Corn Pudding

Dear World,

Corn Pudding. It's a Thanksgiving staple at my house and it should be at yours too. Crunchy, sweet, salty, creamy, easy to make, this is my favorite Thanksgiving dish. Enough said.

Creamy Miso Slaw

Dear Turkey,

Remember that cabbage from the other day? Well, half of it was still in my fridge. And that was exciting because I found this recipe (which I modified) for a slaw that used up many things that also happened to be in my fridge. I knew that the combination of miso, Dijon mustard, and honey would be awesome and healthy. I was correct, and the Dijon rounded out the miso in just the right way. 

Ready For Cupcake Wars?

Dear Turkey,

Confession: when I have to run on the treadmill, when it's raining, when I'm watching my friend's baby, sometimes, I watch Cupcake Wars.

I tell myself it's educational, although I'm really way too lazy to decorate for reasons other than taste. These cupcakes are a secret family recipe, and they could definitely win in the taste category.

Peanut Slaw

Dear Turkey,

Asian Slaw is a standby in our house. However, you might remember that I had a bad experience with it a while ago. So I was really excited when I saw this recipe for peanut slaw, especially since I just couldn't turn down the gift of a giant Napa cabbage last week from my CSA overwhelmed friend.

This slaw is really good. The cabbage gets nice and pickled within a few hours, so you don't feel like a rabbit, and the sauce is so creamy and sweet you can pound this like it's a carb.

Slightly Savory Muffiins

Dear Turkey,

I love muffins; I eat them for breakfast almost every day. But I don't have many savory muffins in my repertoire. I don't want to eat muffins with onions in them for breakfast and have onion breath all day. Also, savory food doesn't agree with me in the morning.

However, I wanted to make a muffin that I could enjoy with dinner, but wasn't so savory that I couldn't eat it the next morning: a muffin that could accommodate herb butter, orange marmalade, or even nutella (let's be realistic). Also, it had to have cheese in it.

Beet Chips

Dear Turkey,

Problem: all of your friends are overwhelmed by their CSA shares. You just can't leave their houses without graciously accepting giant cabbages, onions, radishes, and beets. Ah, the bounty.
One week later: you really need to do something with those beets so that you can make room in your fridge for the things that you actually bought.*

*Friends: this blog entry is for entertainment purposes only. Please feel free to keep giving me food.

Solution: Beautiful, Sweet and Salty Beet Chips that Look Like Rose Petals (bonus)

Ode To Cream of Wheat

Dear Cream of Wheat,

Why are you so tasty? Why could I eat you for any and every meal of the day (This has happened. My dad eats you with butter and salt.)? Is it because you are so refined? Sure, there are healthier things out there; I could just chomp on a giant stalk of raw wheat, but you are fortified with iron the iron that they took out when they made you.

Black Bean Brownies!

Dear Turkey,

Last weekend, one of our friends told me that she had just made black bean brownies. To me, black beans + brownies is more intriguing than whole wheat + cookies. Then, she made it even more exciting by telling me that she couldn't tell if they were good. He husband hated them. "I think they are good," she said, "but maybe it's just because I made them." I can relate.

I knew that I had to try them. I tasted the batter and I was concerned. It kind of tasted like chocolate black bean dip, but not in a good, mole, way. But then I baked them. They were good, like a flourless chocolate cake (although they do have flour). All that weird bean-i-ness was gone. They were even better the next day. I think that if you hide the bean can, people would not be able to guess the secret ingredient.

Amazingly Good Black Bean Brownines  Flourless Chocolate Cake

Whole Wheat Marzipan Cookies

Dear Famous Author Turkey,

You probably had one of two reactions to the title of this post

1) Wow, I must make those (that was my reaction, obvi)
2) Yuck, I am going to skip this post

Assuming you answered #1 (or else you've stopped reading), I can see that you would have shared my excitement upon seeing these in the Wegmans magazine (I adapted the recipe slightly). I love whole wheat cookies, and not because I'm a health nut (because I'm not); there is just something primordial about the combination of butter and whole wheat flour. I was surprised to see how much flax the recipe calls for, but, trust me, it's worth the extra 75-cents or whatever.

Primordially Chewy Whole Wheat Marzipan Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1 c whole ground flaxseed (like Bob's Red Mill)
3/4 t baking soda
1 tube marzipan (not the candy dough), 7-8 oz
1/4 c warm water
1 stick butter, fridge temp
3/4 c brown sugar
1 egg (I bet you could leave this out or replace it with a little oil and nobody would notice)
1 t vanilla
1 c bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream the marzipan, water, butter, and sugar in your mixer. Continue to mix in the egg, vanilla, and then everything else (chocolate last). Scoop 24 cookies onto 2 parchment-covered baking stones. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

This may look healthy, but your mouth will know otherwise:

Enjoy,

Tofu

Pumpkin Salted Caramel Thumbprints, Beta Version

Dear Turkey,

Remember those butternut squash cookies that I made last week? They were tasty, but they didn't look like the picture in the magazine. So I wanted to redeem myself, especially because I don't want to get a reputation as someone who doesn't know how to make caramel.

For the cookies, I did reduce the sugar to 1/3 c, and I also didn't soften the butter any more than I had to (it was more like fridge temp than room temp). And I also busted out the mixer and actually creamed the dough. And then I chilled the dough. (Yes, Mom, I concede that sometimes it's worth doing these things.) The result: fluffier, rounder, chewier cookies.

For the caramel, I cooked the sugar/corn syrup/water a little more than I did last time (I wrote "golden brown" in the original recipe, but I amend that to "it's brown, it's really brown, you are scared it's about to burn"). I also took my own advice and used canned pumpkin (spoiler alert: canned pumpkin is really squash [and not like a pumpkin is a squash, like really]). The lower water content in the canned pumpkin definitely made the frosting set up more. I had cream and I used it this time, to delicious ends. I still chilled the frosting for several hours and then sprinkled the cookies with salt. Good thing there was lots of frosting left over to eat from a spoon.

Enjoy,
Tofu