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Why I Like Simple Thanksgivings the Best
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Hi Reader, When I was younger—and oh-so-very single—I treated Thanksgiving the way some people treat a new relationship: with enthusiasm, optimism, and absolutely no sense of boundaries. I experimented. Wildly. Indiscriminately. One year, I made turkey-mashed-potato-and-stuffing burritos because…why not? Another time, I ditched the 18-dish spread and instead crafted a Thanksgiving pot pie that crammed the entire holiday—turkey, stuffing, gravy, the whole dysfunctional family—under one crust. Some years, I cooked at home. Some years, I ate in restaurants. I ate Chinese, Indian, and burgers on Thanksgiving more than once. And the low point (or high point, depending on how you feel about mid-century cuisine) was the year I stayed on at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, for the holiday and heated up three Swanson turkey dinners in the oven. Not the microwave—the oven. I had standards. But all those creative, unusual, trendy, trying-way-too-hard Thanksgivings eventually led me somewhere unexpected. They led me back to simple. And that happened when I met The One. He's deeply, beautifully traditional—one of the things I adore most about him. While I was out there reinventing the holiday like some deranged culinary DJ, he was quietly loyal to the classics. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Gravy you can practically stand a spoon in. The things that don’t need explaining or reimagining. And slowly, through him, I fell in love with the simple and the true. We even do these little rituals now—tiny, ordinary things that somehow anchor the whole day. We eat on either his mother’s Blue Liberty dishes or my grandmother’s pink floral ones. We put out the Wild Turkey decanters that have been in his family for decades. We don "Gobble 'Til You Wobble" T-shirts our niece, Megan, made for us. Every year, without negotiating, we watch the parade while having breakfast in front of the TV. Although this year will be different. We’ll be in New York City…and for reasons I can’t quite wrap my head around, the man insists on going to the parade in person. Out there. In the crowds. While I fully intend to wave at him from the warm embrace of my friend’s couch, croissant in hand. The point is: after years of trying every possible version of Thanksgiving, I’ve realized I don’t need clever or complicated or reinvented. I don’t need the turkey in a kimchi brine or the pie deconstructed or a tablescape curated within an inch of its life. I just need what we’ve built together. Simple. Classic. Us. How to Pull Off a Simple, Classic Thanksgiving
WHAT'S INSIDE...
Simple Roast TurkeySimple roast turkey is an easy way to cook the perfect bird for Thanksgiving. And by that we mean the best, juiciest roast turkey imaginable. A failproof technique, even for beginner cooks.☞ Try this recipeClassic Turkey GravyEveryone needs a classic, foolproof, go-to classic turkey gravy. This is it. And all it takes is pan juices or drippings from your turkey, stock, butter, flour, and 20 minutes of your time.☞ Try this recipeEasy Roasted CarrotsThese easy roasted carrots boast four ingredients—carrots, butter, salt, and pepper—and one simple and perfect technique for roasting them to magnificence, bringing out their earthy sweetness.☞ Try this recipePancetta & Herb Stuffed Turkey BreastWhether you're hosting a small Thanksgiving gathering, or don't have the space, time, or inclination to wrestle with a whole bird, this pancetta and herb stuffed turkey breast makes for an easy holiday main course.☞ Try this recipeBourbon Sweet Potato PieThis bourbon sweet potato pie, filled with sweet potatoes, butter, cream, eggs, spice, and bourbon, is topped with a brown sugar streusel. Suddenly, Thanksgiving is even better.☞ Try this recipeGreen Beans With Browned Butter & AlmondsLemon zest, shallots, and red pepper flakes—as well as fragrant toasted almonds—give classic green beans amandine a bold update with plenty of texture. The browned butter amplifies the nuttiness of the almonds, adds a touch of richness, and ties everything together.☞ Try this recipeThree-Cheese Vegetarian LasagnaThree-cheese vegetarian lasagna is easy and exceptional and even sorta elegant any time of year BUT we especially welcome it at the Thanksgiving table when we need something vegetarian and lovely. Here's exactly how to make it plus what kind of cheeses work best.☞ Try this recipeHerbed Bread & Celery StuffingThis herbed bread and celery stuffing, made with celery, onion, thyme, basil, and parsley, is a sort of basic blank canvas of a stuffing that will satisfy you as-is or make a terrific foundation for your other embellishments. Lovely with chicken as well as turkey.☞ Try this recipeMaple Roasted ParsnipsThese maple-roasted parsnips are a simple yet unexpectedly delicious side dish. Few ingredients and easy prep make it a winner for both weeknights and special occasions.☞ Try this recipePotatoes Dauphinoise⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 from 10 votes Potatoes Dauphinoise are potatoes, cream, cheese, and a French lineage. They're like scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin but are even more fancy but without being fussy. We really don't think comfort food gets any more comfort-y than this.☞ Try this recipe |
Leite's Culinaria
Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laughs in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join more than 30,000 food lovers and subscribe.
Hi Reader, True story: one year, I cooked Thanksgiving like I was auditioning for Survivor: Roxbury Edition. I started at dawn, juggling pies, stuffing, potatoes, sides, and a turkey the size of a mini-fridge. By the time dessert rolled around, I was slumped in my chair, fork dangling midair, too tired to taste the very pies I'd threatened to leave The One over if he even so much as touched them. After our guests left, I crawled, and I do mean crawl, to bed, leaving the kitchen looking not...
Hi Reader, When I was little, my father used to drag me to the Portuguese markets in Fall River on Saturday mornings. I say “drag,” because no self-respecting kid in the 1970s wanted to spend his weekend staring at cabbages the size of basketballs or inhaling the earthy funk of turnips stacked like cannonballs. I wanted Pop-Tarts and Twinkies. Vegetables were what you had to wade through to get to dessert. Fall Veggie Greatness (a Crash Course) Crank the oven. High heat (425°F) is your best...
Hi Reader, I was a horribly neglected child. There—I said it. And somewhere, a cadre of ancestors is already spinning in their rosary-laden coffins. When it came to dessert, I was an Olympian, the equivalent of an elite athlete. I was constantly training. At every meal, I assessed my competitors’ positions, gauged their distance from our common prize, calculated wind shear—anything for a millisecond’s advantage. All to execute my move to get the biggest, best, most gorgeous piece of any pie,...