Buttermilk Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

Schatzi: If you’re scrambling for a last minute stuffing recipe, here’s one I made the year before last. I am a firm believer in multiple stuffings at Thanksgiving, as I can never decide whether I prefer a cornbread or a white bread stuffing. Though the original recipe called for scratch buttermilk cornbread, I totally cheated and used a Jiffy mix with buttermilk for milk. While cornbread is easy enough to bake from scratch, sometimes one just does not feel up to one more lengthy step in the process. I particularly like the toasted pecans with the sausage and cornbread in this one; don’t skimp on the toasting if at all possible. However, feel free to use pork sausage, if you prefer.

Pass the Drumstick, and an Olive Branch

Thanksgiving, while a joyous occasion for many, can also cause a great deal of anxiety and dress. Not just the cooking, baking, and other preparation, but the experience of being with loved ones, be they family and/or friends, at the dinner table. “You can’t pick your relatives–but you can pick your nose” remains relevant for many, and for some people, a little nose picking is probably a great deal more fun than extended time with family. None of us have perfect families, and though we love them, it can sometimes be hard to be around some of them. In 2006, Kim Severson wrote this piece for the NY Times about defusing some of those holiday dinner troubles.

COOKS can control the Thanksgiving menu, but when the dishes leave the kitchen, things can unravel fast.

Family grudges buried by time and distance resurface. New girlfriends meet ex-husbands. Prius drivers make small talk with S.U.V. owners. And vegans spend the meal defending themselves.

It’s enough to break a cook’s heart. We seek the culture of the table as much as a well-made stuffing. We want the pace of the meal to be dreamy, the conversation indelible. Nirvana is a table trimmed with our best platters and a room brimming with friends, family and warm feelings.

The problem: Americans, as a whole, have lost touch with the ritual of the shared homemade meal. Although we eat at home a lot, the food often is from restaurants or the prepared foods section of the grocery store. Families eat in shifts and leave the television on. The sandwich has become the most popular dinner entree.

No wonder we have no idea how to behave at Thanksgiving.

I have a friend whose Thanksgiving meal went south just after her grandmother called her brother a cowardly Communist. Another friend’s nightmare began when her mother’s new boyfriend started talking about breasts, and he wasn’t referencing the turkey.

the rest of “Pass the Drumstick, and an Olive Branch

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

Schatzi: Someone on a forum I frequent was looking for a pumpkin chocolate chip cake, and some of the other members suggested to him that I would be a good resource. Now, I’d never made one before, but I was willing to try out a recipe or two to help an IFHYer out, so I looked around online. I found a few that seemed promising, and decided upon this one from the New York Times. Instead of a frosted layer cake, however, I decided to alter the recipe slightly for a Bundt pan, feeling that would take a little less effort for a novice baker. I also added a smidgen of vanilla, and I might try it again with brown sugar instead of all white. I left out the pecans this time since my roommate is allergic to tree nuts, and because they’re hellav expensive right now, and I need to hoard the ones I’ve got for pecan pie.
The resulting cake was spicy, moist, and delicious. It hasn’t even been around for twenty-four hours and it’s almost gone. Eli is having a hard time restraining himself.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin Pie

Schatzi: There are myriad pumpkin pie recipes out there, but I usually just rely on the recipe on the Libby’s can label. If it’s not broken, and so on. I do alter it slightly, however. For one, I prefer some brown sugar in my pies, and tend to use it in conjunction with or instead of white granulated sugar. I also add a few more spices, such as ginger and allspice. Some might feel the allspice redundant since it is generally equated to cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, but it’s got more depth than that, and should be used more often, I think. Use whatever pie crust you feel best here; most people have one they prefer, after all. But I do suggest using metal pie pans for custardy pies like pumpkin.
I generally bake the pumpkin pie a couple of days ahead, so that it can be eaten for breakfast on Thanksgiving Day. That’s how I was raised, and I love the taste of pumpkin pie in the morning, smothered with whipped cream. As Bill Cosby once famously pointed out about chocolate cake, it’s got eggs, butter, and milk–plus, pumpkin is a vegetable!

don’t forget!: Dr Pepper freebie

Hit up the Dr Pepper website for a coupon for a free Dr Pepper in celebration of the long-awaited GNR album Chinese Democracy! It’s available today only, though the coupons will be honored through February 2010.

Read about it at Wired.