How to Make Holiday Side Dishes

Arra Lawson: Hi, welcome. I am Chef Arra Lawson here at Addie's Restaurant and today we are going to be preparing some really, really excellent seasonal holiday dishes for any Holiday menu. Today we will be making Baked Macaroni with Aged Cheddar. This is fantastic, you will really, really like this. Second, we will making a warm cornbread stuffing one of my absolute all time favorites for the wild mushrooms. And last but not least we will be doing an Oven-roasted Sweet Potato Rag. We are taking traditional sort of classic sweet potato yams dish that you will find in many places at homes in the south, and actually turning it into something a little bit more inspired, today we will be adding a spicy Chorizo to really give it something extra and topping it off with a little bit of a glaze with again molasses and brown butter and brown sugar. You are really, really going to like these dishes, I guarantee it. So, now in order for you to prepare these wonderful dishes that we are going to have out today, but there's some basic kitchen utensils that you need to have. You need a knife, a wooden spoon, perhaps a whisk or whip if you have that, a mixing bowl, generally a medium to large sized mixing bowl should be sufficient, a rubber spatula and that's pretty much it. A cutting board, maybe a couple of towels or other mitts whatever your preference is, so that you don't burn yourself. It's always important and just generally keep your area that you are going to be working on clean. And that's all you pretty much need for today and throughout each different cooking section we will actually got through a detail list of all the ingredients with the amounts that you need so that you can comfortably prepare any of these dishes and everyone else will swear it, you are the superstar, you are the super chef.

So, just before we get into making all of these wonderful dishes since we are going to spend so much time together, maybe I should tell you a little bit about myself. Well, I have been a chef for about fifteen years at least in the cooking industry for about fifteen years. Believe it or not I started as a dish washer and I was pretty lousy at it. I am a lot better in the kitchen so rest assured it's okay, you are in good hands. And so as you and yours get together this time of year or throughout the course of the year and enjoy gathering together, be thankful that you have each other, use this opportunity to really celebrate the food, an opportunity to enjoy good food and good fellowship. So I am very excited to bring these dishes to you. It's a little part of me because you are viewing to not just how I cook but why I cook and I encourage you, enjoy cooking as much as I do, enjoy eating as much as I do and I am ready to share these dishes with you. So, let's get started now on the three dishes that we prepare, I have selected for today.