Amaretto Cranberry Sauce & New Orleans-Style Yams (Sweet Potatoes)

My office’s big annual Thanksgiving pot-luck luncheon was yesterday, which I’ve organized and contributed to for the last 10 years, and frankly, I was too pooped to post. So, I bring you Recipe Monday on Tuesday. Shoot me.

Everyone’s tossing their favorite holiday recipes into the internet ring, this week, and I want to share a couple of our favorites with you, too. These two dishes, Amaretto Cranberry Sauce and Bourbon Yam Casserole, only appear at Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house, which is – I guess – what makes them special to us.

This house is a fan of chunky, whole berry cranberry sauce. Love biting into those tart/sweet berries along with that bite of turkey. Mmmm… A couple of years ago, MJ decided that we should stop buying it in the can and make our own.

He was right, of course. Making your own cranberry sauce is one of the easiest things to do on the planet, but for some reason, other people are greatly impressed when you put a bowl of this sticky, ruby goodness on the table and say, “I made it myself.”

Here is a variation that he discovered in his travels on the internet, looking for something that was just a wee bit out of the ordinary:

Amaretto Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 (12 ounces) package fresh cranberries
2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup amaretto
2 Tablespoons orange marmalade
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Preparation:

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add cranberries, sugar, and lemon juice; stir well to combine. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes or until cranberries begin to pop. Remove from heat; stir in amaretto, marmalade, and lemon rind.

Yield: 3-2/3 cups

*Note:

This recipe is easily multiplied (or cut) to suit your needs. Last year we quadrupled it and shared it with family and friends, wherever we were invited, presenting it in lovely Ball jars and tied with a ribbon. It should be kept refrigerated, but take it out of the fridge about 15-20 minutes before serving and give it a good stir.

This year, we cut the sugar to 1 1/3 cups rather than the full 2 cups. This will make it a slightly softer sauce, but no less flavorful. You can also substitute lime juice for the lemon juice as a delicious variation.

Original recipe found at about.com: America’s Best Recipes: 1992 Hometown Collection (Oxmoor House) – out of print; Camellia Delights, The Altrusa Club of Gulfport, Mississippi

This next dish was served to us at the home of some friends who had spent some years living in New Orleans. To bring a taste of that time home to them wherever they lived after that, they turned to The New Orleans Cookbook by Rima and Richard Collin (first printed in 1975, and then in soft cover in 1987). When I begged them for the recipe back in 1989, I copied it nearly verbatim out of the cookbook.

Of course, over the years, I’ve made several modifications to make my life easier, since this is one of those dishes that I contribute to the office potluck and generally double to feed a crowd. The New Orleans Cookbook is still available in softcover and has received many favorable reviews as to its authenticity and flavor, so if you want more Creole-style cooking in your life, you should check it out. Here is my version:

New Orleans-Style Yams

Ingredients:

6 large sweet potatoes
1/3 cup Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur)
1/3 cup bourbon
6 Tbs. butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. white pepper

Preparation:

Roast the sweet potatoes for about 45 minutes at 375º F and allow to cool thoroughly, then peel and cut up coarsely in roughly 1/2″ slices, arrange in a large casserole dish, piling the slices on top of each other.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter or margarine over medium-low heat, add the remaining ingredients, and stir to combine well. Pour this sauce over the prepared sweet potatoes, and with your cooking spoons, just “cut” it into the sweet potatoes. It’s not necessary to stir it – you just want the liquid to reach through your layers. Press down and smooth the top.

Cover the casserole and bake at 375º for 45 minutes. Fluff it up a bit before serving.

*Note:

If you’re expecting a crowd, you can easily add an extra sweet potato or two to this recipe without increasing the liquid.

These are my favorite “secret” holiday recipes. We’re all about the spices and flavors around here, and these just holler “Happy Holidays!” at the tops of their little lungs. Can’t you hear them? 🙂

If you have a personal favorite Thanksgiving recipe to share, please add it here!