Salad at Thanksgiving? Shave Brussels Sprouts!
Happy almost Thanksgiving, everyone!
This is the first time in my 41 years that I won't be with my family for Thanksgiving. No flying to Florida, no rainbow cookies from Way Beyond Bagels, no playing the piano with my dad. It's pretty sad, but the smart thing to do with Covid spiking the way that it is.
So what are we doing for Thanksgiving? Craig's aunt and uncle live in Topanga Canyon and they kindly invited us. We'll be eating outside ("bring your sweaters!") to keep things safe. I've been assigned cranberry sauce (I'm thinking I'll make my favorite Persimmon Cranberry Sauce) and a cauliflower gratin. If they read this newsletter, though, they might hear about this shaved Brussels sprouts salad i just posted about on the blog. It's got pears and toasted almonds and raisins and Parmesan and it's so good AND you can make it a day ahead. It's a win-win situation for everybody.
In recent cooking news, I made the spaghetti carbonara from my archives and man was it good.
So hearty and comforting on a cold winter's night (it's in the 50s here... can you imagine???).
I've actually been throwing "health" out the window lately. Exercise? Pshaw! We're dealing with a global pandemic and the death of the democratic system. We deserve lots of carbs and lots of desserts. So after eating that carbonara, I made Ina Garten's apple crisp and served it with vanilla ice cream (Ben & Jerry's vanilla which, surprisingly, America's Test Kitchen deemed the best in the market on an episode that I just watched).
Okay, maybe I've been a little healthy. I made overnight oats last week using leftover yogurt directly in the yogurt container and blogged about it. It's not the sexiest picture, but it's a good breakfast that you can make in zero time.
What else?
On Saturday, I decided to take a big drive to clear my head and ended up ordering food from Gjusta in Venice Beach, including a piece of babka which has been on my mind lately ever since watching Martha Stewart make one with the guy from Breads Bakery in New York. Man was this a beautiful, fluffy babka.
I meant to save it to bring half of it home to Craig but wound up devouring the whole thing in an embarrassing thirty seconds.
In case you missed it, Melissa Clark answered Thanksgiving-related questions on my Instagram Live this past Friday. It was a very fun twenty minutes; you can click the picture to watch it if you missed it.
Here are some links that caught my attention on the web this week:
Julia Moskin visits Ina Garten and I'm very jealous (NYT);
Eater's Gift Guide is good if you're looking for food-related gifts;
Nik Sharma's sweet potatoes are a Genius Recipe (Food52);
I want corn pudding and I want it now (Smitten Kitchen);
You know Chocolate Nemesis cake? Ben Mims makes a Pumpkin Nemesis (LA Times);
Not food-related, but the NYT just named The 10 Best Books of 2020... if I ever finish reading Don Quixote (I'm on page 620), I'll get to read one of these.
Okay, folks, that's all for this week!
Hope you and your families have a marvelous, if slightly less huggy, Thanksgiving this year. Here's to a less fraught Thanksgiving next November.
Your friend,
Adam (The Amateur Gourmet)