Hi Friends!
Is everyone excited for
Thanksgiving? This is one of my favorite
times of the year. We'll be spending a
long, relaxing weekend with family at a good friend's lake house in Deep
Creek. I cannot wait to relax in the hot
tub out on the deck looking into the woods.
 |
| Ahh Deep Creek |
One of my favorite parts of
Thanksgiving is finding the perfect balance of classic, traditional recipes and
new, interesting ones. I like to do most
of the cooking, though my father always cooks the turkey on the grill. I love spending all day in the kitchen with
my family, drinking cup after cup of coffee, watching football while chopping
vegetables and stirring whatever is on the stove and chatting with my mom. Below you'll find some of my favorite Thanksgiving
recipes from the past few years.
There are a few things we have
without fail every year – A grilled, sage-butter turkey, chive mashed potatoes,
cranberry jelly (from the can – only ever eaten by my sister) and sweet potato
pudding with marshmallows on top (often accidentally lit on fire by being cooked
too close to the broiler.) The recipes
below are things I've found that we have tried and loved and are on heavy
rotation both for Thanksgiving and regular Sunday dinners at my parents.
Note* I like to brown a couple of
slices of bacon first and use that fat to cook the sprouts and then crumble the
bacon on top of the finished dish (I think they call this gilding the lily…)
This risotto is really fantastic
with a homemade stock.
These are a nice lightish
alternative to a heavier creamed spinach type dish.
Everything from Smitten Kitchen
is always awesome. Always.
Another Thanksgiving favorite is
butternut squash soup. Below is a recipe
I've sort of cobbled together by taking bits of other recipes I've really
enjoyed. We make this soup once every
couple of weeks in winter.
2 medium-large
butternut squash
4 cloves garlic
2 large poblano peppers
(if you cannot find these, two chilies in adobo without the sauce will give a
nice warmth to the soup also)
Olive oil
1 onion
¼ cup white wine
1 can fire roasted
tomatoes
1 can coconut milk
Salt
1 tbsp turmeric (optional)
Preheat oven to 400*
Halve 2 large butternut squash (any deep orange winter
squash will work here), clean out the seeds and rub them down with olive oil
and a little salt. Deseed the poblanos
and put them on the tray with the squash.
Put them skin side up on a lined cookie sheet and pop 2
cloves of garlic in each seed hole (get over it… I'm sure they teach you the
technical terms in culinary school) and top with a splash more olive oil
Roast until fork tender (about 40 min or so depending on the
thickness)
In the meantime chop 1 onion and sauté in a tbsp of olive
oil in a soup pot over med high heat. When just starting to
caramelize, add white wine and a can of crushed tomatoes (I like muir glen fire
roasted) and let simmer.
When the squash are soft, let them cool a bit and scoop them
into a blender (Vitamix is best, a hand blender would work also). Add the
coconut milk, a tbsp of curry powder and 2 tbsp salt (add the chipotles at this
point if using) and puree until smooth.
If soup seems too thick, add a bit of water or stock to thin it
out.
So there ya go, a few
recipes to get you going. Hope you all have
a fantastic thanksgiving!
