Sometimes after you cook a nice meal for your family, you stand in the corner behind a camera and document them. Everyone enjoys it.
We hosted Thanksgiving for the first time last year. As people do, I set up cameras around the house to capture the experience and create a fake movie trailer about it. It was more or less a dry run to see if I had it in me to create a video cooking blog. And I did. Are you thankful for that? I bet you are. You’re welcome.
As we gear up for hosting again this year, I’m trying to cook as many side dishes as I can to see which ones should make the cut for the big day. Side dishes are the real magic of Thanksgiving, right? Last year’s spread, 19 dishes in all, included homemade macaroni and cheese (we made the macaroni fresh that day), chestnut and parsnip croquettes, pumpkin pie made from scratch and 16 gallons of vodka.
I’ll have more on the side-dish face-off soon. First up: kale and brussels sprout salad vs. shaved root vegetable salad.
You're In My Kitchen 
Oh…the trailer from last year’s Thanksgiving got me really excited! I can’t wait to see what you come up with 🙂
Thanks, Leona! 🙂
love you’re posts. lol every time.
Aw — thanks, Jody!
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What do you do for a main dish? We do a “roast” with seitan and stuffing and puff pastry. And gravy, lots and lots of gravy.
We’ve had a Field Roast the last few years, but we’ve never tried to make our own. Last year was our first year hosting, and my father-in-law handled the turkey since there were two vegetarians and many meat-eaters.
Maybe this year we’ll make our own main dish — yours sounds good! I like seitan, stuffing, puff pastry and gravy. Do you have a recipe?
I don’t really cook it with a recipe anymore. I think we got it out of an old vegetarian times years ago. Basically I take a pakage (or two) of seitan or morningstar chicken strips and thaw it. Mound it on a baking sheet with tinfoil down. Make your favorite stuffing. Mine usually involves obscene amounts of butter and sage. Mound that on top of the “meat”. Then I cover it with Puff pastry. I’m all about shortcuts on that, so I use the pillsbury puff pastry sheets because I don’t have to manage it too much. Bake it according the the packages on the puff pasty box.
We do Grape Nuts loaf sometimes too. Of course, it’s not as special because I make it a lot during the year when I want a traditional sunday supper. That loaf is onions, sage, salt, pepper, about 3/4 of a box of grape nuts, a large container of cottage cheese, a splash of milk and an egg to hold it all together. You want it to have a little stickiness but not too wet or it takes too long to bake. Pop it in the oven around 375 in a loaf pan and take it out when the top is browned and crispy. Some people claim it is good the next day with mustard, but again I am a firm believer in gravy.
You do have a good gravy you make, right? (If not, my hint is: butter–the answer to most wonderful things.)
Yum. You have inspired me. Once I get a handle on the side dishes. It’s almost here!
Scott makes a mushroom gravy. My only role there is eating. 🙂
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