A couple of coleslaws

I'm not sure what the rules are for considering something coleslaw.  When I was a kid it came from KFC and was ignored in its sad little Styrofoam cup.  Now, I think of it as a salad that it is featured in many magazines and episodes of Chopped often atop sandwiches.

To me... coleslaw consists of crunchy veggies mixed with just the right amount of sauce (the veggies must be recognizable in taste and texture and covered but not dripping in sauce).  I think it's delicious!

The following slaw recipe is pretty versatile depending on what kind of sauce you put on it.  You could use mayo, sugar and vinegar to get a more traditional slaw but I prefer something a little more sweet and sour (not to be confused with the bright red sauce that accompanies crab rangoons).

sweet, sour coleslaw

4 small carrots
1/4 purple cabbage

1/4 Cup peanut butter
2 T rice wine vinegar
2 T water
a handful of sesame seeds
a handful of peanuts

Shred carrots and cabbage with the food processor's shredding disc ... ( or use a vegetable peeler to create more ribbon-like pieces of carrot and chop your cabbage finely) and set aside in a bowl.
In another bowl mix peanut butter, vinegar and water until it turns liquid-y and has the desired balance of sweet and sour (you may need to add more of one of the 3 ingredients to get to this point).
Combine veggies and sauce.
Garnish with peanuts and sesame seeds!

I had extra carrots so I also made this other, sweeter salad with raisins.

carrot raisin slaw/salad

3 small carrots
1/4 C raisins
2 or 3 T mayo
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. sugar

Shred carrots.
Mix with raisins in a bowl.
In another bowl, mix up mayo, sugar and vinegar.
Combine then enjoy!


In preparation for days where I will need to pack my lunch, I now have some tasty food waiting for me!

Weekly Menu: First Week of September

I survived the first week of school.  I realized that during the many getting to know you, introduce yourself activities that I participated in during those first days of class, I always introduced myself by mentioning something about food.

What is a great book you read this summer?  The Sharper your Knife, the Less You Cry
What do you like to read? Cooking Memoirs and Food magazines.
I made a coat of arms, on which in the "something I am good at" section, I drew my beloved chef's knife, a tomato, a pepper mill and a skillet.
What was a highlight of your summer break?  Cooking in a professional kitchen.

If you read the "about us" section on this blog you'll notice that I stated that I don't like the term foodie.  To me, it sounds pretentious. .  I like the experience of making and of course eating it. Some people are really into golf, or star wars or flower gardening.   I really like all aspects of food.  So fine, you can call me a foodie if you want to... or maybe a gourmande...

Now that's out of the way, here's the weekly menu:

tortellini pasta salad with zucchini fries

sausage and pepper empanadas* (we are on an empanada kick!!) with salad

squash, quinoa and walnut salad

frittata with spinach, tomatoes and cheese

lentil salad with baked fish

* I have a note that says "make extra empanadas"!  They are nice to take for quick lunches, or even heat up for a hearty snack.

I bought an eggplant for experimentation.  I'm not a huge fan of eggplant, but am coming around to liking it... so hopefully I will have time to do something with that! 

Summer Cooking: Kohlrabi Slaw

Up until I became an enthusiastic home cook, I thought coleslaw was defined as that milky sweet stuff in a styrofoam cup from a certain fried chicken chain restaurant and only a few if any bites were eaten.  Now, I've got an all new take on "slaw".  I've made it a few times in the past and recently created a new recipe. While technically to be coleslaw it should contain cabbage, I  suppose, if asked, I'd (potentially incorrectly) broaden the definition to include earthy, grated vegetables such as beets, carrots, and now kohlrabi.

what IS this thing?! you may ask yourself...

This was my first time cooking with kohlrabi. I had never seen or heard of it until about five years ago.  I found one over the weekend at a farmstand for only 25 cents... so I decided to give it a whirl.

First, I looked for some information on it in my favorite reference cookbook for vegetables, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.  While kohlrabi didn't have its own entry (surprisingly, because Madison's book is very thorough) it was found in the index among recipes for grated vegetable salads.  Which, if you are a purist, my recipe would be called rather than a slaw. Next, I went to my favorite visual internet resource, Foodgawker, to search for kohlrabi slaw recipes.

After searching for inspiration and some thinking about what would taste good for lunch, this is what I ended up with:

Kohlrabi Slaw aka "kohl slaw" 

or

Grated Kohlrabi, Carrot and Apple salad

2 cups raw kohlrabi, grated
2 medium sized carrots, grated
2 apples, grated
1 Tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 cup walnuts

1 teaspoon mustard
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
3-4 Tablespoons olive oil

grate kohlrabi, carrots and apples in food processor with the grating attachment, or box grater.
grate ginger using a finer grater, such as a microplane.
place vegetables, ginger and walnuts in a bowl. mix well... hands work best to get separate and combine the tiny match-stick pieces of vegetables.
in a separate bowl, mix mustard, vinegar and oil to make a dressing then add to salad.
serve right away at room temperature or cover and refrigerate until lunch time. 

Weekly Menu: April 29-May 5

Wow! I can't believe I'm planning a menu for the end of April/first week of May!
In planning this week's menu, I went to our binder of favorite recipes. We keep it organized by type of dish (vegetarian, soup, desert, etc.) and protect the recipes torn from magazines or printed from the internet in plastic sheet protectors.  

I'm not that great at keeping this updated as far as removing recipes we no longer consider favorites, or adding new favorites ones that have made it onto our table countless times (black bean and sweet potato burrito anyone?) but it's on my perpetual to-do list.  Regardless, this book is a great place to look when I just don't know what to make this week. It always inspires me.

This week's menu includes two dishes that are designed for leftovers. Things are getting hectic as the end of my semester at school draws near (two weeks!!) 

Ryan's Pick of the week:  Ryan's chili

Awesome veggie lasagna (I think this was adapted from the back of the Creamette pasta box-- regardless of origin, the recipe follows)

Real Simple ravioli with apples and walnuts

Veggie quinoa bowl: there was an array of produce on my grocery list... I will let you know what makes it into the bowl this week! 

Friday night:  We are planning on dinner out at Proof!

Also, I borrowed my mom's juicer... adventures to follow.


Awesome Veggie Lasagna

ingredients:

cheese mixture:
15 oz. ricotta
2 C shredded mozzarella
1/2 C shredded parmesan
1/2 lb. frozen spinach (this is what I believe makes this veggie lasagna go from great to awesome)
salt and pepper

veggies (I encourage you to mix, match and get creative with this mix!):
1/2 C green pepper, diced
1/2 C onion, diced
1/2 zucchini, sliced in small rounds
1/2-1 C frozen corn

1/2 box of whole wheat lasagna noodles
26 ounces of your favorite tomato sauce

thaw the spinach by placing in the fridge a few hours prior or for a few minutes in the microwave.
preheat oven to 375.
bring water to a boil for lasagna noodles, cook according to package directions.
meanwhile, assemble cheese mixture in a bowl and prep veggies. mix your vegetables in a separate bowl from the cheese and prepare for assembling the lasagna!
when noodles are done, in a 9x13 pan, spread a layer of sauce, then noodles, cheese and vegetables.  repeat until ingredients are gone!
cover with foil and bake for 30-50 minutes.

Veggie Quinoa Bowl in 30 Minutes or Less

Here is a very quick, delicious dinner you can prep after a long day of work!  Here's what I did.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
2/3 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/2 can chickpeas, drained
1 red bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
1/4-1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 bunch of asparagus, stalks broken into thirds
3 handfuls washed spinach
olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions: 
Bring veggie broth to a boil.  Add quinoa and set stove to medium-low heat.  Cover. 

Wash and prep veggies. Wait until quinoa has about 5-7 minutes left to cook (quinoa usually takes about 15-20 minutes, and at the 5 minute mark most of the liquid should be gone, if you still have a lot of liquid remaining, turn up the heat, just be careful not to burn it.).

Heat olive oil in a sautee pan on high, add peppers, onions and asparagus.  Cook for about 5 minutes.  Add spinach in the last minute and cook until wilted.  Add chickpeas.  Turn heat off.
By this time, the quinoa should be done.  If all the liquid is not yet gone, drain the quinoa if you don't like it brothy.  Transfer your vegetables to a bowl and mix in the quinoa.

Weekly Menu April 8-14

Whew! I just returned from a stock the pantry grocery trip.  I thought the store would be quiet on Easter morning, but I was wrong.  I had run out of several pantry items so had a lot to bring home (cans of beans, tomato products, walnuts... ).  Now all is back in order.  Here's the weekly menu.  That just happens to be all vegetarian.  Bon Appetit!

Cara's kale and walnut pesto that was recently included on Food Gawker and saw a huge spike in views last week.  Have to try this one out!!

The ever delicious black bean and sweet potato burrito.  Still not tired of this gem, also from Cara.  Have you tried this yet? Do. It. Now!

New recipe from Mark Bittman's blog: curried chickpea salad... with pita bread for a light and easy dinner.

New recipe from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker...  creamy tomato soup with Israeli couscous this will probably be paired with a grilled mozzarella sandwich.  MM!

Homemade pizza.  Gotta use that second Bon Appetit no-knead crust.  Toppings: fresh mozzarella, basil and red peppers. I kind of want to eat that right now!!

Have a great week.  What's for dinner where you live?

-Allison 

Dinner: Making it All Happen

Confession:  A lot of what I know about cooking came from watching chefs cook on TV.  There was a time when I didn't actually have cable, but for some reason I was able to get the Food Network and a couple other channels, so during that time I watched many, many hours of Food Network.  During that time, I really started to develop my love for cooking.  I loved watching people in the kitchen especially Alton, Giada, and Ina. I have watched hundreds of hours of competitive cooking shows like Iron Chef, Chopped, and the verbal abuse pageant that is Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen.  I know... it's SO bad, it's good.

These shows don't just teach recipes and sell celebrity chef products, they taught me how to put together a meal, time-wise.  Watching it happen over and over coupled with experience, I can now say that I have a pretty good handle on how to time things out when cooking.  Recipes don't always tell you that.  Especially when you are cobbling together a meal from various magazines and websites.  How many times did you finish one dish while there was still something with 20 minutes left to bake in the oven.  Oops. 

Here's how I put together tonight's dinner:

salmon with roasted brussels sprouts and an added bonus: mashed potatoes! (when cravings attack!)

This morning, I transferred a package of frozen salmon from the freezer to the fridge to thaw. 
Tonight, after work, I started by pre-heating the oven to 425 and putting a pot of water on the stove for the potatoes. 
Then came prep work:  washing and chopping the sprouts, as Ryan washed, peeled, and chopped the potatoes. I made a little sauce for the salmon.  (whisk together: 1 T lemon juice + 2 T olive oil + salt and pepper). Found the pans I needed to cook everything on and found a jar of capers (for the salmon) in the fridge.

By this time, the oven was beeping to let me know that it was at the desired temperature.  I know that the sprouts take a while longer (20 minutes give or take) than the salmon (10-15 minutes) so after I sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, and pepper I popped them in the oven.  Then, when the water was boiling I put the potatoes in. 

Now that the items that take the longest to prepare were on their way, I turned my attention to the salmon.  I was surprised to find that they were still partially frozen.  Oops! Even the best laid plans can go wrong.  So I knew I needed to get the salmon in the oven ASAP.  I Quickly brushed them with the olive oil and lemon sauce, sprinkled on a few capers, and last but not least,  inserted the automatic thermometer/alarm set to 145 for fish.  Done.  Then I quickly check and stir the brussels sprouts and check the potatoes.  While everything is in the oven, I exited the kitchen and Ryan got the potatoes ready to be mashed at the very last minute. 

I roast brussels sprouts very often*, so by now I have some kind of intuition as to when they'll be finished.  The leaves that have fallen away from the sprouts are black and crispy, the tiny, mini-cabbages are slightly browned and wrinkled. 

*exhibit A

*exhibit B

*exhibit C

 In spite of my plans, the sprouts were done at what I feared would be way before the salmon was done.  Not wanting them to burn, I took the brussels sprouts out of the oven and commenced eating them off the pan with my fingers.  Appetizers!


Even though it looked like the fish had a long way to go...

126 is the actual temp, 145 is the target temp. This amazing device which has a cord that goes inside the oven attached to a thermometor that goes into the food, beeps when food reaches the target temp.

 luckily, it was only about five more minutes before the the thermometer/alarm started beeping.  Ryan pulled the fish out of the oven and quickly mashed the potatoes.  Whew!  So things worked out pretty close to my plan.  Dinner was on the table. 

Though Gordon Ramsay would probably smash the fish, yelling  into my face, "It's RAW!", I thought it was pretty tasty...  and all done pretty close to the same time, so no eating in shifts. 

Practice makes this work.  The more you cook, they more you'll develop your kitchen intuition.

Gardening!!

My husband is really into gardening and I am really into cooking, so we are both really looking forward to our second year growing some of our own food. We have plans to can some of the produce and eat it as long as we can (tomato sauce, salsa!!)   Last spring, Ryan transferred our side yard into a beautiful garden. We had a successful run with green onions, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. For some reason we could not keep a basil plant alive. We experimented with many different vegetables and fruits such as potatoes, beets, carrots, corn, and watermelon.  It was so much fun and I learned a lot about what fruit and vegetables actually go through before they reach the plate. For instance, I had no idea potatoes produced such a large plant above ground! Squash blossoms are so pretty!  What an amazing opportunity for education... for adults and children alike.  We were able to eat fresh out of the garden a lot last summer!   It was so satisfying to go pick something, wash it, prepare it, then eat it!

Our garden, mid-July!

green onions, tiny beets and arugula

one bowl of the many many tomatoes we harvested last year.  fresh tomatoes are one of the best foods in the world. fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella, and olive oil on good toasted bread may be my "desert island food".

This year, we've been planning a lot more vegetables and some new experiments.

We bought our seeds over the weekend.  We got as many organics as possible and many of them were from the  Seed Savers Exchange!  We didn't get everything on our list yesterday, but made a large dent in it. We still need tomato plants, though we are going to experiment with growing from seed too, a jalapeno plant, and brussel sprouts. I'm so excited!!

The garden is ready for Spring!

Our seed haul includes... garlic, shallots and onion starters. flowers to encourage pollination. peas: shell and snap.  green beans. fennel. carrots. zucchini. mixed lettuce. butternut squash! broccoli.  rhubarb.  herbs (including catnip for Jack!)


If you want some inspiration for growing your own food I recommend reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

DIY salad dressing

Something about warm weather (we are having a record breaking March in Iowa, it's been 70-80 degrees out for days!)  makes me crave crunchy salad.  That and cleaning out the fridge made me realize I had an abundance of veggies to use.  The other night I made a salad to go with our homemade pizza.

spinach, broccoli, green onions, red peppers and feta!

The giant aisle of salad dressings at the grocery store kind of scares me.  Have you seen it?  There are hundreds of bottles of dressing.  How overwhelming.... so, I make just my own salad dressing as needed.  It's very simple, if you make the initial investment in the ingredients, which will be extremely more cost effective and you will use the ingredients over and over for other things... so don't let that initial investment deter you!

You can find many DIY salad dressing recipes online, and food magazines regularly do articles on salad dressings. In fact, it was even mentioned on The Splendid Table this week. So once you get the hang of it and know what you like (spicy, sweet, acidic, etc.) you can put anything in it.  Here's what I made the other night.  This a pretty standard salad dressing at our house.

ingredients:
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (you can use any kind of vinegar balsamic, apple cider, etc.)
1/2-1 teaspoon honey
1/2-1 teaspoon spicy mustard
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk vinegar, honey and mustard in a  small jar or bowl.
Slowly whisk in the olive oil, drop by drop if possible until mixture thickens.
Make this right before you serve the salad.  If you make it ahead, just whisk again right before serving.  The oil and vinegar will separate.

This amount serves two.  When I make one serving to take with me for lunch, I reduce the Tablespoons to teaspoons and just add a tiny dollop of mustard and honey.  However, I should let you know, that I don't like a lot of dressing on my salad so this may not be enough for you. If you like more, or want to make some to use the next day, just increase the amount, using the same basic ratio.  You will find differing opinions on the vinegar to oil ratios for other recipes online.  This is  what I like... find what you like and go for it!  

this is the tiny jar of dressing I made to  pack with my lunch

weekly menu: spring break

This week I don't have many school obligations but will be working a lot.  Museums are busy when public school is on break so it's going to be a long, but fun week.  I'll need some good food to get me through! 

large shell pasta with vegetarian "sausage" and mushrooms (based on this Food Network Magazine recipe) 

delicious Food Network magazine favorite recipe Fish Tacos

yogurt marinated chicken and  sweet and sour lentils from From Mom With Love

quinoa with roasted cauliflower (I never used that cauliflower recipe with tomatoes and feta I had posted for 2 weeks... so i'm determined to get it done this week!)

Dinner with friends on Thursday night... I'm bringing salad and bread. :) 

Frittata

I realized that I post frittata on the weekly menu quite often, but I haven't yet written about how I make it. Today I made one for breakfast.  Here's how I did it.

ingredients:

6 eggs
1-2 Tablespoons (a good splash) of milk
salt and pepper
spices if you like
butter or olive oil
1 leek, mostly white part,  halved lengthwise and chopped into half moon pieces
1 potatoe, cubed
a handful of spinach, chopped
(I would usually add fresh rosemary to this mix-- it is so magical with eggs! but today I had none.)

put whatever you like into your frittata such as:
   tomatoes, basil, mozzarella cheese
   bacon, onions, potatoes, peppers
   tomatoes, zucchini, goat cheese, green onions
   broccoli, zucchini, red peppers
   any veggies you have in the fridge and need to use up!
   etc. etc. etc.

Preheat the oven to 425.
First, prep and chop the ingredients.
Next, whisk the eggs and the milk and season with S&P.
Using a sautee pan that can go in the oven (if you do not have this, use any sautee pan for this first step of cooking and have a greased pie plate at the ready), heat about 1 Tbsp. butter and add the potatoes. I like to do this to crisp them on the outside and to ensure that they get cooked through (about 5 minutes). 
Remove potatoes from the pan, set aside.
Add extra olive oil or butter to the pan to coat the sides. Return pan to stove and turn heat up to high.
Add eggs to heated pan, and allow to cook for a couple minutes to let the bottom "set". 
Then, add potatoes, leeks, spinach.
Transfer to oven for 20-25 minutes.  Remove when eggs are set and begin to brown on top. 
Allow to cool for 1-2 minutes, then carefully remove from pan (I transfer it to a cutting board) and serve.

Top with crumbled goat cheese for an extra treat! 

Weekly Menu February 13-18

It's Winter.  I'm taking 12 credits this semester. And, I work. It's a busier than usual week at my house. So, let's use the crock pot!  This week's menu includes two soups to warm us up... and should be relatively easy to prepare with limited time.  In planning the menu this week I browsed food gawker and came up with recipes from some other food blogs out there.  I also "phoned a friend",  actually we Skyped, for a recipe.  I love hearing about others' go-to recipes..

chunky tortilla soup with black beans

slow cooker squash stew with chickpeas

salmon Patties and steamed broccoli (one of my go-to meals)

Jordan's go-to baked fish with veggies.

    

Goes well with white fish such as sole, tilapia, etc.  Cut up a few medium sized tomatoes, one good sized zuchinni, chopped onion.  throw in about half a can of chickpeas and throw it all in a baking dish, drizzle all over with olive oil, cumin (go heavy on the cumin!), paprika (also consider using turmeric, coriander, garlic, and/or fennel) and a little bit of cayenne pepper, cover and throw in the oven, 450° for about 35 min. 

I mostly blog about dinner here, but thought I'd include a breakfast or snack recipe for a sweet, cinnamon quinoa.  I'll probably try it sometime this week.  

Have a great week everyone.

Cooking the Cover

The cover of the January issue of bon Appetit has been beckoning me for over a month.  When I turned to the recipe and saw that it required pastry I got scared.  Then there was something about the inclusion of eggs that didn't challenge me enough though... I already make frittatas on a regular basis so why try this?  I just decided I didn't want to make it.  But I kept looking at it and I finally sat down and read the damn recipe.  There were a ton of roasted vegetables (hooray!) and I was really craving that, so I just realized that no matter that I was scared of the pastry really did want to make it... and finally, this week, I did!  By the way, since I have a food processor, making pasty isn't that difficult, I just need to build my confidence. 

I didn't use eggplant but used zucchini instead.  I used half and half instead of heavy cream.  It took about two hours to make it.  IT WAS GOOD!

There are two lesons here friends:  1.  Don't be afraid of the recipe just because it calls for a technique that you aren't quite comfortable with.  Use is as an opportunity to practice!
2.  When you don't like an ingredient in a recipe... substitute!

It looks pretty good, huh?

Weekly Menu

Last week's Indian food was great, and we had plenty of leftovers so we just got to those fish tacos last night.  Let me tell you... they are tasty! What makes it for me, is the sauce!! This is a recipe we go to time and time again.  Try it.

This week's menu includes a lot of veggies. I haven't done a lot of veggie roasting lately and that really sounded good to me as I made the menu.  Perhaps because it finally feels like winter now that we got a decent snowfall this weekend.

Homemade Pizza!! I have seen a lot of people posting about homemade pizza lately on facebook. This makes me happy! I love homemade pizza. It makes so much more sense than delivery or frozen pizza... you can choose your toppings, it's less greasy and it costs far less.

Pasta with Roasted Vegetables inspired by Rosemary Pappardelle with Roasted Winter Vegetable and Red wine Ragout from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison 
I plan to use whole wheat linguini, roast some vegetables and go from there...

Tandoori Style Chicken from Martha Stewart with quinoa and chickpeas.  This marinade leaves the chicken very juicy and tangy. I try to get it done so it can marinate overnight and all day while I'm at work.


Roasted Vegetable Tart from the cover of the January 2012 Bon Appetit.  Again, this will be "inspired" by this recipe, as I did'nt want to get all the ingredients here (I don't like eggplant) but really like the premise of the dish.  This will, however be my first time cooking with fennel!

Thanks to all the readers out there for your feedback and comments.  I love writing this blog and sharing it with all of you... it's great to know that people find it useful. 
What are you making this week?

Planning A Christmas Meu

There's a first time for everything. And it has been decided, not a moment too soon, that Ryan and I are cooking Christmas Eve lunch for  5-6 people.  Now I'm in full planning mode, going back through those December food magazines. 

Meat.  I am going to cook a meat main course.  I don't cook very much meat, as you have seen by my weekly menus.  But since I am cooking for others in the family, I am going to go for it.  I began researching and found that Christmas is the time of year when most people make ham (I guess I didn't know this because either my family made turkey or if we had ham, I didn't eat it much).  Even though I don't think I like ham I am going to give it a try. I have found in recipes here and there hat the fun and flavor with the ham dinner is all about the glaze.  So, I am going to give ham a try and make a kick-ass flavorful glaze.

Shopping for the ham was difficult though educational (and if you know me personally, use your imagination: it was totally comical).
So many options:  spiral spiced? Would I want something pre-sliced? Spiral what?  Isn't slicing it part of the fun of the presentation? Wouldn't that make the ham dry?
Cured/Uncured? Uhhhh.. I guessed cured because curing meat is beyond the skill set I wish to acquire in less than a week.
Bone-in or boneless? I chose bone-in because I think it will lead to a juicier ham.
Shank or butt? Shank. Or. Butt.  That question led me to have a funny conversation with a meat department employee. I needed to what the heck each one meant.  He told me that the shank included some of the leg whereas the butt had less bone and was the most popular.  If you were wondering, later research informed me that the butt was not literally the hog's butt, but the butt end of the leg.
Some hams had been pre-glazed (what fun is that?). Some contained packets of glaze (no.) So, the winner is... 
                                                                                          

A ten pound, "traditional" bone-in hickory smoked ham. 











 For the glaze: I've got it narrowed down to four.  Help me choose!
glazed ham with roasted apples and carrot relish
whole grain mustard and apricot glaze
cranberry glaze/maple syrup, orange. pecans (found at same link)

More research will be necessary for the ham cooking and carving, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Here is an outtake from the ham's photo shoot.

Now, on to where I am comfortable... delicious vegetable sides.
I might take it a little on the simple side as the ham is going to be a big adventure, plus I still have to save my cooking stamina since I am bringing a veggie dish to another Christmas meal on Sunday (some kind of vegetable casserole/tart/gratin... though ask me again later this week I may end up bringing something less ambitious).  But who says simple means boring?  Not I!

Saturday's sides will most likely include:
mashed potatoes made by my husband. He is a mashed potato rock star. milk, butter, salt and pepper and he does it perfectly every time.
real green bean casserole from  my darling kelsy at a l'americaine
roasted brussel sprouts with garlic OR roasted squash

And we'll revisit those delicious Thanksgiving rolls and garlic butter (maybe I'll venture into honey butter too...).  And I should probably throw in a salad. My sister is bringing desert!  Whew!!!

I'm overwhelmed and excited and so happy to be done with the fall semester of grad school so I can study my cookbooks! Hooray!

Happy Holidays!
Allison