Turkey check. Stuffing check. Pumpkin pie check. Now it’s time to select your perfect Thanksgiving meal wine or 5. Here are some of our favorite picks to complement your feast.
A puree of summer fruit flavors with red currant and cranberries at the fore and followed by a beautiful, almost haunting earthiness reminiscent of the soil and stones after a spring rain, this pick perfectly complements those bourbon sweet potatoes and oyster stuffing.
Geown in the vineyard, “Vigna San Rocco” in clay and limestone soils, these grapes are grown according to Organci regulations and are thinned and hand-harvested with selection of grapes. Revel in sweetish, partly candied fruit on the palate, nutty notes, some caramel, elegant acidity, and light oak that all lead to an attractive finish. This steel-produced Riesling will impressively offset the boldness of a spiced turkey.
With Thanksgiving exactly one week away and with NYCs obvious wine'ing and dine'ing culture we've got some perfect resto reccs for dining in or taking out your turkey dinner. Or, if you're itching to cook you're first ever holiday feast, there's even a 101 style class in our mix worth trekking to before testing your skills next Thursday. Gobble gobble!
Head to Prospect Brooklyn, a modern American restaurant on November 19th at 7pm for a Thanksgiving cooking class. The one and a half hour class will offer tips on how to prepare a traditional Turkey Day dinner by executive Chef Kyle McClelland. The class will also cover the perfect alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage pairings. Hurry up, there are only 14 spots in the class and tickets cost $60. Call (718) 596-6826 to reserve your spot. Extra: All attendees will receive a 10% discount during their next visit to Prospect.
It might not be the same for everyone, but in my experience, Thanksgiving is that very special holiday when some of the worst cooks consider themselves to be award-winning chefs. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been a victim of such atrocities as a coleslaw-ambrosia salad combination, an unnaturally colored cool whip and graham cracker crumb dessert, or a casserole so replete with cream, butter, cheese, and bacon that it constitutes one’s allowable fat intake for the entire year. Trying to dissuade these mad scientists turned amateur cooks from contributing to your Thanksgiving feast can quickly become an ugly scene with all the crying, fighting, and emotion of a 90’s talk show. Trying to trick yourself into making your relative’s multicolored congealed salad into a suitable side dish for your chestnut and morel stuffed bird has proven futile...and quite ridiculous. The only solution to make everyone happy is to leave the cooking to the professionals this Thanksgiving and going to a restaurant. If your ideal Turkey Day is one in which there are no dishes to wash and you’re not stuck with a week’s worth of leftovers, then you should definitely check out Joonbug’s recommendations for restaurants offering some of the best Thanksgiving dinners in South Florida this year.
Postponed from it’s original November 10th date, due to the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the NYC Craft Beer Festival—Winter Harvest has been rescheduled to December 1st at Hudson River Park’s Pier 57 Event Space. At the Festival, beer enthusiast can enjoy the full-bodied warmth of winter seasonal ales while giving to a great cause. The creators behind the NYC Craft Beer Festival have founded the Sandy Relief Supplies Drive, to aid those affected by Sandy in Breezy Point, Queens, that they hope all attendees can participate in. If you’ve already bought your tickets for the original date, no worries—your tickets are still valid and can only be applied to the original tasting session that you selected for November 10th.
Kathleen King, creator and owner of Tate’s Bake Shop in Southampton, got an early start in the baking business. By age eleven she began selling her baked goods out of her family’s Long Island farmstand. In 1980, Kathleen opened her first bakeshop and just kept baking. Since then, Kathleen’s chocolate chip cookies have been selected as the best of the best, her baked goods are sold in gourmet markets nationwide, and her flagship bakeshop has been voted the Best in The Hamptons year after year. Kathleen is also the author of three cookbooks. Her newest, Baking for Friends, is an excellent choice for beginning bakers and also those more skilled in the art of baking.
A Very Funny 'F*ck You' to Sandy: The Bell House and Pretty Good Friends are hosting a hurricane relief benefit on Sunday November 25th at 8pm. The show will feature comedians Jon Glaser, Wyatt Cenac, Mike Birbiglia, Michael Che and more and will be hosted by none other than Eugene Mirman. Tickets are $30 and 100% of the proceeds will go towards The Brooklyn Recovery Fund.
The Bell House is located at 149 7th St., Brooklyn. 718-643-6510
Ah, Thanksgiving. The time of year where families reunite, turkeys are consumed in copius amounts, gluttony ensues... and fellow Americans pepper spray each other to get a moderate discount on an Xbox 360. Well, at least this year. One can always rely on national holidays to ring in interesting headlines. So, in case you were in a tryptophan-induced coma for the past 4 days, here's a roundup of what happened in the interim:
Gluten-free has become a popular catchphrase lately, and many brands are creating gluten-free breads, brownies, cookies, muffins and more. These treats often have a strange starchy taste, a combination of too much baking soda, sorghum and a mix of tapioca, rice corn or potato starch that just doesn't work.
For the perfect gluten-free treat that everyone will enjoy, try macarons. Macarons are naturally gluten-free, the shell's made with almond flour, egg whites and sugar. Fillings can range from jams to buttery ganaches. With macarons popping up everywhere from Maison Ladurée in New York to the world's first macaron truck, Sweet Spot Macarons, in Chicago, they are the trendiest treat this holiday season.
Partake in the holiday spirit and check out some great Thanksigiving day specials and fab fall cocktails.
Madison & Vine is offering up a to-die-for Thanksgiving menu at $45/person. Choose from an appetizer of butternut squash and pumpkin bisque with toasted pumpkin seeds or a fall salad of frisse and seasonal greens (with roquefort cheese, maple glazed walnuts, warm bacon vinaigrette). Move on to the entree, where you can choose from roasted turkey with mashed taters, candied sweet potatoes, haricot vert, cornbread, stuffing, cranberry orange relish...basically, the works. Or you can opt for slow roasted prime rib with mashed potatoes, sauteed baby veggies, with a delicious port wine sauce. Still not enough options for you? They also offer white truffle ravioli with toasted pine nuts in a brown butter sage sauce. Dessert brings more goodies in the form of pumpkin pie a la mode or hot apple pot pie, also a la mode.
With Thanksgiving sneaking up on us this week, we are bound to be scrabbling for the best recipes to share with everyone at the big meal. So why not surprise your dinner party with something extra special? Instead of making the same old plain mashed potatoes, try these potatoes with an Asian twist!
“Kimchi” Mashed Potatoes
6 medium Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
½ cup whole milk
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons of salt and more to taste
pepper to taste
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil