Easy Thanksgiving recipes to impress your guests

If baking or cooking dishes for the holidays intimidates you, yet you really want to impress your family or friends - don't sweat it - here are two recipes that are pretty hard to mess up.

Cider Cranberry Sauce

1 15 oz. bag fresh cranberries
1 Honeycrisp apple, peeled, cored and diced (you can use whatever apple variety you enjoy)
1 1/4 cup apple cider (not apple juice)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2 tbsp. crystallized ginger chips

Place all ingredients into a medium-sized saucepan and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and place into refrigerator to chill so it can thicken fully for at least four hours – overnight is preferred.  Enjoy! 

Pumpkin Silk Pie

Crust
32 gingersnap cookies
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar

Filling
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 c. powdered sugar
1 c. pumpkin puree
16 oz. Cool Whip
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp. vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

Topping
2 c. heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. vanilla bean paste

Crush gingersnap cookies up to fine and mix together with sugar and melted butter. Place into the bottom of your springform pan, and bake in a 325 degree oven for five minutes. Remove and allow to fully cool.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the wire whip attachment, mix cream cheese and powdered sugar until combined and no lumps. Add pumpkin puree, mix again – followed by the Cool whip, mix again. Add pumpkin pie spice and vanilla bean paste, whip again until combined. Pour over crust and place in refrigerator for three hours, or overnight.

Whip heavy cream with vanilla bean paste until stiff peaks form. Place into large piping bag with star tip attached, pipe desired effect over top of filling, OR simply spread with a spatula over the top. Refrigerate again to set or serve.

You can garnish with extra crumbled gingersnap cookies should you desire.

More recipes at www.rosssveback.com.