Newsletter: 🦃All the Thanksgiving preparation you could need + great Irish cooking 🇮🇪

🦃All the Thanksgiving preparation you could need + great Irish cooking 🇮🇪

🦃 Start prepping for Thanksgiving & save 25% on ckbk subscriptions!🦃

Thanksgiving, sorted

Thanksgiving, for Americans the world over, is a day of gathering loved ones together, holding them close, and sharing an abundant feast. The all-important day is one week away, which just about gives you time to prepare, with expert guidance from all that ckbk has to offer, of course.

Start with classic cookbook Thanksgiving Dinner: Recipes, Techniques, and Tips for America’s Favorite Celebration written by food and wine writer Anthony Dias Blue (a former Bon Appetit editor) together with his wife Kathryn K. Blue. The authors know a thing or two about Thanksgiving dinners, and are on hand to show you how to Plan Ahead.

Find a whole section on Turkey and Other Poultry, including some turkey history, and advice and information on buying, and preparing, as well as cooking the main event. Then, once you have organised yourself for the centrepiece, there are a range of options for your Vegetables—try these Brussels Sprouts with Maple-Mustard Sauce—and recipes for sides, snacks, and all you could eat right through to Desserts.

We have compiled a range of recipe collections from across ckbk, to make your Thanksgiving as delicious as can be. Thanksgiving 101 brings you all the classics, including Classic Roast Turkey, or this Hickory-Smoked Turkey. Thanksgiving Sides That Make the Meal take your turkey from bird to banquet—find Sautéed Sweet Potatoes with Thyme, Buttermilk Rolls, Celery and Apple Stuffing, and more.

A big family party can mean those with differing dietary requirements, and your vegetarian friends deserve a fine dinner too.

Explore these recipes for a Vegetarian Thanksgiving—a Mushroom, Sage & Onion Wellington, or these Squash with Black Bean Chilli, would make great alternative mains.

Pudding means pie, for Thanksgiving, crucially Pumpkin Pie, and Pecan Pie, or any of these indulgent Thanksgiving Pies. This year why not try this Blueberry-Lemon Pie.

Now you have your menu planned, with oodles of celebratory options, we hope you have a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving!

Find all the recipes in Thanksgiving Dinner

Pictured above: Pomegranate-Infused Roast Turkey Braise from Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij

Recipes from Ireland’s finest

Ireland, isle of lush green grass, and abundant produce, is rich in culinary tradition, and home to more than its fair share of celebrated cooks. We have two books newly added to ckbk from a couple of the very best.

Darina Allen, and the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School, are bywords for excellence in seasonal cooking, and culinary education. She appears regularly on television in Ireland, including on her own cookery series, Simply Delicious. Few people have done more to promote Irish food, both at home and globally. Her 2023 book The New Ballymaloe Bread Book, is a fully revised edition of her 2001 bestselling classic, The Ballymaloe Bread Book. Darina’s passion for her subject is found on every page:

‘I’ve been making bread all of my adult life and most of my childhood, but I still get a thrill every time I take a loaf of crusty bread out of the oven. How wonderful is that? I hope that in this New Ballymaloe Bread Book, I’ve passed that excitement on to you.’

Find all the Irish bread you could ask for and many more—178 recipes—from a Traditional Wheaten Bread, to Wholegrain Spelt Bagels, and Mary Jo’s Stollen, along with comprehensive, accessible, bread know-how.

Neven Maguire has won ‘Best Chef in Ireland’ multiple times, is the chef-patron of award-winning MacNean House & Restaurant, and the Neven Maguire Cookery School. In his book The Nation’s Favourite Food: 100 Best-Loved Recipes Tried, Tasted, Perfected, he gathers a crowd pleasing list of dishes that draw on Irish culinary tradition and ingredients, expertly delivered and gorgeously photographed.

Try Roasted Root Vegetables with Buttermilk Dressing and Coriander Couscous, Seafood Pie with Cheesy Mash, and a tempting dessert list—how about this Raspberry Chocolate Brownie with Salted Caramel Sauce.

Explore our Irish bookshelf

Ingredient focus: cranberries

Cranberries love acid soil, and grow wild as scrubby plants in moorland bogs across Europe and North America. Cranberries at the grocery store mostly come from commercial cranberry beds in New England, flooded each winter to protect the berries from frost.

Sharp in flavor, cranberries work well in sauces to accompany meat or poultry—Cranberry Sauce being an essential accompaniment to the Thanksgiving turkey. Sweetened and dried, they produce a flavorful dried berry that works well where you might otherwise use raisins or currants.

Explore our collection of 12 Ways with Cranberries to find recipes for Persian Rice with Cranberries, Cranberry Sorbet, a Cran-Raspberry Upside Down Cake, and more.

6 of the best Stir Up Sunday recipes

It is a tradition in the UK on the last Sunday before Advent for families to gather and make their Christmas pudding, giving it time to mature ready for the big day. It’s also a good time to mix up a traditional fruited Christmas cake, and to make a batch of mincemeat which can be used to make mince pies throughout December. All these concoctions benefit from being given time to rest, fed with a regular splosh of brandy. Here are six to get you started and find even more in our Get Set For Stir Up Sunday collection.