Arts & Entertainment
All the trimmings
Hoping to jazz up your Thanksgiving dinner this year? We asked readers to submit their favorite dishes.
Many gravitate toward the traditional on Thanksgiving, but sometimes it’s fun to try a new recipe too. We asked readers for some favorites that will go great with turkey. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Thanksgiving dinner has to have certain staples — but sometimes it’s fun to give them a fresh twist or try a new side dish that will lend the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes a little unexpected flair.
We asked readers and prominent local LGBT chefs to share their favorites.
Here’s one from former White House Chef John Moeller. His book “Dining at the White House: From the President’s Table to Yours” is $35 and can be purchased at diningatthewhitehouse.com.
Pistachio Crusted Lamb Chops with Roasted Garlic Merlot Sauce
Pistachio Crusted Lamb Chops with Roasted Garlic Merlot Sauce
Pistachio Crusted Lamb Chops
Serves six
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: one hour
¼ cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
¼ cup pistachios, peeled and ground
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
3 (8-bone) racks of lamb, Frenched, cap fat removed
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt and fresh milled black pepper
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine breadcrumbs, thyme and pistachios in shallow bowl. Moisten with melted butter and set aside. Season racks with salt and pepper. Heat large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add oil. Sear lamb on all sides until nicely browned, about six to eight minutes total. Transfer lamb to small sheet pan and place in oven for 15 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 120°F. Remove from oven and let rest for five minutes. Liberally smear meat side of each rack with mustard. Roll each rack in breadcrumb mixture and return to baking sheet. Place in oven and bake for five to 10 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 135° to 140°F. Remove from oven and let rest 15 minutes before serving.
Roasted Garlic Merlot Sauce
Serves six
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Roasted Garlic:
10 garlic cloves, skin on
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Toss garlic and olive oil together in medium oven-safe sauté pan. Place in oven to roast, stirring every two minutes until garlic is soft and golden brown (about 10 to 15 minutes). Remove from oven and transfer to plate to cool. Once cooled, cut root end from cloves and peel. Using fingers, press peeled garlic through a small fine mesh strainer into small bowl and set aside.
Sauce:
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
6 black peppercorns
1 sprig of fresh thyme
½ cup merlot wine
½ cup prepared demi-glace
Salt and fresh milled black pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon puréed roasted garlic
In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt 1-teaspoon butter. Sauté shallots for two minutes, add peppercorns and thyme, and sauté an additional three minutes. Add wine and reduce by ¾. Add demi-glace and simmer over medium-low heat for five minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Gradually add cornstarch mixture and return to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly until sauce coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and strain into another small saucepan.Heat strained sauce over medium heat and stir in roasted garlic and remaining butter. Remove from heat and cover until ready to serve.
Stephanie Wilson (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
Here’s one from chef Stephanie Wilson of Level One, winner of this year’s “Best Chef” award in the Blade’s Best of Gay D.C. readers’ poll.
Pork & Quinoa Meatballs with Cranberry Port Marmalade
Serving: 24 meatballs
Ingredients:
Pork and quinoa meatballs
2/3 cup quinoa
1 cup cooked ground pork
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated zucchini
2 large eggs
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
3 scallions chopped
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
3 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
Cranberry port marmalade
2 cups fresh cranberries
8 oz ruby port
1 tablespoon shallots minced
1 garlic clove minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme chopped
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
In medium saucepan add quinoa, 1 1/3 cups of water and a pinch of kosher salt. Bring to boil and cook till tender 10-15 minutes. Spread on baking sheet and let cool.
In large bowl whisk eggs. Squeeze liquid from grated zucchini and add to eggs. Stir in parmesan, scallions, cilantro, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce and pepper. Mix in the quinoa, cooked ground pork and panko. Let stand for 10-15 minutes.
Form mix into small meatballs. Heat large sauté pan with a two tablespoons oil. Working in batches brown all sides. Spray baking sheet with non stick spray and finish in 400 degree oven until heated through.
Heat small saucepan with one teaspoon oil. Add shallots and garlic and cook till tender. Add cranberries, port, thyme, sugar and salt and pepper. Reduce till cranberries are tender and there is a thick consistency. Add more sugar if needed.
In food processor, pulse mixture until somewhat smooth. Pour into shallow dish and cool completely.
On large platter arrange the meatballs with cranberry-port marmalade for dipping.
Patrick Vanas (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
These two are from Chef Patrick Vanas, another winner in this year’s Best of Gay D.C. awards. He works as a private chef and can be reached at [email protected].
Smoked Paprika Sweet Potato Croquettes with Coffee Maple Sauce
3 sweet potatoes
1 egg
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly ground pepper
1 slice white bread
1 egg
Milk
Panko breadcrumbs
Salt
Smoked paprika
Wrap potatoes in foil and bake one hour in 400-degree oven. Remove and allow to cool slightly. Place in bowl and add egg, paprika, butter, salt pepper and slice of bread torn into small bits, mix then allow mixture to cool in fridge about one hour. Shape into three” “logs” slightly thicker than your thumb, set aside in fridge for another hour.
Mix second egg and few tablespoons milk in pie dish and then in another pie dish add two cups Panko bread crumbs, salt and smoked paprika.
Sauce Method:
1 cup Maple syrup
½ teas instant coffee
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients in small sauce pan and bring to a simmer, a tablespoon of water might be needed to keep thin. Simmer a few minutes. Set aside.
Remove croquettes from fridge, coat with egg milk mixture, then roll in Panko crumbs mixture; set in clean dish ready to fry. In a shallow sauté pan add about ½ to one inch of vegetable oil and bring to about 340 degrees, add croquettes cooking about four to six at a time depending on size of pan, not to over crowd. Cook about four-five minutes turning to lightly golden on all sides. Place on paper toweled plate to cool and drain slightly. Finish rest of croquettes. Place sauce in ramekin and allow guests to dip or drizzle sauce over all and serve with Thanksgiving feast. They can be made and placed in warm oven until ready to serve. Makes about 10 to 12 depending on size. Can be made into smaller croquette balls.
Celery Soup (Photo courtesy of Patrick Vanas)
Celery Soup
The first time I had this was about 20 years ago at a friend’s house and was intrigued that the depth of flavor it had. When she explained the recipe at the dinner table I thought, “Wow that seems like a lot of work for soup.” Now I know many soups are complex, but this one is not. It’s a wonderful simple celery taste, a great way to start “Pre” Thanksgiving — not filling but great flavor. Can be made days ahead.
Ingredients:
1 bunch of celery (leaves/stems etc.)
1 shallot
1/3 cup olive oil (pure, not extra virgin)
2 quarts vegetable stock/broth
Salt and pepper
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Chop celery roughly and place in large ovenproof stock pot, (I use a five-quart size). Add shallot, olive oil, salt and pepper and sear a few minutes on high heat. Slice about 10-15 thin slices of celery and set aside for garnish or use leaves.
Add vegetable stock and place in oven and allow to braise about 90 minutes. I cover with foil to allow some moisture to escape to concentrate celery flavor.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. I use an immersion blender and pulse to blend about five minutes. Use mesh strainer and strain into smaller pot to season with salt and pepper and olive oil and then place in kettle to heat to a simmer and reduce to low.
I use “demi tasse” cups to serve and let guests serve themselves with the leaves or slice of celery in cup ready to go. Serve with Parmesan Crostini. Makes about 15 three ounce portions.
Smokey Turkey Tortilla Soup
This one from Rosa Mexicano (with D.C.-area locations in Penn Quarter and in Chevy Chase) might be good to keep in mind for those inevitable turkey leftovers. The restaurant also has a Thanksgiving special for those who don’t feel like cooking. Visit rosamexicano.com for details.
Smokey Turkey Tortilla Soup
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
6 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
½ can chipotle chiles en adobo
1 teaspoon dried oregano, rubbed gently between the palms
6 cups turkey broth
4 ounces tortilla chips, crumbled
Salt
2 cups cooked turkey, diced into ½ inch cubes
1/3 cup cilantro, finely chopped
4 ounces tortilla strips for garnish
½ cup grated Chihuahua cheese (Monterey jack can be substituted)
1 avocado, sliced into sixths lengthwise
Combine onion, and garlic with two tablespoons olive oil in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until translucent.
Add tomatoes, jalapeno, chipotles and oregano and cook 10 minutes more.
Add turkey broth and simmer an additional 30 minutes. Remove from heat, add tortilla chips and puree in small batches in a blender until smooth. Season with salt to taste and strain through a fine strainer.
Serve by dividing the warm cooked turkey into six soup bowls, topping with Chihuahua cheese, tortilla strips, cilantro and avocado slice.
Pour the hot broth over the garnish and serve immediately.
Brussels Sprout and Pancetta Slaw (Photo by Sam Armocido; courtesy Jonathan Bardzik)
This one is from local gay chef Jonathan Bardzik’s book “Simple Summer,” available at Amazon or through jonathanbardzik.com.
Brussels Sprout and Pancetta Slaw (serves six)
Who knew Brussels sprouts could taste light and fresh? This salad just gets better over time as the dressing lightly wilts the slaw. The sharp vinaigrette blends with salty-rich pancetta and the earthy sprouts.
Ingredients:
4 cups Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
For dressing:
1/2 cup diced Pancetta
1 shallot, minced
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbs sharp, grainy mustard
1/2 cup olive oil — use the good stuff!
Directions:
Blanch Brussels sprouts in salted, boiling water for one minute. Remove to ice bath. When cool, drain and pat dry.
Sauté pancetta in one tablespoon olive oil over medium heat until crispy. Remove to drain on paper towels. Reserve fat to fry just about anything.
Whisk together shallot, apple cider vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste.
Thinly slice Brussels sprouts and place in a bowl with some extra room.
While whisking, pour olive oil, in a thin stream, into vinegar mixture to form a creamy emulsion. Season to taste.
Dress brussels sprouts with half dressing and Pancetta. Let rest five-10 minutes and season to taste with additional dressing if needed.
The Miss Gay Old Bay pageant was held at The Lodge in Boonsboro, Md. on Friday, Aug. 29. Vanya Varushka was crowned the winner. Glitter Douglas was named first runner-up. Both Varushka and Douglas qualify to compete in the Miss Gay Maryland pageant in October.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
Immersive ‘Nation-State’ imagines a society free of authoritarianism
Queer duo brings unique theater experience to Dupont Underground
‘Nation-State: A Live Experiment’
Sept. 2-13
La Pluma Theatre
Dupont Underground
19 Dupont Circle, N.W.
$25-40
Dupontunderground.org
Industry Night: September 7. Free for all theater makers
A relevant piece replete with borders and passports, La Pluma Theatre’s “Nation-State: A Live Experiment”is immersive, site-specific, and testimonial.
With the production, the company’s queer co-founders Victor Salinas and Gabriel de la Cruz pose unique situations and experiences. In lieu of tickets, audience members get passports. What follows are questions and tests, and whether they gain entrance into a nation built to protect its citizens from authoritarianism, resource theft, and colonization remains to be seen.
Originally from Mexico and Peru, respectively, Salinas and de la Cruz met at a birthday party in D.C. and instantly clicked as theater makers, sharing outlook and ambition. Reluctant to go it alone, both had been searching for artistic and producing collaboration. That all changed.
And while their enterprise is primarily Latino and queer, these professional partners refused to be confined to a box, choosing rather to amplify the voices of all of D.C.’s diverse communities. In line with their plans, “Nation-State” is open to serving many points of view.
As director of “Nation-State,” de la Cruz mostly guides the questioning. He’s the right man for the job. Since arriving in the U.S. six years ago, he has been consistently curious about certain things. Who belongs here? How do you make this your home? And who is creating the rules?
“But the writing process is shared,” de la Cruz corrects. “I come up with questions. I provide Victor the topic and he goes from there. We’re both writing what happens next.”
He adds, “the most exciting moment for people is when they share something unique. As a questioner, you need to find the confidence and the right moment to ask the question. If you provide the space for that, the actor or audience member will give you something singular.”
Since before La Pluma opened in November 2025, its creators have agreed that “the most beautiful thing is when you use theater to fashion something innovative. Theater is the place where you can create new frameworks and rehearse new ways to live.”
At just an hour, “Nation-State” is performed in English at Dupont Underground – the company’s historic residence, a once subterranean street car barn located beneath Dupont Circle. For the production, the tunnels serve as boundaries, and its different curved spaces make up a micro nation and welcome different guest actors who will come to share their stories.
At certain times, Salinas plays Officer Salinas, Director of N.I.C.E. (Non-Discriminatory, Inclusive Customs Enforcement), a humorous social critic of the system and border patrol. Other times, it’s Salinas as himself telling his real-life stories. He says, “it’s a level of vulnerability that I’ve never experienced. The script is my personal life with zero censorship. But I think, if not now in a play that we are pouring our souls into, then when?
“As a kid I dreamed of being TV show host and now I am. I will sing and tell my stories. I feel comfortable and ready to do it.”
In Spanish, “pluma” means both pen and feather. For the company, it’s the latter, and comes with lively associations. Salinas explains. In mysticism, feathers serve as a portal between the real and spiritual worlds, like that between fact and fiction. And in Spanish and Latin American slang “showing feathers” (in other words, showing queerness). La Pluma encourages a good display of authenticity.
And specifically for Salinas, there’s a personal story involving his beloved grandmother with whom he was extremely close. After she died, he has regularly found feathers as if she’s making contact. “A bit romantic, I know. But I think if you’re open you can see these things,” he says.
“Nation-State” is challenging but fun. It’s unmistakably La Pluma. In the end, the company wants to build a world where everyone feels safe to tell their own stories, as individuals and performers.
Books
New book examines Trump cuts to LGBTQ healthcare
‘Aftershocks’ details impact of policy shifts on HIV response, broader public health
As LGBTQ and HIV advocates continue to grapple with the Trump administration’s attacks on healthcare, a new book offers a timely look at what happens when public health systems — and the democratic institutions that sustain them — are pushed to their limits.
The book, “Aftershocks: Trump 2.0, Public Health, and Our Better Angels,” was written by Dr. José M. Zuniga, president/CEO of Fast-Track Health. Zuniga is a globally recognized public health leader with more than three decades of experience advancing responses to HIV, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and the health impacts of climate change. He is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Fast-Track Health.
The book covers the first year of the second Trump administration. It chronicles the impact of federal policy shifts and budget cuts on the HIV response and public health more broadly, including for LGBTQ communities. Drawing from policy analysis, frontline insight, and lived experience, the author reveal how decades of hard-won progress became vulnerable through Project 2025 and DOGE, but also a paralysis in the HIV and public health communities following the outcome of the 2024 elections.
“In other words, we were caught flat-footed when our opposition had a detailed plan to create chaos and disruption,” Zuniga says. “Thus, the book also offers Horizons 2028 as an antidote to Project 2025 as a starting point for a wide-ranging conversation about how we will build back better given the baseline pre-Trump 2.0 was already imperfect.”
Below is an excerpt from the book.
What Could Not Be Left Unsaid
Let me begin with a simple truth: I did not set out to write this book. Like many in the public health community, I set out daily to do the work of scaling prevention, expanding access to care, strengthening health systems, and ensuring that dignity, equity, and justice are operational realities. Writing, for me, has always been in service of action: policy briefs to shape decisions, editorials to provoke accountability, reports to document progress or failure, and books to synthesize experience into insight that can guide public health action. But Aftershocks is something different; it is not merely an analysis. Instead, it is a record of rupture, of response, and of what it means to continue when the ground beneath your work begins to shift.
This book was written because something changed, and that change came into sharp relief during the beginning days of the second Trump administration, including the erosion of norms, the weaponization of rhetoric, and the recalibration of governance itself. The change was not limited to policy reversals or budget cuts, though there were many. Moreover, it was not confined to rhetoric, though language played a central role. The change was structural and moral: a redefinition of how power understood its obligations to people, to evidence, and to truth itself. And for those of us working in public health, the effects were immediate and personal. We experienced a purposeful disruption of the public health ecosystem and a direct repudiation of the “health for all” principle that guides our work….
Writing this book was, unexpectedly, an act of catharsis. Not because it resolved anything, but because it created space to process what would otherwise have been overwhelming… Amid what many in the public health community experienced as both individual and collective trauma, documenting itself was stabilizing, allowing reflection without detachment and critique without disengagement. But catharsis alone is insufficient. This book is not an exercise in lament; it is also a response. If the period it chronicles is defined by disruption, then its purpose is to offer direction. Where Project 2025 represented a blueprint for ideological capture of institutions, language, and governance, this book offers a counterpoint: Horizons 2028…
Horizons 2028 is grounded in a simple premise: that the future of public health – and of democratic governance more broadly – depends on rebuilding systems that are resilient to political volatility. That means strengthening not only federal capacity, but subnational leadership. It means embedding community-led accountability into data systems. It means aligning health outcomes with social determinants and recognizing that equity is not an endpoint but a continuous process of adjustment and correction. It means treating global engagement not as optional, but as essential to national well-being. In other words, it is a roadmap not for returning to what was, but for building what is required…
I write as an Independent. Not in the sense of detachment, but in the sense of accountability to evidence, to outcomes, and to the people whose lives depend on both… Independence does not mean neutrality in the face of harm; it means refusing to filter reality through partisan allegiance. Importantly, it also means being guided by a consistent commitment to equity, dignity, and justice. These are not abstract values… They are tested in moments of crisis, when the gap between principle and practice becomes most apparent. They demand accountability not only for what is said, but for what is done – and for what is allowed to persist unchallenged. And they require the courage to name harm clearly, even when doing so is inconvenient or politically unwelcome.
That commitment shapes the analysis that follows, but it is also what makes the writing difficult. Because to document harm is to confront it. To trace its origins is to name decisions and their consequences. And to do so honestly is to risk being read as partisan in a landscape where truth itself has become politicized. But the alternative – silence, or false equivalence – is not acceptable. Not when the stakes are as high as they are. There is, however, a thread that runs through this book that resists cynicism, is not optimism, at least not in the conventional sense, but is something quieter and more durable: a belief that even in moments of rupture, there remains a capacity – within institutions, within communities, within individuals – to reorient toward something better.
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