This post is mostly a repeat from a few years ago. I’ve updated it with some new additions. But just in case you need some ideas for planning Thanksgiving, here are my suggestions.

If you want to see all the recipes on my website, check out the Recipe Index page. It’s huge – maybe too huge. But if you’d like ideas that I think make for a delicious but traditional Thanksgiving dinner, then look no further. Certainly, I return year after year to some favorite recipes, but most likely I introduce something new to the menu equation each year. As I write this I haven’t decided on my menu for Thanksgiving 2009 – yet. We’ll have 6 adults and 3 grandchildren for Thanksgiving dinner itself.

So here’s my roundup of recipes that are sure to please, have been taste-tested and some can even be made ahead:

Appetizers: It’s my opinion that too many appetizers will spoil your appetite for this feast-of-a-meal. Generally I’ll put out some raw vegetables and a dip, or nothing at all. Maybe some nuts. But that’s IT. Besides, if you’re anything like me, I’m buzzing around the kitchen with way too many things to do to take time for appetizers (either preparing, serving or eating). We definitely don’t serve a fancy drink, either. Wine or champagne and soft drinks will be around for anyone who wants them, but that’s it. Maybe some sparkling apple juice for the kids and non-drinkers. But, if you insist on something to serve ahead, here are recipes that would work. The first crostini happen to be a real favorite but they take a bit of fussy work to make them at the last minute – assign the job to one of your guests if possible. And the herb dip (which you’d never know is made with tofu) is relatively light, so serve with fresh veggies to dip or crackers. The onion brushetta – oh my, delish and not all that heavy. And the last crostini is very different, but not particularly light.
Crostini with Apples & Blue Cheese & Honey
Hot & Spicy Tofu Herb Dip – because it’s not heavy or filling
Mahogany Sweet Onion Bruschetta
Gorgonzola, Grape & Pine Nut Crostini

The Turkey, the Main Event: Having tried every single solitary type and brand of turkey out there over the years, I’m now totally devoted to Kosher turkeys. They’re brined, you know, already. So you don’t have to do it. Kosher brining is just a salt and water brine, no added herbs or anything, but it’s fine for me. It’s not too salty, either. Sometimes Kosher turkeys are hard to find, but they ARE carried at Trader Joe’s and at Whole Foods. I missed out at Trader Joe’s one year, so ended up buying two Kosher birds at Whole Foods. They were outrageously expensive (certainly more than at Trader Joe’s) but they were off-the-charts delicious. Even my husband, who isn’t crazy about turkey but eats it, said it was very, very good. So, get thy self to a market where you can get one of these birds. Know, however, that you may not be able to make the gravy from the drippings – generally the broth is too salty. You can try, though. You also don’t want to stuff a brined bird – too much of the salty brine leaches into the dressing.

The Gravy: Because I use a Kosher bird that is heavily salted, usually I have to make the gravy separately. My friend Stacey sent me a recipe last year for a Turkey Gravy Without the Turkey. It was a great find, as you can make the gravy the day before! How about them apples! Everything I can do ahead is a good thing in my book.
Turkey Gravy without the Turkey

The Stuffing (Dressing): Over the years I must have made dozens of different dressings. I’m not overly committed to any one flavor (like cornbread, or oyster, etc.) but prefer a very moist, flavorful dressing. That’s all I ask. Last year I made an Italian sausage dressing that was one of the best I’ve ever done, so will likely make that one again. I’ve also made a Rachel Ray recipe called Stuffin’ Muffins one year – and they were also very good.
Italian Sausage Dressing
Rachel Ray’s Stuffin’ Muffins (link to Food Network’s recipe)

The Potatoes: Well, mashed potatoes are a necessity for me. And I was thrilled one year to read a recipe for making them several hours ahead, piling them into my big crockpot where they held very well for the ensuing hours. You do have to doctor-up the recipe a little to make them particularly moist, but otherwise they’re so simple and I like the fact that all the work can be done ahead. If you don’t want mashed, but prefer another type, there are a couple of other scalloped-type suggestions listed below the mashed.
Crockpot Mashed Potatoes
Goat Cheese Potato Gratin
Monterey Scalloped Potatoes with Jack Cheese
Mashed Potatoes with Bacon, Cheddar & Chives (also has a make-ahead version with added cream cheese)

The Sweet Potatoes: You won’t find a single one of those icky sweet potato casseroles here. I can’t stand them. They’re simply too darned sweet. But I do have a couple of sweet potato dishes that would be quite nice. Generally I fix either mashed potatoes OR sweet potatoes, not both.
Sweet Potato Bake (a pdf of a sweet potato & white potato recipe I’ve never posted as a story – good recipe, though)
Yam Slices with Garlic & Rosemary
Yams, Carrots & Ginger

The Vegetables: Over the years I’ve served just about every kind of vegetable. Some to acclaim, and some not. I happen to love Brussels sprouts (steamed, halved and tossed with salt, pepper and butter), but since Thanksgiving is often a family and multi-generational affair, my DH and I have learned to eat our Brussels at another meal. I like peas, but they’re not very exciting, and besides since this is an overly-rich carbohydrate meal, I don’t serve them anymore. Same goes for corn. I used to serve a baked corn casserole nearly every year, but no longer. So what do I serve? The garlic green beans fit well, although some might not like the garlic with this meal. It’s fine with me. Here are some suggestions:
Broccoli Casserole
Garlic Green Beans – may be too garlicky for the subtle turkey
Baked Fennel
Green Beans, Shallots, Balsamic
Ina Garten’s Zucchini Gratin
Baked Onions
Cauliflower, Bacon & Mushrooms
Creamy Brussels Sprouts
Green Beans & Hazelnut Butter
French Green Beans with Pears & Parmesan

Bread: I don’t serve bread at Thanksgiving any longer. I mean, really, with dressing, potatoes and pumpkin pie, you hardly need any more carbs. But if you insist, here are a few recipes that will work:
Herbed Biscuit Ring – made with the canned biscuits – very easy
Scallion Goat Cheese Chive Muffins

The Salads: Since I grew up with Jell-o salads as a staple at the holiday table, I actually like them, as long as they’re not too sweet. Also, I like them because they’re easy and can be made ahead. You can also make them not-so-sweet if you add vegetables instead of fruit and/or whipped cream. I’ve never blogged about them because you, my loyal readers, might cancel your subscription! One of my favorites is a peach flavored gelatin with a waldorf set of ingredients (diced apples, celery and walnuts). Or, in recent years we also make a green salad. We have family members who still love a green salad anytime, anywhere. They’d almost rather eat green salad than the rest of the meal. So, with that one I would add some of my peppered pecans, or walnuts, pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries. Those additions make it more festive and holiday-ish.
Green Salad with Peppered Pecans and add some dried cranberries too
Cranberry (Jell-o) Waldorf Salad – I’ve never blogged about this one, but you can get the PDF recipe by clicking the recipe title
Apple, Dried Cherry & Walnut Green Salad – very rich, but would be perfect for a holiday dinner
Celery, Date, Walnut & Pecorino Salad – green type, but perfect for this meal

The Cranberry Thing: Some of our family members still like the canned stuff. (They have to bring it if they want it at my table.) No canned stuff for me. So I always, I mean always, make my favorite cranberry relish that has ginger, apples and oranges ground up in it. Make it a week or so in advance then you don’t have to worry about it except to put it out in a serving bowl.
Cranberry Relish – made in the food processor and oh-so easy

Dessert: Well, what can I tell you but we always have traditional pumpkin pie. As far as I’m concerned that’s all that’s needed, but generally somebody else brings the pies at our family get-togethers, and they bring both pumpkin and apple. With real whipped cream, thank you. And the pumpkin usually is Libby’s recipe, and Libby’s pumpkin. That’s it. End of story. But, if you don’t really want pumpkin, here’s a really special dessert that will put your carb count into overdrive.
Cinnamon Raisin Apple Bread Pudding

Leftovers: Well, other than reheating the different components of Thanksgiving dinner, I generally make soup.

THE STOCK: I remove most of the turkey meat from the carcass after the big feast. The bones go into a large, deep soup pot (you may have to break them up some), cover with water and add an onion, some celery, a bay leaf, maybe a garlic clove or two (no salt), put a lid on it and put it in the oven overnight at about 225F. In the morning you’ll have a wonderful turkey stock from which to make soups. Strain everything through a colander and cool and chill. The only down side for me is that on Friday morning the whole house smells like turkey, and sometimes that’s not so appealing at 7:00 in the morning. But, that doesn’t ever keep me from doing it because making that stock is just so easy.

Go from there . . . Here are my leftover favorites:
White Chicken Turkey Chili
Chicken Turkey Posole
Turkey (free form) Tortilla Soup
(Another) Chicken Turkey Chili
Southwestern Turkey Chili
White Turkey Chili (what I did with the leftovers last year – maybe my best turkey chili)
Roasted Sweet Potato & Black Bean Salad (if you have plain sweet potatoes left over)

SANDWICH BREAD: And then, last but not least, I’m telling you about a bread – a bread that you should use for turkey sandwiches. I’ve been making this bread for years and years and years. It’s not difficult (easier if you have a stand mixer), although it IS a yeast bread, not a tea bread. It’s a pumpkin flavored bread, with some raisins and chopped walnuts in it, but it’s more a savory bread and goes just great with leftover turkey sandwiches, especially spread with just a little bit of cranberry relish, crisp lettuce and nice slices of turkey.
Pumpkin Raisin Yeast Bread for Sandwiches

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Having read at more than one website or blog about this book, I decided I did need to read it. The food magazines mostly have given the book high ratings. It’s the memoir of a 30-something woman who hits a crossroads in her life (left her good-paying corporate job) to pursue  her childhood dream of going to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Encouraged by her new boyfriend (now her husband), she packs a minimum of belongings, hops on a plane and starts in the professional course in Paris.

She, this American woman, spoke no French, yet she joined a group of international people with the same aspirations, most of them wanting to be a chef. She aspired to be a food writer or journalist of some kind. The course is the same – learning all those basics of sauces, meats, entrails, pastry, yeast, etc. There’s a bit of catty behavior amongst the adult women (students) which was a little difficult to imagine, yet the school is certainly competitive, so I suppose some people could stoop so low as to take all or most of the necessary ingredients so someone else wouldn’t have any (and thereby score poorly). That seemed to be a repeated event in the book – the sous chefs who prep the food for the students sometimes didn’t have enough of one thing or another (the early birds caught the worm on each occasion, and Kathleen was never the early bird). Sometimes the items were essential. No complaining allowed, though. No histrionics in class, for sure. She had to endure some harsh words many a time.

The book chronicles her couple of years there, interspersed with updates about her romance (he actually lived in Paris with her part of the time), the foibles of the different apartments she/they lived in and the lack of certain things she needs to cook. It’s also about her classmates (who change with each session) and the competitive nature of the school. If the teaching chefs at LCB treated most people the way they treated her, I’d doubt many people would last but a few weeks. She does learn French, discovers that success means mastering some of the recipes in her apartment kitchen, often laboring into the wee hours.

Each chapter ends with a recipe – perhaps modified slightly from the official ones at the school. They’re recipes you’ll find in most French cookbooks. I can’t say that I found any recipe I wanted to rush to the kitchen to prepare. But Le Cordon Bleu teaches almost more about technique than the recipes.

What I came away with was one sure thing: I’d have never survived that culinary school. I’d have been reduced to tears (something that just wasn’t done) on day one or two. Kathleen nearly quit once, but was encouraged to keep going. Part of her problem was the language – in the second and subsequent sessions the classes were taught only in French. She did take French lessons, and eventually she more-or-less mastered it – at least culinary French for sure.

Whether she really was disliked at first by the French teaching chefs, it’s hard to know, but they were very hard on her. It seemed like the chefs didn’t like Americans; English speaking students had to work harder to prove his or her mettle. Kathleen persevered, however, and it seemed that some of the chefs came around. For her final exam she decided to prepare a very grand plate – was advised by the chef not to, that it couldn’t be done in the limited time – she practiced it ad nauseum at home to perfect it and complete it in the time allowed. The chefs were mightily impressed. Perhaps that exam meal was her piece de resistance. At graduation she was offered a plum stage but opted not to do it. In the interim her husband was in a bad accident here in the U.S. and felt he needed her more than a non-paying stageI in a Swiss restaurant. Besides, she never aspired to be a chef.

The book, The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School is interesting. Not the kind of book you can’t put down, however. Every student took copious notes (obviously she did that part well) so she had ample material to write a book. There were some funny incidents that gave pause. I particularly enjoyed one thing: the French teaching chefs, in trying to pronounce her name, called her “Meez Fleen.” Every time she wrote that in the book I chuckled.

Her favorite teaching chef said to her as she left school for the last time, “Remember, Meez Fleen, taste, taste, taste.” A good mantra for every cook. It’s something I try to do with everything I make (well, you can’t do it with baked goods). Hence my little silver Mint Julep cup of tasting spoons that sits beside my kitchen stove. (And, the muse for my blog’s name, obviously!

If you’re new to my blog, those spoons (and a few forks) pictured at left are very old silver plated ones that belonged to Dave’s mother. Some are engraved, some with initials we don’t even recognize as part of the family tree. Some need replating, and we do have to polish them periodically. But, rather than let them sit in the silverware box in a drawer, rarely seeing the light of day, I pulled them out some years ago. They’re a variety of styles, all thinly shaped and small, which makes them just perfect for tasting as I cook. I like to think that Dave’s mother smiles every time I reach for one, which is often. I hope the chef at Le Cordon Bleu would also smile in approval.

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A simple, tasty way to roast a turkey breast, then serve with a green peppercorn sauce mixed with whole berry cranberry sauce that’s just bursting with flavor. You do have to plan ahead at least 2 1/2 days, though.

I don’t know about you, but I just never think to roast a turkey breast. In fact, I don’t even look at them at the grocery store. I know the breast meat is considered a healthy meat, but I’ve always thought that roasting a breast would/could only end up being dry and tasteless. I’m wrong. Absolutely wrong. You’ll be amazed. I think my difficulty is in remembering the rolled turkey breasts they used to sell (oh, maybe they still do). The kind that almost looks like hot lunch meat? Those are (were) downright awful. Didn’t we make them in the crockpot? Well, this recipe is NOT about that kind of turkey breast!

The biggest problem – if you can call it that – will be FINDING a bone-in turkey breast. Boneless ones, yes. Bone in, not so easy! They just don’t seem to be readily available. Some Sprouts stores have them sometimes (I found mine there), particularly this time of year. Here in California we have a chicken and turkey producer called Zacky Farms, and they do sell them, but you’ve got to seek them out as they don’t seem to be at every store that carries the product.

The dry brine (pictured at left – it sat in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for 2 days): it means it’s a salt mixture that serves the same purpose as a wet salt water brine, but it doesn’t take up so much room in your refrigerator and is ever-so much easier to handle. At the cooking class Phillis Carey taught about this, she said she has stopped making the wet salt brine because she simply has no place in her refrigerator to keep a brined turkey, and she’s quite happy with this dry brine method.

The turkey breast needs to sit in the refrigerator for 48 hours – that’s why you have to plan ahead on this one. The dry brine is a mixture of salt, orange zest, pepper and dried thyme. See? Easy. Just pop it into a Ziploc bag and set it in the refrigerator. Every 12 hours, though, you need to open it up, massage the salt mixture all over the meat again and turn it over. Then, the day you’re serving this, 8 hours ahead you will do one more step. The salt should be invisible by this point (it’s soaked into the meat). The turkey skin will be moist, but not wet. At this point you place the turkey breast on a plate and set it (uncovered) in the refrigerator. Let it sit there for at least 6 hours. Now you roast it after browning the skin side in a bit of oil. The breast goes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (skin side up) for about 40-45 minutes.

Do use an instant read thermometer for this – haven’t we all eaten turkey at Thanksgiving when the breast meat is so dry you can hardly choke it down? When you roast a whole bird you have to cook it until the thigh meat is done and usually the breast meat is far past it’s peak temperature. I noticed in one of the cooking magazines they were touting cutting the turkey into pieces and roasting the sections separately (so you could remove the breast meat when it’s done). Makes such good sense, but then you never see the pretty bird on the plate. In the article they had placed the parts (in their proper position) on a big platter, but they were all flat, on a bed of greens.

Here, you’ll be able to get the turkey breast exactly the way you want it. Remove the turkey when the internal temp has reached 160° F. Ideally you want the breast meat to be 165° F (that’s the safe eating temperature), and it should be fine if it goes up to 170°. Hopefully no higher than that. You’ll set the turkey on a carving board and tent it with foil and in that time the temperature will rise to at least 165° or 170° in just a few minutes.

Now let’s talk about the sauce. You might need to make a trip to the grocery store, and perhaps a higher end one to get the green peppercorns. They’re definitely not at any old market. And my advice is to buy the more expensive by weight. At the cooking class Phillis recommended a brand carried at the cookware store where the class was held. Within seconds 3 women had popped up out of their seats and grabbed the entire stock of them. So I had to buy a different brand at an upscale market. Having not tasted these side by side, I don’t know exactly how they differ. The store owner is going to order more, so eventually I’ll get that brand (I don’t even know the name, other than it said poivre vert in large green letters on the side of the 3-inch high can. I’ve looked online and didn’t see an image of the can.

You’ll want some whole berry cranberry sauce (something I never buy unless I have to!), or you can make your own if you have the time and inclination. I think this would be lovely made with homemade cranberry sauce with port wine. See this recipe if you’re interested. The turkey is cut off the bone for easier carving. It was still super-hot and had reached exactly 165° on the instant read. I had heated plates to serve it on.

What’s GOOD: the low calories and maximum flavor; how easy it was to make, although you do have to let it marinate for 48 hours; planning ahead IS necessary; overall delicious flavor. The turkey meat was SO tender and juicy. I was amazed. Loved the sauce too. The turkey breast (half) I had served 4 people for dinner, and there’s enough left over for one more meal for 2. Unless you’re feeding young men or boys!

What’s NOT: only the 48-hour+ plan-ahead part. Otherwise, it’s a great recipe.

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Do you remember when I mentioned, after being on our recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, eating a fantastic piece of cake when we visited The Willows Inn, on Lummi Island. Tender slices of this cake (I thought it was a pound cake) were sitting next to the urns of coffee in the lobby, and as we checked out, our last morning there, having not had any breakfast yet, I took a slice. And thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

After we got back home, I emailed my friend Jerianne about our trip – and about the cake (because she loves to bake too) she just took the bull by the horns – she has a lot more gutsiness than I do – and picked up the phone, called the Inn and asked for the recipe. And they SENT IT to her! Oh my gosh. This was a couple of months ago now, and at the time I had just made a pound cake (in my feeble attempt to make some kind of a tender one from an online recipe) I thought I’d wait awhile before making this.

WELL! First thing is the chef called this a rum cake. Remember, I thought it was a pound cake. But having made it, I really think it has the texture of a chiffon cake, but those are made with oil, not butter. Since my head just tries to understand the chemistry, I dug out several of my baking cookbooks, and found the answers  (mostly) in the Sur la Table cookbook, The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. This type of cake is called an egg-separated sponge cake. However, this one differs from the standard because it has quite a bit of butter in the egg  yolk batter. Most sponge cakes have little to no fat in them and their rising relies on the air incorporated in the egg yolks and whites. They derive their fat from the egg yolks themselves. But if it were truly a sponge cake it would have NO added fat. So that’s why it’s a kind of a combination of a standard butter cake and the egg-separated sponge cake.

Good, we have that settled now! (Maybe I should have been a chemist?) In the process of getting ready to make this I did rearrange the writing of the recipe, and clarified some of the instructions a bit, and added in my suggestions here and there too. The recipe was sent with ingredient weights rather than volume, and I’ve left it that way (and added in suggestions on approximate volume). I do think this is one of those kinds of recipes that will help if you use your scale. As elaborate as this is – well maybe elaborate isn’t the right word – it’s time consuming for sure – you don’t want to mess up on the weights and measures!

The batter has 3 parts – (1) the dry part (cake flour, and sifted at that!); (2) the egg yolk part; and (3) the meringue (egg white) part. Once all of those parts are prepared, it’s combined into a billowy, frothy batter and baked.

The recipe, in one area mentioned loaf pans. In another sentence it mentioned a tube pan, so I’m surmising that you could use either. I included instructions for both, although I only made it in a tube pan. Based on my recollection of the slice I ate at the Inn, I think theirs was made in loaf pans. The recipe indicated 45 minutes in the oven. Well, when I checked at 45 minutes in, the batter was still very jiggly and wet. My heart sank – I thought I’d most likely messed it up somehow, and even went back to the recipe to make sure I’d not forgotten something. No, it looked okay. I set the timer for another 15 minutes. I tested it with an instant read thermometer, my Thermapen, and it was only about 180°F. Another 10 minutes and it got to about 195°F. Each time, of course, the oven loses heat, so I have no idea exactly how many minutes it would take in one straight bake – but certainly a lot more than 45 minutes. Perhaps in loaf pans? I don’t know. Eventually it reached 200°F and I removed it from the oven.

What I learned was that the cake is very fragile – and in making a tender kind of cake – it would be very easy to break or crack it. I was fortunate that mine stayed together. Unintentionally, I did leave a bit of the cake on the tube-pan bottom, but not enough to make any difference. The cake must be left to cool to room temp, then you remove it from the pan(s). The recipe was specific – the cake needs to sit for a day (overnight) before slicing. The cake, right out of the pan, is very VERY moist and with the meringue batter as part of it, the outside edges were a bit sticky, so if you tried to slice it at that point, I think it would tear or rip. That must be why it needs to rest overnight – by enclosing it in foil the outside edges all softened.

I used a knife and an offset spatula to make sure the cake was separated from the pan. The physical act of removing it from the pan – well that was a bit of a juggling act – I used my outstretched and splayed fingers and my forearm to gently tip the cake out, then righted it very quickly and let it sit. Meanwhile I had a huge piece of foil ready, and some additional rum. Some is spread on the bottom of the foil (otherwise it would stick, I suppose), then you place the cake on top, then brush the top and edges with more rum (maybe about 2-3 T.). It’s all sealed up in the foil and left to sit.

Next day I just couldn’t wait until our dinner to see if the cake tasted like I remember. We were having guests and this was dessert. What if it was a completely bust? I might have to fix some other kind of dessert on short notice. I needn’t have worried – the cake was absolutely just as I remembered. (Later note: I made this a couple of weeks ago and put part of it in the freezer. I was trying to find something else, pulled out a little package of these, defrosted it. Oh my. So delicious!) This leads directly into my ranking system . . .

What’s GOOD: there is absolutely nothing about this cake that isn’t good (fabulous is more like it), IMHO. It has texture (oh so very tender) and moisture (it almost drips with it) and sugar and mellowness. Everything about this cake makes it a winner. I served it with whipped cream and some fresh plums that I’d simmered in port wine. If you want to get the full impact of the cake, serve it plain, or maybe with just a little bit of whipped cream. A definite five-star winner in my book.

What’s NOT: the only thing I can say is that it does take a bit of time to make – there are numerous steps and you’ll dirty up a lot of dishes in the process. But it’s worth the effort and the elbow grease (you can ask my DH about that – he did have to wash everything). If you’ve never made a sponge cake before, it might seem a bit intimidating. Just make sure you have the butter and eggs at room temp and follow the directions. Don’t over mix anything.

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Oh my goodness . . . where  have you been all my life . . . German style mashed potatoes? You’re going to become a regular – at those special times when we have mashed potatoes, that is. These were really easy enough to make and we could hardly stop eating them.

We were having some sausages (Nuremburger and Bratwurst) for dinner, the delicious ones I buy at a German deli, Tip Top Meats, in Carlsbad (north of San Diego). I had one Russet potato I’d bought several weeks ago – it was almost over the hill. That’s how often I use potatoes. Anyway, I let my mind run wild as to what to do with it. I searched for some kind of more healthy fried potato. They’re not one of my favorite things, though. When we go out to breakfast I never eat fried potatoes or hashed browns, or even country fried potatoes. They’re just not my thing. So I looked further and I noticed a German style mashed potato recipe (at A Taste of Home). Sure enough, I had all the ingredients.

The potato was cut up into chunks (I chose to leave the skin on) and simmered them for 10-12 minutes until the potato was cooked through. I drained them, returned them to the same pot and set them aside. Meanwhile, I defrosted one slice of thick-sliced bacon from the freezer, chopped it up into little chunks and set it to rendering on the stove. Then I added  half a chopped up red onion (any onion will do – I just happened to have a half of a red onion in the refrigerator). The bacon had virtually no fat in it, so I had to add a tetch of oil to keep the mixture from burning. Then I added a chopped up (cored, unpeeled) apple. I had a honey crisp apple, but you could probably  use any type – this one didn’t disintegrate at all – I liked that part, so you’d want to use a crisp type or a Granny Smith. If you used a Pippin, you might want to add sugar. I let it sauté for about 10 minutes over low heat. Then I added about 1-2 teaspoons of white vinegar, salt and pepper. The recipe indicated adding sugar, but I tasted it and didn’t think it was needed.

The recipe had you roughly mash the potatoes, so I used my hand-masher some – not thoroughly, as I like to still taste some little chunks – then I scraped in the apple, bacon and onion and stirred it up. The Russet was quite dry by then so I did need to add some milk to smooth it out. I added a little salt and pepper and it was done. Oh my. Yes. I’m glad I left the pan in the kitchen (I always serve our plates in the kitchen so we aren’t tempted to have seconds) so I have enough for another dinner.

What’s GOOD: well, having never had potatoes and apples before in any combination, it was a really lovely taste combination. It was a beautiful match with the sausage. I put out a couple of jars of different kinds of mustard and that was our dinner along with some sliced tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese drizzled with white balsamic vinegar and some Tuscan olive oil. And sprinkled with fresh basil we still have growing in the garden. We both ate in near silence – because it all tasted so darned good. Absolutely I’ll be making this again and again. I’d think kids would love this since it has a bit of sweetness from the apples.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of – it does take a little extra time to make, but if you ever do sausages on the grill or any kind of sausage as a dinner entrée, you’ll be really happy to have this variation on fried potatoes or straight mashed.

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Do you forget about preparing celery root? Surely I do – and I like celeriac. I just never think to buy it. Does it help to know that celery root is actually a very healthy food? Low in calories and certainly a lot lower in carbs than potatoes.

Probably the deterrent is the nuisance of preparing it. Or maybe we look at it as such an ugly veggie, we just don’t bother? Well, fix that, by making this dish the next time you need some creamy carb. Depending on how gnarly it is, you can try using a vegetable peeler. If it’s particularly root-y, I’d recommend using a knife. Do remove all of the little dark brown crevices, though – they don’t look pretty in the finished dish. Plunge the cut cubes into cold water as it turns brown quickly. 

Cut everything up and put it into cold water to cover and just let it sit until you’re ready to cook it. That will keep both veggies from turning brown. Allow yourself about 30 minutes total – to bring the pot to a boil, then simmering. Mashing and seasoning takes no time at all.

It doesn’t take long to cook it – usually about 15 minutes. Hence you cut the potatoes into slightly smaller pieces so they’ll all be done at about the same time. Once done, you drain it, mash it by hand (providing you like a rustic mash – I do), then add butter and milk. You can put the celery root in a food processor (not the potato, however – it becomes glue-y). Season it with salt and pepper, then toss in the arugula. Of course, if you’re not an arugula fan, just leave it out. Garnish with Italian parsley. Makes a great bed for a meat dish. Next recipe up will be a chicken breast that goes really well with this.

What’s GOOD: well, the taste is first and foremost. The combo of celery root and potato is really nice. Mellow. Nutty almost. The texture, of course, is just like mashed potatoes, but using the combo is healthier. Fewer carbs for sure. I like the arugula addition. Do remember that celery root is really good for us!
What’s NOT: not much of anything, other than getting over the appearance of the celery root.

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What do you think about them apples sweet potatoes? Ever seen purple sweet potatoes? Me neither! Did you know that purple foods are high in antioxidants? Yup!

The folks at Frieda’s send me new products now and then, and when they asked if I’d like to try this new purple sweet potato, I said sure! A few days later they arrived on my doorstep, and it just happened I was making a roasted turkey breast for dinner. Perfect!

Here’s what the purple sweet potatoes look like whole, unpeeled.

From the outside, they don’t look too different from an ordinary red/orange sweet potato. But gosh, once you cut into it, you sure know it’s different. Below is a photo of the peeled and halved potato.

The little white ring (right) inside, is a fluid that leaks from the potato – perhaps the starch? I don’t know. It made no difference in the cooked potato.

With a turkey breast on the menu, I wanted mashed potatoes, so I merely chopped them up (after peeling) into 1 1 /2 inch pieces, approximately, cooked them in simmering water until they were done, mashed with a hand masher, added some milk, butter, salt, pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. Perfect!

We had guests for dinner, and I must say, everyone was a little apprehensive about them, but once you put them in your mouth you have no idea they’re purple. Certainly made fun conversation at the table. Our daughter Sara was visiting that night and I had her take home the leftovers to her teenagers. Hmmm. They wouldn’t even try it. They thought Grandma was playing a trick, that I’d doctored them up with purple food coloring. She assured them I wasn’t, but they still wouldn’t taste them! We ate all but a few bites, though, and thought they tasted great. The color is a little odd, I must say, but yes, I’d buy them again. They were fun and tasty too.

Here’s what Frieda’s has to say about this potato:

[Stokes’s is a] special new sweet potato variety with purple skin and bold purple flesh that intensifies when cooked. Aside from its unique bold color, The Stokes Purple® differs from other sweet potatoes and yams in its flavor and mouth feel, offering a favorably dryer, denser and richer taste that is not cloyingly sweet. The Stokes Purple® Sweet Potato is grown in California and is non-GMO.

If you’re interested in finding these critters, here’s a link to Frieda’s resource page for them. You might call the store listed to make sure they DO have them. If your family is into doing something fun, this might be the ticket to surprise at your Thanksgiving meal!

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Can I just tell you – please make this. It is really extra-special in the taste department. But then, I love hazelnuts. And then I also love whipped cream (who doesn’t?). And the plum compote with the hazelnuts somehow is one of those magical pairings. Just make it.

Some of my friends – and my friend Cherrie’s friends – laugh at us – why do we need to go to cooking classes, since we both are pretty darned good home cooks? Neither of us has professional training. Neither of us really lacks for ideas. Neither of us lack cookbooks to get even more ideas. Neither of us dreads cooking. So why do we go? Well, sometimes it’s just to get us thinking outside of our own boxes.

We also go to classes because we’re close friends, and we enjoy spending time together, of course, but we always – and I mean always – learn something. You’d really think we would be past the stage where we could still learn, but yet, we do. And of course, the kitchen gadget inventors love to tweak us – about needing a new something to augment our already bulging kitchen utensil drawers.

This class was in a private home in an area near us called Nellie Gale Ranch. Seeing this house, in itself would have been a reason to go to the cooking class – I think the home (kitchen pictured above) was THE most beautiful home I’ve ever visited in my life – it was decorated in my style and every step I took, ever hallway I entered, every turn I made I’d find some new pretty thing – a niche, a decorator item, an arch, a room just exquisitely appointed. The hostess, Karen, designed the house herself – I mean everything – the architecture of it, every wall, doorway, bathroom, and she paid attention to minute detail. She also designed all the interior décor and does all of it herself. I was mightily impressed. The granite in the kitchen was honed first, then “leathered.” I’d never seen that before. Note the lights under the toe kick area. Note the windows behind the 2 cupboards on the far wall – so natural light brightens the entire room. There were 3 sinks in the kitchen, 2 of them farmstyle fronts. She has indoor table seating for 32 people (I counted) although 8 of those are in an enclosed solarium back 20 feet or so behind where I was standing taking the above photo. She has 2 laundry rooms, 5 or 6 fireplaces. Oh my, I could go on and on and on.

The class was taught by Tarla Fallgatter, who regularly teaches classes to this group Cherrie and I are in. We get together 4 times a year. And had I looked at this recipe in a magazine or even a cookbook, I might not have given it much thought. Nothing in it would have generated any kind of “wow” thoughts. I do like hazelnuts, though. But oh, was this dessert ever delicious. After eating it I concluded that it must be that hazelnuts and plums have a natural affinity – a food chemistry when they’re paired.

The shortcakes are easy enough – the only caveat there is to NOT overwork the dough. If you do, the shortcakes will get tough. Tarla pressed the dough to about an inch thickness and made very short wedges. She cut them erratically in order to get a short triangle (see photo), not a long tapered one, as she says more often than not that thin, tapered end will fall off when you pick it up to plate it. To make it easier, cut rounds with a cutter instead. And really, it makes no-never-mind what shape it’s in anyway – cut squares if you want. If you make them thinner they’ll be more crispy. If you make them thicker than an inch, they’ll be more soft. The 1-inch one was absolutely perfect.

Plums happen to be in season right now, and they just were so perfect for this – different too. Don’t we first think strawberries? If the plums you buy are not ripe/soft, you may need to cook them awhile longer – you want them to be tender (not mush, though). Add the raspberries at the last minute – otherwise they’ll completely fall apart. You’ll not even know they’re in the fruit mixture.

When I looked at the nutrition/calorie count of this, I gasped. It must be the volume of whipped cream. Perhaps you could make do with 1 cup of heavy cream – that would cut down some. But the shortcakes do need an ample amount of whipped cream – it’s more than just decoration here.

What’s GOOD: there isn’t anything about this that ISN’T good in my opinion. The hazelnuts are different in a shortcake and you definitely can taste them. Toasting them enhances their flavor so much. The plums were piquant and sweet at the same time; mixed with the whipped cream the flavor mixture in my mouth just . . . well, it was sinfully good.
What’s NOT: absolutely nothing, except the calories!

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Before I tell you about these cookies, let me just say I didn’t name them – Maida Heatter did. And she certainly is the doyenne of all things baking, desserts and chocolate!

Whenever I write up a post about a famous chef or cook (or baker in this case) – like Maida Heatter – I go online to read a bit more about the person’s background. Apparently Craig Claiborne helped her career, early on, after she’d gotten a degree in fashion design. In time she became one of the finest experts in baking, and authored many cookbooks. I own two –  chocolate desserts and one about cookies. Here’s a quote I found online:

“Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you.” . . . Maida Heatter

Don’t you just love that? This recipe came from Heatter’s chocolate cookbook – Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. And I decided to make these simply because of the cookie title. Who, unless she was very confident about her skills, would name a cookie “Positively- the-Absolute-Best Chocolate Chip Cookie?” I figured I should pay attention and try these. The recipe takes up 3 full pages in the book – much more than usual – because of all the history involved with chocolate chip cookies.

You know most of it, probably, about Ruth Wakefield, who with her husband bought an old staging station that was a toll house – they remodeled it as an inn and restaurant, and called it Toll House. Apparently there was a popular cookie at the time called a Butter Drop-Do. What a name. A drop-do? I’m LOLing here. How could anyone in her right mind call a cookie a drop-do? (I went online and did a search, just for curiosity – nothing.) Anyway, Wakefield decided to add chocolate bits to it and called them Toll House cookies. A legend was born.

The main ingredients are the same as what you see on the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag, but there are a few differences: (1) the baking soda is dissolved in hot water and added to the wet batter (which is something Ruth Wakefield did, but later revised the recipe and eliminated that step); (2) 2 cups of chopped walnuts are added (instead of 1 cup); and (3) in the newer edition, apparently, Heatter changed the vanilla portion to 2 tsp rather than 1. There are also a few differences in the way it’s mixed – you whip up the butter alone (without sugar) until it’s light and fluffy, then you add the eggs and vanilla and whip that a bit. Then you add the sugars. Meanwhile you mix the baking soda and water, and add half the flour, the soda, then the balance of flour. You mix it just until incorporated, then you stir in the chips and nuts.

Heatter also uses a slightly different technique for the baking – she recommends refrigerating the dough first (which is what Wakefield used to do) – and found that the cookies held their shape better. She would create little mounds of dough and would roll them in damp hands, then once on the baking sheet she’d flatten them slightly. I didn’t refrigerate the dough – but I did use my cookie scoop to create the mound and slightly pressed the flat of my fingers on top to flatten each one slightly. That made a more evenly baked (browned) cookie. The first batch I made (and I didn’t take that extra step) had fairly extra-brown edges. Not a problem, really, other than appearance.

So, if you bothered to read all of the above – Heatter uses the basic recipe, but makes a few changes. She adds more nuts and the texture of these cookies is slightly different. Some years ago I began adding a tablespoon or 2 of extra flour to the old Toll House recipe because my cookies were always too thin. I sure didn’t have that trouble here – so perhaps it was the soda dissolving that made a difference. I don’t know. But these cookies sat right up and stayed there through the baking.

What’s GOOD: easy, good texture, reliable flavor. This is a softer cookie (I actually prefer a crisp cookie if I have a choice). Even eaten from a frozen state, they have a soft texture. Only another brand of chocolate chip could make much of a taste difference (I now buy Kirkland brand – I think they’re almost as good as Nestle’s). I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say these are the absolute best CC cookies out there – to me it almost always comes down to a texture thing – if they’re soft, I’m not much of a fan. But if that floats your boat, try this version – you might find them superior.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of.

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When I was young – and even into my 20’s if any home cook gave much thought to mushroom soup – what came to mind was Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom. In the 1960’s the canned stuff was all over the place in casseroles, the 60’s being the era of the casserole! I never made a home made version because the canned stuff was just THERE, and it was inexpensive. I fixed the soup – as a soup – now and then too, as well as many a can of Campbell’s tomato soup, made with milk. My mother and dad were crazy about Campbell’s tomato soup. Saturday lunch was often a bowl of it with a toasted cheese sandwich.

Well, here it is 50 years later, and I almost never buy Campbell’s soups any time. (In all honesty, though, I do occasionally buy it because it’s called for in one or more casseroles that I still make – but I usually buy the healthy version; still Campbell’s, though.) Their soups are so full of sodium and probably unhealthy fats. A couple of times in years past I’ve made a home made mushroom soup, but wasn’t particularly crazy about it, so it wasn’t repeated.

Then, you’ll remember a week or so ago I mentioned making a soup from scratch – it was a salmon soup, and I couldn’t find the cookbook. I’d gone to Eat Your Books and a recipe in my own cookbook collection intrigued me. I winged it that time because I couldn’t locate the book anywhere in my house! A week or so later I found it, along with 3-4 other cookbooks on an odd shelf (I’ll blame my cleaning lady – I think she was trying to help and she put the small stack on a shelf in my upstairs office – not a shelf that holds cookbooks, which is why I couldn’t find it). Anyway, it was a cookbook I’d never cooked from. I sat down and read through it and found several recipes I wanted to try.

FYI: The New Covent Garden Soup Company is a small London firm that grew over the course of 20+ years because they produce a superior product. They use the best quality ingredients, and they found a way to market (through grocery stores in England, I think – any of my British readers, correct me if I’m wrong) their fresh soups. They’re packaged in those waxed cardboard containers (like buttermilk and some milk here), and they have a definite shelf life. They’ve published 3 cookbooks over the years, and as I mentioned before, I bought the one I have, the last time we were visiting London – it was laying on a counter in the book dept. at Harrod’s. The book – The New Covent Garden Soup Company’s Book of Soups (incidentally, my copy has a different cover – so am not certain it’s the identical book or just a newer edition, but this one is produced by the soup company) has lots of good, hearty soups, and they include the stories about each one – how they acquired it – from whom, and often with very entertaining and humorous asides. Several recipes intrigued me to try, but the story about this one was the reason I decided to once-again, try making home made cream of mushroom soup.

The headnotes to this recipe in the book say: A simple but classic mushroom soup that is loved by everyone. This is one of the first recipes ever created by Caroline Jeremy, now our Marketing Director, in the kitchen of her flat when she was working as a freelance recipe developer for the soup company back at the very beginning in 1987. The recipe was actually poached by Caroline from an old boyfriend who was obsessed with cooking. They eventually split up because he would not let her near the stove.

Since I think I’m pretty accomplished at making soups, I have no quibble with changing a recipe to suit me, and in this case I did also. Here’s what I changed: (1) I used mushroom stock rather than “vegetable stock”; (2) I added some dried mushrooms soaked in water for extra flavor; (3) I used more mushrooms than the recipe called for (24 ounces rather than 18); (4) I added just a little jot of cream and a little pat of butter at the end; and (5) I didn’t sauté the 2nd mushroom batch in butter – I just threw them into the simmering soup – and that’s why I added the butter on top. Also, I was supposed to add Italian parsley – both IN the soup and as a garnish – but I didn’t have any. That’s why I added the thinnest little sliver of butter on top. I’ve left the parsley in the recipe, though – next time I’ll hopefully have some!

We loved it. It ended up in the frig for a couple of days before I served it – while we ate up left overs. So the other night I took some left over ribeye steak, cut it into tiny slivers, toasted a slice of good country bread, toasted it, layered on the meat, some sliced tomatoes and a bunch of shredded cheddar cheese, broiled it, and served that as an open-faced sandwich along with the mushroom soup. My DH said “wow, this is good.” After dinner he asked “is there more?” I said yes. The recipe is a keeper, I think. I wouldn’t change a thing from my revised recipe – except to add the parsley.

What’s GOOD: the mushroom flavor is definitely “there.” This is not a plain old ordinary creamy  soup with some mushrooms thrown in. It has a perfect cream-consistency (it is thickened with flour, and more than you might think). I liked having something to chew (the mushrooms added in later) – there isn’t anything else to chew since the rest of the soup is pureed. Definitely a keeper.

What’s NOT: really nothing at all. It does take awhile to prep all the mushrooms – my DH bought one of those big boxes of them at Costco (that’s why I used 24 ounces, not the 18 called for). If you want to make this exactly as I have, you’ll have to seek out the mushroom base (I found it at a specialty cookware and food store called Surfas – Custom Culinary Mushroom Base – a 1 lb. jar. It is available online from Surfas. I’m glad to have this available in my frig because I think mushrooms add a great umami flavor to soups, whether it’s a mushroom-centric soup or something else.

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