Alex Guarnaschelli: My 3 Favorite Thanksgiving Vegetable Side Dishes

I love the way he would insist on stuffing the bird and not making “dressing” which is cooked outside the bird. To me, stuffing is where it’s at. It has that extra turkey flavor. What is my stuffing recipe? That will have to wait until next week as the Thanksgiving countdown begins. In the meantime, here are three of my favorite side dishes I’ve been working on: I’m always looking for something that doesn’t take up valuable oven space.

Alex Guarnaschelli: My Best Chocolate Cake (with Marshmallow Frosting!)

I have weeks where I do a tremendous amount of cooking. I cook at home for my daughter, and then I head to the restaurant to doeven more cooking. While I love everything from breakfast muffins to a good pot roast, most of the cooking I do is savory. The result? I want to eat cake! I always joke that the grill guy is over in the restaurant’s pastry section nibbling on leftover cookies and the pastry chef is over at the grill nibbling on leftover meat.

Alex Guarnaschelli: My Favorite Chicken Dish — Get the Recipe!

I definitely think a good chicken breast — cooked juicy and not dry — doesn’t get enough love. The boneless, skinless, loveless (often grilled beyond recognition) chicken breast that I have encountered can definitely resemble shoe leather and make you wish you were digging into a basket of fried chicken thighs. Other than a straight roasted breast with some fresh thyme and salt, I will admit that I gravitate towards chicken thighs.

Alex Guarnaschelli: My Favorite Foods to Throw on the Grill

When summer hits, we always look to the grill. There’s something about that wonderful char and sexy grill marks that makes us feel American. Grilled hamburgers, steaks and corn just make us happy. I even see it when steak (in any form) appears in the baskets onChopped. The contestants perk up. The audience gets extra excited. When those contestants break out the grill pans and start grilling the steak, even better.

Alex Guarnaschelli: My Recipe for No-Frills, Straight-Up Good Brownies

Truthfully, I often opt for the classic chocolate chip cookie when baking an all-American simple dessert. They are easy, come in small packages and I can bake a few cookies at a time if I want. So, a few weeks ago, I set out in my kitchen in search of the perfect brownie. While I don’t know that the perfect brownie can really be achieved, I do feel that a decently large square of this recipe, cut preferably from a corner (because I love the balance of chewy edges interspersed with slight cakey, softer bites) is pretty dang good here.