In the kitchen with Charity: Recipes for a Relevant Thanksgiving

The customs of Thanksgiving — watching a parade of enormous balloons and helping to roast a bird that barely fits in the oven — are the foundations of my favorite holiday, but it’s nice to go beyond.

Here are three recipes that have made my Thanksgiving more fun and more relevant.

A few years back my husband’s niece announced she would be making Smashed Potatoes cooked in schmaltz (chicken fat), a high-risk operation when you consider that half the family thought she was talking about baby food and the others assumed she could not cook decent potatoes and was calling them smashed to save face.

Since we had gathered at her house that year, she had an audience as she rendered the fat and cooked what looked like a bowl of large mushroom caps.

As the aroma of frying potatoes filled the air, there may have been a raised eyebrow and possibly a harrumph, but once the smash was served, we ate every single spud. A new tradition was born. (Extra good with gravy!)

Smashed Potatoes

2 pounds small Yukon Gold potatoes (smaller than a lemon)

4 tablespoons schmaltz (rendered chicken fat), duck fat or olive oil

Salt, pepper

1. Cook potatoes in boiling water until they are fork-tender.

2. Drain and set them to cool on a parchment-lined sheet pan.

3. Smash each potato with the heel of your hand into a rough, flattened disk, about 1 1/2 inches thick, and blot them dry on both sides with a paper towel.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of schmaltz or duck fat in an iron skillet and fry the potatoes in batches until lightly browned on both sides, adding fat as the pan gets dry. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Note: If you prefer not to fry, roast the smashed potatoes on the sheet pan; drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until crispy.

My sister-in-law Ellen is a wonderful cook, and every year I look forward to her bean soup. With a touch of pancetta and a dollop of garlicky pesto, it’s so hearty and fragrant that it works better than a Wegovy injection at controlling my urge to eat too much pie.

Ellen’s Tuscan Bean Soup

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

1 celery rib, diced

4 leeks, white part, sliced lengthwise, rinsed and diced

4 garlic cloves

10 cups of chicken stock

4 oz. diced pancetta

1 lb. dried white beans, soaked overnight

2 bay leaves

3 sprigs of parsley

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Salt and pepper

Pesto: 1 garlic clove, 1 tablespoon roasted almonds, 2 cups of fresh basil leaves, 2 tablespoons grated parmesan, 2 tablespoons olive oil, added to a food processor in that order and blended. Dribble in additional olive oil until the mixture is a coarse paste.

1. Heat oil, add the carrot, celery, leeks and cook until the vegetables soften.

2. Add garlic and cook 2-3 minutes.  Add chicken stock, beans and bring the beans to a boil for 5 minutes.

3. Lower heat to simmer, add pancetta.

4. Wrap the bay leaves, parsley, thyme and rosemary in cheesecloth and add to the pot.

5. Simmer gently for 2 hours. Remove the herbs/cheesecloth and purée half the soup.

6. Put a spoonful of the prepared pesto atop each bowl for serving.

Have you noticed that sourdough is still all the rage? I love fresh-baked bread, but there’s so much oven action at Thanksgiving that it’s got to be quick, and these biscuits fit the bill.

My friend Julia Reidhead shared this recipe from her sister, Ginny Teitt, a Presbyterian minister and mother of seven, who lives on a farm in Marysville, Ohio.

With no kneading, folding or proofing, they make for a much less intensive kitchen experience than loaves of sourdough bread, and are one of the best ways to cook with sourdough that I’ve found.

Sleepy Creek Sourdough Biscuits

Adapted by Ginny Teitt from “Ann’s Sourdough Biscuits”

Makes 18 to 24 biscuits

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup milk

1 cup ripe sourdough starter

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 to 2 tablespoons cornmeal

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment, or grease and sprinkle with a bit of cornmeal.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar together. Cut in the shortening with two knives or a pastry blender to the consistency of coarse crumbs.

3. In another bowl, combine milk and sourdough starter. Stir into flour mixture until just combined.

4. Gently roll to 1/2 inch thick and cut into rounds with 2-inch biscuit cutter, or into squares with a bench knife.

5. Arrange on the prepared pan with sides touching and allow the biscuits to sit in a warm spot for up to 30 minutes until they puff up slightly.

6. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of cornmeal. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.