food to glow

Take the hassle out of hasselback with my easy way of making this cute Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish. Normally seen on white potatoes, hasselback is also the perfect way to spruce up sweet potatoes or butternut squash. By part-baking before slicing and slicking with the flavourings, you save your fingers and your sanity. Top tip! 

You know, one of the best things about blogging and being part of the social media slipstream is you. Yes, you.

Every morning, as Andrew valiantly gets ready for work in the dark (he’s way too good for me, so he is), I rummage blindly under the bed for my phone. Because I switch it off before retiring to bed it takes a few seconds for the mystical whirrings and soft bleeps of this inanimate object to come to life. Pings and chirrups from distant lands and time zones. As always, there is plethora of overnight urgent messages from random companies. Most wish to part me from my money. Block. Delete. Sigh…

But more and more these days I am getting messages from actual people  (!) telling me that they’ve made one of my recipes. And, thrillingly for me, that they loved it. To a food writer it really doesn’t get any better than that: it feels better than Christmas, better than cookies from the oven, better even than the first proper snow of winter.

It is on these days that rather than languish under the magnetically warm and inviting duvet, I fairly spring from my bed, brush my teeth and head for the kitchen, determined to do more, and do it better. Of course I have work-work, too. Don’t we all. But I am doubly blessed that what I do “in real life” intersects with my fantasy-come-to-life world of creating recipes and sharing them.

If you have ever messaged me with even the vaguest hint of praise or support, then believe me it is a tonic to the soul. And I thank you. 

I am feeling in a particularly thankful mood. Not only do I have the best blog readers EVER, but it is Thanksgiving Day in exactly one week. As an ex-pat American I am very grateful for any extra food-focused holidays. 🙂

Thanksgiving is the biggie. Christmas is massive too. Obviously. But Thanksgiving Day, that non-denominational, gosh-we-are-still-a-nation day of celebration and family, is the sine qua non of American holidays. Where Christmas might be spent with just the nuclear family, tearing open presents and getting a bit sloshed on egg nog, Thanksgiving Day – well you can’t get away with that. It won’t do. Yes, a lot of it is now centered around college football (yawn), but it is the time to gather round a table – often a string of mismatched tables and chairs wedged around the room like a crazy human Screwball Scramble set  – and just be together. Dropping the turkey, burning the stuffing, and playing tag you’re it with the sprouts is all part of the day.

And tradition. That’s an integral part of it too. Thanksgiving is built on family traditions.

In our family there is always sweet potato casserole. Always. In some form or other. My mother used to make a fantastic one. It’s a southern thing. But this year I am going out on a bit of a culinary limb with today’s recipe, Smoky Maple-Pecan Hasselback Butternut Squash. My family haven’t tasted it as I tested it out at work, but I think – I hope – it will go down well. And if not, then hey, I can package it up and gift it away at Christmas as an edible Slinky. 🙂

At the end of the post I will give you links to my Thanksgiving-esque recipes, in case you are short a dish or two. These – as well as this current recipe – are also perfect for Christmas.

So, this Thanksgiving give thanks for your Aunty Jean’s cranberry sauce with the too-generous splash of sweet port, your Nan’s still slightly frozen green bean casserole (it’s really only the fried onions we like), and your own honed-to-perfection gravy. And I will be thankful for you. Have a good one. xx

Need Some More Holiday Recipes?

11 Last-Minute Vegetarian Thanksgiving Day Recipes – my mains and sides to make your day delicious and healthy. Oh, there’s one dessert too. 🙂

Incredible Cauliflower Mash – luxurious and oh so good!

Port-Poached Pears Endive and Blue Cheese

And we can’t forget the gravy! Rich Spring Onion Gravy