The Kitchen Guy Holiday Rescue Menu

America's favorite eating holiday is almost upon us and that day - Thanksgiving Day - also signals the beginning of the big eating season. Holiday dinners, family dinners, business dinners, dinner dinners. That can be a lot of pressure if you're the one tasked with doing the cooking.

Enter (or shall I say re-enter?) the Kitchen Guy Holiday Rescue Menu.

I've put together a collection of side dishes and desserts, all designed to lighten your burden, starting on Thanksgiving Day right up through New Year's.

For sides, I've got Marbled Mashed Potatoes, a creamy blend of mashed Russets and mashed yams,
enriched with cream cheese and swirled together -- hence the name "marbled." My Brussels Sprout "Hash" has been very popular in years past and so it makes a return to the list of sides available for ordering. Perhaps the most requested, though, is my signature Cranberry Relish, made with caramelized red onions, balsamic syrup and a hint of brown sugar. You'll never miss the tin can indentations at your holiday table.

Desserts are the star in the Holiday Rescue Menu, as that's the lasting impression of almost every meal. So for all of my hungry friends around the state of Montana, I'll be baking Cranberry Upside Down Cake, Lemon Tart, Pumpkin-Ginger Tart, Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake, and Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Torte with Chocolate Honey Glaze. There are other selections, too, but I wanted to highlight some of the more popular ones.

The Holiday Rescue Menu was absent last year as I had major surgery just before the holidays. But I'm all healed and rarin' to go to help you make the holidays memorable.

On Thanksgiving this year, there will be a once-in-a-lifetime concurrence of Chanukah -- so we're calling Thanksgivnukah and offering a variety of latke (potato pancake) preparations, including my award winning Latke Napoleon, regular latkes and a latke made from a mixture of Russets, Sweet Potatoes and Parsnips.

New this time around is a delivery schedule before Thanksgiving and before Christmas in all of Montana's major cities. We'll set up dates and times in Kalispell, Great Falls, Helena, Butte, Bozeman and Billings. There is a modest extra charge to cover the cost of delivery to cities outside of Missoula.

Check out all of the Holiday Rescue Menu offerings at my special online store. Click on this link: http://shop.kitchenguy.biz for the whole menu. And if you're one of the first 10 people to order, you'll receive a Kitchen Guy tote bag with your order.

Ready. Set. Order!

Kid Food

I know, I know. I don’t look old enough to have two grandsons. But I do. They’re now 6 and 3 and they recently came for a visit.

I reported in this space a little over a year ago about the foods they ate and I now have an update.

The three-year-old, in the year since, continues to subsist on a diet of a “magically delicious” cereal, OJ, other fruit juices, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, French fries, yogurt and string cheese.

The six-year-old, however, continues to eat new foods and, for his age, has a fairly sophisticated palate. Make no mistake, when given the choice he’d go to the Golden Arches in a heartbeat because he, just like your children and grandchildren, is subjected to the relentless and clever marketing tactics of the Clown.

Nevertheless, his mother and father reported with delight that on a recent vacation trip, they were at a restaurant that had a kids’ menu, but when the waitress listed the specials of the evening, the elder child heard “filet mignon,” and wanted to know what it was.

My daughter explained to him that it was a kind of steak and he said, “I’ll have that.” Not only did he finish every last bite, but for the next three nights he ordered steak in one form or another.

At that same restaurant (where one of the specials was filet mignon), the younger one also listened to the waitress list the specials. Among them were crab cakes. He’s three and apparently the only word he heard was “cake.” And so he ordered that and got an unhappy surprise, which eventually was replaced by chicken nuggets.

Fast forward to about a month or so later and I was visiting them in their home back East. I never asked the younger grandson what he wanted for dinner because it’s always the same. But when I ask the older one he often surprises me. In addition to his newfound love of good beef, he also likes salmon in almost any form it comes. I made it poached one night and he gobbled it up. A week later, I grilled it and he loved that, too.

On the side, he loves salad and, while he will only eat iceberg lettuce, he’ll insist on tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, ripe olives and onions. Then he’ll ask to see a variety of dressings. Where does this kid come off loving soy-ginger-vinaigrette?

And unlike his younger brother, ask him what his favorite dinner is and he’ll answer without hesitation: sushi.

Yes, I said sushi. And he doesn’t even wait for you to give him a little dipping bowl of soy sauce – he just tears into the tuna, yellowtail, salmon and California roll. Oh, and he’s getting pretty good with chopsticks, too.

This is a kid I love to cook for. There just aren’t many like him, especially at age 6. On the other hand, his younger brother will probably grow up with his grandfather’s boyhood eating habits: Sugar-loaded cereal for breakfast; PB&J every day for lunch. Something fried for dinner.

Despite my own limited childhood food choices, I turned out OK, but it took many, many years – well past college graduation – before I had the nerve to delve into new and exotic foods. I guess it may well be the same for the younger of my two grandsons. My siblings and childhood friends who remember my eating habits were stunned when they saw me evolve into a culinary professional. Maybe my younger grandson will surprise us one day, too.

Even so, I wonder what my older grandson will ask for the next time I get to cook for him.

Stay tuned.

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