Soap Stars' Thanksgiving Recipes

Tamara Braun - Days of Our Lives Ava Vitale

Thanksgiving Stuffed Acorn Squash 

INGREDIENTS:

Two acorn squashes halved and seeded

8 oz Mushrooms (I use cremini)

1 cup chopped Celery

1 cup peeled, cored, and chopped Apple

1 cup chopped Onion

2-4 cloves minced Garlic

1/4 cup Dried cranberries

1 15 oz can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

1 t Sage powder

1 t fresh chopped Rosemary

1 t dried Thyme (if using fresh add more)

1/4 t Salt 

1/4 t Black Pepper

1-1/2 t Liquid amino acids

Minimal Olive oil or water to sauté 

FOR QUINOA:

1/2 C quinoa

1 C Vegetable broth 

(Follow quinoa package cooking instructions. Try TruRoots Organic Spouted Quinoa.)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375. Place acorn halves on baking tray skin (we like Caraway Non-Stick Ceramic Baking Sheet) side up for a more caramelized bake and down if you want it less brown. Cook for 30-35 minutes until tender. 

Roughly chop onions, apples, mushrooms, celery, garlic and cranberries. 

In a large pan, sauté onions with the herbs for a minute or two. Add the garlic, mushrooms, celery, and apples. Sauté until mushrooms release their juices. Add salt and pepper. Add chickpeas and cranberries. Let cook until all is warmed through. Add the cooked quinoa and mix in. Do yourself a favor and taste as you go along. If you want more herbs (I always like lots of herbs!), add more. And here is my must…once you add the quinoa and mix in, add a splash (about a teaspoon or so of liquid aminos (We like Bragg Liquid Aminos, All Purpose Seasoning). (I forgot to video it) It gives it that deep rich flavor. YUM!! 

Once everything is mixed together and cooked through, fill up the cooked acorn squash and serve!!! Great as a main or slice it to share as a side dish. 

Lydia Look -- General Hospital's Selena Wu

Spicy Sambal 

A chill paste to go with the turkey and anything savory.

Ingredients:

🌶️ chilies

ripe tomatoes

shallots

garlic

sugar & salt to taste

Blend everything in a blender.

In a very hot oiled wok, put your blended lot in and start frying it up slowly till you smell the unmistakable umami -ness of the fiery chili goodness! Sugar & salt to taste.

Cook with love

Accept no other substitutions.

Carolyn Hennesy -- General Hospital's Diane Miller

Poached Pears in Sweet Sherry

INGREDIENTS:

Very large glass Pyrex oblong

6 firm Bartlett pears (best)

½ cup brown sugar

2-3 cinnamon sticks

1 tbs. whole cloves

2 tbs. butter

1 bottle sweet sherry or marsala

Optional 1 tbs vanilla (Soap Hub likes Watkins All Natural Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla.)

Preheat oven 350.

Rub butter over the entire Pyrex.

Clean and Cut pears in half, cut out seed and pith up to the stems. Leaving stems on one half for esthetics. Place cut side down in Pyrex. You can quarter additional to fit in. They will shrink so you can fit in tightly. Sprinkle brown sugar. Pour sherry over up to ½ inch from the top of the pan. Distribute cloves and sticks broken in half. Drop the remaining butter in bits around the pan.

Bake 350 for 1 hour + plus. You want pears to be easily pierced but not too soft. You can baste with the sauce at the 30-minute mark. You don’t want the sauce so bubbly and thick that the pears are mushy…I now take them out at 1 hour and drain off the sauce (carefully, as it is very hot and deadly).

I reduce it carefully on the stove to a thick consistency, knowing that as it cools, it will also thicken. This is to deliver the pears in one container and the lovely sauce in another that you reheat before serving. The pears needn’t be warm. Serve with dense whipped cream, only lightly sweetened, as the sauce should be crazy sweet and spicy. Yum.