So here’s our Thanksgiving Sitch 2020: eat as much buttery, southern cookin’ as possible 😋 When my little family gets together to eat we keep it casual and do it potluck style. The goal is to find the biggest paper plates available and wear our most stretchy, comfy pants🤰🏼It’s all about eatin’ good! 🙌🏼 Typically we get together every Sunday and do a Sunday dinner, but 2020 has not been typical (to say the least). This year we did a little Thanksgiving meal together this past Sunday and it was delish.👌🏼Today I’m sharing some of our most favorite side dish recipes.

Ok, this first recipe is a family favorite and over the years it’s been tweaked and slightly changed. I am going to call it Fancy Pants Mac + Cheese. It is macaroni and cheese with ALL THE YUMMY THINGS added to it. I grew up eating this for every nice potluck our family attended and I’ve yet to meet a person who didn’t like it. And after our Florida Thanksgiving dinner Sunday I asked Matt what his favorite dish was and this was his vote. It’s that good, y’all! According to my mom the recipe originally came from some folks in Birmingham, Alabama. So if you have ever eaten this or made this, I would love to hear from you because so far I haven’t found anyone else that is familiar with this fancy mac n cheese. The green beans is a recipe that my mother-in-law introduced me to and now thats the only way we eat them!

SUMMER’S FANCY PANTS MAC + CHEESE

Ingredients:

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup mayo

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 lb grated cheese (I use cheddar)

1 small jar pimentos chopped (reserve juice)

8 oz cooked macaroni pasta

bread crumbs (I use finely smashed Ritz crackers)

Combine soup, mayo, pimento juice. Toss the macaroni with onion, pepper, pimentos then arrange in two layers in buttered casserole dish with cheese in the middle of the layers. Pour mayo sauce over and top with the bread/cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. (I usually double the recipe and bake for 30 min)

NANA’S GREEN BEANS

Ingredients:

4 cans of French style green beans, drained

5-6 slices of bacon

chicken broth (enough to cover beans)

1 onion chopped

Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on high 2-4 hours or low 3-5 hours. It’s an easy peasy veggie addition. We season with our favorite all purpose seasoning McCormick’s pink himalayan salt + ground black pepper + garlic.

SEAFOOD DRESSING

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter

1 yellow onion chopped

2 celery stalks chopped

1/2 bell pepper chopped

1/2 lb fresh shrimp (peeled and deveined( cut into bite sized pieces

1 tsp cajun seasoning

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 bag herb seasoned stuffing mix

1/2 bag cornbread stuffing mix

1 can cream of mushroom

1 can chicken broth

15 oz crab meat drained

2 tbsp butter cut into slivers

Preheat oven 350 and grease a 9x13 dish. Melt butter in large pan. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper and cook until soft. Add shirmp and cook just until no longer pink. Remove from heat. Stir in cajun seasoning and thyme and transfer mixture to larger bowl. Add remaining ingredients, except butter to bowl. Stir to mix. Transfer to casserole dish. Scatter butter pieces over top, place in oven and bake for 30 min

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

4-5 cups cooked sweet potatoes, mashed

1/2 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp milk

1/2 c butter

Toppings:

1/3 c flour

1 c chopped pecans

1/3 c melted butter

1 c brown sugar

1/2 bag mini marshmallows

Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, butter. Pour into buttered casserole dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Make topping: mix flour, pecans, brown sugar, and melted butter. Pull out of oven add toppings (I do 1/2 of the pan just marshmallows and then the other 1/2 of the pan I top with the pecan mixture). Put back in a bake an additional 10-15 minutes. YUMMMMMYYYYYYY

Let me know if you try any of these recipes! I would LOVE to hear from you! I wish I would have stopped and taken photos while I was cooking all of these recipes this past weekend, but I will update this post with photos next time I do. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your people! 🦃

With Gratitude,