pinkhairthing

Dear Pinky,

I recently read, and became intimidated by, this amazing dinner menu on your blog.

Look, I know thanksgiving is traditional and all, but, oh boy..man! should I be making something fancier for my Thanksgiving dinner?

what the hell is potatoes dauphinoise? what gives Mexican chocolate cake it's mexicanness? what is Swiss chard and why would someone just want to grill the stems? do they have heads?

sincerely,

-The Philistine Chef

Dear Phil,
Thanksgiving is a wonderful fantasy of tradition, and far be it from me or any of us here at pinkhairthing to try to change that. I once made an extremely costly and fancy squash goat cheese something with walnut oil and raspberry vinaigrette and everything else and it sucked. People want stuffing and canned gelatinous cranberry goo, and I think that is great. The dinner I would serve to these fabulous yet mostly dead guests is also a fantasy. I just want to eat that stuff, and I would figure out how to cook it. But I do know what it is, and here goes:

the potatoes are very much like potatoes au gratin, or scallopped potatoes, just a big, baked, butterry, cheesy dish of wonderfulness. great with steak
mexican chocolate has notes of cinnamon and chili, so does the cake.
grilled swiss chard stems is something I had at al di la. swiss chard is sort of like kale or spinach, fibrous stems and dark green leaves. the grilling breaks them down a bit, and they get all wilty and olive oily and lemony and garlicky and divine. to my knowledge, they do not have heads, although if they did, and someone wanted to grill them, I would probably eat it.

I know it can be intimidating to spend too much time around me. I tend to give people deep feelings of inadequacy as a result of my splendour. Due to my compassion for my friends, however, I have undertaken a new initiative to have a home that is an enormous mess and be a quivering pile of emotions for a while, so no one will feel too bad. I am also trying to gain weight and have really bad hair. So far, the initiative has been a huge success. Thank you for your letter!
Best regards,
Pinky