{best of} Thanksgiving 2012

{download the menu and pdf here, under Bonus: Classic Menu. }

Thanksgiving comes but once a year. Unless, of course, you're a food stylist, recipe developer, food editor or anyone who works in food media. For us, there's thanksgiving #1, in the summer, when we're busy cooking up the features, and then real thanksgiving again come November, when, incredibly, we're finally in the mood for it again.

This year, I contributed a classic Thanksgiving feast to Rachael Ray Magazine {download here}, complete with a few tricks for making your bird the juiciest ever (hint, flip the bird halfway through cooking), killer mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie I think you'd be super proud to call your own. 

And then I sort of forgot about Thanksgiving until the November issues of every magazine I subscribe to (too many, I can't help myself) starting hitting my mail box. Miraculously we, the *food people* behind these pages, managed to recreate the classics yet again, in ever new and inspiring ways that have me, frankly, salivating. If I had the help (and the stomach) for the world's largest feast, here's what I'd serve between my turkey and my pumpkin pie.

The Best of Thanksgiving 2012

~

Goat Cheese Mashed Sweet Potatoes {Better Homes and Gardens}

Mustard Greens, Roasted Squash and Hazelnut Salad {Bon Appetit}

Haricot Verts and white Beans with Shallot Vinaigrette {Food & Wine}

Brussels Sprouts Salad with Avocado and Pumpkin Seeds {Whole Living}

Sage & Honey Skillet Cornbread {Martha Stewart Living}

Pumpkin Cheesecake {Real Simple}

~

Hats off to my friends and colleagues in the food world. You are a remarkable bunch, and I'm grateful to be among you. And to the rest of you, I hope your platters are full of plenty, and your home the host to dear friends, family and oodles of things and moments to give thanks for. 

with love + gratitude,
Sarah

the sweet smell of Saigon + an apple-pear sauce

Do you know what's really wonderful eaten along side a generous hunk of fresh Carrot Banana Hazelnut Bread? A bowl of warm Apple-Pear Sauce. The apples break down into a tender mush, leaving elegant slivers of pear in tact, every bite swimming in the heady satisfaction of Saigon cinnamon. I make mine in small batches because we all love it warm, straight from the stove, but it keeps like a dream in glass jars in the fridge for the week. There's really little more to say....

~

Apple Pear Sauce

Serves 4

4 pounds sweet-tart apples such as Macintosh, Jonagold, empire, or Macoun

1 pound firm, ripe pears such as Bartlett

1 stick cinnamon, or ground cinnamon to taste

about 1 cup apple cider, or as needed

Wash, quarter and cut out the core of your favorite apples (I like a variety, just like in my pie). Repeat with the pears. Cut the apples into chunks and the pears into chunks or slivers. Layer them in a large saucepan with 1 stick of cinnamon, or a generous pinch of Saigon cinnamon. Add just enough apple cider to reach about 1 inch up the pot and cover and simmer over medium heat until the apples are soft and start to break down, and the pears are soft throughout, about 25 minutes.

Spoon the sauce into four bowls and eat warm, or remove from the heat and puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Serve warm, or spoon it into sterile jars and cool on the counter before sealing. Store in the fridge up to one week. 

{bake shop} Carrot Banana Hazelnut Bread

Did you ever wonder why moms make so much banana bread? I hadn't given it much thought until this weekend, but now I know. If you have kids, bananas are a staple. An utter must. Since the amount of kids I might need to feed can jump from one to five in an instant at the whim of our little social bee, I now stock them in the double digits. This also means that there are bananas of varying ripeness on hand, and more and more often lately, the smashed carried all day in my purse in case Greta got an instant case of the hungries bruised and beaten banana that gets stuck back in the fridge if still uneaten when day is done.  

This lovely bread—as inviting as a breakfast bread as it is an after-nap weekend snack—is the happy accident when a few of those bruisers and last night's leftover carrot mash were calling to me "Reinvent me. Bake! Make me beautiful again!" 

And here's the big reveal...there were. I topped my Carrot-Banana bread with sprinkling of sunflower seeds, rolled oats and hazelnuts (and walnuts on the other) for extra flavor and fiber, but you could add any combo of nuts, seeds and grains to the top (or insides) or yours. Give it a little love, it's deserving. 

~

Carrot-Banana-Hazelnut Bread

Makes 2 large loaves or 4 to 5 small loaves

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups raw organic sugar

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

10 ounces pure carrot puree (1 1/4 cups)

2 cups white whole-wheat flour or whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 to 3 very ripe smashed bananas

¼ cup rolled oats or barley

¼ cup lightly toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped (or walnuts)

3 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 standard loaf pans or 4 to 5 mini pans and dust evenly with flour.

Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 4 minutes. Add the oil and carrot puree. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon and stir into the batter until evenly combined. Pour into the prepared pans and top with oats, nuts and sunflower seeds. Bake until the breads spring back lightly when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes, or 20 to 22 minutes for small loaves. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Wrap well and set aside to ripen overnight or eat warm with butter.     

Photos and Recipes © Sarah Copeland 2012

Please credit source on Pinterest. All other uses require permission via email.

{season's last} carrots

Last weekend, when we got wind of pending snow, we picked the last of our carrots, and anything else that won't fare well in a frost. My guess is the farmer's did too. Go, while the getting's good, and see them at your weekend market. Not too many day's left of this bounty. Happy weekend! 

a very happy birthday + the easiest from-scratch birthday cake ever

The day after the election is a good day to talk about something light and fluffy, don't you think? Like birthdays. And cake. My favorite cake is carrot cake. What's yours?

There's something about carrot cake. Well, I can't explain it but those who love it know what I'm trying to say. 

Have you ever done that thing where you project your own likes onto your child? Like, "She really likes soft pillows and her bath extra warm" when it's really what you like? Well, I do that with Greta and food. Once, when she wouldn't eat sweet potatoes, one of my favorite (and one of the healthiest) foods, I said, aghast, "but it's your favorite!" Now, when I serve her sweet potatoes, she says, "my favorite!" and gobbles them right up. So on her second birthday, I knew exactly what cake I'd be making her—the same carrot cake mom made me each and every year.

On the way to this decision, I actually tried on other people's carrot cakes, just for fun. I made some healthier, some double deckers and some plain old-fashioneds.  But here's the thing—on a birthday, only the very best will do. That's mom's cake. 

During this journey, here's what I figured out—this is the easiest from-scratch cake, ever. And I mean ever. Like, make on your lunch break (if you work from home) or while the laundry is on the spin-cycles easy. Which is probably why, besides the fact that I love it so much, my mom always made it for me—I'm the third of four kids and my guess is she didn't have a lot of spare time for making cakes.

What she did do is decorate my cakes to the max, aqua-blue pool for a pool party, a yellow-studded pineapple for a luau party, but whenever she’d slice it open, there was my favorite orange cake. I don't have the patience for piping bags lately, so I opted instead to make Greta’s cake these sweet vintage Jell-O molds my sister bought me during my last visit. I didn't do a test run, just buttered and floured the day of the party and crossed my fingers while I put out the rest of the spread.

It was a risk, I admit, baking them blind on the day of the party. I did pour the remaining batter into a quarter sheet pan for backup, but the mini bundts worked like a charm, too. Just one more reason I love and adore this cake—in any shape or size, it rarely disappoints.

Here's the very, very special thing about carrot cake that really must be said—if you want to, you can go ahead and convince yourself it is good for you, and that it’s a perfectly okay cake for kids. It's carrots, after all. While we know it's not exactly health food, I have made a few modifications to my version (whole wheat white flour, less oil, less sugar) that I guarantee you, even if you happened to have come to one of my birthday parties between age 2 and 12 and got hooked like me, you'd never know the difference.

But enough about cake, let's talk about my itty bitty little lady, who I made this cake for. I adore her. Her spirit is huge and happy. Her eyes shine light and joy on the world. She's a little lover, cradling anything from a baby doll to a bath toy in the nook of her arm and showering everyone she knows with hugs and kisses. It doesn't take carrot cake to sweeten her disposition, but like her mamma, she can down a piece like nobody's business. She knows how to have a good time, and she won't quit until you absolutely make her. We are so, so very grateful for two healthy, delicious years with her and for two loving, doting grandparents who drove 19 hours to celebrate with us. Thanks for the recipe Mom, I owe you one! 

While were telling stories, won’t you tell me your best birthday cake ever story, please? And in the meantime, happy birthday sweet Greta pie. Here's a carrot cake to grow on. 

~

The Easiest Carrot Cake Ever + Creamy Cheese Frosting

Serves 12 adults or 24 kids

Cake

4 large eggs

1 ¾ cups raw organic sugar

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

10 oz organic carrot baby food (or 1 1/4 cups carrot puree) 

2 cups white whole-wheat flour 

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Frosting

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

12 oz Neufchâtel or cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 teaspoons agave nectar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9 by-13-inch pan, quarter sheet pan or 24 muffins or molds. Line the pan with a wide piece of parchment paper cut so that it tucks neatly along 2 opposite sides and hangs over edges by about 1 inch on the other opposite sides to create flaps. Butter and flour the paper or the molds

To make the cake: Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer in a medium bowl on medium-high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 4 minutes. Add the oil and carrot puree. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon and stir into the cake batter until evenly combined. Pour into the prepared pans and bake until the cake spring back lightly when touched, about 40 minutes for a sheet cake, or 20 to 22 minutes for small cakes or cupcakes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.      

Meanwhile, to make the frosting: Make sure the butter and cream cheese are soft but still cool. Beat them together with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, with no remaining lumps. Sift in the confectioners’ sugar and add agave and vanilla extract. Beat until light and fluffy. 

Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled bars, or top each mini cake with a tuft of frosting. Serve at room temperature.   

P.S. Some 2nd birthday party tips: 

1.  Musical Chairs (or pillows) with sticker prizes is a huge hit with the two-to-three set.

2. If you decide you're going to do face painting at your child's birthday party, by Murphy’s Law, your child will be the only one who doesn't want their face painted. Let them paint your face instead.

Photos and Recipes © Sarah Copeland 2012

Please credit source on Pinterest. All other uses require permission via email.

oh holy eggplant: aida mollenkamp's keys to the kitchen

Is it just me, or is there some sort of hiatus in Hollywood? Like, no blockbuster run-away hit movies to dream about going to (in all my spare time), not even a lousy romantic comedy to overpay for on hulu. No matter, because if you ask me, this is the year of the cookbook. They just keep landing on the shelves, one stunner after another. Ever since my own came out, I'm guilty of pre-ordering every hot-new release on Amazon, so they literally land on my front steps on release day. I know, indulgent.  I celebrate every one by putting it aside on the couch and waiting until everyone is sleeping before nestling in with it on the couch. And like a good movie, my kind of cookbook can really take you somewhere. Somewhere you've never been, but dream of. Or somewhere you have been, but want to return to again. An exotic destination, a feel-good moment. A ridiculously good meal at your very own table. 

This new book, this splendid book, Aida Mollenkamp's Keys to the Kitchen, did that for me. 

Full disclosure, Aida and I go way back to a funny day in the Food Network Kitchens when we found ourselves on camera together for a fleeting moment. That moment led to her Food Network and later Cooking Channel shows Ask Aida, and my favorite FoodCrafters. But if you ask me, this book is where Aida really shines. I thought I knew Aida's food--fun, flavorful, a touch of the exotic. Delicious, mostly healthful, sometimes indulgent. A bit of LA and San Fran and enough style to spare. But in this book, Aida shares even more of herself, the parts even some of her friends (who, sadly on the other coast, don't have a chance to sit down at her table too often) don't know. This girl, and her food, have soul. Soul that seems to come from all over the world. Peanut Butter-Banana Bread? Buttermilk Biscuits with Black Pepper Brown Butter? Sage-Maple Skillet Corn Bread? (oops, did I just get stuck in the Breads and Doughs chapter? Oh yes I did.) Charred Chile, Corn and Zucchini Tacos? Pistachio Carrot Cake with Brown Sugar-Cream Cheese Frosting? Yep, that's food to make a soul feel downright giddy.

Some of our food pals and I are celebrating Aida's book launch today, and every day this week, with a little online party to which you're invited. I must say, I had a hard time picking just one recipe to cook and share with you all, but this one struck me dead on with one glance. It's from a whole chapter of recipes I'm going to love on in the coming weeks called Meatless Mains. Aida, thanks for that. You all probably know by know how this household thinks that's the goods. With recipes like Smoked Mozzarella, Zucchini and Arugula Lasagna, Triple-Mushroom Stroganoff and this one, Eggplant Casserole with Pine Nut-Yogurt Sauce, I think we'll be set for a while.  

Since Aida's one of the most generous people I know, truly, she's sharing this recipe and, thanks to Chronicle Books, one copy of her brand-new book with you on my site today. Leave a comment to win {official rules below} and help me wish Aida a happy launch day. I know nothing that would make her happier than hearing that you all are heading to your own kitchens to cook tonight. 

~

Eggplant Casserole with Pine Nut—Yogurt Sauce

From Keys to the Kitchen

Reprinted with permission from Aida Mollenkamp and Chronicle Books

Poor eggplant, it always seems to be typecast in the kitchen, being constantly fried or breaded. In this healthy yet hearty Mediterranean-flavored casserole, it combines with tangy yogurt, earthy pine nuts, nutty bulgur, and a sweet tomato sauce for a new starring role.

Recipe With in a Recipe: Use the red pepper tomato sauce in place of normal tomato sauce.

Goes Well With: Serve with a simple green salad and some crusty bread.

Difficulty

Easy

Yield

6 servings

(4 cups/1 L sauce)

Total time

1 hour, 15 minutes

Hands-on time

40 minutes

Bulgur

¾ cup/180 ml water

½ tsp kosher salt

¾ cup/150 g cracked bulgur wheat

Red Pepper Tomato Sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

½ yellow onion, finely chopped

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 roasted red peppers, minced

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

One 28-oz/800-g can pureed tomatoes

¾ cup/30 g thinly sliced fresh basil or chopped Italian parsley, plus more for garnish

1⁄3 cup/45 g dried currants

Sugar (optional)

Eggplant Casserole

2 lb/910 g eggplant, cut into ½-in/12-mm slices

2 tbsp olive oil

Kosher salt

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup/240 ml plain, whole-milk, Greek-style yogurt

½ cup/47 g slivered almonds or pine nuts

For the bulgur

Combine the water and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the bulgur, stir to combine, and remove from the heat. Cover and let sit until the bulgur is tender and swelled up, 20 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce.

For the sauce

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the onion, season well with salt and black pepper, and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the roasted peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until they just begin to color, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato puree and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened and flavors are melded, 15 to 20 minutes. When the sauce is ready, stir in the basil and currants. Taste and, if necessary, season with sugar, salt, or pepper. Remove from the heat and set aside. Meanwhile, cook the eggplant.

For the casserole

Heat the broiler and arrange a rack in the top of the oven. Brush the eggplant with oil and season with salt. Arrange the slices on a rimmed baking sheet and broil until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. Decrease the oven temperature to 375°F/190°C/gas 5.

To assemble the casserole, spoon one-fourth of the sauce (about 1 cup/240 ml on the bottom of a 9-in/23-cm square baking dish. Lay one-third of the eggplant slices over the sauce. Spread all the bulgur over the eggplant. Repeat layering sauce and eggplant, ending with the sauce (you’ll have 4 layers of sauce and 3 of eggplant, with a layer of bulgur in the middle).

Place the garlic on a cutting board and sprinkle a pinch of salt on top. Chop the mixture until it is a rough paste. Stir the garlic into the yogurt. Spread over the sauce in an even layer on top of the casserole. Scatter the nuts over the yogurt. Bake until cooked through but not bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Riff : Replace the bulgur with 1½ cups/360 ml cooked ground meat.

Notes

Cracked bulgur is cracked wheat that is the same size as cornmeal and is used to make tabbouleh. If you can’t find it, you can use quinoa (cook according to package directions) or leave it out.

Dried currants are a seedless grape that has been dried. It is not the same as the fruit that's related to the gooseberry.

Greek yogurt is a strained yogurt that is thicker and tangier than regular yogurt. It has become more and more widely available, but if you can’t find it, regular plain yogurt will work too.

The bulgur can be made up to 2 days ahead. Store refrigerated until ready to use.

The sauce can be made up to 2 days ahead. Store refrigerated until ready to use.

The casserole can be assembled up to 2 days before baking and can be baked up to 2 days ahead. Bring to room temperature before serving.

And if that recipe's not enough to knock you into blissful hibernation in your kitchen for the next few hours, watch Aida's darling cookbook trailer here and get inspired:

// Amazon // Anthropologie // Barnes & Noble // Chronicle Books //

Okay friends, here's how the giveaway works: 

Giveaway Details

Prize:

To help you get , Chronicle Books is providing one (1) lucky reader with a copy of just-released, Keys to the Kitchen by Aida Mollenkamp.

Duration:

This giveaway is open to USA visitors and will be open until Wednesday, October 31, 11:59pm PST.

Who Can Enter:

Open only to residents of the USA 18 years old and older.

How to Enter:

Leave a comment below — one entry per email address only please. For a second chance to enter, pin {to Pinterest} or tweet a link to this post with the has tag #keystothekitchen and let me know via comments. 

How Winner Will Be Chosen:

The winner will be chosen at Random.org and will be notified via email, so please make sure the email address you list in the comment section is correct. You will have 48 hours to respond, or a new winner will be chosen.

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Fine Print: I am hosting this giveaway so you can experience this book for yourself. I am in no way being compensated for this giveaway and Chronicle Books has generously provided the prize copy of the book.

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Photos are by Alex Farnum and styling by Lillian Kang and are copyrighted material.

And, New Yorker's, don't miss your chance to meet Aida at Anthropologie next month. Details here:

Keys To The Kitchen NYC Book Signing

Saturday, November 10, 2012 11AM to 1PM

Anthropologie Chelsea Market 

75 9th Avenue, NY, NY 10011