Meet The Team / Alanna Kaufman

Sick of soggy latkes? Hanukkah's only a few days away, but there's plenty of time to perfect the art of frying potato pancakes...

Gift baskets brimming with food and kitchen goodies look gorgeous in store windows, but you don't have to splurge to bestow your friends with these lovely gifts. Make your own instead!

Between my vast cookbook collection, the over 100 food blogs that I read, and the wonderful recipe web sites that I use daily, I can find a recipe for just about anything. Anything, that is, except a dish that seems suitable for dinner. Why is it that I can easily find a recipe for chestnut-armagnac souffle (doesn't that sound good?), but not one thing that I feel like eating or cooking on a given night? I usually just end up falling back on old favorites, so I thought I'd share list some here, just in case anyone out there has the same problem as I do. Chances are that many of our default dishes overlap, but maybe if everyone shares some, we'll get some new dishes circulating...

1. Mario Batali's pollo al vino cotto -- The second tastiest chicken dish a person can prepare in a home kitchen (the first is chicken with figs from the Silver Palate Cookbook, but it takes some advance planning)

2. Chicken Caesar salad -- Healthy, plus it's easy to throw in other vegetables that you have laying around

3. Black bean soup -- I use my mom's recipe, but here's a really quick one from Epicurious

4. Roasted chicken -- Carrots, onion, potatoes, rosemary, thyme, lemon, salt, pepper.

5. Roasted vegetable chopped salad with reduced balsamic vinaigrette -- I roast any vegetables I can find at 400 for 30 minutes, then chop them up, toss them with chopped radicchio and chicken if available, and drizzle with a reduced balsamic dressing.

6. Soba noodle salad -- This is always easier than I think it's going to be, and just as refreshing. Here's a beautiful one from Simple Recipes to get you started

7. Lemon fish -- Any piece of any white fish doused in lemon juice, salt and pepper, usually accompanied by a baked potato

8. Sushi take-out -- If worst comes to worst, and I really can't bring myself to cook, this is my plan.

Now, your turn! Please share your default dinner menus!

My family used to have Thanksgiving dinner with just me, my parents, and my two younger brothers. We'd eat roasted chicken (since 5 is too few for a turkey) and then toast marshmallows in the fireplace for dessert. I always crave s'mores around Thanksgiving as a result, and I've been trolling the web for recipes/articles about this delicious snack. Here are a few of the best:

1. Inside-out s'mores from Foodaphilia

2. S'mores bread pudding from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

4. Pumpkin spice marshmallows from Serious Eats (for putting into s'mores!)

5. S'mores maker form Kitchen Contraptions. I think I need this.

6. A cookbook all about S'mores, reviewed by Baking Bites.

7. S'mores cookies from Cookie Madness

8. S'mores cupcakes from Cupcake Bakeshop

Flowers are pretty and candles are chic, but foodies know that the most fun centerpieces are made of more food! Check out these ideas for making beautiful food centerpieces for your Thanksgiving table.