Do you have children who love to help you in the kitchen but their definition of help is different from yours? One helpful hint is to let them each pick one dish that they would like to help make. Allow them in the kitchen one at a time to help when the dish they picked is being made.

Everyone gets a chance to help and they can show off the dish that they made and it allows you to control the chaos.

Some of us spend more time cooking during the holiday seasons than we do the entire rest of the year! Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year? Looking for a few good recipes?

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1 – 12 oz. bag of cranberries
1 and 1/3 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of ground cloves

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a medium sauce pan.

Add cranberries and return to a boil, once boiling begins reduce heat to a simmer.

Stir in the dash of cinnamon and ground cloves.

Simmer for 10 min, stirring occasionally.

Pour into medium glass bowl, cool completely, cover and place in refrigerator.

This dish is best when made and chilled the night before you plan to serve it.

Baked Pineapple

Ingredients:

1 16oz. can crushed pineapple with its juice
2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
½ cup of milk
½ cup of butter
8 slices of bread cut into small cubes

Empty the can of pineapple into large bowl, add sugar and milk.

Beat the eggs and pour in the bowl and melt the butter and add it to the bowl.

Stir everything together.

Cut up bread and add it to the mixture and stir.

Pour into greased 2 quart casserole dish; cover and bake at 375 for 1 hour.

Baked Candied Yams

Ingredients:

4 medium yams
1 stick of butter
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of brown sugar (light)
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1 tablespoon of nutmeg
2 tablespoons of flour

Place yams in a large pan of water and bring to a boil for about 10-12 min.

Remove yams and place on a plate to cool for 15 min.

Remove the skin from the yams and slice into 1 inch cubes.

Place yams in a greased shallow baking dish.

Melt butter and pour into a mixing bowl.

Add both white and brown sugars, vanilla, nutmeg and flour to the butter and stir.

Pour mixture over yams and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 and ½ cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
3 cups of grated carrots
1 cup of chopped walnuts

Grate carrots and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour a 13×9 cake pan.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; add to the large bowl and stir.

Stir in carrots, fold in walnuts and pour into pan.

Bake 40-50 min. or until toothpick is clean.

Cool 10 min. then flip onto rack to cool completely.

Finish it off by adding Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

½ cup of butter (softened)
8 ounce package of cream cheese
4 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until blended.

Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until creamy.

Sausage Stuffing

Ingredients:

16 oz. of your favorite bread cubes
14 ½ oz. of chicken broth
1 cup of water
4 sausage patties
3 tablespoons of butter
½ cup of diced onion
½ cup of chopped celery
½ cup of diced green pepper
½ cup of diced red pepper
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 teaspoon of salt

In a small skillet, brown sausage patties and remove to plate when finished.

In large skillet melt butter, add in onions, celery, green and red peppers and sauté one minute.

Stir in chicken broth, water, thyme and salt.

Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft.

Place the bread cubes into a greased 13×9 baking pan.

Crumble sausage into broth mixture.

Ladle broth mixture over bread cubes, distributing evenly.

Cover pan and bake for 30 min. at 325. Remove cover and continue to bake 10 more min.