Regardless, I've compiled a few of my favorite recipes and some recipes I'm dying to try over the holidays for your culinary pleasure. If you like to cook, bring these to the kitchen with you. If you don't like to cook, if you're lazy, and/or if your parents think you'll burn down their kitchen (you know who you are), hand these over to your parents or siblings to make for you. They're guaranteed to bring smiles to everyone's faces and pounds to everyone's little belly pouch. Hey, that's what the holidays are for. Oh yeah, and spending time with family, too. Right.
Pumpkin Bread
1 15-ounce can pumpkin purée
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well-blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Mashed Winter Squash with Indian Spices
8 pounds butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for drizzling
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons black mustard seeds
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
¼ cup water
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. On 2 large, rimmed baking sheets, drizzle the cut sides of the squash with oil and season with salt and pepper. Turn the squash halves cut sides down and roast for about 45 minutes, or until tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the mustard seeds and cook over moderately high heat, shaking the pot, until they pop, about 1 minute. Transfer the seeds to small bowl. Add the remaining 1/3 cup of oil to the pot. Add the garlic and onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the coriander, turmeric and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
Using a large spoon, scrape the squash flesh from the skins into the pot. Add the water and cook over moderately high heat, stirring and lightly mashing the squash until blended and heated through. Season the squash with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl, top with the toasted mustard seeds and serve.
Creamy Hot Chocolate
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 ½ cups hot water
Mini marshmallows (optional)
1. In a large saucepan, combine sweetened condensed milk, cocoa, vanilla and salt. Mix well.
2. Over medium heat, slowly stir in water. Heat through, stirring occasionally. Do not boil. Top with marshmallows, if desired.
Cranberry-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
4 pounds slender sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced crosswise, ¼ inch thick
1 cup water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons bourbon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
¾ cup cranberries
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large shallow baking dish. Arrange the sweet potatoes in concentric circles in the baking dish, overlapping the slices slightly. Pour ½ cup of the water over the sweet potatoes. Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes, or until just tender. Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix the melted butter with the bourbon. Spoon the mixture over the sweet potatoes. Season with salt and black pepper and bake in the upper third of the oven for about 25 minutes, basting halfway through cooking, until the bourbon mixture is almost completely absorbed.
3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine the cranberries, the remaining ½ cup of water and the brown sugar and boil over moderately high heat until the cranberries start to burst, this should take about 10 minutes. Drain the cranberries, reserving the liquid separately.
4. Stir the cayenne and cinnamon into the cranberry liquid and spoon it over the sweet potatoes. Bake in the upper third of the oven, basting well after 5 minutes, for 20 minutes or longer, until the potatoes are nicely glazed and most of the liquid has been absorbed. During the last 5 minutes of baking, scatter the cranberries on top.