Snack Attack: The Olive-Cream Cheese-Triscuit Combo

One of the joys of working from home is that I can make my lunch as it suits me -- no more brown bag specials.  (As you can imagine, this is also one of the dangers of working from home.)  Lately, I've been taking a snacks-as-meals approach to lunch, having a little of this and a little of that.

My current favorite treat: a roasted garlic Triscuit with a schmear of chive cream cheese topped with a single salty Kalamata olive.  I could eat them by the plateful.

Honey-Glazed Carrots: A Little Sweet, A Little Sour

Like Bugs Bunny and Mr. Ed, I appreciate a good carrot.  I like them raw and cooked.  I like them in dip.  And in butter.  And I like them glazed.

My favorite glazed carrot recipe is a little sweet and a little sour.  And the carrots, while cooked, retain a lot of their crunch, so they're fun to eat.  This is a pretty basic recipe, but if you wanted to get all crazy, you could add a little ginger or rosemary.

Sweet and Sour Glazed Carrots

• 1 T. butter
  
• 2 lbs. carrots, peeled and sliced into fairly thin disks
• 1 c. chicken broth
• 1/2 c. honey
• 3 T. white wine or apple cider vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Melt the butter in a large skillet and add carrots.  Cook over medium-high heat for about three minutes.  Add broth, honey and vinegar; season with salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.  Cover and simmer about 10 minutes.  Uncover and cook over medium-high heat until liquid is reduced and syrupy, about 8 minutes.  Season again, if needed, and serve warm.


The food: Sweet and sour glazed carrots
The verdict: A swell way to serve carrots -- and keep them crunchy

Chutney: Much Prettier than Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Let me begin this post by explaining that I have nothing against cranberry sauce in a can.  (Hear that?  It's the collective gasp of serious cooks the world over.)  And I'm not even talking about the fancy, whole-berry stuff.  I like the plain old jellied cranberry, with the can ridges imprinted on it and all.

Here's the only problem with that stuff.  It doesn't look good on the table.  Even if you mash it up, which I did once.  You can ask my mom.  She was pretty annoyed.

So this year, I made cranberry-orange chutney — just as tasty as my beloved Ocean Spray canned cranberry sauce, but much lovelier.  And it's easy.  Put everything in a pot.  Stir.  And that's about it.


Cranberry-Orange Chutney (adapted from a recipe in Our State)

• 12 oz. cranberries
• 1 large orange, peeled and chopped into small pieces
• 1 c. currants
• 3/4 c. light brown sugar
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. ginger
• 1/2 t. ground cloves
• 3/4 t. salt
• 1 c. apple cider
• 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar

Mix all ingredients in a heavy pot and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Cool; serve chilled.  Makes about 2 1/2 cups.


There are lots of great ways to eat chutney.  At Thanksgiving, consider it another side and scoop it up with forkfuls of stuffing.  Last night, I spread some on my turkey-mayo-potato bread sandwich.  And today, I'm planning on using it as a dip for some leftover-turkey samosas.

The food: Cranberry-orange chutney
The verdict: A great alternative to canned cranberry sauce when you're looking to really class it up

The Grateful Table

What plans do you have for your Thanksgiving meal this year?  I've been squirreling away recipes for a month — and I'm about to make a final trip to the grocery store, so it's time to finalize the menu.

The Pre-Meal Snack: Bacon-wrapped apricots and Greek olives. (I'm not sure Greek olives are all that Thanksgivingy, but I like them and I'm the cook, so I'm going with it.)

The Main Event: Orange-rosemary roasted turkey (all 14 lbs. of it, which, now that I think about it, does seem like a lot for two people).

The Gravy: The usual recipe: pan juices and a little flour, stock and water.

The Other Stuff on the Table: Unfussy Fare's cranberry chutney,  Closet Cooking's glazed carrots, sausage stuffing (at Ben's request), something green (can you tell this isn't my favorite part?), my mom's mashed potatoes (no lumps, lots of butter) and maybe a loaf of bread baked in the Dutch oven.

The Best Part: A take on Smitten Kitchen's take on the Lee Brothers' take on sweet potato buttermilk pie.  Confession: I don't like pie crust that much.  So I'm thinking of baking the filling, which sounds lovely, in small ramekins and calling it crustless pie.  Or something like that.

The Next Day: I love a good turkey sandwich, but I'm also thinking about Monday Morning Potato Bread (made with leftover mashed potatoes), turkey samosas and maybe a little turkey soup (made with stock made from the carcass — uh, and the turkey neck).  Yes, I've decided I'm using that darn turkey neck this year.  I'm feeling a little weird about it, but I'm determined.

And for Breakfast: Apple cider donuts.  My first donut making attempt.  It seems like overkill to make donuts on Thanksgiving, but I'm throwing caution to the wind.

Here's my only concern.  Christopher Kimball insists that I need a V-rack for roasting my turkey, and I usually trust what C.K. says.  However, I don't have a V-rack.  Since I only make a turkey once a year, it seems a little silly to buy one.  And if I did buy one, there's not an inch of space to store it in the kitchen.  We'd be putting it under the bed or in the water heater closet.  I was planning on just plopping the turkey down on some onions and carrots.  Think that's okay?  Don't tell Christopher.