Every Team Needs a Strong Bench

Growing up, holiday cooking wasn’t exactly a grand affair in my family. Sure, we had good meals—consistent, comforting, and filling. But with just the five of us around the table, there weren’t any big traditional recipes passed down or an overwhelming spread of sides we couldn’t finish. The holidays were cozy and simple, but they didn’t revolve around elaborate culinary traditions.

In my recent step into independent adulthood, I’ve experienced my fair share of new responsibilities—some I love, others I wish my mom still handled. Among those I love? Cooking. Experimenting with new recipes is often the highlight of my day.

Last year, I attended my first Friendsgiving and decided to contribute a dish—a chance to flex my budding skills. I’m a bit of a charcuterie board fanatic, so I found a baked variation that features some of my favorite typical elements.

This recipe is perfect for Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, Christmas, dinner parties, or really any gathering where you want to impress without overcomplicating things (my forte).

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
• 4 oz brie cheese, cut into small cubes
• 3-4 slices of prosciutto, torn into smaller pieces
• 1/4 cup fig jam
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• Fresh rosemary or thyme (optional, for garnish)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Puff Pastry:
   • Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
   • Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the puff pastry sheet into a slightly larger rectangle.
   • Cut the pastry into 12 equal squares.
2. Assemble the Bites:
   • Place each pastry square into a mini muffin tin, pressing lightly to form a small cup.
   • Add a cube of brie to the center of each pastry square.
   • Top with a small dollop of fig jam (about 1/2 teaspoon).
   • Add a piece of prosciutto on top of the jam.
3. Add Finishing Touches:
   • Brush the edges of the puff pastry with the beaten egg for a golden finish.
   • If desired, sprinkle with a pinch of fresh rosemary or thyme for added flavor.
4. Bake:
   • Place the muffin tin in the oven and bake for 15–18 minutes, or until the puff pastry is golden brown and puffed up.
5. Serve:
   • Let the bites cool for a few minutes before removing them from the tin.
   • Serve and enjoy!

This is my mom’s recipe that she makes every Thanksgiving. It is a family favorite on both my mom’s and dad’s side of the family. She makes it every year.

Ingredients

• 3-4 chicken breasts
• Broth from the crockpot
• 1 (32 oz) carton of chicken broth
• 1 packet of Lipton onion soup
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 (24 oz) package of Reames Frozen Homestyle Egg Noodles
• A few drops of yellow food coloring

Instructions:

1. Cook the chicken in a crockpot for 4-6 hours.
2. Once the chicken is done, shred it and place it in a large pot.
3. Add the broth from the crockpot and the 32 oz carton of chicken broth to the pot.
4. Stir in the Lipton onion soup mix, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Cook for 1.5 to 2 hours.
6. Add the frozen egg noodles and a few drops of yellow food coloring.
7. Continue to cook on low for 40 minutes, until the noodles are tender and fully cooked.

Recipe Title: Winnie’s Sweet Potato Casserole

My Grandma Winnie made the best sweet potato casserole. Every holiday each person in the family would fight over who got the corners because they came with more toppings and we always requested a double batch. The recipe has been passed down for generations and the original recipe card has quite a few sweet potato stains. 

NOTE: this recipe calls for A LOT OF MARGARINE! While we love margarine, we actually do advise to cut down the butter a little or it gets runny.

Casserole

• 1 large or 2 small cans of sweet potatoes, drained
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ⅓ cup margarine
• ½ cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs

Mix with mixer and add to 8×8 dish

Topping

• ½ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup flour
• ⅓ cup margarine
• ⅓ pecans
• Mix all of the ingredients with a spoon
• Crumble all of the topping over the casserole

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

Thanksgiving brings on many traditions from family-to-family. Dishes are often requested, and even downright demanded if they’re good enough. This is one such dish that cannot be left out in our Thanksgiving gatherings each year. We even have to make two batches to tame the “leftover wars”.

Ingredients:

• 1 Bag of frozen shredded hashbrowns
• 1 16 oz. container of sour cream
• 1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
• 8 oz mild cheddar cheese
• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 Stick of butter, melted

Directions:

In large crockpot, add frozen potatoes, sour cream, can of soup, and top with cheddar cheeses. Melt 1 stick of butter and pour all over ingredients. Stir thoroughly. Set crockpot on high for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally. Let cool 15 minutes in crockpot before serving.

Note: Some recipes call for thawing frozen potatoes before preparing. I have found that using the potatoes directly from the freezer provides a little better texture. Ensure that the cheeses are shredded or grated.

Also, you might consider a crockpot liner to help reduce intense clean up once you’ve finished with the dish.

I was browsing chicken & noodle recipes on Zaar, but there aren’t many with homemade noodles & IMHO that’s the best part. I am posting the current evolution of my mother’s (my grandmother’s) recipe before I start to forget it. The flour amounts are not specific because it’s always different. I just add more as needed to keep the dough workable. Sometimes I use cans of herbed chicken broth or substitute seasoned salt for the regular salt. This is a recipe from memory & I am constantly making little changes to it, but it’s always satisfying at the table. Comfort food at it’s best. Simple, filling & especially good on a cold winter day. Don’t let the length of instructions intimidate. This is very easy, I’m just very detailed. I hope you will give it a try.

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
• 4 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1⁄2 – 4 cups flour
• 3 eggs
• 4 -5 tablespoons milk salt & pepper
• 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of chicken soup (or vary flavor by using cream of celery, onion, or mushroom soup in place of the chicken)
• 10 3⁄4 ounces water (optional, if needed)
• 4 -6 cups mashed potatoes (optional, for serving)

Directions

1. In large stock pot, combine chicken, salt & water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover & simmer til chicken is fully cooked.
2. While chicken cooks, combine eggs & salt in mixing bowl (I use a stand mixer with dough hook attachment, but it can be mixed by hand with a fork) & beat eggs slightly. Gradually add flour & milk to eggs & continue mixing until the flour is incorporated & dough is no longer sticky to the touch. Slightly more or less flour may be necessary, depending on the size of your eggs.
3. When dough is ready, form into a ball & turn out onto a well floured surface. Knead by hand a few times, adding more flour if it gets sticky again. Pat into a round & then roll out into a large rectangle about 12×15 or so & 1/4 inch thick. Be sure to flip dough often, keeping it well floured so it doesn’t stick.
4. Starting at a short end, use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 1/4 inch wide (or smaller)strips. (To do the cutting with a sharp knife: flour the top of your rectangle, roll up jelly roll style & slice into 1/8 inch spirals.) When all strips are cut, unroll if needed & toss them with enough flour to keep them from sticking together. Spread noodles out in a single layer on your rolling surface & leave to dry a bit while you are finishing the chicken.
5. When chicken is cooked, remove to a cutting board, (discarding the water it was cooked in) & use two forks to shred it into bite-sized lengths.
6. Add the chicken broth to the stock pot & bring broth & water to a boil.
7. Add noodles & whatever flour is with them to the boiling pot.
8. Add the shredded chicken & stir gently. Reduce heat to low to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes.
9. Add the cream of chicken soup & stir well. If this makes the mixture too thick, add enough of the optional water to make your desired consistency. we like it a bit stew-like, but still thin enough to look like gravy on mashed potatoes.
10. Simmer all for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until noodles are tender. Timing really depends on how thick your noodles are cut. We like them a little on the thick side. Serve over mashed potatoes.

Pear and Brie Crostini

Note: I love appetizers…I’m not a huge fan of meals, so I always bring at least 3 apps for Thanksgiving (or any other event to be honest). This is one of my favorites, and always popular.

Ingredients:

• 1 French baguette sliced ½ inch thick
• Brie cheese thinly sliced, rind removed
• 2 pears halved, cored, and thinly sliced
• Honey
• Fresh rosemary or thyme leaves

Instructions

1. Turn on the oven to broil. Place the baguette slices on a large baking sheet. Lightly brush each side with EVOO and broil (around 2-6 minutes depending on the oven) until slightly crispy, and then flip each slice and repeat. Remove the baking sheet from the oven.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place one slice of cheese on each baguette slice. Bake slices in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until the brie is melted. Remove from oven
3. While the baguette slices are baking thinly slice pear to fit the baguette slices.
4. Place a slice of pear on top of each baguette slice. Drizzle lightly with either honey or balsamic glaze and garnish with fresh thyme or rosemary (I usually do thyme and honey but either is yum).

I’m a corn gal through and through. Though I’ve lived the majority of my years in Chicago, I grew up in a very small, very rural downstate farming community where the entire village was surrounded by cornfields. Heck, my first job was detasseling corn for local seed companies (where in my second season, I was awarded “Super Puller” – a prize that came with a green trucker hat that displayed my new title on the front in puffy Cooper Black font). Despite all of that, I don’t remember growing up with a ton of fresh veggies. It was the 70s and 80s, and there was only one store in town. The fresh produce was really hit-or-miss, so we relied on lots of cans and preserves.

That’s what makes this dish so great – it’s made entirely of things you probably already have in your pantry. This super easy side dish is like cornbread’s slightly sweet, satisfyingly savory, spoonable cousin. In fact, when I’ve taken it to potlucks in the past, others have said they’d call it “spoonbread”. That’s acceptable! In my family, we’ve never really had a name for it except “corn casserole”, but I feel like that’s boring and inadequate considering the bang for the buck and minimal effort resulting in this consistent crowd-pleaser. So I tasked AI to help me come up with a new name. These are the impressive results after feeding the recipe to ChatGPT.

So without further ado, I present you with Golden Corn Soufflé. Image credit: ME!

Golden Corn Soufflé

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs, beaten
• ½ C sour cream
• ½ C vegetable oil
• 1 16oz can of whole kernel corn
• 1 16oz can of cream-style corn
• 1 package of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix
• 3 T chopped green onion
• 1 C shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat eggs, then mix in sour cream and oil until well combined
3. Fold in the rest of the ingredients
4. Pour into a greased 2 ½ quart casserole dish (3 quart or 9×13” pan will work in a pinch)
5. Bake for 45 min

Casserole will be puffed up when you pull it out of the oven, but will collapse into a more dense, scoopable consistency after resting for 20-30 min. Fantastic as leftovers too!

Pictured are my great-grandparents who immigrated to the South Side of Chicago from Prussian Poland.

G-Gpa opened a meat shop to feed his family (Bednarek Sausage Co, now known as Slotkowski sausage, which is still found in stores today).

G-Gma baked sweet treats and pastries to keep said family happy.

This is the inspiration behind the Bednarek (my maiden name) Thanksgiving and Christmas (and honestly any other family get-together) tradition.

So here I share two, deeply rooted Polish recipes. The first, kiełbasa (Polish sausage). G-Gpa made this all the time, selling it at markets and in delis all over Chicago, but he never measured. This is the closest we can get to replicating his.

The second, kolachky (Polish cookies). G-Gma ALWAYS measured. So this is exact.

Both are a pain in the dupa to make.

Kiełbasa

• 10 lbs. pork butts (also called Boston butt – it’s actually the shoulder butt, not the hind end), trimmed and cut up
• 5 tablespoons Kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon (a little more won’t hurt) freshly ground black pepper
• Add 3 or 4 large cloves fresh garlic
• 1 scant tablespoon marjoram
• 2 cups ice water

Run trimmed reserved fat through the ―fine plate on the grinder (pork butts have the perfect ratio of fat to meat, so don’t trim out the fat. (If you do, you’ll wind up with dry, flavorless sausage). Keep the meat as cold as possible.

Add the seasonings to the ice water and stir; then mix it into the meat.

Sausage is thirsty: it might seem wet when you first mix it, but come back in an hour or so and you’ll find that all the water’s been absorbed.

Let sit overnight before stuffing the meat into casings.

There are many ways to cook Kielbasa and each method is appropriate for a given set of end characteristics. The following method is quick and easy, but still provides optimal flavor and texture characteristics.

Be sure to bring the internal temperature of the sausage up to 165 degrees F. This is most easily done by bringing enough liquid* to cover the kielbasa and bring to a boil. (* adding spices, onions and/or beer to water is an optional way to add flavor!)

Reduce heat and simmer this for 30-45min until you reach 165 degrees internal temperature continue cooking for desired tenderness.

Serve with sauerkraut or kapusta.

Kolachky

1. 8 Oz cream cheese
2. 8 Oz butter
3. 2 cups flour
4. 1 tsp baking powder
5. 2 tablespoons sugar.
6. Fruit filling (raspberry, cherry, apple, and/or my favorite: apricot)

1. Mix cream cheese and butter together
2. Gradually add flour, sugar, and baking powder.
3. Refrigerate after all blended.
4. When ready to roll let dough come to room temp for easier to roll.
5. Once rolled TIN TIN TIN (thin) as G-Gma would say, cut into sections.
6. Fill each section with fruit filling, and pinch opposite corners together
7. Bake 350 in oven 10 to 15 min.
8. Once cooled, dust with powdered sugar

• One 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (I like Libbys)
• ¾ c. Sugar
• 1 ½ tsp cornstarch
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground allspice
• ¼ tsp ground mace
• 1 tsp. Pure vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups whole milk (can change it out for low fat if you choose)
• 2 extra large farm fresh eggs

1 unbaked 9-inches pie crust (see below for recipe)

1. Preheat the oven to 450℉.
2. Put the pumpkin, sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, allspice mace, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Paddle at low-medium speed for approximately 2 minutes.
3. With the motor running, pour in the milk in two additions. Stop the motor, scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, restart, and paddle for an additional 2 minutes. Add the eggs and paddle until absorbed, approximately 2 additional minutes.
4. Pour the mixture into a 9 inch pie crust in a pan and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 375℉ and bake until a finger dabbed onto the surface emerges clean, 30 – 40 minutes.
5. Remove the pie from the oven and let cool for 1 – 2 hours

Slice and serve with lots of Cool Whip

Pie Crust

• ⅔ c of lard
• 2 c. all purpose flour, plus more for flouring your work surface
• 1 tsp. salt
• 5 – 7 tbsp of ice water (depending on how humid it is)

Sift the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cut in the lard with pastry blender, two knives or blending fork until pieces are the size of small peas.  Add cold water a few drops at a time until particles just hold together. Press together lightly to form a ball. Chill for easier handling. Divide pastry in half, roll pastry ⅛ inch thick and line the pie pan. Trim ½ inch beyond the edge and fold under, flute the edge of the pastry.