Follow These 5 Recipes and Transform Your Holiday Feast

Looking for a new spin on your traditional Thanksgiving meal?

Patch teamed up with some popular local chefs to help turn your holiday feast into a creative and memorable gourmet delight. 

For starters, Matt and Shirley Harper, who own the in Brecksville, have offered their signature cornbread and sausage stuffing recipe and are encouraging folks to stop in and pick up a cup, bowl or quart of their pre-made Thanksgiving day soup to serve during the holidays. 

Refer to the PDFs to the right of this story to see the stuffing recipe and a little more information on Creekside’s award-winning soup. 

Next is Brian Reiss, the sous chef of Strongsville’s . Reiss is planning a personal dinner party of his own to treat guests over the holiday and below you’ll find gourmet recipes to start and end your Thanksgiving meal. 

Oyster stuffing 

2 cups crusty bread, cubed
3 eggs
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 parsnip, small diced
1/4 cup celery, small diced
4 raw oysters

Sweat parsnip and celery, let cool. Mix all ingredients, excluding oysters.

Scoop, using 6 oz. ice cream scoop, into 4 even portions. Indent tops slightly for oyster to sit nicely.

Bake stuffing for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Prior to serving, remove oysters from shell and place on top of stuffing.

Bacon pecan pie

Dough:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold butter
3 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
3 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon dark Jamaican rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup pecans
1/2 pound bacon, sliced

Combine flour and salt. With two knives, cut into butter in scissor fashion until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mix with fork after each addition, until dough is just moist enough to hold together.

Shape dough into disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

On lightly floured surface with floured rolling pin, roll dough into 12-inch round. Trim dough edge. Refrigerate pie shell until firm, about 30 minutes.

Line pie shell with foil and fill with pie weights, dry beans or uncooked rice. Bake pie shell 15 to 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove foil and weights and bake 6 minutes.

In large bowl, whisk brown sugar, syrups, butter, rum, vanilla and eggs until blended. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into hot pie shell.

Lay bacon to evenly cover filling. Weave in basket fashion.

Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Last, Joe Dubbs, Westlake’s chef and general manager, has a couple of easy recipes that will turn heads and leave your guests wanting seconds.

According to Dubbs, the brine recipe, in particular, will make your turkey, chicken or pork roast the star of the day by filling it with flavorful juices and moisture.

Turkey/Chicken Brine

1 gallon water
3/4 cup kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon each of dried tarragon, thyme, black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Start by boiling the water and then adding the salt and sugar, so that it will dissolve easier. Then add the spices to the hot liquid so that the flavors are extracted. Cool the brining solution then add meat and let stand for 18-24 hours.

The Pumpkin Pie Martini

2.5 oz. Captain Morgan rum
1 oz pumpkin liqueur
Top with whip cream and fresh grated cinnamon

Mix in shaker and serve in martini glass