KLTV Thanksgiving behind-the-scenes & a collection of recipes

November has been a lovely, busy month.

Some of the crew along with Grant, Dia, Lane and me. My son Justin is right behind me! He operates a camera on GMET.

I was excited to be a part of a special edition of Good Morning East Texas. On November 21, GMET anchors Dia Wall and Lane Luckie, meteorologist Grant Dade and I brought some of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes and showed them off on-air. We put the recipes online, including my favorite dressing recipe! The dressing recipe is very special; I got it 18 years ago from “MawMaw Pearlie,” a neighbor of mine when my first son, Justin, was an infant. I thought it was going to be so difficult to prepare, but she taught me her secret shortcuts, and now I’m sharing them with you!

I was on the set setting up the food, and Grant was outside frying the turkey with the fire chief!

Here’s the link to our special episode; you can watch the video here, and the recipes are on the page, as well.

Besides the awesome dressing, there is a recipe for some fabulous maple-glazed roasted sweet potatoes, and Fran’s cranberry cake from her blog, On My Plate. Dia shares her aunt’s pound cake, too! Make sure to click the link to see them all.

Lane, GMET anchor, doesn't seem too sure about his green bean casserole. My maple-glazed roasted sweet potatoes, on the other hand... :) — Lane, GMET anchor, doesn’t seem too sure about his green bean casserole. My maple-glazed roasted sweet potatoes, on the other hand… 🙂

Oh, and Grant deep fried a turkey he’d injected with cajun seasonings. It was juicy and delicious! You can see it in the picture of Lane and me. We devoured TWO turkeys. That’s how good they were! Here’s the recipe: Grant’s Cajun fried turkey.

Dia's family recipe for this pound cake is so delicious; simple, rich, great topped with caramel syrup and slivered almonds, or plain with a cup of coffee! — Dia’s family recipe for this pound cake is so delicious; simple, rich, great topped with caramel syrup and slivered almonds, or plain with a cup of coffee!

After we did the live show, the whole crew joined us, and we had a big pre-Thanksgiving dinner, right there in the studio at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday! It was so much fun.

Everyone digging in to the delicious spread! Lots of laughter and fun. My favorite kind of day.

I hope that you enjoyed your family and friends on Thanksgiving, for those of you here in the states. And now, we all prepare for Christmas! Our family has pretty much the same meal again, except sometimes instead of turkey we’ll have a ham, for Christmas. How about your family?

More to come soon; preparing some new recipes to share with you soon! Also, I’ll be on In The Kitchen on KLTV-7 on Friday, December 7, at 5 p.m. If you don’t live in East Texas, you can watch on KLTV.com, as it’ll be live-streamed. Then it’ll be posted on the In The Kitchen page afterward. (You guys just can’t get away from me!)

I love to cook for you, and I hope you enjoy my ideas and try them out, making them your own! One of my favorite things is receiving your emails (MamaSteph@kltv.com) and phone calls, and even quick visits when we run into each other out and about, especially when you let me know that you’ve made something new from one of my recipes and you liked it, or your family wants it in regular rotation now, etc. Makes me smile from ear to ear, it truly does.

I am thankful for all of you!