The only good thing Verizon has ever done for me was sending me an ex-chef to fix my internet. When Jay, the ex-chef technician, told me he was making these Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Coconut Honey Caramel Balls for Thanksgiving, I knew I had to as well. Here’s the recipe…(drops the microphone).
Everyone knows the song “The Girl From Ipanema” with the line “when she passes each one she passes goes, Ahh…”. That would be the same reaction Brigadeirao, a Brazilian Chocolate Fudge Flan would get if it were sashaying down Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janiero. It’s HAWT!!!
(UPDATED to include the 2021 menu)
Learn from your past mistakes and your past wins. When I mentioned I was working on my Thanksgiving menu for 2014, a friend asked to share what I was thinking of doing so he might gain some inspiration for his menu. I always write a menu, but I don’t know what I actually made until after I made it. So here’s what I actually made for my double Thanksgivings for this and year and the past fourteen years (I’ve been adding to this post every year). I could have gone further back, but enough already!
Write on the blackboard 1,000 times: Food Gifts Do No Save You Money. Drill it into your head and give up this crazy notion. Labor + ingredients + packaging + delivery all come with a dollar value. My mom and I discovered this false economy the year she decided to sponsor a Save-the-Children child instead of giving people Christmas gifts. She made them a little something, including her famous Cheese, Onion, and Tomato Pies. Don’t bake this pie as a gift; give a copy of The Vegetarian Epicure (Random House) from whence the recipe comes as a gift, perhaps with a pound of cheese to put in it.
When someone says turkey meatloaf or turkey meatballs, I swear I can see a little puff of sawdust fly out of their mouth. Ground turkey is lean people! LEAN = DRY. Yeah, yeah… it’s good for you. Whatever! But it’s no fun to eat if you have guzzle a can of lube to get it down your throat before eating it—that’s disgusting! Did I write that? You have to add moisture back into ground turkey and that’s what I did by adding apples, cheddar cheese, and sautéed vegetables in my gluten-free turkey meatballs aka Fall Fowl Balls. I rolled them in crushed nuts for extra texture.
Did being immersed in all things potato influence the pie I made for Pie Party Potluck LIVE! 2015? Find out in my recap of the event where I made a Whole 30 compliant Carnitas Pie for Paul. It had a potato crust layered with pork carnitas, caramelized onions, roasted carrots, roasted radishes, garlicky roasted tomatoes, and eggs.
Tired of the same ol’ slaw? This striking Pistachio Cherry Red Cabbage Slaw is a head turner that makes the transition from a summer grill side dish to a fall grill side dish and adds a sparkle to your autumn buffet.
I call my Southern-style potato salad, confetti because it’s colorful and tastes like a parade is happening in my mouth! My taste buds are like little cheerleaders marching, screaming with delight and doing cartwheels with every bite! There’s something about the combo of potato chunks, mayo, American mustard, sweet relish and hard boiled eggs that comforts me and makes me feel cozy and loved. Plus, you get a good dose of veggies, so it must be healthy-ish.
The 4th of July screams potato salad, but did I make it this year? No. My host and co-party chair made German potato salad for our Independence Day 2015 barbecue. I shelved this recipe until our Labor Day “End Of Summer” celebration. We threw a small shindig for eighty guests. We had so many people we made two different potato salads because we could!
I’ll admit I felt a twinge of sadness as I prepped this salad.
Leave your skinny jeans at home, it’s time to eat pie!
When I saw the slew of pies at the first Pie Party Potluck LIVE! we hosted back in 2011, I thought to myself, “This is the BEST EVENT EVER!”. Now, four years later, I love it when the food bloggers say it’s the best event ever. What’s not to love about making, bringing and eating pie with fellow pie enthusiasts? Feast your eyes on the pies we’ll be eating at Pie Party Potluck LIVE! 2015.
The recipe for the gluten-free Bacon, Goat Brie, Leek & Pear Pie in a Roesti Crust I made for last year’s event is below.
The lyric for the song “Cry Me A River” should be, “Cry Me A Liver”? “I cried a ‘liver’ over you.” I have shed a tear over a big bowl of raw chicken livers because, let’s face it, chicken livers are pretty gross to touch and deal with. Yet, they are delicious. So delicious that I must delve into the bloody, gooey bits and prepare them.
Faced with a hankering and a need to make chopped liver for my nephew, Kaden’s baptism party, I decided to devise a recipe where I handled the chicken livers the least.