The Bitten Word

Thanksgiving Guide 2009: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending

172 Recipes From 9 Leading Food Magazines

 

Thanksgiving is food magazines' time to shine. In years past, many of the food mags we read have used their November issues to really push the limits with innovative spins on Thanksgiving faves.

Sure, there are usually plenty of approachable standbys. But the classics usually sit alongside some really envelope-pushing ideas: Throw a Thanksgiving clambake! How about a Pacific Rim-fusion dinner? Truffle-laden turkey! Indian-spiced sweet potato gnocchi!! Vegan French-Vietnamese gluten-free stuffing!!!

Not so this year. From the looks of this year's crop of Thanksgiving food mags, 2009 is all about simplicity and basic, standard dishes. It's the Great Recession, and everybody just wants a big ol' piece of pumpkin pie.

Just look at what the magazines call out from the newsstands:

Martha Stewart Living: "Thanksgiving, simple and sensational"

Fine Cooking: "All the classics made easy"

Food Network: "Easy Thanksgiving"

Bon Appétit: "Thanksgiving made easy"

Everyday Food: "A Thanksgiving menu that's easy to make"

We have nine November issues in front of us, and nearly all of them are focused on "traditional" menus that are very straightforward.

The food magazines may have stuck to the classics this year, but that doesn't mean the options are limited. In the nine magazines we have, there are, in fact, 172 Thanksgiving recipes.

All those options can leave you more than a little stressed out. It's all too easy to get wrapped up in the idea that Thanksgiving has to be perfect and if you don't select the right stuffing recipe, your mother-in-law will break into tears at the table.

But fear not!  We've cataloged all 172 options below so that you, dear reader, can browse this year's recipes and make some selections for yourself. Over the next three weeks, we're going to be cooking and writing as many recipes as we can fit in. We'll post our photos and let you know how they turn out.

And as you're gearing up for the holiday, if you have questions, post them here and we'll do our best to answer them.

Okay, ready for the recipes?

Beet Risotto

Food & Wine (October 2009)

Things this Beet Risotto could represent at your upcoming Halloween party:

-- Brains

-- Guts

-- The embodiment of your childhood nightmares

Yeah, there's no getting around it: This beet risotto is the most unappetizing-looking dish we've made in a long, long time.

We'll allow that we may have overcooked the risotto a little, leaving it a little on the gummy side. But with its garish blood-red color and gelatinous, gooey consistency, this beet risotto looked, in a word, gross. We went back and forth over what it resembled the most: beef carpaccio? Fancy Feast?

One thing was for sure, though: This beet risotto would be right at home at your upcoming haunted house.

So how'd this gory side dish actually taste?

Roast Beef and Celery Root with Watercress Salad

Everyday Food (September 2009)

We're not exactly sure why, but we don't make a lot of beef roasts.

Lord knows we love roasting a pork tenderloin (Exhibit A, B, C and D). And it's the exact same process: Sear all sides in a stovetop skillet, then finish in the oven. For some reason, though, roast beef just never seems to occur to us.

Well, that's going to change. With this solid, basic roast beef recipe -- and these lovely roasted vegetables -- we've got a new go-to recipe that's extremely delicious, but so easy it's almost mindless. That's a combination we can get behind!

Green Beans with Hazelnuts

Everyday Food (September 2009)

We saw a cooking demo this summer, and as the chef was chopping up vegetables for a green bean and feta salad, she made special mention of how she was cutting up the green beans: slicing them into quarter-inch segments, on the diagonal.

Somebody in the group asked why, and the chef leveled with us: It doesn't make them taste better, but it does make them seem more special.

Sometimes, it really is the small things. 

Such is the case with a side dish like Green Beans with Hazelnuts. Though uncomplicated and relatively simple, the preparation elevates green beans to something, well, more special.

Pork Chops with Bacon and Cabbage

Everyday Food (September 2009)

There's starting to be a nip in the air, and we're starting to look forward to more cool weather cooking. 

In fact, we spent a good chunk of Sunday in the kitchen, making potato leek soup with an excess of potatoes we've gotten from our CSA over the past few weeks. We'll defrost it this winter for a nice, warm treat on a cold day. 

Making soup has got us thinking of other cool weather dishes, like our favorite braised short ribs and risottos that use fall flavors. 

We got our first taste of real fall cooking this week with these pork chops from Everyday Food. Seared and then baked with bacon, cabbage and a simple roux, they're the epitome of autumnal deliciousness.

Corn on the Cob with Mint-Feta Butter

Gourmet (August 2009)

Think of this as a last hurrah of summer.

Sweet corn is still lurking around this part of the country.  Sure, it's not in the abundance that we had a month ago, but it's still available at the farmers market.

If, like us, you've binged on corn this summer, exhausting your repertoire of corn dishes, you may need a way to liven up the remaining kernels of summer.

Easy Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce

As you've no doubt read in countless places, there's a tomato shortage in this area, due to Paula Abdul leaving American Idol, or something like that.

Though we're definitely seeing fewer tomatoes this year in our CSA share and at our local farmers market, we haven't exactly been tomato-less. Last week, for instance, we got six pounds of tomatoes in our share (though we had opted for a double share that week). 

Because we were going out of town, we knew we couldn't get through all six pounds in a week.  But we knew exactly what we'd do with them.

Grilled Low Country Boil

Fine Cooking (June/July 2009)

Sometimes you see a recipe that is so simple -- yet so innovative -- you can only think, "How is it possible this has never occurred to us?!"

Most recently, that thought hit us when we saw the June/July issue of Fine Cooking.

A grilled low country boil?! Genius! How have we never thought of this?

Tomato Hand Pies

Martha Stewart Living (July 2009)

Don't you just love the sound of Tomato Hand Pies? It's like something your grandmother would make for her bridge club. Or something your great-aunt might take to the church social on a sultry summer Sunday.

We thought these hand pies -- small little bites baked in muffin tins -- sounded delightful. And last week, when heirloom tomatoes showed up in our CSA for the first time, we couldn't wait to try them.

As we said, the idea of Tomato Hand Pies is absolutely lovely. The execution? Not as nice.

Chicken Breasts with Zucchini Pappardelle

Gourmet (July 2009)

Ladies and gentlemen, start your vegetable engines!

Summer vegetables in our region are coming into their prime season, with tomatoes now appearing at the market  along with mounting piles of plentiful cucumbers, squash and zucchini.

It's happened at our house, for sure. 

Our CSA kicked in big time this week.  Last week, we decided to forgo our share because we had several nights of plans that kept us from cooking at home and we didn't want to let our veggies go to waste.

So this week we were able to get a double share.  And we brought home quite a haul!