Now that Thanksgiving is over can we talk Christmas cookies? To be perfectly honest, I often find baking Christmas cookies exhausting. With all of the busyness of the holiday, taking time to bake cookies that simply bring another source of ready to eat sugar into the house is far down on my list. Yet, without fail, there is always an office party, a cookie exchange, a visiting neighbor, or some unforeseen event that calls for cookies.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all are enjoying a day filled with good food, friends, and family. Before I dive into the kitchen I wanted to share with you a quick recipe for one of our favorite sandwiches- the nutty bird.

Cranberry Sauce. A crucial part of any turkey dinner that is all too often ignored during the initial recipe gathering and planning. I’m just as guilty as anyone else, typically happy to whip together a last minute sauce of fresh cranberries plus sugar and call it a day. Bigger, more complicated dishes, demand my attention leaving little time to contemplate the cranberry.

I will be the first to admit that I am a stuffing junkie. That’s right, as much as I love roast turkey, lemon pie, and buttermilk mashed potatoes- when it comes to Thanksgiving the one dish I can’t live without is the stuffing. In fact I’m always so concerned that there will not be enough leftover stuffing that I double the recipe. Even when it is just the two of us. (Embarrassing, but true!)

I have a tortured relationship with persimmons. Only a few short years after discovering their intoxicating sweetness, the joy of eating a warm hachiya plucked from a tree, and the sensual texture of ripe persimmon sliding down my throat- I up and moved to the Midwest. Pure torture I tell you! Persimmon trees, laden with orange orbs begging to be picked and eaten on the spot are nowhere to be found.

This week I am happy to announce a giveaway everyone can win! I was recently contacted by Walnut Lovers, and asked if I would take part in this Holiday giveaway. Now typically I do not engage with PR pitches, but when I looked at a copy of the Nuts for the Holidays cookbook, I knew I had to share it with you. The cookbook is completely digital, with 21 pages of gorgeous photography and recipes.

Are you cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving this year? A few members of my extended family (who shall remain nameless) proclaim to *gasp* hate turkey. Now if all you have encountered are under-seasoned over-cooked birds, then I can almost understand your position. If, however, you taste an heirloom breed bird, stuffed with fresh herbs, cooked to moist perfection, and still don’t like turkey- well then I don’t think we are related.

I first attempted to make a pumpkin pie from a whole pumpkin when I was in high school. Thanks to my Dad, I had conquered my fear of pie crusts and thus happily volunteered to make the pumpkin pie for our neighborhood Thanksgiving potluck. I don’t remember where I found the recipe, but when I read the words “pumpkin puree” I thought I could just use a pumpkin from our garden to make the puree instead of using canned pumpkin. What I failed to realize was that it is necessary to cook a pumpkin before pureeing the flesh.

Any holiday meal would not be complete without a big steaming bowl of mashed potatoes. Buttery, creamy, and the perfect vessel for a swimming pool of gravy- mashed potatoes are the classic accompaniment for a turkey dinner. Just as people have pie preferences, when it comes to mashed potatoes some like it chunky and some like it smooth. I tend to fall in the middle preferring a blend of smooth and solid bits.

It is that time of year again. Time for pots of soup bubbling on the stove and warm fuzzy socks. Time for burning logs in the fireplace and visiting relatives.