The Bitten Word

Thanksgiving 2015: Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Gastrique

Cooking Light (November 2015)

We just got back from a surprise long weekend in Montreal. Okay, it was a half of a surprise: Clay surprised Zach with a trip for his birthday!  Clay told him to pack for cool weather, and then at the airport he hand him a packet marked "Bonjour!" that contained an itinerary, the Airbnb where we were staying, and restaurant reservations he'd already booked.

It was so fun! Have you been to Montreal? We hadn't. We spent the days poking around the city's great neighborhoods -- Vieux-Montréal, the Plateau, Mile End. And we spent the evenings stuffing our faces. (Okay, we did that during the day, too.)

We had some wonderful food. But the single predominant ingredients was, unsurprisingly, maple syrup. Quebec produces two-thirds of the maple syrup consumed in the world, and we saw it everywhere: on pancakes (obviously), in ice cream, in chocolates, in coffee, on pork chops, in cocktails, on foie gras. We were in love.

Now that we're back home, we basically want to pour maple syrup on top of everything.

 

Thanksgiving 2015: Mashed Potato Gratin with Manchego & Horseradish

Fine Cooking (November 2015) 

This year's Fakesgiving was haunted.

No, it wasn't because it took place a week before Halloween.

And no it wasn't the famed arctic explorer who lived (and died!) in our house. (True story.)

Rater, Fakesgiving was haunted by a dish, a memory, a fantasia of pleasure from last year's meal. 

It was haunted by none other than that wily seductress The Barefoot Contessa, and her Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes that we served at last year's Fakesgiving. 

At this year's meal, it was only minutes after our friends began arriving before one of them said it: "Do you think this Mashed Potato Gratin will be anywhere as good as those Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes?" It was one of more than a dozen conversations about those potatoes, a full year later. 

So is this Mashed Potato Gratin as good? 

That, Bittens, is the question of the hour. 

Thanksgiving 2015: Bourbon-Mint Cranberry Sauce

Fine Cooking (October/November 2015)

As you may know, Clay was born and raised in Kentucky. And Kentuckians only need one reason to drink a mint julep: Anything.

Literally, any reason.

On various visits to Kentucky, we've been offered mint juleps at breakfast, or while boarding a bus, or while holding a two-day-old newborn baby.

Seriously, any excuse.

So when we saw that Fine Cooking had taken a traditional cranberry sauce and given it a Derby-day spin, we flagged it immediately.

Thanksgiving 2015: Tex-Mex Green Bean Casserole

Food Network Magazine (November 2015)

Selecting the menu for our Fakesgiving is a difficult task.

First off, there are more than 200 recipes from which to choose. But we consider each one, and start to strike dishes off the list. The first hundred fall away easily (for the kind of meal we're doing, we're not going to do an elaborate seafood buffet as an appetizer, but we appreciate that you would, Martha).

But then it starts to get more difficult. We think about the kind of menu we want (two turkeys? three stuffings?) and we impose a limit on the number of dishes (20 is manageable; 25 might end our relationship).

Eventually we get down to 40 to 50 recipes. At this point, we're looking for variety (something fresh or green, at least one potato dish) and we don't want to make a dish that's too similar to dishes we've made before (for this reason, no Brussels sprouts ended up on this year's menu -- Brussels are well covered on Our Favorite Holiday Recipes). Plus, we want a few dishes that really push us out of our Thanksgiving comfort zone. 

Far beyond our comfort zone lies this Tex-Mex Green Bean Casserole. It was on, and then off, and then back on the list. It was definitely the most unusual of all the dishes we made this year. It was a gamble. 

Sometimes, gambles pay off. This is not one of those times. 

 

Thanksgiving 2015: Winter Squash Agrodolce

Bon Appétit (November 2015)

The trend is clear: vinegar is showing up all over Thanksgiving menus this year. 

Here, it's in the form of an agrodolce, that Italian glaze that's sweet and sour and lip-smackin' delicious. We've only made an agrodolce twice before -- once as a glaze for salmon, and once for pork. Both were really good.

Would an agrodolce be just as good on roasted squash?

Thanksgiving 2015: Braised Celery

Martha Stewart Living (November 2015)

At Fakesgiving, after the plates had been cleared and we were all just sitting around and talking, we played a game called “Something I Hate That Everyone Else Loves.”

It was all fun and games -- "The beach!" "Monty Python!" "Shonda Rhimes shows!"-- until our friend Ben* weighed in with his answer: "Beyoncé." 

Guests gasped.

The room fell silent.

Shock hung in the air. 

"You hate ... Beyoncé? But ... why?  She's so ... I mean, she's Beyoncé."

We think Mrs. Carter can handle the critics.

Celery however, needs defenders. 

This Braised Celery may be a case of something we love that everyone else hates. Well, "hates" is too strong a word. But the fact is, we both really liked this dish, but our guests were mostly unenthusiastic about it. 

We can understand why: celery is a hard sell. 

But here we are, giving it the hard sell: You should try this Braised Celery on your Thanksgiving table.

Here's why.

Thanksgiving 2015: Rustic Bread Stuffing with Fennel and Pine Nuts

Cook's Illustrated (November 2015)

We swear to you, we're not picky about our stuffing.

Over the course of our Thanksgiving planning, we've tried three of this year's new stuffing recipes. This one -- a Rustic Stuffing with Fennel and Pine Nuts --  is what we would refer to as the most "classic" of the three. Well, with the fennel and pine nuts, let's say it's "classic with some flourishes." 

But we just didn't love it.

Thanksgiving 2015: The BLT Oyster Stuffing

Bon Appétit (November 2015)

No, there's no bacon-lettuce-tomato in this oyster stuffing. (Yes, that was our first question, too.)

What there is, however, is bacon, leeks and thyme. And that combo helps create a stuffing that is exceedingly tasty.

Growing up in the South, neither of us ever saw oyster stuffing on the Thanksgiving table. Thanksgiving stuffing for us tended to be cornbread-based and flavored with sage -- and always called "dressing" and baked in a Pyrex, thank you very much.

But we've made an oyster stuffing a couple times in the past and enjoyed it. This year at our Fakesgiving preview meal, we tried three different stuffings, including this one.

And this was decidedly our favorite.

The 2015 Thanksgiving Index: All This Year's Food Magazine Recipes in One Handy Place

220 Thanksgiving Recipes from 10 Leading Food Magazines

Yesterday, we were all about the trends, sharing what's in and what's out for this year's Thanksgiving feast.

Today, it's all about the recipes. Below, we've categorized all 220 recipes from the 10 magazines we're tracking this year.

Of course, the November issues of these magazines feature many more recipes than this -- in order to make this list, the recipe had to be part of an explicit feature about Thanksgiving. (If a recipe doesn't have a hyperlink, it means it isn't yet available online.) 

Explore the list and share your thoughts: What sounds amazing? What sounds too wacky for your table? What might you try for this year's feast? Let us know in the comments -- and happy cooking! 

 

TURKEYS

Porchetta-Style Roast Turkey Breast (Bon Appétit)
Barbecue Spice–Brined Grilled Turkey (Bon Appétit)
Glazed and Lacquered Roast Turkey (Bon Appétit)
Two-Hour Turkey with Gravy (Cook's Country)
Applewood-Smoked Turkey  (Cooking Light)
Brown Sugar–Cured Turkey with Apple-Bourbon Gravy  (Cooking Light)
Rosemary-Orange Roast Turkey  (Cooking Light)
Citrus-Herb Roast Turkey & Gravy (Fine Cooking)
Chipotle-Butter Turkey (Food & Wine)
Citrus-and-Butter Turkey (Food & Wine)
Porchetta-Spiced Turkey with Pan Gravy (Food & Wine)
Roast Turkey with Polenta Stuffing (Food & Wine)
Soy-and-Sesame Turkey (Food & Wine)
Maple-Whiskey Turkey (Food Network)
Classic Roast Turkey (Food Network)
Lemon-Pepper Turkey with Bacon Gravy (Food Network)
Southwestern Turkey with Chipotle Gravy (Food Network) 
Herbed Turkey (Martha Stewart Living)
Molasses-and-Cider-Glazed Turkey (Martha Stewart Living)
Tamarind-Glazed Roast Turkey (Saveur)
Slow Smoked and Spice-Brined Turkey (Saveur)
Dry-Brined-and-Marinated Smoked Turkey (Southern Living) 

 

GRAVY

Gravy-Braised Turkey Legs with Cipolline Onions (Bon Appétit)
Classic Turkey Gravy with Thyme (Bon Appétit)
Maple-Whiskey Gravy (Food Network)
Classic Gravy (Food Network) 
Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy  (Cooking Light)
Make-Ahead Gravy (Southern Living) 

 

 

Sautéed Summer Squash with Parsley and Garlic

Cook's Illustrated (September/October 2015)

In these waning days of summer, we're finding ourselves a little clingy with produce.

Like hoarders at a going-out-of-business sale, we're scarfing down all the tomatoes, corn, eggplant and beans that we can. We're getting it from our CSA, the farmers market, the supermarket and our own backyard garden. (How veggie-crazy have we been? When a friend posted on Facebook this week about his bumper crop of tomatoes that he wanted to give away, we had a brief moment of "should we??" --despite the fact that we already have more tomatoes than we know what to do with.) 

In particular this year, we've had a lot of summer squash in our house, but no thanks to our own garden. Our garden squash has struggled (we have yet to harvest more than one, and whatever we harvested wasn't what we'd planted!). Our CSA, though, has given us big piles of squash and zucchini each week. 

But here's the deal with late-summer produce: It's easy to fall into a rut.

That tomato salad that tasted amazing the first time you made it can seem a bit bland after a half dozen meals. So we're all about keeping it fresh and trying the new, even in the final days of summer. 

Case in point: these beautiful Sautéed Summer Squash with Parsley and Garlic, which instantly became a summer classic for us.