Piled high, topped with a pat of butter or savory gravy, mashed potatoes are hard to resist. But this Thanksgiving essential has the power to go way beyond just a comforting side dish — we’ve got five ways to prove it.
This casserole, the beloved green bean casserole invented in the Campbell’s Soup corporate test kitchen, is over 50 years old and sorely in need of an update. Sorry, Campbell’s (and Del Monte, and French’s) — as much as I love you, none of y’all are invited to this party.
You know that friend whose taste in music always makes your ears perk up? That’s my friend Austin Powers (no relation to the international man of mystery). He’s always playing the right thing at the right time, to the point that I’ve asked him to curate the music at numerous dinner parties.
“Music only adds to the sensory experience of eating,” says Austin. “So it’s something I always think of when there’s food around.”
So, naturally, Austin was the right person to go to for help creating a Thanksgiving playlist that caters to you, the host. From the minute you wander into the kitchen, this playlist will be there, walking you through your next few hours of stirring, stuffing, dicing, and slicing.
Is this a good place to admit that in all years I sat down at the Thanksgiving table when I didn’t eat meat, it never occurred to me that I needed an alternative meal? Because: sweet potatoes. Because: green beans. Because: stuffing and cranberries and dinner rolls and four types of pie! My plate was heavy. My face was stuffed. I mean, who’s really in it for the turkey?
But, you’re probably a better vegetarian than I was (one who does not consider a montage of side dishes a proper meal) or at least a better host (one who believes every guest, regardless of diet, deserves a main dish), which means that you are probably currently tasked with making something vegetable-centric that’s a) not just everyone else’s side dish, b) ideally contains protein too, c) would be a good fit for the other harvest-y flavors on the table, i.e. no small order.
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As a cook, I see Thanksgiving as one of the most exciting holidays of the year — an annual excuse to spend days or weeks planning, cooking, and eating a feast with friends and family. But as an introvert who loves small, intimate dinner parties, I also find Thanksgiving exhausting and emotionally overwhelming, especially when I’m the host.
Are you an introvert too? If your holiday planning includes wondering if you can sneak some earplugs into the kitchen once it’s packed with screaming relatives, or thinking about how long you can hide in the bathroom this time before it starts to look weird, this survival guide is for you.
Never babysit a skillet of hot, sputtering bacon again — the oven is your friend on Saturday morning. With this method, you can cook a whole package of bacon at once, and you don’t even have to flip it as it cooks. Go on, pour yourself a cup of coffee and let yourself wake up without grease splatters down your robe. This video will show you how.
I thought I knew pumpkin pie — I mean, you can’t really beat the classic — and then Ruth Reichl comes along and drops this bombshell on me, and now I feel like I’ve been lying to myself about the gloriousness of my pies for years. I would be disheartened if I weren’t so dang excited to bake more pie this Thanksgiving. Enough teasing — here’s what Ruth Reichl has to say on the subject of pumpkin pie.
Is it possible to throw a full Thanksgiving dinner for a big crowd when you’re on a tight budget? Absolutely! In fact, we believe that the traditional Thanksgiving meal is one of the easiest ways to share a generous, bountiful meal while also watching your pennies.
Here’s how to host Thanksgiving for 10 without breaking your budget, but without compromising on generosity and deliciousness all around the table.
Shopping the holiday sales is a sure-fire way to save money on groceries. It’s also an opportunity to save money on “seasonal” items you use year-round. Some of these may be ingredients that just get marked down for the winter holidays — like baking supplies, holiday beverage supplies, and cold-weather foods at rock-bottom prices — and others may be items that are really hard to find any other time of year.
Many of you know Dana Velden from her long-running Weekend Meditation column here on the site. Dana started the column in 2008, and while she recently retired it to move on to other projects — notably, her new book, the calming, lyrical collection Finding Yourself in the Kitchen — we turn to her today for some much-needed holiday perspective.
I asked Dana to run us through the five most common emotions as we approach November’s biggest day. As always, she not only identifies the pain and pleasure points, but gives us real-world strategies to soothe and celebrate them.
