Christmas 2025

 Deviled Eggs

Gardein Turkey Cutlets with Gravy 

 

Green Bean Casserole

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Dinner Rolls

Candied Pears

Sweet Potato Pie

Thanksgiving 2025

 Deviled Eggs

Gardein Turkey Cutlets with Gravy 

 

Green Bean Casserole

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Dinner Rolls

Candied Pears

Pumpkin Pie

Christmas 2024

Celery and Cucumbers with Cheese Spread?

This is just celery and leftover cucumber slices and the leftover seasoned cream cheese from tea sandwiches the other night. The celery is really good and made me think of celery with pimiento cheese spread at Christmas when I was young, but I'd rather use up the cheese spread I already made.

Deviled Eggs

Gardein Turkey Cutlets with Gravy 

 

Green Bean Casserole

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Dinner Rolls

Candied Pears

Pumpkin Pie

Christmas 2023

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing

For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

 

Gardein Turkey Cutlets with Gravy 

 

Green Bean Casserole

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce

Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Cheese Herb Rolls 

Candied Pears

Pumpkin Pie

I'll just buy this from the grocery store because it's not worthing making from scratch.

Cinnamon Ice Cream 

The ice cream is worth making from scratch.

Sameer's Birthday

He hasn't announced yet if he wants pizza or nachos for dinner, but Sameer has requested this cake, at half size rather than two layers like I would normally do. I forgot he likes his frosting to be partly shortening-based, so I'm saving this link here so I don't forget when it comes time to make it.

 

Cherry Chip Cake with Chocolate Frosting

 

[Edited 1/30/23: We ended up having pizza for his birthday dinner and nachos over the weekend.]

Thanksgiving 2022

Our new refrigerator was supposed to be delivered last week, after weeks of our slowly consuming the contents of our current previously full fridge, but it still isn't in stock yet. The store we ordered it from says it'll hopefully arrive before the end of the month. It's just two days till Thanksgiving now, so I think it's safe to assume the new fridge won't arrive until after the holiday. Time to go shopping and start cooking.

For breakfast on Thanksgiving morning, Sameer wants to make Cheesy Amish Casserole. I bought Morningstar crumbles to go in place of the bacon. I also plan to add a diced green bell pepper for flavor. We can eat this while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV.

Tomorrow night (Thanksgiving Eve) we're having nachos because it's easy and yields no leftovers. I'm including it in this meal plan so I get all the ingredients I need at the store today. We didn't end up making this last week, so I think I just need to pick up some guacamole from the Whole Foods.

Last year I ended up doing a lot of extra cooking on Thanksgiving just because I was bored and felt like it. We'd like to eat those same items, but it seems like a big commitment, so I'm dividing this year's recipes into "must do's" and "may do's." If I have the energy and desire, I'll make the may do's, but they are at the lowest priority level and can be made over the following days as necessary.

 

 

Must Do

Crudites with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

 

Gardein Turkey Cutlets with Gravy 

I already found a bag of these at the grocery store a few days ago, which makes me very happy.

 

Green Bean Casserole

 

Easy One-Hour Dinner Rolls

Sameer picked out this recipe to make himself.

 

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce

 

Cheesy Creamed Corn

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

I bought a bag of sweet potatoes a few days ago. I'm just going to bake them and then peel and whip them in the standing mixer. No additional ingredients, same as always. It's nothing fancy, but it's healthy and I like it.

Candied Pears

Pumpkin Pie

I think I'm just going to buy a pie at the store today because I don't like making pumpkin pie and I don't care what it tastes like because it's always the worst part of the entire meal in my opinion. My family cannot tell the difference and doesn't care where it comes from as long as we have it.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

May Do

Buttermilk Cornbread

Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

Seared French Beans with Caper Bagna Cauda

Cherry Pie Wontons

I made this last year without a recipe, but here is a recipe for the cherry pie filling. This is assuming I can find frozen tart cherries at the store.

Apple Pie Filling

Because I could make apple pie wontons too. Or maybe an apple crisp with to serve with leftover cinnamon ice cream over the weekend.

Cream Cheese and Green Onion Wontons

I just made these last year to use up some wonton wrappers and because I love to eat them, but everyone felt they were a great addition to snack on ahead of dinner. I think they had forgotten how delicious a fried wonton wrapper filled with cheese is.

 

We are going to have a vast amount of Thanksgiving leftovers, especially if I make all the may do's listed, but we always finish them off within a couple of days, ever since I started limiting my holiday cooking to things I really love to eat (e.g., no more stuffing or cranberry Waldorf salad) . Last year I made vegan lentil loaf the next night to eat with the rest of the sides since the Gardein turkey cutlets yield little to nothing in the way of leftovers. I plan to do the same this year. We already have plans to get takeout from Simran's favorite pizzeria next Saturday night, so we should be set for meals throughout next weekend.

Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

From the NYTimes cooking section.

 

Ingredients

8 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp kosher salt

3 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1/2 cup finely crushed candy canes

 

Directions

1) In a medium sauce pan, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until pale yellow. While whisking, slowly add the cream and the milk. Heat the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon or about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 10 to 12 minutes.

 

2) Transfer the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl to cool at room temperature. Stir in the peppermint extract. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Set a 9-by-5 inch loaf pan in the freezer to chill.

 

3) Churn ice cream in ice cream machine.  During last few minutes of processing, add the candy cane pieces. Transfer the ice cream to the prepared loaf pan, cover well with plastic wrap and freeze until firm.

Christmas 2021

 

Crudites with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

 

Cheese Herb Rolls 

Gardein Turkey Cutlets

 

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Green Bean Casserole

 

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce

 

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

 

Possibly another veggie side depending on what looks good at the store

 

Candied Pears

 

Peppermint Ice Cream

Selected by Simran because of how much she liked it last year.

Gingerbread Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

We're baking these this week.

Thanksgiving 2021

 

This was Sim's plate, so there is no vegan gravy on it at her request. Clockwise from top: Seared French Beans with Bagna Cauda (added to the menu because it's Sim's favorite vegetable side and I saw some really nice looking green beans on sale at the store Wednesday), whipped sweet potatoes, boxed mashed potatoes, Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce, Green Bean Casserole, with a Gardein vegetarian turkey cutlet in the middle.  I didn't snap a pic of the candied pears. And I just bought a pumpkin pie from the store because I didn't care enough to make it myself this year and no on in my house but me cares at all.  We also ate most of the cream cheese wontons and cherry pie wontons shown in another post.  Drink of the night was a spiced sparkling cider I found at the store.  Again, no pics.

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

Gardein Turkey Cutlets (I already secured some from Jewel-Osco after weeks of looking.)

 

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Green Bean Casserole

 

Seared French Beans with Bagna Cauda

 

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

 

Candied Pears

 

Pumpkin Pie

 

 

 

Christmas 2020

Planning this today because I'm going grocery shopping later and want to get as much squared away in advance as possible.

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing

Gardein Turkey or Chik'n (or a new fake meat if I see anything appealing in the freezer section; if not, I'll use the last of the seven grain chik'n tenders purchased before Thanksgiving)

 

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Green Bean Casserole 

 

Candied Pears 

 

Yule Log Cake

Peppermint Ice Cream

 

Gingerbread House (because Sim's school is doing a Zoom gingerbread house decorating night, and making one from scratch last year wasn't harder than dealing with a boxed one; plus this way it's good enough to eat, which is the only thing Sim wants to do with it anyway)

Gingerbread house walls.  This is the point at which I realized I didn't have enough dough for the roof and had to make a second batch of dough.  It's currently chilling in the fridge for the next three hours.  If you use the linked gingerbread recipe to make a house, make sure to double it.  I can't remember if I doubled it last year or what.

I used a new frosting recipe in the hope it wouldn't get too soft at room temperature to hold everything together like the buttercream I used last time, and I erred on the side of too little milk initially, so it was too dry and it's a bit of a mess.  The second tablespoon of milk made it much more workable, and it's been sitting like this without falling in on itself for a couple hours now.  One more hour till the Zoom decorating party.

Finished product courtesy of Simran and a bunch of candy from the grocery store.  It's the next day and it's still holding up.  The Wilton frosting recipe with half veg shortening is definitely the way to go for gingerbread house decorating.

Yule Log Cake

I made a pumpkin cake roll a year or two ago but I've never made a yule log cake.  I was going to make one last Christmas but then we were all sick.  So Sim and I are making it this year.  Here is the collection of recipes I will be using.  It's going to be intense.

Chocolate Sponge Cake with Ganache

(accompanying how-to video from Chef John, especially important for knowing how to tell when you're done beating the eggs)

Cinnamon Coffee Frosting (filling) 

Meringue Mushrooms (decoration)

Marzipan leaves and berries (decoration) 

Regarding how to make bark and affix a little side branch

 

Planning to serve peppermint ice cream alongside it because it's delicious and I've never made peppermint ice cream before.

Edited 12/24/2020:  Everything was going great until I started to unwrap the partially cooled cake from the towel to add the filling.  It just stuck to the towel until the cake fell apart completely.  I think when I did a pumpkin cake roll successfully the towel might've been lined with plastic wrap so that the towel itself never touched the cake, no matter how dusted with powdered sugar it was.  I should've done it that way again, but this recipe had such good reviews that I just followed it exactly.  

 I finished unwrapping the broken cake, added the cinnamon coffee buttercream, and wrapped the crumbs and cake pieces back up again to the best of my ability and wrapped the "log" in plastic wrap.  It's a mess.  It's chilling in the fridge now so I can cover it in ganache later, but it'll still be flat and weird shaped even when it's covered.  It looks like it fell in a volcano.  The taste is okay (very light, fluffy cake) and probably won't be affected too terribly by how it turned out, but if I did it again I wouldn't use the cinnamon coffee filling.  I think all chocolate components would be too much chocolate, but the cinnamon coffee frosting wasn't optimal with this cake.  I used it on a very dark mocha cake before and it was better with that.  The only reason I didn't use that cake recipe here was out of fear it wouldn't hold up when wrapped into log form.

Edited 12/30/2020:  I ended up cutting the crushed-looking, broken cake in half and stacking it on top of itself after it chilled in the fridge so it looked more like a messy little layer cake.  After pouring the ganache over it and decorating it with the meringue mushrooms, the overall flavor combination was very good, though it still looked very messy.  Sameer and I ate it, and Simran deemed it "too chocolaty," but she doesn't normally like chocolate cake in the first place.  She liked the peppermint ice cream though.

Thanksgiving 2020

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

Gardein Turkey Cutlets (if Mariano's has them -- nowhere I've been this year has carried them and I can't find Gardein chik'n tenders anymore either; if things get really dire, I will make nut-crusted tofu)

  

[Clockwise from top: Gardein chik'n tenders, baby bok choy, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes.]

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Green Bean Casserole

 

Candied Pears

 

Pumpkin Pie

 

 

Cinnamon Ice Cream 

 

Apple Pocket Pies

I'll finish off the homemade apple pie filling in these.

 

Any other dishes will be informed by what arrives in the farm box on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Possibly whipped sweet potatoes, pumpkin (or winter squash) curry soup, brussels sprouts, or dark leafy greens with walnut sauce. 

 

[Edited 11/23/2020:  Got the email listing what we're getting in this week's farm box.  I'm getting a pie pumpkin, so I'm going to make the pumpkin pie from scratch instead of canned (using Alton Brown's recipe for the pumpkin puree).  We're also getting kalettes, sweet potatoes, and baby bok choy, so I'm adding Baby Bok Choy with Tamari and Chinese Mustard Sauce (Vedge, pg. 83), whipped sweet potatoes, and kalettes cooked in the style of Shaved Brussel Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce to the Thanksgiving menu.  If I run out of time, the kalettes will just go into the freezer for breakfast smoothie fodder and I can use a can of pumpkin for the pie.  I'll make the pumpkin curry soup next week with any leftover pumpkin or sweet potatoes as well as the leeks that are coming in the farm box.]

[Mocktail of the night:  cranberry lemonade made from the remainder of a container of lemonade concentrate in my freezer, a couple small cans of cranberry juice cocktail, and a bunch of lime La Croix.]

Simran's Quarantine Birthday

We were originally having an indoor pool party for Simran's 8th birthday later this month, with a store-bought cookie cake and ice cream, plus the pizza included in the pool party package from the Park District.  Everything was planned and the pool was booked; we just hadn't sent out the invitations yet.  Simran has rolled with the punches incredibly well when it comes to sheltering in place and all the plans it has involved canceling.  We started preparing her a few weeks ago for the possibility that her birthday party would have to be postponed until her half birthday in the fall (or some other time, depending on the state of the pandemic) and that we'd have a small three-person family party at home for her actual birthday this year.  She mentioned around the same time that her favorite place in the world is TCBY because of the toppings bar and that the best day of her life was the time last fall when our windows were being replaced and we had to go to Ace Hardware and they were unexpectedly giving away birthday cake in the store.  She said it was her favorite day because I took her to the park later where we had a little picnic of sandwiches from home just to get away from the house for a few hours while the work was being done, and she keeps talking about that picnic, as basic as it was.  So for her 8th birthday, I'm re-creating some of that.  I'm also keeping most of it a surprise because she likes surprises more than looking forward to specific events (unlike myself) and because it keeps it lower stress for me.  All she knows at present is that I have something small at home planned that I think she will enjoy and that there will be a small number of presents (I started ordering them from Amazon and Target weeks ago just in case shipping times got longer -- AND THEY DID -- so they've already arrived).

For lunch we'll have a picnic on our deck.  I don't know what we'll eat.  Maybe veggie dogs and baby carrots like she might normally have indoors for lunch.  I'll just cook whatever and bring it from the kitchen on a tray.  Maybe fancy mocktails (which is generally just ice + some kind of juice + sparkling water) to drink.  She likes fancy drinks.

For dinner I'll make cheese pizza with black olives -- her favorite.  For dessert we'll have cookie cake that she can help me bake and decorate (probably the day before), and the big treat will be an ice cream sundae bar, like TCBY but with decent ice cream instead of garbage fro-yo.  I've already started collecting toppings (pirouette cookies, Oreos, malted milk balls, Reese's pieces), and at my next grocery store trip I'm going to buy Neapolitan ice cream (her favorite) and ingredients to make a batch of homemade ice cream too.  She told me she wants me to make cinnamon ice cream, which wouldn't be great for toppings other than Biscoff cookies or maybe Teddy Grahams, but she'll probably mostly want the Neapolitan anyway, so the cinnamon ice cream might end up being primarily for me, which is not a problem.  I asked her what her favorite sundae toppings are (so I can make sure to have them) and she unexpectedly said strawberries, so I'll buy those on my last shopping trip before her birthday (which is projected to occur sometime between 4/16 and 4/20).  The true beauty of the sundae bar as I see it is that it can look like a grand buffet of choices without generating a lot of food waste.  We can just package up whatever doesn't get used and put it away for later because store-bought junk food has a really long shelf life. 

Christmas 2019

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

Gardein Vegetarian Turk'y Cutlets

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole 

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce 

Candied Pears 

Yule Log Cake
 with Cinnamon Icing Filling 

Gingerbread House
Simran has been asking for a gingerbread house she can eat, so we're making one from scratch.  It might not hold up that well with basic buttercream frosting, but at least it'll be fresh.

Thanksgiving 2019

This will be almost identical to last year.  I've honed Thanksgiving menu down to exclusively things I love to eat.  The only difference is this year I'm making the pumpkin pie exactly to the recipe.  I think there might've been something else Sameer wanted to add (since I'm the only one who likes the stuffed mushrooms) but if so, I can add it on later.

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

Gardein Vegetarian Turk'y Cutlets

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole 

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce 

Candied Pears 

Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving 2018

I'm pretty much doing a replica of last year's holiday meals.  It exclusively contains dishes of which I want to eat all the leftovers.

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing
For lunch and noshing on till dinner time.

Gardein Vegetarian Turk'y Cutlets
I love these things so much.  They are better than any vegetarian meat I've ever made from scratch, and they take little time and next to no effort.
Boxed Mashed Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole 

Stuffed Mushrooms with Horseradish Cream Sauce
I forgot I made these last year.  They are so good, even though I'm the only person in the house who eats them.
Candied Pears 

Pumpkin Pie
I want to try this recipe because 1) I love gingersnaps and was specifically seeking out a pumpkin pie with a gingersnap crust, and 2) Alton Brown recipes tend to be very reliably good.

Simran's 4th Birthday Party

Simran decided on an Octonauts themed birthday party this year.  That means lots of fun under-the-sea themed foods and decor for me.  She was also adamant she wanted a chocolate cake.  I've ultimately decided on the following menu, with input and approval from Simran:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, topped with Orange Molded Chocolate Sea Creatures:  I've used this chocolate cake recipe for years now.  I'm sure one of the top reviews mentions how much to adjust the cooking time for making cupcakes.  For topping I'm just making a basic vanilla buttercream with really good vanilla extract and adding a hint of gel food dye (I have both sky blue and leaf green, which I think I can make yield a nice aqua).  For the decorations, I found a sea creature chocolate mold on Amazon and orange colored meltable chocolates that you can by at grocery and craft stores (you can use white chocolate chips and a tablespoon of vegetable shortening and presumably a touch of gel food coloring, but the white chocolate came out so strong and overpoweringly sweet when I tried this that I am hopeful the meltables will be milder just by virtue of having a larger variety of ingredients listed on its packaging).

Oyster Sandwich Cookies:  I've seen about fifteen variations of this cookie on the internet, especially Pinterest.  It basically consists of two cookies positioned half open to look like an oyster shell, frosting inside, and a chocolate Sixlet that looks like a pearl positioned atop the bed of frosting.  The version I've decided to go with will be blue macarons with more of the same aqua dyed buttercream I'm using on the cupcakes.  Macarons are a pain to make, and I am going to experiment with freezing them so I can have them fresh without having to make them when I'm pressed for time, but they impress guests greatly because they're hard to make and expensive to buy, and it's nice to have a gluten-free treat option when you might have gluten-free guests.  I have white pearlescent Sixlets for the pearls.  If the macarons don't thaw well, I figure I can buy simple ginger snaps or something (the spice and buttercream flavors go well together) and assemble the whole lot in ten minutes or less, and gluten free guests will be relegated to the ice creams.  Regardless, I plan to assemble these cookies when I frost the cupcakes, right after making a large batch of frosting.

I plan to have ice cream, though I'm not sure if I'll make my own or buy some.  The thing that makes ice cream good is freshness.  How good it tastes is inversely proportional to how old it is, which is the only reason to make my own.  If I make my own, I will probably use this recipe because it's eggless and one person who might attend the party has an egg allergy, so I always try to include an eggless treat.  I will omit the preserves from the recipe though.  I've never gotten them to mix in properly when making this previously and they stuck out kind of oddly.  This chocolate ice cream recipe is Sim's favorite and uses up the exact amount of egg yolks left over from making two batches of macarons, so I might make this too.  Or maybe I'll freeze the egg yolks and make the chocolate one next week with any leftover half-and-half or cream from making the vanilla.

I have a drink dispenser I've used for fresh lemonade or punch in the past, but I think I might skip the punch this year.  So much of it is left over each year that it seems like a waste when I can just put out various sugared sodas and unsweetened fizzy waters that, unopened, can be saved for later.  Maybe I can find a limeade or something at Trader Joe's and put that in the punch dispenser.  I don't know.

For savory snacks, I'm going to put out good cheese (probably Cotswold with chives and some smoked Gouda -- they're my favorites and yielded good feedback from guests last time) pre-sliced and store-bought crackers, a vegetable platter with homemade ranch dressing featuring a half-submerged bell pepper cut to look like an octopus (thank you, Pinterest), and a fruit plate.  The fruit might be cut with my melon baller or star shaped cookie cutter, it might be inside a personal watermelon carved to look like the Gup-A from Octonauts (thank you, Pinterest), or I might just throw it all together on a plate because I've run out of energy.  Simran wants to make sure we have strawberries, blueberries, and mango slices, so those will be included.  Based on previous birthday parties, the thing that makes the biggest difference to guests is the inclusion of a ridiculous sweetened fruit dip made from cream cheese and marshmallow creme and Cool Whip, so I'll make a bowl of that.  I think I'll buy some little snack packs of Goldfish crackers and put them in a bowl too.  That way any that don't get opened can just go toward Sim's school lunches for the rest of the semester.