Canadian Thanksgiving was this past week, and sadly, it was the first Thanksgiving that we missed. We have had quite a bit going on around our house the past couple of weeks with getting the house ready to be put on the market the first week of November, running around keeping up with the day to day activities of the house of Spach and everything that surrounded the passing of our dear friend’s precious little baby boy last week.
With that being said, I thought it would be fun to start a fun new series on my little ole’ blog, the Thanksgiving Dinner Series. Those of you who know me, know that I LOVE to cook, host and entertain, so I thought it would be fun over the next couple of weeks to share the different dishes that complete our family’s big turkey dinner. I’m going to cover everything from my favorite recipes to setting up your home on the big day! So with that being said, let’s get started with one of my family’s all time favorite dishes, sweet corn casserole.
This recipe is one that was lovingly hand-written to me by my sweet mother-in-law in a cookbook she gave to me when Eric and I got married. I love using recipes from that book and seeing her handwriting in it. It makes me feel like she is right there in the kitchen with me cooking something warm and buttery (Eberspachers ALWAYS use butter…lots of butter). Another fun thing about this yummy dish is that I always use farm fresh sweet corn to make it. There is something beautiful about knowing your corn comes from family: picked, shucked and packaged with farm-love.
Here is what you are going to need:

1 package (2 cups) sweet corn
1 can cream corn
1 cup macaroni (I like to use the shell kind)
1/2 cup sauteed onions (you can also use 1 TBSP dry onion)
1 stick of melted margerine
1 cup diced Velveeta cheese (cut a little extra aside so you can chomp on it while you cook)

1. Start by putting your shells in a couple of cups of water and nuke it in the microwave for about 3 minutes. This makes the shells not as crunchy after baking it in the oven. Drain off the water and set shells aside in a large mixing bowl.
2. While the shells are getting soft, cube up one cup of Velveeta cheese. Throw it in a bowl and microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring half way through. Add the cheese to the shells.
3. Dice up your onion and throw it in a skillet on medium until they are translucent, then toss them in the bowl as well (cook them in butter, of course!).
4. Once the Velveeta is melted, melt your stick of butter in the microwave or stove top and add that into your mixing bowl.
5. Throw in your can of cream corn and package of sweet corn and mix everything well. This is probably my favorite part of making this dish: LISTEN to the creamy sound you hear when you mix everything together with your spatula. It is buttery-corn heaven, I tell you what.
6. Once everything is good and combined, pour the mixture into an 8X8 dish (I always use a ceramic dish that my Auntie Diane gave me) and stick in in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes. It should be nice and bubbly when it’s done and will smell FAH-ablulous!

**Note** if you have more of a sweet tooth, you may want to add a TBSP or two of sugar to your final mixture. I don’t normally add it to mine, but I have had it with sugar before and gives it a little extra sweet kick.

So there is our first dish for our Thanksgiving meal! The nice thing about this dish is that it can be used all year round and makes for a great side for any meal. Personally, I’m a little partial to mixing this with my mashed potatoes 🙂
This Thanksgiving is going to be a special one for us. This will (hopefully) be our last holiday meal in our little house before we move. I am bound and determined to get my very handicap Grandma Mary into our house to join in the festivities, and we have invited my folks, brother and my Uncle Fred and his family as well. We are excited to have a house full of precious family and lots of great food.