The Bitten Word

Thanksgiving 2013: Sweet Potato Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

A Bitten Word recipe 

Clay had a vision. A vision of a cake. A very special Thanksgiving cake. A cake unlike anything the world has ever known or will ever---

Okay. It's basically a carrot cake except with sweet potatoes, and with marshmallow frosting instead of cream cheese. 

Still, it was an idea we loved that we could wait to try.

Thanksgiving 2013: Extra-Crispy Skillet Stuffing

Cook's Country (November 2013)

Do you serve "dressing" or "stuffing" at your Thanksgiving table?

If you're not sure of the difference, here's the deal: Stuffing is cooked inside a bird, while dressing is cooked outside. That's it.

The two of us grew up solidly among "dressing" folk. It's not that we're opposed to cooking stuffing inside a bird (we have tried it), but it just seems fraught with potential problems for the Thanksgiving table. We have enough trouble getting our turkey up to temperature -- we don't need the added concern of whether the stuffing is up to temperature as well. 

The dressings we each grew up on, made by our grannies, were dense, moist and cakey (like the one we wrote about in this post). There were no special bells and whistles. They did not have "crispy" bits -- instead, they were just uniformly wet.

But we were intrigued by the idea of a crispy stuffing. And Cook's Country's new method for an extra-crispy one was all the excuse we needed to give it a whirl. 

Thanksgiving 2013: Carrot Mash with Orange and Mint

Fine Cooking (November 2013)

One of our favorite things about plucking recipes out of food magazines for Fakesgiving is that there are surprises.

Dishes we expect so much out of turn out to be not so hot.

And others, which we assume will be throwaways, totally dazzle. 

That's the case with this Carrot Mash with Orange and Mint, which turned out to be one of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes this year. 

Thanksgiving 2013: Pimentón-Roasted Whole Turkey Breast with Chorizo

Food & Wine (November 2013)

"We overcooked the bird."

Is there any more dreaded Thanksgiving Day statement -- or more predictable one -- than that?

This year, a few of the food magazines had some clever ways to avoid dry, overcooked turkey. Martha Stewart Living has an interesting method in which you wrap the turkey in parchment to help lock in moisture. Over at Bon Appétit, they make the argument for breaking your turkey apart and cooking the breasts and legs separately, since they require different cook times.

We really gravitated toward this Pimentón-Roasted Whole Turkey Breast with Chorizo, from Food & Wine. We were intruiged by the idea of only cooking a boneless breast -- we'd never done that on Thanksgiving before. We swooned over the onion and chorizo stuffing, which promised to impart a bold, smoky flavor that we couldn't wait to try. And focusing just on the breast promised an even, consistent cook time.

But dammit if we didn't overcook the bird!

Thanksgiving 2013: Sausage Pear Stuffing

Martha Stewart Living (November 2013)

Pears are popular this time of year with food magazines.

They pop up in just about every course of suggested Thanksgiving menus. In this year's Thanksgiving index, you'll see pears in gravy, on turkeys, in soups and, of course, littered through desserts.

We are no strangers to pears at Thanksgiving, having made not just one, but two pear soups over the years. We are solidly pro-pear. 

And then there's sausage. Oh, sausage.... We are suckers for a Thanksgiving stuffing that includes pork products. We've certainly made plenty of them over the years. 

So when we saw Sausage Pear Stuffing in Martha Stewart Living, it was a slam dunk. We immediately added the dish to our Fakesgiving menu. 

Little did we know we were boarding the train to Blandville.

Thanksgiving 2013: Green Beans with Benne and Sorghum

Bon Appétit (November 2013)

Let's get a few things out of the way right up front:

1. Benne is basically just another word for sesame seeds, a term used today almost exclusively in Charleston, S.C. (In a funny post on the Cupcake Project blog, the writer wonders if the whole thing isn't just a tourism-marketing conspiracy.)

2. If sorghum isn't a pantry staple in your house, it ought to be.

3. You should really make these beans for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 2013: Vegan Pear and Port Gravy

Vegetarian Times (November 2013)

Yesterday, we hosted Fakesgiving, our annual test run of a whole bunch of Thanksgiving dishes. 

Essentially, that means that we've done nothing but cook and clean for the last 48 hours. And just about every dish we own is currently dirty. But we love Fakesgiving. It's always a great time filled with good food and good friends (and, last year, The Washington Post!). 

This year, we made 15 dishes, and we can't wait to share them with you. Many of the dishes we made were big hits that you should definitely consider adding to your Thanksgiving menu this year. There were other dishes that were less popular, and we'll talk about those, too.

And then there was this Pear and Port Gravy.

It represents a Fakesgiving first: a dish so bad we decided not to serve it.

Thanksgiving Index 2013: 300+ Recipes from 11 Leading Food Magazines

This Thanksgiving, would you serve lentils instead of stuffing?

Or put pears in your gravy?

Would you set out parsley almond salsa instead of cranberry sauce?

Some of you might if you read this year's index of all the Thanksgiving recipes recommended by this months' food magazines. For the most part, there are a whole lot of classic stuffings, potatoes and pies. But there are plenty of new ideas to keep things plenty interesting.

As we've done in previous years, we have compiled an index of every Thanksgiving recipe from all the leading food mags.  

It's by far our biggest index ever: 304 recipes from 11 different magazines. (This isn't a list of every recipe from each magazine; only the Thanksgiving recipes. So you can see how this year's Thanksgiving trends come to life on the pages of the magazines.) 

Take a look through the index. What looks good? What sounds crazy? And what should we try?

Enjoy!