eat make read

Dessert. Sweet, sweet dessert. Unfortunately, dessert is the place where I usually drop the ball. I’m not the best pie maker, but I’m going to try my hand at it this year… practice (even if it’s only once a year) make perfect, right? These pies all made me hungry, but I’ve decided I’m going to try my hand at Aaron’s favorite, pumpkin. Particularly, Bourbon Pumpkin Pie.

1: Périgord Walnut Tart

2: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

3: Bourbon Pumpkin Pie

4: Lemon Cream Pie

Ohhh turkey! There were so many tasty sounding recipes for turkey as I flipped through all my November food magazines, I could hardly contain myself. As soon as I flipped to page 97 of Gourmet and saw Cider-Glazed Turkey, my choice was made. Holy smokes! Does that not sound delicious? I picked up my cider this weekend and can’t wait to try this puppy out. The Maple Roast Turkey with Riesling Gravy from Martha came in a close second.

This might be the first time some of you are making a turkey, so I wanted to pass on a few words of wisdom that I’ve found helpful. First of all, Yay! You’re doing it! It’s going to be fun, don’t stress. Second, for the past few years I’ve used a cheesecloth basting technique where you cover the turkey with cheese cloth, then baste it with a butter and wine mixture every half hour or so. After the turkey is about 3/4 of the way done, remove the cheese cloth and keep basting. I’ve found that the cheese cloth protects the turkey from burning and keeps it looking lovely and golden and the meat has always been juicy and delicious. Third, I’ve also deep-fried a turkey which was AWESOME!, but a bit messy. It was actually our first Thanksgiving in New York and we took the deep fryer out on our front sidewalk and cooked the turkey there, providing a good conversation piece for people to talk about as they walked by. For about 6 months afterwards the sidewalk was a little extra slick from that little experiment. I guess my wisdom there is be careful with the fryer.

Look out for delicious sides next!

Left image by Roland Bello for Gourmet, Right image from Martha Stewart.

Oh boy, have you seen Bittman’s article in the Times today? 101 headstarts on the Day is a collection of easy recipes that you can make ahead of time, some need to be reheated, others can be served at room temperature.Yummmm.

Photographs by Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times

Candied sweet potatoes are a staple at our Thanksgiving (which, by the way, is only two weeks away!!) table. They’re so tender and sweet and caramelized that it’s hard not to like them. In fact, I was beginning to think you couldn’t get much better than the regular old candied yam until I found this recipe for candied sweet potatoes that uses bourbon. Ummmm, match made in heaven!

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The New York Times has a whole slew of mouthwatering Thanksgiving inspired recipes. Roasted cauliflower with lemon brown butter and sage salt and carmelized corn with fresh mint, I mean come on, do those sound delicious or what?! Check it our here.

New York Magazine has a great Thanksgiving article in which the co-owners at one of my favorite restaurants, Applewood suggest a few new takes on classics. Ummm, pumpkin pie with pecan-caramel sauce here I come.

Check it out here.

Photos by Romulo Yanes for New York Magazine

Oh boy! So many good reads this month! I went a little nutty at the magazine shop and now I’ve got a day’s worth of reading (and probably drooling too). My surprise favorite is Food & Wine… I mean, David Chang’s take on Thanksgiving leftovers? Awesome! Five-Spice Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Walnut Toffee, man that sounds so good!! But really, I’m loving it all.

When it comes to sides for the Thanksgiving dinner table, there can never be too many. Of course I always want the staples like sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, the list could go on, but I also like to add in a few surprises to the mix. That’s where these lovely thyme-roasted apples and onions would come in to play. They’re full of flavor and are the perfect dish for a big old mash up. You know, a little turkey, a little potato, a little onion and apple all in one forkful.

This recipe immediately caught my eye because it uses an apple cider reduction (be still my heart!). The reduction coats the apples and onions and it, along with the thyme, infuse into them both. It actually took a bit longer than I anticipated due to the cider reduction and fairly long roasting time.

When I couldn’t take it any longer I pulled the apples and onions out of the oven and took a nice big whiff. The aroma is intense and awesome. The onions begin to get all nice and caramelized while the thyme brings a lovely savory note to the whole shebang. The thing is this side dish just screams for a partner, so instead of the turkey and potatoes, I spooned it over some couscous and put a little merguez sausage over top. Pretty awesome, if I do say myself and it’s just as good the next day. And that’s the true sign of a good Thanksgiving dish, whether it gets better with time. I’m happy to say this passed the test.

thyme-roasted apples + onions
from November 2009 Bon Appetit
I divided this in half and it worked well. I also only roasted it for about half the suggested time, and it still turned out tasty.

4 cups apple cider
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt plus additional for sprinkling
6 7-to 8-ounce onions, halved through root end, each half cut into 6 wedges
6 teaspoons coarsely chopped fresh thyme, divided
6 Braeburn (or Fuji) apples (about 2 3/4 pounds total), peeled, halved, cored, each half cut into 4 wedges

1
Boil cider in large saucepan until reduced to 2/3 cup, about 28 minutes.
2
Whisk in butter. Season glaze with 1 teaspoon coarse salt.
DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover; chill. Rewarm; whisk before using.
3
Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 425°F.
4
Butter 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Toss onions in large bowl with 2 teaspoons thyme and 3 tablespoons glaze. Arrange in single layer on 1 sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast onions on upper oven rack 10 minutes.
5
In the meantime, toss apples in same bowl with 2 teaspoons thyme and 3 tablespoons glaze. Arrange in single layer on second sheet. Sprinkle apples with coarse salt and pepper. Place the apples on the bottom rack and roast both the apples and onions for 20 minutes.
6
Remove both sheets from oven. Drizzle remaining glaze evenly over onions and apples. Reverse position of sheets. Roast 20 minutes longer.
7
Increase oven temperature to 475°F. Roast onions and apples until tender and slightly caramelized, watching closely to prevent burning, about 10 minutes longer.
8
Transfer onions and apples to large bowl. Season with coarse salt and pepper. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons thyme.

Yesterday we made homemade butter and buttermilk, the perfect ingredients to make tasty buttermilk biscuits. They are light, plump and crumbly on the inside, golden and crispy on the outside and full of flavor. Basically, you’re guests are going to love you.

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Last year I totally flaked on Thanksgiving recipes for eatmakeread, so this year I thought I’d get a major head start and begin the sharing in October. After all, sharing with your favorite people is what Thanksgiving is all about, right?

I’m starting the whole shebang out with homemade butter and buttermilk, a tradition that my cousin Katie always made sure we had at Grandma CB’s table. Katie went the old-fashioned route and shook the butter by hand in a jar, but I’m going to cheat a bit by using the food processor. The food processor makes the whole process ridiculously easy and with only one ingredient to make two Thanksgiving essentials, you’re going to wonder why you haven’t tried this sooner.

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