Winner, winner 🦃 dinner, latest carb crush, NY/VT travel eats

Issue No. 8: Thanksgiving sides for a next-level holiday meal, my new favorite (grocery!) pita bread, more TV Dinners, the return of 2024 best bites

Welcome back to Dish Lister! I can’t believe it’s nearly December and the holidays are upon us. I am in the midst of my Thanksgiving menu planning, have started holiday shopping, and am engaged in the usual flurry of activities associated with this busy time of year. Crazy, but fun!

First things first, thanks for the feedback on my natural peanut butter review—many of you really enjoyed it, yay! I had so much fun doing the taste tests, and I can’t wait to evaluate more foods soon. If you haven’t read the review yet, and you love peanut butter as much as I do, then you should definitely check out the (surprising) results.

Of the ten brands blind we tasted, one of our top three is a newer, family-owned brand One Trick Pony Silky Smooth Peanut Butter, made with Argentinian peanuts (slightly sweeter than other peanuts). The taste and texture of this peanut butter are on point— the peanutty flavor really shines through, and it’s super spreadable. If you want to experience One Trick Pony for yourself (their Kinda Crunchy Peanut Butter is also incredible), you can get a 10% discount when you order from their website by using the promo code KERRY10. Check out their IG account too for some fun and creative peanut butter recipe videos. And of course, if you try it, I’d love to hear what you think!

Ok, time to dish!

Award-worthy Thanksgiving sides 🦃

I’ve always been a firm believer in the side dishes making or breaking a Thanksgiving meal. Don’t get me wrong, the turkey must be cooked to perfection, but good sides can take any dinner from average and forgettable to extraordinary and memorable. Here are some dishes that I regularly include on my Thanksgiving menu and are guaranteed crowd pleasers.

Some of my favorite Turkey Day sides representing: sausage & herb stuffing, corn casserole, cheddar mashed potatoes, drop biscuits, green beans w/ crispy shallots.

STUFFING:

1. Challah Stuffing, Smitten Kitchen, Deb Perelman. First off, challah, with its eggy flavor and spongy texture, is the ideal bread for stuffing. It holds up well to the moisture of the stuffing mixture (after being oven-dried) and also absorbs the spices and other flavors nicely. Since I like to prepare in advance, I use melted butter for this recipe (vs. the turkey drippings, which I’m sure taste amazing too). I also add a couple of eggs to give the stuffing a more custardy texture (vs. loose). The final result is extremely moist (sorry) and tasty and awesome.

2. Easy Sausage & Herb Stuffing, Once Upon A Chef, Jenn Segal. I love stuffings with a little heft to them. This version includes sausage for heartiness and some extra fat to keep the stuffing from drying out. Feel free to substitute bulk turkey sausage, which I often do, or leave the meat out altogether. Bonus: the recipe uses store-bought stuffing cubes, reducing your prep time.

POTATOES:

1. Vermont Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, New York Times Cooking, David Tanis. I’ve made this mashed potato recipe more times than I can count. Despite containing a copious amount of aged white cheddar (plus eggs, cream, and butter), the texture remains surprisingly light and fluffy. These mashed potatoes also work like a dream in Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches.

2. Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives, Dinner in an Instant & NYT Cooking, Melissa Clark. This recipe wins the award for the speediest preparation. Thanks to the Instant Pot, these creamy, tangy, delicious mashed potatoes take a mere twenty minutes (give or take) to make.

3. Thanksgiving Potatoes, Silver Palate Cookbook, Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso. Consumed at many a family Thanksgiving dinner throughout my childhood, these mashed potatoes will always hold a special place in my heart. They’re made with three kinds of dairy (milk, sour cream, cream cheese) for maximum indulgence.

4. Cheesy Potato Gratin, Dinner A Love Story, Jenny Rosenstrach. Thanksgiving (or any winter holiday really) is the perfect excuse to whip up a potato gratin like this one. Layers of thinly sliced potatoes are soaked in milk, cream and butter and then covered with gruyere cheese. This is holiday comfort food at its finest.

5. Truffled Mashed Potatoes, Foolproof, Ina Garten. What is the result of combining truffle butter and an incredible mashed potato recipe? Pure magic. These mashed potatoes are otherworldly and make you feel like you’re eating at the most luxe and expensive steakhouse in the world.

6. Sweet Potato Casserole, Once Upon A Chef, Jenn Segal. If you like your potatoes on the sweeter side, then this recipe is for you. Another winner from one of my favorite blogs, this festive stunner features a brown sugar-pecan streusel topping that’s so irresistible, I promise you won’t miss the marshmallows.

VEGETABLES:

1. Spinach Gratin, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, Ina Garten. What can possibly beat creamed spinach topped with loads of gooey, melted cheese? I’m waiting…

2. Roasted Sweet & Sour Brussels Sprouts, Good Housekeeping. I first made this super-easy roasted Brussels sprouts recipe while working in the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen years ago during culinary school, and it’s a keeper. Ginger and soy sauce bring Asian flavors to the dish, while brown sugar provides a nice sweetness.

3. Cacio e Pepe Brussels Sprouts, Half Baked Harvest Super Simple, Tieghan Gerard. I like cacio e pepe everything, and these Brussels sprouts are no exception. The dish hits all the right notes—cheesy, peppery, lemony, and crunchy (thanks to toasted hazelnuts). While they’re the perfect Thanksgiving side, I make them all year long.

4. Green Beans with Crispy Shallots & Crème Fraiche, The Flavor Equation, Nik Sharma. The crispy shallots and crème fraiche in this dish are a more refined play on the ever-popular crispy onion green bean casserole. However, in contrast to its heavier casserole counterpart, this dish is light, elegant, and fresh.

5. Jiffy Corn Casserole, Once on the back of the Jiffy Corn Muffin box, and now all over the Internet. My mother-in-law first introduced me to this homey casserole years ago (a recipe that her mother also made), and I request it for every Thanksgiving dinner I host. Using only six ingredients, including Jiffy corn muffin mix, canned corn, and creamed corn, it’s corn-forward and comforting at the same time.

SALAD:

1. Maple-Roasted Carrot Salad, Cooking for Jeffrey, Ina Garten. This is the quintessential fall salad—made with arugula, caramelized roasted carrots, Marcona almonds, goat cheese, and dried cranberries and tossed in a simple sherry wine vinaigrette. It adds vibrant colors to your Thanksgiving dinner spread too, standing out in the typical sea of beige and white.

BISCUITS/ ROLLS:

1. Drop Biscuits, NYT Cooking, Samantha Seneviratne. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, these easy-to-make drop biscuits taste like heaven. I prefer mine plain and simple (with a little pat of butter), but you can spice them up by adding things like fresh herbs, cheese, black pepper, or scallions

   

   Up close and personal with these biscuit beauties

2. Caramelized Onion & Gruyere Biscuits, Smitten Kitchen, Deb Perelman. Make these biscuits when you want to shake things up. Adding nutty gruyere to a biscuit is a no-brainer, and the caramelized onions offer a slight sweetness that’s interesting and wonderful.

3. No-Knead Buttermilk Pull Apart Rolls, Alexandra’s Kitchen, Alexandra Stafford. If dinner rolls are more your thing, then you need to try these feather light pull-apart ones. I’m not going to lie, they require a bit more time and effort (including an overnight rest in the fridge), but the payoff makes it all worthwhile.

My pita bread obsession

I’ve never been a fan of grocery store pita bread. Most of the store-bought options that I’ve tried are thin, dry, and challenging to fill without completely breaking apart. Because of this, I have almost exclusively limited my pita bread consumption to dining out. Restaurant pitas, often homemade, tend to be more soft, pillowy, and stretchy, creating the perfect pocket. Then I discovered Angel Bakeries Pita Bread, and my perceptions of store-bought pita were shattered. Angel Bakeries is an Israeli brand that originated in Jerusalem in 1927 and over the last decade expanded their distribution to other countries like the US. These pitas give major freshly-baked vibes, and I’m OBSESSED with how freaking good they are. They’re fluffy—almost “cloud-like”—and serve as a reliable vessel for many a filling. I prefer to “rip and dip”, dunking them into hummus or peanut butter, but they also make incredible sandwiches. I buy these pitas fresh in the bakery section of my local Whole Foods (I’m assuming due to my closer proximity to their NJ-based US manufacturing facility); however, the majority sold are flash frozen to ensure optimal freshness (and popped in the microwave to be immediately enjoyed). Check the store locator on their web site to find out where to buy near you. https://www.angelbakeries.com/

One of “the world’s best pitas” for sure!

TV dinners 📺 🍽️

(IYKYK, but for those who might not, this is a nostalgic nod to one of my most treasured childhood weekend meals and pastimes.)

In this latest edition, here are three new-ish TV shows worth the watch:

Anatomy of Lies (Peacock): this mini-series documentary follows the fascinating (and disturbing) story of Elizabeth Finch, a former writer and co-executive producer on Grey’s Anatomy, who constructed a massive web of lies to help further her career and contribute to significant story lines on the show. For years, Elizabeth fooled friends and colleagues into believing that (among many other things) she had cancer, was molested by her brother (who then later committed suicide), and intimately knew people killed in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. It’s crazy to comprehend the magnitude of her deceit and how she got away with it all for so long.

Disclaimer (Apple TV+): Without giving away too much, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, and Sasha Baron Cohen star in this gripping thriller about Catherine, a journalist, whose past comes back to haunt her after being outed in a new author’s bestselling novel. The bizarre chain of events and subsequent fallout of these revelations threaten to destroy her life and family. Written and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, this series is suspenseful, twisted, and sad, and I couldn’t stop watching.

Martha (Netflix): I have huge respect for Martha Stewart as a billionaire business woman and longtime lifestyle brand. This engaging documentary sheds some light on Martha’s rise to fame, her trial and brief prison stint in the early 2000s (she was convicted of lying to federal agents about her sale of ImClone stock), and ultimately her brilliant return to cultural relevance, connecting her to a younger audience. I loved the story of how she met and bonded with her BFF Snoop Dogg—the most unlikely of friendships that actually makes so much sense.

2024 Best Bites is back 🎉

It’s been a hot minute, but Best Bites is baaaack, now that I’m fully recovered from my summer of overindulgence and happily dining out again. We recently spent a long weekend in Ithaca, New York and Burlington and Manchester, Vermont (thanks to New Jersey teachers conventions)—where the vibrant food scenes produced a number of noteworthy bites. I’m still dreaming about the decadent chocolate cake from The Crooked Ram in Manchester, which easily broke into my top five bites of 2024 (see below). Plus a few new honorable mentions.

1. Cinnamon roll, District Doughnuts (Las Vegas, NV)

2. Pear ravioli, La Giostra (Florence, Italy)

3. Mazeman, Konban (NYC)

4. Stuffed gnocchi, Luigino’s (Montclair, NJ)

5. NEW! Chocolate cake, The Crooked Ram (Manchester, VT). My husband, a self-proclaimed choco-phobe, ate this cake.

   

   Chocolate cake deliciousness @ The Crooked Ram. Now you see it…now you don’t!

New Honorable Mentions: Finger Lickin’ Fried Chicken Mac & Cheese (Red’s Place, Ithaca), The New Yorker on an everything bagel (Burlington Bagel Bakery, Burlington, VT), Flipp’s Flapjacks (The Little Rooster Cafe, Manchester, VT), Montreal-Spiced Brisket Poutine (Juniper Bar and Restaurant @ Hotel Vermont, Burlington, VT).

That’s a wrap on another Dish Lister! Since it’s entertaining season, in my next issue, I’ll be dishing on some of my most reliable dinner party dishes. Plus, I’ll share the snack foods I’m totally craving (hooked on) lately.

Until next time, follow me on Instagram for more fun food content, and please share this newsletter with all of your foodie friends at the button below. Think of it as a great (free!) gift that keeps on giving.

Have a wonderful, safe, and delicious Thanksgiving holiday!