Starters and Nibbles

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter – Serve with cheddar or brie (or any cheese that is cheddar-or-brie-like) and crackers. Can be made several days in advance. Uses the crock-pot, which frees up your stovetop and oven. Would also be a nice sauce with turkey. And a nice host(-ess) gift.

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Chicken Liver Mousse – Quick and easy to make. Can be made several days in advance. Serve with toast squares, crackers, or sliced baguette.

Chicken Liver Mousse on a crunchy little toast square

Manchego Cheese, Quince, and Walnut Crostini – Make the quince jam (or buy it) in advance. Toast the bread in advance. Easy to assemble.

Manchego, Quince, and Walnut Crostini

First Course

Easy Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons - Serve as a first course. Beets can be roasted several days in advance. Soup can be made and refrigerated 1-2 days in advance (without the croutons, of course). Swirl a bit of heavy cream or yogurt on top for an elegant little touch. When I make a large meal like Thanksgiving dinner, I serve creamy soups like this in teacups – it’s just the right amount of soup so your guests aren’t stuffed before the main course.

Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons

Quick Breads

Bacon Muffins – quick and easy to bake. Can be made 1 day in advance.

Bacon Muffins

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper – Quickbread (no yeast) – takes only a few minutes to mix. Can be made 1-2 days in advance.

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper

Cheddar-Sage Biscuits – Can be made 1 day in advance and re-heated. Sage goes nicely with turkey.

Cheddar Sage Biscuits

Sides

Broccoli Raab with Pecans – can be made 1-2 day in advance and re-heated.

Broccoli Raab with Pecans

Mashed Potatoes - can be made several hours in advance. Hold in a metal bowl over simmering water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Add more cream or milk before serving if the potatoes have dried out a bit.

Mashed Potatoes

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon – can be made up to a week in advance. Made in the oven so it frees up your stovetop. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower – can be made several hours in advance. Pop back in the oven for a few minutes to re-heat. Grate some Parmesan over the cauliflower for a little more richness.

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower

Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad – believe it or not, this salad can be made several days in advance. Unlike lettuce, the kale is hearty enough to not get slimy under the weight of the vinaigrette. Flavors actually get better if made a day in advance. Can be served cold or at room temperature.

Raw lacitano kale for Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad

Dessert

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider – pie can be made one day in advance. I usually serve apple pie with this Calvados Ice Cream (it’s heaven). You can omit the boiled cider to save time. Add a bit more sugar to compensate.

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider

Bourbon Milkshakes – can’t really be made in advance, but really easy to make using store-bought ingredients. And a perfect ending to your fabulous Thanksgiving meal. Give yourself a round of (bourbon-y) applause!

Bourbon Milkshake

Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons

Beets this time of year are so tender and sweet – I bought a bunch the other day at the farmer’s market and they cried out to me, “Please puree me into a velvety soup that tastes decadent but is really (gasp!) quite healthy.” Really, they said that. (And OK, maybe the buttery croutons aren’t 100% healthy, but you could always omit them. I did use multigrain bread.)

I roasted the beets a couple of days before to save time. Roasted, peeled beets will keep in your fridge for at least 2-3 days. You could also omit the thyme and add a dash of garam masala or curry powder, or a touch of cumin. And instead of croutons you could chiffonade some beet greens as a lovely garnish. Or add a swirl of crème fraîche, sour cream, or yogurt. Or a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and perhaps some sunflower seeds? It’s really quite a versatile soup. Oh, and did I mention that it can be served hot or cold?

Using a blender instead of a food processor will result in a much smoother puree.

Ingredients:
(Serves 4 as an appetizer; 2-3 as a main dish)

For the Beet Soup:
3 medium-sized golden beets, washed and trimmed
2 tablespoons coconut or extra virgin olive oil
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 large shallots, peeled and chopped
1 large sprig fresh thyme, leaves removed and stem discarded
1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups water
Kosher salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
Juice of 1/2 a lime or lemon

For the Buttery Croutons:
2 slices multigrain or whole-wheat bread, crusts removed
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon coconut or extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt

Special Equipment: Blender or food processor

Procedure:
For the Soup:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Wrap the trimmed beats in tinfoil and roast directly on the rack in the oven for 45 minutes or longer, or until the beets feel tender and are easily pierced with the tip of a pairing knife.
3. Let the beets cool, then slip the skins off and chop into 2-inch chunks.
4. In a medium saucepan, heat the coconut or extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the celery, shallots, and a small pinch of salt and stir to coat. Continue to cook and stir until the celery and shallots soften, about 8-10 minutes. Reduce the heat if the vegetables start to brown.
5. Add the thyme leaves and garlic. Cook and stir for another 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is fragrant.
6. Add the chopped beets and the water. Simmer for 15-20 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and to soften the vegetables further.
7. Remove from heat and puree (in batches, if necessary) in the blender or food processor. (Take care blending hot liquids! Steam can make the blender lid fly off. Trust me.) Check for consistency – if too thick, add a bit more water. (If it’s too thin for your taste, you can always return the puree to a pot and cook over low heat for a few more minutes until the soup is of the consistency you dream of.)
8. Stir in the lime or lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne (to taste). Taste and correct for salt.

For the Croutons:

1. Cut the bread into even-sized cubes as big or small as you like (mine were about 1/2 inch).
2. In a small, heavy saucepan, heat the butter and coconut or extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat until the butter stops foaming. Add the bread cubes and a pinch of salt and toss to coat. Cook and stir (or continue tossing) until the bread cubes are crispy and golden brown. Drain briefly on paper towels.

To Serve:

1. Ladle out a serving of soup into a bowl and top with croutons, or with your desired topping of choice (see above).

Chicken Soup with Homemade Pasta

This is a dish borne out of necessity. I am feeling a little sickly with a sore throat, so I thought a bit of homemade chicken soup couldn’t hurt. But I wanted noodles in my soup, dammit! Because it’s approximately 2 degrees outside, I really, really didn’t want to go to the store to get egg noodles. So, I searched and searched for an easy egg noodle recipe and came up with – Manfrigul. A specialty of the Romagna region of Italy, these babies are like little bits of chewy, noodle-y deliciousness very well suited to floating around in a chicken soup. And guess what? They don’t require a pasta maker!

Like the title suggests, this is a fairly easy recipe – “fairly” easy because I use split chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken, making the separation of the meat from the bones just a bit easier and the whole shebang just a bit quicker. You don’t have to make the homemade pasta, but trust me, they’re really not terrible to make. Because there aren’t a lot of various chicken parts in the recipe, the broth is on the lighter side. If you want a more robust broth, throw in some chicken necks, wings, or backs into the soup, or substitute low-sodium, high quality chicken stock for the water. The Parmesan cheese crust adds a bit more flavor. Oh, and you can make your pasta while your soup is simmering, just to give you something to do while you’re waiting.

One last thing. I have a serious, serious issue with mushy pasta in my chicken soup. I hate it. I hate mushy pasta in my soup almost as much as I hate the monopoly cinnamon has on apple-based desserts. Which is to say, seriously. So, what I do to remedy this situation is to cook the pasta separately from the soup. Some may say that you lose flavor that way, because pasta cooked in soup absorbs all of the soup-y goodness. Yes, this is true. But hear me out. I really like eating soup for a couple of days after I make it, since I usually make big batches. Pasta cooked in soup and then eaten the next day gets really mushy and is an abomination. Abomination, I say! (Feel free to ignore my ranting and cook your pasta directly in your soup.)

Manfrigul pasta. Looks a touch like corn.

The Manfrigul recipe is adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, a book that you should immediately buy and read cover-to-cover.

Ingredients:

For the soup:
1 small onion, peeled and cut into quarters
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 3-4 large pieces
2 celery ribs, chopped into 3-4 large pieces
4-5 thyme sprigs
4-5 parsley sprigs
1 bay leaf
7-8 whole black peppercorns
2 gloves garlic, very papery outer skin removed (leave unpeeled)
1 teaspoon salt
2 bone-in chicken breasts (also called “split” chicken breasts)
4 quarts water
1 small Parmesan cheese crust, waxy outer coating scraped off with the back of a knife (optional)
Additional salt to taste
Freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano for serving

For the pasta:
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more to (possibly) add to the dough and for kneading
2 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork

Procedure:

For the soup:

1. In a large dutch oven or similar vessel, add the onion, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, peppercorns, garlic, and the salt. Pour in the 4 quarts of water. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Add the chicken breasts, and boil for 7-8 minutes. A bunch of grey-ish foam will rise to the surface. Skim the foam off and discard it.
2. Immediately turn the heat down to the lowest setting, and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Remove the chicken breasts and let cool slightly. Leave the broth a-simmering.
4. Separate the meat from the chicken bones and set aside. Add the optional cheese crust and a pinch of salt. Return the chicken bones to the pot and continue to simmer for another 20 minutes.
5. Remove the carrots, celery, and onion. Chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
6. Strain the soup through a fine-mesh strainer into a big bowl or similar vessel. Return the broth to the pot and add your chopped vegetables.
7. Shred the chicken with your fingers, or chop (however you like the chicken in your chicken soup) and add back to the pot.  Taste and correct for salt. (You will probably have to add quite a bit of salt at this stage. Don’t be afraid, unless you have a physical problem with salt. I guess you can be afraid if you do.)
8. Simmer away until you’re ready to cook your pasta.

Slicing the pasta disk

For the pasta:

1. Add the flour to a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in your beaten eggs. Using three fingers on your dominant hand (I’m serious), start pulling in a bit of flour from the “walls” of the well into the eggs. Mix it up a bit with those three fingers.
2. Continue pulling in flour and mixing with your fingers until a dough forms.
3. Add additional flour until the mixture starts to feel less sticky. It’s almost 100% likely that you will need to add additional flour, as the flour to egg ratio really varies according to humidity and the like in your kitchen. Just add a little bit of flour at a time – it’s so much easier to add more than to remove flour (which is, actually, impossible).
4. When you’re feeling pretty good about your dough, wash your hands, dry them really, really well, and stick your finger into the dough mass. It should come away fairly clean. Now, you knead.
5. Add just a bit of flour to your board. Start kneading your dough (fold it up, push it away with the heel of your hand, rotate a quarter turn either clockwise or counterclockwise, repeat). Knead for 7-8 minutes straight. At the end of this kneading, your dough should feel super soft, like a baby’s butt.
6. Pat the dough ball into a round about 1 1/2 inches tall. Spread a clean dishcloth out on your counter. Using a super sharp knife, cut the dough disk into very, very thin slices. As you cut a slice, transfer it to your waiting clean dishcloth. (Don’t be tempted to cut them all at once. They stick together and then you will have to re-form and pat out your dough ball. Trust me on this one.)
7. Dry your pasta slices, turning each of them a few times, until they’re no longer sticky (but not hard as a rock). This took about 30 minutes. (Note: I found that it was easier to cut the pasta slices into thin strips after they had dried for about a half an hour. Then I allowed the strips to dry an additional 5 minutes or so before proceeding to the next step.)
8. Using your sharp knife, chop the pasta slices into bits about the size of a piece of barley. You may need to separate some of your pasta bits from one another if your dough is still a bit sticky.  (You can also use a food processor for the chopping, according to Marcella, but I didn’t try it.)
9. Cook the Manfrigul in a bit of salted, boiling water (or in your soup, I suppose) for 5-7 minutes, or until they are tender. Add the pasta to your soup, top with grated Parmigiano, and enjoy (a little chopped parsley would be kind of nice, too).

A word about lentils. It’s worth it to look for French green lentils. They hold their shape much better than regular brown lentils. They are smaller and have a hint of green before they are cooked. They look like little tiny green pebbles. You can find French green lentils at most grocery stores these days. I buy them in bulk because I use them so much – they’re a lot cheaper that way.

This recipe is based on one in Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

French Green Lentils

Lentil Soup with Prosciutto

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup prosciutto (or pancetta), shredded with your fingers (optional)
1/2 medium onion, cut into very fine dice (about 1/4 cup)
1 small rib celery, cut into very fine dice (about 1/4 cup)
1 small carrot, cut into very fine dice (about 1/4 cup)
1 cup canned whole tomatoes with their juice (I like San Marzanos), crushed up with your fingers
1 cup French green lentils (1/2 pound), rinsed and drained well
4 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth (or vegetable stock)
One 2-3 inch Parmesan cheese rind, waxy bit scraped off (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Serves: 4-6

Procedure:

1. In a large, heavy soup pot, add the butter, the olive oil, the optional proscuitto or pancetta, and the onions. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until the onions are golden (but not even remotely brown).
2. Add the chopped carrots and the celery and cook and stir another 3-4 minutes.
3. Add the crushed tomatoes and their juices and stir to coat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep an eye on the pot and turn the heat down if the tomatoes appear to be browning. (The goal is to have a mixture with very little liquid at the end, but very little browning.)
4. Add the rinsed and drained lentils to the pot and stir several times to coat with the tomato mixture.
5. Add the chicken stock or broth, several generous pinches of salt, and a few grindings of black pepper. Add the optional cheese rind, if using. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer.
6. Cook the lentils for at least 30 minutes, or until they are very tender. You may need to add a bit more broth or water to the pot if you find that it is evaporating too quickly.
7. Taste and correct for salt. Serve with grated Parmesan. (Don’t forget to remove the cheese rind before you serve the soup – it’s not good for eating.)

I like to garnish spicy tomato soup with a bit of shredded kale, or sometimes with shredded cheddar cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches, made with sharp cheddar and cut into quarters, are also really, really good dipped into it.

Spicy Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (about 2 1/4 cups)
1 medium jalapeño, finely chopped (remove ribs and seeds if you don’t want your soup super spicy)
3 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped (about 3 teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Two 24-ounce jars tomato sauce (preferably Bionatura brand – labeled as “strained tomatoes”) or two 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons (or more to taste) sugar or honey
1/4 cup heavy cream or half-and half (optional)

Special Equipment: stick (hand) blender or regular blender (optional)

Procedure:

1. In a heavy pot, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, jalapeno, and ginger. Cook and stir until the vegetables have softened, about 8 minutes (do not let brown – adjust the heat if necessary).
2. Add the garlic and cook and stir 1 minute.
3. Add the cumin and cook and stir 1 minute.
4. Add the tomato sauce or tomatoes, the chicken stock or broth, the salt, and the sugar or honey. Stir well and bring to a gentle boil.
5. Reduce the heat to low and simmer 30 minutes, or until the flavors are melded together.
6. Remove from heat and puree using a hand blender or regular blender (be careful with hot liquids, and remember not to fill your regular blender too full).
7. Taste and correct for salt. Before serving, stir in the optional heavy cream or half and half.