Sides for a perfect Turkey

I made up some sides to go with the turkey. I thought I would have a practice run for Thanksgiving, with much less food. I made some whole berry cranberry sauce, escalloped corn and a junk plate pasta salad. I also made up a loaf of sourdough pumpernickle bread. Recipes below.

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

1 bag cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Heat water and sugar until boiling. Add cranberries, reduce heat and boil 10 minutes. Cool.

Its really that easy. Don't buy that garbage in the can. You can make awesome cranberry sauce in just a few minutes.

Muriel's Escalloped Corn

1 can cream style corn
1 C. milk
1 egg (well beaten)
1 C. Cracker crumbs
1 T. Onion
1 T. pimento (optional)
¼ tsp. Salt
½ cup cracker crumbs that you heat in a skillet with butter

Throw all this stuff together and bake at 350 for about a half hour.

That is my grandmother's recipe. Its simple to make and it is the classic that you remember. Why make it complicated when you know it works?

Junk Plate Pasta Salad

1 bag mixed spiral noodles, cooked
pepperoni, cut up
black olives, sliced
green olives with pimento, sliced
1/4 cup parmesan
1/4 cup smoked cheddar cheese(or whatever you happen to have in the fridge), diced finely
a few small pieces of brocoli
cherry tomatoes, cut up
pepperocini peppers, cut up
green onions, diced
red, green, and yellow peppers, finely diced
1 T horseradish
Italian dressing of whatever kind, enough to coat everything well
hard boiled egg, sliced
a little sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
parsley, either fresh or dried

Combine everything in a big bowl and refrigerate. You can add extra ingredients if you have them. In the tradition of junk plates, I just took a bunch of stuff from the fridge and threw it together. Its pretty tasty as far as pasta salad goes.