Thanks for Food and Family

Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday. It's a day to be surrounded by family and food, two things I absolutely love!  There's no pressure to buy anything or wear fancy clothes. Just bring an appetite. And in my family of cooks, there's usually plenty to eat. 

For the third year in a row, we've hosted Thanksgiving at our house. I may be one of the select group of people that really enjoy entertaining. Partly because it forces me to have to clean my house, but mostly I like enjoying simple and good food in a relaxed atmosphere that I can create. No need to take your shoes off but there will be candles and real plates and glasses and hopefully lots of wine. I don't own China and probably never will. The dishes I use for dinner parties have such sentimental value. Most of the olive green dishes you might see in my pictures were my parents when they were married over 25 years ago.  The small glass bowl for the cocktail sauce was my other grandmother's. My huge salad bowl was given to me by my mother-in-law and was made in Italy. The small orange pitcher I use for cream for coffee was my Noni's when she was young. My napkin place mats were purchased at a vintage store in town. I guess I would describe my whole style, from what I wear to how I decorate, to what I cook, as "modern vintage,"combining old with new. I find it comforting I guess...

Thanksgiving is my favorite because it reminds of holidays at my Noni's house growing up. All us cousins would be there, setting the table, making pilgrim hats or playing the piano. It was a time when there was nothing to worry about, everything seemed easy... a rare occasion nowadays. Somehow about 15 people sat at my Noni's dining room table. Us kids would usually fight over who got a chair and who had to sit on the piano bench...I feel like I always ended up with the bench. Sitting in a chair just made you feel like a "big" kid so my older sisters won those. But I didn't mind much because then I got to sit with my younger cousin.

Although we're Italian, I don't remember us eating anything "traditional" Italians would have on Thanksgiving...besides my Popi's salad. No one can make a salad like he did. He'd make it with tons of red wine vinegar so you'd have the perfect amount leftover to sop up with a big fat chunk of Italian bread. He'd even sneak us a splash of wine in it too. We always had my Noni's sausage stuffing but I have to admit, that to this day, I still prefer Stove Top. And the turkey was at least 20 pounds, which I also never ate. Mashed potatoes, corn and some stuffing is all I need. Not much has changed.

But, now that we host Thanksgiving, I get to have all my favorite foods and throw in some new dishes. We did have sausage stuffing thanks to my mother-in-law, and green bean casserole and cranberry sauce...yuck. My Noni make an amazing cranberry sauce with chestnuts, it's the only kind I'll eat. My husband fries the turkey. I take on the tedious task of making mashed potatoes since our moms got plenty other stuff to do...like make stove top stuffing for us and lots of desserts.  I tried out a few new recipes this year that I absolutely loved. So here's a few...

* I have to apologize in advance for the lack/quality of photos. Once the food was out, nothing else really mattered.

For starters...

Kale, Cranberry and Goat Cheese Salad

adapted from the Clara Persis blog

Makes 4-6 servings

• One large bunch of kale, cleaned, ends removed and chopped
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup toasted walnuts pieces
• 1/3 cup of crumbled goat cheese
• 3 TBS olive oil
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• sea salt 

Drizzle the oil, lemon juice and vinegar over the kale. Use your hands and literally massage the kale. This is super important because kale is very hearty and fibrous. The oils and acids will help break it down a bit so it is easier to eat. Raw kale makes a great salad because it doesn't get soggy like some other kinds of lettuces can be.

Sprinkle on a few pinches of sea salt.

Throw your cranberries, walnuts and goat cheese in. Carefully fold all the ingredients together coating them with the olive oil and lemon juice.

Chill for about 20 minutes and serve.

Makes for a perfect Christmas dish too! Love the colors!

I was almost disappointed having some leftover but surprisingly, it held up and was still good to eat the next day! This is my new favorite salad...until I OD on kale again.

Bloomin Onion
Makes 10 servings

•  2 large yellow onions
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 bottle of good beer, think we used Sam Adams Boston 
• oil for frying

Prep your onions. You want to cut off a small part of both ends so it can stand. Then, you need to cut almost completely through the onion about 1/4 inch from the bottom. Do this at least 8 times. You should end up with about 16 sections. Here's a link WITH PHOTOS, since I forgot. 

Carve out a hollow part right in the middle. This will allow the batter to seep through.
I also dropped mine in boiling water for about 2 minutes to soften it up a little so the pieces would spread apart easier.

Combine your dry ingredients. Then add your beer. The batter should be similar to pancake batter but if you find it's a little thick, add some water.

Coat you onion really well in the batter then drop it in the oil. Since we already had hot oil from frying the turkey, this was pretty easy.

Shrimp cocktail is a must. Always serve over ice!

Let the onions swim around for a few minutes, moving it around so it cooks all the way. It should only take maybe 6-8 minutes til its nice and golden brown. 


Serve with this dipping sauce that tastes even better than Outback's. 


1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbs A-1 sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 TBS horseradish

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate til ready to serve.

This thing didn't even have a chance for a cameo it went so fast!





Now onto dessert...normally we would have sweet potatoes with brown sugar but I always feel guilty eating double doses of potatoes. So, why not turn your typical sweet potatoes with marshmallows into dessert?! Even better... a bread pudding.

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding 
Adapted from Rachel Cooks
Makes 8-10 servings

• 2 medium sized sweet potatoes, should be about 1 1/2 cup mashed
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 1 1/2 loaves of cinnamon swirl bread, cubed
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1 bag mini marshmallows

Preheat your oven to 350.
For this recipe, I cooked my potatoes in the microwave. It has a magical "potato" button on it that works perfectly.  Once they're done, cut them in half and just scoop out the flesh and mash.

In a greased 9x13 inch baking dish, spread out half of your bread. Spoon your mashed sweet potatoes on top then layer with bread again.

In a separate bowl, mix all your other ingredients. Pour on top of the bread. Use your hands to push down the bread so it gets a chance to soak up some liquid.

Bake for about 45 minutes until most of the liquid is gone.

Top with mini marshmallows and broil until just golden brown...aka don't shut the oven and walk away! Doing all these things made my kitchen a little chaotic and I ended up putting the bag of marshmallows on my hot burner, which resulted in the bag opening up once I realized the burner was hot and releasing tons of mini marshmallows that ended up at the bottom of my, also hot, oven. Thank you to my husband for cleaning them up immediately because honestly at that point, I didn't even care. They would've burned off eventually right? 
Serve warm and toasty.

I'm so very thankful to have spent another Thanksgiving with my family, although there were a few important people that couldn't make it. Looking forward to next year and many more to come!

Thank You.