Throughout her storied career, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has managed to do something so many of us struggle with our entire lives: Get a hobby. Harris has made no secret of
the fact that she's a passionate—and skilled—home cook, showing off her prowess in videos with
And like any seasoned home cook, Harris always has her favorite Thanksgiving recipes ready to go. Back in 2019, she utilized a 90-second commercial break during an appearance on MSNBC to rattle off her best tips for cooking a turkey—she recommends you baste with cheap white wine, by the way—and this year, she's sharing her family favorite way to make cornbread dressing:
In a seven-slide Instagram gallery, Harris laid out all the ingredients you need and the five basic steps it takes to complete the side dish: 1. Bake your cornbread according to the instructions on the package and then crumble once it's cooled. 2. Remove your sausage from its casing, crumble it up, brown it in a pan with a bit of oil, and then set aside. 3. Sauté your vegetables and apples in the remaining oil. 4. Mix together the veggies, apples, sausage, cornbread crumbs, melted butter, herbs, and chicken broth, and put in a baking dish. 5. Bake at 375 F for about 40 minutes.
"During difficult times I have always turned to cooking," she wrote in her Instagram caption. "This year, I wanted to share one of my family’s favorite Thanksgiving recipes with you. I hope whenever you’re able to make it in life, it brings you as much warmth as it has brought me—even when separated from those I love."
Cooking is a meditative tool for Harris, one she started when she was just a little girl watching her mom in the kitchen. "One of the things that I do to relax at the end of the day is I read recipes," she told The Cutback in 2018. "I have a whole collection of cookbooks, so if I’m at home, I read them. It could be Marcella Hazan or Alice Waters. Sometimes I just do the New York Times cooking app if I’m on the road, or I try to get past the paywall on Bon Appétit." (Relatable.) But sharing those treasured recipes is a nod to how she first learned to cook. "It’s a gift that you can give people," she Glamour in May. "That’s how I was introduced to it."
