blue artichoke

I eat out a lot in Boston. It's not that I don't want to cook, or that I like eating out (I do, but not all the time), but everyone keeps inviting me. Since I like spending time with these people, I go. It means I've only made a few dishes so far.

Chinese food is typically kosher -- did you know that? Sure, you have to make sure the meat isn't treyf (like pork), but something like chicken or beef can very easily be kosher. And the vegetarian dishes will naturally be kosher. This stems mainly from the fact that Chinese food uses very little (as in just about zero) dairy. For the most part, that is.

Anyway, I made kung pao chicken. I suppose I should say I made a variation of kung pao chicken. The recipe is from All Recipes website, which is a great little treasure chest of recipes for anything you can imagine. However, a warning: always check several recipes before picking one. The mushroom stroganoff from my last post for example -- wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

This kung pao chicken was, however. I was fairly liberal with my spices, so it had good flavour and a fair amount of kick. I would have liked a couple more vegetables, and would have liked a darker dish (I like the dark kung pao one finds in restaurants like PF Changs (not that I'm condoning or even implying that PF Changs is real Chinese food)). But overall it was really good. Recommended for those making dishes they want to be kosher or when inviting friends over that keep kosher.

For Thanksgiving, I just have to add that I went to see Plymouth Rock ('tis but a pebble) and to Plimouth Plantation for Thanksgiving dinner with some pilgrims. I was afraid it would be banquet-like disgusting food (like most wedding receptions), but it was really rather good. A dish I'd never heard of (I'm from the South) was creamed onions. They were good... I missed my grandmother's cornbread dressing, however, and my mom's Greek dressing: yemisi.

Yemesi -- Greek Dressing

1 ½ lbs of ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
½ cup rice
Parsley - either one bunch of fresh, chopped just the leaves or 1 ½ tablespoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon allspice
pepper to taste
2 small boxes raisins
1 can chicken broth

Brown meat with the onions, add chicken broth, parsley, allspice, pepper, rice and raisins.

Cook until rice is done and most of broth absorbed.

Yemisi is perhaps an acquired taste, but once acquired, it's something you'll want many times. With my family, since we're Greek (well, Greek mom), we've always had it on the table at Thanksgiving. I almost forget that it's not a traditional American dish, since I've seen it every year all my life.

My own question: What special/interesting/different foods does everyone's families have at Thanksgiving that aren't necessarily the "traditional" fixins?