Recipes

Recipes we want to remember. Food we cooked and liked, food we want to cook, and especially recipes we make for Thanksgiving.

• Filet Mignon for New Years Eve
  For New Years Eve 2023, we visited my sister and her family and we repeated our long-standing tradition of cooking filet mignon for our New Years Eve dinner, usually just for David and me before …
• Chicken Stew
  Another version of a 1-pot meal using chicken. Ingredients Directions
• Green beans with maple pecans
  In Portugal, traditional restaurants may serve flat green beans julienned and steamed. They seem to be always available fresh at the mini-mercados that sell veggies, and of course at the big hipermercados, so I buy …
• Refried Beans with Chorizo
  Ingredients Directions I don’t mash all the beans smooth. I just want to the beans to stick together, like lumpy mashed potatoes. You could blend it smooth with a stick blender if you want, although …
• Easy Ratatouille
  Ingredients Directions
• Chicken Chili, my Portuguese version
  I used to make a chicken and white bean chili with a couple small cans of Hatch chiles. I was never big on making my own stock, so I used boxed chicken broth. In Portugal, …
• Thanksgiving 2020 – Covid Plans
  We had a pared-down Thanksgiving dinner and shared pie pictures with the guests we would ordinarily have had. We’ll turn those photos into the traditional group pie picture. Menu Cheese plate with manchego, brie and …
• Root Mash
  We first had root mash from the Allouette/La Riviera French deli. Here’s how we made it in 2020. Ingredients 4 cups cut-up potatoes (maybe 8 small to medium potatoes) 2 cups cut-up carrots 2 cups …
• Orange-Cranberry Bread
  This traditional Thanksgiving contribution is essential! Pam even bought a special pan to make four cute little loaves at once. Ingredients 1 cup white sugar½ teasp. salt½ teasp. baking soda1 ½ teasp. baking powder2 cups …
• Cranberry Orange Relish
  Pam has made this recipe forever. It’s a favorite of hers and she makes extra for a particular guest to take home. It must have been in some other cookbook in a similar form before …
• Cranberry Sauce with Dates
  This looks like an interesting alternative to my version with cranberries, whole oranges with skins, and sugar. I’d like to give it a try. From Whole Foods website https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/raw-cranberry-sauce. Others in our group preferred the …
• Pumpkin Bread with Walnuts and Figs
  David likes this better than Pam’s traditional cranberry orange bread (traditional because she has made it since she was a kid, her sister makes it, and so on). Makes 2 large loaves or 4 mini …
• Classic Turkey Gravy
  This is the recipe that taught us how to make gravy. Now we just wing it. • Level: Easy • Total: 3 hr • Prep: 30 min • Cook: 2 hr 30 min • Yield: 8 cup Ingredients For the …
• Cauliflower-Red Pepper Frittata
  You can bake this in a cast iron frying pan, or in a dish set inside your pressure cooker. Ingredients 4 Tbs olive oil 2 bell peppers, chopped 1 onion, chopped up to 1 lb …
• Mango Cucumber Tabouli
  Tabouli is delicious, but it’s fun to get that tangy, grain salad texture with different ingredients. Ingredients ¾ c. fine bulgur½ c. waterCombine bulgur and water and refrigerate for at least an hour. ½ tsp. …
• Cocoa Balls
  Recipe discovered in Shape.com’s roundup of energy bar recipes: http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-recipes/10-easy-recipes-homemade-energy-bars Recipe adapted from  https://www.acouplecooks.com/cherry-hazelnut-energy-bars/ Ingredients ¼ cup cocoa 1 cup dried figs, soaked in water (or rum, I suppose) 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted ½ quick …
• Apricot Bars
  Recipe discovered in Shape.com’s roundup of energy bar recipes: http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-recipes/10-easy-recipes-homemade-energy-bars  Recipe adapted from http://helloglow.co/energy-bars Ingredients 1 cup dried figs, soaked in water (or rum, I suppose) ½ cup dried apricots 1 cup cashews ½ cup dried …
• Brussel Sprouts with Pistachios
  From a Whole Foods magazine about making holiday traditions healthy. I made 2 cookie trays worth of this the first time. 2 ½ cups doesn’t go far to satisfy our love of veggies. Ingredients 4 …
• Turkey Meatloaf
  Adapted from a turkey burger recipe from Whole Foods. Ingredients 1 lb white meat turkey, ground 1 lb dark meat turkey, ground spinach, half a bag, lightly steamed or frozen pkg ½ c breadcrumbs 1 …
• Squash Soup
  Pam loves variations on winter squash. Ingredients 2 quarts Turkey broth 1 whole Squash, baked, seeded and removed from skin (I used an acorn squash) 1 – 2 cups rice blend (I used a Trader …
• Tel Khadayeef
  Ann Ohanian taught David how to make this traditional Armenian dessert. It has the same ingredients as paklava (aka baklava), but the filo dough is shredded and fluffy. Here’s the recipe – it’s mostly quite …
• Roast Turkey
  Prep for a 16 to 20 lb turkey Prep Brine the turkey as described in the Holiday Poultry Brine post. Preheat oven to 450° (preferably checking with a good oven thermometer). I have an oven …
• Green Bean Casserole
  This recipe has a lot of ingredients, but it is delicious. It has a creamy sauce without any milk. Pam likes it with a lot of the turnip cream sauce. She often forgets to add …
• Holiday Turkey Dry Brine
  Quantities for an 10 to 12 lb turkey: For reference see: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/dry-rubbed-roast-turkey https://www.delish.com/holiday-recipes/thanksgiving/a29178578/how-to-dry-brine-turkey-recipe/ Ingredients 2 tbsp. kosher salt (1 tablespoon of salt for every 5 to 6 pounds of turkey)1 tbsp. light brown sugar6 tbsp. melted …
• Holiday Poultry Brine
  This recipe makes a tender, juicy turkey. Be sure not to brine it for too long so it isn’t too salty. Quantities for an 18 lb turkey:Ingredients4 cups Kosher salt1 cup brown suger5 – 6 …
• Thanksgiving 2014 Menu and Shopping List
  The plan this year is similar to the 2013 plan. Our group expects certain traditional offerings. That’s what Thanksgiving is – tradition, right? However, we play around with the vegetables. MENU TurkeyCornbread stuffingGravyCranberry sauce cranberry …
• Sweet Potato Sauce
  Thanksgiving sweet potatoes often end up really, really sweet. This sauce is for pouring over plain, roasted sweet potatoes to let everyone choose how much buttery sweetness to add right at the table. Ingredients 1 …
• Mashed Sweet Potatoes
  These mashed sweet potatoes are ultra creamy and are the perfect accompaniment to chicken, meats and fish. You can flavor your mashed sweet potatoes in multiple ways and I’m providing instructions to make both sweet …
• Tomato salsa
  Inspired by our trip to Spain and the too-high price of similar salsa at our Whole Foods store 3 ripe tomatoes, dicedsmall clove of garlic, crushedgreen pepper, diced small, 2 or 3 tbsolive oil, 2 …
• Seitan trial
  We got this information about preparing seitan from a blog, The Post Punk Kitchen, although the page has now disappeared. I guess it’s a good thing that I copied from it: http://www.theppk.com/2009/11/homemade-seitan/ Pam’s note: I …
• Thanksgiving menu 2013 & Shopping list
  Here is the plan for our meal. We’ll be hosting a group of 10, so we’ll break out our card table to put at the end of our small dining room table. We made special …
• Sweet and Yellow Potato Soup
  Pam invented this recipe in December 2013. I wanted something to use more of the bacon bits we bought for a Thanksgiving recipe. Ingredients 1 large sweet potato or yam, orange flesh3 medium yellow potatoes …