Category General

Top Thanksgiving Recipes and Tips for Holiday Success

1 comment By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Entertaining, Entertaining Tips, General, Menus & Recipes Tagged with easy turkey recipes, Entertaining Tips, holiday decorating ideas, holiday decorating tips, holiday ideas, holiday recipes, holiday tips, thanksgiving menu, thanksgiving recipes, thanksgiving sides, thanksgiving tips, thanksgiving turkey, turkey, turkey recipe November 5th, 2009 @ 2:06 pm

Thanksgiving is approaching so bring out the seasonal garland, gourds and get ready for the tryptophan induced food comas!

One of tastiest turkeys I have ever had was created from our Parties That Cook team. This brined turkey recipe calls for soaking the whole bird in a brine which is essentially a solution of salt and sugar, flavored with spices. Brining the turkey helps even the white meat stay moist and flavorful when roasted to perfection. But if you don’t have time or the space in your fridge, our easy 3-step turkey breast is the perfect solution. You’re guests will not believe how quick and easy this dish is!

Can’t decide which side dishes to create? Here are some of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes that are a delicious departure from the traditional spread of pureed root vegetables and pearled onions:

Sweet Pea Galettes with Bacon and Sour Cream Recipe

Butternut Squash and Cider Soup with Sage Crème Fraiche Recipe

Easy Spinach and Roquefort Bread Pudding Recipe

And the gravy! Quite possibly the best part of Thanksgiving (a three-way tie between the turkey and stuffing of course). Try this recipe: Pan Gravy with Bourbon Recipe

In my opinion, the food alone serves as the perfect Thanksgiving decoration, but here are some easy tips to spruce up your spread:

Place Cards: HGTV.com has created the perfect touch for your table with these printable place card designs. Print them onto cardstock and write your guests’ names for each table setting.

Fringed Tweed Table Runner: Tweed is not only a fall trend in fashion, but in holiday tabletop decorations as well. This rustic design from the craft guru herself, Martha Stewart, is an inexpensive and simple design element for any table.

Gourds, Gourds and more Gourds: Of course, the quintessential fall decoration cannot be overlooked! Gourds and pumpkins add the finishing detail to your Thanksgiving spread. Place them at your front door and use Indian corn or acorns for an extra autumn touch.

Got any favorite tips and recipes? Share them with us! Check out the rest of our favorite recipes. Until next time, bon appétit!

SF Mobile Food Truck Birthday Lunch

4 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in General Tagged with bacon potato chips, banh mai, batter baker, bike basket pies, mobile food trucks, sf mobile food, sf mobile food trucks, sf street food, street food, street food vendors, who's your daddy real bacon handmade potato chips November 3rd, 2009 @ 12:05 pm

At Parties That Cook, we are huge fans of the SF street food and mobile food truck scene. Having recently tried Alameda Pies, our hankering for delicious and delivered meals had just begun. In honor of Crissy’s birthday, it seemed only appropriate to have a meal made up of local mobile food vendors for the office street food enthusiast. Thanks to Bibby’s love of Twitter and its legion of street food vendors, we had a tasty spread delivered from mobile food trucks (and bikes!).

Banh Mai (@banhmai)- Having grown up in Southern California and only minutes away from Little Saigon, I’ve had my share of traditional Vietnamese sandwiches (Banh Mi). I wasn’t sure if Banh Mai could rival the sandwiches I grew up eating, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. The fresh bread, juicy pork and pickled carrots and daikon were simple and delicious. The vegan option, made with mushroom pate and seasoned tofu was just as tasty. We also enjoyed these as leftovers, and they were just as good!

Who’s Your Daddy Real Bacon Handmade Potato Chips (@baconpotatochip)– Yes, you’ve read that correctly, bacon potato chips. “Meet the bacon potato chip guy at Dolores Park Café for the pickup,” Bibby instructed. It felt like some sort of illegal transaction. We were trying to keep the food deliveries and pickups under wraps in order to surprise Crissy. I handed Bill (bacon potato chip guy) an envelope of cash and received the ‘goods’. As I drove back to the office the box of bacony perfection was staring back at me! The chips did not have an overwhelming flavor of bacon, but just the perfect amount of salty, mouthwatering goodness.

Bike Basket Pies (@bikebasketpies)– The potato leek pie was my personal favorite! For dessert we enjoyed pumpkin and plum pies delivered by bike from Natalie. Both pies had spices that transported me to Thanksgiving dinner. And the crust! We were fawning over how delicious and flakey the crust was.

Batter Bakery (@batterbakery)– To end our meal we had Halloween-themed cookies. The hand-decorated cutouts with royal icing were too precious to eat. Of course with us that didn’t last long, as we devoured the scrumptious creations.

Have a favorite mobile food truck or street food vendor? Tell us about it! Until next time, bon appétit!