Favorite Thanksgiving Side Dishes

November 20, 2015November 20, 201514 Comments

I am currently persona non grata in my corner of Steubenville. Not because of any advice I’ve been dishing out as of late, but rather because of what I won’t be dishing out next week: Thanksgiving Dinner.

For years, mostly because of the hassle of traveling 1280 miles, roundtrip, on Thanksgiving weekend, I’ve stayed in Steubenville for the holiday and opened my home to whomever didn’t have one that day. One year, that number was as large as 25. Another year, it was as small as four.

A few special friends, however, have always been around the table, and those are the ones less than pleased about Chris and I going to my parents this Thanksgiving. (His family gets us for Christmas).

I’m looking forward to being with all my nieces and nephews next week, but I have to admit, I’m a little sad too. There’s no holiday I like better than Thanksgiving, and (in all humility) there’s also no meal I cook better than Thanksgiving Dinner. People have flown across the country for my mashed potatoes and stuffing. Some of those people also are under the impression that my gravy is a beverage. (“Just because something has brandy in it,” I tell them, “doesn’t mean you can drink it.” They never listen.)

It’s not only the company or food that makes Thanksgiving special for me, though. It’s also the chance to pull out all the decorating stops and set the most elegant table I can muster. In grad school, that wasn’t much. But here’s what we did last year.

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Pork Tenderloin in Fig Sauce with Fried Apples and Roasted Acorn Squash

October 22, 20159 Comments

A long time ago, in a land far away (roughly 30 years and 650 miles), there lived a little redheaded girl who did not like her vegetables. She didn’t like lettuce. She didn’t like broccoli. And she only liked carrots when they were cooked for hours in her mother’s beef stew.

Now, that little girl didn’t like not liking vegetables. It bothered her that others were enjoying something that she could not. She felt left out…like she was missing some big secret. She especially felt left out in the fall, when her parents and sisters happily ate their roasted acorn squash. They really, really liked the green and golden treat. But try as she might, the little redhead really, really did not.

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Three Summer Salads

May 27, 20158 Comments

Sorry for the light blogging folks. I’m afraid it’s going to be what way for the next month or so. A major book deadline is looming, which means the unpaid blogging has to sit on the back burner until my professional obligations are met and the bills are paid. The good news, however, is that all this work right now is going to free up my schedule more in the late summer and fall, so then, I’ll be able to food blog to my little heart’s content.

In the meantime, since there is not much time for cooking or blogging (and because it’s hot!), I’m pretty much living off of three basic meals right now. I’m sharing them just in case you’re equally busy and could use a quick, healthy boost (and to prove that it’s not fancy macaroni and cheese and salted caramel and cashew ice cream cake around here all the time!).

1) Farro Salad, with Tomato and Feta, Serves 6-8

I am obsessed with farro these days. How I made it through 40 years of life without trying this stuff, I will never know. It tastes…hearty…and nutty…and so, so satisfying. Low in carbs, high in protein, it’s what you always hope brown rice will taste like, although it never does.

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Sweet and Savory Quinoa Salad

April 23, 20158 Comments

Dating in your 40s is a little like dating in your 20s. You still plan fun trips together and talk about cool new cocktail bars. But, you also talk about blood pressure and progesterone levels and all sorts of middle age problems that you barely knew existed in your 20s. You also wonder things like, “If we get married and have kids, will I live to see them graduate from college?” And, because of that, you do things for your boyfriend like make him a week’s worth of “healthy” lunches.

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Lamb and Sweet Potato Stew

January 14, 20156 Comments

In my family, the men cook. At least most of them do. My brother-in-law Andy can’t boil water (or so my sister Annmarie claims), but the rest know their way around the kitchen, including my dad.

Mind you, that wasn’t always the case. When my sisters and I were little, our mom worked the occasional evening shift in a local bookstore. On those nights, Dad’s answer to the dinner question all too often involved eggs and pancakes. Our response to that menu, just as often, involved tears. To this day, none of us want anything to do with breakfast for dinner.

With time, however, Dad’s culinary skills improved, and a few years back, when I was home visiting, Mom went out for the evening and he whipped up a lamb and mushroom stew for us. This time, there were no tears.

Since then, I’ve played around with Dad’s original recipe quite a bit, including nixing the canned mushrooms (sorry Dad) and adding spiced sweet potatoes. Now, when the windows start to frost over, I head to the store in search of inexpensive lamb.

Last week, the windows did this:

Hence, lamb was on the menu.

The great thing about this stew is that it seems impressive. After all…lamb. But it’s actually a ridiculously simple dish. Also, if you find lamb shoulder on sale (which I did—thank you, Kroger), it’s as cheap as it is simple, making it a natural choice for a winter dinner party…or an easy family dinner. The groceries for the stew came in at just under $10. If there weren’t tomatoes in the freezer (put up from last summer’s garden), it would have cost $12.