Category

Thanksgiving

  • Pumpkin Pie That’ll Actually Make You Love Pumpkin Pie

    Pumpkin Pie That’ll Actually Make You Love Pumpkin Pie

    If there were a universal “meh” list, pumpkin pie would probably be at the very top. How many people are passionate about that odd combination of orange gunk, eggs, pumpkin pie spices (perhaps the most famous thing about it), in a pale, pallid crust? Not many! And yet, year after year, we make pumpkin pie…

  • Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Pears, Toasted Almonds, and Parmesan

    Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Pears, Toasted Almonds, and Parmesan

    There’s been some debate about whether or not you should serve salad at Thanksgiving. My stance? A traditional salad — with wan lettuce leaves from a bag, dried cranberries (the most clichéd Thanksgiving salad ingredient), and toasted pecans — is a pretty depressing thing to see on the table, TBH. But, as I get older,…

  • My Thanksgiving Plate 2014

    My Thanksgiving Plate 2014

    Maybe this is a weird thing to be proud of, but I didn’t write any lead-up to Thanksgiving post this year and it felt really nice. So much of the writing about Thanksgiving is unnecessary: seriously, anything you need to know about turkey or cranberry sauce or stuffing has already been written. The fact that…

  • Cranberry Sauce 101

    Cranberry Sauce 101

    Today’s lesson in Thanksgiving prep (are you sick of Thanksgiving yet? Tough!) concerns what is, in my opinion, the best part of the Thanksgiving table. No, I’m not talking about the napkin rings shaped like little turkeys, I’m talking about that glistening bowl of ruby red cranberry sauce. Its combination of tongue-tickling tartness and mouth-warming…

  • Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

    Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

    Now let’s get to the serious business at hand: Thanksgiving dessert. Oh, I know what you’re going to tell me, that this is a pie holiday and that offering up a cake at Thanksgiving is like offering up a latke at Christmas. Well you’re speaking to a latke person at Christmas, so of course I’m…

  • Skip The White Meat, Braise The Dark Meat and Your Turkey Will Never Be Dry

    Skip The White Meat, Braise The Dark Meat and Your Turkey Will Never Be Dry

    Here’s the thing about turkey. If I were making it for my family, this year, I’d go the Gina DePalma route (click that link for her excellent essay on how to keep it simple): a whole roasted bird, some butter, some stuffing, the end. But, as it happens, I’m not cooking for my family this…

  • Sam Sifton’s Thanksgiving Pear Cobbler

    Sam Sifton’s Thanksgiving Pear Cobbler

    Talk about waiting until the last minute… Most food blogs and websites have inundated you with Thanksgiving recipes for WEEKS and here I am, the day before Thanksgiving, offering you up a recipe for cobbler. But maybe you’re still figuring out dessert? And maybe you haven’t heard about Sam Sifton’s Thanksgiving book yet? If the…

  • Slow-Roasted Herbed Turkey Breast

    Slow-Roasted Herbed Turkey Breast

    Finally, there’s the turkey itself. For years my mom tried to convince me to make just a turkey breast for the Thanksgivings I’d make at home. And for years I refused because I’d never made a whole turkey before and wanted to document that experience for the blog. But because I was cooking a pre-Thanksgiving…

  • Persimmon Cranberry Sauce

    Persimmon Cranberry Sauce

    I love cranberry sauce. You can keep your stuffing, your gravy (blech!), as long as you give me my cranberry sauce, I’m happy. What’s astonishing to me about cranberry sauce is how insanely easy it is to make. The idea that people open a can of that gelatinous mound of cranberry goop is mind-blowing to…

  • Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples

    Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples

    If there’s a time of year to break out Molly Stevens’s new Roasting book, this is it. Thanksgiving dinner is all about roasting. If you deep-fry your bird, you’re missing out on one of the great aspects of Thanksgiving–the lovely aroma of a slow-roasting bird wafting through your house or apartment. Keeping in the spirit…