By Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY
USA TODAY asks top TV chefs...What unusual recipes have you added to
your Thanksgiving Day menu?

Paula Deen

Host of Paula's Home Cooking (Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. ET); author of four
cookbooks and owner of The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga.

"I keep my Thanksgiving Day meals very traditional. To shake it up a
year or two ago, I switched from a turkey to a turducken. We loved it!
It's a duck and a chicken inside a turkey. It's very simple to do as
long as you have a good butcher. It requires the duck and chicken to be
deboned. And with the turkey, the only things you leave intact are the
wings and the legs. Otherwise, you split the turkey down the middle in
the back. Lay the chicken in the duck, then the duck in the turkey. Sew
him up or use skewers and turn him over, and you can't tell it's not a
whole plain turkey. He holds his shape because of the leg and wing
bones. It's really beautiful. You slice into it, and you have all those
different colors of meat.

"I gave a twist to cranberry sauce one year. You take a can of the
jellied sauce and slice it in quarter-inch pieces. Then you mix up cream
cheese and hot sauce and a little mayo, and you make up sandwiches — no
bread, just the cheese mix in between cranberries. "Oh, my goodness.
Cream cheese with cranberry is so stinking good! It would be delicious
on a turkey sandwich."

Robert Irvine

Host of Dinner: Impossible (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. ET); executive chef at
Resorts Atlantic City in New Jersey

"One dish I'll never try again is turducken. There is so much blending
of flavors, and it takes so long to cook correctly. I was expecting some
wow, but it didn't have great flavor. I wanted complicated meat flavors,
but I didn't get anything. [I wouldn't have Thanksgiving with Paula
Dean if I were you!]

"I've started to do deep-fried Brussels sprout leaves in tempura with
fresh mint and vinegar. People think Brussels sprouts have an ugh taste,
but this tastes good. I also like to make deep-fried bananas foster. You
mix the bananas with the ice cream ingredients, then freeze it, then
place it in wonton skins. You shallow-fry them in a sauté pan, and the
wontons give you a little ooze when you cut through them.

"One of my favorite recipes is for the day after Thanksgiving and uses
leftovers. My mom used to make chopped and smashed rutabaga with
carrots, white onion, butter and pepper. The following day, you take
leftover potatoes and smash them with ham and the rutabaga mix to make
bubble and squeak. You can put a fried egg on top, and it becomes like a
patty that becomes golden on top.

"After all, how many times can you eat turkey burgers?"

Sandra Lee

Host of Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee (Sundays, 10 a.m. ET);
author of several cookbooks and publisher of Lifestyle magazine on
semihomemade.com

"This year I'm going to do something different for dessert. Everybody
looks forward to pumpkin pie, but this year I'll do a two-tier
cheesecake, which I'll buy at a bakery, and top it with a
cranberry-orange chutney topping. I'll make it the centerpiece of a
table because I like to decorate with edible things that get the tummy
going and spark the hunger pangs. The more you get them going, the more
people want to eat. You use two different sizes of cheesecake with
graham cracker up to the sides. For the topping, you mix a can of whole
cranberry chutney with a can of jellied cranberry. Then you fold in a
jar or two of orange marmalade or ginger preserves. Then you pour it
over the top of the cheesecakes, and it drips over the sides onto a
gorgeous cake platter.

[AHA! Ye Olde Sandie-Switcheroo strikes AGAIN!

"Spark the hunger pangs"? The hell? Did SLop invite "Starvin' Marvin"
over from Ethiopia?]

"I also like to serve butterscotch apple cider or a cinnamon apple
cider. It's a cup of apple cider and a shot of cinnamon schnapps or
butterscotch with cinnamon sticks and pumpkin spice. Heat the cider and
add the shot, like a hot toddy cocktail. For kids, you can substitute
orange juice or cranberry juice. Kids love cocktails, too, so use your
imagination. That's the important thing." [HOKEY SMOKES!!!]

Read past columns
Last month we asked these chefs what's hot on the dining scene this
fall: Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri. Read the interview.



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WARNING!!!
Use of these recipes may be hazardous to your health, food budget,
standing in your community and liver function. Use at your own risk!! We
assume no liability from any illness or injury sustained while eating
the "food" or being exposed to crapass tablescapes. And no, we're not
sure where she grew up either. The Cordon Bleu disavows any knowlege of
Miss Lee.