The Bitten Word

Pork Empanadas with Thyme

Everyday Food (December 2009)

Here in our nation's capital, we have a great little chain of empanada stores called Julia's Empanadas.  In fact, there's one right around the corner from our house. Julia's is a great place to grab a quick bite or a late-night snack.

For those of you not familiar with empanadas, Julia's sums it up nicely on their website:

Every country has one, in Jamaica they're called "patties", in Italy "calzones", the Israelis call them "knishes". We call them "Empanadas". So what's an Empanada? It's a mildly spiced, freshly baked sandwich served hot!!

Maybe it's because we have access to great empanadas, but we had never really considered making them at home. We love them, but Julia's does it so well, could ours stack up? Everyday Food was going to help us find out.

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?

Lamb Chops with Mustard-Herb Crust

Everyday Food (November 2009)

 

Sometimes we love poring over a complicated recipe and sourcing exotic, hard-to-fine spices or special cuts of meat. Sometimes we really enjoy spending a lazy afternoon in the kitchen, slowly cajoling ingredients to join in a triumphant symphony of flavors.

Other times, we just wanna eat.

Enter these Lamb Chops with Mustard-Herb Crust. Simple, pleasing and lightning-fast -- it took us longer to pull together a simple green salad than to cook these chops.

Cashew Chicken

Everyday Food (October 2009)

Just yesterday, one of Zach's co-workers asked, "Have you guys cooked anything recently that you really loved?"

Zach's mind flashed on a disappointing risotto, so-so cookies and good but not mind-blowing roast beef. No, we realized. We hadn't fallen in love with any of our recent dishes.

That was, until we made this Cashew Chicken last night.

Guys? We can say it: We loved this chicken!

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!

Flourless Double-Chocolate Cookies

Everyday Food (September 2009)

We tried to behave ourselves all summer -- we limited carbs, cut back on sweets and just said no to cookies.

But it's fall, and we're riding the cookie train from here to Christmas.

If you're looking for a sweet hit to get back on the junk, look no further than these Flourless Double-Chocolate Cookies.  Dark, rich and oh-so-chocolatey, they're perfect for kicking off your downward cookie spiral for fall.

(Plus, they're gluten-free, so you can pretend they're not as bad for you!)

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.

Arugula Salad with Grilled Chicken, Corn, Tomatoes and Blue Cheese

Everyday Food (July 2009)

Food we love in the summer:

1. Meat on the grill

2. Corn cut fresh off the cob

3. Juicy, ripe, farm-fresh tomatoes

4. Spicy greens from the farmers market

You do the math: How could we possibly turn down this salad?!

Baked Onion Rings

Everyday Food (June 2009)

We very seldom fry anything.

It's not that we're anti-frying, really, but let's face it, it's often messy, it stinks up our kitchen a bit, and though we hate to even think about it, it's not very good for us. 

But when we do fry, we make sure it's going to be good. Fried chicken. Delicious okra.  The occasional batch of french fries.

And even though we don't fry very often, we're a little leery of anything that's "fried" in an oven. It's like the time we made Crispy Baked "Fried" Chicken -- it was a very good dish, but just not the same as actual fried chicken.  

So we approached these Baked Oven Rings with some trepidation. What we found, though, surprised us.