I tried out another Thanksgiving side dish recipe from November Living – this time it was Roasted-Parsnip Bread Pudding. To be honest, I did not expect to like this, but I went ahead because part of my Martha project is being open to new things. Bread pudding has never been a favorite of mine.

My first stumbling block was that the recipe called for brioche. I have no idea where you buy that, since I’ve never seen it in a store (grocery or bakery) in my area. Instead, I bought some challah, which I think is close enough.

You start by roasting your parsnips. Usually my store carries those honking big parsnips, but this time they only had small ones, like carrots. It required more peeling, but I think they may have been more tender. Then you roast the parsnips in the oven. Mine got a little brown, but didn’t burn. You slice up some leeks and cook those, adding wine and thyme. You mix the leeks, parsnips, bread, cream, eggs and Parmesan cheese together. It looked pretty goopy. I added more salt and pepper to it since I was worried about blandness.

I got it in the oven and baked it for about 40 minutes (I made half the recipe) then took the lid off and left it in the oven, with the oven off until Mr. MarthaAndMe made it home from work. It worked out perfectly.  It was golden brown and kind of puffy.

And I really liked this! Surprise! I still can’t believe it. It’s really quite rich with all the cream and eggs. Mr. MarthaAndMe liked it too. I ate it for lunch the next day and it was good heated up in the microwave too. Thumbs up on this one!

I tried out another Thanksgiving side dish recipe from November Living – this time it was Roasted-Parsnip Bread Pudding. To be honest, I did not expect to like this, but I went ahead because part of my Martha project is being open to new things. Bread pudding has never been a favorite of mine. My … Read more →

Thanksgiving still seems a long way away, but that didn’t stop me from test-driving a Thanksgiving side dish from Martha Stewart Living (Nov issue), Sweet Potato and Sage-Butter Casserole. I am a big potato fan. I must admit I have not cooked a lot with sweet potatoes. First of all, I find there is some confusion about them. A lot of people refer to yams as sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a separate item, with a whiter flesh than yams. Since I’m assuming Martha knows the difference, I used actual sweet potatoes, not yams for this (although I think a lot of people make yams for Thanksgiving and call them sweet potatoes, so I don’t know what she was doing).

This dish is really very easy to make and it’s possible to assemble it and then stick it in the fridge until you’re ready to make it, so in that sense it is a convenient thing for Thanksgiving.

First you boil the potatoes. Martha says to boil the sweet potatoes and the Yukon Gold potatoes together, but I found the sweet potatoes cooked faster. If you make this, I recommend boiling them separately.

Next you’re supposed to rice your potatoes. I don’t have a ricer. I tried a couple of alternatives. First, I tried to press them through a strainer. That did not go very well. It took a lot of effort to get any to go through. I gave up on that. Then I had the idea of using the grater attachment for my Cuisinart. It wasn’t a bad substitute, but some of the potato didn’t go through and sort of sat on the blade all mushy. Next I tried using a pastry cutter. That worked the best. It may not have been exactly like a ricer, but I think it was pretty close.

There aren’t many other ingredients – butter, milk, sage, salt and pepper and some breadcrumbs for the top. I got it all together and then baked it for about 35 minutes.

As for taste, I would much rather have regular mashed potatoes than this, but I can see how this would a nice dish to make for a big Thanksgiving dinner where you need to get things done in advance. It was a little bland and boring and I’m not sure I would want to put gravy on it. No one in the family was wild about it at all, so I won’t be making this again. Now, that being sad, it wasn’t a bad dish, just something that was not really to our liking.

Thanksgiving still seems a long way away, but that didn’t stop me from test-driving a Thanksgiving side dish from Martha Stewart Living (Nov issue), Sweet Potato and Sage-Butter Casserole. I am a big potato fan. I must admit I have not cooked a lot with sweet potatoes. First of all, I find there is some … Read more →