I like a mid of miso & mirin as a marinade for fish or pork. Marinate for a good long time (my favorite recipe has you do it for three days), then bake or broil. If you don’t have time for a long marinade, you can brush it on before cookin. You can mix regular rice wine or sherry with sugar if you don’t have mirin on hand. YUM!

Choose your side dishes based on your oven and stovetop capacities. Chance are, your full menu of sides won’t fit in the oven or on the stovetop at the same time.

One year, I actually did a mock-up, placing pots and pans on the stovetop, and baking dishes in the oven. That helped me catch a few timing issues before I started cooking, and gave me a better sense of whether my menu was reasonable.

How funny - I made something similar myself last week!

One thing to mention: there’s a big difference between “wild rice” and actual WILD rice (manoomin). They’re the same species, but the truly wild rice is harvested riper, is more nutritious, cooks more quickly, is tastier, and is much more tender than paddy-grown wild rice. Plus, real wild rice is sustainably gathered in the wild, and supports a traditional way of life.

I’ve been obsessed with ricotta gnocchi for the last six months, and butter & sage is one of my favorite toppings. They’re more tender than the potato kind, and they stick with me longer. I ran out of all-purpose flour one day and made them with durhum semolina flour instead, and they came out even lighter.

I LOVE little fish (bones, head & all). Grilled sardines are my favorite, although even good-quality canned ones can be pretty tasty. Try your fried smelts with malt vinegar: YUM! (I’ve only ever had them gutted, but that could be an east coast thing.)