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Move over turkey, we’re talking sides!

Don’t get us wrong, we love turkey. After all, you can’t really have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner without it! But if we’re really being honest, for us side dishes steal the show. We combed the AllSpice recipe library this week, reminisced about Thanksgivings-past, and pulled out some of our favorite side dishes from the past ten years. It wasn’t easy to narrow things down, but we gave it a shot.

Salads

Potatoes

  • Cheesy French Herb & Mustard Mashed Potatoes: Our French Herb and Mustard Seasoning adds interest to mashed potatoes while Boursin Cheese adds a wonderful creaminess. You won’t make the plain ones again!
  • Scalloped Potatoes with Leek Flakes: Scalloped potatoes are a wonderful alternative to mashed for your holiday spread. Leeks add a subtle savory flavor to the dish, and the crunchy bits on top from the oven are full of fantastic flavor and texture.

Veggies ‘n More

  • Brussels Sprouts with Buttered Walnuts: Roasted Walnut Oil is the star of this side dish, imparting a nuttiness that is well balanced with acidity of lemon juice.
  • Crispy Green Beans: These are a nice alternative to mushy green bean casserole. Citrus flavored olive oil and a mixture of herbs makes these some tasty green beans.
  • Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese: The crunchiness of bread crumbs and a mild truffle flavor from our Truffled Parmesan Rub take this mac and cheese recipe to the top of our list. Bonus: it gets one thing out of the oven and into the slow cooker!

Dressing/Stuffing

  • Wild Rice Dressing: This dressing recipe is an oldie – it came out of a community cookbook from years ago. Rory’s family has tweaked it over the years, and it’s made an appearance at the holiday table annually for decades.
  • Herb Stuffing with Roasted Mushrooms: A classic stuffing recipe with a shiitake twist! This dish will keep things traditional but tasty if you like to keep things from getting too edgy at the holiday table.

Must-Haves:

  • Cranberry Relish: Ginger and raisins give this cranberry relish depth in flavor.
  • Herbed Dinner Rolls: These rolls are full of flavor and not difficult to make. Bake a day in advance and warm in the oven before serving.

What are your family favorites? Share with us in the comments below, or submit your recipe for others to enjoy.

 

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Turkey Talk: Which Rub is Right for me?

If you’re an astute AllSpice shopper, you may have noticed we carry both an Herbed Poultry Seasoning Blend and a Turkey & Poultry Seasoning. So, what’s the deal? Why do we need both? While they’re both delicious, they have very different flavors.

Our Herbed Poultry Seasoning Blend is salt-free for starters. The base of this blend is thyme, sage and black pepper, which starts things out with warm, savory, and herbaceous  flavor. Coriander, and other spices are added to the mix, adding a nutty and citrusy freshness, which makes this blend great for pork, poultry and fish. In this blend, salt-free definitely does not mean flavorless.

The Turkey & Poultry Seasoning starts with sea salt, then adds sage, black pepper, garlic, onion, chili powder, paprika and several other spices. While it’s still a savory blend, sharp and pungent garlic and onion add tons of flavor, and the chili powder and paprika give the blend some depth without making things overly spicy. The inclusion of sage immediately reminds us of traditional holiday flavors.

Either blend will help you create a perfect turkey dinner. If you’re going for traditional holiday flavors, we recommend the Turkey & Poultry Seasoning. If you want something a bit different or salt-free give the Herbed Poultry Seasoning Blend a shot. Or, grab both! We’ve found a lot of folks enjoy using the Turkey & Poultry Seasoning for the turkey and the Herbed Poultry Seasoning Blend in the stuffing.

Pick up a jar and find more of our favorite uses for each blend on their product pages: Herbed Poultry Seasoning Blend / Turkey & Poultry Seasoning.

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Savory waffles, taters ‘n’ gravy, and tasty turkey – Spicy Thymes

Thanksgiving dinner is a favorite meal of mine.  I love a deliciously brined turkey, mashed potatoes zhuzhed up with Five Onion Dip or Roasted Garlic Powder, and stuffing….delicious stuffing.  The crunchy bits around the edge are always the tastiest.

This year we made a special, pre-Thanksgiving dinner to channel our holiday spirit.  Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce the Thanksgiving Blue-Plate Special!

The foundation of this delicious dish is a savory stuffing waffle.  Waffle-style is the perfect way to enjoy stuffing – loads of crunchy bits and little gravy holders created by the waffle iron.  We made our stuffing   a little wetter than normal by adding some extra broth to the mixture. This kept the waffle iron from drying things out too much.

The next layer in the scrumptious stack is a dollop of buttery smooth mashed potatoes (or lumpy, hand-mashed potatoes…I’m not endorsing one or the other in the great mashed potato debate!).  I like a dash of Roasted Garlic Powder in mine for a flavor boost.

After the potatoes, pile on some slices of perfectly cooked brined turkey breast.  Why brine? Soaking your bird in a salt solution before cooking results in a more flavorful, moist meal.  We suggest our Brining Mix to infuse a bit of citrusy, herby flavor.

Top off this tasty tower with a splash (or ten) of homemade gravy.  Use the drippings from the pan you cooked the bird in, add a little chicken or turkey stock and a bit of Herbed Poultry Seasoning Blend or Sage taste. Too thin? Use a bit of corn starch or Arrowroot Powder to thicken.

Lastly, enjoy!  While we made this in advance, this is also a great alternative to Ross Geller’s Moist Maker Sandwich to enjoy your Thanksgiving Leftovers.

How about you?  What are your favorite parts of the Thanksgiving Feast?  How do you use up your leftovers?

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Come for the turkey; stay for the potatoes (and The Potato Song)

For lots of folks, the Thanksgiving feast is all about the main dish, the turkey. Now, don’t get us wrong — we love turkey, too!

But, when we let our minds wander to the dishes and platters on the Thanksgiving buffet, we think about which foods we’ll make extra room on our plates for.  And the food we always make extra room for on our plate is, every year, without fail, the mashed potatoes.

Truffled, cheesy, herbed, pesto, or just sprinkled with salt and your favorite pepper, mashed potatoes are hearty and filling.

And even though they are delicious by themselves, mashed potatoes make a great base upon which to build an infinite variety of tastes, to pair (or contrast) with a wide range of other flavorful main courses and side dishes.

The potato song. Finally, every year around this time, we remember the special song you must sing while you make your Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. We first heard it over twenty years ago on public radio.

We still haven’t learned all the words of the verses (although they are catchy and clever!), but the chorus is easy to learn: you just say the word POTATO over and over again (but don’t forget to switch the accents on the syllables as you go).

Sing along with us, won’t you?
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‘Talking Turkey’ at AllSpice: New Turkey and Poultry Seasoning

Turkey-and-Poultry-SeasoningIt’s time to talk turkey. An old American phrase that dates to back before our Revolutionary War, talking turkey means speaking frankly with someone, discussing hard facts, or getting to the point.

Experts aren’t clear on the exact origins of the idiom (some say it has something to do with colonists bargaining with indigenous people for wild game?), but for modern-day AllSpice staff, when we talk turkey, we mean we are getting down to serious business —- both figuratively and literally. Native to the US, the iconic turkey is synonymous with Thanksgiving feasting, and boy howdy, talking about best or favorite ways to prepare turkey for the feast is serious business around here.

Our new Turkey and Poultry Seasoning is a “seriously” tasty blend of ingredients, specifically chosen to add layers of flavor to your turkey. A little bit spicy, with lots of savory, this blend makes poultry preparations a breeze. Simply rub this seasoning under the skin and inside the cavity of the turkey or other poultry, then bake.

Don’t feel that you have to wait until Thanksgiving to use this blend, as the sage and chili flavors will enhance all of your poultry dishes, any time of year. We like to use Turkey and Poultry Seasoning ($5.60 for a 1/2 Cup jar) in savory pot pies, in chicken salad, and even in our post-holiday turkey noodle soup.

Turkey and Poultry Seasoning Contains: Salt, Sage, Pepper, Garlic, Onion, Chili, Paprika, and Other Spices.

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