Thanksgiving Sides - Part I

Category: Holiday Meals, veggies

To me, side dishes on my Thanksgiving table is just as important as the turkey! Plus, I love to make them!! I'm working on my post on what I served this Thanksgiving in case you were wondering what we ate but I'll be honest...I've been lazy lately and I started writing it the other day and realized it was longer than anything I've posted on Ordinary Recipes Made Gourmet. I actually got a headache, closed out the text editor and haven't looked at it since! But I promise I'll get it up - in the meantime I wanted to post something about Thanksgiving and I thought about how much we focus on the turkey or the ham but what about all the sides we all cook and serve? All of us have our favorites so I'm starting off with a big favorite here - steamed broccoli. It's good for you and to you!

I like to take bacon drippings with sauteed onions to cook the broccoli in because it picks up all those flavors. Besides that, I always remember what my mom told me growing up...."Always eat something green with your dinner!"

Steamed Broccoli
Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh broccoli
2 tbsp. vegetable or peanut oil or oil from bacon
2 tbsp. chopped vidalia
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 c. water

Preparation:
Wash broccoli and break small upper branches from main stalk. Peel main stalk to remove tough areas. Cut remaining stem into 1/4 inch crosswise slices. Pour oil in wok or deep skillet and preheat, uncovered, at medium, about 2 minutes. Add onion and saute until translucent. Then add broccoli and stir-fry 1 minute. Add salt, sugar. and water. Cover and steam for 3 minutes. Stir every minute for 5 minutes and keep covered between stirrings. Reduce heat to low for serving. You can also double up this recipe.

Also, around the holidays I already know I'm going to be cooking for 2 days so using quick recipes cuts down dramatically on my time cause I'm the only one who cooks! LOL!