Today in the Kitchen: Spritz up Thanksgiving with something new

As Thanksgiving approaches, we start to have hankerings for golden roast turkey, cranberry relish, savory stuffing. It’s nice once in a while to introduce something new.

Here are some ideas, followed by wine suggestions:

Appetizer: endive leaves with blue cheese and pomegranate seeds.

Separate the endive leaves from the head, wash and dry. Use a mild, creamy blue cheese like Gorgonzola, and put a small spoonful in each leaf. Sprinkle some fresh pomegranate seeds on top.

The endive is a little bitter; the cheese mitigates the bitterness on the palate, and the pomegranate seeds provide a refreshing surprise of fruit acidity in the mouth.

Fresh cranberry-raspberry sauce.

Boil a package of fresh cranberries in a cup of orange juice with the grated rind of a lemon or orange until the berries pop and soften. Add a package of defrosted, unsweetened raspberries in which two teaspoons of unflavored gelatin (or agar) have been softened. Add sweetener as desired (honey, agave syrup, stevia). Bring the mixture to a boil, then let the sauce cool. Refrigerate to set.

Agar agar is a natural gelling substance that comes from seaweed. It can be found in natural food stores and Asian food suppliers.

“Vegetarian turkey.”

Do you have vegetarians, or God forbid, vegans, coming for the holidays? This is a fun idea: buy a large squash. If you can find a Hubbard, the big pale blue-green ones, they’re the perfect shape. Cut off one end and scoop out the seeds. Stuff the squash with your favorite stuffing. Roast it in the oven just like a turkey until it is tender enough to insert a knife in - and the internal temperature of the stuffing reaches 165 degrees F.

The “turkey” can be decorated with paper wings, and surrounded with all the great vegetables we love - green beans with almonds, Brussels sprouts with pecans, roasted potatoes.

Some wine pairing ideas:

Semi-sweet or off-dry Riesling with the appetizer course. Riesling is very versatile and food friendly.

Sparkling wines are also good with appetizers because they cleanse the palate, and appetizers tend to be a mix of flavors.

Beaujolais or Pinot Noir with dinner. This light, fruity red is lovely with the turkey and cranberry course. The new release, Beaujolais Nouveau, becomes available each year on the third Thursday of November, and is therefore something of a tradition for Thanksgiving.

A dessert wine. The guideline here is for the wine to be a little sweeter than the dessert. Otherwise, the dessert will make the wine taste tart. Some suggestions are Framboise, Muscat or Port.

And with sandwiches the next day, beer!

Samaya Jones is a Holistic Nutritional Consultant and Natural Foods Personal Chef, who cooks for you and your guests in your home. She writes for health Web sites, newspapers, and teaches wine education classes. She can be reached at ncsamayaj@gmail.com.