Thanksgiving Recipes: Pumpkin Soup, No-Knead Bread

 This Day is a time to offer thanks, a time for family gatherings where we can catch up with people we don’t see often. An abundance of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pies will adorn our tables. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Are you ready to cook, bake and entertain? Are you ready for a carbohydrate overload?

I have paired 2 recipes for you to try on Thanksgiving. They also make wonderful gifts if you are not hosting on this wonderful family oriented day.

The first one is a wonderfully easy to make creamy pumpkin soup that I prepare a day or two in advance because it gives all the flavors time to come together. This soup is served with a crusty on the outside moist on the inside country style round loaf of bread, which I prep the day before and bake the day of, early in the morning before putting the turkey in the oven. It’s a no knead bread recipe I found online, and make often.

It looks great, taste great and deserves to be put on a cutting board on the table itself, with serrated bread knife.

I like to use a burgundy or burnt orange tablecloth for my table. And to decorate the table I carve out a small area in a bunch of mini pumpkins and place a votive in each one for each person. It's also nice to collect various colored leaves 1-2 weeks before and flatten them  under a heavy book, that way you can scatter a few of them on the table here and there.

I wish you and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving day.

Pumpkin Soup  

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

1 small onion, chopped med dice

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

2 teaspoons packed brown sugar

1 can (14 1/2 fluid ounces) chicken broth (I use organic)

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree

1 can (12 fluid ounces) evaporated milk

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and sugar; cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until soft. Add broth, water, salt and pepper; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Stir in pumpkin, evaporated milk and cinnamon. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender (in batches); process until smooth. Return to saucepan. Ladle a about a cup into warmed soup bowls. I  add a teaspoon of sour cream on top and run a sharp knife through it to make a design.

No-Knead Bread

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours to rise

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal  as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.