Thanksgiving side dishes (or the supporting cast)

Recipes: Cauliflower sformato, Candied sweet potatoes, Cranberry sauce

I have a dirty little secret. Turkey is not my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, I roast one every year. I LOVE day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches, but the Big Bird on the day itself? Not so much. The part of Thanksgiving dinner that I crave, and over-indulge in year after year, is the support stuff - the side dishes. Yum. Every family has their traditional side dishes - for some it's mashed potatoes and green beans with those canned fried onions, for some it's sweet potatoes with baby marshmallows (I can't do that, sorry), for most the list includes cranberry sauce in one form or another. Here are a few of the side dishes that have become traditions on my Thanksgiving table.

If you'll be cooking for just the two of you this year, the amounts I'm giving in these recipes will work just fine. You may have leftovers, but it won't be overwhelming and that's what Thanksgiving is all about anyway - gratitude for the bounty in our lives. If there will be twenty instead of two around your Thanksgiving table, all the better. My advice is to add dishes, not quantities. Perhaps you'll find room for one or all of these.

Cauliflower Sformato

A sformato is a vegetable pie in Italian. This is an adaptation of a recipe from Marcella Hazan, and it's one of my very favorite ways to cook cauliflower. It's unusual, absolutely delicious, and healthy too! Marcella was one of my cooking heroes. She died only a few weeks ago at the age of 89, and I will be thankful to her for many good recipes and much delicious food as I'm making her Cauliflower Sformato for our Thanksgiving feast.

• 1 medium cauliflower
• 3 tablespoons butter plus butter for smearing the baking dish
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup whole milk (not skim)
• 2 large eggs
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus a couple of tablespoons for sprinkling
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Trim away most of the cauliflower's outer leaves, keeping just the layer of tender leaves close to the head. Cut off a thin slice from the stem end and cut a cross into the root. Wash the cauliflower in cold water. Bring to a boil enough water to amply cover it and drop in the cauliflower. Cook about 20 minutes. Drain when it feels tender but firm when prodded with a fork.

When the cauliflower is cool enough to handle, cut it into small pieces, the root end into smaller pieces than the rest.

In a skillet that is large enough to eventually hold all the cauliflower pieces in one layer, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Add the cauliflower pieces and turn them over for a minute or two to coat all the pieces well. Transfer the cauliflower to a bowl and set it aside to cool.

Make a bechamel sauce. First, heat the milk in the microwave, or in a saucepan, until it is just short of boiling. Be sure to watch it, as it can boil over easily. Then in a separate heavy saucepan, melt one tablespoon of the butter. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a small whisk. Add the hot milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly as you do. When you have added half the hot milk in small increments, add the remaining half all at once, stirring steadily. Cook over low heat until the sauce is the density of thick cream. Turn off the heat.

Break the eggs into a separate bowl and beat them lightly with a fork.

Put all but 3 or 4 tablespoons of the bechamel into the bowl with the cold cauliflower. Add the beaten eggs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, liberal grindings of black pepper, the grated nutmeg, and 2/3 cup grated Parmesan. Turn over all ingredients thoroughly with a large spoon.

Thinly smear the inside of a baking dish (like a deep dish pie plate) with butter. Empty the contents of the bowl with the cauliflower pieces into it, leveling them off with a spatula. Spread the remaining 3 or 4 tablespoons of bechamel over the top, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan and a very light sprinkling of cayenne pepper.

Bake in the preheated oven until a light golden crust forms on top, about 30 minutes. Let it settle for several minutes after removing it from the oven. Serve lukewarm.

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Another little secret of mine - I am pretty crazy about the outrageously rich and decadent recipes in a book called Louisiana Kitchen by Paul Prudhomme. I almost always have to alter these recipes because they're either flaming hot, as in too spicy for this white girl, or they use an entire pound of butter, or they have so many ingredients and so many steps that they are impractical for the amount of time I have available. But the food is invariably and astonishingly delicious, and they are authentic Cajun/Creole. So I make them sparingly, for special occasions. Like Thanksgiving.

These sweet potatoes from Paul Prudhomme are truly sweet, and they'll be some of the best you've ever had. I usually make them with garnet yams - they're the ones with the deep orange flesh. It's a simple dish to make, so enjoy. It will be the perfect amount for two. In this case, if you are cooking for a crowd you should at least double the recipe. Everyone will want some.

• 2 medium-size garnet yams, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 to 2-inch chunks
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided use
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Juice and grated rind from 1/8 lemon

In a medium saucepan, combine the yams, water, sugars, 2 tablespoons of the butter, the vanilla, and the lemon juice and rind. Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Uncover the pan and cook until the yams are fork tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, stirring until completely melted. Cook uncovered until the sauce is thick, about 2 minutes more. You're done. Don't eat it all by yourself.

Cranberry Sauce

This recipe came right off the cranberry package - you know, the plastic bag with fresh or frozen cranberries that you see in piles in the supermarket just before Thanksgiving. It's simple and makes better cranberry sauce than any you can get in a can. Unless you're addicted to jellied cranberry sauce in slices - then I can't help you.

• 1 bag cranberries
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• walnuts (optional)

Put cranberries, water, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil and cook, stirring to dissolve the sugar, over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the cranberries start to pop.

Let cool a few minutes in the pan, then pour the cranberries and syrup into the bowl you intend to serve it in. I like to add a couple handsful of walnut pieces at this point. You don't have to; it's your choice.

Let the cranberry sauce cool thoroughly (it will jell as it cools), and then refrigerate it, covered with plastic wrap, until Turkey Day.