The “Only-the-Good-Stuff” mini Thanksgiving menu 🦃
Featuring the Insta-pretty cranberry lemon bars, a luxurious savory bread pudding, and gratitude.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we feature the best parts of Thanksgiving dinner -- the sides and dessert. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Roasted-parsnip bread pudding at home
Originally from Martha Stewart cooking.
Every year, my aunt who is the Big Boss of Thanksgiving and Champion of Gatherings in our otherwise (very disorganized, independent) family plans a thoughtful and elaborate themed Thanksgiving menu. It is a true masterpiece of a party, and includes recipes that involve far more organization and prep-time than the rest of us, who are either too much of chaos muppets (🙋🏻♀️) to follow a recipe, or too much of order muppets to do anything maximalist, would ever dream of taking on. This roasted parsnip bread pudding, which involves both washing leeks and two bake times is a good example of a recipe that would otherwise never survive in our family’s kitchen but has come to be greatly appreciated over the years. Although this year’s big Thanksgiving gathering was sadly canceled due to the pandemic, you can bring some of that joy into your own kitchen by spending a Sunday afternoon making this very rich, very elaborate, but very worth it, roasted-parsnip bread pudding.
Roasted browned butter butternut squash at home
Adapted from NYT Cooking.
I originally meant to bring this roasted browned butter butternut squash (say that three times as fast!) to my parents house along with the lemon cranberry bars (below) as a Thanksgiving treat, but I ate it all. It’s really just that good. The soft acidity of the apple cider vinegar (which somehow doesn’t feel as harsh as a wine or balsamic vinegar) cuts the richness of the browned butter for the world’s simplest, and richest, dressing. The recipe is, once again, from the New York Times (because I am my father’s daughter and by god if I spend $40 on something a year I better use it at every single occasion), but I used peeled, chunked butternut squash instead of slices with skin-on, because if you peel winter squash and roast it at a very high heat, it becomes crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside. (For non-subscribers, the vinaigrette is just three tablespoons of butter, browned, mixed with one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, with salt and pepper to taste. You’re welcome.)
Cranberry lemon bars at home
Recipe from Genevieve Ko, via NYT Cooking
I was very thankful to be interviewed by TASTE on my Thanksgiving dinner, like a Real Food Writer. But I also cursed myself by talking about a recipe I was planning to make, which meant that even though I was very tired on Wednesday night and my kitchen is too small to open the oven door all the way, I had to get those lemon cranberry bars out no matter what because I have spent too much time working at ProPublica which means if I have something written down in an article that is possibly not true I start to sweat buckets and have anxiety dreams about fact-checkers. Anyways, I’m very grateful I forced myself to bake these cranberry lemon bars because they are now my favorite Thanksgiving dessert. Not only are they easy to make, they make a stunning display at the dinner table, are somewhat pie-esque, and also very tart and high in acidity, which, since I have read Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat a billion times, is the perfect contrast to a rich, starchy holiday dinner.
Martinelli’s sparkling cider at home
I've seen this in most grocery stores in the NY area.
I feel as if I have the reverse alcohol-consumption policy of most people: Which is, I actually like drinking on my own (wine or beer with dinner) or with one other person (at a bar) much more than I like drinking “socially.” I especially don’t like drinking during holidays with family, because there already tends to be a lot going on and it can feel overstimulating. I do, however, always like drinking fizzy things, especially sparkling cider, which is basically juice champagne. A bonus is that it looks pretty in a wine glass, so you feel nice and festive. My favorite brand is Martinelli’s, which also comes in a nice bottle.
Vegan pumpkin cinnamon roll ice cream at Van Leeuwen
See scoop shop locations here.
I suppose that most of you know this already -- but a pint of ice cream purchased at a scoop shop is so, so, so much more delicious than the same brand of ice cream purchased in the grocery store freezer section. I am embarrassed to admit this as a die-hard ice cream lover, but I did not know this!! Anyways I am simultaneously very happy to learn this when I bought a pint of seasonal ice cream at Van Leeuwen ice cream last week, but also concerned because it means that pint disappeared twice as fast. I appreciate that Van Leeuwan puts an effort in coming up with fun seasonal flavors for their vegan ice creams, too. This one is perfectly over-the-top for fall, with huge chunks of frozen cinnamon roll and a pumpkin spice base.
Deeply grateful for your readership,
Soph