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Top 10 Most Ridic Thanksgiving Recipes Roundup

Here at ES we obviously LOVE Thanksgiving. Mass quantities of turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin… what could be better?! Weeeell, okay, the only thing better than traditional Thanksgiving dinner is ridic Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily, thanks to the advent of Pinterest, there’s no end to the creative, tempting, and sometimes downright insane recipes people can come up with and share these days.

We scoured Pinterest to find some of the best/weirdest/most intense Thanksgiving recipes from the bloggers out there. Some posts very new, some from a few years ago but making a renaissance thanks to social media. Make one of these for the big holiday and freak out your family, or wait until you have an overload of leftovers and go crazy.

Oh, and – Happy Thanksgiving!

1. Cranberry, Butternut, Brussels Sprouts and Brie Skillet Nachos
from Half-Baked Harvest

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2. Stuffing Waffle Croque Madame
from Serious Eats

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3. Bacon Blanketed Herb-Roasted Turkey
from The Runaway Spoon

Bacon Wrapped Turkey

4. Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Onions, Brie and Sage
from Recipe Girl

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Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad

Brussels Sprout Caesar Salad

Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad

There’s a cute place in Austin’s Manor neighborhood called the Salty Sow. Their slogan is “swine + wine + beer” so clearly I’m on board. (I love Salty Sow so much that I actually wrote a bit about them in an ES post last summer!) This head-to-tail gastropub specializes in all things porky and meaty, of course, but surprisingly one of my favorite things on their menu is a salad! Go figure.

This isn’t just any salad, though. It starts with brussels sprouts, always a winner in my book, and makes them into a take on the Caesar salad, topped with dried cranberries and candied almonds. It’s salty, savory, slightly crispy, and just a tad bit sweet. My mouth is seriously watering just thinking about it.

I loved this salad so much that I begged the recipe out of ’em, and now I want all of you to experience its magic.

Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad

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White Chocolate, Ginger & Cranberry Scones

Buttery, sweet, and tart. These scones are a nice way to kick off a cold morning. You can make these ahead and freeze them for up to a month, making it a snap to have a warm breakfast.

You can swap out the trio of add-ins with just about anything in the same amount. Try pecans, chocolate chips, and caramel bits. Or chopped dried apricots, sunflower seeds, and cinnamon chips.

White  Chocolate, Ginger & Cranberry Scones

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America’s Best New Sandwiches, Part 2

Last month ES brought you our list of America’s top 10 new sandwiches. But blogga always said that reader knows best.

Many of you commented on our original story to tell us which of your favorite innovative sandwich should have been included. We chose the ten tastiest suggestions and now present an encore list: America’s Top 10 New Sandwiches, as selected by Endless Simmer readers.

10. Steak Poutine Pita — U Needa Pita St. Catharine’s, Ontario

What could be better than poutine, Montreal’s signature street food? How about throwing that poutine — cheese curds, fries and gravy included — on a pita, so you can actually eat it while walking down the street? Add some steak and you’ve got yourself one helluva sandwich. And yes, for the sake of U Needa Pita, we’re including Canada as part of America this one time only.

9. Westside Monte Cristo — Melt Bar and Grilled — Cleveland


We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: there’s no food so good that it can’t be made better by a trip to the deep fryer. Kudos to Melt for being brave enough to test this theory out on the monte cristo breakfast sandwich — honey ham, smoked turkey, Swiss and American cheese — all battered in beer and deep fried.

8. Chacarero — La Sombra — Austin

We’re officially placing money on Chile’s signature sandwich — the chacarero — to become the next bahn mi, and La Sombra‘s version is the most sumptuous one we’ve seen yet. Shiner Bock marinated sliced hangar steak topped with green beans, avocado, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers and spicy mayo, all on a thin, toasty bolillo.

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Five Ways to Drink Your Thanksgiving Dinner

Turkey…stuffing…mashed potatoes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they’re all great, but in the ES book holidays are a time to get booze-y. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up traditional Thanksgiving flavors. These five liquor-fueled concoctions put the yay in turkey day.

1. Pumpkin Martini

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We’ve been seeing this one pop up a lot lately, whether made with pumpkin spice or pumpkin syrup. At Devil’s Alley in Philadelphia, they say screw the FDA and throw some caffeine in there too. Their espresso pumpkin martini is made from Van Gogh Expresso Vodka, Bailey’s Irish Cream and pumpkin syrup. Leave pumpkin pie for the babies. (Photo by M. Edlow for GPTMC)

2. Cranberry Cocktail

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We all know that frightening blob of canned cranberry sauce is gonna be left on the table at the end of the meal, right? Fortunately for cranberry lovers who want their antioxidants in a more easily digestible form, there are now several types of cranberry liquor on the market. At Patina Restaurant in LA, the turkey day menu gets washed down with “the fall cocktail” — 1½ oz. Pear Vodka, ¾ oz. Cranberry Liquor and 1 oz. Apple Juice.

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