It’s a good idea to have plenty of chicken stock on hand for Thanksgiving - it helps with everything from roasting the bird to thinning gravy to creating a perfect fall soup. Here’s a tip: pick up a rotisserie chicken for dinner and use the carcass for stock - you’ll have dinner AND delicious homemade chicken stock with no fuss!

You can use this same method with your Thanksgiving turkey as well.  Make sure to leave a pot on your stove that can collect all your scraps from a day of cooking - onion skins, tops of carrots, parsnip peels, extra herbs - throw them all into the pot with your turkey and fill it with water.  Bring it to a simmer while you enjoy your feast and catch up with family, and you’re all set with the most delicious turkey stock you’ve ever had!

Check out this 60-second how-to video on how to make the perfect stock! 

This soup is delicious with just a few simple main ingredients: one butternut squash, one apple, and one onion. It’s really easy yet amazingly delicious, and the flavor gets better the second and third day - so it’s a great make ahead appetizer for your Thanksgiving feast! 

BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND APPLE SOUP - serves 6

1 Butternut Squash (2-3 lbs)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 large apple, peeled, cored and chopped 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

8 sage leaves, chopped

2 cups chicken stock (plus more to adjust texture of soup)

8 ounces sour cream 

Salt & Pepper to taste 

Preheat your oven to 375 Degrees F.  Cut your butternut squash lengthwise down the center, and remove the seeds.  Drizzle with olive oil and generously salt and pepper. Place the squash face down on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil or parchment, and roast for about an hour, or until the squash may be pierced with a knife.  Allow to cool.  

Meanwhile, heat 1 TBSP olive oil over medium heat in a large pot, and sauté the onion, apple, and garlic with some salt and pepper until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the sage and sauté for one minute more. Scoop the squash away from the skin and add it to the pot, stirring to combine the ingredients.  Add enough stock to just cover the ingredients in the pot, and bring to a simmer.  Cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Then, it’s time to blend!  Either transfer to the soup carefully batch by batch to a blender, or use an immersion blender to blend the soup until smooth and creamy. If you would like it thinner, simply add more stock, 1/2 cup by 1/2 cup until you reach your desired consistency. Stir in the sour cream, and taste for seasoning.  Adjust the salt and pepper accordingly.  Serve with a garnish of your choice, perhaps some sour cream, some chives, or sage.  

Enjoy!  

Mulled Hot Apple Cider is literally fall in your mouth.  It’s warming on a cold day, and it has the flavor of the holidays in every sip.  Lots of fancy kitchen stores sell expensive mulling spices, but honestly,  they go bad after a 6 months, and you probably won’t finish all of them before apple cider is out of season and hard to find.  As long as you have some fresh ginger, cinnamon sticks, cloves and oranges, you can mull cider that will have the freshest flavor possible.  And the good news is, these are all ingredients you’ll most likely have around for holiday baking and recipes! Check out the video and recipe, posted below. 

Mulled Apple Cider Recipe 

• 1/2 Gallon Local Apple Cider (look for no preservatives added)
• 3 Cinnamon Sticks 
• 3 Whole Cloves 
• 2” Ginger, sliced 
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1.5 ounces whiskey per mug of cider (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to simmer.  Keep it simmering for 15 minutes and then serve! Garnish with orange wedges or extra cinnamon sticks.  If you want to keep it warm all night long, heat it up in a slow cooker then leave it on low- it’s the perfect way for party guests to help themselves to warm cider all night long! And of course, the cider is delicious when spiked with your favorite whiskey.  Now THAT should warm your soul! 

Walnut and Basil Pesto over Pasta - photo courtesy Raphael Rodriguez

It’s no secret that San Francisco is an amazing food town. I mean, the local, sustainable, and organic movement pretty much started in Northern California years and years ago and is now just a way of life.  It’s down right inspirational, and exciting to see meet the young people upholding these ideals.  Enter Three Babes Bakeshop.  They’re a pop up pie company that not only sells their pies online and delivers throughout San Francisco, they operate out of a shipping container behind Stable Cafe in the Mission.  We caught up with the girls to learn about their signature Salted Honey Walnut Pie - a delicious concoction reminiscent of pecan pie, only better. It’s perfect, in fact. And those walnuts come from a family friend who’s ranch is not too far from San Francisco, so naturally we had to stop by the farm first to see how a walnut is grown and harvested.  But walnuts are great in savory dishes too, so once we’re back in Brooklyn, we put the walnuts to good use in a savory Walnut Basil Pesto. 

Check out the episode below, and follow along with the recipe! 

RECIPE - WALNUT BASIL PESTO

1/2 C Walnuts, shelled and toasted 

2 Cloves Garlic, chopped

2 C Fresh Basil Leaves

1/2 C Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 tsp Lemon Zest

Juice of 1 Lemon 

1/3 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Pulse all the ingredients in the food processor until pesto consistency.  Do not over mix - the pesto should be rustic!  It’s very versatile, and is delicious as a dip, a sandwich spread, or in pasta.  In fact, this is the perfect amount of pesto for a half pound of pasta - a fast and delicious dinner for two! Double the recipe for the full pound of pasta!

This post is not the first time I have expressed my love for Guarapo, that delicious, cold, refreshing, pressed sugarcane juice.  Whenever I head down to Miami, my first stop is Latin America Market where they serve up the freshest guarapo in town - pressed to order - from local sugarcane.  It’s a Miami mainstay in an unassuming spot, but worth the trip west of downtown. Watch here to see how it’s made! 

photo courtesy eatinglocalinthetropics.blogspot.com

Despite what many people think, Cuban food is never spicy.  Instead, it’s tangy from citrus and pungent from loads of garlic.  That combination is the quintessential sabor cubano, and it comes from their signature sauce: Mojo. 

Before you make Mojo, you have to first find Sour Oranges.  They’re local to the tropics and are easily found all throughout Miami and South Florida, but you can also pick them up at Latin American supermarkets and sometimes even Whole Foods in other areas. They’re very bitter and extremely sour, but once combined with fresh garlic and smoky cumin, you have a marinade that will transport you right to Havana. Watch and learn how it’s made, and as always the recipe is below: 

CUBAN MOJO:

• 1 Cup Sour Orange Juice (seeds strained - about 5 sour oranges)*
• 10 Cloves Garlic
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 1/2 tsp. salt 
• 2 TBSP olive oil 

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week, and is AMAZING on pork.  

TIP:  Try making Lechon or Cuban Roast Pork.  Get a pork shoulder 3-7 lbs and pierce it all over with a knife.  Cover the pork shoulder in the mojo and allow to marinate for 8 hours or overnight.  Roast on 220 for 8-12 hours until falling apart and tender.  Viva Cuba! 

*If you can’t find Sour Oranges (also called Bitter Oranges or Seville Oranges) you can substitute equal parts Lime and Orange Juice.  

I’m usually a vinaigrette kind of girl, but boy do I hate to waste ingredients. So whenever I have buttermilk around from baking or pancakes, I make a jar of Buttermilk Ranch Dressing to use up the rest of the carton.  And guess what? It’s almost as easy as opening up a bottle of the store-bought stuff that usually contains MSG and loads of preservatives.  Watch the video and learn how to make my version of this decadent dressing (recipe below).  And here’s a tip: marinate organic chicken breasts in the dressing for at least four hours, then grill.  You won’t be disappointed!

BUTTERMILK RANCH DRESSING RECIPE: 

• 1 C. Organic Buttermilk 
• 1/2 C. Sour Cream 
• 1 tsp. white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dijon mustard 
• pinch of salt
• black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. granulated garlic 
• 1 TBSP minced shallot 
• 2 TBSP fresh chives, chopped 
• 1 tsp. fresh dill, chopped

Whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, vinegar, and mustard until combined.  Add the remaining ingredients,  and whisk again.  Adjust the salt and pepper to your taste. Serve over an iceberg wedge, bibb lettuce, garden tomatoes, or as a marinade for chicken or pork!

We just got back from a pretty awesome trip to Northern California.  While there, we shot with a pretty rad pie company called Three Babes Bakeshop that operates out of a shipping container in the back of a super cool cafe.  Then we visited a walnut farm near Stockton and a small family vineyard and winery in Healdsburg.  But don’t worry, even though we were hard at work, we still found plenty of time to play.

And we that’s exactly what we did at Cafe Van Kleef in Oakland.  This unassuming spot on Telegraph Avenue is known for their greyhounds because the bartenders painstakingly press fresh grapefruits all night long.  The smell of citrus wafting through the air to the sounds of New Orleans-style live music is the perfect combination of California and kitsch.  And if you’re lucky, you’ll meet Benny the Tamales Man, who will bring you a delicious homemade tamal (request his super spicy hot sauce served in a gatorade bottle) for about $3.  Wash it down with a couple greyhounds ($7) and I would say you’ve had the perfect night. 

Check out HIB’s homage to Oakland with our latest video, How to Make a Fresh Squeezed Greyhound: 

One thing I love about blogging is having the opportunity to be part of a virtual community of like-minded people.  Enter Mark Walker, creator of WineLife365 - a blog that pairs well (pun intended) with HiB because it’s all about taking the intimidation out of wine.  

Not too long ago, Mark asked me to write a post for his guest-writer section aptly named BYOB.  Check out the article to learn more about organic wines, and also for a guide to which organic wineries are a must-see if you’re in Sonoma County.  

Below are some pictures from my family’s Sonoma vacation, where we toured only small production, organic practicing vineyards that changed that way I will drink wine forever.

These “old vines” are so prevalent throughout Dry Creek Valley.  Our very knowledgable driver, Rodney, explained that the gnarly vines look this way because they were planted prior to prohibition and therefore left unattended through this dark period of our countries history :) Doesn’t mean they can’t still produce some of the finest Zins in the world. 

The entrance to Quivira, a biodynamic winery that also has an organic farm on premises.  Very light, crisp, lovely reds and whites.  

The last stop on our wine tour was Sausal, where a few kitties were tasting room pets. I didn’t actually do the tasting because I was so enthralled by the “entertainment.” Feeling guilty that I had ignored the wine maker while my parents and husband drank, I bought a few bottles to enjoy at home. All of it was reasonably priced and DELICIOUS.  

Scallops can sometimes be a bit intimidating to the home cook. But the bottom line is they’re really easy to make and require very little effort, but a little bit of know-how. 

Our adventure begins in Montauk fishing with the guys at Montauk Shellfish, a fishery dedicated to sustainability and making sure that generations to come will be able to enjoy the fruits of the sea.  It was a life-changing experience to spend a day on the water dredging for Peconic Bay Scallops, perhaps the sweetest scallops I’ve ever tasted. 

But bay scallops are different than diver scallops, a larger variety loved by chefs.  So we stop by Dressler for a lesson with Polo Dobkin on how to pan roast the perfect scallop. Last but not least we whip up our catch of the day back home. 

Pan Seared Peconic Bay Scallops:

1/2 pound Peconic Bay Scallops 

olive or canola oil 

1 tbsp chives 

1-2 tbsp butter

1/2 a lemon 

Heat a cast iron skillet until very hot.  Add the oil, and then the scallops, being careful not to crowd the pan.  Allow them to sear on one side for a minute and then turn off the heat, flip them and add the butter and chives.  Baste until they’re done, about a minute more.  Give them a spritz of fresh lemon juice for a bright, crisp flavor. Enjoy!