I’ve had cranberries on the brain lately, so Leah and I got together and made some tasty Cranberry Corn muffins, adapted from Ina Garten’s Raspberry Corn Muffin recipe. So first you will need Leah’s cranberry sauce recipe. If this were just me making cranberry sauce, I’d do the water, sugar and cranberry recipe, but Leah is way more fancy than that. She swears the recipe is super simple, and to be honest, I just made a batch and it really is (except I didn’t have the port, or the cloves, or the orange zest at my house, but hey, minor details…) Also, disclosure that I didn’t use flavored sugar, I just used regular old white granulated sugar.

Next you’ll need the recipe from Ina for her corn muffins, which you can find here. For our cranberry corn muffins, just swap out Ina’s 3/4 cup of good raspberry preserves for Leah’s cranberry sauce.

Leah had some fancy cornmeal from Plymouth or something like that. I had to go out and buy some from the market since I’m making these for Thanksgiving this year (yup, I steal most of Leah’s good ideas!) We whipped up the muffins in no time, even with the little hands in the kitchen slowing us down a bit…

Pop those muffins in the oven for 30 minutes and then you get these! They look beautiful as is, but we took to filling them with the delicious cranberry sauce.

If you’re like me and don’t have an apple corer at home, you can just fill a ziplock bag with the preserves and push the tip into the top of each muffin. Verdict, they’re delicious. Leah sent me home with a few and I have to admit, I didn’t share (oops)!

What is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving?

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While Leah and I were in the kitchen making the risotto that was on the blog yesterday, we also made Thanksgiving croutons with Bell’s Seasoning. Does this fit into my every day lifestyle, not really, but Leah said it was so easy. I played along, and yes, it did end up being very easy (if you don’t have little kids running around – which I do). Maybe in 10 years I’ll have time to make these, until then, croutons from the bag it is (or maybe even no croutons at all)

So what do you need? Stale bread, Bell’s Seasoning and a little oil. THAT’S IT! Leah whipped up a really beautiful fall salad to go with our Bell’s Seasoning croutons, made with roasted delicata squash.

Cube up stale bread (4 cups). Pour 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil into a cast iron skilled and warm in pan over medium heat. Add in cubed bread and coat with oil from pan. Sprinkle bread with Bell’s Seasoning (to taste) and cook for 20 minutes. Let cool in pan and enjoy!

How beautiful does this fall salad look?

Disclaimer: I was sent a box of Bell’s Seasoning to make this recipe. All opinions are my own.

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I feel like the holidays are just sneaking up on me. I needed to start thinking about Thanksgiving like…. three months ago, and am just getting started, talk about cutting it close. Good thing I have Leah from Boston City Living. We got together and made some really simple holiday recipes – which I need these days because of the kiddos. We teamed up with Bell’s Seasoning, and made a delicious risotto. Really tasty, made in about 10 minutes, and is the perfect gluten free side that you need on your table.

Here’s the recipe:
INGREDIENTS
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
3 Tablespoons  butter, divided
1 medium  onion, diced
2 shallot or 1 small onion, minced
2 carrots, sliced
1 1⁄2cups  arborio rice or 1 1⁄2 cups  risotto rice
4 cups  chicken broth
1 -1 1⁄2cup fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 TBSP of Bell’s Seasoning

In a presssure cooker, heat 3 Tbs Olive oil and 1 Tbs Butter.
Add shallot or onion and carrots. Saute until shallots or onions are translucent.
Add rice. Stir until rice is coated with oil.
Add Chicken broth and 2 Tbsp of Bell’s Seasoning.
Cover and cook under high pressure for 7 minutes.
Release pressure and add remaining 2 Tbsp of butter. Stir in Parmesan cheese and serve.

Disclaimer: I was sent a sample of Bell’s Seasoning to make this recipe. All opinions are my own.

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If you decide you don’t want to cook this year, there are plenty of restaurants that are willing to do the cooking (and clean up) for you:

Beacon Hill Bistro $63 per person, options wine pairing for $32 per person

Del Frisco’s Grille in Chestnut Hill See the website for more details

Legal Crossing $55 per person

The Palm $55 per person, $24 for children under 12

For additional restaurants that will be offering service on Thanksgiving, check out from Boston Magazine.

Are you cooking at home, but make the same thing every year? Here are some recipes to mix it up:

Dan from The Food in My Beard developed this amazing recipe for TATER TOT STUFFING!! Yup, you read that right. I was drooling the minute I saw this. Check out his website for the recipe. Oh and he also has recipes for big mac stuffing, cinnamon roll stuffing, cornbread stuffing muffins stuffed with turkey cranberry meatballs, and cornbread stuffing polenta. Don’t want to do a plain turkey this year, check out his recipe for a Turducken. And for something special for all you burrito lovers out there, check out Dan’s recipe for the Thanksgiving burrito. Want to hang out with Dan in person? He and my girl Bianca, from Confessions of a Chocoholic, are teaching a class at the BCAE called Entertain Like a Food Blogger. You’ll learn how to make easy appetizers and style your food like a pro. Can’t make it to the class? That’s ok, Dan wrote a pretty cool cookbook you can get online at Amazon called Stuffed: The Ultimate Comfort Food Cookbook: Taking Your Favorite Foods and Stuffing Them to Make New, Different and Delicious Meals.

Check out this recipe for bourbon bacon whipped sweet potatoes with brown butter and crispy sage from How Sweet It Is.

My friend Melanie from A Beautiful Bite is a talented cook and baker. Her brain functions in a whole different way than mine does, I can’t even fathom trying to make a recipe from thin air. Check out her recipe for a sweet potato pie casserole.

Cooking at home but don’t have the time to cook?

You said you would host Thanksgiving this year, but hey, you:

• don’t want to fight the crowds at the market
• totally forgot (three weeks in advance) about the holiday and it was too late to start looking for recipes
• your kids are running around making you crazy and you can’t even think about turning on the oven
• you don’t have kids, but you blame your offer to host Thanksgiving this year on a moment of drunken idiocy weakness
• hey, you’re cooking the turkey, that should count for something, right?

No worries, these places are offering to help you with sides and desserts:

Check out Verrill Farm’s Thanksgiving menu here. Their apple pies are my absolute favorite!

Flour Bakery has all the fixin’s like soups, gravy and Brussels sprouts. Don’t forget the pumpkin (AND a pecan?) pie!

The sides from Sofra serve 4-6. Check out what they have to offer!

Just need a pie, pick one up at Petsi Pies in Cambridge and Somerville.

Football not your game?

It’s ok, it’s not mine either. I’m more of a college hockey kind of gal – give me some of that Red Hot Hockey! Ok, but besides that, who doesn’t love dogs? (20 million viewers do!) After the Macy’s Day Parade and before football comes on, put on the National Dog Show, it’s on from 12-2pm on NBC.

Pictured above are co-hosts John O’Hurley and David Frei. David Frei is the host of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and former Director of Communications for the Westminster Kennel Club. John O’Hurley is best known for his role as J.Peterman on Seinfeld and is also a Broadway musical star, having appeared in shows like Chicago and Monty Python’s Spamalot. The dog show will happen on November 14th and 15th this year and will be televised on Thanksgiving day. My niece, a new dog owner herself, is heading to Philly to watch the show in person! The American Kennel Club has sanctioned 7 new breeds that will be a featured at the show this year, which will be added to the over 180 total breeds. The new breeds are:

• Lagotto Romagnolo – Sporting Group
• Berger Picard – Herding Group
• Miniature American Shepherd – Herding Group
• Cirneco dell’ Etna – Hound Group
• Boerboel – Working Group
• Bergamasco – Herding Group
• Spanish Water Dog – Herding Group

So good luck with Thanksgiving this year, let me know what untraditional things you did!

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