By: Meagan So, Staff Writer

With the smell of roasting turkey, seasoned stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy wafting in the air as Thanksgiving slowly approaches, families and friends gather to celebrate the festive holiday and spend time together. Each group’s traditions and routines are all different in their own unique way, especially when it comes to their recipes. Here are some ideas in case you’re looking for new food recipes for Thanksgiving this year.

Ms. Hulse, the food and nutrition teacher, shared some of her favorite dishes she and her family make and eat celebrating their Thanksgiving in Seattle. These include a delicious cranberry and orange sauce along with stuffing with sage, croutons, celery, and dried fruit. A recipe she recommends for students to try are pumpkin bread bites, which are bread pieces with a pumpkin flavor twist to it. The recipe calls for:

– 4 tbsp butter

– ¾ C brown sugar

– 1 ¼ C flour

– ½ tsp baking soda

– ½ tsp baking powder

– ½ tsp cinnamon

– ¼ tsp nutmeg

– ¼ tsp salt

– ½ C pumpkin puree

– ½ egg

– ½ tsp vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients:

– ¼ C powdered sugar

– 1 tsp milk

– ½ tsp pumpkin puree 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F.

2. Place butter in a small saucepan on medium heat and stir constantly until it becomes a dark brown color and smells nutty. Transfer into a metal mixing bowl and swirl to cool. 

3. Add brown sugar to butter and whisk until combined.

4. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract to butter mixture and whisk until smooth.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

6. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl.

7. Gradually fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 

8. Line the baking tray with parchment and use a small cookie scoop to scoop dough onto the tray. 

9. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the edges are firm. 

10. Whisk together the glaze ingredients. Fill a spoon with glaze and drizzle over the cooled bites. Dust the glazed bites with cinnamon. ENJOY!

She explained, “making bread is a lot easier than people think it is. So I think that if kids, or high schoolers, could take an easy bread recipe [like these pumpkin bites and] it would impress [their families while still being] really easy.”

Kara Cheung (9), explained what her family’s Thanksgiving dinners are like. She shared, “On Thanksgiving, we do eat a kind of normal, traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but my mom will also make seasoned brussel sprouts and this really good butternut squash soup.” The recipe for this simple butternut squash soup is:

– 1 chopped butternut squash

– 1 diced onion

– 2 cans of chicken stock

First, sauté the onion, then in a pot add the butternut squash pieces, onion, and chicken stock and boil for around 30 minutes or until everything softens. Then, blend it with an electric or hand blender. Enjoy with sour cream and saltine crackers!

Taking a break from savory foods and shifting over to the sweet side, when asked about a simple, easy Thanksgiving recipe she’d recommend to fellow students, Kyra Mishra (9) suggested cinnamon apples. The recipe needs:

– 3 apples (about three cups) chopped

– 2 Tbsp water

– 1 Tbsp salted butter or coconut oil

– 1 Tbsp maple syrup

– ½ tsp ground cinnamon

– ⅛ tsp fine sea salt

– ¼ tsp pure vanilla extract

Start by putting the chopped apple pieces into a non-stick frying pan with the water. Cover them and cook until slightly soft. Next add the maple syrup, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon and stir until all the pieces are coated. Cover and cook again, stir once in a while. Once the apples are soft, take off the lid and cook until the apples are caramelized and slightly brown. ENJOY!

Finally, a sweet recipe I personally would recommend is one I have used multiple times as an easy, delicious treat for family and friends to enjoy. They are vanilla sugar/ shortbread cookies, which are perfect for any holiday and maintain their shapes in the oven and you can cut them into anything you’d like, such as turkeys, pilgrims, and more. The recipe calls for:

1 cup margarine/ butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

First, cream together the margarine/ butter, sugar and eggs. Stir in vanilla, flour, baking soda and salt, then roll out (not too thin) and cut into any shape. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 8 minutes.

Tip:

The dough comes out slightly sticky, so you can add a small pinch of flour on your surface, hands and dough, but you will be tempted to add more, DON’T. This reduces the flavor and changes the cookie texture. ENJOY!

Finally, make sure to try out some of these delicious recipes and hopefully everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving this holiday season!