A Rosh Hashanah Middle Eastern Feast!

L'shanah tovah! There are many ways of celebrating, but all of them definitely involve food. In this case, I decided to embrace my Sephardic roots and cook a Middle Eastern feast with a special focus on Moroccan food. (My Mom is Moroccan and my grandmother cooked Moroccan food at many family meals growing up.) You'll find a veggie-heavy meal full of Middle eastern flavors, but served alongside some challah, Jewish apple apple cake, and chocolate honey cake to connect to a few Ashkenazi and traditional Rosh Hashanah dishes.

I served the meal across three courses - and the recipes included below are in italics. A few aren't listed since they are elsewhere on the site or were my husband's creations instead of mine.

We started with appetizers:

Roasted Eggplant with Garlic Confit (pictured above)

Matbucha

Hummus

Pita

(paired with some manchego, brie, and crackers)

We moved on to the main course:

Yemenite-Spiced Cauliflower with Schug Labneh

Roasted Citrus-Pomegranate Glazed Carrots

Egyptian Moussaka

Moroccan Lamb Shoulder

Couscous with Dates and Pistachios

Round Challah (challah is elsewhere on blog... just make it round instead of braided)

And we finally ended with dessert:

Tut (marzipan)

Chocolate Honey Cake

Jewish Apple Cake (elsewhere on blog)

We started prep the night before and I'll note below where I did that and then started cooking about five hours before dinner time. I'll note the time for each recipe below, but you won't find a total time for this meal since each piece may add up differently and not all recipes are in full detail below. Most importantly, though, it was absolutely delicious and everyone had a great time. Here is a to a good next year!

Thanksgiving! Rosemary-Garlic Turkey, Pumpkin Ravioli, Creamy Mashed Potato Casserole, Cajun Crab Dip, and More!

This post is going to show just how far behind schedule I really am with this blog.. this is my Thanksgiving post. That's right - it's nearly two months late, but I hope it's worth it. It's a long one, full of delicious, healthy recipes that can easily be enjoyed at any time of the year. Or, keep this bookmarked for the fall when next Thanksgiving rolls around.

I did make every single dish below, plus a few others, completely from scratch. The full menu included: pumpkin ravioli in a hazelnut brown butter sauce, butternut squash and cheese gratin, creamy mashed potato casserole, cajun crab dip, sauteed garlic broccoli rabe, rosemary-garlic turkey with pan gravy, green bean and mushroom casserole, apple-cranberry sauce, chestnut stuffing, pear stuffing, apple and cranberry pie, and pumpkin cheesecake on almond cake. I cooked for nearly two days straight, but it was absolutely worth it in the end. If you do go for the full menu, I cannot advise strongly enough that you make up a detailed cooking plan in advance. Without it, nothing would have finished on time or in the right order. So enjoy and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Difficulty: easy to hard based upon individual recipes
Time: 19 hours (for all of it!)
Cost: $134.57 (for all of it! I fed 6 people with leftovers for the next 2 weeks)

Nutrition and recipe below the jump!

Israeli Avocado Salad, Blackened Brisket, Leek Croquettes, Almond-Coconut Torte with Chocolate-Orange Liqueur

Better late than never, right? I think it has taken me just as long to get around to writing this post as it took to make the original meal! But now, at last, I present you with the post detailing, step by step, the entire massive meal I created for my 2011 seder, the 4th I have hosted. The essentials were still here, like brisket and kugel, but some featured twists and other recipes were new. I mean, what's the fun in cooking the same thing year after year?

Due to the unique nature of this post, things are set up a little differently. I didn't both with a cost since I was cooking for 12 and therefore spent a small fortune. I also do not give a total time for the whole meal. Instead, each recipe still gets a time estimate (and nutrition!) and I note how many servings I made compared to how many a normal person might want to make. As always, if you have any questions just stick them in the comments and I'll get back to you right away.

Finally, here is the full menu I made for my seder. Items in italics I had made previously and are posted elsewhere on this blog while those without are detailed below!

Date Charoset, Matzah Ball Soup, Israeli Avocado Salad, Sweet Citrus Tilapia, Blackened Brisket, Leek Croquettes, Potato Kugel, Apple Noodle Kugel, and an Almond-Coconut Torte with Chocolate-Orange Liqueur.

Hanukkah: Turbot with Caramelized Leeks and a Garlic-Shallot Puree with Brussels Sprouts Au Gratin and Apple Kugel

Hanukkah! Alright... not quite Hanukkah. It's January. But since I'm a few weeks behind on my blogging, I'm finally getting to my Hanukkah meal, prepared on the last night of Hanukkah in Dec 2010. It's a fairly traditional meal but with some new-age twists on it. This may not be the healthiest meal I've ever prepared, but I did my best to incorporate vegetables and lighten up the heavy stuff as much as possible. I'll detail other thoughts below. Just keep in mind, while some of these foods might not be great for you, all is okay in moderation. If you're only enjoying latkes once a year then you'll be okay to have a few extra this time!

Hanukkah meals revolve around traditional Jewish foods, but also around oil. The Hanukkah miracle is that the candles burned for 8 days when there was only enough oil for one, keeping the synagogue's flame going after the victory of the Maccabees. To commemorate that miracle, much of the food is made in oil.

I prepared a main course that utilizes oil (but just a little) in cooking the fish, caramelizing the leeks, and making the puree. It's a delicious meal, plated with care, which provides unique flavors while keeping tradition. To go with the Turbot I made some classics: apple kugel and latkes, which are always amazing. The latkes, of course, are a traditional Hanukkah dish and are fried in oil. Finally, to ensure some vegetables were included, I made brussels sprouts au gratin that incorporated olive oil into the cheesey-crispy recipe.

Difficulty: medium
Time: 2.5 hours
Cost: $28.65

A Full Passover Seder Meal

Continuing in the tradition of posting full holiday meals in the below post I will walk you step by step through a full Passover meal. Keep in mind that while this is the menu I chose to serve, you can customize your own menu. Pick out your favorite pieces below and mix and match with other great Passover-kosher recipes for a delicious seder.

For my meal, I included: matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish (store-bought), matzah (store-bought), date charoset, potato kugel, spinach kugel, a salad with blueberry vinaigrette, brisket, tilapia en papillote (see previous post), pavlovas, and macaroons (store-bought.) So click on in and read through to find out how to make each one! I'll also tell you when to start and how to prep in advance so that your seder dinner is served warm and on time.

Note: I cooked food for 10 people so many of the portions below are very large. You will want to adjust accordingly if you are cooking for fewer/more people.

Difficulty: Medium-Hard (to coordinate and get all done! easier for individual pieces)
Time: allow at least 12 hrs of cooking time...you'll see below I prepped some the night before and then cooked for about 8 hours on the day of the seder

Salad with Homemade Blueberry Vinaigrette
Time: 5 hrs
The main time sink in this recipe is the blueberry vinegar. Make that the night before because it needs to steep for several hours. I made the vinegar and let it sit in my fridge overnight. Then, a few hours before the seder I mixed together the full vinaigrette dressing. I also tossed the greens with the onions, fresh blueberries, and other salad ingredients. Finally, just before guests arrived I tossed the dressing with the salad so it was ready to serve immediately following the seder service.

Note: This picture was taken before the dressing was added. The dressing is a deep purple in color and makes the salad look very dramatic - and beautiful - when all mixed together.

Ingredients:
3 & 2/3 cup blueberries
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
4 tsp sugar
1 small bay leaf
1 tbsp honey
1.5 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
4.5 tbsp olive oil
3 packages mixed greens
1.5 cups sliced red onion

(this recipe is based upon a similar one from Cooking Light)

First, you need to create the blueberry vinegar. Wash 2/3 cup of your fresh blueberries, remove any lingering stems, and place them in a small pot. Smash with a potato masher or a fork if you do not have one. Add the white wine vinegar, sugar, and bay leaf. Turn the heat on and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer (covered) for 10 minutes. Then, remove from the heat and keep the pot covered. Let it sit for 4 hours. After that, you can transfer it to a bowl, cover that, and refrigerate overnight to make the rest of the salad the following day.

To prepare the vinaigrette combine your blueberry vinegar (now chilled) with the honey, mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Slowly whisk in the olive oil, adding just a little at a time to make sure the mixture is well combined. You can let this sit for a bit in the fridge as needed but make sure you re-whisk before putting it on the salad.

Put 3 packages of mixed greens in a large bowl. I used arugula, frisee, and mesclun. Add the red onion and 3 cups of fresh blueberries and toss well. Just before serving add the dressing and toss well to achieve a beautiful, purple color.

Spinach Kugel
Time: 1 hr 15 min
For this recipe I prepared the kugel the night before and cooked it 2/3 of the way. Then, just before eating the next night I popped it into the oven for 30 minutes to finish cooking and thoroughly heat the kugel. Just make sure that if you store it overnight it is wrapped well with saran wrap or another airtight cover.

Ingredients:
6 tbsp margarine
2 cups diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 cup shredded carrots
1.5 cups matzo meal
2 lbs frozen chopped spinach - thawed and drained
3 beaten eggs
3/4 cup egg beaters
salt
pepper

Preheat your oven to 350.

Melt the margarine in a large pan over medium high heat. I know it's a ton of margarine - and so much of me wants to cut some of it out - but it is needed to hold the kugel together so do not skimp on it. (I have experimented and this is the least you can get away with!) Add the onion, celery, and mushroom and saute for 10 minutes or until soft.

Pour the sauteed vegetables into a large bowl and add the carrots, matzo meal, spinach, eggs, and egg beaters. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix until well combined. (I find it often easiest to use your hands after washing them well since this is a weird texture to mix.)

Grease a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and then pour the mixture in, patting it as needed to get it flat and well stuffed into the dish. If you are serving immediately bake for 40-45 minutes but if you will be serving the next day just bake for 30. Then cool, wrap securely to keep it air-tight, and refrigerate overnight. Then bake 30 minutes before serving.

Potato Kugel
Time:
I prepared the potato kugel in the same style that I prepared the spinach kugel. I made the kugel and baked it for about 2/3 of the total time. I stored it overnight and finished baking it the next day. Once again, you can do it all in a row but when preparing for a big dinner party I have learned it is generally easier to do as much ahead of time as possible.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup vegetable oil
12 large Yukon or Idaho potatoes
2 large onions
4 eggs
1 cup egg beaters
1 tbsp no-sodium salt substitute
2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3/4 cup matzoh meal

Preheat the oven to 375.

Grease two 9x13 glass baking dishes with cooking spray. Pour half of the vegetable oil in each one. Set those aside for now.

Wash and shred your potatoes and onions. This is best done with a shredder blade in a food processor. You'll probably have to work in several rounds to get everything shredded. If so, take a large bowl and place a large piece of cheese cloth in it with the edges draping over the edge of the bowl. As each batch is shredded dump it into the cheesecloth bowl. When everything is shredded place the bowl in the sink. Carefully pick up each corner and hold all the edges of the cheesecloth together so that no potato can spill out. Strain out all of the moisture.

Placed the drained potato onion mixture into a large bowl. Add the eggs, egg beaters, salt, pepper, parsley, and matzo meal. Mix well. (Again, I find it easiest to use this with nicely washed hands.) Split the potato mixture evenly into two bowls.

Place the two baking dishes in the oven and let them heat for 5 minutes. The oil should be very hot at this point. Carefully remove the dishes from the oven. Working with one at a time, pour about 2/3 of the oil into one of the bowls of potato mixture. Stir well but do NOT use your hands this time as the oil will make everything very hot. Put the oiled potato mixture back into the pan from which you poured the oil and even the top/pack as needed. Repeat with the other baking dish/oil/bowl of potato mixture.

Put both glass dishes with the potato mixture back into the oven. If you are serving immediately bake for 55 minutes. The top should be golden-brown and crispy. If you are serving the next day bake for 40 minutes. Then remove, cool, and cover so it is air-tight. Then keep refrigerated overnight and bake for 30-35 minutes the following day.

Date Charoset
Oh date charoset - how great you are. If you are American (or Western European) chances are that you've only experienced apple charoset. Ashkenazi Jews (think Western Europe, Russia, and most American Jews) make apple charoset on Passover. However, I'm Sephardic (think Spanish and Middle Eastern Jews) and we traditionally eat date charoset. Personally, I'm a huge fan of this dish and it's incredibly simple to make. Some whip it up and spread it on some matzah for a delicious meal.

Ingredients:
Pitted dates (3 packages)
Ground almonds (3 packages)
Manischewitz

Place your pitted dates into a small pot. Pour in Manischewitz until it is about 3 inches deep (from the bottom.) Place the pan over medium to medium high heat.

Bring the mixture to a light, slow simmer and stir with a wooden spoon or something else fairly stiff every few minutes. If the wine begins to evaporate or if the dates look like they are about to burn add more wine. You'll need to simmer and stir for a while - probably about 45 minutes. You'll be done when the dates have melted down. There will still be some chunks but the mixture should be thick and sticky yet somewhat smooth and uniform.

When it gets to that point, remove from the heat and stir in the ground almonds. Then let the charoset cool and serve.

Passover Pavlovas
Time: 4 hrs
I'm very proud of this picture. I just had to add that.

For this recipe you need to make the pavlovas and then the custard separately. You can even make the pavlovas themselves the night before. Make the custard the morning of and then put everything together after dinner just before serving. I doubled this recipe to make 16 pavlovas.

Ingredients:
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (make sure it's Passover kosher)
4 large egg whites + 1 large egg white
3/4 cup sugar + 1/2 cup
2 large eggs
2 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp corn starch (if you are Sephardic, otherwise use potato starch)
2 packages fresh raspberries
1 tbsp powdered sugar

(this recipe is based upon a similar one from Cooking Light)

Preheat your oven to 250.

Measure out two pieces of parchment paper to match cookie sheets. Draw eight 4" diameter circles on the sheets, then flip them over and tape them to the cookie sheets so the drawn-on side is facing down. Use a tape that won't melt, such as masking tape.

Put the cream of tartar and 4 egg whites in a large bowl and whip with a mixer at high speed until the mixture is foamy. Continue beating and slowly add 3/4 cup sugar, but just 1 tbsp at a time. Keep mixing until there are stiff peaks. This will take a while but there MUST be stiff peaks so don't try to skimp here and stop early.

When it's done divide the meringue among the 8 circles you drew on the cookie sheets. Dollop it down and then use the back of a large spoon to make each circle into a nest shape.

Bake for 1 hr, but rotate the cookie sheets top/lower shelf halfway through to cook evenly. After 1 hr turn the oven off but keep the door shut - let the meringues cool in the cooling oven for 2 hrs. Remove from the oven and very carefully remove the meringues from the parchment paper. They will be very fragile and practically weight-less so take care not to crumble them.

Now, it's time to make the custard. Combine the 2 eggs and remaining 1 egg white in a medium bowl and whisk well. Put 1/2 cup sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice, and corn starch in a small or medium bowl over medium high heat. Mix and heat until it is 180 degrees or small bubbles form at the edge. Slowly add this hot mixture to the eggs you have in the bowl, stirring with a whisk as you add it.

Pour the juice-egg mixture back into the pan and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. It should get thick. Remove from heat, spoon into a bowl, and chill.

Finally, when you want to eat your pavlovas divide your raspberries among the nests. Top with the lemon curd, dividing evenly as well. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve and enjoy immediately.

Brisket
Time: 4.5 hrs
That's right - we're at the main feature. Brisket. There are next to no meat recipes on this blog but I pulled out all of the stops for my passover seder and there just had to be brisket. Luckily, while this was my first brisket experience I learned from the best and this turned out well.

Ingredients:
brisket (mine was about 6 lbs)
olive oil
1 cup pitted prunes
salt
cinnamon
ground nutmeg
1 large onion
2/3 cup honey
lemon juice

Note: Many of these do not have amounts. I'll do my best to compensate for that in my description but much of this is by feel.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Cut the brisket in half if you need to in order to fit it in the pan and sear well on both sides until brown. This will take about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and take the meat out and set on a cutting board. Throw out any extraneous fat. Then, put the pan back on the heat. Put a little bit of water in the pan and scrape with a spatula to get up the little brown bits. Then, put the brisket back in the pan and add enough water just to cover it. Bring to a boil. If you let it boil for about 15 minutes the scum will rise to the top (white foam like at a dirty lake.) Skim it off and throw it away.

Turn the heat down to low, cover the pan, and let the brisket cook for 30 minutes. Add the prunes, salt, a lot of cinnamon, a lot of nutmeg, onion (cut up), honey, and lemon juice. Keep in mind there is a lot of meat so you need a lot of spice/sauce to affect the flavoring. Mix well, cover again, and let it simmer gently on low for an hour.

Remove the brisket after that from the pan (leaving the sauce in the pan) and let it cool on a cutting board.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Once the brisket is cool slice it in very thin slices against the grain. Put the slices in a greased 9x13 glass baking dish. Pour the gray over top. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. (Note: You can let it sit for a bit when cooling/in pan with gravy before baking if you want to time things correctly.)

Matzoh Ball Soup
Time: 1.5 hrs
Sadly I forgot to take a picture of this before it was devoured but Matzoh Ball Soup is about the most amazing thing ever. If you haven't tried it, do so immediately. And if you but it wasn't homemade- well, it just wasn't the real thing.

Note: I did 2.5 times the recipe below for 10 people but since I am guessing you do not want to make it in such large portions I have made it normal-sized below.

Ingredients:
6 cups vegetable broth + 2 tbsp
2 eggs
2 tbsp unsalted butter (melted)
1/2 cup unsalted matzo meal
1 tbsp parsley, minced
1/2 tsp dried dill
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
3/4 cup carrots
1 bay leaf
2 bunches of green onion, chopped
salt
pepper

First, we'll start with the matzo balls. In my case I made the matzo ball dough first and left it in the refrigerator for several hours as I prepared other parts of the meal. Then, shortly before guests arrived, I prepared the broth and simmered the matzo balls. I covered them with foil to keep the heat in and let the broth stay on the burner but turned the heat down to low. That way it stayed hot through the seder service and we assembled the soup right afterwards.

To prepare the matzo balls, lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Add the butter, 2 tbsp vegetable broth, matzo meal, parsley, dill, and about 1/4 tsp salt. Stir until well combined and refrigerate. You want to keep it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes but can leave it for up to 8 hrs.

To prepare the soup, combine the vegetable broth, bell pepper, celery, carrots, and by leaf in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer (covered) for another 20 minutes. Add the green onions, salt, and pepper. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Then, remove the bay leaf and add more seasoning if needed. (I only recommend adding pepper since salt is bad for you!)

Finally, you need to cook the matzo balls. (This can be done after or while you are preparing the soup.) Bring a pot of water to boil over high heat. Wet your hands so the dough won't stick and form the dough into 1" balls. Drop them gently into the boiling water, one by one. Then immediately reduce the heat and let the balls simmer for 30 minutes. When they are done remove them with a slotted spoon.

To serve, place two matzo balls in a bowl and add the soup.

Thanksgiving Dinner with all the Fixin's!

Ready for that full Thanksgiving meal? I wasn't. In fact, this was the first time I had ever prepared one. Growing up it was my Grandmother. Then, as she got older and massive cooking became harder it turned into some combination of relatives and take-out. And then it became mostly catered from Whole Foods or Wegman's and then dumped into other dishes to look homemade. We've become adept at doing this very quickly.

However, this year turned out differently. Due to work schedules my boyfriend and I were unable to be with either of our families for actual Thanksgiving. Knowing how important the holiday is to him, I offered to make our own Thanksgiving in our apartment on the Wednesday before. Long story short, our schedules changed, we had many Thanksgivings that weren't on Thanksgiving, and it was beyond complicated. But our Thanksgiving happened about a week late and I cooked up a storm that took the two of us over a week to eat.

So do not worry if this is your first time! I'll walk you through step by step and soon you'll have a full Thanksgiving meal. It's not nearly as scary as it seems. I made the traditional dishes without going crazy since there were only two of us so below you will find: Turkey with Truffle Gravy, Butternut Squash and Leek Gratin, Bread Stuffing, Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I also simply microwaved frozen corn to complete the meal. Enjoy! And feel free to ask questions below - I love comments.

Turkey with Truffle Gravy
This was the part that scared me the most. After all, I had never made a turkey and I don't even like meat. This seemed gross and weird. But, I can hardly skip the turkey after promising a full Thanksgiving meal. I did some research and came up with a recipe to help me along my way. But first, I had to order my Turkey. Make sure you order in advance since the rest of the country is doing the same thing. I also strongly urge you to order a free-range turkey. Most of the meat in this country is treated horribly. Did you know they even cut the little curly tails off of pigs so they can pack them more tightly into pens? They do. Picture that next time you buy regular meat. But if you purchase free-range turkey (or pig or chicken or cow) then that means the animals were able to roam freely and were treated well during their life. So do the right thing and pay the extra buck!

And then you have to cook it. I followed the instructions rather broadly. First, you have to remove all of the stuff inside the turkey. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure how to identify all of these pieces but basically just pull out everything that is inside the turkey. Then you can tie up the feet and follow the instructions for basting the turkey and sticking some herbs and onions inside. That's the easy part. Instead of following the cooking instructions given by this recipe, however, I went with the instructions printed on my turkey package. The turkey also came with a plastic pop-up temperature gauge but I still used a thermometer to make sure the turkey had reached the correct temperature. The good news is that once the turkey is in the oven, you are pretty much done with it!

But then you still have gravy. In this case I made the full-fledged turkey gravy... or mostly. I found myself staring in disgust at some of the innards. There were 2 pieces shaped a bit like wings that were okay, but then there was a gooey bloody mass. The neck, perhaps? Not sure, but I wanted nothing to do with it. I quickly tossed that and decided it wasn't necessary for the gravy!

Perhaps because I ditched the gross stuff or perhaps for some other reason, my gravy did not turn fatty. There was nothing to siphon off when I carefully let my gravy sit in the plastic bag, so I just used all of it. Not sure why that happened, but it worked out and tasted like gravy and didn't seem particularly fattening. So, um, good! The truffle oil definitely added a tasteful touch, however, and was worth $13 for a tiny bottle.

Butternut Squash and Leek Gratin
Ready for a delicious vegetable? My boyfriend, not always the biggest fan of vegetables, could not get enough of this. What was truly telling was that with so many favorites on the table, the first thing he wanted when he went for seconds was this squash. And if that's not a ringing endorsement then I don't know what is!

Ingredients:
butternut squash
butter
leek
sugar
black pepper
nutmeg
eggs
parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 375. Cut two butternut squash in half (long way of course so you have mirror image pieces) and cook for 45 minutes with the cut side down. When the 45 minutes are up they should be nice and soft. Cool just until you can touch them and then scoop out all of the squash yummy goodness inside and put in a large bowl.

While the squash is cooking you can saute the leek. Put a small amount of butter in a pan over medium heat. Cut up 4-5 leek (you want 4 cups) and add it to the pan. If you cut it in slices you can separate out the concentric circles as you dump it in the pan. Saute for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. The leek should be soft and browned by the end. Cool slightly and add the leek to the squash.

To the leek/squash mixture add: 1 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1 tbsp sugar, 4 eggs, 1 egg yolk. Mix well with a whisk until well combined. Using the whisk will help keep the gratin light and fluffy, incorporating some air.

Put the mixture into a greased glass baking dish. I used a 9x9 dish. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes at 325. Uncover and bake another 15 min. Sprinkle the gratin with 1/2-1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Broil on high for 2 minutes and then enjoy! The cheese should be browned on top.

Bread Stuffing
A lot of the time people make bread stuffing from a package, but of course we would have none of that! I searched and found a recipe to make my stuffing from scratch. I also figured this would be a good way to cut down on excess salt since while I love stuffing it usually leaves me gasping for water by the end.

You'll find the recipe exceedingly easy to follow. The hardest part for me was keeping my boyfriend from eating the fresh french bread I'd brought home the day before. After all, it makes it far more difficult to make bread stuffing if you do not have any bread.

You can just as easily substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth here if you are interested in keeping your stuffing vegetarian. Also, keep in mind for your gratin and stuffing that you can prepare them and have them in their dishes ready to go and then wait to bake until the end so everything is timed to come together at the end.

Apple Pie
What would Thanksgiving be without apple pie? I mean, as far as I'm concerned all desserts should be chocolate, but if they aren't chocolate than fruit pies/crisps do come in a close second, especially when served hot with cold ice cream. I love ice cream. I love lamp.

So here is the pie! Except I definitely had to make a few changes to this one. For one, I didn't have enough crust. Make at least 1.5 times the recipe. Despite efforts to roll the crust as thin as possible I didn't have enough dough to cover the sides so my pie had a top and bottom but no side. I declared it to be a modern side - like a sofa without arms at the end. (The kind I like, after all.)

But while the crust didn't provide enough, the apples provided far too many. I had two pies worth of apples. I'm not sure if my Braeburns were absurdly large or what, but it didn't work out and I had to make an extra pie and freeze it after lugging all of those apples home from Whole Foods in my backpack. My suggestion? Just buy 4-5 of them..

Get your apple pie all ready to go and then toss it in the oven as you sit down to eat your meal. That way it is hot and fresh for dessert!

Pumpkin Pie
Would you believe that I don't really like pumpkin pie? I don't - but it's part of Thanksgiving and my boyfriend loves it. Also, it's incredibly easy to make so you don't really have a good reason not to do it. This easy. You are literally dumping pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, and a few other things in a bowl and mixing it up. We don't get a lot easier than this. However, I really appreciated the amaretto whipped cream that they suggested in this recipe. It adds an interesting twist that made even me sample some pumpkin pie.

However, you'll see they tell you to buy a crust. What is with that? That's not how we do it in the Julia kitchen! I whipped up some pie crust that should look very similar to the one for the apple pie. And like the pie it also didn't provide enough, leaving me side-less. So again, make more than the recipe calls for!

Because pumpkin pies are served chilled anyway I made this the night before and put it in the fridge. This gave me one less thing to do on "Thanksgiving Day."

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Last but not least, we come to the garlic mashed potatoes. A simple yet pivotal part of any Thanksgiving meal.

Ingredients:
garlic
olive oil
potatoes
milk
salt
pepper

If you've ever made mashed potatoes before, it's the same idea here but just healthier. Remove excess white papery skin from the garlic head and wrap it in foil. Bake at 375 for an hour. This provides delicious roasted garlic! Resist spreading it on bread and eating it immediately.

Wash your potatoes well and cut them into quarters. I enjoy the skin in my mashed potatoes and leave it on, but you could remove it if you prefer. Boil a large pot of water and dump them in. Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes (they should now be soft.) Drain and put in a large bowl.

Use a potato masher to mash your potatoes until they are the normal consistency for the dish. Heat 1/2 cup of milk over medium low heat in a small pan but do not let it boil. Add it to the potatoes. Stir well.

Separate each of the cloves of garlic and squeeze the roasted garlic into the potatoes. Add salt and pepper. Stir well and serve hot.