Preparation

What's going on to your Thanksgiving table?
With Thanksgiving only 2 weeks away, there's been chatter in our home about Thanksgiving dinner/lunch. This is not a tradition that is celebrated in Australia, so it's taking some time to get acquainted with the tradition and the huge amount of food that is prepared. My first Thanksgiving here in the US, I cooked the usual lunch that seems to be served here and found there wasn't a lot that suited my taste buds.
This will be the first year that there will be more than just my "sweetie" and I. We'll have three...lol.. Hollie will be coming home for Thanksgiving, and might I say that she was thrilled with the idea of not having Thanksgiving lunch in the dinning hall at school.
My "sweetie" is the only one who enjoys turkey, so we've opted for a couple of chickens instead, with traditional Aussie roasted vegetables, and for dessert a sticky date pudding, which is also an Aussie recipe.
I'd like some hints and suggestions please for this lunch/dinner. In particular I'd like to make something for dessert that my "sweetie" and Hollie will enjoy, other than the Sticky Date pudding, but please no pumpkin pies, we Aussie's only eat pumpkin with our meats....lol....
Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to help this Aussie make a memorable Thanksgiving lunch.

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Oops I mentioned that the Sticky Date Pudding was made with Golden Syrup, umm wrong recipe...lol... must have been a menopause moment. Sounds good doesn't it?

Anyway here's the recipe.



1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups chopped dates
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder


Preheat oven to 350 F. Place dates in a saucepan with 1 - 1 1/2 cups water. Boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes. Add bicarb soda and set aside.

Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Mix in flour, salt and vanilla. Add baking powder and 1/4 cup of the date liquid. Drain off the remaining date liquid and set aside. Stir in dates. If mixture is too stiff add a little more of the date liquid until you get a nice smooth consistency. Bake in a well greased and floured dish (I use a Pyrex baking bowl) for 30 - 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool in bowl and then turn onto a serving platter.



Butterscotch Sauce

7 oz brown sugar
2 oz butter
1 cup (250ml) cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence


Method Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil, then simmer for 1-2 minutes


Slice and pour the sauce over the pudding and as an extra add
fresh whipping cream, custard or vanilla ice cream. This is what it should look like.


The men really love this one.