I'm Thankful for You!

Plus: A Meyer Lemon Tart, Butternut Squash Risotto, and Charlotte Druckman Talks Thanksgiving Pie.

Hey everyone,

With Thanksgiving coming up this Thursday (I’m headed to Florida tomorrow to visit the family), I’m getting all sentimental about you, my adoring fans! I can’t tell you how meaningful it is for me to wake up every Monday morning knowing that whatever words I write, whatever recipes I want to share, whatever restaurants I want to tell you about, you’ll be there on the other end of the e-mail, eager to gobble up everything that I have to say.

And with that in mind, I want to give you all a little gift.

Starting today and running through Sunday, here’s a discount code for 50% off my newsletter! That means you’ll get me in your inbox twice a week for $25 a year or $2.50 a month (as opposed to the usual $50 / $5). It’s such a bargain, even I’m thinking of paying for my own work. Click here to grab it while you can:

Thanks again for being such loyal readers. Your support means the world to me.

Now before I start sobbing, let me tell you about this Meyer lemon tart.

The recipe comes from Melissa Clark’s Dinner in French and it’s definitely a project. There’s the making of the tart dough, the chilling, the curd-making, the rolling out, the blind-baking, the actual baking, etc. etc. Here’s a TikTok I made of the journey:

@amateurgourmetA Meyer 🍋 tart! A lot of work but totally worth it. #baking #foodtok #food #foodtiktok #fyp #foryou #pastry #lemon #cooking #viral #recipe #tart #desserts #bakingproject

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If you want something refreshing for dessert, and you happen to have a Meyer lemon tree (#humblebrag), this is the thing to make.

As for what was for dinner, we had our pals Ryan and Jonathan over and I made a butternut squash risotto from the new Via Carota Cookbook.

It’s a fairly straightforward recipe. You roast a butternut squash in the oven (they don’t have you cut it in half, but I wanted some caramelization), then heat up a bunch of stock, and make risotto in the usual way, stirring in the squash at the beginning.

The day before, I threw a roast chicken carcass from leftover roast chicken (remember?) into a Dutch oven with chopped carrots, onions, celery, parsley stems, and peppercorns and made my own quick chicken stock that I used in the risotto. It was insanely simple to do.

The only important thing is not to let it boil; bring it to the barest whisper of a simmer.

The quirkiest part of the risotto is what you add at the end: radicchio! I liked how the bitterness played against the sweetness of the squash.

All in all, a cozy, comforting, dinner on a cool winter’s night in L.A.

Hey, remember my podcast?

This week I revived it because my friend Charlotte Druckman wrote an article for NY Magazine where she tasted forty Thanksgiving pies in New York to choose the top twelve. We talked all about that and what inspiration home cooks can take from it. Listen here or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Now for some links:

• Danksgiving is a thing. (NYT);

• The Best Bagels in NY Right Now (Eater NY);

• A tribute to Pearl Oyster Bar, my favorite lobster roll ever (Grub Street)

Well, that’s all for this week, folks! Thursday’s Thanksgiving, so I’m taking the day off, but I’ll see you back here on Monday to tell you all about it.

Have a great holiday!

Your pal,

Adam

P.S. Don’t forget the insane 50% off deal!