Thanksgiving Leftovers with Working Class Foodies

I'm back in the States just in time for the most American holiday of them all: Thanksgiving! Where'd I go? Please forgive the week-long break from blogging -- I took off in a rush for Australia, to attend a very important friend (VIF) Jordan's wedding in Melbourne. It was a blast. But now I'm ready to cook a grand Thanksgiving feast... another one, that is. Shortly beforehand, I got together with Rebecca and Max from Working Class Foodies for a great round of recipes all made from typical Thanksgiving spread leftovers. Here's what they shot! And below, more on what we made.

Summer Borscht

Okay, it's not summer anymore, and Indian summer has not yet arrived. Instead, this is about the time of year people start taking flu shots, and sweaters and scarfs out from hibernation boxes and changing their sheets to flannel. I do all these things minus the flu shots. But I do have a good way to boost the immune -- fresh veggies and bloody, bloody, antioxidant-rich beets. To keep that blood pumping.

Serious Eats (and I) Fall for Small Farms

It's been a tough year for everyone, and small businesses -- farms, especially -- are no exception. That's why it's so exciting to see more consumers and the media rallying behind them. Today, Serious Eats posted a wonderful video about farmers at NYC's Greenmarkets, and how they've contributed to our food system. It's centered around a trip the Serious Eats team took to Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, and followed them as they packed up their harvest and trucked it into Union Square one Saturday. It was a long day for the Serious Eaters, who drove up to Roscoe, NY that morning to begin shooting. But perhaps a shade emblematic of the everyday toil these farmers go through. As Ed Levine exclaimed in the video, "The risks that they take every day!"

Eggs Benedict, an easy bodega brunch

What's going on here?? Let me back up a bit. Last year, I contributed a recipe for a project by the non-profit organization the Neighbors Project, called Bodega Party in a Box. The idea behind the 'box was to promote shopping within one's community, and to put more fresh produce and healthier foods on the shelves of local corner shops by increasing demand for it. There's a lot more to the project on the organization's website. But from a local perspective, big supermarkets are dropping like fleas throughout Brooklyn and Queens, and in low-income neighborhoods especially, quickie convenience stores (aka bodegas) are the only places to buy food for several blocks. The need for better food in them is urgent; and the Neighbors Project's incentive more timely than ever.