Update: The results are in! We've selected our second annual Top 10 Thanksgiving Recipes By Huffington Post Commenters. But, please, keep the recipes coming.
I know, I know, you've all been wondering if the first annual Huffington Post "Tell Us What You're Cooking for Thanksgiving Dinner This Year That You Didn't Cook Last Year" (and the resulting HuffPost Commenters' Top Ten Thanksgiving Recipes) was actually going to make a return appearance, and guess what? Here it is.
Welcome to the second annual HuffPost recipe exchange - based, as always, on our profound belief that Thanksgiving dinner - your Thanksgiving dinner - is a lot like ours: you've got things you make year in and year out, things that remind you of your mother (like the scalloped oysters that no one but you eats), things that remind you of your friends (like the green jello mold recipe I got from Rita), and the things that came to you through outside written material (like the way we cook our turkey now, courtesy of the Gourmet Magazine November 2005 issue: we salt and pepper it, stick it unstuffed into the oven at 450 and drain it every so often; no brining, no basting; it's absolutely remarkable; trust me). (And by the way, it takes only 2 1/2 hours to cook a 14-16 pound bird to a divine dark crispiness.)
And then there are the things you make for the very first time in order to prove that you're neither your mother nor a hopeless prisoner of your own hidebound traditions and your grown children's irrational demands for sweet potatoes with marshmallows. We want to know about those things, the things you're making this year that you've never made before. Of course, you can send us an old recipe instead, we don't care. We just want you to send a Thanksgiving recipe. Then we'll select and post our ten favorites next week. (And please be sure to type out fractions--1/2 cup, for example--because symbols won't display correctly.)
This year, in keeping with the tenor of the times, I am making a recipe I got from the Internet, or, to be more exact, from the monthly email newsletter I get from the great Seattle chef Tom Douglas. It's for dip. I have been looking for a good dip recipe my entire life, and this is it -- Tom Douglas' mother's crab dip. It's not just easy and delicious, but it's loaded with crab, so it gives you the illusion that because it contains protein, it's good for you. In a large bowl mix 3 TB tomato paste with 1 TB honey. Then whisk in 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 2 TB chopped chives, 1 TB lemon juice, 1 seeded and minced sweet red cherry pepper (from a jar of sweet cherry peppers in vinegar), 2 TB lemon zest, 1 TB prepared horseradish and a dash of Tabasco. Then fold in 3/4 pound crabmeat and one chopped-up hard-boiled egg. Add salt and pepper and a little lemon to taste. Serve with really good potato chips.
Happy Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for this year.