God Bless America and Its Glorious Food

America: the land of the PB+J, and the home of the brownie. Stars and stripes, mac and cheese, Barack and Michelle, cookies and milk, Carrie and Mr Big – if there’s one thing America does excellently, it’s a pairing.

Each year, Thanksgiving (this year it falls on Thursday November 23rd) gives us all a chance to be grateful for loved ones, good health and the nation that gave us the humble potato, cookie dough and Mississippi mud pie. Just think, if it wasn’t for America, we wouldn’t have chips, or cheese and onion crisps – a truly horrifying prospect.

We might not celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK, but we do love any excuse to eat good food. So why not take inspiration from our friends across the pond and cook up an American-inspired feast? Do it for the family, do it for guests or simply do it to give thanks to the nation that allowed us to invent such delights as tomato ketchup-flavoured crisps.

Remember, our transatlantic cousins often use ‘cup’ measurements in their recipes – these roughly equate to around 225 grams for a full cup. With a little help from a calculator – we can’t all be as good at maths as Rachel Riley, after all – we’re sure you can crack the rest.

Creamy cheesy pasta in the form of mac’n’cheese (sorry, ‘macaroni cheese’ is a tad too British for a Thanksgiving article) is one of America’s culinary specialties. People have tried adding everything from sweet potato to bacon and kale to ‘jazz up’ mac’n’cheese, but is there a point in messing with something that’s already perfection?

We do make an exception for buffalo chicken mac’n’cheese, however; chicken coated in a hot buttery sauce mixed through dreamy mac’n’cheese. Mission Food has a gorgeous recipe for this simple, but oh so yummy dish.

Maple syrup is Canadian rather than American, but a maple-glazed roast turkey is still a key staple of many Thanksgiving dinner tables across the States.

As we’re just taking influences from the US rather than planning a huge traditional dinner, we suggest making this maple chilli chicken from Lucy Loves to experience the flavour of the syrup alongside fiery chilli and succulent meat – perfect with a crisp green salad or sweet potato fries and dipping sauce made from any leftover syrup and a little hot sauce.

Cornbread is another popular American dish that’s especially good with added chilli cheese. You can probably buy this in your local supermarket, or you could just combine chilli flakes with mature cheese for the same effect.

Packed with spices and veggies, a slice of The Purple Pumpkin Blog’s cheesy chilli cornbread makes a great snack on its own, or is perfect dunked into spicy pumpkin soup or to accompany a chilli con carne.

So, we already know Americans like eating peanut butter with jelly (jam to you and me), which is a strangely tasty sandwich filling or toast topper. They also like to sometimes mix peanut butter with bacon. If you’re a fan of bacon and maple syrup-topped pancakes, it’s definitely worth giving this nutty combo a go too.

Heinstirred has a recipe for bacon peanut butter banana bread that’s a surprisingly delightful twist on classic banana bread. Next time you’ve got some bananas knocking around that have seen better days, turn them into this and try to get your friends and family to guess what the extra ingredients are – their minds will well and truly be blown.

With its pastry crust, sweet condensed milk filling, lime kick and gooey meringue top, key lime pie is a favourite dessert in many American households. Key limes are a particular variety of the citrus fruit that are native to Florida and taste particularly limey (if that’s a word).

Kerry Cooks has incorporated the flavours of a traditional key lime pie into cupcakes, which make a fun, refreshing pudding with no need to get to grips with pastry, although they do have a buttery biscuit base – cue the Gregg Wallace ‘song’.

Can you think of a more widely-loved American dessert than chocolate brownies? Maybe cookie dough? Maybe just oreos? Well, how about combining all of these absolute delights together into one amazing brownie bar.

That’s what Kevin and Amanda have done with their recipe for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie oreo fudge brownie bar, which is too many of our favourite words in one cake title. Serve fresh from the oven for optimum gooey-ness and top with a scoop of ice cream – heaven in a dessert bowl.

Thanksgiving might not be a holiday here in the UK, but we can certainly get on board with spending the weekend eating fudgy brownies and spicy chicken wings – just avoid getting into an argument about Donald Trump and your Thanksgiving celebrations should go without a hitch.