Butternut Squash Soup

A few years ago, I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time for a very small group - just my parents, hubby's parents, and the 2 of us.  At the time I was in a small apartment and just starting to practice my cooking skills, which led to a menu including an overcooked turkey breast, stuffing made from store-bought cornbread that was not much of a hit, and my basic smashed potatoes.  But the star of the evening was a recipe I found for butternut squash soup on Epicurious that tasted so decadent and yet was so easy and healthy!  Everyone was amazed that this soup wasn't loaded with butter and cream.  When I made it that first time for the holiday, I also made the fried sage leaves that Epicurious recommends, but have since decided that they're not really worth the effort. 

The only hard part of this recipe is peeling and cutting a butternut squash, so my solution has been to wait until I see pre-cut organic butternut squash at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods and seize the opportunity!  But this is also a great option if you have a butternut squash sitting on your counter that you don't know what to do with.  I have made it twice already this year and am hoping to make one more batch before the squash are out of season, although I also bought some canned squash puree and plan to experiment substituting it for the fresh.  I will keep you posted on how that goes, but in the mean time, if you see that pre-cut squash, pick up a couple of packages and make this soup!

Butternut Squash Soup
adapted from Epicurious

1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 2 3/4-pound butternut squash, halved, peeled, seeded, chopped (or about 2 lbs pre-cut)
5 cups low-salt chicken broth
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan or romano cheese
Salt and pepper

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add onion; cook until soft, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Add chopped sage; stir 1 minute. Add squash and broth. Increase heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until squash is tender, about 25 minutes. Puree soup right in the pot using an immersion blender, or cool slightly and puree in batches in blender until smooth. Mix in cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Do ahead: Can be made 1-2 days ahead and refrigerated, or frozen well in advance.

Makes 8 bowls

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

---This post is part of my Canadian Thanksgiving series---


I have to apologize, I failed as a food blogger and didn't manage to get my pumpkin cake recipe posted before Thanksgiving!  But even if you didn't have the opportunity to make this for Thanksgiving, it is still a great all-purpose recipe.  I originally got this recipe after freaking out that my frozen apple crisp was going to be inedible when I reheated it, and therefore I wouldn't have enough dessert (both of which, in hindsight, are ridiculous thoughts - how bad could apple crisp be, really, and even without it we would have had MORE than enough dessert on the table). 

In any case, I was complaining to my friend who offered up this pumpkin cake recipe which could not possibly be easier to make.  It requires one mixing bowl, a 1 cup and a 1 tsp measure, and a mixing instrument.  You seriously can't mess it up, and, while not the most healthy recipe out there, it is simple and tasty.  In the future I'd like to try lightening it up with less sugar, some whole wheat flour, and possibly some applesauce in place of some of the oil - I will let you know how it goes when I do!  But for Thanksgiving, of course, I decided to make it even more decadent by adding some cream cheese frosting, which was absolutely delicious, but not at all necessary to make the cake enjoyable.  As a side note, this frosting is incredibly easy, too.  I will have more info on frosting in a future post (my little munchkin is turning 2 and it's cupcake time!), but in the mean time, please know that it is not difficult to make frosting that is tastier and way more wholesome than anything you can buy in a tub :)

Pumpkin Cake
adapted from a friend

2 cups all purpose flour
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 14 oz can pumpkin
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter or spray a bundt pan or 9x13 baking dish.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Pour into prepared baking dish.  Bake for approximately 35 minutes until lightly brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from pan and cool completely before frosting (optional; see recipe below).

Do ahead: This cake was perfect made a few days in advance and frozen, wrapped tightly with foil.  Just defrost at room temperature, frost (if you want), and serve!


Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Sweet + Natural

12 ounces Neufchatel cheese
2-2 1/2 cups unrefined powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Blend ingredients with an electric hand mixer until smooth, starting with 2 cups of sugar and adding more as needed to get to your desired sweetness level.  Note that you do NOT have to soften the cheese, it works just fine straight from the fridge.

Do ahead: The frosting holds up perfectly made 1-2 days in advance and refrigerated with a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the frosting.  If you have a sturdy bowl with a lid, even better - just mix it up in that bowl, throw some plastic wrap on before putting on the lid, and refrigerate until you're ready to use!

Apple Crisp

---This post is part of my Canadian Thanksgiving series---


Well friends, we have finally made it to dessert in my Canadian Thanksgiving feast!  Sorry for cutting this so close to our American Thanksgiving; it's become harder and harder to carve out time to get through my blog backlog.  But even if this doesn't make it into your holiday menu, it is a great, all purpose recipe to file away.  Back when I was in college, one of my roommates made a delicious apple crisp.  I can't remember anymore whether my mom actually tasted it or I just told her about it, but somewhere along the line the recipe was passed on.  My mom has since made this tons of times and when I asked my friend about it recently, she could barely remember making it!  So I think it's safe to say my mom now gets the credit for the current version, as who knows how many changes have been made in the last decade.

I love apple crisp as a dessert option, especially when trying to come up with a non-chocolate addition to the table.  In my opinion, pie crust is a bit of a waste of calories - I certainly don't mind it, but I don't love it either.  If it were healthy that would be great, but generally it's not worth eating something so unhealthy if I'm not getting a lot of enjoyment out of it.  Crumb topping, on the other hand, gives me LOTS of enjoyment!  And it even has some redeeming qualities with the oats :).  I'm not trying to say this is healthfood, but all things considered, fruit is good for you, oats are good for you, and there is not a crazy amount of sugar or butter in this recipe, making it quite a wholesome choice as far as desserts go. 

It is also fairly simple to make, although I will warn that peeling and chopping apples always takes longer than I think it should, which is why I wanted to make this dessert ahead.  I knew I had bought a frozen apple crumb pie once that came with directions on how to bake in the oven at home, but when asking around and searching the internet, everyone seemed to have a different opinion on the best way, if at all, to make a crisp ahead of time.  Should I refrigerate or freeze?  Cook it completely or freeze the apples raw and then cook that day?  Thaw before heating up or put in the oven frozen?  In the end, I decided to go against much of the advice and just cook it through, freeze, and reheat in the oven after letting it thaw a bit (mainly because I was scared my baking dish would crack if I put it right from the freezer into a hot oven).  And guess what - it worked perfectly!  So in case you were wondering, YES, you can make apple crisp ahead and freeze it!  I include some more detail below on how to do this.

One caveat before I go on - some of my measurements are estimates or missing.  Please bear with me and rest assured that there is a LOT of leeway in this recipe and I think your judgment will be just fine :)

Apple Crisp
from my mom!

8-10 medium granny smith apples (or your favorite baking apple)
Cinnamon

Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups quick oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
Cinnamon
Pinch of salt


Preheat oven to 375.  Butter a 9x13 (or equivalent) baking pan.

Peel, core, and slice apples into 8 wedges each.  Mound in baking pan and toss with cinnamon - they should be piled pretty high as they will cook down a lot.

Mix all topping ingredients together.  There should be enough butter so that mixture is all "wet".  Sprinkle over apples and shove into crevices between apples as well.

Bake for about 50 minutes or until apples are soft to your liking (I like my crisp to resemble applesauce with crumb topping, so check sooner if you prefer crunchier apples).  Don't worry if the crisp is still piled up high when you take it out; it will "deflate" as it cools.

Serve warm, either right after baking, by refrigerating for 1-2 days and reheating in oven, or freezing and reheating in oven after letting it thaw for a couple of hours.

Silky Smooth Mashed Potatoes

---This post is part of my Canadian Thanksgiving series---


I'm easy when it comes to mashed potatoes - I've pretty much never met a mashed potato I didn't love, from super-buttery, creamy restaurant style to my healthier, minimal butter, skins-included Smashed Potatoes.  I really am telling the truth when I say that I enjoy my healthier version just as much, but I've been told (by hubby of course) that most people prefer the smoother, more buttery variety.  So for our Thanksgiving meal, I tried to find a middle ground - I was not about to pour a carton of heavy cream into my potatoes, but I thought a little extra butter could be nice, and decided we could leave the skins off this time. 

I ended up finding a recipe on Epicurious promising a silky texture that got fabulous reviews.  I was sold on this recipe after reading the instructions to use a food mill or potato ricer instead of a masher.  You see, over the summer, in preparation for our big move out of the city to a home with an actual back deck and grill, hubby and I signed up for a grilling class at the Institute of Culinary Education (which has great recreational classes, by the way).  The class didn't quite give us the foundation we were looking for in how to grill, but we did make an amazing "mashed potato salad" that required cooking potatoes, skin on, simply cut in half, and then pressed through a potato ricer to remove the skin and "mash" all in one go.  This method really did produce amazingly smooth results, and I loved the idea of not having to peel raw potatoes or chop into small pieces Thanksgiving day.

These potatoes came out fabulous.  I was happy because they had what I considered a reasonable amount of butter, and called for milk instead of cream, but I don't think even the most die-hard mashed potato fanatics could have complained that they weren't luscious enough.  Using a ricer instead of mashing really does produce an amazing texture, and the ratio of added fat/liquid was perfect, although I think if you're not making these for a special occasion you could easily use less butter and/or low fat milk with great results.  As I hoped, it was nice not having to peel potatoes or do more than cut them in half in advance, but I will give one warning - try to find the biggest Yukon Gold potatoes you can find - I ended up buying a 5 lb bag that had tiny little ones, and ricing each little half was a bit of a painful job (for hubby).  With bigger potatoes, it would have been half as much work!

Silky Smooth Mashed Potatoes
adapted from Epicurious

2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes (preferably large)
2/3 cup whole milk
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
1 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black or white pepper

Special equipment: a potato ricer*

Wash potatoes and cut in half across the equator.  Place in a large pot and add cold water up to 1 inch above potatoes.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, approx 10 to 15 minutes (but this will vary based on the size of your potatoes, so check every few minutes - overcooked potatoes will become waterlogged).

Drain potatoes in a colander, shaking to dry as thoroughly as possible (alternatively, you could return them to the hot pot to dry and then transfer to a bowl, but I didn't find this step necessary).  While potatoes are draining, add milk, butter, salt, and pepper to pot and warm over moderate heat until butter is melted.

Place each potato half in the ricer with the cut side towards the holes and squeeze into the hot milk mixture - the skin will simply stay in the ricer and only the insides of the potato will go through.  Remove skin from ricer and repeat until you've finished all of the potatoes.  Gently stir with a large heatproof rubber spatula just until combined.  Taste and season with additional salt and/or pepper as needed.

Do ahead: Potatoes can be cut and sit in cold water for an hour or so before cooking.  They are best served immediately, but this recipe on Epicurious suggests a reheating process (which I have not tested!) if you just have too much else going on at the last minute.

Serves 4**

* I think the ricer is important to the texture achieved with this recipe, but if you don't have one and don't want to buy one (like I did for this meal!) reviews on Epicurious suggest that just peeling and mashing the potatoes as you normally would will still yield great results.

** I tripled this recipe for my Thanksgiving crowd of 10 adults and 5 kids/toddlers and had plenty of leftovers; if not serving for a holiday meal with lots of other sides, there would probably not be much leftover.

Traditional White Bread Stuffing

---This post is part of my Canadian Thanksgiving series---


Obviously, stuffing is a key component of any Thanksgiving table, but I had a really hard time finding a simple, classic recipe.  Most of the recipes I came across included things like sausage, chestnuts, cornbread, etc., all of which are wonderful ingredients, but just not what I had in mind.  I wanted just a basic recipe, with nothing in it that anyone could possibly find offensive.  What I wanted, really, was my brother's mother-in-law's recipe.  Hers was the first stuffing I ever really enjoyed, and is talked about by everyone who's tasted it.  So I went straight to the source and was happy to hear that she was willing to share!

The ingredient list was short - bread, butter, onion, and thyme.  Perfect!  The only problem was that the recipe called for wonder bread.  I was willing to compromise some of my everyday standards for the holiday (I lost track of how much butter I went through that week!), but I just couldn't see any reason why a better quality white bread wouldn't produce a delicious stuffing, even if it was not exactly the same as the original version.  And while I was upgrading the quality of the bread, why not go all the way and get more use out of my new favorite toy, my breadmaker?  But with such a big change, I thought a test run was in order. 

I made up a loaf and gave the recipe a go, with yummy, but not ideal results.  The test stuffing was a little bland, and didn't remind hubby enough of his mom's stuffing.  After a quick call to my mother-in-law, I planned a few changes to the final version to add flavor and make it more closely resemble stuffing cooked inside a turkey: I planned to use more liquid and substitute chicken broth for the water.  I also decided to add salt, and I cut the bread into cubes (instead of tearing slices into pieces).  By the time I was done tweaking, I have no idea how closely it resembled the original but I thought it was delicious!  I mean really, how can you go wrong with bread soaked in butter and seasoned with thyme and salt?  My two most honest reviewers, hubby and my mom, also seemed to agree, so I think this version is a keeper :)

Traditional White Bread Stuffing
adapted from a family recipe

Note - this recipe can be multiplied indefinitely, so I'm giving directions for the smallest amount, which should be plenty for 4-5 people (with leftovers).  Additional batches can be done in exactly the same manner, so this is a recipe that is not complicated, but can take a long time if you are making a large amount.

1/2 of a large loaf of day old white bread (my loaf was 2 lbs)
1 cup chicken broth (approx)
1 stick butter
1 cup chopped yellow onion (approx 1 small or 1/2 large onion)
1 rounded tablespoon dried thyme
Salt

Cut bread into 1/2-3/4 inch cubes.  Place bread in a large bowl and sprinkle with chicken broth (bread should be moist, but not soggy - feel free to use more broth if you like moister stuffing, or less if you'd like it to get more crunchy).

Meanwhile, melt butter in a very large frying pan (I used a 14" non-stick for this).  Sautee onions until translucent (there should be enough onion to just cover the bottom of the pan), and then add bread.  Sprinkle with thyme and a generous seasoning with salt.  Toss and sautee until bread is golden on the edges.  Taste and add additional salt if needed.

If doing multiple batches, start soaking bread and chopping onion as the first batch is cooking, and repeat as needed until you have made enough.  Alternatively, having 2 pans going at the same time would speed up the process.

Can be made 1-2 days in advance.  Store covered in the fridge (do not freeze), and when ready to reheat, bring to room temperature and warm in the oven, adding a bit more broth if you'd like to keep it especially moist.

1/2 loaf recipe makes 4-5 side dish servings plus leftovers (This is assuming you have a typical array of a side dishes with for your meal - I made 2.5 2-pound loaves of bread for 15 people and had more stuffing than we could possibly eat with company in a week, so I'm scaling back the recommendation from what I did!).

Candied Walnuts

---This post is part of my Canadian Thanksgiving series---

When planning my menu, I looked at many ideas for appetizer soups involving pumpkin or other winter squash, but when I looked at all of the other dishes I had planned, they just seemed like too much food.  Plus, carrying bowls of hot soup around a big table with a bunch of kids seemed like a bad idea!  Instead, I decided a light spinach salad would be a good way to start the meal.  I am a big fan of salads with some kind of cheese, fruit, and nut.  Salads are so often served with goat or blue cheese, neither of which I like.  However, I've recently discovered Ricotta Salata, a salty, hard, crumbly cheese (not unlike feta) that creates a similar effect to more traditional salad cheeses but I much prefer.  As for fruit, normally dried cranberries are my go-to in salads, but with cranberry sauce coming later in the meal, I replaced that idea with sliced apples.  And apples go really nicely with walnuts - thus my salad was created.  Of course, I couldn't just throw plain old walnuts on top - this was my first big holiday, after all, and I wanted a little extra something.  Like candied walnuts!

I started my recipe search and learned that making candied nuts is not so simple - most of the recipes either involved making a sticky sugar mixture requiring a candy thermometer or very careful monitoring, or else were deep fried.  Both of those methods were entirely too complicated and messy for me, not to mention unhealthy - who needs deep fried sugared nuts??  I finally found one on Epicurious that seemed really simple, and it turned out great.  The sugar mixture just needed to come to a boil, but was watered down so it didn't get too sticky or risk burning, and the nuts were baked instead of fried.  The resulting walnuts were just a tad sweet with great flavor from the roasting process, and added the perfect special touch to my salad.

In the chaos of getting dinner on the table for Thanksgiving, many of my dishes didn't quite get photographed.  But since then I've made these walnuts again and added them to a mixed green salad, this time with my dried cranberries!  So the photo is from round 2, when they were equally delicious :)

Candied Walnuts
adapted from Epicurious

2-3 cups walnuts (or mixed nuts - see original recipe for ideas)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line baking pan with foil and spray lightly with oil.

Place walnuts in a mixing bowl.

Bring sugar, water, and honey to a boil in a small saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour over nuts and stir until nuts are well coated. Transfer nuts with a slotted spoon to baking pan (discarding syrup), sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and roast in 1 layer in middle of oven, stirring and redistributing nuts occasionally, until golden brown, 20-25 minutes.

Carefully remove foil with walnuts on it from baking pan and put on a rack to cool completely.  Break apart any nuts that are stuck together (they will get more sticky as they cool).

Do ahead: store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Cornbread (Muffins)

---This post is part of my Canadian Thanksgiving series---

I've already told you about the Classic Lasagna I made to serve upon arrival for our Thanksgiving weekend guests, but I thought one more home-cooked meal (in addition to the big Thanksgiving feast!) was warranted that weekend.  Lunch the day after our big meal seemed like a good time to have something I made, but again, it had to be freezable in advance since there was no way I was going to feel like cooking anything that day!  I looked through my Recipe Index and decided that Chili was a good option - freezes beautifully, and pretty much everyone likes it. 

As an added touch, I decided to make some cornbread to go along with it.  I've made cornbread muffins in the past, but I was not blown away - they were tasty in chili but a little dry, so I thought it was worth trying out a new recipe.  Plus, hubby had requested cornbread that had actual pieces of corn in it, so I had to do some digging to see if it was as simple as throwing in some frozen corn, or if I needed to make any other modifications.  After going in a lot of circles, I ended up being inspired by 2 posts from Smitten Kitchen.  The primary one my creation was based on is intended as more of a breakfast muffin, but she recommended cutting the sugar a bit which I thought would make it more chili appropriate.  The other post inspired the cheese and jalepeno I ended up adding, although she doesn't even seem to like the base recipe herself, so I thought a combo was in order!

I ended up making 2 versions - a cornbread muffin with cheddar and jalepeno, and then, because I'm a wimp and really can't handle jalepeno at all, a plain cornbread with just the frozen corn.  In the plain version, I also experimented with replacing the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour.  In both cases I did not have buttermilk, so I used a combination of plain whole milk yogurt and 1% milk mixed with a little vinegar to make a sort of homemade buttermilk (see note below).  The texture and moisture in the muffins was definitely better, but it's hard to say whether it was because of the cheese, the all-purpose flour, or the fact that I had no idea how long to bake the cornbread and may have overdone it a bit (I adjusted the directions below accordingly!).  That being said, I thought the plain whole wheat version was great, and if I hadn't been doing a side-by-side comparison I would have had no complaints.  Next time I make this I'll probably use the whole wheat flour, but also add cheese and leave out the jalepenos :)   

Cornbread (Muffins)
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup plain yogurt + 1/2 cup milk or "homemade buttermilk"*)
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 large egg

Optional add-ins
1 cup corn kernels – fresh, frozen or canned (in which case they should be drained and patted dry)
1 cup shredded cheddar (approx 4 oz)
1 small jalepeno, diced very fine

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups (or grease an 8x8 baking pan).

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk (or equivalent), honey, melted butter, oil, egg and yolk together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.  Gently fold in optional add-ins.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups or pour into baking pan.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes for regular muffins, 12 minutes for mini muffins, or 20-25 minutes for an 8x8 pan, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing muffins/bread.

Makes 12 regular muffins, 24 minis, or 16 pieces of cornbread

* To make "homemade buttermilk", mix 1 tablespoon vinegar with enough low-fat milk to make a cup, and let sit for about 10 minutes.  In this recipe, I think just a yogurt/milk combo would work just fine, too!

Classic Lasagna

---This meal is part of my Canadian Thanksgiving series---

Hubby's family had a long trip to our house for Canadian Thanksgiving - about 8-10 hours.  So before I could worry about the Thanksgiving feast itself, I wanted to have a nice meal for them when they arrived.  I decided that I needed something that could be made and frozen in advance but could also be reheated multiple times in case hubby's parents and sister arrived at different times.  My first thought was baked ziti, until a friend recommended a Barefoot Contessa recipe for lasagna that she's had great success with in the past.  After a few failed veggie lasagna attempts recently I've been kind of avoiding it, but this recipe sounded very safe and not complicated at all to make.

I got to work, making a couple of changes - the original recipe calls for chicken sausage and goat cheese, both of which would make this dish very special but also not as universally liked, so I wanted to stick to more classic flavors.  If those ingredients sound good to you, though, please check out the original as it gets amazing reviews from my friend and reviewers over at the Food Network website!

I have to admit, making lasagna is a pain in the neck - every step was simple and the components were easy to pull together, but it took me a solid 20 minutes just to layer everything in the pan!  The result, however, was delicious, and accomplished my goal of still tasting good even after being reheated several times.  I was especially excited to get rave reviews from my mother-in-law who makes a great lasagna herself!  The proportions were great - cheesy but not too much cheese with plenty of sauce, and I think the fresh mozzarella adds a really special touch - I got several comments about it.  I served this with caesar salad and home-made whole wheat rolls, but I ran into some issues with those so the recipe on that will have to wait until I get it right :)

Classic Lasagna
adapted from Ina Garten

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1/2 pound whole wheat (or regular) lasagna noodles
15 ounces ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Romano or Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Take out a 9x13 baking dish (I used a disposable foil pan so as to not tie up one of my others while the lasagna was in the freezer).

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the beef over medium-low heat, breaking it up as it cooks, until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until thickened.

Meanwhile, fill a large bowl or dish with the hottest tap water (I used instant hot). Add the noodles and allow them to sit in the water for 20 minutes. Drain. (If you are using no-cook noodles, follow directions on the box - you may be able to skip this step.)

In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, 1 cup of romano cheese, the egg, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into baking dish, spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. Then add the layers as follows: half the pasta (this should fit nicely in one layer), half the mozzarella, half the ricotta mixture, and 1/3 of the sauce. Add the rest of the pasta, mozzarella, ricotta, and finally, sauce. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of romano. Bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling.

Do ahead: Entire lasagna can be cooked according to directions above and frozen.  Place frozen lasagna covered in 350 degree oven for approximately 90 minutes, until lasagna is steamy when uncovered and knife inserted into the middle feels hot when removed.
 
Serves 8 for dinner, or 12 for lunch

Thanksgiving in October!

So be honest, how many of you out there know that Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving about 6 weeks before we do in the US?  I'm not sure I would have ever learned this tidbit if I hadn't married a Canadian, but interestingly enough Canadian Thanksgiving coincides with our Columbus day, which means we all have a long weekend at the same time.  That made it the perfect opportunity to invite hubby's entire family down to see our new house in the burbs and have a big holiday meal at the same time :)  To add to the fun, we decided to invite my family as well, since our families very rarely see each other.  The grand total for the feast would be 10 adults, 2 big kids, and 3 toddlers, not a huge crowd for experienced entertainers, but until a few months ago I lived in an apartment where 6 people for a sit-down meal was tight.  I was excited to host my big holiday meal as entertaining is always the perfect motivation for me to try out new recipes - who better to experiment on than family?

When I sat down to start planning, I realized there was a bit of a catch here - I didn't just need to plan a holiday menu, I needed to plan a long weekend meal plan since hubby's parents and sister + her hubby and 2 kids would be staying with us.  That certainly complicated things a little more, but really just added to the challenge!  I decided I would selectively cook meals and plan other meals to bring in food (e.g., bagels, sandwiches, etc) or have people fend for themselves in a well-stocked kitchen (e.g., eggs, cereal, frozen muffins, and home-made bread for breakfast).  For this weekend I made EXCELLENT use of my extra fridge and freezer in the basement, planning a menu carefully so that I could get a lot of the work done in the weeks ahead.

Thought it might be helpful to share my ideas for do-ahead vs. freshly made options in case any of you find yourself in my shoes.  Most of the new recipes will be posted in the coming week or two, so stay tuned - I'll add links to this post as I do!

Dinner on arrival:

Traditional Lasagna (frozen in advance) - absolutely delicious!

Home-made Dinner Rolls (frozen in advance) - I made the dough in my bread machine and par-baked the rolls before freezing.  They were delicious, but required some troubleshooting so I will try these again before sharing the method.

Caesar Salad - I decided to save myself a task and bought caesar dressing from Trader Joe's, but did make home-made croutons a couple of days in advance.  That left chopping and washing some romaine hearts to be the only work for that evening.


Post Thanksgiving Lunch:

Chili (frozen in advance) - I've shared this one before, and I still love this recipe!

Cornbread (frozen in advance) - I tried a new recipe this time, and made both Cheddar Jalepeno Cornbread Muffins and Corny Whole Wheat Cornbread.


Thanksgiving Dinner:

Spinach Salad with Candied Walnuts, Crumbled Ricotta Salata, and Sliced Apples - I made the candied walnuts about a week in advance, and crumbled the cheese and sliced the apples in the morning so that the salad was ready to be plated by one of my wonderful assistants at dinner time.  Salad was drizzled with my standard balsamic vinaigrette (recipe to come!) that's always in my fridge.

Simplest Roast Turkey with Red Wine Gravy (made that day) - something went wrong with the cooking time and/or my thermometer and the turkey wasn't completely cooked when we cut into it.  Will need to test this one again before sharing.

Traditional White Bread Stuffing (made 2 days in advance and refrigerated) - there is nothing healthy about this recipe, but it is wholesome in that I made the bread myself and used all organic ingredients.  This method is a little labor intensive, but delicious and can be made ahead which is a big help!

Silky Smooth Mashed Potatoes (made that day) - I decided to go a little more decadent for the holiday than my typical Smashed Potatoes and tried out a new recipe that was a huge hit! 

Sweet Potato Pie (outsourced to my mom) - I don't even want to know what goes in this - rumor has it there's a lot of butter and sugar, and that's before you even get to the pie crust and toasted marshmallows on top, but for me Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without it!

Waldorf Salad (outsourced to my mother-in-law) - this fruit & nut salad tossed with whipped cream is apparently a traditional side dish in hubby's family, so my mother-in-law threw this together Thanksgiving morning.

Cranberry Sauce (store-bought) - I served this from a can.  I have made this recipe in the past which I think is delicious and is also easy to make, but hubby insists that people prefer the canned stuff.  I can't really understand that; the stuff in the can grosses me out, but who am I to create more work for myself and have it not be appreciated at all?!?  In my defense, I did at least get the organic version at Whole Foods ;)


Thanksgiving Dessert:
oh, you thought there was enough at dinner??

One Bowl Brownies (made 2 days in advance) - still love this recipe, and I don't think they suffered at all from being made ahead.

"Baked Bars" (frozen in advance) - this recipe for 7-layer bars was from a cookbook written by the guys who own the Baked bakery in Brooklyn.  They were unbelievably delicious, but the recipe is neither simple nor wholesome, so I don't think I'll be posting that one here!

Apple Crisp (frozen in advance) - I finally made my mom's recipe myself, and it is delicious! 

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (cake frozen in advance; frosting made 1 day ahead) - this was a last minute addition to the menu when I got nervous about how well the apple crisp would freeze.  As it turns out, the crisp froze perfectly but the pumpkin cake was delicious anyway! 
Lemon Pound Cake (outsourced to my mother-in-law) - this cake is always a hit, and a special request for my dad who wouldn't have been excited about any of the other sweets.

Fruit Plate (outsourced to my mother) - putting some fruit on the table negates how unhealthy the rest of the meal is, right? :)