Thanksgiving: No Knead Bread rising to new heights and "Oh, the squash is IN the mac and cheese?!?"

Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday after my birthday, which is not yet recognized by the federal government, so I guess Thanksgiving is my favorite bank holiday. The getting together with family, the celebration of all that we have to be grateful for, the food... We should have Thanksgiving every month, I think.

This year, we went to my sister-in-law's house in the wilds of the exurbs, Cumming, Georgia, a place where people only choose to live if they either work somewhat north of Atlanta or value shoddily constructed megasubdivisions more than hours that could be spent with their families instead of in the car. I imagine there are also some folks who have lived there since the pre-sprawl era when it was actually a separate town, but every time we make it up there there's another strip mall, so I imagine the rows of corn and the livestock will be replaced by Starbucks and 5,000 square foot homes "From the high 300s" soon enough.

My in-laws are in the former category, happily, and their home, though it looks pretty much the same as all the others on the street, is really quite lovely. Not lovely enough to convince me that in-town living isn't the way to go, but it's certainly a better venue for Thanksgiving for 15 than our "cozy" 1,200 square foot, 1 bathroom place.

I "helpfully" volunteered Alton Brown's turkey how-to from the 2003 Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit which last year yielded the most delicious, juicy turkey I've ever eaten. Happily, my sister-in-law, who at age 32 had to consult Dr. Google to find out what the "self-clean" function on her oven did, accepted the gospel and ran with it. Down to even accepting the difficult verse: "Stuffing is evil!" Much to the chagrin of a few in the kitchen, but to the delight of my, and soon the other guests', taste buds. It was truly a beautiful bird. The other side dishes were also deliciously and competently prepared from terrific recipes. We'll turn sister-in-law into Martha Stewart yet. :)

Sadly, this was my first Thanksgiving of all time without mashed potatoes, but the carbohydrates that I provided more than made up for that oversight. I think I can forgive her.

So, my contributions. La belle mangeuse and I have been obsessed with No Knead Bread, a genre of recipes tweaked in the last year after Mark Bittman introduced the world to the secret of making great bread at home over a year ago in his New York Times column. Its creator insisted that it is so easy to make a 4-year-old could do it, and Jaden over at SteamyKitchen.com proved it recently. So, I knew that this bread needed to grace the Thanksgiving table this year, and, intriguingly, the folks over at America's Test Kitchen had been toying with the recipe and put their "best" version of it in the January/February issue of Cook's Illustrated that arrived in my mailbox on Tuesday. Given my obsession with both the bread and the Test Kitchen, I knew I had to try it even though they did add a brief kneading step and some additional ingredients. For Thanksgiving and delicious bread, I can knead it 10 times. And any excuse to buy beer is a good one in my book. I adjusted their recipe slightly, but the basics are the same.

Nearly No-Knead Bread

Makes 1 large round loaf (two were plenty for 14 folks)

3 c bread flour

1/4 t instant dry yeast (the "Rapid Rise" kind)

1 1/2 t kosher salt or sea salt

3/4 c plus 2 T water (that's 7 ounces)

1/4 c plus 2 T mild-flavored lager (I used Amstel Light)

1 T white vinegar

For whole wheat variation: Replace 1 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour and add 2 T of honey.

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until a shaggy, messy dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap. At this point, I advocate drinking the 9 ounces of beer that you have left. Let the bread sit on your counter for 8 to 18 hours. The blue bowl is white and the green one is wheat just after being mixed.

2. Put a piece of parchment paper inside a 10 inch skillet and spray the paper lightly with oil. Flour your work surface (I like to use a big tray instead of the counter because it's easier to clean up), wet your hands and dump the dough out on the work area. Knead 10 times, rewetting your hands if necessary. By "knead" I mean to smush the bread with the heels of your hands, then fold it over on itself to get it back to its original size. Kneading helps to develop the gluten, long stringy chains of goo that will make the bread chewy. While part of the appeal of this bread is the no kneading aspect, 10 times didn't even make me break a sweat. I can handle this. Pull the edges of the dough into the middle to form a ball and lay it seam-side-down on the parchment paper. Lightly spray the top of the bread with oil and cover it loosely with plastic wrap for a two-hour nap on the counter.

3. With about 30 minutes left in the dough's beauty nap, adjust the oven rack to its lowest position, put in a large oven-safe pot with a lid and preheat the oven to 500. I use my 8 quart stainless pot. In a pinch (when baking 2 loaves at once), I've used my 3 quart casserole and it worked fine, though all the recipes say to use a bigger pot. If you're lucky enough to have a beautiful enameled dutch oven (which I don't), that would be just perfect too.

4. When it's time to wake the dough, remove the plastic wrap, lightly flour the top of the dough, spray a sharp knife with oil and make a 6 inch long, 1/2 inch deep slit in the surface of the dough. Carefully remove the screaming hot pot from the oven and, using the parchment paper as a sling, put the dough in the pot and cover it. You should hear sizzling when the dough hits the pan. Mmmm...crusty. Return the pot to the oven and reduce the heat to 425. Bake covered for 30 minutes.

5. Remove the lid and bake uncovered for another 20-30 minutes until the crust is deep brown and the internal temperature of the bread reaches 210. I usually go by look and sound (the dough will sound like a hollow drum when you tap on it), but it's a good idea to use a thermometer if you're baking more than one loaf at a time. When I made the T-day bread, it was only to about 204 after 30 minutes uncovered, so I baked it an additional few minutes until it reached the proper temp. Carefully remove from the oven, and place the bread on a wire rack to cool for at least 10 minutes before you slice it.

The verdict? I think the small amount of kneading and the beer is worth it. It's just as easy as the truly no-knead recipes, and it tastes even better. That there is a beautiful loaf of bread.

My second contribution was butternut squash macaroni and cheese, a recipe that is widely renowned among a group of imaginary internet friends of mine that I adapted and, I think, took to new heights yesterday.

When I told my sister-in-law I was making butternut squash mac 'n' cheese, she assumed that it was 2 separate dishes, despite the fact that she knows I have a superior command of punctuation. It's not. And despite the Boy's protestations over my adulteration of macaroni and cheese with a vegetable, it is one dish full of cheesy, savory deliciousness that ultimately won him over. Mac 'n' cheese for grown-ups, though the kids really liked it too. Everyone wanted the recipe, and I, unfortunately, forgot to take a photo before it was almost entirely devoured (and then we ate the small amount that was left for breakfast this morning). I'm thinking of trying this with canned pumpkin in place of the squash to see if it could be a reasonable weeknight creation.

Ms. Saveur's Yes, the Squash Is in the Mac 'n' Cheese

Makes a very full 13" x 9" dish: can be halved successfully, but it makes really wonderful leftovers so why bother?

1 large butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeded

1 lb gruyere, shredded (about 4 cups)

1 lb macaroni of your choice (I used cavatappi, which are like little 1-inch spirals. The traditional elbow would be just fine, but Your Dekalb Farmer's Market didn't have any. I liked the grown-upness of the cavatappi.)

Nonstick spray (I use grapeseed oil in a pump-action mister)

1/4 c butter (1/2 stick) plus 2 T for the topping

1/2 c flour

2 c milk

1 T dijon mustard

1 3/4 c chicken or vegetable stock

1 c breadcrumbs (I threw 1 big wheat sandwich roll we had in the bread box into the food processor, and it yielded slightly more than a cup of crumbs. I used all of it, and I think that the fresh crumbs were superior to packaged ones. No need to toast first because the topping gets browned under the broiler at the end.)

salt

pepper

cayenne

nutmeg

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Spray the squash and a rimmed baking sheet with oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg, and place the squash cut-side-down on the sheet. Roast for 50-60 minutes until it looks pretty squishy and the skin wrinkles up. Set aside.

2. Cook the macaroni according to the package directions in heavily salted water. The water should taste flavored, but not salty. This is probably a lot more salt than you usually put in your pasta water, but your macaroni are going to suck up this water: you want it to taste good. Disclosure: I usually put in a good shake of bouillon to flavor the pasta water. It makes a big difference in the flavor of the pasta. In a good way. Drain the macaroni, and set it aside.

3. Peel the skin off the squash and mash it with salt, pepper and another pinch of nutmeg.

4. Melt 1/4 c butter in a large saucepan and slowly stir in 1/2 c flour to form a paste. Off heat, SLOWLY whisk in 2 cups of milk. Return to medium low heat until the sauce fully blends and thickens. SLOWLY whisk in the mashed squash, wait for sauce to thicken again. Add mustard and a large pinch each of salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne. Stir in 3 cups of cheese (set aside 1 cup for the topping) and 1 3/4 cups of stock, alternating cheese and stock by cupfuls. Stir slowly and taste sauce frequently until it warms up and the cheese melts smoothly. Adjust seasonings -- it should taste slightly spicier than you want the finished dish to taste because the spice will get diffused when you combine with the macaroni.

5. Combine pasta and cheese sauce in a large bowl, toss to coat evenly. Transfer mixture to an oven-safe dish. Mix remaining cup of cheese with 2 T melted butter and breadcrumbs to form topping. Sprinkle mixture evenly over the macaroni. Place macaroni under a low broiler until topping is nicely browned - about 2-4 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Notes on traveling with this dish: Don't broil before you leave the house if your destination will have an oven. Cover the dish with foil and a lid (if your baking dish has one). Warm the dish covered with foil for 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven (we just stuck it in there with the dressing), then remove the foil and broil for a few minutes to brown the topping.