WIMFD: Roasted fennel with olives and garlic
Bon Appetit's November issue is full of thanksgiving goodness - I want to roast a turkey every day! Anyway, since I'm unsure of who is going to be doing the cooking at T's fam's place for thanksgiving, I didn't want to lose out on trying out some of the recipes.
I love fennel, though I usually use it raw in salads and I've never actually 'cooked' it before, so I tried this - Roasted fennel with olives and garlic - and seriously, its awesome... if you're looking for a good (and easy to make) side for thanksgiving, this is totally worth it. Finding fennel sometimes can be a pain the ass, since the only place I've consistently found fennel is at Whole foods and its so much more expensive there than if you can find it at Safeway and Trader Joes (though they only sporadically carry it so its good to have WF as your backup).
I really wanted to try the Brussels Sprout Hash with Carmelized Shallots but I couldn't stomach the idea of the entire apartment smelling like stinky gym shoes all evening while they cooked (plus, not everyone likes brussel sprouts) or the Butternut Squash Gratin with Goat Cheese and Hazelnuts too but T isn't as crazy about butternut squash as I am. The fennel went over well with all so I'm happy. I'll have to try those other ones another time.