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Tastier Thanksgiving Stuffing
Until you’ve had truly delicious bread stuffing, you might wonder why many of us consider it an essential layer of our Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches. When cooked just right, the stuffing on your holiday table will be so tasty that you’ll give it a prominent spot on your plate during dinner and beyond. A beautifully browned turkey may take center stage, but stuffing with crusty edges, plenty of aromatics, and a few choice add-ins will have everyone going back for more. Start with Good Bread Pieces of stuffing bread will soak up aromatics, butter, and all the other ingredients in your stuffing, but they also make up the bulk of the…
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Broccolini in Sweet and Sour Sauce
While its name suggests that it’s a diminutive form of a common vegetable, broccolini is a hybrid of broccoli and the Chinese vegetable gai lan. With longer stalks and smaller florets, broccolini takes a more delicate shape on the dinner plate than broccoli, yet has a robust flavor that stands up well to a sweet and sour sauce with a bit of spiciness. On its own, this recipe makes a hearty vegetarian dish, and when served as a side, it never seems like an afterthought. In place of the refined sugar and ketchup that often make their way into sweet and sour sauce, I rely on honey, tamarind, tomato paste,…
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Roasted Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad
Over the weekend I found some ripe cherry tomatoes, and my first thought was to pop them in the oven to intensify all that flavor. Even in the heart of summer, I don’t shy away from the oven. Some people prefer the slow tending of meat over a grill, but I prefer keeping a watchful eye over a sheet full of slowly collapsing tomatoes. As I popped each one off the vine, I thought of how my father would stop by just to search my overgrown plants for the tomatoes that were ready to be picked, and which I might have missed. Most of the time I didn’t even know…
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Asiago Polenta Sticks with Rosemary Salt
Baked until the outside is crispy but the inside retains its creamy texture, a polenta stick gives you the best of both ways to eat this Italian staple. Often we think of polenta as a porridge served warm, but it can be grilled or baked to become a crisp surface for a host of toppings or a way to sop up every delicious drop of a pan sauce that’s lingering on the plate. Sprinkled with seasoning before being baked in the oven at high heat, these polenta sticks give a nod to another Italian staple, focaccia. While there are many ways to season loaves, rosemary is a must for me.…
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Spinach Salad with Pickled Red Onions, Manchego, and Honeyed Walnuts
Ribbony red onions, shavings of Manchego cheese, and crunchy, sweet walnuts provide such intense flavor that the only dressing needed for this spinach salad is a drizzle of olive oil. With a dose of vinegar from the quick pickling process, red onions contribute to the flavor of a vinaigrette. In fact, all of the toppings are rather playful, lending vibrancy to this salad. The cheese has a distinct nuttiness, the nuts are coated in the sweetness of honey, and the sweet qualities of red onion are transformed with pickled flavor. Ingredients Baby spinach Aged manchego cheese Quick pickled red onions Honeyed walnuts Quick Pickled Red Onions 1 medium red onion…