Welcome! This is “Staying In,” a Sunday newsletter with recipe ideas for your week ahead. Every other Thursday I also publish a “Going Out” edition where I review a restaurant, bar, or activity here in Portland. Know someone who might like Riley’s Recs? Get your share link here! And don’t forget to check out pdxrecs.com for even more recommendations and follow RR on Instagram at @rileysrecs. Enjoy!
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My goals this week are to:
Find easy, snackable things I can eat leisurely while I prep for “the big day.”
Do as few dishes as possible.
Nail the salad and tart I’m bringing to Thanksgiving.
As such, dinners this week will be a mix of store-bought things and easy sheet-pan recipes. I’m conserving my energy.
However you spend the holiday, I hope it’s filled with lots of good food. And if you’re alone or looking for a way to give back, here are volunteer opportunities, run clubs, and a reminder to donate through Willamette Week’s Give Guide.
✨ Inspo for the week: min. effort ✨
DINNERS
Vodka sauce pasta
Cheese and crackers | Radicchio salad
Sheet-pan sausages and Brussels sprouts with honey mustard
Lucky Soup
BREAKFAST
Bacon, scrambled eggs, and Little T baguette
DRINK
Lambrusco Spritz
DESSERT
Cranberry Tart (GF!)
Notes:
Vodka sauce is Rao’s.
I’ll buy cheese and crackers at Providore. While I’m there, I’ll also grab some Tiny Fish Co. chorizo spiced mussels, sausages, bacon, and a Little T baguette (which will make great leftovers for soup!).
Bacon breakfast is straight-forward and needs no recipe, but is a reminder to eat a big breakfast day-of so that you don’t get desperate and fill up on charcuterie before dinner.
Lucky Soup is the newest pop-up at Guero. Soup for two(ish) is about $14 and can be picked up directly from their food cart in the parking lot behind the main restaurant Monday-Friday.
Thanksgiving can be a tough holiday if you’re not drinking, so might I suggest bringing or (even better, providing!) this festive Phony Negroni from St. Agrestis?
If you’re looking for wine this holiday season, I suggest dropping by Great Wine Buys. They have a table at the front with rotating monthly suggestions (all between $10-25) and are there to provide recommendations.
Radicchio Salad
Florence Fabricant | New York Times (Gifted Link)
I’m bringing this dish to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving. A bitter radicchio leaf pairs perfectly with heavy food.
I normally make radicchio salad with a Caesar dressing, but I don’t want to mess around with quadrupling a dressing recipe that calls for raw egg. So I’m going to make this simple vinaigrette that relies on anchovies and capers and is sort of Caesar adjacent.
I will make this a couple of times ahead of Thanksgiving so that I can figure out the right amount of salt and the best transport/storage plan. I’m thinking I’ll probably put the washed leaves in gallon bags, transport in grocery bags, and then leave outside in the cold until it’s time to assemble and serve.
Notes: Soak the radicchio leaves in ice water for at least 30 minutes before drying and assembling. If you’re traveling with the dish, it might make sense to skip the avocado.
Sheet-Pan Sausages and Brussels Sprouts with Honey Mustard
Ali Slagle | New York Times (Gifted Link)
This recipe calls for Brussels sprouts, but use whatever vegetable you like (butternut squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc.). Just make sure that you cut everything into roughly the same size to ensure even cooking. For example, the recipe calls for halving baby potatoes. But I quarter so that it more closely matches the size of the sprout. The goal here is to more or less set it and forget it, so you don’t want to be messing around with staggered cooking times.
A few more notes: for a bit more pungency, double the honey mustard sauce or dilute it a bit with warm water when drizzling at the end. If you use pre-cooked sausages, put these in closer to the end — maybe ten to 20 minutes before you think it’ll all be done. If you’re using uncooked sausages, some readers suggest slicing into rounds before baking. This meal would also work with chicken thighs. Look at us improvising!
Lambrusco Spritz
Cooking with Rel
I love festive cocktails. Especially low-effort ones. This is where bubbly wine comes in. Adding champagne or a sparkling wine like Lambrusco immediately makes a drink feel celebratory. My favorite Portland food influencer and recipe developer, Ariel (@cookingwithrel), shares a Lambrusco Spritz recipe and a few others on her website that look A++.
Cranberry Tart
David Tanis | New York Times (Gifted Link)
If there are gluten-free guests at your Thanksgiving table, make this tart. Even if there aren’t gluten-free guests, make this tart. It’s vibrant and delicious and *inclusive.* Made from a hazelnut and rice flour crust, this tart dough frames a bright-red custard. It’s drop-dead gorgeous.
I make several substitutions:
Use 2 cups almond flour instead of the hazelnut/rice flour mixture. It allows you to avoid grinding hazelnuts from scratch, which cannot possibly be worth the effort.
Use frozen instead fresh cranberries.
Definitely use an immersion blender to get the fruit mixture. Then, press out as much as you can through the fine-mesh sieve. This takes a little bit of work.
The custard and the tart dough can be made ahead of time and then assembled and put through its final bake the day-of. Remember, requires a tart pan!
