Thanksgiving classics on Longboat Key

You’ve heard it again and again that Thanksgiving will be different this year, just like everything else in 2020. But regardless of where you sit down to give thanks this year, there are classic dishes you can’t forget and can barely do without. Longboat Key’s neighbors  share their annual favorites. 

The belle of the (Butter)ball

Donna Sharp Blaney and her husband, Brian, have a turkey tradition dating back to when they began dating in 1987. Brian’s familial turkey tradition was to attach sausages with toothpicks (only Jones breakfast sausages, Donna noted), all over the bird before it was cooked — it helps with basting. 

“These crunchy, yummy morsels are then served as a fun appetizer while the turkey is being carved,” Donna said. 

As children, her daughters loved sticking the turkey full of sausage and years later would not consider it Thanksgiving without them, Donna said. 

Recipe:

• 1 box of Jones breakfast sausages
• Box of toothpicks
• Seasoned turkey

Grab a box of Jones breakfast sausages — maple or mild  — and a box of toothpicks. To your normal turkey preparation, add one final step and pin the entire box of sausages all over the turkey. 

Dressed to impress 

Susan Phillips makes two pans of cornbread dressing — with and without mushrooms. Traditional recipes use crumbled cornbread as the base, Phillips said, and dressing is always cooked outside the turkey. Phillips adds lots of seasoning, turkey drippings and turkey gravy. Like the cornbread, the written recipe has crumbled away and year after year the dressing is made from’ memory.

“I have made this so many times, there isn’t a written recipe,” Phillips said. 

Yes we cran(berry)

At Harry's Continental Kitchens, there are vats of cranberry sauce, the recipe for which is from Papa Harry's head, Hal Christensen said. He's been doing Thanksgiving the same way for years.  

"The cranberry sauce makes it," Christensen said. "It's a classic."

They use a case of oranges and about 20 pounds of cranberries for their recipe, and make about 18 gallons of it, Christensen said. For the flavors to marinate together and make the sauce the boss of the meal, the cranberry sauce gets made three to four weeks ahead of time, but it might be the best stuff you've ever had. 

(Green) bean there, done that

Meat and potatoes are well and good, but it’s good to try to get some vegetables on the table. Even if said vegetables include bacon, like Irina Bronstein’s family green beans. 

Bronstein and her husband, Rick, always have to have his grandmother’s green beans, cooked for a long time in the crockpot with plenty of bacon. Usually Rick’s mother, Sandy, makes them but Irina has become proficient over the years, too. 

Don't marsh my mellow

Arlene Skversky’s mother always insisted on sweet potatoes at the table — made even sweeter. Skversky’s mother’s version included pineapple, brown sugar, orange juice mixed into the sweet potatoes and poured over the top. The mixture was then baked and topped with baby marshmallows, Skversky said. Sweet indeed — maybe a nice interlude between dinner and dessert. 

“We feel that my mom is still with us … (so) I am not brave enough to not make this dish,” Skversky said. “In fact, this year we are ordering dinner from Sol at the Embassy Suites and he does not put pineapple in this dish, so when I get it home, in goes the pineapple.”

Recipe: 

• 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 can of crushed pineapple, drained
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/c cup brown sugar
• Mini marshmallows 

Peel and boil your sweet potatoes, then mash. Add butter, salt and orange juice. Beat with a mixer to combine. Add brown sugar and pineapple and stir well. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 40-45 minutes. For the last 10 minutes of baking, add marshmallows on top. 

Give 'em pumpkin to talk about

Michael Garey, owner of the Lazy Lobster, is often tending to Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant, but at the house the star of the meal is wife Catherine's Pumpkin Chiffon Pie, he said. Catherine said she got it out of a falling-apart heirloom of a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. 

"It's been a Thanksgiving staple at our house for years," Michael said. "Honorable mention goes to her brother Mark's wonderful apple pie with apples picked fresh from the north Georgia mountains."

Recipe:

Gingersnap crust: 

• 1 1/4 cups finely crushed gingersnaps
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Pie filling:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 packets unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup milk 
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup whipping cream 
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Whipped cream (optional)
• Chopped toasted pecans (optional)

First, prepare the gingersnap crust. Coat a 9-inch nonstick pie plate with cooking spray, then combine gingersnaps and melted butter. Press into pie plate. Cover and chill about 1 hour. 

For the filling, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, gelatin, cinnamon, allspice, salt, ginger and nutmeg in a medium saucepan. Add milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until gelatin dissolves. 

In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks. Stir about half of milk mixture into eggs and return to saucepan. Stir in pumpkin and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and cook and stir for two minutes. Transfer to a large bowl, cover and chill about 30 minutes. 

In a chilled medium bowl, beat whipping cream and 2 tbsp sugar with chilled beaters until soft peaks form. Fold into pumpkin mixture. 

Transfer filling to crust. Cover and chill about four hours or until set. Garnish with whipped cream and pecans.