challah stuffing

Thirty-six hours before the cooking-est day of the year in America is as good time as any to for us to talk about some hard-won cooking truths: There’s the idea of the perfect menu (all of my favorite recipe darlings in one place) and then there’s the actually perfect menu (the one you can pull off in a reasonable amount of time with as little stress as possible; darlings, murdered.) This is the kind of recipe we use when we come to our senses.

celeryleeksherbsin buttercook the leeks and celeryready to assemble

The reasoning is deliciously selfish: I’m not throwing feasts to miss them. I want to be wedged on the sofa between friends I never see enough of with a cocktail in my hand, telling terrible stories, not sweating in the kitchen because I forgot to wash the thyme leaves before stripping them and now my fingertips are worrisomely gray? (This is highly specific because it happens all the time.) Nobody I know or care to hang out with is going to care if I chuck the thyme in the trash and move on. The way I want to cook is — excuse the crushing earnestness here — the way I want to live; little extraneous noise in my recipes, lots of noise in the living room. Repeat after me: The time for the 4-process side dish is when it’s the only thing you’re making.

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SPONSORED POST: 5 Things to Keep in Your Fridge (or Freezer) to Quickly Feed a Crowd During the Holidays


For the first time ever, you feel ready for the holidays. You’ve color-coded your calendar, covered your fridge in chronological to-do lists, and sketched out a rough diagram of decorations. If all of your neighbors take you up on that “stop by anytime” thing on the same night, you’ll be ready to go. But we have one more holiday secret weapon for you: Walmart’s grocery pickup. It’s fast, easy, and convenient.
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