Topic Talk—Thanksgiving Comfort Food!

Today's GNO Gals bring us more delightfully delicious dishes with a touch of comfort—as in comfort food. Welcome:

• Alice at Plain Cook.
• Beth at Coming Up for Air.
  
• Chef at I'll Make a Foodie Out of You.
• Kelli at Gohn Crazy.
• Nicole at Pinch My Salt.
  

Creamy Mashed Potatoes picture courtesy of Nicole at Pinch My Salt.

Alice inspires us to go crazy with cranberries this season with her many recipes featured on plaincook.com. Here are a few:

Cranberry Jello
Cranberry Pineapple Jello
Cranberry Jello Salad With Port Wine
Fresh Cranberry and Cream Salad
Cranberry Pecan Salad With Feta Cheese

Coming Up for Air reminds us what Thanksgiving is about and that it is bigger than our corner of the world. She inspires us to think globally:

... we have taken a break from our normal history routine to learn about Thanksgiving across the centuries, across the world, across religion and across tradition. Thanksgiving is not just something we Americans celebrate because of the pilgrims. Thanksgiving has been celebrated for centuries by many different countries and cultures as a way to express thankfulness for the harvest, for protection and for the blessings of nature. So far, we've learned about the Chinese celebration Chung Ch'ui - which starts with the celebration of the moon's birthday on the 15th of August. We've learned how the Greeks and Romans celebrated the harvest and the stories of their gods and goddesses. And we've learned about the Jewish holiday Succot and what a beautiful expression of thanks this festival is. Tomorrow we learn how ancient Egyptians celebrated harvest.

I'll Make a Foodie Out of You shares family holiday tips from her pastry-chef perspective. My favorite? Her delicious recipe for marinated asparagus wrapped in phyllo dough. I am drooling just thinking about the yumminess! I may not be able to wait until the holidays to try out this tantalizing treat.

She also provides some basic, but expert advice like the following:

Sugar Cookies boring you? Then make a huge batch and seperate them into smaller ones. Add different extracts, or maybe even some citrus peel and your completely changed it into something edgy. I like to take my sugar cookie dough left overs and add lemon zest with a little orange blossom water. Think high end tea party, they are ungodly delicious.

Gohn Crazy shares her first Thanksgiving meal with us. Can you almost taste Thanksgiving after seeing this pic? Mmmmmmm!













Pinch My Salt shows off comfort food at its best with the creamy mashed potatoes featured above and this amazing batch of sweet potato rolls. Once again, we appreciate Nicole for being our guest tweet this week. It has been a treat to visit her blog every day for yummy recipes and beautiful pictures. Check out her holiday series throughout this season for wonderful holiday recipes.


Thanks to today's featured GNO Gals—and everyone that participated this week in Topic Talk—for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes. Next week's theme is giving and charity in celebration of our live auction to help provide Thanksgiving meals to families facing hunger this holiday season.

Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you'd like featured.

Topic Talk—Holiday Dishes & Drinks

Today's GNO Gals share a variety of holiday dishes and drinks. You'll want to read all the way to the bottom of this post, which will make you feel like you just licked the bottom of the cake-mix bowl. It's that good. Let's hear it for:

• Brandie at Joy of the Kitchen.
• Brandy at Not Your Average Soccer Mom.
• Cindi at Moomettegram's Musings.
• Joy at All Because Two People Fell in Love.
  
• Tori at Thoughtfully Simple.

Chocolate Mini Marshmallow Velvet Fudge picture courtesy of Moomettesgram's Musings.

Joy of the Kitchen shares a family Christmas tradition—Persimmon Cookies—and this story:

Several years ago, our family gathered at the beach for Christmas. My mom was living there at the time, so we crowded into her oceanside condo. Let me tell you, it was rough. (Ok, it was cold, but when I’m walking on the beach I just don’t care!) Anyway, Grandma brought a HUGE batch of cookies with her. All I remember was my uncle grabbing his coffee can full of cookies, tucking them under his arm and threatening (jokingly?) anyone who touched his stash.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I do.

Not Your Average Soccer Mom ponders whether to brine or not to brine her buttered and seasoned turkey. What do you think?









Moomettesgram's Musings refers us to two recipe posts:

Chocolate Mini Marshmallow Fudge (shown above)
Bacon Cheese Roll Up Appetizers



All Because Two People Fell in Love absolutely recommends brining your turkey and provides great instructions and this explanation:

I brine my turkey-Alton Brown from the food network swears by it and lets face it the guy knows what he is talking about so I trust him. Basically it is just soaking your turkey in a salt water (a few other spices) bath for about 8 hrs. It does something with something (kinda science talk I don't understand) but it makes it very juicy.

Thoughtfully Simple adds this tasty drink to the mix today. What meal would be complete without a delicious drink and dessert? How much better then if you combined the two as Thoughtfully Simple does with her pumpkin martini:

Thanks to today's featured GNO Gals for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes during this week's holiday food-themed Topic Talk.

Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you'd like featured.

Topic Talk—Sweet Treats for the Holidays!

Today's featured GNO Gals share sweet treats with us. Give it up for:

• Christy at Southern Plate.
• Jessica at Momma Cooks Cooking.
• Kaye at The Butler Diaries.
• Kristin at Give Me a Minute, I'll Come Up With Something.
  
• Mikki at My Recipe Box.

Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes courtesy of Southern Plate.

Southern Plate provides perhaps the sweetest of the sweet treats—chocolate cobbler (shown below) and chocolate gravy.



The chocolate cobbler makes the perfect holiday dessert.











And, the chocolate gravy can be packaged up and given as delicious neighbor and friend gifts.

Check out the Southern Plate cookbook for more mouth-watering goodies.








Momma Cooks Cooking shares two delicious Pampered Chef recipes. Check out her Iced Gingerbread Cookie recipe for a sweet treat.


The Butler Diaries writes about holiday traditions and memories. She says:

I'm sure that you all know how quickly the Holidays can sneak up and before you know you are scrambling for just the right gift and groceries. Those wonderful ingredients to make that one special dish that you, your spouse, kids, Uncle Harry, Aunt Millie, or Cousin Bob just can't live without at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, a tradition.

Every year for 32 years, the same tree was put together and decorated on December 6, my birthday, pop corn strings were made and hot chocolate topped it off. Three years ago, I had to give up the tree and buy a new one. No tree will ever be as beautiful to me as the one I grew up with. Keeping tradition, we still put the tree up and decorate it on December 6 and there is always hot chocolate.

Check out her hot chocolate recipe and other yummy holiday food ideas in this post.

Give Me a Minute... shares this tasty treat—eggnog cheesecake bars. Mmmmmm!

















My Recipe Box in addition to her yummy Cream Cheese Pie recipe, shares this recipe for daily living:

1 c. love
1 c. patience
1 c. forgiveness
1 c. charity

Mix well with loving heartstrings and serve 1 tablespoon every morning, noon and night.

Thanks to today's featured GNO Gals for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes during this week's holiday food-themed Topic Talk.

Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you'd like featured.

Topic Talk—Everything's Coming Up Cranberries!

Let's hear it for our first featured GNO Gals in this week's holiday food-themed Topic Talk:

• Beth at Sunshine Daydreamz.
• Cheryl at Mom Fuse.
• Deanna at Domestic Chicky.
  
• Dianne at Country And Loving It.
• Tara at Feels Like Home.

Sunshine Daydreamz shares a yummy cranberry sauce.


Mom Fuse gives us an alternative to turkey with her Cranberry Meatloaf recipe.

Domestic Chicky shares her top-secret recipe (shhhhhh!)—turkey marinade.

Country And Loving It expresses her memories and then shares her recipe for No Bake Fruit Cake:

Let me start by saying, I do not like fruit cake. I do not like any COOKED fruit. This isn't cooked. And I don't really call it real fruit, either. Candied cherries are not fruit, to me. I am also one of those country cooks who doesn't measure anything. So don't worry about being exact with the measurements. I knew it was Christmas when my momma made this. It tastes more like candy and I was always anxious to get a slice--even though I picked the cherries out. I remember asking could I leave a slice out for Santa and being so thrilled when the answer was yes. Seeing the empty plate and glass in the sink the next morning (and yes, I went and looked) is a childhood memory I will never forget. Hope you enjoy.

Feels Like Home shares three pie recipes. Can anyone say Mmmmmmm?

Cherry Pie
Pecan-Crusted Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie


Thanks to today's featured GNO Gals for their mouth-watering pictures and yummy recipes during this week's holiday food-themed Topic Talk.

Wanna be featured? Please comment here or e-mail us at mommygossipgno AT gmail DOT com and provide your BLOG URL, linking to the post you'd like featured.