Eggplant Dip with Pomegranate

Crimson Pomegranates available from The Fruit Company®

Thanksgiving morning.  The oven door opens, closes; the smell of turkey fills the air and hovers above your head like an autumn fog.  A delicious dark and white meat fog.  It is early, and everyone is still in bed; they’ve all fallen into the space between sleep and the morning that follows it.  The smell of the turkey will soon push them over the edge.

You’ve been charged with cooking Thanksgiving Dinner.  Next year, someone else will be responsible, and your only job will be to be thankful you cooked last year.  But you must not get ahead of yourself.  There are egg timers, and thermometers, and smoke alarms to worry about.  No, now is not the time for being thankful; that will come later after you’ve filled every belly past its normal capacity.

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Pear, Sweet Potato, and Jalapeno Soup

Anjou Pears available from The Fruit Company®

There isn’t a menu written out but everyone knows about the soup.  Their eyebrows shot skyward as you said sweet potato, pear, and jalapeño in the same sentence; a few noses furled.  But you aren’t concerned.  Whereas some see a mixture of disparate ingredients, you see harvest in a bowl.

As friends and family make their way in and out of the kitchen, they will ask about the soup.  They will express their inability to combine the three flavors in their head, and you’ll be forced to dole out a bit of reassurance.  It tastes great, you’ll say.  You’ll even give out a small spoonful to the most talkative of your guests so that word gets out.  By the time the soup hits the table, everyone will go quiet in reverence.  The soup is here.  The soup they’ve heard so much about.

And then the soup will do the talking. Read more

Asian Pear Salad with Blue Cheese

Asian Pears available from The Fruit Company®.

The soup was a hit.  Every bowl on the table was spooned clean, along with the rest of the soup you’d reserved for leftovers.  Note to self: next time make more soup.  The first rounds of belly pats are taking place at the table; some of your diners loosen their belts a notch.  They’re gauging the amount of space left for the rest of dinner and a few of them look worried—mostly the ones who went for seconds and thirds on the soup.

It’s salad time.

But it’s not time for any salad; you don’t believe in filler.  Your meal is following a tight progression, one that could be derailed by a lackluster salad.  That’s why you sought out the Asian Pears.

You love the taste, the texture, the way they mix the exotic and the familiar in such a satisfying way.  Blue cheese, glazed walnuts, and bitter greens?  So good.

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Potato Cakes with  Cran-Apple Sauce

HoneyCrisp Apples available from The Fruit Company®.

After eggplant dip and  sweet potato soup, you’ve decided against traditional mashed potatoes.  You need to vary the textures, and you have it on good authority that The Fruit Company® has an excellent Smashed Potato Cake with Warm Apple Sauce recipe on their blog.  There are a few groans from your guests when they learn of your decision.  Some worry that without mashed potatoes, there won’t be anything to be thankful for.

So you reassure them.  You tell them everything is going to alright, tell them to trust you.  When that doesn’t work, you tell them the mashed potato cakes will be fried.  Suddenly, everything is gravy again despite the lack of gravy. Read more

Pomegranate Molasses Glazed Turkey

Crimson Pomegranates available from The Fruit Company®.

Turkey.  It’s the reason most of your guests accepted your invitation.  Well, no that’s not true.  They did it because they love you and wanted to enjoy your company on this, the fourth Thursday of November.

The turkey is just a bonus.

So far in your meal, you’ve done things a little differently.  You wanted this Thanksgiving to stand out, to be remembered.  But you’re not about to do away with the Turkey.  The meal has been building towards a tryptophan fueled finale and you plan on delivering. Read more

Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Pie

Fuji Apples and Webster Comice Pears available from The Fruit Company®.

When everyone stirs from their turkey slumber, it will be time for pie.  Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Pie. It will be a tad rustic looking and not nearly as tasty as your mothers, but it will taste of Fuji Apples and Comice Pears, and have a crust and filling.  At this point, you won’t mind if it’s not perfect.  Thanksgiving dinner never is.  The important thing is that you’ve spent the day surrounded by good food, and good friends.

Good friends who are good at doing the dishes.

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