In America, Sunday roast chicken is the closest thing we have to a collective deep breath — and this Sunday, the country needs one. By the time most of us reached for our phones this morning, history had already moved. I remember being a kid, watching the hostage crisis play out on the evening news, my parents quiet in a way that told you something was very wrong with the world. Fifty-two Americans were held in Tehran while President Carter aged in front of the country. That was the moment Iran became something dark and permanent in the American psyche — a wound that never quite closed, a grievance that outlasted presidencies, wars, and decades of uneasy standoffs. This morning, a chapter closed. The world shifted overnight, the way it sometimes does, without asking permission. And yet here we are, standing in our kitchens, pulling a bird from the refrigerator, turning on the oven. There is something stubbornly, beautifully American about that. Sunday dinner has always been the meal that holds its ground — the most deliberate, most human hour of the week, the moment families gathered after church or work to mark time and take stock of one another. Roast chicken, in particular, has become shorthand for comfort and continuity, the meal people reach for when the ground shifts beneath them, but they’re still hungry for connection. On a morning when the headlines are electric, and the world feels both more dangerous and more hopeful at once, putting a bird in the oven is not denial. It is a declaration. The table still has to be set.

Recipe:

Active prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 Hour

My Recipe:

1 Whole Chicken

1 Medium Yellow Onion

3/4 Medium Potatoes - Waxy like Yukon Gold

1 Clove of Crushed Garlic

Fresh Rosemary

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre Heat oven to 400’ F

Using a mandolin ( Be Careful!), thinly slice the onion. Place the slices with half of the olive oil in a Dutch Oven and saute over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Using a mandolin ( Be Careful!), slice the potatoes and place them on the onions. Remove from heat.

Add Rosemary and crushed garlic to the top of the potatoes

Coat the chicken with the remaining olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes.

Add lid and cook the chicken in the 400’ oven for 40 minutes

Remove the lid after 40 minutes- continue cooking chicken for an additional 20 minutes, uncovered until golden brown. Total cooking time is 60 minutes, 1 hour.

Remove and let stand, uncovered for 15 min to cool

Serve!

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Ingredients

3 pounds of Chuck Roast

Garlic slices

4 sprigs of Rosemary

1 and 1/2 pounds of small white potatoes

1 can (28 oz)  of whole Tomatoes

1 large Onion

Salt and Pepper

Olive oil

Directions

Make little slits in the pot roast and insert the garlic slices.  Salt and Pepper the roast.  Brown the roast in the olive oil.   Place in Dutch Oven.  I use my Le Creuset blue pot.

Add 1 and 1/2 pounds of small white potatoes.  Add 1 whole can (28 oz)  of whole tomatoes with the liquid. Break up the tomatoes with your hands.   Cut one large onion (at least 1 and 1/2 pounds) into wedges.  Mix in with tomatoes and potatoes.  Place 3 or 4 sprigs of Rosemary on top.  Cover.

Bake at 300 degrees for 3 hours.

Serve with romaine and radish salad.  

From Donna Hays

Dear Friends of The American Table,

As the year comes to a close, I want to take a moment to thank you for your incredible support and enthusiasm for The American Table. Your engagement with our stories about food, culture, and politics has been truly inspiring and fuels our passion to keep bringing these conversations to life.

This holiday season, I hope your tables are filled with joy, laughter, and meaningful connections. May the dishes you share remind us all of the power of food to bring people together, no matter where we come from or what we believe.

From all of us at The American Table, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy New Year. We’re excited to bring you even more stories and insights in 2026.

With gratitude!

Need a last minute gift idea? Gift your friends and family a subscription to The American Table! Click the link below to give away a subscription today!

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Happy Hanukkah! Dad's Chopped Liver

Aron Groer’s Famous Chopped Liver Recipe

Though schmaltz-less, this recipe for chopped liver has passed the taste test of countless purists. Annie Groer added a third hardboiled egg for texture. If you don’t use all of it for decorating, add what’s left to the liver. Serve with matzoh, bread, crackers or crudites. Or eat it directly from the bowl with a spoon.

4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken livers

• 2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil

• 1 pound yellow or sweet onions, cut into about 1/2-inch dice

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 3 large eggs, hard-cooked and peeled

Directions:

Wash the livers and remove and discard the membranes. Set aside.

In a skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onions, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden, 7 to 10 minutes.

Add the whole livers to the skillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer gently until cooked through but still juicy, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Using a slotted spoon, immediately transfer the livers to a food mill or meat grinder, leaving the onions and their juices in the skillet, and grind the livers while still warm. (You may pulse the livers in a food processor, but be careful to leave some chunks. You don't want a smooth pate.) Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

Using the slotted spoon, add the onions to the ground liver, leaving the juices in the skillet. Stir gently to combine. If the mixture appears to be too dry, add some of the liquid in the skillet, a little at a time, until the desired consistency is attained. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Coarsely chop 2 of the hard-cooked eggs, add them to the liver mixture and stir

gently to combine. Check again if the mixture is too dry and, if necessary, add more liquid from the skillet.

Take the remaining egg and separate the white from the yolk. Using a sharp knife, thinly slice the white into strips and place on top of the chopped liver. Using a small-holed grater, grate the yolk over the entire surface of the chopped liver. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

My Father's Chopped Liver

Back in the 1970s, shortly before I left on an extended hippie trek through Latin America, my widowed, worried Daddy implored me for perhaps the zillionth time to please, please be careful. Well, of course, I always replied with a hint of exasperation. But because Aron Groer was a world-class alarmist and I, his only daughter, was part brat and part adventuress given to taking up with fascinating strangers, I humored him by suggesting we choose a secret phrase in case I was abducted by anti-imperialist guerrillas.

This cockamamie scheme required that before he paid out the first peso in ransom, he would have to hear me personally utter the words "gehakte leber," Yiddish for chopped liver, to signal I was still alive. It made perfect, if far-fetched sense, since chopped liver was one of the two signature dishes -- the other being gefilte fish -- he had developed after my mother's untimely death when my big brother Steve and I were barely in our teens.

In its way, Aron's chopped liver was a kind of mortar that held our little family together. It may have looked like a post-monsoon mix of mud and gravel, but it tasted like heaven and drew us to the kitchen table like some Proustian madeleine.

Mounded atop a Hunnakah latke, slathered on matzoh during Passover, spread daintily on celery sticks during the occasional diet, sandwiched between pillowy slices of challah most other times, or simply snarfed down by the spoonful directly from the container when no one was looking, Aron’s chopped liver became more than just a splendid example of the culinary arts. It became an edible expression of a grieving father’s love, prompting me to joke that in our working-class household, his vaunted chopped liver recipe was a major part of my dowry.

Friends and family worldwide requested it for celebrations major and minor, or for no reason other than its fabulousness. I can't count the times Steve and I brought home school chums eager for a chopped liver fix. Lord knows how many batches I hand-carried back to grad school in Wisconsin, and even to loved ones in New York City, arguably America's deli capital.

In his modest Maryland kitchen, Aron regularly achieved a near-perfect balance of sauteed chicken livers and onions, hard-boiled eggs, salt and pepper. Whether an added virtue or a grievous deficiency, however, this dish contained not a single yellow globule of schmaltz, known to most people as chicken fat, and to cardiologists as prime heart attack food.

Aron's livers were instead lubricated with cholesterol-free canola or peanut oil, which he endearingly identified as "non-fatening" in the recipe he typed for me ages ago. That linguistic lapse, plus several other phonetic misspellings, were understandable given that English was his fourth tongue, after Yiddish, Polish and French.

To purists, of course, schmaltz-less chopped liver is about as appealing as a tofu burger or carob mousse. Nonetheless, shortly before his 99th birthday, I wrote a Washington Post homage to his heart-healthy gehakte leber.

I have no recollection of him actually making chopped liver, or anything else for that matter, until my mother's untimely death in 1958. But in the early 1960s, he had an emotional reunion in Paris with his brother Moishe, and his sister Bronka, whom he had not seen since my parents bolted Warsaw for Paris in the early 1930s. By 1937, two years before Hitler marched into Poland and murdered most of their families, my father and mother arrived in Washington, DC, where she had relatives eager to help them achieve American citizenship. For this, I remain eternally grateful.

Gift a Subscription!

Here’s what you’re friends and family receive when you gift a subscription:

• In-depth articles exploring the intersection of food and politics and featuring writers such as veteran journalist

  Annie Groer.

• Access to The American Table chatroom, where you can share YOUR OWN stories about the power of food.

• Detailed and exclusive recipes

• Bonus podcast episodes

• Exclusive Documentary and Film Projects:

  • Access to all of our original media, including award-winning documentaries, an upcoming animated short film, “Somerville” and our ongoing web series, “Behind The Line,” where I cook with chefs from around the country and uncover their stories.

    Subscribe now

Return of the Mega Mousse: A Spirit-Lifting Classic

It’s impossible not to sense the national fatigue: the ongoing shutdown leaves many feeling unmoored, longing for stability, even in small comforts. When history weighs heavy and headlines get darker, sometimes the answer is timeless—specifically, a generous bowl of classic chocolate mousse. This is the dessert that London’s “The Parakeet” has made a signature, and it’s reappearing on menus from New York to Paris, stirring up nostalgia and joy with every airy bite.

As a luxury real estate broker, filmmaker, and lover of American culture, I know the value of moments that connect us to something decadent and familiar. This season, let’s reach for a classic chocolate mousse—no pretense, just pleasure. Below is a time-honored recipe, inspired by the chefs mentioned in the FT article and the great tradition of French provincial cooking.

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Mega Mousse for Modern Times (Inspired by The Parakeet and French Bistros)

Ingredients

• 7 oz (200g) high-quality dark chocolate (preferably 70% single-origin, such as Valrhona or Original Beans)

• 3 large eggs, separated

• 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream, chilled

• 2 Tbsp (25g) granulated sugar

• Pinch of salt

• Optional: orange zest, a splash of brandy or Grand Marnier for depth

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water; let it cool slightly.

2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with half the sugar and a pinch of salt until pale and thick. For extra indulgence, whisk in a little orange zest or liqueur.

3. Gently fold the melted chocolate into the yolk mixture.

4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form; gently fold it into the chocolate-yolk base.

5. Whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar to stiff peaks. Fold them carefully into the chocolate mixture—this gives the mousse its signature airiness.

6. Spoon into serving glasses or a large bowl. Chill at least 2 hours.

7. Serve topped with a swirl of whipped cream or dark chocolate shavings.

Why This Dessert Matters Now

Chocolate mousse has survived revolutions, economic crises, and cultural shifts for a reason: it’s simple, elegant, and comforting—an edible reminder that good things are still possible, even in uncertain times. Across America, as spirits flag, taking a few minutes to craft (and share) something this deeply satisfying provides a tangible symbol of resilience.

This is the right moment to bring a little Parisian joy to American homes: let the “mega mousse” be a delicious act of optimism until brighter days return.

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SHRIMP AND CRAB GALORE 

Serves 20 for cocktails or 10 as an entree.

• 1 Cup green pepper chopped fine

• 2 Cups celery chopped fine

• 3 Tablespoons onion chopped fine (or more)

• 1½ Cups crab meat

• 4 to 5 Cups cooked shrimp

• ½ Teaspoon black pepper

• 1½ Teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

• ½ Teaspoon Tabasco

• 2 Teaspoons accent

• 1¼ to 1½ Cups mayonnaise

• 1 to 2 Cups buttered Ritz crackers

• 3 Tablespoons chopped parsley mixed in crumbs

Mix as listed, mayonnaise last.
Mix well and pour into buttered casserole, top with crumbs.
Bake 30 – 40 mins at 350 degrees until hot and bubbly.

When served for cocktails, serve on toast rounds.

We developed this elegant flambéed steak recipe to make just two servings — perfect for a special Valentine’s Day meal or date night. Steak Diane is a classic dish that rose to popularity in the 1940s and 50s, especially in New York City. Steak was pounded and then a pan sauce was made with Worcestershire, mustard and shallots. In Manhattan restaurants it became popular to flambé the cognac added to the sauce, making it a dramatic dish to cook tableside. Over the years more ingredients were added, including mushrooms, tomato paste and cream. The result is luxurious and decadent. We added instructions for making a quick side of buttery green beans so the whole meal can be on the table in just about 30 minutes

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Dear Friends of The American Table,

As the year comes to a close, I want to take a moment to thank you for your incredible support and enthusiasm for The American Table. Your engagement with our stories about food, culture, and politics has been truly inspiring and fuels our passion to keep bringing these conversations to life.

This holiday season, I hope your tables are filled with joy, laughter, and meaningful connections. May the dishes you share remind us all of the power of food to bring people together, no matter where we come from or what we believe.

From all of us at The American Table, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy New Year. We’re excited to bring you even more stories and insights in 2026.

With gratitude!

Need a last minute gift idea? Gift your friends and family a subscription to The American Table! Click the link below to give away a subscription today!

Gift a Subscription!

Happy Hanukkah! Dad's Chopped Liver

Aron Groer’s Famous Chopped Liver Recipe

Though schmaltz-less, this recipe for chopped liver has passed the taste test of countless purists. Annie Groer added a third hardboiled egg for texture. If you don’t use all of it for decorating, add what’s left to the liver. Serve with matzoh, bread, crackers or crudites. Or eat it directly from the bowl with a spoon.

4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 pound chicken livers

• 2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil

• 1 pound yellow or sweet onions, cut into about 1/2-inch dice

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 3 large eggs, hard-cooked and peeled

Directions:

Wash the livers and remove and discard the membranes. Set aside.

In a skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onions, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden, 7 to 10 minutes.

Add the whole livers to the skillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer gently until cooked through but still juicy, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Using a slotted spoon, immediately transfer the livers to a food mill or meat grinder, leaving the onions and their juices in the skillet, and grind the livers while still warm. (You may pulse the livers in a food processor, but be careful to leave some chunks. You don't want a smooth pate.) Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

Using the slotted spoon, add the onions to the ground liver, leaving the juices in the skillet. Stir gently to combine. If the mixture appears to be too dry, add some of the liquid in the skillet, a little at a time, until the desired consistency is attained. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Coarsely chop 2 of the hard-cooked eggs, add them to the liver mixture and stir

gently to combine. Check again if the mixture is too dry and, if necessary, add more liquid from the skillet.

Take the remaining egg and separate the white from the yolk. Using a sharp knife, thinly slice the white into strips and place on top of the chopped liver. Using a small-holed grater, grate the yolk over the entire surface of the chopped liver. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.

My Father's Chopped Liver

Back in the 1970s, shortly before I left on an extended hippie trek through Latin America, my widowed, worried Daddy implored me for perhaps the zillionth time to please, please be careful. Well, of course, I always replied with a hint of exasperation. But because Aron Groer was a world-class alarmist and I, his only daughter, was part brat and part adventuress given to taking up with fascinating strangers, I humored him by suggesting we choose a secret phrase in case I was abducted by anti-imperialist guerrillas.

This cockamamie scheme required that before he paid out the first peso in ransom, he would have to hear me personally utter the words "gehakte leber," Yiddish for chopped liver, to signal I was still alive. It made perfect, if far-fetched sense, since chopped liver was one of the two signature dishes -- the other being gefilte fish -- he had developed after my mother's untimely death when my big brother Steve and I were barely in our teens.

In its way, Aron's chopped liver was a kind of mortar that held our little family together. It may have looked like a post-monsoon mix of mud and gravel, but it tasted like heaven and drew us to the kitchen table like some Proustian madeleine.

Mounded atop a Hunnakah latke, slathered on matzoh during Passover, spread daintily on celery sticks during the occasional diet, sandwiched between pillowy slices of challah most other times, or simply snarfed down by the spoonful directly from the container when no one was looking, Aron’s chopped liver became more than just a splendid example of the culinary arts. It became an edible expression of a grieving father’s love, prompting me to joke that in our working-class household, his vaunted chopped liver recipe was a major part of my dowry.

Friends and family worldwide requested it for celebrations major and minor, or for no reason other than its fabulousness. I can't count the times Steve and I brought home school chums eager for a chopped liver fix. Lord knows how many batches I hand-carried back to grad school in Wisconsin, and even to loved ones in New York City, arguably America's deli capital.

In his modest Maryland kitchen, Aron regularly achieved a near-perfect balance of sauteed chicken livers and onions, hard-boiled eggs, salt and pepper. Whether an added virtue or a grievous deficiency, however, this dish contained not a single yellow globule of schmaltz, known to most people as chicken fat, and to cardiologists as prime heart attack food.

Aron's livers were instead lubricated with cholesterol-free canola or peanut oil, which he endearingly identified as "non-fatening" in the recipe he typed for me ages ago. That linguistic lapse, plus several other phonetic misspellings, were understandable given that English was his fourth tongue, after Yiddish, Polish and French.

To purists, of course, schmaltz-less chopped liver is about as appealing as a tofu burger or carob mousse. Nonetheless, shortly before his 99th birthday, I wrote a Washington Post homage to his heart-healthy gehakte leber.

I have no recollection of him actually making chopped liver, or anything else for that matter, until my mother's untimely death in 1958. But in the early 1960s, he had an emotional reunion in Paris with his brother Moishe, and his sister Bronka, whom he had not seen since my parents bolted Warsaw for Paris in the early 1930s. By 1937, two years before Hitler marched into Poland and murdered most of their families, my father and mother arrived in Washington, DC, where she had relatives eager to help them achieve American citizenship. For this, I remain eternally grateful.

Gift a Subscription!

Here’s what you’re friends and family receive when you gift a subscription:

• In-depth articles exploring the intersection of food and politics and featuring writers such as veteran journalist

  Annie Groer.

• Access to The American Table chatroom, where you can share YOUR OWN stories about the power of food.

• Detailed and exclusive recipes

• Bonus podcast episodes

• Exclusive Documentary and Film Projects:

  • Access to all of our original media, including award-winning documentaries, an upcoming animated short film, “Somerville” and our ongoing web series, “Behind The Line,” where I cook with chefs from around the country and uncover their stories.

    Subscribe now

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I have made this recipe many times. I thought tonight it would be comforting to make them once again. This recipe is courtesy of @Lidey Heuck of the New York Times

There are many kinds of brownies, but this simple recipe aims for a chewy, fudgy texture with a shiny, crackly top. Theories abound on what creates that delectable flaky top layer, but here, it is achieved by dissolving the sugar into the butter, then stirring in chocolate chips until melted. Use semisweet chocolate for sweeter brownies, or dark for a slightly more grownup treat, and feel free to stir in ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans before baking if you like a little extra crunch. For easy cutting, let the brownies cool completely and use a hot, dry knife, wiping off the crumbs in between cuts.

Ingredients

Yield:9 to 12 servings

• Nonstick cooking spray, for greasing

• ½cup /113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)

• 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar

• ½cup/86 grams dark or semisweet chocolate chips

• 2large eggs

• 1teaspoon vanilla extract

• ½cup/47 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

• ½cup/64 grams all-purpose flour

• ½teaspoon kosher salt

• ⅛teaspoon baking soda

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Preparation

1. Step 1

   Heat the oven to 325 degrees, with a rack positioned in the center. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Step 2

   Combine the butter and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter comes to a simmer. Turn off the heat, then add the chocolate chips and stir until melted. (The mixture will be grainy at this point.) Pour into a large mixing bowl and set aside until just warm to the touch.

3. Step 3

   Add the eggs and vanilla to the mixing bowl and whisk vigorously for 1 minute, until pale and glossy. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until incorporated. Add the flour, salt and baking soda and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top.

4. Step 4

   Bake brownies until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs on it, 30 to 33 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before slicing into squares. Brownies will keep for up to 3 days, well-wrapped at room temperature.

   The American Table is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Ingredients

3 pounds of Chuck Roast

Garlic slices

4 sprigs of Rosemary

1 and 1/2 pounds of small white potatoes

1 can (28 oz)  of whole Tomatoes

1 large Onion

Salt and Pepper

Olive oil

Directions

Make little slits in the pot roast and insert the garlic slices.  Salt and Pepper the roast.  Brown the roast in the olive oil.   Place in Dutch Oven.  I use my La Creuset blue pot.

Add 1 and 1/2 pounds of small white potatoes.  Add 1 whole can (28 oz)  of whole tomatoes with the liquid. Break up the tomatoes with your hands.   Cut one large onion (at least 1 and 1/2 pounds into wedges.  Mix in with tomatoes and potatoes.   Place 3 or 4 sprigs of Rosemary on top.  Cover.

Bake at 350 degrees for 3 hours.

Serve with romaine and radish salad.  

“I think if there is one thing I’m responsible for in this country, something that I can take a little credit for, it’s the propagation of real salad in the United States.”

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Active prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 Hour

My Recipe:

1 Whole Chicken

1 Medium Yellow Onion

3/4 Medium Potatoes - Waxy like Yukon Gold

1 Clove of Crushed Garlic

Fresh Rosemary

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

Directions:

Pre Heat oven to 400’ F

Using a mandolin ( Be Careful!), thinly slice the onion. Place the slices with half of the olive oil in a Dutch Oven and saute over medium heat for 5 minutes.

Using a mandolin ( Be Careful!), slice the potatoes and place them on the onions. Remove from heat.

Add Rosemary and crushed garlic to the top of the potatoes

Coat the chicken with the remaining olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste. Place the chicken on top of the potatoes.

Add lid and cook the chicken in the 400’ oven for 40 minutes

Remove the lid after 40 minutes- continue cooking chicken for an additional 20 minutes, uncovered until golden brown. Total cooking time is 60 minutes, 1 hour.

Remove and let stand, uncovered for 15 min to cool

Serve!

Ingredients:
Whole organic chicken (about 5 lbs.)
3 sprigs each of whole rosemary, sage, and thyme
6 minced garlic cloves
3 peeled garlic cloves
2 Tbsps. minced rosemary and thyme
1 Lemon, zested then cut into quarters
Kosher Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
White wine, inexpensive, room temperature (to avoid cracking baking dish)

Prep Directions (complete 1 day prior to…

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Tater Tot Hotdish is a beloved upper Midwest staple, and this version comes from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick. The recipe was a first place champion at the annual Minnesota Congressional Delegation Hotdish Off in 2014.

Tim Carman - Washington Post

Ingredients

measuring cup

Servings: 8-10 (makes about 12 cups)

• 1 pound ground turkey, preferably 85 to 93 percent lean

• 1 large egg

• 1 garlic clove, minced or finely grated

• 1/2 cup chopped scallions (4 to 6 scallions)

• 1 teaspoon fine salt, divided

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed

• 1/2 teaspoon dried ground sage

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• One (1-pound) package frozen cut green beans (no need to defrost; see Variations)

• 4 slices bacon (4 ounces)

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

• 1 1/2 cups (3 1/2 ounces) chopped cremini mushroom caps

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

• 2 1/2 cups whole or reduced-fat milk

• 1/2 cup half-and-half

• 1/4 cup chopped yellow or white onion

• 12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded, divided (about 3 cups; see Notes)

• One (32-ounce) package Tater Tots (no need to defrost)

Directions

Time IconActive: 50 mins|Total: 1 hour 35 mins

1. Step 1

   In a medium bowl, mix together the turkey, egg, garlic, scallions, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, the pepper and sage. In a large (12-inch) skillet over medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the turkey mixture and cook, stirring occasionally and breaking the meat up with a wooden spoon, until browned and no pink remains, 6 to 8 minutes. (While the turkey mixture is cooking, wash and dry the bowl you just used.) Transfer the turkey mixture to the now-clean bowl and add the green beans.

2. Step 2

   Wipe out the skillet and return it to medium heat. Line a large plate with towels and set it near your work space. Add the bacon to the skillet and cook, turning over as needed, until crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Adjust the heat as needed to prevent the bacon from burning. Transfer the bacon to the prepared plate, let cool completely, then coarsely chop. Using a slotted spoon, add the bacon to the bowl with the turkey and green beans, leaving the bacon grease in the skillet, and gently mix to combine. Transfer the mixture to a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish and spread in an even layer.

3. Step 3

   Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees.

4. Step 4

   While the bacon is cooling, return the skillet with the bacon grease to medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and once it’s melted and the foam begins to subside, add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until they release their liquid and it evaporates and the mushrooms brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer the mushrooms to a small bowl.

5. Step 5

   Return the skillet to medium heat. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and let it melt. Evenly sprinkle the flour into the butter and whisk to incorporate. Cook, stirring constantly, until the flour is cooked out and the roux is light brown, about 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the milk and half-and-half, and cook, whisking constantly, until steam starts to rise off the surface of the mixture and it thickens to the consistency of heavy cream, 2 to 4 minutes. Add the cooked mushrooms, onion and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and season to taste with pepper. Cook, stirring, until well combined, about 1 minute. Add about 2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) of the cheese and cook, stirring constantly, until melted and the mixture is thick and uniform, about 1 minute, then remove from the heat.

6. Step 6

   Pour the cheese mixture evenly over the turkey mixture in the baking dish. Arrange the Tater Tots over the top, then sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup (2 ounces) of cheese. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling around the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 teaspoon sugar

- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes

- 3-4 tablespoons ice water

For the Filling:

- 3 large ripe peaches, thinly sliced

- 1 cup fresh blueberries

- 2-3 tablespoons sugar (adjust to taste)

- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

- 1 tablespoon honey (optional)

For Garnish:

- Fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Crust:

- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar.

- Add the cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with pea-sized pieces of butter.

- Gradually add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until the dough just comes together. Be careful not to overwork the dough.

- Form the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Prepare the Filling:

- In a large bowl, combine the sliced peaches and blueberries. Sprinkle with sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Gently toss to coat the fruit evenly. For added sweetness, drizzle with honey.

3. Roll Out the Dough:

- Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled dough into a roughly 12-inch circle. Transfer the dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet.

4. Assemble the Tart:

- Spoon the fruit mixture onto the center of the dough, leaving about a 2-inch border around the edges. Fold the edges of the dough over the fruit, overlapping slightly as you go. The center should remain open.

5. Egg Wash:

- Brush the folded edges of the dough with the beaten egg for a golden finish.

6. Bake:

- Bake the tart in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbly.

7. Cool and Garnish:

- Allow the tart to cool slightly. Just before serving, sprinkle with fresh mint leaves for a burst of flavor and a touch of color.

8. Serve:

- Slice and enjoy the tart warm or at room temperature. This rustic dessert pairs wonderfully with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

This homemade crust adds a buttery, flaky base to the tart, perfectly complementing the sweet and tangy fruit filling. Enjoy!

A favorite recipe for people on the East Coast today and this weekend is Grilled Lobster Rolls with Lemon Garlic Butter. This dish is perfect for the summer, combining the fresh, sweet taste of lobster with the smoky flavor of the grill, and is a coastal classic that many enjoy.

Grilled Lobster Rolls with Lemon Garlic Butter

Ingredients:

- 4 lobster tails (or 1-1.5 pounds of lobster meat)

- 4 brioche hot dog buns or New England-style split-top rolls

- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (optional)

- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional)

- 1/4 cup chopped celery (optional)

- Fresh chives or parsley, chopped (for garnish)

- Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Lobster:** If using lobster tails, split them down the middle to expose the meat. If using whole lobsters, boil or steam them first, then remove the meat from the claws and tails.

2. Grill the Lobster:** Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Brush the lobster meat with a little melted butter and place it flesh side down on the grill. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, turning once, until the lobster is opaque and slightly charred.

3. Make the Lemon Garlic Butter:** In a small saucepan, combine the remaining melted butter, lemon juice, and minced garlic. Cook over low heat until the garlic is fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

4. Toast the Buns:** Lightly butter the buns and grill them for about 1 minute on each side, until golden brown.

5. Assemble the Rolls:** If using, mix mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and celery together in a bowl. Spread a little on the inside of each bun. Place the grilled lobster meat inside each bun and drizzle with the lemon garlic butter. Garnish with chopped chives or parsley.

6. Serve:** Serve the lobster rolls warm, with a side of potato chips, coleslaw, or corn on the cob.

This dish is easy to prepare, feels luxurious, and is a hit at both casual gatherings and special dinners. Perfect for enjoying the summer weather on the East Coast!

A special thanks to subscribers who pay for the publication. If a few more people choose to become paid subscribers, The American Table could create more podcasts, make more Award-winning films, interview more amazing and famous people, and give you more great recipes. It's only $5 a month; if you can afford it, please support this work.

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A special thanks to subscribers who pay for the publication. If a few more people choose to become paid subscribers, The American Table could create more podcasts, make more Award-winning films, interview more amazing and famous people, and give you more great recipes. It's only $5 a month; if you can afford it, please support this work.

Read more

A special thanks to subscribers who pay for the publication. If a few more people choose to become paid subscribers, The American Table could create more podcasts, make more Award-winning films, interview more amazing and famous people, and give you more great recipes. It's only $5 a month; if you can afford it, please support this work.

Read more