Cooking Method: Broil
SWEET POTATO, CRUMBLED BLUE CHEESE & DRIED CRANBERRY SALAD By Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
I have Thanksgiving anxiety and I’m not alone.
What will dinner look like this year??
One of the ideas currently being floated about by my family and countless others is a ‘pot-luck-special’: we will each make a dish and bring it to a designated porch and take home a share of all the available dishes. Truth be told, it’s a glorified take-out. Sigh.
My contribution might be this salad because it doesn’t need to be re-heated and would be delicious in the post-Thanksgiving-turkey-stuffing-cranberry-sauce-sandwiches. (I would put it right up next to the cranberry sauce.)
And It’s my effort to combat the ‘food-won’t-be-hot-at-the table’ blues.
Pasta with Pesto, Green Beans and Crispy Potatoes A Dinner Against the Clock Recipe By Foodie’s Markets Chef Laura Brennan
Pasta with pesto, green beans and potatoes is a classic dish from the Liguria region of Italy. This region comprises a narrow crescent of land that curves around the sea at the ‘top of the boot’ and stretches from the French border into Tuscany.
This dish was one of my favorites at cooking school; I made the pesto by hand using a mortar and pestle. And of course, I made fresh pasta as well. A labor of love.
Fast forward a few decades and I now buy pre-made pesto, and use excellent quality dried Italian pasta, either linguine or trenette, a fettuccine-shaped flat noodle, traditionally served in Liguria. I look for pesto that is made with at least 50% extra virgin olive oil and is sugar-free. Read labels. And I have substituted crispy potatoes for the boiled potatoes. The crunch of the crispy potato is a great contrast to the overall softness of the dish. This truly is a quick dish to prepare…you could have dinner on the table in 35 minutes or less.
Stuffed Artichokes by Foodie’s Market’s Chef Laura Brennan
Everyone is longing for Spring and in the kitchen, nothing heralds Spring more than artichokes and peas…well, longer days and warmer weather do play their part! If you have never cleaned an artichoke, I recommend that you find an instructive ‘youtube’ video. I find them so helpful; the videos do a great job of translating words into pictures.
Chicken Thighs with “Forty Cloves of Garlic” by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan
Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic is a classic French country dish. The garlic cloves mellow considerably in pungency during the cooking process and become sweet little delicious nuggets. This is a quick dish for a holiday supper that can be made ahead and re-heated.
Don’t be daunted by the thought of peeling 40 cloves of garlic—rubbing the cloves vigorously between your palms helps the papery skins to slide off. Another trick is to work them between two metal bowls: put the garlic cloves in the bottom of a metal bowl and place an equal-sized bowl on top. Twist, push and rock the top bowl over the bottom bowl holding the garlic cloves. This technique also helps to loosen the skins.
