The Bitten Word

Happy Thanksgiving, Bittens!

One Fakesgiving, 24 guest, 20 dishes and 20 recipe reports later, it's a wrap on this year's Thanksgiving coverage! 

We're going to leave you with well wishes, a bit of advice, and some photos from our Fakesgiving party, like the one above of us laying out the food just before time to eat. 

First, the well wishes: We're thankful for many things this holiday. One of those things is readers like you who choose to spend some time with us, obsessing about what to cook next and dreaming about deliciousness. Your comments and encouragement mean a lot to us. So thank you. We are grateful. 

Here's our very best, last-minute advice for Thanksgiving: Take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. Yes, there are onions to dice and pies to brûlée and turkeys to spatchcock. Some of the dishes you make will be epic; others may not be so great. But who cares? It's Thanksgiving. Laugh it off. Don't apologize for your food. Take the compliments guests give you. Be proud of what you put on the table.

As for us, we're planning to spend Thanksgiving day ordering in Chinese food and watching the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD. No joke.

Please send us your Thanksgiving reports and tag us in your Instagram photos! We can't wait to see what you make. 

Much love and Thanksgiving wishes,

~ Zach and Clay 

 

Thanksgiving 2015: Cran-Blueberry Sauce with Candied Ginger

Cooking Light (November 2015)

We all know the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims, battered by hardships in the New World, gathered together with their new friends, the proud and noble Native Americans, to share a feast of harvest bounty. They joined hands in spirit of kinship and surveyed the cornucopia laid out before them -- the roast turkey, the plentiful vegetables, the maize.

And then the Puritan Governor William Bradford turned to his newfound brother, Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag people, and was like, "You guys think this cranberry sauce could use some blueberries?"

Yes, this cranberry sauce from Cooking Light strives to answer that age-old question, a query that Americans have been pondering since all the way back in 1621: Do blueberries belong on the Thanksgiving table?

We're here to tell you: They don't.

Thanksgiving 2015: Rye-and-Black-Walnut Stuffing

Martha Stewart Living (November 2015)

You know how sometimes you'll be sitting at your desk at work, and out of nowhere you'll get a craving for the most random thing? Mmmm, you think, spaghetti carbonara would be amaaaaaazing right now. Or, How good does General Tso's sound?? And then you eat a handful of almonds and try to pretend it's satisfying?

We're that way with rye bread. We'll go months without thinking about it, and then -- bam! -- How great would a pastrami on rye be right about now??

There's something about rye bread -- with its earthy, slightly sour, vaguely spicy flavor -- that we find craveable. So when we saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Living for a rye-and-walnut Thanksgiving stuffing, we wanted to try it.

Thanksgiving 2015: Brown Sugar-Spiced Nut Mix

Cooking Light (November 2015) 

Every host needs a few simple snack ideas in their back pocket, to pull out when guests are coming over for a meal.

Our friends Chris and Marshall are geniuses at this. They can build the most beautiful charcuterie plates that are truly stunning. Shaved, smoked meats. Fragrant cheeses. Little nibbles that are irresistible. We're always incredibly impressed by their snack game. 

When it comes to party appetizers, we're typically fans of purchasing snacks that can be served as-is, or with minimal preparation. The Barefoot Contessa -- our (and everyone's) spirit animal when it comes to entertaining -- has loads of good suggestions for these, in her books and television series. 

For this year's Fakesgiving, we opted for a snack recipe that did require some work but could be done days before the guests arrived: Brown Sugar-Spiced Nut Mix. 

Set your bookmarks and ready your Pinterest buttons: This nut mix is the perfect snack for any holiday party.

Hello NPR Listeners!

We were so excited to be on today's episode of NPR's All Things Considered, talking turkey and Thanksgiving trends! If you missed it on the air, you can listen to the interview online. 

If you're looking for the recipes and topics we discussed, looked no further:

• 2015 Thanksgiving Trends
• Porchetta-Style Turkey
• Shaved Apple and Fennel Salad with Crunchy Spelt
• Grapefruit Cornmeal Cake
• Tex Mex Green Bean Casserole

 

And if you liked what you heard on the segment, sign up to learn about more great recipes through The Bitten Word. It's easy and only takes a moment:

 

   

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Happy cooking!

~ Clay & Zach

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2015: Pumpkin-Caramel Tart with Toasted-Hazelnut Crust

Bon Appétit (November 2015)

We wound up making some very pretty desserts in our Fakesgiving test-run this year. In fact, with that triumphal Cherry Spice Cake Trifle, the lovely Grapefruit Cornmeal Cake, and that decadent Butter Pecan-Toffee Pie, it may have been the prettiest Fakesgiving dessert table we've ever had. 

Still, we're nominating this Pumpkin-Caramel Tart with Toasted-Hazelnut Crust as the most gorgeous dessert we served. The hand-formed free-standing crust, that dark-amber filling of pumpkin and brown sugar, and the constellation of caramelized hazelnuts scattered across the top -- it's beautiful.

If only it tasted as outstanding as it looked....

Thanksgiving 2015: Butter Pecan-Toffee Pie

Food Network Magazine (November 2015)

In the final stages of Fakesgiving planning, as we were charting out our cooking that would stretch over the course of nearly a week, we started to freak out a little.

We had 24 guests coming. Would 20 dishes be enough? Would everyone be able to have a solid sample of all the dishes? Should we double a few dishes?  

And that's when we lost our minds a bit and decided to double the servings of six of the recipes. See, it's not all smooth sailing over here at Bitten Word HQ. We are constantly checking and rechecking, questioning and requestioning. 

And let's be real: Even if we hadn't doubled any of the recipes, there would have been plenty of food (the Cherry Spice Cake Trifle alone includes 20 full servings!). But still, we doubled. And doubled. And doubled.  

One of the dishes we decided to double was this Butter Pecan-Toffee Pie. And it's the one case where we're really glad that we did. 

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: Porchetta Style Roast Turkey Breast

Bon Appétit (November 2015)

After seeing this trend pop up in a few magazines, we knew a porchetta-style turkey would make it on our Fakesgiving menu. 

And really, we need a reason to be excited about turkey.

For us, turkey is a necessary-but-not-entirely-exciting feature at Thanksgiving. So we tend to go for gimmicks: 14 pounds cooked in two hours! Or in this case, we go for turkey tarted up like pork. 

And this rolled turkey breast doesn't just have pork on the outside. There's pork inside, too. 

Yes. Please.