Every year I like to take a look at the classic Thanksgiving recipes and imagine new ways to mix up the flavors for a fresh twist. I’ve created dozens of veggie recipes, countless stuffing combinations, but I often stop short at fussing with mashed potatoes. Why mess with perfection? Well, recently I was craving potato leek soup and made a batch for dinner — it hit the spot and as I was enjoying it a lightbulb when off. Why not give my classic mashed potatoes a potato-leek inspired treatment? The flavors of the traditional mashed potatoes are still there in this recipe, but the sautéed shallots and leeks kick up the flavor just a bit for something really special. Get the full recipe below! 
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While almost everyone is gearing up for the big turkey day meal at the end of the month, I’ve been over here cooking and testing recipes for the holidays since early fall. The funny thing about writing a blog is that you start each holiday and season a little bit before everyone else to have content ready, and sometimes that means cooking Thanksgiving dinner sides in September. So, as we lead up to Turkey Day I am craving something a little bit lighter than mashed potatoes and stuffing. A big salad with my favorite Little Leaf Farms greens is my go-to dinner when I’m looking for healthier options, and I love to give them a fresh twist to make use of seasonal ingredients. This squash and farro salad is my current favorite! 
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I mixed up this tasty bourbon pear punch over the weekend when we celebrated Halloween outside with a few friends (I feel the need to add, everyone had masks on unless we were sipping cocktails, safety first!). You may notice in the picture that there is snow on the ground, mixed with crunchy fall leaves, and I’m wearing a t-shirt — New England at it’s finest, a jumble of seasons in just a few short hours. With the election day this week, I think I may be mixing up another round of these — we can all use a drink, right? Prep the spiced pear simple syrup in advance so it has time to chill before you mix up a batch of this seasonal spiced bourbon punch, cheers!
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Have I mentioned how much I love cheese? I like really really really love cheese. So when my friends at Martha Stewart Living challenged me to create a tasty Fall-inspired recipe Kerrygold Dubliner Cheese I was on board. Kerrygold Dubliner Cheese is made with milk from grass-fed cows that are raised on small, family-run Irish dairy farms, and that milk makes their cheeses so flavorful and creamy. I particularly love the Dubliner Cheese because of the balanced sweet and nutty flavors – similar to a cheddar in texture but with the bite of parmesan. Are you hungry yet?
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I keep a long list of blog post ideas in my phone, all organized by season and event. I was scrolling through the list last week and an idea for buffalo roasted chickpeas I was saving for the Super Bowl jumped out at me. Life is short, and if this year has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t make plans that far in advance. So I grabbed life by the chickpeas and said let’s jump on this idea right now! Instead of serving them as a stand-alone snack, I roasted them and served them over a rice bowl with crumbled blue cheese, scallions and celery. I also mixed in a little leftover shredded chicken that I tossed in the same buffalo sauce, but you could easily omit that to make it a vegetarian meal. I love a little spice this time of year, but also pulled some of the chicken and chickpeas aside to serve buffalo-free for a kid-friendly dinner too. Get the full recipe below!
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There’s a chill in the autumn air and I am welcoming soup season with big open arms! I was digging into my recipe archives to pull out my favorite soup recipes to start cycling through them on the weekends, and thought I’d share a round up of 5 popular soups that I come back to year after year. From hearty potato leek to veggie-packed sweet squash soups to spicy sausage and tortellini, there’s a soup for everyone — scroll down to see my favorites!
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If I’m ever stumped about what to make for dinner and ask my husband if he has any ideas, 100% of the time he answers with “what about tacos or fajitas?” It’s the perfect answer because everyone is happy when tacos or fajitas are on the menu! I like to take some inspiration from #DomestikateGrazingBoards series and turn taco night into a big, serve-yourself, DIY fajita salad board so that everyone can pick their favorite ingredients and assemble their own fajita salad bowl, served on top of my favorite Little Leaf Farms lettuce!
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We did the autumn in New England thing last weekend and hit the orchard for some picturesque apple picking! It was perfect weather and so early in the season that the trees were bursting with big red apples. Every year we come home with a big bag of apples, and I stare at them wondering how we’ll manage to eat them all! It’s a great creative challenge though, to brainstorm ways to use them in smoothies and crumbles, baking them into pies and turning them into sweet apple butter. This year I decided to work on an apple muffin recipe and managed to sneak some shredded zucchini in for a certain veggie-resistant toddler. The muffins were topped with dark chocolate chips, a peace offering for sneaking that zucchini in! We’ve been grabbing these for snacks and breakfast all week long; scroll down for the full recipe.
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I am craving alllllllll the fall flavors, and I may have found a way to jam pack them into a single bite of this flatbread pizza! The inspiration for this tasty autumnal slice was leftover goat cheese I had taunting me in my fridge — what to do with it, what to do with it? I’ll tell you what I did with it: I popped it in my food processor and blended it with pumpkin puree and honey to make the most deliciously sweet pumpkin goat cheese that I spread out over the flatbread crust. For the crust I used a pre-made flatbread (this brand!), but any crust would work. Then I topped my creamy pumpkin-goat cheese base with crumbled sausage, sautéed onions, roasted delicata squash, and some fresh sage to finish it off. The best part is that it was easy to make, perfect for a shareable weekend snack or easy weeknight dinner! 
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I shared a picture on my instagram page recently of my end-of-summer veggie garden bounty, and the thing that I’ve been most proud of are the eggplants I grew this year! Also in my garden basket was a handful of leaves cut from freshly planted kale and a few last juicy summer tomatoes. The combination of ingredients plucked fresh from the dirt was my inspiration for this dish. I crisped up the eggplant with a light breading and then layered it with a flavorful, seasoned parmesan and ricotta combo. Then I topped it with the burst tomatoes and kale that had been sautéed with garlic. It was so simple, so good, and I love how the dish brought out the flavors of each of the veggies (the crispy eggplant — that I’m so proud of — was the star of the show). Scroll down for the full recipe!
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