Happy day-before-Thanksgiving, America’s biggest grocery shopping/travel torture day! We should start calling it Black Wednesday, shouldn’t we? For everyone’s mood? Anyway, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays in part because it’s secular and specific to our country—as a nonreligious person, it’s nice to feel part of something—and in part because it’s all about cooking and eating. (OK, and family and gratitude and la la la.) As everyone heads out to shop for tomorrow’s dinner, here are some tips to keep you from breaking the bank and still feed your loved ones to the point of near coma, like the Pilgrims intended: Read on… »

Yes, the food is important at Thanksgiving (or any feast). But so is presentation. In fact, gorgeous dishes makes it more likely that lumpy gravy, dry turkey or (gasp!) canned cranberry sauce will be overlooked. So click on over to the Spooning shop and have a gander at the bountiful harvest of Thanksgiving dishes and accessories just waiting to be snapped up! Then you can relax about the turkey…

We had about half a roast chicken left and it was a cool, autumnal evening. So, obviously, my mind turned to chicken pot pie. It is one of my favorite comfort foods, but store-bought ones are overly gooey and starchy and have more gravy than goodies beneath the crust. I’ve made them before, but it was such an undertaking: making the crust, gravy and vegetables all separately, then assembling into a pie made for a mountain of dishes and a long wait to dinnertime. Thanks to our trusty cast iron skillet, though, I was able to put together a pot pie in no time, using only two pans! We enjoyed the pie with a simple fall salad of lettuce, green apple, radishes and feta cheese.

This recipe is for a 10″ skillet, to serve 4-5 people. Read on… »