Thanksgiving

Hey y'all, I'm Paula Deen, and happy Thanksgiving to you and yours

You know, today I'm adding a twist to the traditional holiday menu, complete with all the fix-ins for a wonderful family dinner

And lucky for me, it looks like my boys, Jamie and Bobby, are going to give their mama a hand in the kitchen today

And we have a lot to cook, so let's get started. Instead of the usual Thanksgiving turkey

today we're going to be roasting a favorite in our house, a honey-glazed game hen

sweet and savory. And then my boys are going to be fixing up the sides. One's going to be fixing

oven roasted red potatoes with rosemary and garlic, and the other one is going to be fixing up a

southern favorite fried green bean bundles. And what Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without

a cranberry sauce? And this recipe is just destined to be one that you'll make for years to come

And then to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth, especially Michael's, you don't want to miss

my pumpkin gingerbread trifle for dessert. So loosen up your belt buckles

and join me in the kitchen because this is one feast you don't want to miss

Y'all, it's Thanksgiving Day, and do you guys know what I would rather be doing than cooking

in the rain? No, what? Nothing. It's really nice, isn't it? I love to cook in the rain

In fact, I could do a whole week's worth cooking if it rains on me

Over here, Bobby is going to be making garlic and rosemary oven-roasted potatoes

Jamie's working on my marinade for the honey game hens. No, Mama, I like the idea of the cornish hens because, you know, we eat lots of turkey anyway

That's not just a Thanksgiving Day thing for us. So I like the idea

To me, the greatest part about it is nobody's fighting for their favorite piece. Right

All right, Jamie, what are you doing with that spoon? It's just as easy to use a spoon as a peeler

Can I try that? Give it a try. I would never have thought to use a spoon on ginger

That's great. It's simple. That's easier than that potato peeler. And Bobby, how are you coming, son

I'm just getting these ready to season with a little olive oil, a little salt pepper, a little rosemary, fresh garlic

Show me what you're going to do. I'm gonna take the olive oil, that's roughly a cup of olive oil

I'm gonna add a little bit of it. Whoa! Did I spill something

Like son, like mama. You know. Okay, I think I would like some kosher salt

I like the. I do too, I love that bit, it's so flavorful. Yeah, and some fresh black pepper. Mm-hm

And I would just toss those in that oil like that. Oh, I forgot the garlic, mom

Okay, yeah, throw in the garlic. Put it all in, son. All right, now, how about stripping some of your rosemary

Oh, yeah, the rosemary. I almost forgot. If I can do it without getting all the biggest limbs in there

Oh, that's great. We're so lucky that we can grow this stuff practically year-round and have all these fresh ingredients

We certainly can. So that finishes your dish, doesn't it? It takes so long to prepare it and so quick to eat it

This is really where you have a chance to visit and talk about things

Because this is the long part of it. You know, you spend hours and 10 minutes everybody's done

especially Thanksgiving. Football's on. It's time for a nap. So this is really nice for us to get to spend this time together

That's a great point, Jamie. All right, so let's get that marinade going because the potatoes are done, so let's get to cracking

Well, this is simple. This is just going to be a half a cup of honey. I've got a half a cup of soy sauce

About two tablespoons of this oil. What kind of oil are you using

I'm just using the vegetable oil, just the standard. And this is our ginger and garlic that I got together a little bit earlier

Smells great. It's good. And about two tablespoons of fresh orange juice

All right, do you put zest in that or are you just using the... No, I'm going to put a little bit of zest

No matter where you get the juice from, nothing gives you the flavor of a fresh orange, like the tiniest amount of zest

You'd think an orange and soy sauce would be the last two things that you'd put together, but, well, they're almost there now

You can taste it. Get the flavors mixed up together good. Mmm, gosh

That is so on the money. Michael's gonna love it, because you know he got a sweet tooth like this big Here you go Thank you I just gonna pour that over it and in it All right now we gonna let this

just sit in the refrigerator and marinate. And I'll go to the fridge and I'll twist them and turn them

because I wanna make sure that marinade gets in them in every crevice

How long did you marinate those for? Well, I would marinate them for about an hour

If you'll put this one in the refrigerator, I've got another pan ready too

Son, can I get over here and wash my hands, please? It's just very, very important

that you don't cross contaminate, especially after handling poultry. All right, so we've got these hens ready

We're gonna put them in a 350 preheated degree oven. We got that on 350, Bobby

Yes, ma'am. And we're gonna bake these for one hour so you can see how short your time is

compared to a big old turkey. All right, so we're gonna just transfer them over in here

And you'll notice that I had these sitting on the counter. I've taken them to room temperature

because they will cook better if they don't have to start out ice cold

And we're just gonna pour the marinade on top of them. And we're gonna baste them

We're gonna go to our oven every 15 minutes and baste them, cooking them for one hour

All right, son, if you'd get that door open for me. This pan, I'm using a cast iron pan

and it's real, real heavy. Gertie's not going to miss the dinner bell

Gertie's not moving. All right, guys, we've got our Cornish hens and our new potatoes in the oven

We really need to take a quick break and kind of get set up for the next dishes

which is going to be fried green bean bundles and gingerbread trifle

Plus, we're going to taste this stuff. Did you hear somebody say trifle

Yes you did. Isn't he funny? He's funny. He's so funny isn't he

Alright guys, this should be ready. You want some help with that mom

I tell you what, that cast iron pan is heavy, Jamie. I'll get it for you. See

No, that is heavy. It's heavy as lead. Gosh, it smells so good. Yeah

All right, how about Bobby's potatoes? You want to get those out? Mm-hmm. Oh, I did good

They're perfectly done. Bobby, you want to grab the platter and roll

Yes, man. Taste? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. They are beautiful, aren't they

They're not good. All right, Jamie, look over there on the stove. I've cooked some wild rice

and I'm just going to dump this rice on the platter. Mm-hmm

Oh, doesn't that look... Awesome. ...out of this world. Look what a beautiful platter that makes. Mm-hmm

Where do you want to plant these birds, Mama? Y'all are dying for a taste, aren't you

Yeah, we're going... Well, let's see if... Wait, look, he looks like he's missing a leg anyway

because he's buried down that rice. Want your kitchen cheers? No. Oh, my goodness

Do y'all want a taste? I do want a taste. Mmm. Is it good

You look like it. It is so good. Mmm. The honey. Oh, good, great. Mmm

It's so tender and juicy. Jamie, try the potatoes. Let me have one

All right, you can't leave that on the platter, son, or... Pawpaw, no, we've been eating with it

You want me? These potatoes are good. You want to put this on the table, Sonny

get it ready? And the potatoes, you can come back for those. In the meantime, Jamie and I are going to start

dropping these green bean bundles because we want this to be the last thing

All right, now, Jamie, I want to show you how I do these. Show me how you do it, Mama

Okay, I've got flour here. I'm going to put just some house seasoning in that flour

Now, we're going to pour our buttermilk in here, and I have green onion, but I have blanched it

to make it flexible. So all you have to do is gather you up

about five green beans. Are your hands too big? A little bit

And I'll tell you another trick, if you don't like green beans

asparagus bundles are delicious too deep fried. And all you have to do is give somebody just one bundle

and some roasted new potatoes and a thick char-grilled rib eye And it's a meal fit for a king

Nah, you try to give me and Bobby just one of these and see what happens

Let me rinse my hands. Okay. All right, I'm gonna drop these in

It is hot. I'm frying it on 350. If you wanted to put a basket in there

that would work well too, and then you could just lift them out. How long are you cooking these

Just long enough to roll them around for a few minutes Yeah just a light brown And you really wanna make sure that your grease is not too hot You want me to take these to the table Yeah you can go ahead and start bowling those up

You can trust me not to eat them so that y'all are ready. And I'm going to help you make the sauce

Oh, great. All right, let's get a pot. There's one. It's still a little warm, but if you want to pour that in the pot

I can handle it. And I'm going to take some chicken stock, and I'm just going to mix a little of that chicken stock into our cornstarch

We're going to let this come to a bowl, and let's add a little chicken stock, and let's go ahead and stir this in

You do this last thing, like... Mm-hmm. Yeah, because you got to wait..

The food's already prepared. You make this very last. Yeah, because you've got to wait until your birds are done so you can pour all your stock off your birds

Let's change spoons, son. Let's go with our wooden spoon. All righty. All right

Now you stir while I pour in our thickening. The ball has left us

But you've got to bring this back to a ball if you want it to thicken on you

Well, it smells great. Mm-hmm. Doesn't it? Mm-hmm. Let's see. We may even have a whisk

change to that whisk and kind of do it like that. That'll break up any lumps in it

that the corn starch might have caused you. Yeah, and see, this won't be like a regular gravy

This'll be more like a sauce. So I'm gonna add, before we take it to the table though

I'm just gonna add a pinch of house seasoning to it. Okay

Next, I'm gonna be whipping up that gingerbread trifle and one more extra surprise

Ms. Hoggle's cream cheese stuffed cranberry sauce. So I'll see y'all in a couple of minutes

Every Thanksgiving, I try to give y'all something that's really going to give your meal a pop

that's easy and simple and economical. Well, I've got one for y'all

And I have to thank a friend for this recipe. Judy Hoggle's mother's cranberry sauce recipe

All right, now I'm gonna cut this into about 10 slices, and it's easier for me if I start in the middle

and then go from there. All right, now all we're gonna do at this point

is take some softened cream cheese and some mayonnaise. Two of my favorite condiments

And we're gonna mix those together. And we're gonna add, oh gosh

anywhere from a fourth to a half a cup of pecans. And I like it really nutty, so I'm going with a half a cup

All right. And to put this together, We're just gonna put our cranberry sauce on the plate

and then we're gonna make a sandwich using that cream cheese filling

Put another piece on top of it, just like that. I really hope that y'all will have this

on your Thanksgiving table this year, because you're not gonna believe how easy and delicious it is

And you could take the time to garnish it with a little parsley. Thank you, Judy, for another cranberry sauce winner

You're going to love it. All right, speaking of loving, I got to get on with Michael's favorite part of the meal

which is dessert. This Thanksgiving, I'm going to do a gingerbread pumpkin trifle

So we're just going to stir our vanilla pudding into our pumpkin pie filling

and a half a cup of packed brown sugar. All right, I'm putting a teaspoon of cardamom in it

or you could use cinnamon. We're just going to mix that together

A lot of people think that they can't have Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie

but to me, I find it just a little on the boring side, so I always try to find a dessert that's got pumpkin in it

but has a little more punch and excitement. Now, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna cut our gingerbread

in half because I'm gonna make two layers, and I'm gonna use half of our ingredients for each layer

And you'll wanna make sure that you have a pretty bowl to put your trifle in so you can see all your layers

and I'm gonna leave mine in pretty big chunks. All right, now our next layer

we're gonna take half of our pumpkin. In Savannah we are big on trifles We just love all that gooey stuff all piled up in our dishes There just nothing like whipped cream

So you can see our bowl is filling up quickly. All right

So here we go again with the other half of our gingerbread

and we're going to finish putting our pumpkin over that gingerbread

You know, Thanksgiving is such traditional food. It's nice to just stay very, very close to those traditional foods

but just shake them up a little bit. And this is one of those recipes that will shake up pumpkin just a little bit

Yep, we've got a nice little shake up, and y'all can see how easy it was to do

We didn't fight a turkey, a great big old turkey, and have any of those worries

We didn't have to make pie crust and hope that they turned out right

And we didn't have to make fresh cranberry sauce. but yeah, this is a very special meal that took very, very little effort

And I can't tell you how much I enjoyed being in the kitchen with my kids

because they were not on a schedule. They didn't have to go to the restaurant

They didn't have to play golf. You know, I had their full attention here in the kitchen

All right, now I'm just going to spread ginger snaps that I've crushed on top

What a great dessert. Yum. You ready? Yeah, I want to taste it

Before I get it to the table? Sure. All right, well, let me do it, because I know how to dig so you can't tell somebody's been in it

I've had a lot of practice. Is that too big? Mm-mm. Do you like it better than the pumpkin gooey butter cake

I do. It's delicious. I'd say that's a yes, y'all. How about the cranberry sauce, Michael

You get it. Did y'all hear what he said to me? He said, you get it

I think all he wants is a trifle. That's all right. I want the cranberry sauce

Y'all stick around, because next I'm going to give you a few tips on extending the life of your herbs

For a couple of minutes, I would just like to talk about herbs

They add such great flavors to so many different foods. And here I've got parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme

Not only was it a great song, it's great, great flavors to your food

You'll want to remember that when you're using a dry herb, they're much stronger than your fresh

So you'll want to use not quite as much. I want to show y'all just a few ways to really give extra life

What are you doing, son? I need this for the table. Okay. It's time to eat. Come on

Okay. I'm hurrying. I want to share with y'all a few ways that you can really make the most of your herb garden

If you're one of those people that like to use dried herbs, make sure that you dispose of them after six months

because more than likely they've lost most of their flavor. If you're growing fresh herbs, you can dry these for the winter by hanging them upside down

then stripping the leaves and storing those also in a cool, dark place

But if you have fresh parsley, put it in a glass of water, stick it in the fridge

and it's just like a flower. It'll last for a lot longer. And your thyme and your rosemary and your sage, you can wrap it in a damp paper towel

put it into a seal-proof bag, and you'll find that you've got flavors that'll last you a little bit longer

Mmm. Come on, Mom, it's time to eat. Oh, okay, I'm coming

Everybody's waiting. Okay, I'm coming. Well, it's finally time to eat this fabulous Thanksgiving meal

and I've got some of my family gathered here with me. It's wonderful sharing a meal with Jamie and Bobby and Michael

and those honey game hens, Michael can hardly keep his eyes off of them

These roasted red potatoes with rosemary and garlic and the green bean bundles

and don't forget Miss Hoggle's cranberry sauce and the pumpkin gingerbread trifle

Doesn't it look good, y'all? Start up. We try to live every day like it's Thanksgiving

because my family and I have so much to be thankful for

So the Dean Groover family we'd love to send to y'all best dishes, hugs and kisses from our Thanksgiving table to yours

Cheers. Cheers. Happy Thanksgiving