Author: kitchentourist

I'm a librarian by profession and personality: I love to learn and explore new ideas, and I love books. I apply this to most areas of life, including my cooking. With a limited budget in a big city, international cookbooks give me a great excuse to explore my local grocery stores and the cultures they represent all over the world.

Cranberry-Orange Relish

There are three ingredients and one essential tool for this recipe: a bright, tart relish my Mom has been making the same way for 60+ years.

Green Bean Casserole with Mushroom Cream Gravy

This is not the “authentic” American pantry casserole with condensed canned soup and bland canned vegetables. This uses fresh vegetables and rich butter and cream and ok, some canned fried onions.

Loaded Cornbread Dressing

I know I can be a bit extra. This recipe suits me, but even I only make it once a year. I’ve fiddled until I’ve found the ingredients that I like best for all the textures and flavors and think it’s worth the effort.

Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Menu

It helps that we’ve already learned to plan Thanksgiving with as many make-ahead steps as possible. Breaking the recipes and dishes up this way makes it easier have all the food hot on the table, even if our menu is pretty extensive.

Moroccan Country Salad

I love finding recipes from around the world that use familiar ingredients and offer new flavor combinations. If I can use colorful ingredients from my garden, all the better!

Hibiscus Punch

A bright red punch made like iced tea with lots of great spices and an optional gruesome garnish

Tomato Chicken Balti

A great end-of-summer dish with a rich sauce full of fresh tomatoes – it will only taste better if you happen to make it ahead or have leftovers!

Make-Ahead Indian Menu

On the principle that many curries taste better the next day anyway, the Indian menu we served this weekend was composed primarily of dishes we made ahead.