For my grandmother’s 102nd birthday, we did a steakhouse themed birthday dinner. (Anyone who makes it to 102 deserves a steakhouse dinner.) But, the creamed spinach was just eh. I resigned myself to enjoy creamed spinach when at a restaurant. Until, I received a LOT of beautiful spinach in my weekly CSA box.
My absolute favorite part of eating chili (aside from all of the spices) is the smorgasbord of toppings. Serve the chili directly from the pot and set up a series of bowls containing the toppings. If you have picky eaters, it allows everyone to customize their chili to their liking. For my husband, that usually means adding more spice and for me it usually means adding more cheese.
Buy fresh turkey from grocery store (with three children in tow). Buy fresh chestnuts. Roast fresh chestnuts. Peel fresh chestnuts (with three children running around the kitchen with assorted rackets and balls). Make chestnut stuffing (while hoping children have found cartoons on TV to watch). Make cranberry dressing. Clean house for guests. Set table with china. Serve Thanksgiving lunch. Put up all food and clean all china (hoping everyone is in a tryptophan induced nap instead of having a shaving cream war in the bathroom). I really don’t know how my mom managed to host Thanksgiving…but she did for years without much complaint.
Over the years, I’ve made several versions of potato salad…warm, cold, and with different flavored mayonnaises and even homemade mayonnaise. None of these have rivaled the Italian potato salad of my childhood…until I found myself in a vacation rental in Rehoboth beach with my inlaws and this recipe was born.
