Allen Brothers has you covered. Lay in a package or two of mini steak dogs, and your party will practically host itself. Just like the bigger Great Steakhouse steak dogs—but made especially with cocktail parties and family gatherings in mind—the mini steak dogs are all-beef, with a firm, subtly crisp bite giving way to a super-juicy, perfectly seasoned, beefy interior. No one does Chicago-style hot dogs quite like Allen Brothers.

To prepare the steak dogs, just remove them from the packaging and cook in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes, or split and brown them in a skillet with some butter or olive oil, or grill them over medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes.

The mini steak dogs come with their own mini buns too, so you’re all set. Just lay out some ketchup, mustard, relish, and your other favorite condiments, and watch your guests, young and old, break into big smiles.

Happy noshing!

Yours,
Allie B.

Allen Brothers has sourced four kinds of lobster tails from some of the most premium waters around the world: succulent Tristan tails from an island off South Africa; tender, sweet West Australian tails from the land down under; firm, buttery Maine and Canadian tails from the northern-most reaches of North America; and moist, juicy South African tails from an area known for its wonderful, bountiful seafood.

Note that the Tristan and the West Australian lobster tails serve one person each; for the Maine & Canadian and the South African tails, two tails serve one person.

Try one kind of lobster tail at a time (each order comes with either 4 or 8 tails) or, better yet, go for the lobster tail sampler and sample two of each kind (that’s 8 tails total). Mix and match the lobster tails for a fun, unique holiday dinner party, or save them for quiet, romantic, luxurious dinners at home.

You can prepare the lobster tails any way you love most: steam, broil, bake, or grill. See the Cooking Guide for handy tips, and get ready to celebrate winter in grand style.

Enjoy!

Yours,
Allie B.

Then you’ve got to go for the stuffed pork crown roast, one of the most stunning dishes ever to grace a December dinner table. Think about it: a majestic presentation of an ultra-juicy, 16-bone pork crown roast, served with a delicious seasonal stuffing made with apples, cranberries, onions, rosemary, sage, and a tinge of maple brown sugar. It’s impossible not to go back for seconds!

The Allen Brothers pork crown roast is incredibly easy to prepare. Make sure to defrost it in the refrigerator well ahead of time: It can take up to three days to thaw. As for the stuffing, defrost it in the refrigerator about a day ahead of time.

To prepare the roast once it’s thawed, just brush it with olive oil inside and out and season it with generous amounts of salt, pepper, and garlic. Then roast it in the center of the oven, on a roasting rack or a heavy roasting pan, for about 2 to 2 ½ hours, until the internal temperature reaches 150F. Let it rest for half an hour before you serve it (during that time the internal temperature should hit 160F).

The stuffing is so easy too: Once it’s defrosted and you’ve removed it from the bag, place it in an oven-safe dish and bake it for 30 to 40 minutes or until the temperature reaches 150F. Then arrange the stuffing in the center of the roast and fluff it up as you go.

Voila. Dinner is served! Get ready to knock your guests’ socks off. After all, isn’t that what the holidays are all about? Delicious surprises, and beautiful, memorable moments with friends and family.

Wishing you a very merry holiday season!

Yours,
Allie B.

My all-around holiday all-star? Crowned filets mignon, one of Allen Brothers’ most elegant main courses. All the juicy, meaty lusciousness of filet mignon, with a luxurious crown of lobster, wild mushrooms, or crabmeat on top. Surf-and-turf lovers will glory in the plump lobster meat topping, in a buttery mix of cream, fresh herbs, sweet onions, and breadcrumbs. Or go for the shiitake, Portobello, and oyster mushroom topping, spiked with truffles and combined in a rich sauce of demi-glace and red wine. The Venetian topping combines lump crabmeat, fresh mozzarella and feta cheese, and fresh spinach with hits of garlic and rosemary. Better yet? Order the Crowned Filet Mignon Sampler and serve all three varieties, for a truly over-the-top feast.

Stock up now, and you’re all set for festive dinners with friends and family all season long. Now you can focus your attention on the rest of the holiday hustle-bustle: The decorations… The holiday cards… and yipes, that neverending gift-shopping list!

Happy holidays!

Yours,
Allie B.

Veal lasagna

If you’ve never had lasagna for Thanksgiving, give it a shot this year. Best of all, Allen Brothers has two kinds: a lasagna made with layers of ground veal, cheese, and hand-rolled pasta, plus a vegetable lasagna made with egg pasta, roasted vegetables, ricotta and mascarpone cheese, basil pesto, and mozzarella (this one will take care of any non-meat-eating relatives and friends who come over for the holiday dinner). While you’re at it, pick up a few extra veal or vegetable lasagnas to store in your freezer for the fall and winter, in case you have hungry friends or family members around the house during the holiday season. Lasagna: It’s love, Italian-style.

Yours,

Allie B.

Pumpkin cognac cheesecake

But this year, how about a slightly different, utterly spectacular pumpkin dessert that will make your family sit up and say: “Now this takes the cake!”

I’m talking about pumpkin-cognac cheesecake. Think about it: All the sweetness and seasonal deliciousness of pumpkin, tinged with spices and combined with the creamy richness of cheesecake. Plus there’s a hint of cognac, and a luscious layer of whipped cream to boot. Just try to resist…

Bonus: A thin slice goes a long way after a hearty Thanksgiving meal. So get ready to have some cheesecake left over, to go with those tasty turkey sandwiches and Thanksgiving goodies you’ll be eating happily for days after.

While you’re at it, why not create a truly decadent dessert spread this Thanksgiving? At our extended-family Thanksgivings, someone always brings a pecan pie, because we have relatives from the South who make some of the best pecan pies I’ve ever had. Allen Brothers has a beautiful, wonderfully pecan-loaded pecan pie from Goergia that I bet I could sneak onto our dessert table this year, and no one would guess that my aunt Diane didn’t make it herself.

And for those who haven’t truly eaten dessert unless they’ve had chocolate, I recommend the Mini Triple Chocolate Cake, or Grandma’s Chocolate Cake. You know, just to keep everyone happy (and maybe you’ll want to save just a teeny little slice for yourself…).

Yours,

Allie B.

Every time it’s my turn to host Thanksgiving dinner for our big family, I try a slightly different twist with the turkey. There’s a terrific recipe for a classic roast turkey in the Allen Brothers Cooking Guide, and below are three of my other favorite techniques. What do they all have in common? Allen Brothers all-natural, free-range turkey, a 12-to-14-pound beauty that serves a dozen or more people (even if your uncle Joe can eat enough for three!). Order yours now, then decide on the new turkey twist you’ll try this year—and guarantee a Thanksgiving dinner your family will remember fondly, forever.

Please note: For recipes 2 and 3, you’ll have to start the brining the night before, so plan ahead (not that you were about to leave Thanksgiving dinner until the last minute… You weren’t, right?…)

A word about the stuffing: I prefer to cook the stuffing separately, instead of packing it into the turkey cavity and cooking it along with the bird. But choose your own favorite method. The recipe in the Allen Brothers Cooking Guide is for cooking the stuffing inside the turkey, and the recipes below offer some other stuffing options.

Ready? My three favorite turkey tricks:

1) Butter! Come on, it’s a holiday. You can get away with eating a wee more butter than you normally do. Here’s an extra-buttery, easy-to-make turkey recipe I love, courtesy of Mark Bittman and reprinted in O, The Oprah Magazine. Bonus: With this recipe, it only takes about 2 and ½ hours to roast the entire 12-pound turkey.

2) Beer! Yes, beer. I’ve tried a few recipes for brining turkey in beer, but one of my favorites is this one, from Bruce Aidells, printed in this month’s Bon Appetit.

3) Salt! Lighter than using a stick of butter (as in recipe #1 above), and simpler than beer-brining, salt-brining is a foolproof technique. Some cooks swear by salt-brining the bird the night before, and others don’t bother. I personally think brining in salted water overnight is one of the best ways to ensure a moist, flavorful turkey. Here’s a brining method that works beautifully, courtesy of the late Edna Lewis, a wonderful Southern chef, and chef Scott Peacock, printed in Food & Wine.

Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Yours,

Allie B.

bacon-wrapped quail appetizers

My favorite costumes of the night: Four guys showed up dressed up like characters from Braveheart, with kilts and long wild wigs. Someone showed up as an enormous bunch of Fruit of the Loom grapes. My friends Jim and Allison came as a giant two-person truck, and somehow managed to “drive” through the room filled with a hundred-plus guests.

The best part of the evening? Food that ingeniously captured the Halloween spirit. I brought Allen Brothers cocktail franks in puff pastry—miniature hot dogs all costumed up in flaky, buttery pastry shells—along with the always-beloved bacon-wrapped quail appetizers (exquisitely tender quail dressed up in strips of luscious bacon). Also playing a starring role: Allen Brothers party-perfect samosas: juicy, hand-chopped white and dark chicken flavored with ginger, onions, and water chestnuts and brilliantly disguised in crunchy spring-roll wrappers.

And… drum roll please… for dessert? I ordered (from Allen Brothers, of course!) chef Art Smith’s Red Velvet and Hummingbird cupcakes, so festive in their snow-white hats of cream-cheese icing. My friends already insisted I bring the same treats to their party next year! Done. Hope you had a fabulous Halloween weekend too.

Yours,

Allie B.

The only problem: Just before the dinner party, I found out my friend David doesn’t like crab cakes. I was stumped. First thought: How can anyone not like crab cakes? Second thought: Could David be a freak of nature? Do I even want to be friends with this guy? After I got over my shock, I asked him a polite question: “David, are you insane? How can you possibly not love crab cakes?”

Turns out he had a good reason: Over the years he’s been subjected to too many disappointing crab cakes, made with tiny shreds of crab meat held together in a gloopy, bland mix. And while this sad description is, admittedly, true of the way crab cakes are often made—especially since crab cakes were invented by colonial settlers around the 17^th century as a way to economize and stretch the scarce crab meat—the Maryland-Style Crab Cakes from Allen Brothers blow all those out of the water. They’re absolutely jammed with fresh lump crab meat — 75% of each cake is fresh crab— held together with a delicious, just-right mixture of breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, eggs, and spices. The mix adds a wonderfully creamy-tangy taste, but the powerhouse flavor comes from the fresh crab meat, loads and loads of it, picked from sweet, all-natural blue crabs.

David and I made a deal: If he tries and likes my crab cakes (by “my crab cakes,” I mean, of course, “Allen Brothers crab cakes”), I’ll agree to try anything he wants to cook for me, including his Scottish grandfather’s notorious haggis recipe.

So David showed up at my crab cake party. He grabbed a crab-cake, put it on a toasted brioche bun slathered with my favorite condiment (I make it by spiking mayonnaise with a squirt of Sriracha hot sauce), and took a bite. I watched him. Poker face. He took another bite. Then another… and another… and less than a minute later the crab cake was gone. He looked at me, another crab cake sandwich in his hand, and whispered: “You win. No haggis.” I was triumphant. I was relieved. I was about to help myself to seconds—but they were all gone, two dozen piping-hot crab cakes vanished without a trace, and a tableful of extremely happy-looking guests.  Mission accomplished!

Yours,

Allie B.

Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Labor Day, celebrated this year on Monday, September 6, was invented in 1882 to honor the toil and dedication of workers all over America—but let’s be honest: The best way to celebrate the holiday is by not laboring. Allen Brothers is here to help, with the world’s best, juiciest, most grill-ready meats and seafood, designed to help you enjoy Labor Day with as little laboring as possible.

My advice for a luscious and memorable holiday: Order up some skirt steaks from Allen Brothers, throw them on the grill, and make the best fajitas ever. Just let the thawed steaks sit for 30 minutes before cooking, then heat a charcoal or gas grill heat to medium-high, sauté the steaks 4-6 minutes per side for medium rare, and let them rest for five minutes before serving. Now slice up the steaks into long, thin pieces, place a few pieces on a flour tortilla, and add guacamole, salsa, grilled onions and bell peppers, sour cream, shredded cheese—whatever you love most on your fajitas. Roll up, eat, smile.

An even faster, and just as delicious, way to enjoy skirt steaks: Along with the steaks, order some Allen Brothers chimichurri, an Argentinean-inspired sauce that comes from the steak-loving gaucho (cowboy) culture of Argentina’s ranchlands. The sauce, made with oregano, garlic, olive oil, jalapeno peppers, and herbs, adds zing to just about any meat, but it’s especially perfect with skirt steaks.  You can make the sauce yourself, but why bother, when Allen Brothers has a wonderful, handmade, authentic version—no labor necessary. Just drizzle the chimichurri over the cooked steaks; you’re done.

Skirt steak fajitas, or skirt steak with chimichurri: festive, flavorful, and fabulous.

A very happy, relaxing Labor Day to you and yours,

Allie B.