Thanksgiving is all about rich, comforting foods. That’s one of the things I love about the holiday. That said, sometimes it’s nice to get a fresh salad on the table or some veggies that haven’t been drenched in butter, sugar, or both! Today I have a quick and easy salad recipe for you that offers that element of freshness but still has the Thanksgiving comfort of autumnal, root vegetables.

Two weeks ago I ate at Sam’s Chowder House in Half Moon Bay for the first time. I ordered the clam chowder, of course! And it was amazing. Oh. Those. Clams. Anyway, my friend Mindy and I split a beet and carrot salad, to counteract the buttery, creamy soup we were going to be eating for dinner. The salad was great! The roasted carrots and beats were delicious served cold with fresh greens, creamy feta cheese and pistachios. The salad was tossed with a savory dressing, which balanced well with the sweetness of the vegetables.

The very next day Libby’s asked if I would work with them to make a recipe using their canned sliced beets and sliced carrots. I responded with a big fat YES, knowing that I wanted to recreate the beet and carrot salad I had eaten the night before. The Thanksgiving salad stars were aligning! It’s a simple salad that’s full of flavor, and using Libby’s canned sliced carrots and sliced beets makes it quick and easy to throw together. Quick and easy are always welcome recipe attributes on Thanksgiving Day!

Before we get to the salad, how about a giveaway? Okay? Okay!

The randomly-selected winner of this giveaway will receive a KitchenAid 6-Qt. Slow Cooker along with an assortment of Libby’s fruits and vegetables, courtesy of Libby’s. For the record, this slow cooker is totally awesome. Four heat settings and all kinds of programming options? Totally jealous. Anyway, enough about me and my envy, here’s how you can enter!

• Simply leave a comment to enter! If you’d like to share your favorite healthy Thanksgiving recipes in your comment, we’d love to hear your ideas, although it is not mandatory.
• For additional entries you can “Like” Libby’s on Facebook and/or follow Libby’s on Twitter. Be sure to leave separate comments for each entry!
• All comments must be added to this post by Midnight PT on Tuesday, November 27.

Beet and Carrot Salad

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Vegetable

Ingredients

• 1 5-ounce package mixed baby greens
• 1 can Libby’s sliced carrots, drained
• 1 can Libby’s sliced beets, drained and cut into bite-sized pieces
• Shelled pistachios, amount to taste
• Crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese, amount to taste
• Your favorite savory oil and vinegar salad dressing (don’t use a sweet salad dressing)

Instructions

1. Mix everything together! Add salad dressing right before serving and toss.

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One good thing about me not cooking the next few weeks and having people bring us dinners is that we’ll get to try lots of fun recipes, which I can then share with you!

For our first post-baby dinner, my friend Julie brought us Hungarian Stuffed Peppers. Julie got this recipe from her Hungarian landlord in Vienna, so it’s totally Hungarian legit. I know you were worried about that. The peppers were delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. Thanks, Julie!!

Hungarian Stuffed Peppers

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Main Dish

Cuisine: Hungarian

Ingredients

• 8 green peppers
• ½ pound ground beef
• ½ pound mild italian sausage
• 1 egg
• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 2 28-oz. cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 large white onion
• 3 or 4 yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into tiny cubes
• 2 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika (buy it fresh!) (Julie used a combo of smoked and sweet paprika when she made ours, and it was yummy!)
• 1+ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1+ cup water
• Sour cream (full fat organic is best)

Instructions

1. Cut off tops of peppers. Take out seeds.
2. Mix: meat, egg, rice, potatoes, salt & pepper, paprika. Stuff meat mixture into peppers. Set upright in pot. Make meatballs with extra meat to set on top.
3. In Cuisinart chop onion and tops of peppers finely (or blend smooth in blender.) Mix onions, pepper tops, crushed tomatoes, sugar, water, bay leaves.
4. Pour mixture over peppers in pot. Bring to simmer and simmer on low heat for 1 ½ hours. The key is low heat! Add water if sauce looks too thick.
5. Serve with fresh sour cream and sauerkraut if you have it. Great paired with noodles or dumplings.

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Last time I tried to make a nice, homemade dinner that involved some effort, I threw my sciatica into a tizzy. I could barely walk to the dinner table to eat! So, until baby boy arrives in a few short weeks, I’m trying to take it easy in the kitchen. Which is nice in one way, but at the same time I am really craving some good home cookin’ right now. I’ll have to put my mom to work when she comes to visit next month!

What this “taking it easy” business means is that, even though I have menus planned each week, there are plenty of nights where I’m plum worn out and things don’t go as planned. Last night was no exception. But we were all starving, so I grabbed the Costco orange chicken out of the freezer along with the Trader Joe’s dumplings and got “cooking.” Since rice, chicken and dumplings don’t have any vegetables, I grabbed a bag of green beans that we received from our CSA last week and decided to sauté those up.

Nate is a big fan of green beans, so I’m always hoping I cook them well since I know they are one of his favorites. Last night he kept saying how good they were, so I decided they were blog post-worthy! And they were really easy. Which, for me, was the best part!

Easy Asian-Style Green Beans

 

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From Jane Maynard, This Week for Dinner

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Vegetables

Ingredients

• - A bunch of fresh green beans
• - Olive oil
• - Salt and Pepper
• - Soy Sauce
• - White Sugar

Instructions

1. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet that has a lid. Add the green beans and sauté over medium heat until they brown on the sides a bit. Reduce heat to medium-low and put the lid on the pan. Let cook a few minutes until they are as tender as you want them to be, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove the lid, splash evenly with soy sauce, sprinkle with salt and pepper and about 1-3 teaspoons of sugar (just to cover the beans evenly). Stir and serve!

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Have you ever had Japanese sweet potatoes? I didn’t know what they were until they showed up in my CSA bag one week. I mentioned them quickly in a weekly menu post previously, but I would like to talk about them a bit more and share how to make roasted Japanese sweet potatoes, which are pretty much heaven on a plate.

What are Japanese Sweet Potatoes?

So what are Japanese sweet potatoes anyway? Apparently Olivia Munn thinks they are the fountain of youth. I just think they are a super healthy, crazy delicious tuber that you should definitely buy if you ever see them at the store or as an option in your CSA. They are a sweet potato with brown or red skin and whitish flesh that turns yellow upon cooking. We found Japanese sweet potatoes to have a buttery, almost squash-like flavor that is divine and their texture is a little bit different than other sweet potatoes. We like to roast Japanese sweet potatoes, cut them in half and top with butter, salt and pepper. Simple, healthy and delicious. (Click here to read more about the history and origin of Japanese sweet potatoes, it’s pretty interesting!)

What do you do with Japanese Sweet Potatoes?

Once I discovered how delicious Japanese sweet potatoes are, I ordered a whole bunch from my CSA. To preserve them I  roasted all of the sweet potatoes at once, placed in freezer bags after they cooled and then stored them in the freezer. I don’t know about you, but one of my major barriers to eating sweet potatoes is remembering to start cooking them early enough to actually have them done by dinnertime. Which is why I’m super excited to have a whole bunch already cooked and ready to go in the freezer. As long as I remember to defrost them when we need them, I think we should be good to go!

The process for roasting them is super simple, but I will share the “recipe” below so you can replicate how we cooked them (and so I can remember what I did myself!). Seriously, if you ever see these at your market, grab a few and give them a try. Nate and I really love them, but they are kind of hard to find.

Roasted Japanese Sweet Potatoes

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

 

Author: Jane Maynard

Cuisine: Side Dish

Ingredients

• Japanese sweet potatoes (as many as you want to eat!)
• Butter or olive oil or coconut oil
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400º F.
2. Wash Japanese sweet potatoes then poke them with a fork in several places.
3. Place prepared sweet potatoes on a rimmed cookie sheet or roasting pan. place on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Cook for approximately 1 hour, until knife pierces sweet potatoes easily.
4. Cut open, drizzle with butter (or olive oil or coconut oil if you want to keep things vegan and dairy free!), salt and pepper and enjoy!

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OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY LIKE:

• Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos
• Sweet Potato and Bacon Pizza
• Sweet Potato Souffle

EQUIPMENT I USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE:

• Aluminum Half Sheet Pan
• Le Creuset Butter Crock

My mom always makes broccoli casserole for Thanksgiving. This recipe definitely reminds me of her, so I end up making it myself almost every year. When I take a bite, I go back in time, back to a time when I didn’t do much on Thanksgiving morning except watch TV. Those were the days, eh?

I must warn you…not everyone loves this broccoli casserole. Kids especially. I remember not loving it all that much myself when I was younger, but it grew on me. I think the reason is that there is blue cheese in the sauce and, well, blue cheese isn’t always a universally loved flavor. In fact, I pretty much detest blue cheese in most things. I can’t help it.  But I do really like this casserole. I like the strong savory flavor of this dish in contrast with the more mellow, often sweet flavors on the Thanksgiving plate.

Thanksgiving Prep: Broccoli Casserole

 

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From my mom Phyllis Wallin (don’t know where she got the recipe from!)

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Vegetable

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 6 oz cream cheese
• ¼-1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (I do ¼ cup)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 14 ounce pkgs frozen broccoli – thawed and drained
• ~15 Ritz crackers (half a sleeve or so), crushed

Instructions

1. In saucepan melt butter; blend in flour and cheeses (this part doesn’t always go that smoothly for me, but once I get the milk in there things melt and blend better). Add milk; cook and stir until mixture boils. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli.
2. Place in casserole dish; top with cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 for 30 mins.

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As you can see, I’m freezing the casserole for next week, so I’m keeping the crackers stored separately until it’s time to bake.

Are you sick to death of my pictures of grilled corn and barbecue chicken? Well, lucky for you this is the last post with these pictures! I’m finally going to talk about the grilled corn on the cob that my soon-to-be brother-in-law Norman cooked up on Cape Cod.

Until I ate the corn in this picture, I had given up on grilled corn on the cob. Whenever I’d had it, it was grilled on the barbecue outside of the husk and the kernels dried out and got all yucky-like. I had decided grilling corn was just NOT the right way to do it…until now. (Side note: I still need to try it grilled IN the husk…but that’s another post for another day!) (Another side note: Click here for the recipe for the chicken in this picture)

The trick is this. Boil your corn first, then grill it quickly over the coals while brushing on some oh-la-la-lovely butter and tarragon mixture. The corn stays crisp, fresh and moist, and the butter infiltrates the kernels in a splendid way!

So, there you have it. Grilled corn that’s not really grilled but looks it and tastes divine.

"Grilled" Tarragon Corn on the Cob

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish

Ingredients

• Husked corn on the cob
• Butter melted with a handful of chopped tarragon and salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, enough water to cover all the ears of corn. Once boiling, add corn and return to a boil. Once water is again boiling, cover pot with a lid and turn the heat off and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from water and grill over medium coals on the barbecue, while brushing corn with the melted butter mixture. Things may get a little smoky”¦it’s okay. Your corn will look good and have nice flavor.
3. Eat!

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I’m so bummed. I totally forgot to photograph this recipe! And it was beautiful! Oh well. You can kind of see it in that bowl next to the small bouquet of pink roses.

Grilled Radicchio with Orange & Balsamic

 

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From Michael Symon

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• 6 heads of radicchio, quartered through the core (I think I used only 3 heads)
• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Grated zest and juice of 3 oranges

Instructions

1. Drizzle the radicchio with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Preheat Calphalon Unison Grill pan with Sear Nonstick over medium-high heat. (I actually did use the grill pan for this recipe”¦but you could use a regular griddle, too.)
3. Place the radicchio in the pan and cook for 2 minutes per side.
4. Transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle the radicchio with salt and pepper. Whisk together olive oil, balsamic, orange zest and juice together and drizzle over radicchio.

Notes

Once the radicchio were grilled, I salt and peppered them as directed, but then I cut out the hard piece of core near at the bottom and then sliced the radicchio. I then put the radicchio into a bowl and drizzled with the oil dressing.

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Today I just have a healthy and easy recipe for you. It’s so easy, in fact, I hesitate to even call it a ‘recipe.’ This roasted cauliflower is to die for. Trust me. I’ve been popping these florettes like candy for the last two days. Yum!

Simple Side Dishes: Roasted Cauliflower

 

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Author: Jane Maynard

Cuisine: Side Dish

Ingredients

• Cauliflower, broken up into small-medium sized pieces
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Handful of fresh, grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Place cauliflower on a baking sheet or in a 9X13 baking pan. Drizzle olive oil over cauliflower, then salt and pepper. Toss cauliflower to lightly cover all pieces with oil and seasoning.
2. Roast in a 400-degree oven for 25-30 minutes. Stir once or twice during cooking. Check for doneness with a sharp knife, to the point where you can pierce the cauliflower fairly easily but not to the point of mushiness. Remove from oven and toss with grated parmesan cheese.
3. Sit, eat and enjoy the simplicity and buttery goodness that is cauliflower!

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The giveaway is over and we have a winner…

Congratulations to Pam, who said, “I’ve always wanted to go to the cape but have not had the opportunity. Would love a new cookbook from the area.” I hope you enjoy your copy of Morning Glory Farm, and I promise it’s going to make you want to get to the Cape and Islands as soon as possible, Pam! For the rest of you, I highly recommend you buy yourself a copy.

Here is the recipe I promised! It’s delicious…the sweetness of the fruit paired with the flavor of the shallots and the squash was really lovely. Oh, and I put a few pats of butter in the squash before I stuffed them with rice…mmmmm.

Baked Stuffed Winter Squash

 

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From Morning Glory Farm!

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish, Vegetable

Ingredients

• 4 acorn squash, halved and seeded
• 2 cups cooked wild rice (I used 3 C of the the Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Medley (brown rice, black barley and daikon radish seeds) & it worked great)
• 1 cup cooked wheat berries (I didn’t have these, which is why I did 3 C of the TJ’s medley)
• 1cup roasted pears
• ¼ cup canola oil, divided
• 1 large shallot, diced
• ⅓ cup apple cider
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roast squash cut side down for 30-40 minutes. While squash is roasting, cook rice and wheat berries according to package directions (Jane note – I added salt to the water that the rice cooked in for flavor). One squash is soft, cut pears into large dice and toss with ⅛ C canola oil. Roast on sheet tray about 20 minutes. Saute shallot in rest of oil over medium heat. Pour apple cider in with shallots, cooking and stirring to deglaze the pan. Mix rice, berries, pears, and cranberries into shallot mix. Salt and pepper to taste. Stuff each squash with filling and serve.

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Thank you to Vineyard Stories for a lovely giveaway!

I’ve been cooking corn on the cob in the microwave for years.  Wrap it in plastic wrap (or put on a plate covered with plastic), pop in the microwave for a few minutes and you’re done!  But I have to admit, cooking the corn in plastic in the microwave makes me a little nervous.  So, the other night with cobs of corn in hand, I got out my big pot and started boiling some water.

I did a little research online and found this unbelievably SIMPLE method on Epicurious. Of course it takes longer than the microwave, but it was just as easy and the corn came out perfectly.  So, without further ado, my “new” favorite way to cook corn on the cob!

"New" Favorite Method for Cooking Corn on the Cob...the Old Fashioned Way!

 

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Adapted from Epicurious

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Side Dish

Instructions

1. Bring pot of salted water to a boil (enough to cover the corn). Drop already husked corn into water. Cover pot, return to a boil, then turn off heat and keep the pot covered. Corn is ready in about 5 minutes. Voila! (You can keep additional ears of corn warm in the water for up to 10 minutes without it getting tough.)

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