a note fromm mabel

Mabel heer.

Mommee told me wot a creest-mas is, so i wont to weesh you a mery creest-mas with manee bones and kookies and tumy skreetches and leezards and al the theengs you wont. And laying on the bak of the cowch as much as you wont. And if you dont have a creest-mas at your hous, I hope you get manee treets aneway.

Hapy new yeare!

Sinseerlee,
Mabel

how i learned to stop worrying and love ham hocks

Throwing a dinner party is like learning to ride a bike. With practice, you get over that initial shakiness and stop worrying about crashing and (literally) burning.

I have plenty of practice, so it's not often that I am wracked with uncertainty about dinner parties. But then my friend Casey and I made plans for dinner on a Wednesday night and I had no clue what to serve.

a salad for all places

Maybe you’re expecting a detailed account of everything I cooked for Thanksgiving. If so, I am sorry to disappoint you. My mother-in-law hosted and made a lovely spread and I hardly cooked at all. Between writing about turkey for a solid month straight, traveling with an excited little dog, and being plain exhausted, I fell short in the cooking department this year. Of course I tried—I had a slight hissy fit about not being able to make my favorite cranberry sauce. (Mom beat me to it with her own spiced version, delicious in its own right.)

italian pickled vegetables

It’s holiday gift time! Like you, I have joined the bleary-eyed mob, searching for sweaters and scented soaps and anything that seems remotely “gift-worthy,” as the lady mags say. While it can be fun picking things out for people, all of this consumerism gets to me and I have to counteract it with some made-from-scratch presents.

a note fromm mabel

Mabel heer.

Peepel hav askt me to rite agen so I wil tel you my doings. So Mommee and Daddee put me in a smoll bag, very ruff-like, and we went in a noysee thing to a werm gud-smelling place calt floreda for theenks-geeving.

I stil dont know wat a theenks-geeving is, but manee peepel wer ther. I jomped on them to say hello and sneefed the fud but did not eet any becuz I am gud now. Mommee and Daddee made me go to skool--we lernt about beeing gud. I get manee treets so I dont mind. I dont try to bite peepel, ownlee small dogs and burds and sqorels. And sumtimes peepel hoo make suden mooves.

I will tell you wot is reelee xciting, tho: Leezrds!

link-o-rama, turkey day edition

I'm taking off for Thanksgiving, but not without several links to help you firm up those last-minute turkey day menu plans. This year, my mother-in-law is doing the honors, but I am bringing my cranberry sauce and a dog who may or may not behave.

However you're spending Thanksgiving, have a great one!

55 side dishes for Thanksgiving [via iVillage Food]

5 ways to dress up boxed stuffing [via Bon Appetit]

Saveur’s favorite recipes for all things cranberry [via Saveur]

Bon Appetit’s fluffiest mashed potatoes [via BA]

Thanksgiving menus – from classic to modern [via iVillage Food]

8 great potato gratins [via Saveur]

50 decadent Thanksgiving desserts [via iVillage Food]

Pumpkin dessert ideas [via Food + Wine]

And from the Dinner Party archives:
Cranberry lime sparkler
Sparkling ginger cocktails
Bacon-wrapped dates with parmesan
Stuffed mushrooms
Spiced cashews
Cranberry relish
Celery root puree
Roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and lemon
Fall farro salad
Spiced applesauce cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting
Pumpkin whoopee pies
Sweet potato pie
Pumpkin mousse parfaits

sweet potato ravioli with cheese broth

As my furry correspondent reported, dinner did not go so well the other weekend. You know, biting and all. But it was her first dinner party so I chalk it up to nerves.

It was still fun, however. We drank many gin and tonics and listened to the new Wilco album (very good) and celebrated some great news and marveled at the cuteness of Mabel and ate one of my favorite dishes in all of Brooklyn: sweet potato and sage ravioli in parmesan broth from Frankie's Spuntino.

At Frankie's, you get about half a dozen ravioli floating in a bowl of steaming hot broth that smells like butter and cheese and sage. The pasta is thin and super tender with the bright orange sweet potato showing through. I've ordered this dish many times at Frankie's, so you'd think I would have figured out what was in it by now, but I was pretty surprised when I found the recipe on Serious Eats.