Eating Well holiday cover, New York Times Thanksgiving, bright seasonal fare

Thanksgiving and the holiday season are upon us!

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of seeing my work debut for the 2017 New York Times Thanksgiving issue. To have been asked - trusted, even! - with the entire NYT Thanksgiving spread is true affirmation. For that I am over the moon with gratitude.

I single-handedly (with a minor meltdown here or there) cooked, styled, and photographed 9 feast recipes. And then photographed all of them, together. NBD. And then got my act together (aka cleaned my house) to throw a dinner party, since I had enough food to feed a small army.

Here is the full story. Below are some of my favorites with their respective links, should you want to make them!

fennel and apple salad with walnuts and parmesan

classic mashed potatoes

red wine cranberry sauce

smoky braised kale with tomato

sweet potato & Gruyère gratin

roast turkey with orange and sage

classic pan gravy

chorizo dressing with leeks

apple gingersnap crumble

In other Thanksgiving projects, I have been commissioned for seasonal recipe development with La Tourangelle Artisan Oils, and this month's feature is a turkey of my own design.

It might be my favorite preparation ever. The avocado oil imparts an incredible, softly buttery-nutty quality, and that - paired with the dry brine for extra-crispy skin and the spatchcock method (which ensures even cooking) - makes for perfection. Try it for yourself and see: recipe here.

Another exciting project out now is this beautiful cover, styled+photographed for the holiday issue of Eating Well Magazine. I absolutely love the creative kernel the team presented, and producing it was as much fun as it looks. ;)

Working through so many varied projects, I use the imagination of the above towards my fridge-full of leftovers on repeat... To ultimately create simple and brightly flavorful daily eating. Of course. It is lots of fun to make a special-occasion dish. But! There is a quiet glory in the day-to-day nourishment of food.

This salad one of my go-to type meals, where I pull together a bunch of disparate elements and steer towards a representation by my favorite textures and flavors. Here,  crunchy-crispy-creamy-briny-herbacious all get their say. See below for the loose recipe -

Vibrant salad bowl

for 2

2-3 types crunchy elements - 1 each: chioggia beets, hakurai turnips, diced Kirby cucumber

2-3 salady greens or leaf herbs - small handful each: red vein sorrel, purslane tips, purple basil

1-2 wild card additions (think punch, zing) - here, a few nasturtium flowers + a couple tablespoons diced homemade pickles

Thinly slice sturdy veg such as beets and turnips on a mandoline. 

Lay down your greens as a base layer. Arrange the crunchy elements around, accented by the wild card elements. In this instance, I drizzled a little pickle brine, along with some good olive oil, and finished the salad simply with lots of fresh cracked pepper and a little sea salt. 

To fortify the meal, I made this lentil dip to go alongside and modified it with what was available. In this instance, less cilantro but the addition of parsley, some roasted garlic and plenty of sumac, and foraged wild onion blossoms. 

Peeking in on the right are some tortillas leftover from another project, which I pan fried in grapeseed oil until a bit charred and pleasantly crispy, for dipping.

Along the same lines - and perfect at your Thanksgiving table - is this salad, made just today....

Same principles as the previous salad.

Apple and mizuna salad with toasted almonds, grapes, and shaved parmesan 

salady/leafy type green - a large handful each mizuna + romaine

crunchy elements - 1/2 a Granny Smith apple + a small handful toasted almonds

wild card additions - 1 strip lemon zest, sliced very thinly, a handful of grapes, shaved Parm

And again here, I used (a different) pickle brine as the base for the vinaigrette. Good eating indeed.

However you plan on celebrating the holidays, do so conscientiously.

Buy the good stuff, from family farmers. 

Honor the elders and indigenous. 

Cook with people you can learn from, or with those who want to learn from you. 

Share food with those you love.

Make it beautiful.