The Naptime Chef

I have to admit, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving isn’t the turkey, it’s the side dishes. I love the potatoes, green beans, hot rolls, squash, and just about anything else that is surrounding the bird. During the fall I don’t find myself experimenting with turkey recipes, I focus on new side dish ideas. I am always looking for new favorites, ways to prepare a soup or vegetable I haven’t tried before. This year my latest favorite is this cheesy butternut squash casserole. It is salt, sweet, and hearty enough to be a side dish at one of the biggest meals of the year.

Now that we are finally getting settled in we are talking about hosting our first party in our new house. I imagine it will be sometime this winter and we’ll serve up cold-weather comfort food, wine, and a great cocktail. Maybe we’ll have a chili party or something fun like that! One thing that is without a doubt is that we’ll be serving this simple dip. I love making it for all sorts of occasions and I expect I’ll even be making it later this month for Thanksgiving. It is that good.

It is not an exaggeration for me to say that Dorie Greenspan is my baking idol. And I am not saying that because I want to win any sort of contest. It is the honest to goodness truth that I love her writing and her work and deeply admire her dedication baking in the home kitchen. So, when I was invited to join in the Cookie Rumble with Dorie, Jacques Torres, and Fonseca BIN 71, I couldn’t say no! For my entry I am submitting these tasty salted butter blondies topped with figs poached in port and a brown sugar streusel.

This year will be our first Thanksgiving in our new home. I am so excited to decorate our new mantel, find a pretty wreath for our new door, and draw up delicious menus for our visiting families. As with most holidays, the food we make will be a mix of old and new recipes. My Dad, on one hand, can’t live without his creamed onions. While I, on the other hand, am thinking about the newest, best chocolate dessert recipe to serve when we sit next to the fire. While this may be daunting to some, I love the idea of keeping some of the old traditions while folding in new ones each year.

With the holidays coming up I am starting to think about feeding a crowd in our new house. I like to try to make our festive meals from scratch and it is always a bit of a juggling act with only one oven. When I think about my dream kitchen renovation one of the things I want to build in is a double wall oven. I’ve never had a double oven and it seems like it would make cooking for a crowd a million times easier. How great would it be to be able to roast a turkey in one oven while baking all the side dishes in the other?!  Two ovens would also make recipe testing easier. I could make dinner while still working on a new cake recipe. Here is what I am thinking:

Today I am working with my friends at King Arthur Flour to do a fun fall baking giveaway and to talk quick breads. As you know, I am huge fan of quick breads. I love making them for school snack, serving them up on weekend mornings, and taking them to friends just because. What is not to love about a slice of warm bread with a cup of hot tea on a chilly fall day?!

After my trip to the Greenwich Food + Wine Festival I got thinking more about weeknight meals. I loved Sara Moulton’s and Richard Blais’ presentations, but they didn’t really feature a lot of cheese. However, the dishes they made could feature plenty of cheese. In my year of working with Sargento I have had a lot of fun documenting the popular food trends of food trucks and mushrooms but it really all comes back to the cheese. I am no stranger to cheesy weeknight meals and I wondered if I could take Sara’s and Richard’s dishes and make them a little cheesier, so to speak.