Search Results for: ground turkey

Your First Thanksgiving Turkey

Fun fact: I have only made one Thanksgiving turkey in my life and it wasn’t even on Thanksgiving Day (my mom owns that duty). It was one random afternoon in the middle of July, when I was in the recipe testing phase of my book. (Deadlines are deadlines!) If you’re wondering why you should trust a relative novice with one… Read more »

2 All-Turkey Patties, Special Organic Sauce, Greens, Cheddar, on a Whole Wheat Bun

Phoebe was about four years old the first time she walked into a McDonald’s. It was somewhere in Virginia, an I-95 pitstop on our annual 800-mile drive down to South Carolina from New York. I remember her wide-eyeballing the playground outside, the Wizard of Oz doll display inside. Before she had taken a single bite of food, she turned to… Read more »

Braised Meatballs with Polenta

Don’t tell Great Grandma Turano, whose namesake meatballs have been the default in our house for decades, but we’ve been silently betraying her for the last year and half. It all started when I read about Anna Francese Gass and hergrandmother’s meatballs, featured in Gass’s 2019 cookbook Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories from the Tables of Immigrant Women. The recipe has roots in Calabria, and calls for… Read more »

Classic Three-Bean Chili

When we were first trying to get our kids on board with the whole Weekday Vegetarian thing, we were never quite sure if we should tweak old recipes that they had an attachment to, or just ignore them completely. Sometimes we got lucky and just swapped beans for meat in a favorite dinner and no one was any worse for… Read more »

The Weekday Vegetarians

I could not be more excited to introduce you to The Weekday Vegetarians. Can you believe how happy and gorgeous she is? Before I started writing this book, it’s not an exaggeration to say that a piece of animal protein anchored our dinner plates at least five out of seven nights a week. Back then, when I was trying to decide… Read more »

“Dumpling” Meatballs with Sesame Green Beans

When my first book, Dinner: A Love Story, came out, I will never forget my agent calling me to discuss publishing the book in England. “There’s an agent over there who wants to buy the rights for it,” she told me, “but he’s concerned about all the Trader Joe’s talk and ground turkey recipes.” The Trader Joe’s thing I understood,… Read more »

For Now, Shepherd’s Pie

Apologies for being MIA. As you might have gathered from the last post I wrote, it was a rough week in the DALS house, and to be honest, a week and a few cabinet appointments later, I know we’re not alone in fearing that things might only get rougher. If I had to acknowledge a few bright spots, though, I’d… Read more »

Anatomy of a Weeknight Dinner

5:00 Shut down computer. Start making meatballs. 5:15 Get sidetracked by mind-numbing carpool text thread. 5:30 Finish browning meatballs. 5:45 Pick up Kid One at friend’s house. 6:00 Start soup; add meatballs to soup. 6:30 Kid One sits down, by herself, to Italian Wedding Soup, a recipe that is debuting at the family table! 6:31 Kid One complains about stringy cheese…. Read more »

Tips for Happier Weeknight Dinners

I am so pleased to hand over the mic to Katie Workman today. You might say the two of us are sisters in dinner — we met in 2013 at The Family Dinner Conference (yes, it exists), she’s blogged for years, and has two books out on the subject, the latest of which might be my favorite. It’s called Dinner:… Read more »

Recipe Index

Project, Pantry, Purpose (March 2020 – present) Aperol Spritz Apple Pie Banana Bread Banana Flambé Bánh Mì, Tofu, Andrea Nguyen’s Beans, Cuban-Style Beans, Honey-Harissa Beans, Lima, with Bacon Dressing Biscotti Blondies Bok Choy, Gingery, with Scallops or Noodles Bolognese, Marcella Hazan’s Bread, No-Knead Broccoli, Chopped, Charred Brownie Sundaes Burritos Cacio e Pepe Cake, Almond, Snacking Cake, Buttermilk-Berry Cake, Carrot, Snacking… Read more »

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So That’s Why They Call it Comfort Food

  Five days after Hurricane Sandy pillaged the Eastern Seaboard, I was on the phone with my Dad. Neither of us had our power or heat back yet, so we were both trying to wrap up the conversation quickly to conserve our cellphone batteries. The sun was going down and I was running down a mental list of which friend’s… Read more »

First Place Loser

There’s this thing Abby and I do, before every soccer game. She’s usually sitting on the wooden bench by our door, in her too-big uniform, and even though she’s in third grade, I’m enabling…I mean, tying her cleats. When I’m done, I give her a pat on the knee and look into her eyes. “You ready?” I ask. “Yeah,” she says. The… Read more »

The First Annual Dolly Awards

In case you haven’t noticed — it’s awards season! I’d like to thank the Academy for reminding me how remiss I’ve been at following my #1 Get-Fired Resolution. (“See more matinees.”) And to the folks who handed out Michelin stars in France earlier this week — thank you! I can now afford to dream about all the cafes in the… Read more »

Great Grandma Turano’s Meatballs

Once upon a time, Brooklyn, New York was not a cool place to live. Back in those days – the late seventies, actually — in an unhip and unironically aluminum-sided neighborhood known as Borough Park, in the windowless basement of a plain row house with a concrete yard and a Madonna in the living room, a 95-year-old Sicilian woman named… Read more »

Back-Pocket Bolognese

. Meet Turkey Bolognese. This recipe has been in the rotation in our house for almost two decades. It was the sauce we cooked together in Andy’s first apartment (in 1994, in Brooklyn, when the only restaurant on Smith Street was The Red Rose) and the same one he made when we first came home from the hospital with a… Read more »

Recipe Index_back

Sides and Starters Asian Cabbage Slaw with Peanuts Asparagus with Chopped Egg and Onion Baked Potato Bar Beet and Carrot Slaw Beets with Oranges and Feta Bibb Lettuce with Summer Peas Broccoli Slaw Carrots, Roasted with Garam-Masala Yogurt Sauce Cauliflower, Roasted with Anchovy Breadcrumbs Chard, Sautéed with Horseradish Chicken Wings Chilled Napa Cabbage with Cilantro and Pickled Shallots (Alice Waters)… Read more »

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Nostalgia Night: Porcupine Meatballs

The recipe for these sweet, braised meatballs is written on a notecard with company letterhead from Andy’s first job. It’s written in shorthand — I can picture him in his beige, cookie-cutter cubicle fifteen years ago, scribbling down the instructions as his mom dictated the exact amounts of peppers, onions, and beef over the phone… her standing in his childhood… Read more »