Christmas is over for another year. The presents have been opened, traditional breakfasts have been eaten (in our house, it's fried eggs, turkey bacon and sliced of toasted Panettone) and dinner feasts have been consumed. Once I again this year, I found myself confronted by one of the injustices of holiday eating, which is that a meal that takes all day to prepare gets demolished in less than half an hour. It never seems quite right to me.
Each year for Christmas, my family remakes the traditional Thanksgiving meal (we just like it so much) - turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gingery squash, brussels sprouts and cranberry sauce. We finished the meal with pumpkin custard (pie without the crust) and an apple crisp. It was lovely, although hours and hours later I still feel the need to waddle instead of walk.
I want to hear about the holiday feasts the rest of you partook in. Did you have turkey, ham or roast beef? A cookie platter or an assortment of pies? Tell us about your successes and failures and feel free to point us all in the direction of a truly excellent recipe.
I'm back in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, staying with my parents for Thanksgiving. I decided to have a little rummage through their cupboards to see what kind of weird stuff might be in there, and I was not disappointed! If you're home for the holidays, I suggest you do the same.
Click through the gallery to see the individual items. We have everything from vintage baking cups (right) to inedible cookie decorations. Next time my mother wants to know what's wrong with me, I'm going to say "Silver dragees, Mom. They messed me up for good."
Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Gallery: The 5 Weirdest Things in my Parents' Cupboards
More people in the U.S. travel around Thanksgiving than during any other time of the year, all in the pursuit of a home cooked turkey dinner with family and friends. Unfortunately, that journey home typically takes the traveler past a number of dining options that aren't nearly as tasty as the Thanksgiving meal.
PlanetEye has put together a list of the best airport food options in the world, all in the hopes that they might spare a few lucky travelers the pain of having to eat a lousy sandwich or a pale, lifeless salad. Some of the domestic airports with tasty food include Boston's Logan Airport (you're never far from a Legal Seafood), McCarran in Las Vegas (try Moe's at Gate A) and O'Hare in Chicago, home to an outpost of Billy Goat Tavern (in Terminal 1) which was made famous in SNL's Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger sketch.
How do you handle food when you're traveling? Do you eat at the airport, bring a sandwich with you or do without?
My friend Nicole swears by Ethel's Chocolate. Seriously, she said, "They are the greatest chocolates I have ever eaten." That's high praise as Nicole loves her chocolate.
I checked out Ethel's online and their chocolates are gorgeous, like, audible gasp-gorgeous. These are obviously the best host gift (or loved-one gift, or self-gift) chocolates for this holiday season. Their holiday-themed packages are stunning, and even the regular sets, as you can see, are colorful and exciting. That's right, I said "exciting." They're also affordable; a 12-piece box is just $16.
Ethel's actually has lounges in Las Vegas and Chicago (and surrounding areas), which I certainly did not know. They cater to those passionate about chocolate who want to explore and experience "one of life's greatest pleasures." There are drinks. I shall consider these lounges chocolate brothels. And I want to go.
If you're not in Vegas or Chicago, like most of the world, Ethel's chocolates, in a stunning array of colors, are available online here. Check out our gallery for some great holiday gift ideas!
"Pick Your Nose" is probably not a headline you expected to see on Slashfood. Well. There's a first time for everything.
These are 12 ounce paper cups with various noses on them. Finally, you can pick your friends' noses. I know you've wanted to. A pack of 24 is $9.95, aka way cheaper than plastic surgery.*
As for clipping your friends' nose-hairs, we're still working on that.
The holidays tend to stress us out. Stress makes it hard to sleep. The best thing for you when you're stressed? Sleep. Evolution FAIL.
Everyone knows about tryptophan, that magic amino acid present in turkey that totally knocks you out after Thanksgiving. There's actually quite a lot of it in egg whites, soybeans, and parmesan cheese, too.
It probably doesn't occur to you to get up and eat some turkey in the middle of the night to help you sleep. That's because the protein in turkey and many other tryptophan-rich foods gets your mind ticking. If you awaken from a turkey-induced slumber, you'll find yourself thinking clearly and unlikely to fall back asleep. Conclusion: Turkey is the perfect nap-food.
Here are eight foods and drinks that help you sleep, naptime and/or nighttime:
1. Turkey - the classic nap food. 2. Rice cakes - a food with a high glycemic index eaten about four hours before bed can cause the perfect crash. 3. Milk - also has tryptophan, and is very soothing when warm. 4. Yogurt - dairy foods without a lot of protein are ideal. 5. Wine - don't overdo it; one or two glasses is relaxing; more can disrupt your sleep patterns. 6. Bedtime Tea from Yogi Tea - this tea is serious business. 7. Chamomile tea - your grandmother's version of the same thing. 8. Oatmeal - melatonin, people.
I dare you to have them all in one sitting just to see what happens. Thank you and good night.
Oh, the sugar frenzy of Easter. There's nothing better than the gluttonous orgy of sweets and baked goods that happens around this time of year. I know that other holidays also worth at the foot of the sugar god, but I feel like every year, Easter is first in line to pay its respects. I feel like the cookies in this image (by Flickr user ebachetti) are a great example of the this lovely seasonal indulgence.
We've fallen a little behind on our cookie of the day posting, mostly because we thought that you might all be a little overwhelmed by the avalanche of sweets and treats that have a way of filling our homes around the holiday season. It's taking all my willpower right now not to go and cut a slice off the chocolate and caramel covered apple that is currently hanging out in the fridge.
If you aren't totally tired of cookies, I came across a recipe a couple of days ago and spoke to me. I haven't tried it out myself yet, but it's from Julie at Noshtalgia and her recipes tend to be pretty darn reliable. It's for Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, a style of cookie that is good any time of year, not just around the holidays.
I spent Christmas hanging out with my family, doing some cooking and generally vegging out. It seems that my friend Eric spent the day with his family, stymied by a Wilton Pre-Baked Gingerbread House Kit. He and his three year old nephew started the kit as a way to do something fun together and by the end were ready to toss it in the ground in frustration. Did anyone else try this kit this year? Was it fun for you or did you have as many problems as Eric and his nephew did?
Yesterday I mentioned that my mom and I worked in tandem to create an apple crisp for dessert on Christmas. We both compromised a little on our traditional method and I think our team work was a success, as I do believe that this was one of the best apple crisps every (although my dad pointed out that the best one is typically the one right in front of you, so I could be a little biased).
You see, I like to use mostly oats in my topping and she likes to use mostly flour. We came together and used about half oat flour and half pure rolled oats. The combination gave it a sense of pastry with the crunch and seeming-virtuousness of granola. I cut the pieces of apple a little smaller than my norm under her tutelege and I convinced her to season both the apples and the crumble topping. We both agreed to use toasted pecans in top instead of walnuts. What turned out was a dish that was tender and sweet without being overwhelming. It felt like it could be a really decadent breakfast item (and would be great with plain yogurt instead of the vanilla ice cream we ate it with). Check out our recipe after the jump.
Yesterday my mom and I made a big apple crisp and roasted off five huge sweet potatoes (which are destined for this dish). She is letting me have my way with the sweet potatoes, but the apple crisp was more of a tricky compromise. I've made a lot of crisps in my day and have developed a technique that I really like. However, that method relies on a food processor, which is a piece of equipment that my mother doesn't have. So we went back and forth, melding my mental recipe with the one she often follows from an old, favorite cookbook.
Later today I'll be chopping vegetables with my dad, making stuffing and getting the bird into the oven. I look forward to doing this kitchen dance with him every year, and happily, we've gotten to the point where we can anticipate each other in the kitchen without words. It's a joyful thing.
I hope that all you Slashfood readers out there are having equally nice days as I am, full of cooking, eating, drinking and laughing.
I first spotted this recipe on Tastespotting and knew instantly that it had my name written all over it. I am a sucker for baked goods that incorporate herbs and so this one called to me (I also have a recipe for Lemon Basil cookies that I want to try). I made some adjustments to the recipe. It didn't come together easily, so I added several tablespoons of milk. For the first time in my life (I normally reduce the amount of sugar in things), I actually added more sugar than the recipe called for, because when I tasted the dough, it tasted like there was hardly any sugar in it at all. I was happy with the way the cookies turned out and I loved the fact that it didn't hurt the dough at all to hang out in the fridge for a full 24 hour period. Check out my adapted recipe after the jump.
When I got home for the holidays, my mom mentioned that she'd been craving some peanut butter cookies with bits of chocolate chips in them. I smiled and nodded and didn't think that much more about it. Then I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and realized that these might just be my mom's dream cookie. Being the kind of daughter I am, I decided to pull together a batch and so last night ran out to Safeway for some chunky peanut butter and chocolate chips.
I knew they were a winner when I tasted the batter and when they baked up they were even better. The one thing I have to stress about this recipe is that you must follow Deb's instructions and get them out of the oven before you think they are done. I cooked the first tray a little bit too long and ended up regretting it as it somehow cooked the essence of peanut out of them. But as long as you take them out before they really start to brown up, you will end up with some amazing cookies.
To help with preparation, Leslie Brenner analyzes a luxurious new ricer, and Regina Schrambling does a round-up of cookbooks that could also serve as super gifts.
I saw an ad in a food magazine recently in which a mother was putting down a platter holding a tofurky in front of her son and girlfriend. It implied that it was the first tofurky that this woman had prepared and that she was doing it for this new arrival who was presumably a vegetarian.
I imagine that there are actually quite a few of you out there who may find yourself with a vegetarian or vegan around your holiday table next week. I actually don't recommend preparing tofurky as my experiences with it have been decidedly unpleasant (it's great in concept but sadly just doesn't taste that good). Instead, you might want to check out this post over at the Well Fed Network which lays out a bunch of tips and recipes for how you might want to make your non-meat eating guests feel welcome around your table.
During the years that my sister was a vegetarian, we typically made lots of veggies and always had several non-meat dishes into which we added chopped and toasted nuts for additional protein. For those of you who aren't meat eaters, how to do you handle these big, celebratory meals?
I'm back in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, staying with my parents for Thanksgiving. I decided to have a little rummage through their cupboards to see what kind of weird stuff might be in there, and I was not disappointed! If you're home for the holidays, I suggest you do the same.
My friend Nicole swears by 
The holidays tend to stress us out. Stress makes it hard to sleep. The best thing for you when you're stressed? Sleep. Evolution FAIL.
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