stirring occasionally.  Allow to cool for appromixately 20 minutes.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. In a second bowl (of the bowl of a standing mixer) mix together the cooled butter, egg, vanilla, spiced rum, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup white sugar. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients until well combined and a dough forms.

Roll about 1 tablepoon of dough into ball then coat in white sugar. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until the bottoms turn a light golden brown.

*So I sort of made a rookie mistake while making these cookies. You're never supposed to pour your ingredients into your measuring cups over your mixing bowl. If you spill, you get the excess ingredient into what you're making. Same reason you should never crack an egg directly into your mixing bowl; you might get a shell in there. Well, my mixing bowl got a rather large extra splash of spiced rum. It made my dough a bit more wet than it should have been, but the cookies still turned out delicous. And I might just give them an extra splash again to give them that extra dose of flavor. But I know I will be making these cookies again. If Eric had his way, probably tomorrow.

UPDATE 1/11/14: So it seems that my mistake in adding more rum was actually the key to making these cookies so amazing. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of rum instead of 2 tablespoons.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cookie Recipes:
Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frosting
Brown Sugar Cookies
Baileys White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Creamsicle Chocolate Chip Cookies (Cream Cheese Cake Mix Recipe)
GrasshopperCookies
Chocolate Covered Cherry
Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Mug!
Cinnamon Meringue Cookies
Easy Rum Balls
Edye's Molassess Krinkles
Healthified Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies 
Kiss Cookies
No-Bake Marshmallow Cornflake Wreaths
No-Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries
Skinny Chocolate Chip Cookies
Smores Cookies!
Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Tea Cookies
Yummy Butterscotch Cookies

Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Your basic Rice Krispies Ingredients

Is there anyone out there that doesn't like rice krispie treats? If there is, I haven't met them. Eric is a huge fan (and that's why he got a rice krispie cake for his last birthday). He had a bad day at work so instead of mopping the floors like I planned (seriously would you rather mop floors or bake?), I made rice krispie treats to surprise him with when he got home. But me being me, I couldn't make ordinary treats or even just one kind. So I made these brown butter rice krispie treats and pumpkin pie rice krispie treats (okay, the pumpkin ones are more for me than him since Eric is all pumpkined out).

The brown butter seems to be all the rage on Pinterest right now. I keep seeing brown butter this, brown butter that. I've even made a couple of brown butter dishes--brown sugar cookies and pasta and veggies in a brown butter sauce. Both were amazing. Brown butter adds a nice nutty flavor to any dish.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
7 cups Rice Krispies cereal
1 stick butter
5 cups mini marshmallows

Directions:
Grease a 9x13-inch pan with butter of cooking spray.

First make the brown butter. Place the butter in a stock pot or large pan and melt it over medium heat. Continue to cook it, occasionally stirring it until the butter boils and turns a golden brown and gives off a nutty aroma--approximately 10 minutes. Careful not to burn the butter.

Add the marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are melted then remove from heat. Pour in cereal and mix until the rice krispies are well coated. Transfer to your greased dish. With greased hands or spatula, press the treats into the pan.

Allow to cool completely then cut into bars.

Because I was making two types of rice krispies, I halved each recipe. 

Enjoy!

~Krissy