Tag Archives: thanksgiving

Dec4

Sinful Sides: Indulge in this creamy kale and butternut squash gratin

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Sinful Sides: Indulge in this creamy kale and butternut squash gratin

Your waistline may hate me, but your taste buds will thank me.

Forget the lean turkey and ham, the holidays all about the tasty, rich side dishes. These are some of the only days of the year that most folks let themselves indulge in rich, indulgent foods without a second thought on the calorie count (until the following day). Even healthy vegetables like sweet potatoes, green beans and kale get an oleaginous makeover with additions of bacon, butter and cream. Why? Because they make foods taste better!

If you’re going to load up on calories, it had better be worth it and taste amazing, and this following side dish is just that. So don’t even bother trying to make a “lightened up” version of this butternut squash and kale gratin with skim milk and light butter spread, go all the way with whole milk, cream and good quality cheese. Your waistline may hate me, but your taste buds will thank me.
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Nov19

Savory makeover for a Thanksgiving classic: Sweet Potato and Smoked Gouda Gratin (with a secret ingredient)

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Savory makeover for a Thanksgiving classic: Sweet Potato and Smoked Gouda Gratin (with a secret ingredient)

Cheesy, smoky, creamy and downright delicious!

Many people associate sweet potatoes as a sugar-sweet side dish for Thanksgiving — swimming in butter and brown sugar, and topped with marshmallows. While this classic dish is fantastic, I decided to give it a savory makeover this year with the help of a secret ingredient.

Instead of boiling and mashing the sweet potatoes, I went for a twist on the classic baked gratin dish. I thinly sliced the raw sweet potatoes into 1/8″ thick rounds (a mandoline would make this job even easier) and layered them in a baking dish, scattering grated smoked Gouda cheese in between each layer (ending up with three layers of potatoes). For a typical gratin, cream is poured over the layered potatoes before baking. To spice this up a bit, I added chopped garlic and Stubb’s Pork Marinade — which contains spices garlic, lemongrass and ginger — to the cream.

The result: a tasty casserole that’s cheesy, smoky, creamy, slightly spiced and with a hint of sweetness from the sweet potatoes. After tasting this, I may never go the typical brown sugar and marshmallow route for Thanksgiving again.
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Nov12

Spice up your Thanksgiving sides: BBQ roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon

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Spice up your Thanksgiving sides: BBQ roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon

Secret ingredient: BBQ spice rub

Roasted Brussels sprouts are one of my very favorite side dishes, especially for Thanksgiving. This recipe gives a twist to this classic dish with the addition of barbecue rub, which doesn’t solely have to be used to add flavor to meats — rubs can also be used as an all-purpose spice mixture to jazz up side dishes. Many contain various blends of dried chilies, dry mustard, cumin, salt, pepper and other spices that can add a flavorful kick to your food. (I’ll even sprinkle barbecue rub on my scrambled eggs for breakfast!)

For this recipe, I used Stubb’s Bar-B-Q Rub which contains a mix of smoked salt, paprika and black pepper. It pairs perfectly with the crisp, smoky bacon in the dish.
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