While the turkey is the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal, the side dishes can be the ones that steal the show. Everyone has their own personal favorites and traditional dishes that they make, but if you are looking for some new ideas and new ways to make old classics or something different, Food Network has put together over 50 classic Thanksgiving side dishes for you to try. Check it out!
Source: 50+ Classic Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes
Potatoes can be a really versatile side dish besides being great for mashed potatoes or your standard baked potato. There’s nothing wrong with using one of the old stand-by recipes or even just boiling up some potatoes for a really simple side dish but with so many different things you can do with potatoes I am always trying to come up with something just a little bit different to jazz up a meal. This is especially true if I am making a meal for a special occasion and want something different as a side dish that really stands out on its own. When I made the New York strip steaks for Valentine’s Day this past week, I knew I wanted to make potatoes with the steaks and mashed potatoes or even fries seemed like a good option, but I had seen this recipe just recently on Food Network for a pan-fried fingerling potato with leeks that looked like it would be perfect to go with a steak. They also had a nice honey-lemon coating on them that made them perfect and the recipe seemed really easy to make so I had to give them a try.
Pan-Fried Honey-Lemon Fingerling Potatoes and Leeks
Salt
2 pounds fingerling potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1 leek, halved, thoroughly washed and sliced up to the pale green part
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley
1 lemon, zested
Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Gently add the fingerling potatoes and poach the potatoes for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain the potatoes, cut the potatoes in half and dry the potatoes thoroughly.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Melt the butter and add the leeks and season them with salt and pepper. Saute the leeks until they are softened, about 8 minutes. Remove the leeks to a separate bowl and set them aside.
In the now-empty skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Put the fingerling potatoes cut-side down in the pan and cook the potatoes until they are golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Flip the potatoes and repeat the process on the skin side of the potatoes, cooking them for about 5 to 6 minutes to brown them nicely. Add the leeks back to the skillet, drizzle the vegetables with the honey and cook them for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Sprinkle the vegetables with the parsley and the lemon zest. Season the vegetables with additional salt and pepper to taste and serve.
It’s a very basic dish that gives you some great results. You do want to make sure the potatoes are completely dry before you put them in the skillet so you can brown them nicely and get that great crunch to them on the outside while they stay soft on the inside. The addition of the leeks is great for the dish to give it that subtle flavor that leeks have. Just remember leeks can be pretty gritty so you need to clean them thoroughly before you use them. The honey and lemon just added the final push to the dish to give that hint of sweetness that was perfect. I don’t often buy fingerling potatoes because they tend to be quite expensive compared to other potatoes for a small amount, but I did find them on sale so it was perfect timing for this dish. I think you could do this dish well with other potatoes as well as long as you cut them small enough so they poach nicely and fit well in the skillet. The potatoes went perfectly with the steak and they would be great for any beef, pork or poultry side dish.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
There’s nothing like a good quality steak every once in a while to make for a really great meal. Unfortunately in the world we live in today most steak is pretty darn expensive so it is something I make very often at home, saving it for special occasions. When Valentine’s Day rolled around this year and Michelle was coming home that day after 3 weeks on the road, that was all special enough for me and I went in search for some good steak. Nothing against the big local supermarkets, but I prefer to use a smaller butcher shop for good steaks. For me, they are usually a better cut of meat and very often the price is better than want I find in the supermarket. Such was the case when I picked up three 3 New York strip steaks and got them for $5 less a pound than they were at the supermarket. I sorted out among the recipes I had and decided to give this one from Guy Fieri a try for some grilled New York strip steaks with a creamy five-peppercorn sauce. I busted out the grill pan and went to work.
Grilled New York Strip Steak with Five-Peppercorn Sauce
4 cups beef stock
Four 16-ounce New York strip steaks
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons butter
2 shallots, minced
2 tablespoons fresh cracked five-peppercorn blend
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Bring the beef stock to a boil in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Immediately lower the stock to a simmer and cook the stock until it is reduced to about 1/2 cup, about 45 minutes. Set the stock aside.
Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat. Sprinkle the New York strip steaks with kosher salt and black pepper and allow them to sir for about 15 minutes.
Place the steaks on the grill or grill pan, evenly spaced, and grill the steaks for about 2 1/2 minutes. Rotate the steaks a quarter-turn and cook them for another 2 1/2 minutes to create crosshatch sear marks on the steaks. Flip the steaks over and repeat the process on the reverse side of the steaks. Remove the steaks to a baking sheet and allow them to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
While the steaks are resting, combine 2 tablespoons of the butter, the shallots and the five-peppercorn blend together in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Cook until the shallots and peppercorns are fragrant and the butter is beginning to bubble, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, add the brandy and the red wine. Carefully place the saucepan back on the burner (at this point you could flame the mixture if you want, provided you safely have the room to do so in your kitchen and are familiar with the process; I skipped this in might tight-quartered kitchen). Add the reduced beef stock and the heavy whipping cream, bring the mixture to a boil and immediately lower it to a simmer. Cook until the liquid has reduced by about two-thirds, about 8 to 10 minutes. Prior to serving the sauce, whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into the sauce, then remove the sauce from the heat.
With a sharp knife, slice the steaks into 1/2-inch thick slices, cutting on the bias. Transfer the steak slices to a large serving platter and spoon over the five-peppercorn sauce. Garnish with minced parsley and serve, passing the reserved sauce on the side.
To me there is nothing like a steak that is cooked perfectly to medium or medium-rare. You get the softness of the meat with that nice pink color and the flavor burst in your mouth. Add in this peppercorn sauce, which has a nice mix of red wine, brandy and the peppercorns to add a nice little bite and you have perfect steaks for the night. I forgot to take a picture of the sauce itself but it came out nicely. I served the steaks with some sautéed mushrooms, roasted Brussels sprouts and a recipe for pan-fried fingerling potatoes and leeks with a honey-lemon sauce that I will share with you tomorrow. Overall it was a very nice meal and a good way to cap off Valentine’s Day and Michelle coming home.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
It doesn’t seem like it could actually get much colder or more miserable around this winter and February has only just begun. We have had enough snow already with more in the forecast for this week to go along with pretty frigid temperatures pretty much every day of the week for the last two weeks. When the weather gets like this, the thoughts of cooking meals, for me at least, turn to things that are warm, rustic and comforting. You want a meal that is going to make you feel warm all over when you eat it. This is the time of year when things like stews and soups are great, and this particular recipe turned out to be somewhat like a stew. I had seen the recipe from Guy Fieri on the Food Network not long ago and it made use of some of the basics around the house to produce a nice chicken thigh and sausage cacciatore so I thought I would give it a try.
Chicken Thigh and Italian Sausage Cacciatore
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian Sausage, cut into large pieces
6 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin-on
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms
1 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed
1 cup diced red bell peppers
1 head garlic, roasted
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup marinara sauce
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the olive oil to a large Dutch oven set over medium-high heat and add the sausage pieces, searing them until they are browned all over, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the sausages to a plate and set them aside. Sprinkle the chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper, then sear the chicken in the Dutch oven, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Remove the chicken thighs to a plate and set it aside.
Add the mushrooms, pearl onions, red peppers, roasted garlic and the red pepper flakes to the pot and season them with salt and pepper. Saute the mixture until the vegetables are softened and the pearl onions become translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the red wine and bring the mixture to a boil, and then simmer for 5 minutes, deglazing the pan and scraping up any bits on the bottom of the pan.
In a large roasting pan add the browned sausages and the chicken thighs, the sautéed vegetables and the chicken stock and marinara sauce. Tie the thyme and rosemary into a bundle using butcher’s twine or kitchen twine and add it to the pan. Stir all of the ingredients together and transfer the roasting pan to the oven. Cook until the chicken thighs are cooked through and tender and the sauce has thickened, about 35 to 45 minutes. Remove the herb bundle and serve the cacciatore on a large serving platter, garnished with the parsley.
I did make a couple of changes to the recipe as I went along. I removed the skin from the chicken thighs as I thought it would get flabby during the cooking even after searing it and there was already enough fat in the dish from the sausage. I also used a mix of different colored peppers, using red, yellow and orange peppers. Finally I added some grape tomatoes along with the marinara sauce to give the dish a little more flair and fresh flavor. I loved the mix of the chicken and sausage and all of the vegetables together and I served this over rice and it was delicious. I think you could also serve this with pasta, noodles or even a risotto and it would be just as good and the leftovers tasted even better the next day for lunch with the flavors having a chance to meld even more.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Okay, I know not everyone likes spinach and maybe you have tried to avoid it like the plague since you were a kid, but in my opinion I would much rather have spinach as a vegetable than a side of kale. I know it seems sacrilegious to say that about kale today since it is a “super food” and all, but there is just something about kale that I makes me rather have something else – like spinach. Surprisingly, we never had a problem getting Sean to eat spinach either and it ranks among the family favorites in vegetables. Besides, you can do a lot of things with it besides just steaming it. It is great raw in a salad or on sandwiches instead of lettuce and of course, one of the favorites around the holidays is always creamed spinach, which is the recipe I am posting today. I actually made this right around the holidays and forgot to post about it, but here it is today and it is easy enough where you can really make this any time of the year. This particular recipe comes from the Food Network’s Sunny Anderson and comes together pretty quickly in the oven and makes use of frozen spinach.
Creamed Spinach
4 tablespoons butter, plus more for the pan
1/2 red onion, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons red chili flakes
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sour cream
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/2 cup packaged fried onions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter and 8 by 8-inch baking dish. Melt the butter in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the chopped red onion and a pinch of salt. Saute the onion for about 3 minutes, then add the minced garlic and the red chili flakes and saute the mixture for 2 minutes more. Add the heavy cream, Parmesan cheese and the nutmeg. heat the mixture until the cream is just beginning to bubble, stirring often, about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the burner off and stir in the sour cream and the spinach. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed to taste. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle the top evenly with the fried onions. Bake the spinach until the top is golden and bubbly, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Granted this may not be the healthiest version of eating spinach out there but it does taste pretty good. It does seem a lot like the typical green bean casserole that you might also find around the holidays and the flavors will remind you of that. One thing you want to remember is to make sure to thaw and dry the frozen spinach as much as you can to get as much liquid out as possible otherwise you will end up with a very runny dish. I did leave out the red chili flakes in my recipe but if you like a little added heat to your dish you should put it in. You end up with a very creamy, tasty side dish that goes really well with just about any type of beef, poultry and pork meal. this also works well if you need to bring a side dish to a party or buffet dinner. Unfortunately, this is also one of those dishes that I neglected to take a picture of so I don’t have one to share with you as to how it came out. Sorry about that. I am trying better, I promise.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
It seems that it is pretty frigid just about everywhere across the United States today, and I know that it is below zero here with the wind chill this morning with predictions that it will get even colder here tonight and tomorrow. I hate the cold weather a great deal as it is so I do my best to stay inside, stay warm and make the best of it. Days like today are ideal for breaking out the soup recipes and I plan to make a few different soups over the next week or so, but here is a recipe for a family favorite that I actually made around the holidays for a potato leek soup. We love potato leek soup in my house and it goes pretty quickly around here so I try to make a lot of it so we can have it available for lunches as well. While this is a soup you can serve hot or cold, I always prefer it warm. I tried this simple recipe from Alton Brown this time out and it is pretty similar to ones I have tried in the past, though it has a slight change with a larger ratio of leeks to potatoes.
Potato Leek Soup
1 pound leeks, cleaned and dark green sections removed, about 4 to 5 medium
3 tablespoons butter
Heavy pinch kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
14 ounces (about 3 or 4 small) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced small
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon snipped chives
After thoroughly cleaning the leeks, chop the leeks into small pieces. In a 6-quart saucepan or Dutch oven set over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the leeks and a heavy pinch of the kosher salt and sweat the leeks for about 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook until the leeks are tender, about 25 minutes, stirring the leeks occasionally.
Add the potatoes and the vegetable or chicken broth, increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 45 minutes.
Turn off the heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender until the soup is smooth. Stir in the heavy cream, buttermilk and white pepper. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning as needed. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately or chill and serve cold.
I love the creamy, silky texture of this soup and all of the great flavor you get from the potatoes and leeks, and this version has the leeks really shining through for some excellent flavor. You can make this vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken if you like and the combination of buttermilk and heavy cream is nice for this dish, though you could just use heavy cream if you prefer it that way. This soup makes an excellent first course for any meal or it can be a great meal on its own, which is how we often have it. Serve it with some homemade bread, rolls, or biscuits or even with sandwiches and you have a great dinner that is easy to make.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Best New Year’s Eve Recipes : Food Network.
New Year’s Eve is just two days away and if you are planning a party, big or small, Food Network has some great recipe ideas for you for appetizers, snacks, main courses, cocktails and more so you can ring in the New Year. Check it out!
I will be back with more of my own recipes once the holidays are are all over with so stay tuned for some great, exciting new things to try for the New Year. Thanks for following!
Sunday dinners can be a fantastic time to try out new meals that you have wanted to experiment with but don’t have the time during the week, but they can also be the ideal occasion to roll out family favorites and comfort food meals that everyone loves. That’s what I decided on recently when I made some pot roast for dinner. I haven’t made a pot roast in a while since it makes way too much food for just the three of us and frankly the roasts have not been a good buy at the supermarket. However, Sean asked if he could have pot roast as his birthday dinner when we were having family over so I went on a hunt for a roast and found a perfect one that was a great size for a large group of people and had just the right amount of fat to it. I then decided I was going to try out a recipe Geoffrey Zakarian from his new cookbook My Perfect Pantry. It was for a New England pot roast very similar to what I always make with a slight difference in the gravy he makes in the end. It promised to be quite tasty.
New England Pot Roast
One 3-pound beef chuck roast
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch chunks
2 carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks
2 medium onions, cut into 2-inch chunks
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cloves garlic
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 dried bay leaves
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry red wine
6 cups beef stock
1 pound red potatoes, cut into 2-inch chunks
1/4 cup yellow mustard
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, drained
Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish, optional
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Season the roast with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven set over medium-high heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the roast and sear it on all sides until the roast is well browned, about 5 minutes. Remove the roast to a plate.
Add the celery, carrots and onions and saute until they are caramelized on the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the flour, garlic, thyme, bay leaves and rosemary. Stir the mixture to incorporate the flour into the oil and cook until the flour smells toasty, about 2 minutes.
Pour in the wine and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the roast back to the pot, along with the beef stock and the potatoes. Bring everything to a rapid simmer and cover the pot tightly. Place the pot in the oven and cook, covered, until the meat is just tender (a knife will slide out easily with no resistance), about 2 hours 30 minutes. Remove the meat to a cutting board and tent it with follow and allow it to rest while you prepare the sauce.
Let the sauce sit for a few minutes, and then spoon off any fat that has risen to the surface (or pour the sauce into a fat-separating measuring cup, pour off the fat and add the sauce back to the pot). Return the sauce to a simmer. Whisk in the mustard and horseradish and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Discard the bay leaves and stir in the parsley, if using.
Carve the meat into 1/2-inch-thick slices against the grain, and serve with the sauce and vegetables.
I di use a much bigger roast than the recipe so I increased the time to 3 1/2 hours instead of 2 1/2 since I had almost a 6 pound roast. I also did not use the red potatoes as Sean wanted mashed potatoes with the meal instead. The meat was cooked perfectly and was very tender, just the way you want it. The sauce had great flavor thanks to the horseradish and I really enjoyed it as a change of pace from the regular gravy we make with a pot roast. I think it was perfect with the rest of the meal and would certainly try it that way again for the flavor.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
Happily Ever After Lives Here
a little bit naughty a little bit nice
Letting Life Lead
Simple and delicious dinner inspiration
onedadskitchen 