The Most Delicious, Yet Easy-to-Make, Thanksgiving Side Dishes!

The Holiday season has come upon us again! Although this magical time feels a bit different this year, we can still make Thanksgiving dishes just as special. I decided to prepare a series of Thanksgiving dinners starring some of my favorite sides before the actual day to celebrate my love of Thanksgiving food. Why should we eat signature holiday dishes just one day a year? My festive recipes are simple to make, but still so heavenly to eat. My first Thanksgiving dinner headlines my mom's Orange Cranberry Sauce, Sharp Cheddar & Scallion Corn Bread Stuffing, and an exquisite Radicchio/Endive salad. The combination of the three is sinfully scrumptious and the perfect pre-game culinary prelude to the ultimate Thanksgiving feast.

My mom's Orange Cranberry Sauce is like no other Cranberry Sauce I have ever tasted. The sauce is fruity, zesty, tart, yet also sweet, and has a gorgeous fragrant aroma of the holidays. To start, put 1 cup of water and 1 cup of white granulated sugar in a medium sized pot and boil until the sugar is dissolved. Then add a package of fresh cranberries and lower the temperature slightly. Once completed, squeeze the juice of 1 orange and place the peel of another orange in the cranberries and turn up the temperature to a medium/high boil. Boil the Orange Cranberry Sauce for 10 minutes and stir every couple minutes. While your sauce cooks slice another whole orange and place to the side. After 10 minutes the Orange Cranberry Sauce should thicken significantly and radiate a lovely, fruity smell. Let the sauce cool in the pot and then add the sauce to a large bowl with the uncooked orange slices and refrigerate until cool. One of my absolute favorite qualities of this Orange Cranberry Sauce is that the fresh orange juice, peels, and slices become infused with the cranberries, giving the dish a beautiful orange and zesty flavor. If you love Cranberry Sauce and are an orange fan, then this dish will stand out amongst any other Cranberry Sauce you have had.

Stuffing may be one of the most classic Thanksgiving dishes. A stuffing, also known as dressing, is a uniquely genius dish because you can literally add any of your most beloved ingredients to bread and who doesn't love that? For my stuffing I used a Cornbread Stuffing mix, but you are welcome to make or buy fresh Cornbread. If you make the Cornbread leave it out for two and half days so that it becomes hard. For this mouth-watering stuffing start by roughly cutting 1/2 an onion, 1/2 cup of scallions, and 1/2 cup of sharp cheddar cheese. Preheat your oven to 350 degree and get cooking! In a large skillet over medium heat melt butter (or olive oil) and add your chopped onions. Stir for 7 minutes and add garlic powder, thyme, pepper, red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt. Once your onions are slightly browned put 2 cups of chicken broth in the skillet. You are welcome to use vegetable broth to make the dish vegetarian friendly, but I believe the chicken broth gives the stuffing a fuller and robust flavor. Bring the broth to a boil and then in a large bowl mix the Cornbread, broth, cheddar, and scallions, combining all the ingredients well with a fork. Spread the Cornbread mixture in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover the dish completely with foil and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes until the top is a beautiful golden brown. This stuffing is the perfect blend of crispy, creamy, and savory flavors. The stuffing has enticing pockets of cheese scattered everywhere and is completely addictive! I like to add a dash or two of hot sauce to give it a nice little kick, but you are welcome to serve it as you like.

When it comes to any Thanksgiving meal I like to have at least one vegetable or salad. I have typically found though that the salad is rarely touched amongst all the other tasty and fan favorite dishes that make up a Thanksgiving spread. However, this Radicchio/Endive salad that has blue cheese and tomato is a show stopping dish that can compete with any other side dish. Not only is the salad stunning to look at, but the pungent creamy taste and texture of the blue cheese alongside the acidity of the tomato and slight bitter flavors of the endive and radicchio is magnificent to eat. I made a maple mustard vinaigrette for this salad, but you are welcome to substitute any dressing. You can also add bacon bits and have a creative play on a wedge salad if you would like! For this salad, place radicchio and endive leaves in a flower shape on a plate or large bow. Then arrange 1/2 of a tomato (roughly diced) and 1/3 cup blue cheese and place within the cups of the vegetables. The salad's appearance evokes the essence of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting and will become the talk of the dinner table!