Thanksgiving: All the Recipes You Need

Thanksgiving is here. It's time to make all the wonderful dishes you and your family and friends love. Here's a guide to many of my favorite recipes.

Enjoy and drop me a line with your favorite dishes.

Cranberry No-Cook Relish

Raw Brussels Sprouts Salad with Bacon

Sweet Potatoes Three Ways: Mashed, Baked or Oven-Fried

Cornbread, Porcini Mushroom, Chestnut, Bacon and Sausage Stuffing

Roast Chestnuts

Gluten and Dairy Free Cream of Mushroom Soup

Apple Sauce with Chili

Bacon-Wrapped Turkey

Sweet Potatoes Three Ways

I don't have much to say here, short of the fact that sweet potatoes really float my boat.

They are good many ways, so I've chosen to share three with you today: mashed, oven fries and baked. Each is good in its own way and all are a welcome addition to any table.

A lot of my friends are wary when I tout the goodness of sweet potatoes, since their main exposure to them has been in the form of a casserole covered in marshmallows and maple syrup. That makes them sweet in the wrong way, and I understand why my friends are not huge fans of the sweet potato. Generally, once they've tried one of my plain and simple treatments, they are converted.

Enjoy them on their own or integrated into a meal with a salad and a roast.

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 1 to 4 sweet potatoes, skinned, boiled and diced
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • Salt to taste

Preparation

  • Put boiled potatoes in a bowl, add milk, butter and salt and mash them all up thoroughly.
  • You can also add 2 tablespoons of grated cheese like parmesan or sharp cheddar to the warm potatoes.

Oven-Baked French Fries

Ingredients

  • 1 to 4 sweet potatoes, skinned and cut into matchsticks
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt to taste

Preparation

  • Place potato matchsticks on a rimmed baking sheet and put them into a 425 degree oven. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping the potatoes over halfway through the cooking time. Remove from oven, salt and serve.

Baked Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 1 to 4 potatoes (sweet, russet, new), pierced with a fork

Preparation

  • Bake potatoes for 40 minutes, remove from oven, pop open the potatoes and serve!
  • Serve with butter, sour cream, bacon or grated cheese.

It's Cold Here: Mashed Potato Time

Okay, I know, we're in San Francisco, and all of you real-season dwellers are guffawing at my being cold in 45 degree and sunny weather. To be fair, I grew up in NY and know what real weather feels like. But, there is something out here that makes me cold from the inside. I wonder if it's just that I'm so used to the temperature hovering around 65 degrees most of the year, that this shift in temperature seems more sudden than the transition from Summer to Fall to Winter in NY.

So a very simple mashed potato was in order as dinner the other night. There is nothing as satisfying or warms you up as well as mashed potatoes.

I made two versions, one with dairy  (for my daughter) and one without (for me). The dairy-free ones are not quite the same, but hey, I have to eat within certain guidelines, so have found a decent work around.

All that's left is for me to find a cashmere jumpsuit to make it through the winter.

Mashed Potatoes

  • 6 Russet potatoes, skinned and diced
  • 3/4 cup of milk (cow or almond)
  • 3 tbsps of butter (or olive oil)
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Boil the potatoes in enough salted water to cover them. They're ready when you can easily put a fork through them.
  • Drain the water and return the pan to the stove. Put a high flame under the pan for one to two minutes, to dry out the potatoes.
  • Add most of the milk and all of the butter (or oil). Mash with a potato masher.
  • Keep adding the milk until the potatoes reach the consistency you'd like.
  • Add salt.

Enjoy.