The Bitten Word

Thanksgiving 2015: Grapefruit Cornmeal Cake

Food & Wine (November 2015)

Imagine the moistest, cakiest, most indulgent donut you've ever had. 

Now imagine the flavors of a lemon-poppyseed muffin.

Now, in your mind, marry those bright, tart, sweet flavors to that cakey donut texture.

Now imagine it twice as tasty as whatever you're already picturing.

Ladies and gentlemen: Grapefruit Cornmeal Cake.

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: Two-Hour Turkey and Gravy

Cook's Country (October/November 2015) 

A two-hour turkey.

YOU GUYS.

A two-hour turkey.

A two-hour turkey.

What is this, magic? Could it possibly be true?

We had to find out.

Thanksgiving 2015: Peanut Soup

Martha Stewart Living (November 2015)

When Zach was a kid, he spent several summers with family in Virginia. One highlight was always a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. (We're all on the same page about the fact that Zach was a huge nerd as a kid, right? Good.)

Colonial Willamsburg, for anyone who might not know, is a full-scale working village that recreates the town of Williamsburg during the century in the run-up to the American Revolution. Today it bills itself as "America's largest outdoor history museum."

As a kid, Zach's favorite things about Williamsburg included the tri-corner hats, the stockades and the shoe cobbler's workshop.

And one other thing: the peanut soup.

Thanksgiving 2015: Cherry Spice Cake Trifle

Southern Living (November 2015)

  

Clay: “Do we have a trifle bowl?”

Zach: “Have you met us? Of course we have a trifle bowl!”

And that's all it took for this Cherry Spice Cake Trifle to make it onto our Fakesgiving menu. 

This is the kind of dessert you want to tell your guests that it didn't turn out, so you can stash it in the fridge and then eat it all yourself the next day.  

It's the kind of dessert you want to crawl inside. 

It's the kind of dessert you want at your Thanksgiving table. 

Thanksgiving 2015: Sparkling Celery Gimlets

Martha Stewart Living (November 2015)

Each year we've had a Fakesgiving, we've kicked off the festivities with a cocktail. Typically, we go for a punch. Our reasoning is this: When guests are arrived, we are typically frantic with last minute cooking. After all, cooking 20 dishes for more than 20 guests is no easy task, and there are only so many things that one can do ahead. Serving a special cocktail is a way to keep everybody happy while the two of us run around like crazy people finishing the meal.

But this year, things were different. We were calm. We were cool. We were collected. And by the time guests arrived, we were largely done with the cooking. A Fakesgiving miracle! (Well, a Fakesgiving miracle made possible by Zach's sister Cassidy, who played sous chef again this year.) 

So rather than sweating it out in the kitchen, we were standing in our living room, talking to guests like we didn't have a care in the world. 

And we were sipping Sparkling Celery Gimlets. 

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.