November - December 2015

Cape Cooking: Holiday bonus!

Cape Cod Life  /  November/December 2015 / , , ,

Writer: Matthew J. Gill / Photographer: Josh Shortsleeve 

Cape Cooking: Holiday bonus!

November - December 2015

Cape Cod Life  /  November/December 2015 / , , ,

Writer: Matthew J. Gill / Photographer: Josh Shortsleeve 

Cape Cooking: Holiday bonus!

Photography by Josh Shortsleeve

Here’s a menu for a warm and festive meal courtesy of the Old Yarmouth Inn

Friends, readers, and Cape Cod folk, lend me your ears. The holiday season is nigh upon us. Parties and potlucks are presently being scheduled and for some, preparations for the meals to be served are well underway.

At the Old Yarmouth Inn on Route 6A in Yarmouthport, Sheila Fitzgerald says her staff gets ready for the bustling holiday season long in advance. “Thanksgiving,” she says, “is a big, big, big, big day for us.” Interviewed in late September, Fitzgerald, who owns the historic inn with her husband, Arpad Voros, says the staff had already begun preparing its Turkey Day menu.

And when the final turkey leg and pumpkin pie is served in a few weeks’ time, the Old Yarmouth Inn staff will transition quickly to preparations for Christmas, New Year’s and lots of parties. Leading up to the holiday season, Fitzgerald says Andrew Davis, the inn’s executive chef, creates the menu for each meal, stuffing it with some of the inn’s most popular dishes and traditional favorites. One of these dishes is the butternut bisque. “It’s been a staple for 10 or 12 years,” Fitzgerald says. “People call and ask us when it’s going to be on the menu.”

In the spirit of the season, Fitzgerald and Davis prepared recipes for a holiday meal that Cape Cod LIFE readers can prepare—and enjoy—at home. “It’s a classic New England fall or winter dinner,” Fitzgerald says, “a classic comfort meal.”

The meal includes recipes for that beloved butternut bisque as well as hoisin-braised short ribs, sweet onion gravy, creamy mashed potatoes, sugar snap peas, crunchy onion strings, and a bourbon-pecan bread pudding. “The menu is simple enough that people can actually prepare it at home,” Fitzgerald says. Best of luck with the recipes—and Happy Holidays!

Butternut Bisque

Hoisin-Braised Short Ribs

Sweet Onion Gravy

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Sugar Snap Peas

Crunchy Onion Strings

Bourbon-Pecan Bread Pudding

The Old Yarmouth Inn is at 223 Route 6A in Yarmouthport. For more information on the restaurant, visit oldyarmouthinn.com, or call 508-362-9962.

Matthew J. Gill

Matthew Gill is the former editor of Cape Cod LIFE and Cape Cod ART magazines. A graduate of U-Mass Dartmouth, Matthew has worked as a journalist since 2003 and has written on topics ranging from the sinking of Nantucket’s whale ship Essex and the history of the Barnstable-Falmouth Thanksgiving football rivalry, to the Cotuit Rowing Club, Provincetown’s Art’s Dune Tours, and more! A relative newcomer when it comes to the Cape, Matt and his wife Melissa just celebrated a Cape Cod-themed wedding.