Here is one of my side dishes from Thanksgiving this year, full of seasonal root vegetables along with the flavors of fresh ginger and maple syrup. The vegetables can be prepped the night before, or during the day while the turkey is cooking.

While the turkey is cooking, prepare the dish and place it in the oven during the last 20 minutes of the turkey cooking time. Once you remove the turkey, increase the heat to 400F and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 20 more minutes. This gives you time to let the turkey rest and get the rest of the food ready, then pull out the vegetables right before serving.

When preparing the vegetables, cut everything to the same relative shape and size. This will ensure that all the vegetables cook at the same rate, and that way you don’t end up with mushy carrots and rock-hard sweet potatoes.

Ginger Roasted Root Vegetables w/ Pecans
adapted from Food & Wine magazine

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut in 1 inch cubes
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1 inch cubes
2 large parsnips, peeled and sliced about 1 inch thick
4 medium to small carrots, peeled and sliced about 1 inch thick
1 container (8 oz) whole baby bella mushrooms, rinsed and halved
1 cup whole pecans
2 tbsp freshly grated ginger (about a 2 inch piece)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 /4 tsp ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup maple syrup
Ground cinnamon, optional

Preheat the oven to 400F and brush a 13×9 inch baking dish with olive oil.

Combine the prepared vegetables in a large bowl along with the mushrooms and pecans. Add ginger, olive oil, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss all of the ingredients, coating the vegetables.

Add vegetables to the prepared baking dish, then drizzle with maple syrup. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender when pierced with a fork. Sprinkle with a dash of cinnamon just before serving, if desired.

Recently, I watched an old episode of Iron Chef America. It was an episode I saw back when I first started cooking, but with new eyes I had a completely different impression. The secret ingredient was turkey (Thanksgiving Special, of course) and the Iron Chef had prepared 5 turkey-stuffing-cranberry dishes in 5 different ways to represent America: the Northeast, Florida, Deep South, North Pacific, and Southwest. When I first viewed it, I thought it was genius. This time, I remarked at how wasteful it was that he only used turkey breast for each dish, discarding the rest of the turkey.

The thought gave me pause, as I had never before criticized a Food Network Star of such atrocities (okay, maybe a couple digs on Rachel Ray). The more I thought about it, however, the truer the words range in my ears. How wasteful. How indulgent. How negligent. Yes, it is a cooking competition, but wasn’t there something to be said for sustainability? Responsible cooking? Earth-friendly fare? Or does being a top chef mean that you can bend those rules and through caution to the wind, all for the sake of a beautiful and delicious dish?

In a completely separate event, one of my husband’s co-workers made a proclamation against “refined sugar” and how bad it was to consume, along with some baking “tips” for avoiding refined sugar. Note: Baking is a chemical process and rather precise, therefore substituting ingredients doesn’t work “just like that,” it is actually a gamble to swap out an ingredient as integral to the process as sugar.

Normally, I would just overlook it as hippy dippy nonsense, but I had recently sent my husband to his office with my freshly baked muffins. Wait. Was this a commentary on my baking? My mentality is that if you don’t like it, don’t eat it. James thought I took the comment out of context, but I was angry and  insulted. How ungrateful to eat my food then complain about it!

Then I realized the events were not that dissimilar. Granted, I was commenting on a TV personality and not someone I know personally, but I digress. We all have different standards when it comes to frugality, sustainability, food waste, recycling, and social responsibility. I can’t say that my level of responsibility is any greater than the average consumer. I try to pay a fair price, avoid food waste, and produce a somewhat healthy product, but I know I could do more. Maybe I am in no position to judge the Iron Chef, just as I feel no one is in the position to judge me (lest he cook his own hippy dippy muffins).

If we are all cooking good food that people enjoy, does it matter?

For all of my Thanksgiving Day Dinner recipes, I’ve created a little special topic called Turkey Talk. Any of my tried and true turkey day recipes can be found here. This year’s selections include:

Peach Horchata (Cinnamon Rice Milk)
Ginger Roasted Root Vegetables w/ Pecans
Garlic-Thyme Whipped Potatoes and Stuffing
Lemon-Thyme Turkey Breast

I also made some of my traditional Thanksgiving Day favorites:

Hot Apricot Cider
Gingersnap-Pear Cheesecake

As part of Muffin Madness, I challenged myself to make Blueberry-Orange muffins. I wanted to include candied orange peel tossed with ground cloves, sprinkled on top of the muffins. After doing a little research, I found the website Food Pairings that indicated cardamom was a good match for blueberries and bitter orange peel, so I decided to stir the candied orange peel into the batter along with some ground cardamom.

The candied orange peel I purchased, however, was not high quality and contained a large amount of pith. The candied orange sunk to the bottom of each muffin, and the original recipe I used called for granulated white sugar instead of brown sugar, so the muffins themselves were quite dry and flavorless. It took three attempts to get this recipe right, which included swapping in brown sugar, using fresh orange juice and fresh orange zest to make the muffins moist, and tinkering with the amount of blueberries for maximum impact.

Here is the final result! Use frozen blueberries for best flavor and texture (thaw first).

Blueberry-Orange Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 large egg
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by coating it in cooking spray.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cardamom.

In a large bowl, combine butter, buttermilk, egg, orange juice and orange zest. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add half of the flour mixture and beat to combine. Add the second half of the flour mixture and beat to combine. Fold in blueberries.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tins, filling the cups about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center.

Makes about 12 muffins.