Lasagna is making its way onto many a holiday table. Increasingly, it's a standard at Thanksgiving in the U.S. However, just because it's a standard, doesn't mean you have to use a standard recipe. Try this recipe for matzo lasagna. It's another spin on lasagna—a kosher spin.  

Ingredients

1. Six pieces of matzo
2. Two eggs
3. 18 0z or one container of ricotta cheese
4. Spinach (optional)
5. One teaspoon of salt
6. One teaspoon of pepper

Click this link for recipe instructions 

Ready to take a walk on the wild side this Thanksgiving.  Ready to shun the usual light brown glaze of your turkey in favor of a blackened one. They say the darker the turkey the juicier the meat. Okay, I made that up, however;  prepared properly, Epicurious says, " This gorgeous bird emerges from the oven nearly black and very deeply flavored."  Make mole part of your Thanksgiving Day celebration, adding a little Mexican flair to your Thanksgiving menu with this Mole-roasted turkey with chile gravy. 

A wave of Portuguese came to Hawaii in the late 1800s to work the sugarcane fields, and over time their cooking traditions fused with those of other cultures in the islands, including Chinese and Japanese.

In a spin on the familiar Thanksgiving sausage and bread dressing, this version uses linguica (Portuguese sausage), a common ingredient in Hawaii.

Just the thought of a double layer pumpkin cheesecake screams heaven! This delicious recipe comes from the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. Although its not actually fat-free, this vegan holiday recipe is flawless.  If you want it to taste more pumpkiny, just add an additional ¼ cup of pumpkin puree.

Use this vegan gravy recipe as a substitute in your bisquits-‘n’-gravy meal, or for any other dish that calls for a gravy – Thanksgiving stuffing, Salisbury “Steak”, Vegan meatloaf or even with veggie burgers. It can also be used as a supplement or even substitute for meat gravies.

Boxed Cake doesn't have to be a dirty word, there a few things you can do to give it that homemade flavor.  Flour to taste is something you will have learn to feel out.  Add either a quarter cup or half cup of flour to you boxed cake recipe.  A quarter cup of oil or one of the packaged cup of apple sauce will help with balancing moisture.

Vegetarianism is a long-established practice in England -- in fact, the oldest vegetarian society in the world was founded here in 1847. For vegetarians, the nut roast is as much a part of traditional English cuisine as roast beef is for carnivores.-Laura Brown (Icons.org.uk)

A vegetarian or vegan menu option could potentially cut the holiday calories in half, while pleasing non-meat and dairy eaters.  Every holiday serves up traditional dishes such as turkey, ham, roast or anything dairy-based.  An alternative holiday dinner offers the opportunity to tweak old traditions while creating new ones. 

Mulled wine, (Gluhwein), is a popular Christmas drink in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. It contains red wine, fruit, cloves and cinnamon and is served hot by street vendors at Christmas Fairs, (Weihnachtmarkt). It is also sold during the ski season on the slopes of many European resorts. 

Depending on where you are from the term stuffing and dressing can be used interchangeably. No matter what you all its; its yummy

INGREDIENTS

• 4 sweet plantains
• 1/4 pound of pork meat with fat or bacon, cut into 1/4 inch squares
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, mashed
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 3 cups chicken broth
• salt and pepper to taste

Let’s face it, some of the best recipes are stumbled upon and that is exactly what happened in the creation of this cranberry sauce recipe one Thanksgiving.  As I prepared my traditional recipe while cooking at my cousinn’s home I saw an opened bottle of White Zinfandel by the stove and I imagined the possibilities.  The feedback from everyone at dinner proved to be tremendously favorable. - by Crystal Johnson

 

The success of the stuffing utterly depends upon the homemade cornbread. Luckily, it’s easy and may be made a day or two ahead. Spanish chorizo is cured and ready to eat, as opposed to Mexican chorizo, which is fresh and must be cooked. Failing to find Spanish chorizo at our supermarket, we used Niman Ranch fully cooked chorizo from the refrigerator case. It’s not authentic to either country, but because it is such a lean, high quality product, it worked wonderfully—probably better than the real thing! If using a product like this, there’s no need to remove the casing.

While Americans usually feature Egg Nog as a holiday drink, in Trinidad and Tobago there are several beverages that are consumed during the Christmas season. Among them is sorrel, puncha cream and ginger beer. My favorite is ginger beer because I love ginger — it aids in digestion. It also reminds me of the variation of the drink that I grew up with in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The ginger would steep for at least one day so the output was quite a pungent drink that had quite a punch!  - by Jeneba Ghatt

Family, food, and travels are synonymous with the holiday season. As leaves begin to change colors and winter coats make their way out of the back of the closet, visions of pumpkin pies, turkeys, and sorrel fill our dreams. Did I lose you somewhere? If you’re a lover of Caribbean cuisine I didn’t. Sorrel is a drink that is a holiday favorite in the Caribbean and many American homes.

After much deliberation, I have chosen to give in to naming this recipe “Love at First Pie”. One day I was walking by with this golden pie in hand and noticed someone was following me.  I turned around.  He was sort of cute and he asked, “What do you have there?” Perplexed by this moment I simply answered, “Eggnog custard pie”. With hearts in our eyes, it would become

Show Producer Fatima Fofana hails from Sierra Leone.  We have known each other so long that we have grown up together having been roommates in college.   One of the best things for me culturally as far as the world of food was having a roommate from Guyana and West Africa.  There in our humble apartment in Baltimore, I watched her cook Cassava leaf stew.  The Cassava leaf soup is also very popular in Liberia but the recipe differs a bit.  Cassava leaf stew is a wonderful dish to consider preparing for the holidays.- Crystal Johnson, MCCN Editor

 

A popular expression is, ” as American as apple pie.”  However, if one wants to become more specific about the African American cultural group then it might be fair to say, “as African American as sweet potato pie.”  I have quite a few African American friends who do not like the pie but truthfully most that I know love it.  My family has a multi-generational recipe that I am not allowed to give out or punishable by death by my mother.  Tough luck getting Southerners of the U.S.A to give up family secrets.

This is a great alternative to marshmallow topped sweet potatoes. Cutting the sweet potatoes into slices of even thickness is important in getting them to cook at the same rate. A potato masher will yield slightly lumpy sweet potatoes; a food mill will make a perfectly smooth puree.  You can also skip the cookie topping and just serve the sweet potatoes on their own.