Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Jamie and I will be out in East Hampton and Southampton this weekend. We will be deep frying a turkey again, because wow they're so good. We're also continuing a tradition started last year of inviting all of our friends over the day after Thanksgiving to reuse the turkey frying oil and fry a whole bunch of things. Last year, the best items were the deep fried grilled cheese and the deep fried oreo stuffed with chocolate chip cookie dough. This year, I went to Trader Joe's and loaded up on a bunch of their frozen appetizers (samosas, tater tots, mac and cheese balls, dumplings...) so we'll see how those go!

Happy eating!

Roasted Acorn Squash with Spicy Maple Butter

When the weather gets cold, I love roasted acorn squash. It's so good roasted with just butter and brown sugar, but I played around with that mix a little last night. I made a compound butter with butter, maple syrup, cayenne, chili powder, and smoked paprika, and a few other spices. You could also use chipotle powder - anything really. It's so easy, and the squash is tender and flavorful. Great side dish.

Sous Vide Pork Chops with Hard Cider Glaze

I love pork chops and apple. Apple-stuffed might be my favorite, but this recipe is delicious and simpler. If you don't have a sous vide, you can just cook pork chops normally and finish with the glaze. They're really juicy and flavorful and a great fall dinner. I served them with Ina Garten's roasted cauliflower with pecorino and panko - a great side! (Taken from this recipe.)

Classic Carbonara

On a cold or dreary day, there's nothing like a creamy plate of spaghetti carbonara. I know I've made the leek carbonara before, but I wanted to go for a really basic, classic carbonara. Usually you're supposed to use dried pasta, but after watching Master of None all weekend, I was inspired to make it with fresh spaghetti. Yum! It's so good and creamy and salty and delicious, and the little bites of crispy pancetta are just the best. This is easy and cheap, too, so a great weeknight dinner. 

Pink Applesauce

It seems that half the people I've spoken to recently have a plethora of apples from either weekend apple picking, or someone else's weekend apple picking. My sister-in-law gave me a whole bunch of apples from her uncle's apple tree - thanks Uncle Bobby! They were little and bright red. Not entirely sure what kind of apples they were. I've made a few things, but this weekend I made some really delicious, and pink, apple sauce! I read somewhere that as long as you use a food mill, you don't need to peel or even core the apples. Makes it so much easier, and you also get all the good flavor (and in this case color) from the skins. The bright red skins gave the apple sauce such a pretty color, and the cinnamon stick I cooked them with gave it just a little bit of a cinnamon flavor. Yum! Also, it's only three ingredients. Very simple. 

Butternut Squash and Lentil Soup

The Indian spices in the soup really make it. I saw the recipe on NYTimes.com and thought it looked great. I tweaked it slightly, but it's a really nice, flavorful soup. Stirring in the buttery toasted mustard and cumin seeds at the end gives it a great bit of textured crunch. Next time, I might add some shallots and another chile, but it's still great as is. Feel free to use chicken broth instead of water if you prefer. 

Serves 4 (probably more)