This post is part of Share Our Holiday Table, a seven-day, online progressive dinner series that we hope will encourage you to support and donate to Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign during this critical holiday period. I’m honored to be one of more than 50 bloggers who are participating. If you’ve been following along, the dinner has been unfolding for the last week across 7 courses and in 4 tracks (Gourmet, Family-Friendly, Gluten Free and Vegetarian).

Today’s featured course is the Side Dish and I’m offering you one of my favorite Vegetarian dishes, Kasha Varnishkes. My mom used to make this as a side to pot roast and turkey, and I’ve been cooking it through my adult life, frequently as a main course.

You see, kasha is actually roasted buckwheat kernels and is one of the healthiest grain products out there. A complete protein on its own, high in fiber, yada yada yada, kasha can be used as a main dish, side dish, stuffing, and even as a delicious hot breakfast cereal. It’s also gluten-free, so if that’s an issue for you or someone you love, you can also prepare the following recipe without the pasta as a Kasha Pilaf.

This recipe will feed a crowd on your holiday table or buffet, and makes an attractive change – or addition to – the usual potato fare. If you have less than a crowd, you can easily make half the quantity.

Kasha Pilaf Varnishkes
(serves 8-10 as a side dish, 4-6 as a main course)

Ingredients:

1 14 – 16 oz package Farfalle (Bowtie) pasta

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup carrots, split & sliced thin
1/2 cup celery, sliced thin
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced thin
1-1/2 cups medium or coarse Kasha
1 large egg or egg white (optional – see Preparation)
2 Tbs canola oil or butter
3 cups vegetable broth (divided)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

If not using the egg, skip to the next step. If using the egg or egg white: Beat the egg or egg white until well-blended. Add the kasha and combine with a fork until the grains are coated well.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the kasha and stir while toasting, till the grains are mostly separate and you smell a pleasant, toasty aroma.

Add the vegetables and 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth, stir well, and saute until the vegetables soften slightly, about 3 – 4 minutes. Add the remaining broth, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover the pan tightly, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 8 minutes, or until the kasha is soft. Uncover, and cook an additional 3 – 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, to allow the kasha to dry out a bit.

Check the seasoning, and add the farfalle (bow-tie) pasta, tossing together until thoroughly combined. Serve hot.

Notes:

You can find kasha in your regular grocery store in either the pasta/rice aisle or the ethnic foods, kosher products section. I’ve only ever seen Wolff’s brand, but feel free to use any other you may spot. It comes in Fine, Medium, or Coarse granulations. Only use the medium or coarse granulation for this recipe. The fine granulation is mostly for cereal and will turn out mushy.

A variety of liquids can be used to prepare this, including beef or chicken stock (although using these would render this no longer vegetarian), or even water.

The word “varnishkes” refers to the bow-tie pasta. No, I don’t know what it means.

As noted earlier, if you omit the pasta, this Kasha Pilaf is an excellent gluten-free choice, too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this special holiday post on behalf of Share Our Strength, and that you’ll visit the other participating blogs to see what they’re serving up for Share Our Holiday Table.

In fact, I hope you’ve enjoyed it enough to click on one of these links and make a donation to Share Our Strength and sign the No Kid Hungry Pledge. Approximately 17 million children right here in the United States go hungry because of lack of access to programs that can change that, and lack of access to healthy foods. A hungry child can’t learn.

Even though my husband and I have no kids, we recognize that today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders. And can yank our Social Security in a heartbeat.

Will you join us in the No Kid Hungry Campaign?

Today’s side dishes in each track are brought to you by:

Gourmet

• The Urban Baker
• Heather Christo
• We Like to Cook, and Eat
• Plum Pie

Family Friendly

• What’s Cooking
• Dine and Dish
• The Evolving Cook

Vegetarian

• My Kitchen Addiction
• Taste as You Go
• Flamingo Musings (that’s me!)

Gluten Free

• The Whole Gang
• Jenn Cuisine– A mostly gluten free cooking blog.
• Creative Cooking Gluten Free

I recently began cooking and writing occasional mini-reviews for Cooks & Books & Recipes, an awesome website that focuses exclusively on reviews of the latest cookbooks, featuring a sample recipe from each one. Okay, I’ve done two, so far. But if you’re thinking of buying any of the new cookbooks coming out, be sure to check Cooks & Books & Recipes for the inside scoop!

One of the latest cookbooks reviewed at Cooks & Books (I call it for short), is Abby Dodge’s Desserts 4 Today. The recipe featured from the cookbook is Mini Bittersweet Chocolate Cheesecakes. Cheesecake? How could I pass up trying a recipe for personal-sized cheesecakes that takes 5 minutes to throw together and only 15 minutes in the oven?

Abby encourages creativity and even gives suggestions for ingredient switch-ins (or outs) and additions in case you want to “Gussy It Up.” I, of course, couldn’t leave well-enough alone and adapted her recipe even further. Not once, but twice! Because I’m just that kind of a girl. I give you

Coffee Chocolate Chip Mini Cheesecakes
(makes 6 mini cheesecakes) (Recipe adapted from Desserts 4 Today by Abigail Johnson Dodge)

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp. instant coffee powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (do not use regular-sized chips)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 300º F.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric hand-mixer until smooth. Add the brown sugar and beat until thoroughly incorporated. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl between each step.

Dissolve the coffee powder in the vanilla extract and add to the cream cheese mixture, then add the egg. Beat thoroughly. Add the mini chocolate chips and stir to combine completely.

Take a regular-sized muffin tin and place foil liners into 6 of the cups, then spray with no-stick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can use reusable silicone cupcake liners without the cooking spray.

Bake for 15-18 minutes. The centers should barely jiggle when you nudge the pan. Set the muffin tin on a rack to cool completely, then refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

Notes:

About 30 minutes prior to serving, take the cheesecakes out of the refrigerator and remove from the liners. If using the silicone liners, just pull back the edges slightly with your fingers, then turn them over and push the bottoms with your thumbs. They should pop right out. This allows them to take some of the chill off and the cheesecakes to return to that creamy mouthfeel we all love about them.

And because I couldn’t stop playing with it, and because I love you, here’s your *Bonus* Recipe:

Mini Nutella Cheesecakes
(makes 6 mini cheesecakes) (Recipe adapted from Desserts 4 Today by Abigail Johnson Dodge)

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened at room temperature
1/3 cup natural cane sugar (or granulated white sugar)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/3 cup Nutella
A few hazelnuts, finely chopped for garnish

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 300º F.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric hand-mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until thoroughly incorporated. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl between each step.

Add the egg, vanilla, and the Nutella, and beat till thoroughly combined.

Take a regular-sized muffin tin and place foil liners into 6 of the cups, then spray with no-stick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can use reusable silicone cupcake liners without the cooking spray.

Bake for 18 – 20 minutes. The centers should barely jiggle when you nudge the pan. Set the muffin tin on a rack to cool completely, then refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours. After unmolding, garnish with the chopped hazelnuts.

For the original Bittersweet Chocolate Mini Cheesecakes recipe and a full review of Desserts 4 Today (and my mini-review!), click here.

Just think of the make-ahead possibilities for the Holidays. Or any day. Ooo… wonder what I could do with pumpkin…

I don’t want to panic you or anything, but have you looked at the calendar recently? The Holidays (capital H, here) are racing up on us and along with them, the dinners, the parties, the last minute and impromptu get-togethers.

I’m going to do something a little bit different today, and I’m not going to write about the food. Gasp!

Look, you’re going to be doing a lot of cooking and cleaning up – no getting around it. Admit it, there are going to be some times when you just can’t stand the prospect of loading and unloading the dishwasher one more time or looking at yet another sinkful of dirty dishes, and you’re going to do “disposable”. I don’t blame you – I’ll absolutely do the same. I’m going to ask you – for just half a minute – to think about the impact on the environment of all the discarded plastic cups, the plates, the utensils. Nothing like a side of guilt with your turkey and dressing, right?

One of my usual shortcuts is to line my cookie sheets and brownie pans with aluminum foil to help cut down on cleanup. Well, looky what I found in the wrap and foil aisle of my regular grocery store:

All I can say is, it’s about freaking time! Finally! It’s just like regular Reynolds Wrap, but it’s made from 100% recycled aluminum. This is the kind of forward corporate thinking I’d like to encourage, so this is the foil I’m going to use to line my pans and tent my turkey this year. It even costs a few cents less at my store than the regular Reynolds Wrap. By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, Reynolds has changed their packaging to use less materials – the amount of product inside is the same, but the packaging is smaller. Yay, Reynolds!

When it comes to disposable plates, there are a number of options at the store. Here’s the “Plain Jane” version:

Admittedly, you might like something sturdier for your dinner – especially if folks are eating off their laps. All that gravy and cranberry sauce is bound to get a little sloppy, right?

In that case, you might choose the popular Chinet brand. Chinet’s now made from recycled materials and is fully biodegradable and compostable in either your home composter/compost pile, or in a community composting program (check to see if your community has one). I actually just toss ‘em in my composter and they break down just like newspaper and tree branches. And not just the white ones – all of ‘em!

Let’s not forget the beverages! Solo is now selling a line of plastic cups called “bare“. The bare line is made with 20% recycled plastic and is 100% recyclable in your regular household recycling. Another “finally!” is due here.

There are several other eco-friendly choices available online and in party specialty stores: disposable utensils made from cornstarch and sugar cane, higher-end disposable serveware made from bamboo and palm and sugar cane fibers, too. There are even compostable plastic cups! Many of these products aren’t new, but they are becoming more easily available, both at the party stores and at your local grocery. These are just a few of the items I noticed while wheeling my cart down the paper aisle.

It’s not a great revelation that our health – and that of future generations – depends on the environment. You take the time to care about and ask where your food comes from, so this Holiday Season, please take a moment to think about what you’re putting your food on. No one family can do everything, but every little bit helps!

By the way, I am not being sponsored or in anyway compensated to show you these products. Except maybe with a little karma, I hope.

It’s the Monday after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday for you internet-savvy holiday shoppers. You’ve got two problems: You’ve got all this leftover turkey from last week, and you don’t have a lot of time to make supper tonight.

You know what? I’m with you. I’ve got at least 6 new posts in my head (one of which I actually started to write and never quite finished), and I’ve been baking cookies. And will continue to bake cookies for the foreseeable future.

The 12 Days of Cookies Project begins tomorrow (see that badge over there in the sidebar?), and that means that, beginning tomorrow, I’m going to be baking – and posting – a different cookie recipe from the 2008 Bon Appétit Holiday Cookie-a-Day collection, everyday from December 1st (yes, that’s tomorrow! can you believe it?!?) through December 12th, along with a bunch of other bloggers. At least I’m going to give it my best shot!

I’ve also got macarons (with feet!) due for Mac Tweets on December 10th, and a new bread for the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day group due on December 15th. And oh, yeah. I’m expected to make regular appearances at my job, and get ready for Chanukah AND Christmas!

But no, you don’t care. You just want to know what to do with your leftover damn turkey. Well, you know what you’re getting? Reruns. Here are a few things from previous recipe posts to give you some ideas of what you can do with that turkey. And get your minds out of the gutter, thankyewverymuch!

The first suggestion that comes to mind is our favorite Chipotle Chicken Pizza. Simply substitute
1 1/2 – 2 cups of cooked, cut-up turkey for the chicken.

Give your leftovers an Indian flavor and try a modified version of American Chicken Curry Masala. Instead of the chicken, season approximately 3 cups of cooked turkey, saute for just a couple of minutes, and proceed with the recipe as indicated.

And here’s one that requires no modifications at all -Turkey Taco Salad!

Don’t forget – you can also slip some of that leftover turkey into your favorite pasta (try it with Roasted Garlic Spinach Pasta), or even in your favorite lasagna!

There! Are you happy now? Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for the first installment of The 12 Days of Cookies!

My office’s big annual Thanksgiving pot-luck luncheon was yesterday, which I’ve organized and contributed to for the last 10 years, and frankly, I was too pooped to post. So, I bring you Recipe Monday on Tuesday. Shoot me.

Everyone’s tossing their favorite holiday recipes into the internet ring, this week, and I want to share a couple of our favorites with you, too. These two dishes, Amaretto Cranberry Sauce and Bourbon Yam Casserole, only appear at Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house, which is – I guess – what makes them special to us.

This house is a fan of chunky, whole berry cranberry sauce. Love biting into those tart/sweet berries along with that bite of turkey. Mmmm… A couple of years ago, MJ decided that we should stop buying it in the can and make our own.

He was right, of course. Making your own cranberry sauce is one of the easiest things to do on the planet, but for some reason, other people are greatly impressed when you put a bowl of this sticky, ruby goodness on the table and say, “I made it myself.”

Here is a variation that he discovered in his travels on the internet, looking for something that was just a wee bit out of the ordinary:

Amaretto Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 (12 ounces) package fresh cranberries
2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup amaretto
2 Tablespoons orange marmalade
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Preparation:

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add cranberries, sugar, and lemon juice; stir well to combine. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes or until cranberries begin to pop. Remove from heat; stir in amaretto, marmalade, and lemon rind.

Yield: 3-2/3 cups

*Note:

This recipe is easily multiplied (or cut) to suit your needs. Last year we quadrupled it and shared it with family and friends, wherever we were invited, presenting it in lovely Ball jars and tied with a ribbon. It should be kept refrigerated, but take it out of the fridge about 15-20 minutes before serving and give it a good stir.

This year, we cut the sugar to 1 1/3 cups rather than the full 2 cups. This will make it a slightly softer sauce, but no less flavorful. You can also substitute lime juice for the lemon juice as a delicious variation.

Original recipe found at about.com: America’s Best Recipes: 1992 Hometown Collection (Oxmoor House) – out of print; Camellia Delights, The Altrusa Club of Gulfport, Mississippi

This next dish was served to us at the home of some friends who had spent some years living in New Orleans. To bring a taste of that time home to them wherever they lived after that, they turned to The New Orleans Cookbook by Rima and Richard Collin (first printed in 1975, and then in soft cover in 1987). When I begged them for the recipe back in 1989, I copied it nearly verbatim out of the cookbook.

Of course, over the years, I’ve made several modifications to make my life easier, since this is one of those dishes that I contribute to the office potluck and generally double to feed a crowd. The New Orleans Cookbook is still available in softcover and has received many favorable reviews as to its authenticity and flavor, so if you want more Creole-style cooking in your life, you should check it out. Here is my version:

New Orleans-Style Yams

Ingredients:

6 large sweet potatoes
1/3 cup Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur)
1/3 cup bourbon
6 Tbs. butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. white pepper

Preparation:

Roast the sweet potatoes for about 45 minutes at 375º F and allow to cool thoroughly, then peel and cut up coarsely in roughly 1/2″ slices, arrange in a large casserole dish, piling the slices on top of each other.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter or margarine over medium-low heat, add the remaining ingredients, and stir to combine well. Pour this sauce over the prepared sweet potatoes, and with your cooking spoons, just “cut” it into the sweet potatoes. It’s not necessary to stir it – you just want the liquid to reach through your layers. Press down and smooth the top.

Cover the casserole and bake at 375º for 45 minutes. Fluff it up a bit before serving.

*Note:

If you’re expecting a crowd, you can easily add an extra sweet potato or two to this recipe without increasing the liquid.

These are my favorite “secret” holiday recipes. We’re all about the spices and flavors around here, and these just holler “Happy Holidays!” at the tops of their little lungs. Can’t you hear them?

If you have a personal favorite Thanksgiving recipe to share, please add it here!

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Ordinary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You’re the glue that holds everyone together.

No kidding? Dammit! I was hoping to be something a tad more exciting. Like, umm, the Turkey or the Yams. Mashed potatoes, indeed! Hmmph!

We had a great day, yesterday. The deep-fried turkey was to die for. If you’ve never had it before, you simply must, sometime. I took a portrait of it for my Saturday PhotoHunt post, tomorrow on Flamingo Fotos (it’ll be up after midnight – the beauty of scheduled posting!).

I toyed with getting up at the crack of dark to do some early shopping, but the comfort of my bed and the warmth under the covers (you have to understand – once the mercury drops below 80 and the humidity below 60%, we open all the windows and don’t close ‘em again until it goes above those conditions – no matter how cold it gets at night. And it had to be in the low 50′s or high 40′s last night!) acted like some kind of super-gravitational force, and I didn’t even open my eyes until almost 10:00 a.m.! I couldn’t believe it! I never sleep in that late! Yeesh!

So, instead I did a lot of damage at Amazon and at my Daily Click sites (I repeat, you must do some of your holiday shopping there – it’s great!), enjoyed what MJ and I call “coffee on the veranda” for about an hour and a half, late this afternoon, and watched the parrots – all of them! – descend on the feeders one last time for the day.

Charla gave us some leftovers to take home – no pie, though – and I’m going to add some mashed potatoes, and we’ll be happy to do it all over again…. yum!

So, what did you do today?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends in the U.S. and elsewhere! It is very nearly time to turn on the TV for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, form my dinner rolls and pop them into the oven.

This year, MJ and I will be driving down to the wilds of Homestead at the far southern end of the county, to share the day and some fine deep-fried turkey with some friends and their family. Don’t judge me harshly for not getting together with my own family – we do all the Jewish holidays (and there are quite a few Jewish holidays!) with them – but this one time, we’d like to have a fine and festive dinner without the side-order of indigestion (literally and figuratively) that usually accompanies a meal there. Maybe I’ll volunteer to do it at our house next year.

What am I thankful for, today? I am thankful that it is a fine 62 degree, sunny morning. That, just now as I put JJ outside in her playpen, I was treated to a scene of several species of parrots, Catbert, a couple of Spot-breasted Orioles (see tomorrow’s Friday’s Feathers post over at Flamingo Fotos), and a hummingbird, all enjoying repasts at the various feeders in my backyard.

I am thankful to see the light at the end of the long, dark tunnel that is the present greedy and despicable presidential administration. I am hopeful that whatever last-minute evils to the environment they attempt in these last few weeks can be undone without too much damage. I am thankful that our country (at least the majority of it) finally took off its collective blinders and threw the bums out – 4 years too late, if you ask me, but better late than never. I am thankful to live in a country where we can do that sort of thing without the loss of blood and life that frequently accompanies the process in many other places around the world. It’s not a perfect process, but it does work.

I am thankful for the love and support of my hubs, MJ, for a paycheck in the bank, a roof over my head, food on my table. For friends who love us and we love right back. For the freedom to hop onto the internet and tell you exactly what I think, without fear that someone will knock on my door and haul me away for my big mouth.

But now, I’ve got to go – the Parade’s starting! Have a wonderful day and let’s give Thanks for each other!

I know I haven’t written in a couple of weeks. It isn’t like there’s a shortage of material out there, both political and personal. It’s just that, well, Thanksgiving is coming up this Thursday, and while the world still seems bound and determined to go to hell in a handbasket before Barack Obama’s inauguration in, what is it now? 56 days? rushed in no small part by The Shrub, I try to rein myself in around this time, and think about all the things for which we as a nation and I personally, have to give thanks.

Whether or not you believe in a Higher Power in some form or another, isn’t relevant. I don’t think there necessarily has to be a deity to whom to direct your thankfulness (here comes that bolt of lightening!). In a recent study: “Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress... Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of others; and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons.”

I was reminded of this today, when I received the following e-mail from a soldier serving in Afghanistan, to whom we sent a package a couple of weeks ago:

RJ and MJ,

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Civilians here at *** appreciated the care packages that you all sent. They were absolutely stuffed with goodies that are hard to come by here in Afghanistan and served to remind us all of not only the comforts of home, but of how much support we have from patriots like you all. It is gestures like this and folks like you that make serving in this environment a lot easier and I thank you on behalf of all the *** service members for that!

Just so you know where your package ended up, *** is the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) Task Force here in Afghanistan. Our mission is to defeat the enemy’s ability to use IEDs against our troops. Given that IEDs are the primary cause for US killed and wounded over here, our charter is significant and we work tirelessly going after the enemy and his devices. I’ve attached a picture of some of us so that you can put some faces to the joy that you have spread with your generosity and concern.

Thank you again,

JP

I’m thinking he’s grateful that he doesn’t have to be out there doing his job in this:

Yes, Boys and Girls, it’s raining mud.

So, today I am grateful for people like JP, who volunteered to put their bodies on the line to go wherever, whenever, on behalf of us. I may not like it that he’s there – hell, if you asked him, he’d probably tell you he’d rather be home with the wife and kiddies, hisownself – but I’m grateful that he’s willing.

And I’ll send him a package or two to share for Christmas. You should too. Go to AnySoldier.com and pick one out. And say Thank You.