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Hi Reader, Come on, 'fess up. You think that stuffing is the star of Thanksgiving dinner. I know I certainly do. Sure, turkey is great. Smothered in gravy, it's even better. But it's the carb-loading of stuffing that makes me oh so happy on Turkey Day. I love it so much that in my cookbook, The New Portuguese Table, I offer up two stuffings for Thanksgiving. You'll find both at the bottom of this newsletter. Also, some of you were asking more about turkey stock. Here's a video I made a few years ago. I didn't have a recipe. I bought some turkey necks and chicken gizzards and tossed in stuff from the fridge and pantry. A great stock is really that easy. My Best Thanksgiving
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Hi Reader, In my family, Thanksgiving didn’t begin with the turkey. Oh, no. It began the moment the doorbell rang, and my relatives descended like a biblical plague of locusts—if locusts wore polyester and carried rosaries. Within minutes, coats were flung on my grandmother's bed, the TV was blasting the Macy’s parade, and to the uninitiated and our WASP neighbors, we sounded for all the world as if we were milliseconds away from a knife fight. But that's how we Portuguese talk to each...
Hi Reader, Before November turned to Thanksgiving, the month was always about dinners that stuck to your ribs and fogged the kitchen windows until you could finger-paint on them. My mother had an uncanny way of knowing just when the chill in the air crossed from “brisk” to “bone-deep.” That’s when she’d pull out the stockpot. Suddenly, a chicken became three meals, beans lost their anonymity in a garlicky stew, and cabbage was transformed into something that could make you forget it was,...
Hi Reader, In my family, turkey wasn't a thing for Thanksgiving. My dad, for whatever reason, didn't like it. Instead, we had capons, which I happily ate until he told me they were "emasculated chickens." After that, I was Team Side Dishes. My grandmother’s dressing, my mother’s mashed potatoes, my godmother's French stuffing, the obligatory green beans that no one touched but everyone felt guilty omitting. You wanna do WHAT to me? Of course, back then, it was chaos. My mother swore she had...