Friendsgiving is one of the best holidays around. Yes, I said Friendsgiving, not Thanksgiving. A day of indulging in your favorite foods and beverages with some of your favorite people. This year, we had a friendsgiving at the office and it did not disappoint. Paired with some of our favorite wines, we had an absolute blast. One of the best perks of a friendsgiving is that each person brings one of their favorite dishes, which means that no one person has to burden a large amount of work and everyone can enjoy themselves. A pro tip for Friendsgiving – save the china for Thanksgiving and go with some festive paperware, it’s a saving grace at the end of the night when you are just ready to relax and there are some really great sustainable options on the market. Another tip to make it memorable? An epic playlist. We’re not going to give you one – we suggest asking your friends ahead of time for some of their favorite tunes and putting them together on one big playlist. You can share it out with everyone after the fact and it will always remind them of your Friendsgiving! And last but never least – wine. You’re going to need to provide a variety of wine to pair with each dish. Or ask your guests to bring a bottle that pairs well with their dish. There are so many to try here. The variety of options at Friendsgiving is always fun because it tends to buck tradition a bit. At our Friendsgiving, we had two kinds of stuffing, a green salad studded with pomegranates and walnuts, turkey meatballs, brie pull apart bread, Scungilli salad, Persimmon pudding and Pumpkin pie. You’ll find some of these recipes below. Happy Friendsgiving! Scungilli Salad Ingredients Method Thanksgiving Meatballs Ingredients Method Ingredients Method Persimmon Pudding Cake Persimmon is one of the new fruits and vegetables I tried when I moved from the Midwest to California in the 80’s. At the time, there wasn’t much food variety in Chicago area grocery stores, so after discovering artichokes, pomegranate, and romaine lettuce (yep, only iceberg lettuce before), I tried a persimmon. It was an Hachiya Persimmon, which I later learned must have been unripe, and it tasted like I was chewing on a sock. No taste of anything offering the promise of future ripeness. Did I try the wrong varietal? Should I try another? Nope, not risking that again. A few years ago a new neighbor brought over five Fuyu persimmons from her tree, telling me about her family’s secret Persimmon Pudding recipe. I just nodded and thanked her, wondered how much fixing that recipe must need and put the lovely fruit in a bowl on the dining table. Persimmon ripens nicely, just sitting there on your counter. I decided to find a recipe – this recipe by Lily Ernst, was the first to open my mind to persimmon. (I made some edits to original recipe)” Ingredients Method Ingredients Method
Juice of 4 Lemons
4 cloves of Garlic
½ C. Olive Oil
1 Stalk Celery, Sliced
¼ C. Roasted Red Pepper
¼ C. Pepporoncini
32 oz Canned Scungilli/Conch, Sliced
1 lb medium Shrimp, cleaned and boiled
Boiled Calamari/Steamed Muscles, optional
In a large bowl, toss all ingredients. Refrigerate for 24 hours and enjoy!
These meatballs are a fun play on Turkey and cranberries, employing the two as the main ingredients. Enjoy these light meatballs as an appetizer or main course. Served with a tangy orange and dill yoghurt sauce, it’s an easy way to put turkey on the table without roasting one all day long!
1 lb. Ground Turkey
1 C. Fresh Cranberries
2 Small Sweet Onions, sliced
2 Tbsp .Rosemary, chopped
1 Tbsp. Rubbed Sage
1 Tbsp. Thyme
2 Eggs
½ C. Goat Cheese
1 C. Breadcrumbs
Olive oil to cook
Salt to taste
Juice of one Orange
2 Tbsp. Dill
½ C. YoghurtOma’s Pumpkin Soup
“This is a verbally handed down recipe from my Dutch mother-in-law, Oma (Grandma) Mattie. She used to prepare it for our family on cold and wet days in Amsterdam. Now back in the States I like to prepare it on those chilly days that remind me of the Fall in our beloved little country in Europe, the Netherlands.”
1 medium pumpkin
2 leeks
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp curry powder
1 bottle dry white wine (I used Diamond Sauvignon Blanc)
Chicken Stock, roughly 3 cups
Whipping cream, to taste, roughly 1/3 cup
Salt & Pepper, to taste
“Persimmons are now one of my favorite fruits. But things didn’t start out so well
2 Cups Fuyu persimmon pulp (about 5 persimmons)
2 Cups, All Purpose Flour, sifted
3/4 Tbsp baking powder
½ Tsp. salt
1 Tsp. ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp. melted unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 Cup white sugar
1 Cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
Whipped cream or ice cream topping
Chopped walnuts – optionalSausage Stuffing (as found on About.com years ago)
1 lb Sage Breakfast sausage
½ Cup of butter
2 Cups chopped onion
2 Cups chopped celery
10 Cups cubed French bread
1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage
2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 Teaspoon salt
Dash freshly ground black pepper
1 and ¾ Cups chicken broth