November 2009

Turkey or Chicken Divan

The broccoli plants in my fall vegetable garden always seem to put out their first and most beautiful florets during the last week of November, and I put them to delicious use in combination with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. One of my favorite dishes for this purpose is turkey divan, a [...]

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Cranberry Mascarpone

As mentioned in my previous post, I do a lot of tasting when I cook Thanksgiving dinner, and so I typically feel as stuffed as the Thanksgiving turkey by the time dinner is over. After such a heavy meal, the prospect of a dense sweet potato or pumpkin pie for [...]

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Cranberry Sorbet

When I cook Thanksgiving dinner, I’m usually pleasantly full by the time dinner is ready to serve — I do too much tasting — and I feel as stuffed as the Thanksgiving turkey when dinner is over. So the idea of facing a hearty, calorie-laden pie at the end of [...]

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Chicken Soup with Spinach Pesto Stuffed Noodles

Chicken noodle soup is perhaps the most comforting of comfort food dishes. It wards off the chill of a fall or winter day, restores your spirits if you’re feeling down, and puts spring in your step as you venture out to face the world. I also love Italian food and [...]

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Cheddar and Stilton Rarebit

Homemade vegetable soup is a popular main course dinner in my family, and I frequently serve it with a rarebit side dish to make a satisfying and nutritionally complete meal. Rarebit couldn’t be simpler to make. It can be tossed together in a matter of minutes and just seems more [...]

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Green Bean Casserole: the Fresh Version

Like most Americans my age — I’m 57 — I’ve eaten my fair share of canned green bean casserole over the years. Although it’s considered a comfort food classic, I never quite worked it into my own cooking repertoire. It always seemed too soupy, too canned, too overcooked, and just [...]

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Daily Whole Wheat Seed Bread

Homemade whole wheat bread is number one on my personal list of essential comfort foods, and I’ve been making my own since I was in my early 20s. I would like to say that health concerns were my primary motivation in becoming a bread maker; however, in fact, I simply [...]

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Yet Another Caesar Salad

Does the world need another recipe for Caesar salad? I believe that it does. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I think it needs mine. I have two issues with most Caesar salads served outside my home: First, the dressing ingredients are not fully amalgamated and thus sink [...]

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Swiss Chard Tart with Three Cheeses

My organic vegetable garden is swinging into high gear now, and my Swiss chard plants are the most recent to offer their first harvest of the season. After mulling over possibilities for what to do with these garden beauties last night, I settled on making a chard tart for a [...]

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Fresh Cranberry and Orange Relish

When I was growing up, my family’s Thanksgiving turkey dinner was always served with fresh cranberry and orange relish, not cranberry sauce. And I have maintained the tradition in my own family, using a recipe, original source unknown, handed down to me by my mother. It is light, bright, zippy, [...]

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