If your holiday table needs an easy but elegant side, look no further: delightful personal portions of tender green beans and asparagus, lovingly wrapped in prosciutto and garnished with parmesan and crispy fried shallots!
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Winter Beet & Apricot Salad
I love an over-the-top salad, and this one combines the sweet earthiness of roasted beets with crisp winter greens like escarole and frisée, plenty of fresh herbs, sweet apricot (I’m using dried, but fresh apricots or persimmons are perfect if you can get your hands on them!), pistachios for some nutty crunch, and a chopped lemon and roasted garlic vinaigrette to take it to the next level!
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Pesto Rosso Lasagna
Once upon a time on a family trip in Sicily, I discovered pesto rosso (red pesto) — the intoxicatingly sweet and savory and tangy and almost-meaty paste that results from combining sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, currants, capers, parmesan, anchovies, and olive oil into the most epic sandwich spread OR the lasagna sauce you never knew you absolutely needed.
I layer this wonderfully sticky and flavorful mix with creamy béchamel and grated Parmesan to help it coat each noodle with a sauce that clings to every bite. The result is a rich, red lasagna that — especially when topped with the vibrant green of fresh basil pesto — makes for quite the festive hit to feed a crowd, and can easily be reheated for leftover meals or sliced cold from the dish and enjoyed privately by the light of the refrigerator door. Pro tip: Add a few splashes of hot sauce!
See this recipe come to life on IG.
Curried Roasted Pumpkin Soup
I love a hearty veggie soup as a warming starter or simple meal — even better when it’s @WW friendly like this one! The flavors of roasted pumpkin and curry are so nicely balanced by lime and coconut milk, and the fiery crunch of spicy roasted pumpkin seeds on top make it a soup with a bit of bite!
Feel free to skip the pumpkin seeds and garnish simply with a scattering of fresh herbs to beautifully balance this rich, earthy soup. The flavors meld and are even better the next day, so make a big batch for easy meals throughout the week!
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CHRISTMAS 2021
Here’s what was on the Holiday table for Christmas 2021! Enjoy!
Granddaddy’s Stuffed Artichokes
Each Christmas, my grandfather cooks up huge batches of these delectable vegetables for the whole family, and they always, ALWAYS steal the show!
Gingerbread Snack Cake
I decided to tinker, taste, and create what I think is the most pillowy and moist (I said it), most fragrantly spiced, most delightfully easy gingerbread snack cake to enjoy all holiday season long.
Christmas Salad
This Chicory Salad with Garlicky Breadcrumbs and Fresno Chive Vinaigrette holds up beautifully in all its festive colors and crunchy textures and plays amazingly well with the other delicious bites you crave on your holiday table.
Turkish Spiced Leg of Lamb
This lamb is rich, fragrant with garlic, spices, and fresh herbs and roasted to perfection so the surface is crisp and the meat is juicy and tender. It pairs perfectly with fluffy rice, scented with saffron and layered with currants and slivered almonds before being toasted to crisp, buttery perfection for a textural play that is utter holiday happiness.
Crème Brûlée French Toast
Easy to cook up for a crowd, festive enough to befit the holiday, but fast enough that you’re not going to spend the morning over a hot stove. Behold, the custardy soft center and crisp, caramelized brown sugar topping of Creme Brûlée French Toast!
Sugar Cookies
One of my favorite holiday traditions is making batch after batch of these delightfully simple, epically buttery, sugary, melt-in-your-mouth cookies all week long leading up to Santa’s big debut.
Popcorn Chicken & Shrimp
This is my version of Publix’s glorious fried chicken – just-peppery-enough, ultra-crispy coating with juicy, perfectly seasoned chicken hidden below. Plus add some crisp and tender Coconut & Panko Fried Popcorn Shrimp and a bomb little sweet and spicy sauce.
Honey Habanero Turkey & Stuffing Cornbread
Last year we spatchcocked. This year, we’re keeping Thanksgiving dinner extra easy and delicious with a slightly sweet and spicy honey habanero glazed BROKEN DOWN bird.
This means it cooks in half the time, there’s no wrestling a massive turkey in and out of your oven, you can customize extra breast or leg meat to suit your gathering, and you’re guaranteed the juiciest, most flavor-saturated bite ever!
Let the 2022 Thanksgiving Throwdown begin.
See this recipe come to life on IG.
For more Turkey Day recipes, check out last year’s full spread.
Thanksgiving 2021 Recipes
Here’s what was on the menu for Thanksgiving 2021! Enjoy!
Maple Butter Turkey & Gravy
This turkey not only gives you the melt-in-your-mouth delicious meat to pair with all your favorite sides, but spatchcocking means it cooks up in 90 minutes (and I would argue with more evenly cooked results!) so you get your oven back!
Creamed Spinach & Leeks
Sweet and savory leeks and plenty of vibrant spinach bathed in the most luxuriously creamy sauce scented with cognac, baked to rich casserole perfection, and topped with crisp, salty fried shallots! The very best part is everything can be made a day (or even two) ahead, so it’s the perfect, easy addition to your confidence-boosting Thanksgiving feast!
Stuffed Acorn Squash
A star side that can play the main if you have vegetarians at your Thanksgiving table – creamy mozzarella cheese, pine nuts, and tender fried eggplant hunks are tossed together in a gorgeous tomato sauce, then tucked into golden roasted acorn squash boats and baked to melting perfection.
Dulce De Leche Pecan Pie
A classic that’s been upgraded: Buttery, tender crust with a crisp, crackling, sugar-coated top, dripping in pecans and a pudding-like dulce de leche filling. It’s as delicious as it sounds!
My Mama’s Pumpkin Pie
The most iconic of fall desserts, Pumpkin Pie — Oz family style. A richly-spiced fresh pumpkin filling (Cardamom! Cinnamon! All spice! Ginger! Oh my!) with the butteriest of easy sugar cookie-style crusts, which you are quickly going to decide is the only way to eat pumpkin pie.
Steak alla Fiorentina(ish)
How to make restaurant-quality steak at home in 4 easy steps!
We’re going to salt, sear, baste, and roast our way to steak perfection. Honestly, I don’t know what we’re celebrating, but make it something great because we’ve got a 3 inch T Bone steak basted with garlic and rosemary butter, finished in the oven to a beautiful medium rare, sliced and served alongside a bed of peppery watercress…
Trust me: You wont have to call anyone to dinner.
See this recipe come to life on IG:
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Part 2
Veggie & Lentil Ragu
This vegetarian ragu marries the umami of mushrooms and earthy sweetness of beets and carrots to create a tantalizingly rich bowl of pasta goodness. I love adding in protein-packed black caviar lentils (!!!) because they hold their form throughout the cooking process with a delightfully tender chew, but green lentils work well too.
The result is the same gorgeous deep red color and intensely pleasurable and filling bite you want from ragu while keeping it meat-free and a bit lighter. I’m using giant shells called conchiglie, but feel free to use any sturdy shaped pasta you like — or roasted spaghetti squash!
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Part 1
Part 2
