Category Archives: Side Dishes

Five Days of Thanksgiving Meals: Options for Everyone at Your Table

Posted in Dinner, Holidays, Side Dishes by

For someone who likes to cook, Thanksgiving is just a wonderful holiday all-around. For anyone who doesn’t like to cook, I have to assume the Internet is your best friend for at least 24 hours.

Once I got my own place, with my own kitchen with a stove and oven that I could commandeer at will, I became weirdly obsessed with cooking for Thanksgiving, despite the fact that Mike and I have not once celebrated this holiday at our home. And we don’t leave for just one night – we’re gone for days visiting relatives in Connecticut and New York.

So I became that person who shows up to other people’s homes with unsolicited food items. “I accidentally made this squash ravioli so, I thought maybe it would make a good side dish?”

I’m not entirely sure why I feel this compulsion, but I do it every year. I think I just really love Thanksgiving-type foods and can’t keep from cooking them. It’s not even the desserts I’m after – it’s the roasted and seasoned vegetables, the sauces and toppings, the bready and flavorful stuffings…Can. Not. Resist.

Because I’m actively food blogging this year, I decided to spread my Thanksgiving food-love and cook one new dish each day for five days before Turkey Day that could easily occupy a spot on your holiday table.

The fun starts Thursday – exactly one week before the big day. Oh – and at some point I will also be documenting Mike’s attempt at frying a turkey for the first time ever.

Happy cooking!

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No-Rise Whole Wheat Stout Bread

Posted in Baking, Dinner, Side Dishes, Soup by

What’s better than bread? Bread made with beer, that’s what! AND bread that needs no rises!

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I love baking bread, don’t get me wrong. Spending an entire day carefully kneading and rising, all the while the house filling with the irresistible aromas of what can only be produced by the marriage of yeast, water and flour – it’s amazing. It’s the quintessential winter-in-New-England activity (I know, surprising that it’s not skiing or snowshoeing right?!? 🙂 )

But in a pinch, like when you decide to make soup for dinner at 4:30pm and have no bread to go along with it (and you MUST have bread with soup), there is just no time for kneading and rising.

I always thought rise-free bread was restricted to dessert breads like banana bread or lemon poppy-seed. But, thanks to my extremely talented friend and fellow blogger Leslie, those days are over.

WE WILL HAVE BREAD WITH OUR SOUP!

Ok. Anyways, Leslie made this bread with Smuttynose Porter beer – I made it with Sam Smith’s Oatmeal Stout – either way it’s delicious and so easy.

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What You Need:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark
  • 1 (12 fluid ounce) bottle of stout beer (like I said, porter is the original recipe ingredient so choose your poison)

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

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Slowly add the beer while stirring. A thick batter should form – this is more batter-like than bread dough-like so don’t be alarmed or feel like you need to add extra flour.

I used both hands to knead this around inside the mixing bowl, but it really just caused a huge mess. If you feel like sticking to a spoon, just do that.

Scrape the mixture into a well-greased loaf pan, and bake for about an hour. At around 45 minutes, insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. If not, give it another 10 minutes, checking to ensure it’s not burning at the top.

Pro Tip: If served with a full-bodied soup like squash soup or a creamy soup like clam chowder or cream of mushroom, dunk this sucker right in there. You won’t regret it.

 

Sweet Dumpling Squash Fritters

Posted in Appetizer, Dinner, Side Dishes by

A few years ago, groggy from a raucous New Years Eve celebration the night before, Mike and I embarked on a fairly involved breakfast of zucchini fritters and pancakes, a cooking endeavor I can only attribute to having been younger and therefore more motivated than we should have been.

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We had followed this recipe, from my all-time favorite cooking blogger, and it was absolutely perfect. We devoured every last fritter (and quite possibly went back to bed after).

Since I went through this summer’s zucchini bumper crop without making one single fritter (the horror!!) I HAD to make up for it.

Enter: the Sweet Dumpling Squash.

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These beauties are delish – a bit sweeter than other squashes, and such a cute size! Having bought four from the farm without any major plans for them, I seized the chance to replicate those New Year’s Day fritters in a slightly different way.

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This is a super-simple dish that works as an appetizer or as a side-dish with dinner. I served each fritter with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on top, alongside oven-roasted BBQ chicken and sweet potatoes.

What You Need:

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  •  2 Sweet Dumpling squashes, skin peeled, seeds scooped out, grated by hand (about 3 cups grated squash. More detail below)
  • 1/2 cup fresh chives, diced
  • 2 tsp freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp ground flax seed (substitute this with chia or hemp seeds – whatever you like)
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup flour (gluten-free flour works totally fine)
  • Coconut oil (at least 3 tbsp but you might find you need more)
  • Plain Greek yogurt for dollops on top

 

What You Do:

Slice the tops and bottoms off the squashes and discard. Gently cut a circle around the inside perimeter of the squash, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the skin and where you’re cutting. The circle you cut should loosen and easily pull away from the seeds and out, exposing the inside.

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Scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Then, with a sharp knife, gently slice off the outer skin. This doesn’t have to be a perfect job because the skin is actually edible. I just got as much as I could but left it in the grooves where it wouldn’t readily slice off.

Using a hand or box grater, grate the squash until it’s mostly used up (you won’t be able to grate the entire thing, but get as much as you can).

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Place the grated squash in a large mixing bowl. Add the chives, pepper, salt, flax seed, egg and flour, and stir well.

In a large pan on medium heat, add a tbsp of coconut oil.

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Form the squash mixture into small, flat patties and place them in the pan. They should sizzle in the oil once it’s properly heated.

Give each side of the fritters a few minutes to cook, lifting them periodically when a spatula to ensure they don’t burn.

You want the fritters to have a nice, golden brown coloring. The longer each side cooks (without burning) the crispier and more held-together they will be.

This recipe should make 8-10 fritters. Add a tbsp of coconut oil each time you add new patties to the pan, and add additional oil if the pan begins to look dry or the patties start to burn.

Serve hot with a dollop of Greek yogurt or sour cream on top.

Pro Tip: Any type of squash will work with this recipe. I like Sweet Dumpling because of their sweeter taste, and because the skin is edible, but Acorn or Butternut squash are good substitutes in a pinch.

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Rhubarb and Green Bean Dijon Potato Salad

Posted in Appetizer, Dinner, Side Dishes by

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I have to admit, this post is kind of a cheat on my part. I do not think it’s ACTUALLY rhubarb season anymore, although to be fair I did see some at the grocery store…

But I didn’t want to go the whole summer without posting this recipe, which I made awhile back, DURING rhubarb season, from farmer’s market rhubarb with the intention of making it part of my Five Days of Farmer’s Market Meals. But since I failed to do that, I figure now is better than never right? Like most things.

And what’s summer without potato salad? It’s traditional anyways, but this summer was an even bigger hit because of this amazing Kickstarter campaign that gave potato salad the attention and fame it has always deserved.

Potato Salad (1)What You Need:

 

  • 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
  • 1/2 pound green beans, sliced in half
  • 2 stalks of rhubarb, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 1 pound red potatoes, chopped into 1 1/2” cubes
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 6-8 tbsp dijon mustard (I like the pub style with the mustard seeds)

 

What You Do:

Simultaneously boil a large pot of salted water and heat a nonstick skillet over medium.

Once the water is boiling, add the potato cubes and lower the heat so they simmer. Cook until a fork easily goes through them.

Drain and pour potatoes into a large bowl.

In the skillet,heat the rhubarb, stirring frequently, until JUST cooked. Do not leave it in the pan for too long or else the rhubarb will become very soft. You want it to remain firm.

Add onion, green beans, rhubarb, garlic, green pepper and celery to the potatoes and stir to mix well.

Add the mustard to taste and stir well. You may find you need more mustard (or less) so add gradually and see how you feel. Taste tests are the best part of cooking!

Pro Tip: Add other vegetables, or something crazy like bacon! Everyone loves bacon, right?

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