link-o-rama

Link time!

Ina Garten's interesting-sounding recipe for roasted shrimp cocktail sounds like a great Thanksgiving starter. [via Serious Eats]

Thanksgiving wine picks from The New York Times. What makes a wine "Thanksgiving" appropriate, anyway? Eric Asimov, the paper's wine critic says it's challenging to find wine that can complement such a wide variety of dishes, but isn't that the case with almost any meal? [via the NYT]

A pretty and delicious-sounding fall cocktail, the Northwood #2, made with apple cider, maple syrup, and rum [via BA]

The Chicago Sun-Times has the best meatless Thanksgiving dinner I've read about in awhile. It's from Molly Harrison, the chef at Green Zebra, a well-regarded vegetarian restaurant in Chicago. The menu: mushroom-chestnut cobbler, glazed sweet potatoes, roasted beet salad with oranges and cranberries, and apple crumb pie. Yum.

But even better is her advice. Here are a few smart tips from Harrison we can all use when it comes to Thanksgiving or any dinner party:

-Keep it simple. Don't over-complex your meal; cook simply. Or make it a potluck and ask each guest to bring a dish.

-Use foods in season. For example, don't use strawberries for Thanksgiving. Instead, use apples --they're in their prime. Serve baked apples, apple butter, casseroles with apples, apple pie. Serve fall and winter squash. Simply cut it in half, put it on a tray, add some butter, salt and pepper and roast it in a 350-degree oven for an hour or so. Use beets, root vegetables -- they are very tasty.

-If you find making homemade rolls impossible, bake easy-to-make popovers or even bake refrigerated or frozen rolls or bread.

-Don't sweat it if your dish doesn't look like the picture in the Martha Stewart magazine. Your guests didn't see the photo. Don't bring it up.
[via the Chicago Sun-Times]

a cold-weather salad

I tend to think of main-dish salads as hot weather food. Fall is for soups, and stews, and warm roasted things. But like a lot of people, all this hearty eating eventually makes me feel a little heavy. And bulky sweaters can only conceal so much, you know. So I revisit salad. A nice big plate of mixed greens is great, but when you add a few seasonal ingredients (roasted squash, nuts, apples, braised meat) you've got a dinner worthy of company and something easy enough to throw together on any weeknight.

A few weekends ago, I cobbled together a roasted duck salad inspired by a recent visit to Northeast Kingdom, a super charming restaurant in Brooklyn. I didn't get the recipe from the chef, but I mentally cataloged all of the components (shredded duck, pomegranate seeds, chopped dates, parsley) then tried to reproduce it at home. I made a few changes, adding oranges and pistachios and omitting the dates. Although the restaurant's version had more of a spicy sweetness, my orange zest-infused dressing paired well with the duck. Speaking of which, this was my first time cooking duck. I'm not sure why I put it off for so long. I guess duck always sounded complicated and greasy, but I can happily report it was no more time consuming or difficult than cooking chicken or turkey. If you're still duck-shy, you could substitute slices of roasted squash, grilled steak or chicken.

Roasted duck salad
(Serves about 4 people)

For the salad:
2 boneless duck breasts, skin on
5 oz. baby greens (I used Earthbound Farm's herb mix, which was nice)
2 heads endive, sliced
2 oranges, segmented
1 handful pomegranate seeds
1 handful pistachio seeds, shelled
salt and pepper
olive oil

For the dressing:
1 Tbsp. minced shallots
2 1/2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. orange zest
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the duck breasts on a foil-lined cookie sheet, skin side up. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Roast for about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the duck. The juices should run clear when the center of each breast is with a knife. Remove from the oven, wrap the duck in the foil, and let it rest for about 10 minutes to seal in the juices. Unwrap the duck (watch out for the hot steam), then remove the skin and set it aside. Using a serrated knife, slice the duck and skin thinly and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk all of the dressing ingredients together until combined. If you want to make the dressing a bit richer, add a spoonful or two of the pan juices from the roast duck. Yum. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the lettuce, endive, and fruit. Pour the dressing over the salad, and toss until combined. Plate the salad and arrange the duck slices on top. Sprinkle with pistachios and sliced duck skin.

Serve with:
Roasted acorn squash (click, then scroll down for the recipe)
Pumpkin custard

link-o-rama

Hi all,

Ready for turkey day? No? Maybe these links will help whet your appetite:

For the budget-minded (and who isn't these days?), the ever-impressive Jacques Pepin makes a five-course dinner for six people--for under $24. What's on the menu? Short ribs with mushrooms, cabbage slaw with mustard dressing, sweet and sour glazed squash, sauteed cabbage with kielbasa, and baked apples for dessert. [via the Washington Post]
A dinner party-worthy fall side dish: Spaghetti squash with ricotta, sage, and pine nuts. [via Serious Eats]

Melissa Clark reinvents the Thanksgiving breadbasket. Her corn and black pepper crackers sound like a major step up from Pillsbury twisty breadsticks. [via the NYT]

20 Thanksgiving menus from Bon Appetit. [via BA]

a very special soup

Last week's election was one of those days I'll always remember, down to the smallest details: the excitement on everyone's faces emerging from the voting booths, the album I listened to when waiting in line to vote (Vampire Weekend's Vampire Weekend), nervously refreshing NYT.com a million times at work, what I wore (a purple sweater vest over a white t-shirt and jeans), and most importantly, what I ate.

Instead of going out to watch the returns, Dan and I decided to hunker down in our apartment with our neighbor Caledonia (of peach jam fame) and her adorable daughter Selena. We've only hung out together a few times, and mostly know each other in the unfamiliar-yet-entirely-intimate way of being neighbors in an old building with thin walls. But we both wanted to be home on election night and agreed it would be more fun to spend it together. The day before, Caledonia emailed me to say she would make soup and Selena would make cookies, and I agreed to provide the salad and wine. This was not a time to fuss with food--my stomach was in knots the entire day. More than anything, I just wanted a strong drink.

But when I walked into Caledonia's apartment and smelled this spicy, tomato-ey aroma, I instantly relaxed a bit and exhaled the breath I had been holding all day long. There was soup. Everything would be okay, no matter what. We poured wine, gathered around the TV, and cheered as each blue state was announced. Obama's speech and the excitement leading up to it will always be the center of my memory of that night, but my memories are always intertwined with food, and the scent of that comforting soup will always be there too. A bowl of soup and a mix of anxiousness and elation and feeling permanently connected to people I'm just beginning to know.


Election night dinner
Spicy chickpea, sausage, and tomato soup
Spinach salad with parmesan and green apples
Humbolt Fog cheese
Ginger cookies and ice cream

Chickpea, sausage, and tomato soup
Apologies for the blurry photo above, it was snapped with much haste. In reality, this is a very pretty soup, deeply flavored with cumin, jalapeño, and sausage. Caledonia says she clipped this recipe from a copy of Bon Appetit dating back to 1995 and has held onto it since. After tasting it, I agree it's definitely a keeper. Serve with chopped cilantro and avocado. A dollop of sour cream might be nice too.
(Serves 6 to 8 people)

1 tsp. olive oil
3/4 lb. turkey sausage, casings removed, crumbled
8 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup canned diced peeled tomatoes with juices
2 Tbsp. thinly sliced seeded jalapeño
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried
3 15- to 16-oz. cans chickpeas, undrained
2 cups canned chicken broth or beef broth
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Chopped fresh cilantro
1 avocado, peeled, sliced

Heat olive oil in heavy large Dutch oven (or stock pan) over medium-high heat. Add turkey sausage and chopped garlic and sauté until sausage is golden brown and cooked through, breaking up sausage with back of fork, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add tomatoes with their juices, sliced jalapeño chili, ground cumin and chopped fresh rosemary and simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add chickpeas with their liquid and chicken broth and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer soup 15 minutes. Stir in fresh lemon juice. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat before continuing.) Ladle soup into bowls. Sprinkle soup with chopped fresh cilantro and top with sliced avocado. Serve immediately.

peanut butter chocolate madness

I have reservations about sharing this recipe with you. I'm not really sure it's a good idea. These cookies are dangerous. Like, evilly good. Way, way too fast to make. And so darn foolproof that you might be tempted to bake them all the time. Every day, possibly. And then you'll gain ten pounds and hate me.

Sigh. Maybe I should give you more credit. You're not like that, are you? You won't eat one cookie, then sneak another one when no one's looking, then--what the hell--eat three more. And then brush the crumbs on the carpet. Ahem. No, you have willpower and healthy eating habits and can be trusted around a bag of chocolate chips.

So here you go. Go forth and bake. Just keep these babies away from me.

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
Even though you might eat your weight in these cookies (by Amy Fritch via Gourmet), they have no butter, oil, or flour. Which sort of offsets the guilt, right?
(Makes about 3 dozen cookies)


1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets (or line them with foil for faster clean-up). In a large bowl, stir together the first four ingredients until smooth. Add the chocolate chips and stir until incorporated into the batter. Roll teaspoons of the dough into balls and arrange about 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Use the tines of a fork to flatten the balls to about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, making a crosshatch pattern. Bake cookies in batches until puffed and pale golden, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets for at least 2 minutes. They may still be soft and crumbly when you transfer them onto a rack or plate, so do this carefully (I used a pie server to avoid breakage). As the cookies cool, they will get firmer. Store in an airtight container.

a victory song

We'll be back to regularly scheduled dinner party programming tomorrow. But for now, let's just practice these words again and again: President Barack Obama.

I can't wait until January 20. Until then, I'll be playing this song.

The Underdog, by Spoon

Picture yourself in the living room
your pipe and slippers set out for you
I know you think that it ain't too far

But I hear the call of a lifetime ring
felt the need to get up for it
oh you cut out the middleman
get free from the middleman

You got no time for the messenger,
got no regard for the thing that you don't understand,
you got no fear of the underdog,
that's why you will not survive!

I wanna forget how convention fits
but can I get out from under it?
Can I gut it out of me?
It can't all be wedding cake
It can't all be boiled away
I try but I can't let go of it
Can't let go of it,

Cause you don't talk to the water boy
and there's so much you could learn but you don't want to know,
You will not back up an inch ever,
that's why you will not survive!

The thing that I tell you now
It may not go over well
And it may not be photo-op
in the way that I spell it out

But you won't hear from the messenger,
don't wanna know bout something that you don't understand,
You got no fear of the underdog,
that's why you will not survive! (Hey!)

chicken vs. broken glass

Happy election day eve to my U.S. readers. I hope everyone gets out to the polls tomorrow and votes for Barack Obama, the only candidate fit to lead this country out of the incomprehensible mess we're in.

To bring it back to food, a more appropriate topic for this blog, here's David Sedaris on undecided voters:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?