Soul Gastrolounge, 1500 Central Ave. on the corner of Central and Pecan (upstairs), will be open on Thanksgiving from 5 p.m. until 2 a.m. The menu includes hot sage sausage and brioche stuffing cubes; sour cream whipped potato croquettes with giblet gravy; turkey and provolone panini with cranberry aioli; fried mushrooms on creamy shaved Brussel sprout ragout; and tempura fried green beans and onions with porcini mushroom cream. $6 to $8. 704-348-1848.

The Morehead Inn in Dilworth, The VanLandingham Estate in Plaza-Midwood, and their Good Gracious! Events catering arm has Thanksgiving “To Go” again this year. The menu includes roasted turkey with giblet gravy and cranberry apple chutney; beef tenderloin; honey ham; broccoli and cheese casserole; oyster stuffing; pecan pie; pumpkin pie; and chocolate cake. To order visit or call: www.moreheadinn.com or 704-376-3357; www.vanlandinghamestate.com or 704-334-8909; or www.goodgracious.net or 704-375-3919. Items may be ordered through Monday, Nov. 23 and picked up Monday through Wednesday, from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Harper’s Southpark and Harper´s To GoGo, 6518 Fairview Road, have complete Thanksgiving dinners to go. Orders must be placed by Monday, Nov. 23rd, and picked up Tuesday, Nov. 24 from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. or Wednesday, Nov. 25, 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. 704-366-6612.

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Upstream’s First Annual Oyster Bash will go down on Friday, Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Oysters include Old Salt (one of my favorites) from the Chincoteague, Blue Point from the east coast, and Kumamoto from the west. Paired with the oysters are wines and champagne. A portion of the proceeds from the evening will be donated to Share Our Strength, the national organization that is fighting to end childhood hunger by 2015. $75 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity. 6902 Phillips Place. Reservations: 704-556-7730.

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Where do the recipes on the back of cans of beans, boxes of cereal, bags of candy, jars of jam and other packaged foods come from? And more importantly, are they any good?

I figure they’ve got to be some of the best of the best recipes if they are worthy to be printed on every single container and were chosen by the corporate food gods, or test kitchens, if they have one, to best showcase the ingredient being sold.

Well, I’ll test out those recipes for you as part of a new Eat My Charlotte series: “Back of the Box.”

The first Back of the Box (or Bag, in this case) recipe to test: Hershey’s Kisses: Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies.

I forgot how good these classic peanut butter and chocolate cookies are. Warm out of the oven, the peanut butter cookie is soft and the chocolate is melty (not fully melted, but not hard either).

Making them is a cinch: Make the dough, roll the dough into balls, roll the balls into sugar, bake. The fun part is mushing the Hershey’s Kisses into the cookie balls when they come out of the oven.

I’d say this recipe is pretty darn good. There are a lot of impostor recipes out there, but I have absolutely no complaints with this one, so it’s a winner. The cookies even stay soft and yummy on the second day.

Delightfully Delicious Hershey’s Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms

48 Hershey’s Kisses Milk Chocolates
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Granulated sugar

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl. Add 1/2 cup granulated and brown sugar, beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk, vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat into mixure.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Back 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press at Kisses Chocolate into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

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Eat Here Now, 2016 Ayrsley Town Boulevard, has a Thanksgiving meal for six people for $49.99 plus sales tax. Dinner includes 2 pounds of sliced turkey, 2 pounds of homemade dressing, 8 ounces of turkey gravy, cranberry sauce, 3 quarts of a side item and rolls or cornbread. Sides include green beans, corn, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and new potatoes. Pecan, chocolate pecan, pumpkin or sweet potato pies are $7.99. Dinners may be picked up from 8 a.m. until noon on Thanksgiving Day: 704-499-9999 or www.eatherenownc.com.

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We’re asking executive chefs at local restaurants what dishes they’ll have on their Thanksgiving menu … at home.

Executive Chef Adam Long of Big Daddy’s Burger Bar in Ballantyne shares his kicked-up, Americana-style/untraditional Thanksgiving day menu with us. On his turkey-day table will be:

Fried turkey with a peanut butter dressing injection
Cornbread stuffing
Mashed potatoes with giblet gravy
Green bean casserole
Collard greens
And for dessert … Tequila

Mmmm … Not sure what sounds better: The fried turkey with peanut butter dressing injection … or the tequila dessert!

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The “sexy pilgrims” of PETA …

… descended on Uptown Charlotte today, handing out “Tofurkies” …

… to promote the joy of a meat-less Thanksgiving. Here’s what Kristina Addington, campaign coordinator for PETA, had to say about today’s effort:

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This just in from the folks at 131 Main:

131 Main in Dilworth Now Taking Cornbread & Coffee and Boxed Lunch Orders

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Nov. 19, 2009 – If you’re looking for the perfect mid-morning snack or a delicious boxed lunch delivered right to your home or office, then 131 Main Restaurant in Dilworth is here to help.

The award-winning restaurant, located at 1315 East Blvd, is now delivering cornbread and coffee and boxed lunch specials.

“Our cornbread appetizer is a huge hit with our customers, so we’ve launched our Cornbread and Coffee promotion,” John Perkinson, General Manager of 131 Main in Dilworth. “We will now deliver 131 Main’s cornbread with Royal Cup’s Caffe Sumatra coffee,” Perkinson said. “With our special cornbread recipe and Royal Cup’s rich coffee, our customers now have the perfect mid-morning snack.”

The Box Lunch menu offers the restaurant’s Double Dip as a starter, three different salads and four signature sandwiches all served with hand-cut potato chips, an apple and homemade brownie.

“Because our Dilworth location is a popular lunch destination, we’ve decided to offer delicious lunch specials to those who can’t break for lunch because of a busy work schedule,” Perkinson said. “The goal is to offer the same quality 131 Main food to our customers who unable join us at our East Boulevard location.”

Both cornbread and coffee and boxed lunches are also available for pick up. For more information about cornbread and coffee or the boxed lunch specials, please visit www.131-main.com/dilworth.html or call 704.343.0131.

About 131 Main Restaurants

131 Main is an upscale casual dining restaurant serving updated American classics with an emphasis on fresh food. Its relaxed ambience, reasonably priced menu and extensive wine list have made 131 Main the ideal place for a business lunch, a quiet evening out, drinks with friends, or dinner with the family. 131 Main has four locations – Cornelius (Lake Norman), Charlotte (Blakeney and Dilworth), and Asheville. A fifth location is scheduled to open in early 2010 in Raleigh. Captiva Restaurant Group, formed in 2004, founded, owns and operates 131 Main. Based in Cornelius, NC, Captiva Restaurant Group was founded by its three principals: Joe Douglas (CEO), Michael Vaughn (COO), and Chris Carlsen (CFO).

For more information, visit www.131-main.com.

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Now that it’s cooler outside, my ice cream maker is working so much better. It has finally decided to cooperate. During the hot summer months, I could churn and churn without results because the frozen canister would defrost so quickly in the 80 degree weather. Now, it works like a charm – I can get ice cream in 20 minutes. Luckily, I appreciate ice cream year ’round, so eating massive amounts of ice cream now makes me just as happy as eating it during the summer.

So now I’ve started churning out batch after batch of ice cream. The most current flavor is pumpkin pie ice cream with molasses cookie crumbles.

As you can see, this ice cream makes for great ginger molasses and pumpkin pie ice cream sandwiches. For the cookies, follow this recipe.

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 egg yolks
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 splash bourbon
A handful of gingersnap crumbs or ginger molasses cookie crumbs.

Directions:
1. Heat the cream, milk, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a sauce pan until it almost boils, about 5 minutes.
2. Reduce the heat to low.
3. Add one tablespoon of the cream mixture to the egg to temper it.
4. Add the egg to the sauce pan.
5. Cook at low heat without boiling, until it is slightly thickened and coats the back of a spoon.
6. Strain mixture with a sieve to remove clumps.
7. Add pumpkin puree and stir.
8. Chill the mixture in the fridge.
9. Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine. (Add crumbs when the ice cream begins to become the texture of soft serve.)

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We’re asking executive chefs at local restaurants what dishes they’ll have on their Thanksgiving menu … at home.

Owner and Executive Chef of Barrington’s Restaurant Bruce Moffett started his Thanksgiving tradition about five years ago.  Each Thanksgiving, he invites all his friends (which includes employees) to his house.  Let’s hope he has a big table because he expects as many as 30 people at this year’s feast!

His friend Mike, chef at Caramel Country Club, is in charge of the turkeys (note the plural) and gravy. Moffett is in charge of the mashed potatoes and dressing (his trick is to use lots of sage and a little Italian sausage). In addition to that, there is a huge variety of dining options because the rest is potluck-style with each guest bringing a dish that represents a tradition in their house growing up. What a great idea.

It’s not all about the food though … there’s lots to drink too. His guests will start with a glass of champagne, and as the night progresses, Moffett usually breaks into his wine collection. There’s no holding back here, sometimes he gets carried away and opens some pricey bottles.

Sounds like a royal feast at the Moffett residence, no? I’d expect nothing less from the executive chef of a top-rated ZAGAT restaurant, I guess.

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We’re asking executive chefs at local restaurants what dishes they’ll have on their Thanksgiving menu … at home.

Scott Wallen, executive chef at Upstream, will be cooking at the restaurant as well as home this year, with help from local chef at Mama Ricottas Tom Dyrness. So far, his Thanksgiving menu includes a cider brined turkey with ginger braised white sweet potatoes, chestnut and duck sausage stuffing, cranberries with tangerine and there are more dishes to come.

Ooooo. Scott, where do you live? I am coming over!

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