It's getting to be that special time of year again. I will leave the reasons behind its specialness open to interpretation. Holiday party invitations start showing up in one's mailbox the moment the turkey baster has been dried and tucked away in a drawer. Concurrently, this is the time of year when egg nog starts to muscle its way into your local supermarket's dairy case.

Egg Nog. It's a heart-stopping, cholesterol-laden, alcohol-spiked, phlegm-producing cup of Holiday goodness. And I'm a huge fan. I always have been.

As a child, the appeal was obvious; what eight year-old is going to say no to a sweet, creamy dairy product? I imagined I was drinking melted nutmeg ice cream. Given the ingredients, I didn't know how close to the mark I was. I would drink several glasses at holiday gatherings. If I accidentally got into the rum-spiked nog for adults (which was understandable since the crystal punch bowl full of alcoholic nog looked exactly like the cardboard carton that contained the booze-free liquid), so much the better. Open a container, pour out its contents, mix in a little rum, and get the party started. Egg nog punch is that simple. Or was, until I had my first taste of the real stuff.

It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that my family would pay a call on my stepmother's friend Charlene and her family, who had a sort of open house party every Christmas Eve. The house was always dressed to the teeth in holiday drag, complete with a sort of Christmas-on- Main-Street, U.S.A. recreation in miniature spread out over the tables in the living room and onto the grand piano. I'd peek into the tiny cellophane windows looking for any signs of domestic unhappiness or violence, but was invariably disappointed in my search. Booze-spiked cocktail wieners, prawns, and every kind of dip imaginable were there for the taking, and our hosts were always warm and in a festive mood, which is just the thing my family needs during the holidays. For me, the two main attractions of the party were the Presentation of the Egg Nog, and the Wheeling-in of Grandpa. This quiet old gentleman was missing one of his legs and an eye. At least, I assume he was missing an eye since he wore an eye patch. This in itself is nothing unusual, since it it very likely that he suffered from diabetes, though I never asked. What I always found interesting was the fact that he was always parked against the wall near the center of the main room, slightly to the right of a parrot cage, which hung near (but wisely not over) the dessert table. He was, to me, a sort of pirate centerpiece to the party.

The Presentation of the Egg Nog was not a heralded event, but one I always watched with interest. Charlene and her husband Bill would be in the kitchen fussing over the bowl, stirring in something here, adding a little nutmeg there. They'd do a little tasting, adjust favoring, do a little more tasting, add more booze, then Charlene would pick up the enormous bowl and walk it to the buffet table very carefully, the whitecaps of stiffened egg white gently rising and falling against the sides. When her mission had been successfully accomplished, people would grab their cups and huddle around the bowl, waiting their turn to dip in. It was a revelation, in terms of my nog-drinking experience. It was fresh and frothy. I finally understood where the egg part of egg nog came in-- the subtle yellow coloring from yolks beaten without mercy, the foam of egg whites folded in for body. It ruined my enjoyment of store-bought nog forever.

I won't assume that all three of you reading this have ever tried homemade egg nog. If you haven't, and you don't have problems consuming dairy, cholesterol or alcohol, I say go ahead and try it. It's really, really good. And you only get it once a year, so drink up.

Egg Nog

The rumor behind the word "nog" is that it derived from the English word "noggin"; a small, carved, wooden mug used to serve drinks in various taverns. The full name of this beverage might have been "egg and grog in a noggin", which does not sound especially appetizing. There also seems to be some disagreement as to whether the beverage is spelled as one word or two. I like two, it sounds more important that way.

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
1 pint whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup rum, bourbon, or whatever poison you prefer
4 egg whites

Procedure:

1. Beat egg yolks until pale yellow in color. Gradually add 1/3 cup of sugar until it is totally dissolved.

2. In a medium saucepan, over high heat, combine milk, cream, and nutmeg and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and temper the hot milk mixture into the eggs and sugar. Return everything to the pot and cook until mixture reaches 160 degrees F. Remove from heat, stir in alcohol and extract, pour into a medium-sized mixing bowl and chill in your refrigerator.

3. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add one tablespoon of sugar as you beat until stiff peaks form. Whisk egg whites into chilled mixture.

4. Put your now fresh and somewhat safe beverage in the noggin or vessel of your choice and drink up.

If you love produce as much as I do you know that living in the East Bay is better than living in San Francisco. I realize I could start a riot here, but I've lived in 3 out of four directions of the peninsula, in various neighborhoods and cities, and no matter where I was, no matter if I was in possession of a drivers license or not, I made it to Berkeley Bowl and Monterey Market, and/ or the Berkeley Farmers' Markets, because there was more to see, smell, taste, touch and procure in these markets.

And until I moved to North Berkeley myself, I was a tried and true Berkeley Bowl Trooper, from the old school-- back when it started in the old bowling alley. I still love to get there when I have my list in Excel spreadsheet form and the time is early enough before rush hour clogs the insane parking lot and creates lines worse than LA traffic.

But now I have been seduced by Monterey Market. I used to laugh at its size, comparable to Rainbow Grocery but tiny compared to Berkeley Bowl. But then. But then I found its buried treasure. One day two summers ago I stopped by for a few things and bought an entire flat of the best boysenberries I have ever seen, smelled or tasted! I went home and ate about four baskets, made pie with a few more and froze the rest. Returning just a day or two later I found that I had bought something which would not be back again until the following year... Sad...but also something to look forward to.

You can go to the same place day after day, year after year, and find everything ok, get what you need for the price you like and shrug shoulders at the prospect of change.

Until. Until one day you pick the best looking toad you can find for toad soup and when you get through checkout you realize your bag is exploding with a Prince and your car has been moved closer to the horizon, where a pretty sunset awaits you.

A few days ago is a perfect example. I needed some citrus and butter and cranberries. I like to stock up on cranberries before they disappear so I can whip up a batch of my favorite walnut-cranberry-orange bread, which I love to toast and smother with butter. (It really can be whipped up-- it's a one bowl and wooden spoon recipe!)

I'm in love with citrus and I always look at what's going on. Scratch and sniff is the best way to learn about new citrus. Both blossom and skin will tell you what unique flavor and perfume are awaiting you. While scanning high bins of yellow and green and orange globes my eyes did a double-take on a gnarly looking fruit.

YUZU! Fresh, California grown Yuzu were staring at me. Like a collector at a yard sale discovering a priceless chair, I monitored my breathing and tried not to look around frantically. I bit my tongue when I wanted to jump up and down and yell, "Hey?! Do you see what I see?! Look! It's fresh Yuzu, here, in Berkeley, California, yours for the having!! Can you believe such a thing? It's so wonderful!!!!!"

But instead I kept walking and went back nonchalantly, looking puzzled on the outside and then hunkered in and bought at least 5 pounds.

Yuzu is a fruit I only saw one of once, while living in Napa. A famous chef I knew had smuggled one in from a recent trip to Japan. Like Bergamot, it's an ugly mottled fruit, but it's exquisite perfume and flavor lives in every molecule of its being.

Monterey Market is a cold market, mostly outside and seemingly unkempt. But it's a facade, truly, because you never know what you will find there. Bill Fujimoto buys small and large shipments directly from farmers single and corporate. The back room, unseen by the average consumer, is a carefully organized chaos of fruit and vegetable back-stock/ cases, available to restaurants, chefs and caterers who want to buy direct and avoid (or amend as the case may be) produce companies or farmers' markets.

And if I haven't sold you yet, I beg of you to rent or buy Eat At Bill's, a lovingly made documentary about Monterey Market and its beloved workers. Watch it just to see the massive pumpkins, which get brought in on elephant transport trucks and the joy so many people share about cherry season, and one particular cherry in particular.

When we talk about shopping and eating local we often overlook our markets with rooftops. But Monterey Market, Berkeley Bowl, The Food Mill, Rainbow Grocery, Bi Rite market, Farmer Joe's and so many more in the Bay Area are all about shopping locally. These businesses are still independent, many of them family and/or co-operatively owned. If you can't get to the farmers' market, find your CSA box lacking this week or next month, or just want to see that there are a dozen kinds of sweet potatoes, countless citrus varietals, far out and funky shaped mushrooms, head over to a new market for countless fruit and veggie adventures. They await you in one corner of the bay or the other...

My last meal on a recent trip to Japan wasn't anything fancy, it was a rice omelet, also known as "omu raisu". I enjoyed this savory and filling dish at the Tokyo Narita airport and it left me even more sorry to be heading home than I was before. Fortunately the recipe for omu raisu, a luscious and creamy omelet filled with tomatoey rice with little chunks of chicken, and many other rustic home-style meals are featured in Let's Cook Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko.

Let's Cook Japanese Food! focuses on recipes that author Kaneko who lived in Japan, has been able to easily recreate at home in the US, using mostly supermarket ingredients. These are dishes that don't have to be part of an elaborate Japanese meal but can be one pot meals, appetizers or side dishes. Because eating dessert is not an after dinner tradition in Japan you won't find any sweets in the book.

Kaneko's light breezy style will encourage even the frying phobic to take on crunchy treats like tempura, fried marinated chicken, potato and pumpkin croquettes, and crispy fried shrimp. There are also yoshoku dishes, or Japanese-style Western dishes like Japanese style hamburger steak with sauce, creamy macaroni and cheese with shrimp and broccoli and Japanese influenced Chinese dishes like Chinese-style crab omelet with soy sauce gravy and Chinese-style spicy tofu and pork. Try a few dishes and it's likely a few will soon become part your repertoire.

Hiyayako--Cold Tofu with Ginger and Green Onions
Serves 1

4-inch square soft tofu
1 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon minced green onion, including tender green tops
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce, preferably light soy sauce

Place the tofu in a shallow bowl. Arrange the ginger in a mound on top of the tofu, and sprinkle with the green onion. Let the diner top with soy sauce according to his or her taste.

Recipe from Let's Cook Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko Photographs by Deborah Ory, Chronicle Books, 2007

Before I was a food blogger, I was a Chowhound. This occurred out of necessity when I first moved to the Bay Area over seven years ago. I had come from Southern California -- a place where I had lived my whole life and where I knew numerous hole-in-the-wall, amazing restaurants. Once I got here, I had bad meal after bad meal. Add the fact that I was homesick and it was June and like 10 degrees Fahrenheit out, and you may begin to understand my despair.

Then there was The Day Of The Two Bad Meals. I'd already had a bad lunch and for dinner my friend Tricia and I decided to eat close to our new Richmond District apartment. I burst into tears as I tried to eat horrible spaghetti, and vowed that I had to find a better way. I had learned that even though there are some really fantastic restaurants in San Francisco, there are also some really vile restaurants out there -- and when you're new it can sometimes be a minefield.

So I found Chowhound. And that was the beginning of delicious meal after delicious meal. Seven years later, I have a love-hate relationship with Chowhound, but I will always be grateful to the members of the boards for showing me the ropes when I was still getting my bearings in this new town.

Early on, we had a lot of "Chowdowns" where members of the community would gather to have a meal at a restaurant. There were certain rules to these events, and one of them had to do with assigning one person to transcribe the menu for the boards. I think because he hated being the transcriber, Derek (now chowfun_derek on the boards) often plied us with egg tarts from Golden Gate Bakery. He'd pick them up from the bakery right before our Chinatown meals and we would eat them still warm. We always let him off the hook for the transcription -- in fact I think that gift of the egg tarts let him get away with a lot.

Derek once told me that he discovered Golden Gate Bakery on his first day in San Francisco in 1970. "I had my suitcases and was walking down Grant, and I spied a long line and decided to just get in it to see what everyone was buying." It was the first bite of food he ate in San Francisco, and he now uses it as a "culinary touchstone" in the city.

Golden Gate Bakery is a very small bakery on Grant Avenue in Chinatown. They have several sweet and savory items, and are famous for their holiday moon cakes, though I have to admit that I only have eyes for their macaroons and their egg tart -- a light, flaky pastry tart that is filled with a warm, sweet, eggy custard. The pastry is really the star of this hand held delight, and when it's filled with egg custard that is slightly firm and not overly sweet you bite into a delicious treat. The macaroons are on the small side, very crunchy on the outside, and very basic with delicious coconut filling. They're my favorite in the city.

Going to Golden Gate Bakery is an experience. I went there on Saturday night and got in line with the throngs. There were several tourists behind me who didn't understand the process. "I think that they're confused," said one tourist, referring to the many employees who were standing around seemingly doing nothing while customers behind the counter just stood and waited. "No, they're waiting for the new batch to come out," I explained, feeling a bit like I was trying to explain what Willy Wonka was doing in his Chocolate Factory. One employee busied herself by preparing a mound of pink boxes. "I think that she probably has enough," grumbled the tourist. I smiled to myself, knowing that all those boxes would be filled very soon. Sure enough, several trays of egg tarts came out at once and the pink pastry boxes were quickly filled.

The line always snakes out the door and when you finally make it inside, a consistent skit ensues. If the item that you want is available, then you're in and out in a couple of minutes. More likely, however, is that your item won't be available. Then you call out your order, and they use a walkie-talkie to talk to the kitchen. There's lots of conversation back and forth before the woman finally tells you how long it will be. I've waited up to 20 minutes for egg tarts to come out of the oven. There's no cooling period -- if you get them right out of the oven, they will be inedibly hot for a few minutes. If you order several, the ladies will give you the egg tarts in a pink box that is vented for the steam.

There was recently a mini-crisis on the Chowhound boards, as Golden Gate Bakery closed inexplicably. When it was finally reported that the pastry maker had died, many speculated and wondered whether we had seen the end of the amazing egg tart. The store was closed for over a month, and the re-opening was delayed several times. "What I really hope they are doing is going back to their homeland ... to find a replacement egg tart chef who can replicate that signature flakey (sic) crust/exterior." said one person on the boards. Happily, the bakery re-opened last week and it's as good as it's always been.

If you're ever in Chinatown and aren't in a hurry, join the longest line on Grant Avenue to find your bliss. If you're going to Chinatown just to visit Golden Gate Bakery, call ahead first. They take a month off each summer, and are sometimes closed on random days.

Golden Gate Bakery
1029 Grant Ave (at Pacific)
415-781-2627

More on Golden Gate Bakery:
The Bunrabs on Golden Gate Bakery
Culinary Muse muses about the egg tarts

One of the most exciting pieces of food news this year is that "locavore" has been knighted "word of the year" by the Oxford University Press. However, I absorbed the concept of the Eat Local Challenge before I did "locavore," which, in all honesty, I thought had something to do with the phases of the moon and the lycanthrope society. (It's possible I've watched one too many Frasiers.)

The first time I heard about the Eat Local movement, it was over two years ago, and since I was still trying to ferret out where to buy my favorite French nut oil, Mexican ginger beer, and New England pumpkin ale, I felt totally overwhelmed.

Did I really need to think about each and every food product that came into my kitchen when I was just starting to find my cooking legs in San Francisco? Of course not. If you give the smallest crap about eating local, it's not necessary to ensure that every food product -- salt, coffee, flour, sugar, produce, meat, Diet Coke -- in your kitchen is from local purveyors. If you give the smallest crap about eating local, you just think about what you're buying and wonder if it's local. Because you care.

That's all you need to do to effect change: start thinking about it. Start caring about it. Then maybe, you'll start acting on it. Frankly, if it hadn't been for Jen Maiser, I'd still be just thinking about eating local and not actually doing anything about it. Not only does Jen blog about eating local at her own site, Life Begins at 30, she's also the editor of the Eat Local Challenge blog and has worked at various farmers' stands at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market.

After my failed first attempt at participating in an Eat Local Challenge, I started following Jen's efforts more and more. Her passionate, yet refreshingly frank and evenhanded writing style drew me in deeper and deeper, and before I knew it, not only was I examining every tag, sticker, and vittles visa at Andronico's, but I was delivering earnest, flushed-cheek diatribes to my Minneapolian parents and sister about why they should think to ask, "Where did this come from?" before they stuck anything in their mouths. It got to the point when my mom was collaring the hapless meat guy at Whole Foods and demanding to know why he was offering her lamb from New Zealand and not from Minnesota.

Jen shares her information widely, energetically, and -- most importantly -- nonjudgmentally. She embodies the sentiment that you don't have to harvest your own coffee beans, dry your own salt, or refine your own sugar to be a conscientious eater, you just need to wonder, "Where?"

In fact, "Where?" is the sentiment of the newest Eat Local Challenge. According to Jen, the next ELC -- set to be unveiled early next year -- is: "a challenge focused on where our everyday foods are sourced from. Instead of challenging participants to eat food from as close to home as possible, we will be asking them to take everyday items that their families eat -- processed foods like crackers and potato chips, mass-produced products, and fast food items -- and try to find out the source of the product ingredients. I think it will be interesting to learn what we can, and can't, find out about our food."

I'm thrilled that "locavore" is being recorded in the annals of history, but without the Eat Local Challenge spurring me to think, question, act, and eat, I have a feeling I'd still be assuming that locavores howled at the moon and stuffed pillows with their own hair.

The guests are gone, the dishes done, and there's yet another couple of days before Monday. I can't help staring out my window at all the lovely parking available in our quiet, turkey-sedated city, but I'm avoiding the shops for now. The weekend after Thanksgiving is one my favorite times to stay in my pajamas and catch up on my reading. Forget award-winning novels or the latest treatise about the end of the world, though. For now, it's all about fun and fantasy while browsing lifestyle porn rags like I.D. magazine, blogs like bLavish and the websites of local companies such as rose and radish.

For those of you still putting off your holiday shopping binge, here's a short list of gifts for the lucky foodie in your life...

Drinks in Hand

Designer Jean-Marie Massaud created this ingenious, portable bar for the leather company, Poltrona Frau. Modeled after a classic steam trunk, the portable mixing station stands only 46 inches high and has discrete wheels, saddle leather exterior (your choice of 90 colors), walnut-veneer folding shelves, and enough chrome and glass to make it glitter beneath the chandeliers. Call one of the showrooms in New York, Miami or Washington, D.C. to order. $10,400.

Global Service

Munich-based Nymphenburg commissioned English designer Barnaby Barford for limited-edition, signed tableware to add to their 2007 line-up. His Global Service collection consists of 14 porcelain plates, each showing a different section of the globe. Available in three soft hues: turquoise, green and beige. Dandelion on Potrero Avenue might be able to reserve a set of the dinner plates for you, though they probably won't arrive from Germany before the year's end. $10,350 for the complete set.

My Coffee Maker's Bigger Than Yours

From Dacor in South San Francisco, you can get your very own automatic coffee system to install in your kitchen wall. Once it's hooked up to your plumbing system and programmed to your hot beverage specifications, it'll grind, brew, steam, froth, and dispense upon command. It even makes tea and hot chocolate, but my favorite part is the integrated storage for keeping cups and saucers warm. Siemens also offers a built-in, fully programmable coffee system. Both companies request that you contact them for prices.

Grill Alert

Melding high-tech with the high life, Oregon Scientific came up with a gadget that geeky grill masters of the world can use with pride: a remote wireless temperature probe to signal meat doneness. It speaks in five languages, can sense up to 572 degrees F before passing out and can be programmed for all the basic animals: beef, lamb, veal, hamburger, pork, turkey, chicken and fish. As long as you don't wander more than 330 feet away from your grill, you'll be able to hear its verbal alerts of almost ready, ready or overcooked. Batteries not included. $60.

Braising with Bling

This premium quality, gem-studded pan from Fissler made an exclusive appearance last month at Harrod's in London. The handles weigh in at just under one pound of solid gold and the diamonds number over 200. Your limited-edition pan will come complete with a high-class box made of rootwood and a document certifying exclusive quality. Fissler has already sent an application to the Guinness World Records' office for the "most precious pot in the world." $203,000.

Sinking into Style

To help take the edge off kitchen chores, install one of these laser-cut drain covers in your sink. Brazilian-Isreali designer, Joana Meroz of Ornamented Life appropriates flowered lace patterns to help evoke love and romance while you scrape and rinse. While you're at it, get a nipple-shaped plug to cover your new, pretty drain. $86.

The Ultimate Dinner Cruise

There's a listing right now on Classic Yachts for the Sierra Rose, a 2005 Finney yacht on Lake Tahoe. Though it measures a modest 86 feet, the architects were able to fit in a helicopter landing pad and an on-deck hot tub. You'll be able to zip away from work and relax with comfort and ease. Of course, while you're at the lake, you won't need to sacrifice a good meal: "The Kitchen is a gourmet cook's dream with granite countertops, three ovens, 4-burner Viking range with griddle, four under counter SubZero refrigerator and freezer drawers, ice maker, and two under-counter dishwashers...Storage is provided throughout the kitchen with mahogany-stained, raised-panel cabinets. Entertainment continues at the Stern, where a granite countertop extends from the kitchen through a large pass-through window to the Rear Terrace." Call for a private viewing. Asking $7,000,000.

What's on your fantasy foodie wish list?

On my way home from Thanksgiving dinner, I walked down Capp Street in the Mission, fully bloated and lightly buzzed from an over abundance of great food, good wine, and a mild case of self-satisfaction over having won two games of Celebrity. I had just spent the past eight hours feasting and laughing with friends. As I turned the corner onto Mission Street, I saw a man sitting on the sidewalk. He stared at me and I stopped in my tracks and stared back for a moment. He didn't ask me for anything and I realized then that I didn't have anything to offer him. No leftovers, just a bagful of dirty dishes and a book of short stories by Saki. The warm, fuzzy glow of the evening I had just spent evaporated and all the casseroles, turkey, and pie turned to cement in my stomach. It was clear that our respective celebrations of the holiday differed. I felt thankful that his experience was not mine and impotent to do anything about improving his. The exchange lasted about three seconds.

If you are reading this, chances are you own a computer and pay for online service, which means that, in all likelihood, you can afford turkey and, if not all, then some of the trimmings. Like me, you probably spent Thanksgiving with friends or family or both, either sitting about a giant dining table stuffing yourselves silly, or milling about a party, drinking and grazing your way through relish trays and pumpkin cheesecakes (Please tell me you didn't spend the day locked in your bedroom, quietly drinking). Whatever the case, the chances are slim to none that all the food was consumed.

What can you do wth the leftovers? Apart from salivate over Madame Laidlaw's ideas from yesterday's post (I am a sucker for a good quesadilla), you might think about donating food to your local food bank, if your feast of plenty was too plentiful.

Of course, most places aren't going to accept a couple of slices of pie or a pile of turkey skin. Most food banks request items that are in some sort of packaging, but I wonder, since there was a shortage of deposits at local food banks this year, according to Maris Lagos of the San Francisco Chronicle. When you are shopping next year, buy an extra thing or two and just give it away-- nearly every grocery store has some sort of food drive happening.

I suppose we should think ahead to next year, not that one need only give on Thanksgiving. If you're saddled with cooking dinner for 20, why not push that number a little higher. Feed an extra person or two. Or twenty. If you are affiliated with a particular church or mosque or temple or glee club for all I care, find out if they are involved in any feeding programs, like Glide Memorial Church, for example.

If there are organizations that accept cooked food from private homes, I would very much like to know. Why not bake a pie for a total stranger? It's a not-so-random act of kindness.

If you are in the restaurant industry and have a surplus of holiday fare, contact Food Runners in San Francisco, they'll know what to do with your leftovers.

During this time of year, we're supposed to take time out of our lives to think upon what it is we are grateful for. Last night, among other things, I was grateful I wasn't that guy sitting on the sidewalk on Capp Street. I have promised myself that next year will be different. Not that I will be that guy sitting on the corner, mind you. I've just realized that I actually can do something, which is get up off my lazy, self-involved ass and give something, whether it be time, food, or money. Most likely time or food, since I don't have any money. I suppose it would be unethical to suggest that, while you are giving food and time to those in need, you make large monetary donations to me. I am thankful that I know better than to make that particular request.

Happy Thanksgiving! This is my favorite holiday of the year (ok, I love Christmas too) because it's a time when I get together with my friends and prepare a delicious feast (always a good thing in my book), and look back over the past year and think about how lucky and grateful I am for everything I have in my life. So, without getting too mushy because I'm a big sap, I want to wish everyone out there a cozy, warm, and festive holiday.

If you're anything like me, you made way too much (or you are in the process of making way too much) for Thanksgiving. And in the days that follow, you will be looking for ways to not waste that delicious food you spent hours preparing.

When it comes to Thanksgiving leftovers, I'm always looking for something new and different. Something more than just reheating the turkey and stuffing and eating it again and again with cranberry sauce. I find that making it into a whole other dish, something that doesn't even resemble Thanksgiving, and adding spices that give it a new lease on life, gets me excited all over again.

Cheesy Turkey Quesadillas with Spinach and Mushrooms

Quesadillas are one of the yummiest ways, besides a frittata, to use up your leftovers. You can add all kinds of vegetables, like peppers, spinach, zucchini, or mushrooms and/or cooked meats like pork tenderloin, sliced steak, shredded chicken, or even bacon. Sandwiched together with gooey melted cheese, quesadillas are simple, quick, and deeeeeelicious. This recipe makes about 4 small quesadillas,

Small pat of butter
About 5 cremini mushrooms, sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
About 1/2 cup cooked chopped spinach, squeezed dry (I just dry saute fresh spinach in a pan)
Light olive oil or vegetable oil
8 small (about 4-5") corn tortillas
About 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack, pepper jack, cheddar or other mild cheese
About 1/2 cup shredded turkey
Guacamole, for serving
Salsa, for serving
Crema, sour cream, or yogurt, for serving

In a large frying pan, melt the butter, add the mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Saute until tender. Remove from the pan and add to the spinach; stir to combine. Lightly brush one side of 4 of the tortillas with oil and place oil-side-down into the frying pan (or use two pans if you can't comfortably fit all four tortillas in the pan without overlapping). Sprinkle the tortillas with half of the cheese, dividing it evenly between the four tortillas. Divide the spinach-mushroom mixture evenly between the tortillas, adding it in an even layer over the cheese. Divide the turkey evenly between the tortillas, adding it in an even layer over the spinach-mushroom mixture. Sprinkle the tortillas with the remaining half of the cheese, dividing it evenly between the four tortillas. Place the remaining four tortillas on top, and brush the tops lightly with oil.

Fry the tortillas over medium heat, turning once, until crisp and brown, and the cheese is melted. Serve, cut into quarters, with guacamole, salsa, and crema.

Turkey Pie

Who doesn't love a good pot pie? I mean, come on...have you ever had a homemade one? Well, maybe it's time. This is a really delicious way to use the rest of your turkey, or a roast chicken, or a bit of beef or lamb stew. Really, you could put any kind of stew in a pot pie, top it with pastry or biscuits or mashed potatoes and you'd be in heaven. Plus, this is the ultimate comfort food. This makes four or five individual pies.

4 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 small carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium leek, halved, cleaned, and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
1 cup shredded turkey
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
About 2 cups chicken stock
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup frozen baby peas
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups mashed potatoes (good way to use up leftovers!)

Preheat the oven to 400F. In a deep saute pan, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the carrot, leek, and thyme and saute just until tender, about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer to a bowl. Add the shredded turkey to the vegetables and set aside.

In the same pan, melt the remaining 3 Tablespoons butter. Add the flour and cook, stirring, until the mixture starts to brown. Slowly add the broth, whisking constantly, then the milk. Whisk until smooth and let simmer until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the wine, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce into the bowl with the turkey and vegetables. Add the peas, and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide the mixture between four or five 1-cup ramekins. Top with dollops of mashed potatoes and bake until the potatoes are golden on top and mixture is bubbling, about 25 minutes.

Spicy Yammy Bacon Soup

The amount of soup you make will depend upon what you have leftover from your feast. You can use yams, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, or any other winter squash, assuming you have one of those traditional side dishes on your Thanksgiving table. Granted, each of these will impart a slightly different flavor to the finished soup, but that's part of the fun. A word to the wise, if you are going to use these in a soup, and sweet Aunt Bea brought her yam surprise to the potluck, be sure to scrape those melted marshmallows off the top. This soup works best with simple roasted or pureed yams or winter squash that haven't been doused with loads of sugar.

The recipe that follows is based on one from Nigel Slater, one of my favorite British food writers. It is good for maybe 4 people, so double, triple, or quadruple it depending upon how many yams you have leftover. My own personal soup philosophy is that you can never make enough soup because it freezes really well and then you have yummy warm homemade soup one cold, rainy night when you are too tired to move.

2 slices bacon, chopped into small pieces
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
About 2 cups yam puree or other pureed winter squash (if it's not pureed, just stick it in your food processor and let 'er whirl)
About 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 cup whipping cream
Whipping cream, creme fraiche, or plain yogurt for drizzling
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, saute the bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper towel with a slotted spoon and discard all but 1 teaspoon of the fat. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Add the cumin, coriander, and red pepper flakes. Stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the yam puree, stock, and cream. Depending on how you prepared your yams to begin with, you might need more or less stock to thin the yams to soup consistency. Add the soup to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Pour back into the saucepan and heat gently over medium heat. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve in shallow bowls, drizzled with cream and sprinkled with bacon.

Amy Kaneko is a Bay Area resident now, but she spent time living in Japan and earlier this year she published her first book, Let's Cook Japanese Food! Her book details some of her favorite recipes for home-style Japanese cooking.

How is Japanese home cooking different from what's served in Japanese restaurants?
Here we get a lot of sushi, teriyaki, and tempura, the three stations of the Japanese food triangle, as per American tastes. But there are so many really fantastic things to eat--using really familiar cooking techniques, just with a little tweak--that are part of contemporary Japanese food and what people eat every day at home and in restaurants, take out, etc. in Japan, that I think Westerners would just love, things like croquettes, gratins, rice bowls, stir frys. They are not all super esoteric ingredients or completely devoid of fat and flavor, either. A meal of Japanese style fried chicken, a rice ball, spinach with sesame dressing, even potato salad is very Japanese and not what Westerners might expect people are eating in Japan.

You mentioned in your book that your husband brings certain ingredients back from Japan. What ingredients do you miss most now that you are living in the US?
1/2 fat mayonnaise! That is #1. In fact, I am panicking a little because my secret Thanksgiving dish (which I bring to any Thanksgiving event to which I am invited) is the kabocha (pumpkin) croquette in the book, and I need the mayo to make it. So I will need to suck it up and pay like $5 to get a small bottle to make the croquette for Thanksgiving this year, since we recently ran out. The other thing is packaged beef curry in vacuum bags. In Japantown you can buy vegetable curry but it is not a good brand. In Japan you can get fantastic prepared beef curry in a boil in bag thing, and it is extremely good. Don't tell the dogs at customs. And sansho, a kind of peppery spice but apparently it is illegal in the U.S. It is essential for eel dishes.
(note: Sansho is available in the US, I recently found it at Super Mira)

Where do you recommend shopping for Japanese ingredients in the Bay Area?
I am lucky that I live on the Peninsula and have two great markets nearby: Suruki in san Mateo on 4th St. and Nijiya (a chain, but good) on El Camino near 92 in San Mateo. There's also one in the city. Super Mira on Sutter in the city is also good. And 99 Ranch (all over) has a lot of the ingredients. Try the Japanese brand organic eggs at Suruki. They are unbelievable, with a golden yolk and great flavor. We eat them raw mixed into natto. Yum.

What is "yoshoku" cuisine?
Yoshoku is literally Western and basically refers to all the Westernized and borrowed dishes in Japanese cuisine, like curry rice, hayashi rice, gratins, doria, and so on. It is SO popular in Japan. Omu raisu (omelettes stuffed with rice), and wafu spaghetti are other examples. Japanese have take western cuisines and adapted them to their own tastes. Croquettes are from Netherlands, tempura is from Portugal, etc. Yoshoku is incredibly popular in Japan, and I have a lot of yoshoku (and chugoku (Chinese) ryori (cuisine) in the book.

What are the main ingredients cooks need to create authentic tasting Japanese food at home?
Soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), sake, sugar, and dashi (bonito fish stock). these are the core Japanese flavorings. And although dashi doesn't taste all that fishy and is fairly easy to find, I substituted chicken broth in a lot of my recipes and the taste was still OK. And rice! Very easy to get short/medium grain rice here. Cooking it, not so easy, unless you have a rice cooker or are patient.

What's your favorite dish in the book?
There are two, toriniku no kara age (fried chicken) and toriniku no amasu an (chicken meatballs with sweet sour sauce) But I am influenced a lot by what I can serve quickly to my two little girls that I am assured they will eat, and these are no-fail. To be honest, I eat every recipe in this book, so it is very personal--it is edited very specifically to my and my family's tastes!

Come back next week for a review of Amy Kaneko's book, Let's Cook Japanese Food!

The cost of an American Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people is $42.26, according to the American Farm Bureau. This is up $4.16 from last year, when the cost was $38.10.

In 1986, the Farm Bureau invented a "survey menu" based on what the typical American eats for Thanksgiving, and then every year they send out volunteer shoppers to purchase these items to get the average.

While the cost of the Thanksgiving dinner has increased in real dollars, it has actually gone down from 1986 when factoring in inflation.

The AFB menu breakdown of costs is as follows:

16-pound turkey ........... $17.63
Cube stuffing, 14 oz. ........... $2.40
Pumpkin pie mix, 30 oz. ............ $2.13
Pie shells (2) ........... $2.08
Sweet potatoes, 3 lbs. ........... $3.08
Rolls, 12 ........... $1.89
Green peas, 1 lb. ........... $1.46
1 pound relish tray ........... $.66
Milk, 1 gallon ........... $3.88
Fresh cranberries, 12 oz. ........... $2.20
Cream, 1/2 pint ........... $1.56
Misc ingredients ........... $3.29

For more information, read the American Farm Bureau press release.

Photo from stock. Used with permission.