Every year, cooking magazines trot out a collection of Thanksgiving recipes that, in an effort to titillate food porn consumers, incorporate fussily exotic ingredients and sometimes overelaborate methods of serving. The flip side is the “Thanksgiving made easy” feature in which classic recipes are abbreviated and bowdlerized into submission, with the goal being a simple-to-facilitate (rather than classically delicious) holiday experience.
Fine Cooking, to its credit, has come up with a focused, straightforward, well-organized menu plan that manages to combine simplicity with elegance. Classic mashed potatoes sit side by side with clever but reasonable updates of holiday favorites including sausage-maple bread stuffing; cranberry sauce with vanilla, maple syrup, and cassis; and a brined and roasted turkey with herb butter and Pinot Noir gravy.
And responding to popular demand on the Interwebs, the mag even offers turkey-related instructional videos. If you really like turkey videos, these are the sort of videos you’ll really like.
Oooh thanks for the tip. I’m going to check out Fine Cooking and glean whatever tips I can for this year’s Thanksgiving feast. Thanksgiving has become the holiday that we host, and neither hubby nor I are adept or too kean on making the big bird. So… maybe Fine Cooking will inspire some other meat.
I am so glad someone else thinks so. I am making the full Fine Cooking menu along with a ham, rolls, pecan pie, chocolate caramel chestnut cake, and cherry slab pie. I cannot wait!
-Becca
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