Thanksgiving Alternatives

I've always had a rather, well, strained relationship with turkey. Sure, I'll eat it roasted and sliced on bread with some mayo, just as long as someone else has done that roasting and slicing. Maybe it's my genetic predisposition to obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I just cannot abide by the thought of that much turkey carcass in my kitchen, covering everything it (and I) touch with salmonella.

We've tried other proteins. A whole salmon. Guinea hens. Tofurkey at my aunt's house (awful! Just awful.). Dinner out, at the Left Bank Brasserie. I've made two pumpkin pies for a family of five, one "regular" and one low-fat, whole-wheat, less-sweet version that burned black in the oven and tasted like nothing. Every year for the past four, I've yelled, cursed, cried, and fought with family members who take a hands-off approach to the kitchen and then try to micromanage our Thanksgiving.

This year is going to be different. No burned fingers, no last-minute runs to Safeway for whipped cream, no pre-made gravy mixes. Most important of all: NO TURKEY. I have officially declared a moratorium on whole turkeys. There will be nonesuch fowls sitting around raw or cooked in my house, thank you!

So, of course, I have had to devise an alternate plan for the family meal. Our shared cuisine is usually Japanese, truth be told, but I can't even hold a candle to my grandmother's cooking, and she has put the kabosh on cooking for over four people. My mother couldn't cook an appetizing meal to save her life (sorry, Mom, you know I love you), let alone figure out portions for six. This is where I come in. I'm taking the best hints I've learned from Grandma, the Food Network, and the piles upon piles of cookbooks and blogs I read to help me out on this most stressful of food-related holidays. Below is my planned menu, and a few ideas for your last-minute meal!

Roasted beet salad with goat cheese: I got three beets (two red, one golden) the size of my head at the weekend farmers' market, and I am determined to convince my family that beets are much, much more than the canned kind. The beets will be wrapped in foil, roasted at 400 degrees for an hour, and allowed to cool overnight before being cut into wedges and tossed into a salad of greens with goat cheese.

Garlic-rosemary new potatoes: The very thought of mashing potatoes to a smooth, creamy texture makes me angry. I love a crispy-skinned, smooth, garlicky potato that hasn't been adulterated with cream and butter. Tyler Florence's recipe is so easy and consistent, you can do it with your eyes closed. If potatoes don't offer up enough carbs for everyone, I'm serving dinner rolls on the side--store bought.

Pot roast with whole mushrooms and onion: I have never actually made a pot roast before. My grandmother, Alton Brown, and Gourmet Magazine all tell me it's pretty easy. I plan on adding whole mushrooms and a couple of roughly chopped onions to the pan when there's an hour left to go, just to up the deliciousness factor. Is cornstarch enough to make gravy out of the resultant liquid?

Green beans dressed in lemon juice, olive oil, and grain mustard: This is another farmers' market find, there is a bag of piles and piles of fresh, snappy green beans sitting in my crisper drawer, dying to get out. They're just going to be blanched quickly in boiling water and tossed with a quick dressing. Lemons from my backyard are free, so what the hey--may as well capitalize on those!

Kabocha pie: the piece de resistance. Kabocha, as I hope you now know, is a Japanese pumpkin--green rind, hard as a rock, and small, but DELICIOUS. My grandmother (why is this post all about her? I don't know!) remembers having to eat green-fleshed, unripe kabocha during World War II on her uncle's farm, because everyone was so desperate that they would come in the night and steal all of the pumpkins. Now, sixty years later, she's learned to love ripe kabocha, and I think she'll love this updated pumpkin pie. Kabocha flesh is somewhat drier than your regular canned pumpkin or sugar pie pumpkin flesh, so it takes more moisture added to create a smooth paste for pie/custard, FYI.

Now, the best part of Thanksgiving dinner is always the side dishes and pie. I've pulled together a list of mouth-watering alternatives to the traditional yams and stuffing from our friends at other blogs--enjoy!
-From the Food Channel, the addition of bacon and cheese to creamed corn sounds like heaven in my mouth. If you wanted a mac'n'cheese variant, this one sounds like a winner to me!

-Brussels sprouts with pearl onions, one of my favorite vegetables to pan-roast and serve with pasta. Try it drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, or tossed with walnuts for extra crunch.

-Potatoes au gratin. Got to love the cheese+potatoes+butter combination. Scalloped potatoes are also a super-classy mashed potato option.

-Japanese sweet potato, baked in the oven. These gems have papery, rust-colored skin and a golden flesh that will literally melt your tongue off if you eat it piping-hot. Poke holes in the imo (potato) with a fork and oven-roast right on the rack, with a tray underneath to catch the sap that dribbles down. Yes, they're that sweet!

-Cave Cibum has a lovely recipe for scones with bacon, cheddar cheese, and scallions that sound like the perfect breakfast in bed, midnight snack, or clam chowder indulgence partner to me. God loves a terrier, but God also loves scones, I bet.

-Featured on The Kitchn, a savory kabocha and tofu pie. This recipe piques my interest because it uses firm tofu, when often in tofu-baked-goods recipes you'll see silken tofu as an egg substitute. I love this one, because it's like a quiche you wouldn't feel so guilty about eating half of. Did I just write that out loud?

-For pumpkin pie "haters" (WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU), the Food Gal has a solution. Pichet Ong's kabocha cheesecake looks divine, and if there is anyone who does a better "fusion" dessert than P*Ong, I would be pleasantly surprised.

-The Recipe Girl made her mark on Ina Garten's Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart, a recipe I've always thought would be a good way to use up that half-can of pumpkin puree and brown banana languishing on the kitchen counter.

That's Thanksgiving to me this year. I'm thankful for my family (my grandmother, obviously!), for having a good, steady job at this time of upheaval, and that I'm back in California. It may be raining out here, but at least it's not snowing when I have to trudge out to the grocery store. It's the little things we have to learn to be thankful for, right?

Holiday Gift Guide: For Your Favorite Foodie

For this installment of our holiday gift guide, we're cooking up great ideas for your favorite connoisseurs of cuisine, the epicurean elitists, and the hopelessly kitchen-inept! Enjoy~

Karen:

- Everyone loves a gorgeous salad bowl and utensils to toss with, it makes otherwise boring salad dinners a little more fancy and fun. Bamboo is a simple, renewable, elegant option for the kitchen, or a lovely glass serving set can double as a punch bowl. Obviously in my mind, the recipient of your gifts is a huge fan of tiki style. Punch and bamboo for everyone!

- Delight.com also has stylish, eco-friendly and artisan options for the home and kitchen, like this serving set that looks like branches sprouting leaves. Why not throw in a few simple recipes while you're at it and add a little touch of healthy encouragement?

- We love ModCloth and their chemical elements salt and pepper shakers. How cute are they? Cooking is really just delicious chemistry, right? I am a huge sucker for adorably twee kitchen items. Check this one out, it's a salt and PEEP-er shaker! Love it.

- For your favorite dinner party maestro, the always adorable Fred Flare has the most amazing finger food plates. Just don't gesticulate too much with one of those perched on your mitts, or dinner will go flying everywhere! They're so dainty, I just can't stand it.

- Once upon a time, Jeanne gave me a copy of the best gosh-darned book on entertaining ever written: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by my personal heroine, Amy Sedaris. It is quite possibly the best gift I have ever gotten, and so useful! Amongst the many and varied things I've learned from Ms. Sedaris since Strangers with Candy, seriously, exfoliating before shaving your legs to get a closer shave ranks up top. I highly recommend it. (Jeanne: Kati gave me this, too! So I think we all have a copy, except for maybe Kati. Karen, obviously this is what you need to get Kati to complete the circle.)

- Often at California's best antique malls, you'll see walls packed with vintage produce advertisements. Local restaurants have labels framed as wall decoration, and if you're a design nerd, produce labels offer a real plethora of font styles and a different kind of pin-up girl. The Antique Label Company has prints already framed and categorized, so get searching! How about some twins with lettuce, or a fun Pop Art cucumber?

- Make your own personalized cookbook for that special someone. Base it around a theme, like the recipient's favorite flower, a special meal you shared, or foods that trigger memories. I love the idea of this recipe from Wandering Chopsticks: Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Base Stew) for your relative/friend/associate with Korean connections. A similar recipe for those with a fondness for Japan is our perennial favorite here at the Periodic Elements of Style, nikujaga. A personalized cookbook is also a great way to encourage an adventurous palate. Why not nudge your "regular" meat-and-potatoes giftee towards a little bit of Bamboo Shoots with Ground Pork the Japanese Way to share? This year, I'm making a batch of Panamanian empanadas for my grandmother who has complained about the lack of authentic empanadas since she left the Panama Canal zone in 1974. (Shh, don't tell her!)

Jeanne:

My family loves cookbooks; my late grandmother had an entire library of cookbooks that she collected over the years, and some of them made their way to me. She always had the right cookbook, and so I always love looking at them and discovering new things, even if I'm more of a "boil it! microwave it! whatever!" cook.

- Of course, the new cookbook is the internet, especially since there are some amazing foodbloggers out there. Not only does Karen have a bunch in her blogroll here on PeriodicStyle, but there's also the new BlogHer Food Blog search widget, where you can type in a recipe title or an ingredient and find something amazing to read and eat. Awesome.

- Last year, my brother and my two male cousins (both college students) received these cookbooks from my mom: A Man, A Can, A Plan or A Man, A Can, A Microwave. Besides the initial laugh of "oh, ha hah, cooking with a can and a microwave because I can't really cook anything without using can of microwave", they're put together by Men's Health magazine and actually look like something you'd want to eat. If you're trying to wean someone off of fast food and into the kitchen, this would be a good first step. (That said, I give everyone, dude or lady, full credit that they can definitely cook whatever they want if they put their mind to it.)

- The San Francisco area has the most amazing food and incredible restaurants, especially those that focus on local produce. I visited the girl & the fig in Sonoma a few weeks back and loved it, so I was excited to see the the girl & the fig cookbook in a cooking supply shop after leaving the restaurant. I didn't get a full look at the book, but I'm sure it's amazing. Another legendary restaurant in San Francisco is Greens, the vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason. My mom gave me a copy of Everyday Greens, the most recent Greens cookbook, last year, and (again) while I haven't had the chance to make anything from it yet, the sandwiches and salads all sound delicious and incredibly realistic to make.

- Maybe you have a little cook, or just the imagination of one. As a kid, I loved cookbooks that tied in to the stories I loved, whether it was fairy tales or the Boxcar Children. (How many hours did I spend pretending I lived in a boxcar? Many.) So while there's a whole range of childrens' stories cookbooks out there, two we particularly want to highlight are Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes (highly recommended by Karen) and the Little House Cookbook featuring recipes from the Laura Ingalls Wilder canon for those of you who always wanted to eat a roasted pig tail or a bear's drumstick. (Related: Have you seen HalfPintIngalls on Twitter? Hilarious!)

- Finally, the final course is my weakness, desserts. From San Francisco's Citizen cake comes Demolition Desserts, head chef Elizabeth Falkner's guide to amazing desserts. Again, I haven't poured over this one yet, but the cupcakes at Citizen Cake are amazing. (Alas, Citizen Cupcake, the satellite location in Virgin Records, has closed!) And then, of course, there are the amazing Paris Sweets, a recipe book that collects recipes from the finest (and most famous) Paris bakeries. I popped "paris sweets" into the BlogHer Food Blog search and found this amazing-looking black and white cake, eclairs with lavender white chocolate mousse, opera cake, world peace cookies (chocolate with fleur de sel salt!), and punition cookies. Oooh.

- Not related to cookbooks: tea. Buy tea. Buy Mariage Freres tea (there are more varieties here, but I can vouch for Marco Polo) and a nice teapot and you will not go wrong. I promise you.

Kati:

Despite having cook in my job title, I don't actually cook that much when I'm off work. Why? Well, one of my main problems is I never seem to have all the ingredients and I have little desire to go out and procure foodstuffs to make things after work, when I can just go out and procure prepared food.

- Apparently Mark Bittman's cookbooks, How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian are amazing. Good to know!

- But what if you want to create your own recipes? Etsy has some adorable recipe cards, including these (kitties!) or these (bunnies! squirrels!) from BoyGirlParty and these from nutandbee.etsy.com.

- Need a spice rack? This one rotates and comes pre-filled with twenty different spices.

- After all of your cooking, you'll want to keep your leftovers and eat them later. Here's a set of Pyrex containers, which are microwavable (yay!).

image from modcloth.com

Science Fair for November 17th-23rd

Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving here in the U.S.? I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, but I must persevere, for the cooking responsibility is all mine come Thursday afternoon! The big news at my house this week is that we acquired a gigantic jar of buckwheat honey from the farmers' market, and our hearts are breaking over rumors of Pushing Daisies getting cancelled. Lee Pace, my darling boy, you can always come live in my heart if you are out of a job!

On that note, here's your Science Fair!

-Speaking of honey, I have a lot to use up. The ever-useful National Honey Board has some nifty beauty tips and tricks using your favorite honey. Who knew why it works so well as a moisturizer? I'll never pay money for drugstore beauty products with honey in them again!

-As a big honey fan, I am always concerned about Colony Collapse Disorder, it makes me want to start keeping bees in my backyard.

-From World Changing, check out this hilarious but adorably animated video chiding Japan on its food security and wasteful ways. I find the fact that Japan wastes so much foodstuff most deserving of highlight, considering that the way my Japanese grandmother uses every little bit of everything she buys!

-Also out of Asia, dudes need to stop trying to play with wild animals, zoo or not. Wild animals are still wild, remember, and even if you're bitten by a neighborhood dog, make sure you get your rabies shot! Last year around this time, a local boy was mauled and killed by a tiger at the zoo, it was quite the tragic debacle.

-Onto brighter topics, THANKGIVING!! The Environmental News Network has tip on how to green your Thanksgiving all over. Having made the mistake of trying to thaw and cook a whole turkey in a single day, I have personally sworn off of cooking large fowl for national holidays, and will be making a pot roast for my table of six. If there are complaints, I will knife them in the hand.

-Coming right up is another national holiday you've probably forgotten about: the end of Prohibition! We'll be out celebrating (aka, drinking--safely) in San Francisco, dressed as flappers in our best backseamed stockings and cloche hats. Is there any better way to remember our national history than to drink to it? I think not.

-For historical fashion inspiration, we've turned to public resources like the brilliant New York Public Library Digital Gallery and the new archive of LIFE Magazine photos from the 1750s onward, hosted by Google.

Coming up on the Periodic Elements of Style, you'll get a peek of my Thanksgiving table and some tips from the make-up trailer on Twilight! Have a great week, everyone!

Where balms and lipstains meet!

I love the idea of a lipstain in theory -- lipcolor that lasts all day, even through eating and drinking! But they can be drying if you don't wear a balm over them, and still can come off on your office mug or napkin when you're eating at your cubicle all day. (What? That's the best way to test these things, right?)

You all know that Benetint is my stain of choice for my cheeks, but I originally wanted to wear it on my lips. But its lack of portability in the liquid form, and the fact that the Benetint balm comes in a pot and not a stick or a tube so I have to stick my fingers in it (or carry around a lip brush, which is a pain too) isn't ideal for me. So when I got the chance to ask Jean Ford if there were any plans to make my dream product, a Benetint balm in a lipstick or lip gloss form, she said no and I was sad.

But there is a bright side: Poppy King, the Lipstick Queen, made my dreams come true with Medieval.

I first spotted Medieval at Product Girl, where I immediately pinged Kati and said, "Look at this post! I want this!" The next day I was marching downstairs to Barney's cosmetics department. The same day I was picking it up, Blogdorf Goodman wrote about Medieval too.

It's totally the same sort of thing as Benetint -- the universal sheer rosy red, but in a lipstick. I heart it so much, you have no idea. And, you know, if BeneFit still decided to make one (with SPF!), I would snap it up too. But until then, I am more than thrilled with Medieval.

And then I found another one! I went to the local Japanese supermarket and of course started poking around the beauty and cosmetics aisle. There I found a lip balm that loudly proclaimed, "No Need for Lipstick" with the color name of "Nadeshiko Pink". Hmmm. Since "Nadeshiko" is a phrase that means "ideal/perfect woman", I had a feeling it was supposed to be another universally flattering color. And so I bought it.

Opening up the balm, it's white, like a regular Chapstick. But on applying, it turned hot pink. I even took before and after pictures for all to see. The before picture has no lip balm on at all, while the second is about a minute after applying two or three swipes of the balm.

The balm is nice and moisturizing, and the hot pink color lasts for hours, even when the balm itself has worn off. I even woke up the next morning with pink lips.

I believe it's the same sort of concept as Smashbox's O-GLOSS, where it is initially clear but then turns pink against your skin, as demonstrated by the Beauty Brains. (Apparently there's a JK Jemma Kid Lip Gloss that does the same thing.) I don't have the packaging in front of me, but I'll definitely check to see if it's got Red 27 when I get home.

So those are two stainy balms I've been playing with lately! Sheer red and hot pink, yay!

What have your latest beauty discoveries been?

images from periodicstyle.blogspot.com

Science Fair for November 10th - 16th

Quick and dirty this week, but full of comics!

- After attending the Alternative Press Expo earlier this month, I helped the Lovely L., who created the banners for both PeriodicStyle and PeriodicBeauty, set up her adorable minicomic The Littlest Elle on Wordpress! Go check it out at elle.mysky.net!

- Because of APE, L. and I were featured on Pirate Cat Radio last week, talking about our trip to Japan last September. The ginormous podcast is available here -- it's 110 MB, and L. and I come in around 39:30 on the 11/14 podcast. We talk about Godzilla and Nara deer (the true menace in Japan).

- In addition, I'd like to introduce you to Corinne Mucha, who is an excellent storyteller and an all-around nifty person. Her comic blog is here. In particular, I would like to direct you to Procrastination, because it is true. As are the comics she has for sale. The one about her apartment is my favorite. (Heads up for language if you are sensitive to the swears.)

- Going off of Procrastination, which places some blame on puppies, I give you live-streaming shiba inu puppies. You guys have already seen them, right? And you love them, right? (And if you don't love them, we can't be friends anymore. Sorry. It's harsh but true.)

- Final proscrastination comics, I swear: Kate Beaton has hilarious historical and autobiographical comics for the truly geeky of us. My favorites include Girl's Best Friend, Jane Austen Comics, and pretty much all of her nonsense cartoons, particularly For Better And Also Worst and Another Dang Garfield Cartoon. (Another language heads-up. I'm only looking out for you.)

Have a great week!