The Bitten Word

Roasted "Chrysanthemum" Onions, Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing, and Our Thanksgiving Menu

Are we all tired of reading about Thanksgiving yet? 

We're starting to feel a little fatigued by our back-and-forth debate about what to serve on Thursday.  There are just so many fantastic recipes out there -- if Thanksgiving were a three-day event, we might be able to cook all the things that we considered this year.

Before we get to what we're serving, let's talk about a few dishes we cooked recently that didn't make it onto our menu.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Our friend Rachel moved to Syracuse this summer. One of her first weeks there, she attended a party  where an unusual dip was served. She had never heard of it, and admitted as much to the hosts. They were shocked that she hadn't had it before. 

Rachel loved the dip and excitedly told our friend Whitney in Memphis, who promptly began spreading the word about this magical dip, which is how we found out about it.

From its roots in upstate New York, this dip is slowly taking over the south (via Whitney) and now D.C. (via us). If you serve this dip, it will make you the most popular host in town. People will devour it.  They will punch each other in the face to get the last scoops of this dip.

This dip will change your life.

Ladies and gentlemen -- meet Buffalo Chicken Dip.

Ultimate Cheater BBQ Pork

We're never sure what to do with our slow cookers. 

Yes, I said slow cookers -- we have two of them, a small 1.5 quart and a larger 5 quart one. 

They largely sit in our cupboard, unused, until we pull them out about once a year, to make a chili or perhaps a coq a vin.  And the food is always fine -- not terrible, not amazing, very middle of the road. 

Thanks to The Splendid Table podcast, we'll never again want for a quality slow cooker recipe.

Meet Ultimate Cheater Pulled Pork -- a phenomenal slow cooker recipe that makes some of the best pulled pork we've ever had.

Irish Beef and Stout Stew

Everyday Food (October 2008)

We both grew up in families with huge deep freezes at home, filled with enough food to last a family of four for several years. At one point, Zach's family had not only one but two huge freezers, in addition to two other stand-up refrigerator/freezer units. 

It's safe to assume that if were living somewhere with more space, we'd have a deep freeze, too.  The thought of what would be in it scares us a bit.  With Thanksgiving approaching, we cleaned out our freezer this weekend.  These are the current contents of our (relatively small) freezer:

• 3 gallon size bags filled with green & red peppers, 1 gallon size bag of squash, 1 gallon size bag of eggplant, 1 gallon size bag of butternut squash -- We couldn't keep up with the amount of vegetables we were getting from our CSA this summer, so we cut them up and froze them for use this winter.
• 4 jars of blueberry freezer jam -- When we went on a blueberry binge this summer, Zach decided to make freezer jam. Yum.
• 1 gallon-size bag of blueberries -- When Zach got tired of making freezer jam, we decided to just freeze several pints of blueberries.  We've only used these in blueberry pancakes so far, but we'll use them for more baking this winter.
• 2 quart-size bags of chicken stock & beef stock -- The beef stock was leftover from a can we bought for a recipe, but we actually made the chicken stock. 
• 1 chicken carcass -- We got this tip from The Amateur Gourmet.  After roasting chicken, you can save the carcasses in the freezer until you're ready to make stock again, so that you can make one big batch. 
• 2 gallon-size bags of frozen pesto (in small servings) -- Between an abundance of basil and garlic scapes, we've got enough pesto to last us a lifetime.
• 3 quart-size bags of tomato sauce -- When we were drowning in tomatoes from the farm, we'd make a quick batch of roasted tomato sauce, and freeze it for later use.
• 1 gallon-size bag of tomato skins -- When we canned tomatoes this summer, we saved the skins, thinking we would use them to flavor soups or stocks.  It was a huge bag and we decided to toss it yesterday.  Space is too precious.
• 1 unopened box of puff pastry -- It seems like a good thing to keep on hand, but we've had it for almost a year and haven't used it.
• 2 massive bags of store-bought frozen peas -- We love peas (but we're not sure why we have so many on-hand).  
• Leftover tomato paste -- This is something Clay saw on a cooking show a long time ago.  When you have leftover tomato paste, you can freeze it for later use. 
• 1 bag of store-bought frozen shelled edamame -- one of our go-to snacks.
• 1 gallon bag of frozen, breaded okra -- This is leftover from summer 2007, and it makes delicious fried okra. 

Why all this freezer talk? 

Everyday Food has an excellent recurring column called "Freeze It!" (the exclamation point is ours, not theirs).  In October, the subject is Irish Beef and Stout Stew.

Is it worth making and freezing?

Steak with Parmesan Butter, Balsamic Glaze, and Arugula

Bon Appétit (October 2008)

We love salads, but we don't often eat them as entrees.

It's not that we don't enjoy eating salads -- in fact, we eat tons of greens.

But to us, salads-as-entrees are relegated to lunch.

That may change with the introduction of this Steak with Parmesan Butter, Balsamic Glaze and Arugula.

Turkey Time: Thanksgiving Desserts

You've picked your turkey, selected your starters & sides, and now what?

Leave your guests to fend for dessert on their own?

Of course not! 

Here's a look at what we served for Thanksgiving dessert last year, as well as what the food magazines are recommending this year.

Choose carefully!

Turkey Time: Starters and Sides For This Thanksgiving

After looking at Turkey advice in our last post, it's high time to do the same for starters and sides. 

As we prepared our decadent feast for two last year, we pored through our magazines from the previous two Novembers, debating dishes and listing out our non-negotiables (Zach's family's dressing was a must-have). 

In the end, we went with mostly traditional dishes, or traditional dishes with a slight twist. 

Here's a look at what we cooked, followed by a full-summary of what leading food magazines are recommending for this Thanksgiving.

Turkey Time: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending

In early October, November's food magazines started arriving, promising "the easiest feast ever!," "great food for the entire weekend" and "Thanksgiving at its best."

Honestly, it's a little nerve-wracking. 

Now that we're writing The Bitten Word and hosting family this Thanksgiving, we're feeling the pressure to cook a nice meal that will fit a variety of palates.  Mostly, though, we just want to outdo last year (more on that in a minute). 

November's issues of food magazines are chock-full of tips, recipes and sage advice. We thought it might be useful to talk about some of that advice here, so over the next few days we'll be holding a little Thanksgiving-a-thon, starting today with the center of the meal, the turkey. 

Over the next few days, we'll provide you with a complete index of what the magazines are recommending for Turkey, Starters & Sides, and Desserts, to help you plan your perfect Thanksgiving meal. 

Granny Ragland's Apple Stack Cake

There are certain foods that anchor us, their scents and tastes intrinsically tied to our memories. They may evoke a special person, or a certain event or time in our lives.

For me, there's no one recipe that is more strongly evocative of this than Apple Stack Cake.

It's a specialty my grandmother made throughout my childhood. She would bake it for special occasions throughout the year -- you could always count on one at Christmas -- but for me, this will always be a birthday cake. For as long as I can remember, this was the cake I would ask my granny to bake for my birthday.

And since my birthday is in the fall, this cake, with its heady aroma of apples, has always evoked autumn for me.

Last year, when Granny asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I asked her just to write down some of her favorite recipes. When she handed me the paper-clipped stack of recipe cards on Christmas, I knew without looking what two of them would be. One was for her signature chocolate gravy, which we wrote about on The Bitten Word last spring. The other was her Apple Stack Cake.

Granny passed away last month, two weeks before my birthday. After going home to Tennessee for her funeral, I knew I wanted to try making the Apple Stack Cake myself for the first time.

So I spent a quiet afternoon on a recent rainy Saturday baking this cake, and loving the scents that filled the kitchen, and the memories of birthdays, autumns and my grandmother that filled my heart.

Arugula with Grilled Red Onions and Fried Goat Cheese

Zach's birthday was a one nice day of decadent eating. 

We started out with Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast, and for dinner we made the the Pork Roast with Creamy Polenta and Braised Collard Greens.

We had purchased some beautiful arugula at the farmer's market that morning, and since the pork took a while to cook, we also decided to whip up a salad to eat as an appetizer.