Thanksgiving menu

Beauty shot from our recent trip to the Mount Washington Resort

It has been a little too crazy-busy this week to do a lot of food photography and, I'll admit, I'm not one of those bloggers that keeps posts in reserve for busy times. I write about what I'm cooking in the moment, if there's time.

And this week, there's not a lot of time.

But, since I'm excited about how our Thanksgiving meal is shaping up, I thought I'd just share the whole thing with you directly, in case you're still looking for ideas.

And you still might see some of these dishes show up in more detail next week.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

Appetizers / Antipasto
I like to do charcuterie or antipasto in the early afternoon, when everyone starts getting peckish

• Charcuterie with Horseradish Cream
• Giardiniera

Dinner

• Deep-fried Turkey
• Potato Casserole (courtesy of my sister-in-law)
• Butternut Squash and Cornbread Stuffing Muffins
• Nouveau "White-Trash" Green Bean Casserole (a real-ingredient take on the old standby)
• Cranberry-Apple Congealed Salad (I'm making my own cranberry sauce to use in place of the canned called for in the recipe, as the canned is made with HFCS)

Desserts

• Nutella Cookies
• Salted Oatmeal Cookies
• Eggnog Coffee Cake

CSA Share Ninja Rescue: a new feature!

Photo by Erik Dungan via stock.xchng

Have you ever had one of those "what the heck is THAT and how do I EAT it?!!" moments when you open your CSA share?

I certainly have.

Or would you like to be more food-adventurous and try something from your local farmers' market -- say, rhubarb -- that you have never eaten before and don't know how to prepare?

Enter the ninj.

I am starting a new feature here on the blog, especially for summer when the CSA programs kick into high gear all over the country. Tell me what you received in your share box that is giving you angst and I will give you some ideas for how to use it.

Bok choy? Kohlrabi? Kale? Rapini? Daikon? Tatsoi? Yep, the ninj can help.

Too many tomatoes? Zillions of zucchini? I'm here for you.

Send me your suggestions by posting a comment below or emailing me at kitninja (at) gmail (dot) com. Each week I will review the suggestions and provide as many helpful ideas as I can.

Vive le CSA!

What we ate this week

Sometimes, dinner can't wait for a photo shoot.

While it may seem to some of you that I'm doing little else other than taking pictures of everything I eat, I can assure you that I cook (and eat) a lot more than I blog.

Which is why I periodically give you these "what we ate this week" posts. A lot of dishes we eat are really tasty and certainly blog-worthy, but sometimes life intervenes: I can't find the camera, it's getting late, we're hungry ... or I just plain forget to take the picture before we scarf the meal down.

So cheers! Here's to having a real life in which you eat, rather than style, your dinner -- most of the time.

• Baked pasta with spinach, lemon and cheese -- like sophisticated mac and cheese
• Artichoke and goat cheese strata -- a rockin' good meatless dish
• Celery celery soup -- another winner from Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table
• Light caesar salad dressing -- greek yogurt makes it light and a tad tangy, from Jamie Oliver