Holidays to me are more special than ever since I have two children in college and only one at home.  Whether it is Thanksgiving or Christmas, I know that the five of us will be together and I couldn’t ask for anything more.  Unless it was on my wish list, in which case if my husband is reading this, feel free to ignore the previous sentence. 😉
Are you guys sick of cauliflower yet? Â Great, me neither! Â I seriously never tire of any vegetables, although some are more versatile than others and show up on my dinner planner more than others. Â I am kale’s biggest fan, but I’m sorry, it doesn’t hold a candle to what cauliflower can do. Â Cauliflower is in my top 3 favorite vegetables and sometimes we eat it more than once in a week. Â Soups, “rice,” pizza crusts, roasted, steamed, mashed, steaks, pureed, am I forgetting something?
After Thanksgiving, I pretty much crave simple foods and simple cooking.  I go from one extreme to the other.  Luckily, I don’t host any holiday parties after Thanksgiving nor do I host or plan Christmas dinner, instead we are at my parents’ house for the holiday and I am merely a sous chef.  I am going to encourage my mother to change up the menu this year though.
Just in time for party season, I am sharing a recipe and a video (see below) for a popular and delicious hors d’oeuvre, mini spanakopitas. These are terrific whether in a casserole form (that recipe is here) or as a hand-held pie. You can make dozens today and freeze them for a future party. Once you get the idea of how to work with phyllo dough, you can change the recipe and do all sorts of fun and exciting things with it.
How’s it going, friends? If you are deep in Thanksgiving prep, I am hoping you are pacing yourself and having fun, or at least not panicking! All my Thanksgiving recipes for this year have been posted so I am moving onto leftovers!
I could do without turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving and just eat veggies and pie. You didn’t think I was going to say just veggies, did you? C’mon. I’m more fun than that! But if you forced me to eat stuffing, if I had to pick one version to eat, here it is. This one right here is my favorite stuffing of all time, satisfying all my protein and carbohydrate needs on the big day so I can just focus on what I just mentioned, veggies and pie.
This post has been edited from the original which was published on November 17, 2011.
I am going to admit this right off the bat — I am behind on my Thanksgiving planning!  The irony! I think we’re going to be 31 people this year, including my two daughters who will be home from college. I am so excited to have all my kids in the kitchen this year prepping and cooking with me. I had a stroke of genius five years ago, which was to tack my Thanksgiving to-do list on the refrigerator and have everyone sign up for three tasks. Even my husband helps out!
My last class is today, and then our exchange students (yes, I picked up another one last weekend LOL) go back to South Korea on Saturday morning. So I’ll be getting busy on Sunday when I start making applesauce and cranberry sauce. I always plan Thanksgiving day down to the last detail because I don’t like forgetting things and a schedule makes me feel more relaxed, which equals more fun for me! But just because Thanksgiving is the star of the show this week doesn’t mean that I can forget about normal life on very other day. So I think about regular meals and activities, too. Here’s what my schedule will look like from Sunday until we eat on Thursday at 4:00 pm (-ish). This shouldn’t make you feel exhausted, but merely show you what you can do ahead for your own Thanksgiving! The Chalkboard Mag published a really great blogpost this week with tons of tips from lots of food experts (including me!) I highly recommend giving it a quick read.
How’s the Thanksgiving planning going?? I have another great recipe you can add to your menu.
I am not going to argue that this is a “healthful dessert.” But I can feel good about the fact that there is very little added sweetener in this galette and there’s only one crust, so can we agree that it’s less damaging than a pie? Regardless, this galette is downright delicious and so much easier than it looks. It’s the perfect dessert for Thanksgiving or any time you need something sophisticated, but homey. Watch my new YouTube video below for the step-by-step.
