Best Side Dishes To Make For Holiday Dinners

With libraries crowded due to upcoming prelims, earlier sunsets, and colder weather, it can be hard to remember that the holiday season is coming up! But with Thanksgiving Break in a week and Winter Break soon after, it’s good to keep those in mind – and even start thinking of how we want to play a part in holiday dinners. From dinner rolls to pies, easy store-bought sides to time-consuming homemade spectacles, there’s a variety of ways to help contribute this winter. 

Moseying: Exploring Collaborative Cooking in Cornell Co-ops

On Sunday, Feb. 11, Cornell’s undergraduate co-ops kicked off their Spring 2024 moseying process with a series of open houses. From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m, potential new residents were welcomed to eight different Cornell-affiliated housing units for a brief tour and a closer look into cooperative (co-op) living. Moseying, a long-time tradition amongst the co-ops, is a casual two-week recruitment period. It involves social events from late night crafts to collaborative dinners, resulting in selecting new co-op residents for the upcoming semester.

OBASEKI | A Brokie’s Guide to Having No Meal Plan

With this excitement comes a result that cannot be replicated by most other hobbies. Cooking is unique in that both the process and the product of a session offer two different experiences; two different pathways to enjoying the hobby. Visual arts cannot offer this, as the finished product is one you’ve seen a thousand times before it’s finished. Sports cannot compare in that you can only enjoy the product of your hard work if recorded — and even then, it lacks the novelty of an entirely new experience. You are simply reliving the moments of the game. With cooking, creating your dish offers an entirely different experience from consuming it. When doing it with others, the pleasure of these experiences can make for some of your most memorable times in college, as it has for me. 

Culinary Autonomy: Cooking for Yourself

While culinary autonomy may seem daunting, unpleasant and inconvenient to many, the realities of having to cook for yourself are creeping ever closer as students get older and prepare for their lives after Cornell. Fortunately, Ithaca has many popular shopping destinations accessible by bus for those without cars. Convenient kitchens located in dorms offer accessible ways to cook and store groceries off campus.

YAO | Cooking Poorly

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the world’s best chef. I try to follow the odd recipe here and there and find kitchen hacks online. Sometimes, when I’m feeling bougie, I’ll look up what foie gras is and then fantasize about winning Masterchef. More often than not, however, my version of cooking involves throwing a bunch of unrelated items into a pan and hoping for the best. 

2 Stay 2 Go 2.0

2 Stay 2 Go, the entirely student-run restaurant that made their debut last semester, is back up and running. With an expanded staff, the business has grown to include more community service, meal donations to help end food insecurity in Ithaca and a catering program.