Family Dinner with JP

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I present a delightful side dish, seasonal and non-traditional. Straight from the pages of Bon Appetit (webpages, whatever), as suggested by Justin, these crusty carrots present a ton of kick and a real heartiness lacking in your mundane side salad or "really, brussel sprouts AGAIN?" Aside from the harissa paste, which can be easily located in your hummus aisle, nearly everything else in this recipe is likely already in your cabinet! The tricks to this recipe: do not be afraid to let the carrots get a dark crust, and learn to embrace the heat. What may at first glance appear to be burnt parts are in fact a deliberate charring of the smokey spices in this dish, creating the caramelized crust that gives the carrots their bite. And dive in to the harissa yogurt! While the harissa paste certainly kicks the spice level up on its own, the balance of the yogurt and citrus provides a wonderful taste experience, peaking and cooling down your mouth...

When I first moved in by myself a few years ago, I had a lot to restructure in my life. Not the least of which was: how do you take a recipe designed for 2-4 people, make it for one, and not eat the same meal 3 times a day for the next week? Ready to give up and just eat Lean Cuisine, my dear friends Justin and Dre got me the perfect housewarming present: Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking For One , by Joe Yonan. I have to admit, for a while there I'd see the book staring back at me from the coffee table and I'd swear the cover actually read "How to Eat and Die Alone." Thankfully I got over it, and found some amazing recipes within. I based this recipe off of Joe's recipe for "Potato Chip Tortilla with Shrimp." Yes. I know. Growing up a good Taco Bell fearing American, "tortilla" was a flat round thingy made of corn or flour. And what the hell do potato chips have to do with anything? Sounded a bit like the recipe on the b...