family thanksgiving

A host’s guide to Thanksgiving

16 November 2018

Santa Claus doesn’t take Christmas off. So after being absent here since spring, I’m back for Thanksgiving, the Superbowl for home cooks and my fave holiday by far. We eat, and we give thanks. My kind of holiday.

On any given Thursday, the food we eat in America is as diverse as the world – meat-and-potatoes, curries, stir fries, tacos and savory stews. Thanksgiving is the one day of the year Americans – at home and around the world – voluntarily eat more or less the same meal. Growing up as the child of immigrants, dinner at my house didn’t normally look like dinner at my friends’ homes. But on Thanksgiving we were one with Americans everywhere. I still love that.

Thanksgiving’s early this year, because November started on a Thursday. Don’t stress if you’re not ready. With a little organization, there’s plenty of time left.

I’m sharing a day-by-day timeline to keep us both on track, plus a list to mark what to make and what to outsource. I have a few pro tips, and at the end I assembled all my Thanksgiving recipes here for you from the archives.

Tip 1: Make what you like most. Outsource the rest.

Thanksgiving should be a potluck situation. Sharing is the spirit of the holiday. Guests contribute a dish they like to make or want to eat, and hosts appreciate the team effort.

It generally makes sense for the host to handle turkey and gravy, since it’s hard to transport a hot, slippery bird. Side dishes, desserts and drinks are fair game for outsourcing.

I love when friends and family bring their additional Thanksgiving traditions to the table. My mom makes sticky rice stuffing in addition to my bread stuffing, and Asian stir fried green beans. For my mother-in-law in Ohio, Thanksgiving isn’t complete without coleslaw. For my sister-in-law’s Italian family, Thanksgiving turkey comes with a side of lasagna. It’s always an unexpected assortment, and we enjoy it all.

I admit I don’t really outsource the basics – turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy – because I enjoy making them. But I think it’s a wise idea to share the load. At the end of this post you’ll find a link to a printable worksheet you can use to organize your list of what to cook/buy/outsource to a willing guest.

Tip 2: Simple is good.

It’s tempting to make Thanksgiving more complex than it needs to be. You could have cornbread stuffing with sausage, apples, dried cranberries, toasted walnuts and fresh sage, next to cranberry sauce with orange zest, Grand Marnier and pecans, next to mashed potatoes with cream cheese, chives and three cheeses. But I find the complexities get a little lost, and the meal gets unnecessarily heavy.

Each dish at Thanksgiving only needs to do one job. The combination on the plate is where the magic happens. read on…

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lemon blueberry coffee cake

Lemon blueberry coffee cake with crumb topping

30 March 2018

Oprah Winfrey may eat this coffee cake. Right now, she might be at her Santa Barbara home, sitting on her shaded patio with a big mug of hot coffee and a square of this coffee cake, dotted with sweet pops of blueberry and scented with Meyer lemon just picked from her yard.

How great to have a private chef, Oprah muses as she looks out over her sunny yard and the vast Pacific Ocean beyond, so I can have reliably great coffee cake, moist and springy, topped with that sweet crumb topping I like so much. Yes, she thinks, forking another bite of warm cake. It’s good to be me.

Has Oprah really had this coffee cake? I can’t say for sure. What I do know is that my great friend Kathleen gave me this recipe, which came from her friend, who through some connection got the recipe from Oprah’s private chef.

I just like thinking about Oprah and I both eating this coffee cake. And I can tell you for sure that it’s Oprah-worthy.

Coffee cake is a funny concept in America. Apparently coffee cake in sensible Britain is a sponge cake with coffee icing. Here there’s nothing coffee about coffee cake, except it’s served in the morning when you are likely to be drinking it. read on…

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egg spinach feta strata

Egg, spinach and feta strata

23 March 2018

I love the luxury of brunch. Brunch implies a late wake-up and leisurely morning, the kind of carefree day that allows for booze before noon. None of this actually applies to my life as a parent of four kids. But when there’s a holiday, guests in the house, or a rare weekend morning with friends coming over, I like the excuse to make a big late-morning meal and pretend I have a life that allows for the indulgence of brunch.

The standard-bearer of brunch in our family is my mother-in-law’s egg, sausage and cheese strata, a gorgeous make-ahead casserole that provides a savory centerpiece for big family gatherings. Every Christmas Eve we quickly assemble a quadruple batch, stash it in the fridge overnight and bake it Christmas morning as family members casually roll in.

Last Christmas, my mother-in-law was skeptical when I suggested we try a vegetarian version with spinach and feta. But everyone loved it, traditionalists and meat-avoiders alike, so I thought I’d share it with you all for Easter. When you’re having a mixed crowd of eaters, it’s nice to have a built-in vegetarian option, and you can always supplement with bacon or sausage on the side.

Making strata is super easy. Theres no crust, like quiche, or whipping of eggs, like souffle. It’s a lazy cook’s egg dish for a crowd. read on…

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sqirl avocado toast

Best of LA: Gjusta & Sqirl

16 March 2018

I’m crushing especially hard on two casually brilliant Los Angeles eateries – Gjusta in Venice and Sqirl in Silver Lake. Both have attracted a lot of media and social media love in recent years, so I thought it would be fun to take you on a virtual visit. We ate at Gjusta four times in 48 hours during my last girls getaway in LA. And then I topped that off with a bonus trip to Sqirl, out of my usual LA orbit but absolutely worth the drive. Drool warning ahead.

Fresh and innovative, but still comforting and accessible, Gjusta and Sqirl both make food you would eat daily if you could. Both restaurants feel like the future of American food, made by people who fuse flavors like chefs, are connected to the earth like farmers and actually care about your health like a loving grandma.

Gjusta

I’m stalker-obsessed with Gjusta, industrial-hip bakery/deli in Venice by artist, surfer and self-taught chef Travis Lett that manages to synthesize the California ideals of health, creativity, laid-back cool and sunny gorgeousness. read on…

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gjusta breakfast

Girls getaway: Los Angeles

13 March 2018

I’m coming clean with the fact that I, a native northern Californian, have become a total LA fangirl.

Sibling rivalry is strong in California. I’m from the north, land of geeks, tree huggers, fog and earnestness. Southern California is home to sun, surfers, avocados and cosmetic enhancements. We’re all family, but like many close geographic rivals – northern and southern Italy, Yankees and Southerners, Ohio and Michigan – each side is a wee smug about being the better of the two.

The truth is, I only see LA in short, euphoric visits. I’ve been to LA maybe eight times over a decade for annual-ish girls weekends with three of my closest friends, mostly for less than 48 hours at a time. No doubt we’d have a blast anywhere, since those are the only times we all get together. And maybe it doesn’t take much to stay entertained for 48 hours.

But every trip is better than the last. The City of Angels is full of treasures – miles of powdery beach, breathtaking art, kitschy architecture, outrageously fresh and creative food. True to reputation, the city is also a sprawling congested mess, so it pays to navigate it wisely. We have a formula that works for us, but we also always work in something new. There’s never a shortage of choices in LA.

My friend Celeste, a native New Yorker who lived in Los Angeles before settling in San Francisco, got the LA party started when we planned our first weekend 10 years ago. She missed the sun of southern California, and the warmth. She missed the creative energy of LA. She missed the sushi. People, she said, were just happier in LA.

It’s true. We are ridiculously elated as soon as we get off the plane and shed our coats. We gorge on sushi, walk the beach, catch up on life. Sometimes there’s art, sometimes exercise, always some shopping and plenty of food, coffee and cocktails. It’s perfect for us. read on…

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slow cooked pork carnitas

Slow-cooked pulled pork carnitas

31 January 2018

Feeding a lot of people is something we do often here, so I’m always excited about recipes that make entertaining easy. My friend Brooke sent me this truly outstanding carnitas recipe last fall, and it’s quickly become a favorite for family gatherings or potlucks.

In wintertime especially, it’s hard to go wrong with a big pot of tender shredded meat. Even if you’re not cooking for a crowd, pulled pork can be used all week for the best tacos ever, followed by pulled pork sandwiches, followed by a pork-and-bean soup. Or even just piled on top of some salad or roasted vegetables.

And if you’re having people over for Super Bowl Sunday, this is a really easy way to do it. Cook the meat all day in a slow cooker, and put it out with warm tortillas and taco fixings. Your guests will love it, and you’ll be free to watch the game (or visit with friends).

This recipe makes a lot, but don’t worry about having too much – you can always freeze leftovers in small ziploc bags as a gift to your hungry self in the future. read on…

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Simplest soy-glazed fish

23 January 2018
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My favorite easy fish preparation is also a perfect January recipe. It ticks all the new years resolution boxes: Cook at home! Be healthier! Eat more fish! Lose weight! My husband swears he always loses weight after we have fish for dinner, even if he’s stuffed after the meal. We all know fish is great […]

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Holiday gift ideas 2017 – adult edition

13 December 2017
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When it comes to gifting, adults are often a weary afterthought tacked on after the kids on the list. It’s okay – adults more often than not have much of what they need already. But Santa Claus doesn’t come for grown-ups, so we have to look out for one another. I really love giving gifts, […]

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Holiday gift guide 2017 – kids edition

6 December 2017
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My annual gift guide is in two parts this year. Kids first! Hope you find it useful. Note that my kids are growing up – I’m now in the 3rd to 10th grade window – so if you’re looking for littler ones, please check out my gift ideas from previous years, which have tons of […]

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Maple glazed sweet potatoes

16 November 2017
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In the Thanksgiving show, turkey is the golden, handsome, boring star. The character actors have my heart: sturdy stuffing, comforting mashed potatoes, snappy green beans, sweet-tart cranberries. And the candy of the stage: perfectly soft wedges of sweet potato with a buttery, caramelized glaze of sweetness. Sweet potatoes for purists; compelling enough to convert skeptics. […]

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