I remember the day when my mother decided to get all sophisticated on us and switch from canned jellied cranberry sauce to the canned whole berry kind. I thought my Thanksgiving world was going to ruins. I liked that cylinder of shimmering, quivering jelly with the can indentation lines on it. I liked the way the pieces flopped onto the plate when my mother cut it into thick, velvety slices. 

The whole berry kind was somewhat too grownup for my then 8 or 9 year old self, but I had to admit that it was good too, not the disaster I anticipated.

But the best was when she got a new recipe for baked cranberry sauce. It’s the one I make every year, although sometimes I add on a second version. Then I know there will be leftovers.

Everyone always talks about the turkey leftovers. But there’s so many delicious things you can do with cranberry sauce leftovers! Like fritters to go with that turkey sandwich!

Cranberry Fritters

1 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup milk or coconut, almond or soy milk

1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

vegetable oil for frying

sifted confectioner’s sugar, optional

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar into a bowl. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together until well blended. Add the flour mixture and mix until well blended. Fold in the cranberries. Heat 1/2-inch vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough to make a bread crumb sizzle, drop the batter by the tablespoonful into the hot oil. Leave space between the fritters so that they cook crisply. Fry for a minute or two per side or until browned and crispy. Drain on paper towels. Serve plain or with sifted confectioner’s sugar. Makes 6 servings

Need  quickie vegetable for Thanksgiving?

Try roasted asparagus. It’s among the easiest of side dishes you can make. It looks good. Tastes good. You can make it in advance. Serve at room temperature. 

This is one of my go-to fall back dishes whenever I am stuck for an easy, veggie side dish, no matter what the occasion.

Roasted Asparagus

1 pound asparagus

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Wash the asparagus and remove the woody portions at the bottom. Peel if very thick. Coat the asparagus with the olive oil. Place the asparagus on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 6-10 minutes, depending on thickness, or until barely tender. Let cool to room temperature. Sprinkle with Balsamic vinegar. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings

You can serve this hot too: sprinkle the just-roasted asparagus with a squirt or two of lemon juice.

You can serve this topped with thin shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Our family Thanksgiving dinner always used to end with apple pie, because it would have been unthinkable not to have my mom’s perfectly perfect apple pie, and also pecan pie, because my sister-in-law Eileen, who claims she isn’t a good cook, nevertheless makes one spectacular pecan pie.

Unfortunately, my daughter Gillian is allergic to pecans, so we haven’t served pecan pie on Thanksgiving for decades. 

No problems. I love to fuss and fix recipes. So I came up with nut pie versions that didn’t cause a health problem and were also really tasty. Like this one for Honey Hazelnut pie. Which you could also make with cashews or pistachios.

Honey Hazelnut Pie 

2/3 cup honey

1/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped hazelnuts

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the honey, sugar, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract in a bowl and blend them thoroughly with a whisk. Stir in the flour, salt, hazelnuts and apricots. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crusty. Makes one pie serving 8 people

Anyone over a “certain” age and living in the New York Metropolitan area will remember Horn & Hardart Automats, those grand cafeterias where you could get on the usual line and buy the usual stuff from the steam tables. But it was always more fun to buy the individual portions of food that were set in little alcoves on the wall, each covered by a glass window. You would put the required number of nickels in a slot and poof! the glass window would open and you would take your food and before you knew it the window closed, and another identical portion of food would circle around and take its place.

If you didn’t have enough change you could get some from the “nickel lady,” in charge of the change booth. As I recall, the nickel ladies were always plump.

My Aunt Roz and Uncle Mac used to take me and my cousin Leslie to the Automat when we went ice skating in Manhattan. The two of us always had the vegetable plate: macaroni and cheese, hash browns and spaghetti.

Dessert depended on the season, but in the autumn I always picked pumpkin pie.

I remember Automat pumpkin pie as a miracle. It was tender, moist and not too spicy. It had a golden sheen on top and nice, crumbly crust. It was the best pumpkin pie ever, even better than my Mom’s.

And so, even after the ice skating days were done and trips to the Automat over, I would sometimes make my way over to one to pick up a slice of pie. 

Then the Automats closed, pushed out of the gastronomic mainstream by the likes of the McDonald’s and Burger King of the world.

Neither of those eateries have pumpkin pie.

Wow, do I wish I had that Automat recipe.

I make a different pumpkin pie every year. I don’t know if the one below is better than the Automat’s. Memories can be deceiving. But I can say it is delicious. Tender, moist, and with a glossy sheen on top. Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Pie

1-3/4 cups mashed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1-1/2 cups half and half cream, evaporated milk or nut milk (such as MimicCream)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Beat the eggs, sugar and brown sugar with a whisk or electric beater set at medium for a minute or until well blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the cream until well blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt and beat ingredients for a minute or until well blended. Pour into the pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and let cool. Makes one pie serving 8 people

I came from a mayonnaise family. My husband Ed’s family was all about ketchup. Honestly, his parents used to buy bottles of Heinz in bulk long before anyone ever heard of Costco and BJ’s. And so did he, based on what I spotted in the cupboards of his single-guy apartment the first time I looked.

Opinions run high on stuff like this, just like with politics.

Imagine Michelle Bachmann discussing Hellman’s versus Heinz with Al Gore.

It’s not really such a big deal though because when it comes to something like a roast beef sandwich we can each put whatever we want on the bread, right?

But no, right after we were married and might be making sandwiches on a Sunday afternoon, we would each slather the bread and then taunt each other about how the sandwich we were eating was so much better than the other one’s.

Over the intervening years for one reason or another we have each cut down on our favorite condiment. Although I still love a summer tomato sandwich with mayo. And he still pours a blob of ketchup on his plate when I serve grilled steak.

He has tried to convince me that olive oil tastes better on that summer tomato sandwich, but I am not convinced.

I think there ought to be a law against eating ketchup with a good grilled steak.

We both agree that you have to use mayo, not ketchup, for egg salad, but that ketchup, not mayo, is best for meatloaf.

And of course, we can always choose that loving combo of — ketchup PLUS mayo. 

A nice compromise. It often works to the good.

Like on a hamburger.

Or in this turkey sandwich recipe, which you might want to consider for your leftovers after Thanksgiving.

Turkey Sandwich

6 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno pepper

1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon peel

6 sesame seed buns

6 pieces of lettuce or a bunch of watercress

sliced, leftover turkey

2 avocados, sliced, optional

12 tomato slices

6 slices Monterey Jack cheese, optional

Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, jalapeno pepper and lemon peel in a bowl, mix well and spread equal amounts of this mixture on one side of each of the sesame seed buns. Cover with lettuce or watercress. Top with slices of cooked turkey, optional avocado, tomato and cheese. Cover with the remaining bun half. Makes 6 sandwiches

Pumpkins and Campaign Posters

Every November the jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins stay outside on stoops and stairs way after Hallowe’en like so many campaign lawn signs after an election. But the campaigns are over and the posters are yesterday’s news while the pumpkins are still fresh and relevant, right up to Thanksgiving.

Somehow pumpkins start to feel out of place only after the first big snow.

Oh my. I forgot about that snow …

Probably because during the now infamous October snowfall in Connecticut — a friend of mine had no electricity for 9 days and as of this morning still does not have cable or internet service — I was in Egypt, where it was 110 degrees in Abu Simbel, near the Sudan border.

I loved coming back to pumpkins, even though I missed Hallowe’en. The autumn landscape helped put me back to the right time and place.

November. A chill in the air. Sweater weather but still sunny. Those campaign posters will be taken down by next weekend. But the pumpkins are still about. Time to think about pumpkin food. Like quickbread and vegetable side dishes and soup. 

Here’s a good Pumpkin Soup recipe. This dish would be a perfect starter for a fall dinner or for Thanksgiving.

By the way, if you want to serve the soup in mini-pumpkins, here’s how to do it (and also have fresh, mashed pumpkin): preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Carve out a lid from each of the pumpkins, scoop out the seeds and spray the pumpkins and lids with baking spray. Place the pumpkins, upside down, and the lids, flesh side down, on a cookie sheet and bake for 45-60 minutes or until the outside is dark orange and the inside is tender, but not too soft. Scoop most of the flesh from the inside of the pumpkin and set aside (about 2 cups). You can also use this method using one larger pumpkin.

Pumpkin Soup

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 small onion, chopped

2 cups vegetable stock

2 cups pumpkin puree (canned is fine; NOT pumpkin pie mix)

3 medium tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped

3 cups half and half cream, coconut milk or nut milk

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

few gratings of nutmeg

whipped cream, plain yogurt or sour cream, optional

chopped scallions or chives, optional

Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes or until softened. Add the stock, pumpkin, tomatoes, half and half, sugar, salt and nutmeg. Stir to combine ingredients evenly. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer the ingredients for 15 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender. If desired, serve topped with a blob of unsweetened whipped heavy cream, plain yogurt or sour cream and garnished with chopped scallions or chives. Makes 6 servings

Is it a yam or a sweet potato? This question comes up every year and, true to form, my sister-in-law and I talked about the very subject yesterday.

The answer is: unless you go to a special, local market or grow them yourself, you are not going to be able to buy yams. You will be buying sweet potatoes, no matter what the supermarket or greengrocer calls it. Yams are not grown commercially in the United States.

There are many varieties of sweet potato. Some almost white, some yellow, others are dark, rich almost burgundy-orange.

They’re all sweet potatoes.

As is the stuff in the cans.

Centuries ago some sweet potato varieties were called nyami by American slaves, who thought the vegetable looked like the African yam, a completely different plant species. And that’s how the confusion all began.

No matter. Whatever you call them, most people love them and will be making some sort of sweet potato dish for Thanksgiving.

If you need a really quick and easy recipe without all the sugar and butter and other stuff, here’s the simple way I make yams, er — sweet potatoes: I buy the dark orange organic sweets, roast them and when they are cool I spoon the flesh into a bowl. I grate the rind of a fresh orange over it, sprinkle in a few shakes of cinnamon and mix. Then I stir in enough orange juice to get the texture I like. That’s all there is to it.

This recipe is less caloric, less fatty. So that if you have any leftovers you can make an awesome, not-so-low calorie cheesecake for the rest of the weekend. Here’s a recipe:

Sweet Potato Cheesecake

ground toasted almonds (about 2 tablespoons), optional

1-1/2 pounds cream cheese

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon grated fresh orange rind*

1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

3/4 cup pureed sweet potatoes

1/2 cup dairy sour cream or plain yogurt

confectioner’s sugar, candied ginger, etc. for garnish, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter an 8-inch or 9-inch springform pan (or cheesecake pan). Sprinkle with the toasted almonds and twirl the pan to lightly coat the sides and bottom with the nuts. Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium for 2-3 minutes or until smooth. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, orange rind and vanilla extract and beat the ingredients for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Mix in the sweet potatoes and sour cream, blending thoroughly.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Place the pan in a larger pan. Fill the larger pan with enough water to come up about 1-inch on the sides of the springform pan. Bake for about one hour or until set. Remove the springform from the larger pan and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before removing the cake from the pan to cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar or candied ginger if desired. Makes one cake, serves 8-10

*if you use leftover mashed and seasoned sweet potatoes, cut down on the orange rind by half.