The Bitten Word

Thanksgiving 2009: Nutty Cranberry Relish

Food Network Magazine (November 2009)

As we said before, we just love cranberry sauces. And we really liked the Jellied Cranberry Sauce we tried out earlier. Simple, basic and delicious, it's the sort of polite, restrained gelatin you'd serve at a country-club luncheon.

But we wanted to try something with a little more texture, a little more edge.

If our earlier Jellied Cranberry Sauce was a country-club society girl, this Nutty Cranberry Relish is the society girl who's started mussing up her hair and ditching school to make her own jewelry.

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?

Leftovers | Interesting Stuff from March Food Mags

With March nearly behind us, we wanted to point out a few things that caught our eye in this month's food magazines that weren't necessarily recipes.  In case you missed it, here's last month's list. 

Bon Appétit

• Pop-Up Cakes Note Cards -- We're not typically into cutesy stuff like this. But c'mon, these are adorable! They're available from the MoMA Store.

• The Best Places for Chili in the U.S. -- Number one on the list? DC's own Ben's Chili Bowl. We've been known to drop by Ben's after the occasional late night out, and when Zach's mom Brenda visited a few weeks ago, we had lunch there. If you ever visit our Nation's Capital, a chili dog at Ben's is a must.

Everyday Food

• Cook It in the Sauce -- In a feature about "10 New Ways to Love Pasta," Everyday Food includes a marvel idea (at least to us): cook the pasta in the sauce, rather than in boiling water.  We're eager to try it. The idea totally makes sense -- we've just never thought to do it.  If you give it a go, let us know how it turns out. 

Martha Stewart Living

• Etched Glass Storage Jars -- We're a little obsessed with storage jars recently. A few weeks ago we cleaned out our cupboards, and transferred a lot of items we had in bags (like raisins, risotto and various kinds of nuts) to empty jars we had around. It looks quite nice in our cabinet and has made finding items much easier. Well Martha has gone and one-upped us, with a do-it-yourself guide to etching your own glass jars.  Good grief, Martha -- these are beautiful!

Food Network Magazine

• Tomato Paste in a Tube -- Tomato paste is one of those products with perpetual leftovers.  You purchase a can of it for a recipe and only need a tablespoon, and then you're left with a small amount of it.  We've been wrapping whatever's left in cling wrap and freezing it.  No more!  At the behest of Food Network Magazine, we're now buying tomato paste in a tube. We've already used it in several recipes and it turned out great.  If you're interested in buying some, it's available in supermarkets nationwide. 

See anything in food magazines this past month that you particularly liked?  Let us know in the comments!

Crispy Baked "Fried" Chicken

Food Network Magazine (February/March 2009)

We're no strangers to fried chicken, but we don't often make it.  We of course love it, but it's a rare treat in our house -- as much because of the messiness of making it as the fact that it's, um, fried. 

Truth be told, we've only made it handful of times, for birthday picnics or a fried-chicken cook-off with friends.

That said, we're way on board for "oven-fried" chicken. Thumbing through the second issue of Food Network Magazine, this recipe was one of the things we were eager to make.  It promises to be crispy and flavorful, without all the mess of oil-frying.

Could it stand up to the deliciousness of real fried chicken?

First Look: Food Network Magazine

If you read as many food magazines, websites and blogs as we do, you've probably already heard about Food Network Magazine. 

It doesn't hit newsstands until October 14, but the good people at Hearst were kind enough to send us an advance copy. 

How does Food Network Mag stack up to Gourmet, Bon Appétit and our other beloved magazines?