With Thanksgiving on the horizon, and the marathon cooking sessions many undertake about to begin in earnest, one new cookbook is here to challenge some of the assumptions that underlie the holiday — while providing over 100 modern and historic recipes.

By three-time James Beard Award-winning Indigenous chef Sean Sherman, with authors Kate Nelson and Kristin Donnelly, “Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America” (Clarkson Potter, $45) provides an in-depth look at the culinary history and traditions of Indigenous people across North America, broken down by geographic region.

Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, is a leader in the movement to rebuild Native American foodways. He started the Indigenous restaurant Owamni in Minneapolis and is the founder and executive director of North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS).

When it comes to Thanksgiving, the celebration is commonly associated with New England and Indigenous figures like Squanto, he writes. But some of the commonly told aspects of the Thanksgiving story are myths.

A new cookbook, “Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America” by Sean Sherman with Kate Nelson and Kristin Donnelly, out now, is promoted as “the most comprehensive work to date on the food traditions and legacies of the Indigenous peoples across North America or Turtle Island” by its publisher, Clarkson Potter. (Courtesy of Clarkson Potter)

“While based on an actual event between English colonizers and members of the Wampanoag Nation, the November holiday as many people celebrate it today actually took shape in the mid-nineteenth century, to help the United States heal after the Civil War.” he writes.

“Like many teachings perpetuated by our education system, these inaccurate history lessons largely disregard the devastating traumas that colonialism wreaked upon the area’s original residents,” he continues. “But against all odds, steadfast cooks, seed keepers, and food sovereignty warriors have strived to maintain connection to their foodways by reviving heirloom varieties and reintroducing important ingredients to their communities.”

This recipe comes from the Southwest, where a variety of wild potato that’s frost- and drought-tolerant known as the Four Corners potato has long been gathered or cultivated.

They’re hard to find commercially, or to grow, but if you find some, “treat them like any other wild food and eat a small amount first before consuming more. If a tuber is especially sour or bitter, it’s best not to eat it,” he writes.

Using this Indigenous potato as inspiration, this recipe features crisp-edged potatoes flavored with a pesto of garlic, pinyon pine nuts and wild greens. “Use the smallest potatoes you can find,” he suggests.

Roasted Smashed Baby Potatoes With Wild Greens Pesto

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds Four Corners potatoes or baby potatoes, scrubbed well

Sea salt

Sunflower oil, for the pan and drizzling

For the wild green pesto:

2 tablespoons pinyon pine nuts or other pine nuts

2 cups packed wild greens, such as lamb’s quarters, common plantain, watercress or wild mustard

1 bulb and greens from wild garlic or 1 small garlic clove

1/2 cup sunflower oil

sea salt

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

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DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
In a large saucepan, combine the potatoes with water to cover by 1 inch and season with salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 10 to 20 minutes, just until fork-tender.
Drain the potatoes and return them to the pot. Set them over low heat for a minute or two, just to dry them.
Grease a sheet pan with oil and set it in the oven for 1 minute. Pull it out just long enough to add the cooked potatoes and use the bottom of a mug to lightly crush each one. Drizzle them with oil and season with salt.
Roast for 15 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are golden brown and crisp at the edges.
Meanwhile, make the pesto: In a small dry skillet, toast the pinyon pine nuts over medium heat for about 2 minutes, or until golden with a few browned spots. Transfer to a food processor to cool.
Add the greens and garlic and pulse to chop. With the machine running, add the oil until incorporated and the pesto is finely chopped. Season with salt. Transfer to a bowl. Just before serving, stir the vinegar into the pesto. Serve the potatoes with the pesto.

Reprinted with permission from “Turtle Island: Foods and Traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of North America” by Sean Sherman with Kate Nelson and Kristin Donnelly © 2025 by Sean Sherman. Photographs copyright © 2025 by David Alvarado. Illustrations copyright © 2025 by Jimmy Dean Horn Jr. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

By LAURA UNGAR, Associated Press

Shilpa Gajarawala struggled with hot flashes, night sweats, sleep problems and brain fog. But given her history of breast cancer, treating these menopausal symptoms with hormone therapy wasn’t an option.

“For two years, I tried to kind of power through,” said the 58-year-old physician assistant from Jacksonville, Florida.

But doctors say women like Gajarawala don’t need to suffer.

Though many women take hormone therapy medications to ease menopause symptoms, recently announced label changes may encourage even more to start. But others choose not to use these medications that circulate throughout the body. And doctors advise some to avoid them because they have medical problems such as severe liver disease or a history of heart attack, stroke, blood clots or a type of breast cancer that grows in response to hormones such as estrogen.

For those people, there are lifestyle changes, medications without hormones and other strategies that can help.

“The key here is that there’s something for everybody,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director at the Menopause Society. “There’s always a solution. We have lots of other options available.”

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Lifestyle changes

Boosting physical activity can make a difference. While exercise hasn’t been shown to alleviate menopausal symptoms directly, it can help to shed pounds, which is associated with reductions in hot flashes and night sweats.

Doctors suggest a mix of aerobic exercise, such as running or walking, and strength training, which slows the loss of bone density.

Along with exercise, doctors advise watching what you eat.

Emerging science shows that a “plant-forward diet,” rich in produce and soy and low in oil, may help with managing hot flashes in particular, said Faubion of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health. Experts aren’t sure why this is true, but some suggest it may be because it also helps with weight loss.

Another key, doctors said, is to avoid things in the diet that may trigger hot flashes, like caffeine or alcohol.

Eating well and exercising also help with other midlife health issues, like rising heart and diabetes risks.

During menopause, the body’s production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone declines greatly. The drop in estrogen levels can lead to higher blood pressure and cholesterol.

“It’s important that we focus on maintaining cardiovascular health” such as stopping smoking, getting enough sleep and watching stress levels, Faubion said.

Prescription drugs

Beyond lifestyle changes, some nonhormonal prescription medicines have been shown to ease menopausal symptoms.

Antidepressants can help with hot flashes and mood issues. Recent data suggest that a drug for an overactive bladder called oxybutynin may reduce hot flashes while also treating frequent urination that’s common during menopause.

And doctors pointed to a new drug on the market – Veozah, a brand name for fezolinetant — which works in the area of the brain that controls body temperature and blocks a source of hot flashes and night sweats. Another nonhormonal drug called elinzanetant — marketed as Lynkuet — was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It works similarly, except it blocks two molecules in the nervous system instead of one.

One downside of such medications? Possible side effects.

Veozah’s label includes a federally required warning about the risk of a rare but serious liver injury. Lynkuet’s possible side effects include difficulty staying awake, fatigue and others. Some antidepressants can cause weight gain, although generally in doses higher than those used for menopause symptoms. And oxybutynin can cause dry mouth and, in some people, a condition in which they can’t completely empty the bladder.

“There’s no medication out there that’s entirely free of risk,” said Dr. JoAnn Manson at Harvard Medical School.

Other nonhormonal options

Over-the-counter products can also treat some menopausal symptoms. Lubricants available at drugstores can help women struggling with vaginal dryness.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses on changing unhealthy thought patterns and behaviors, has been shown to help women cope with hot flashes.

“It’s not like it’s going to make you not have a hot flash,” Faubion said. “But it makes them less significant for you and less burdensome.”

Manson said there’s “moderate evidence” that clinical hypnosis might also help, with some studies showing reductions in the frequency and severity of hot flashes.

“That seems a promising option,” she said. “But more research is needed.”

The bottom line is that women don’t have to simply “get through” menopause, said Dr. Juliana Kling, a women’s health expert at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Arizona. “I would implore women to have that conversation … about what treatment might be beneficial for them.”

Gajarawala did that. She now skips red wine, walks at least 10,000 steps a day, practices tai chi and takes an extended-release antidepressant to address her symptoms.

“It’s been a significant improvement,” she said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press Business Writer

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes increased last month to the fastest pace since February as lower mortgage rates helped pull more homebuyers into the market.

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Existing home sales rose 1.2% in October from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.10 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Sales climbed 1.7% compared with October last year. The latest sales figure topped the roughly 4.09 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

The national median sales price increased 2.1% in October from a year earlier to $415,200. That’s the 28th consecutive month that home prices have risen on an annual basis.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

Sales have remained sluggish this year, but have gotten a boost this fall as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage declined to its lowest level in more than a year.

Even so, affordability and uncertainty over the economy and job market remain significant hurdles for many aspiring homeowners after years of skyrocketing home prices.

Mortgage rates moved modestly lower this week, but interest rates were not the big news for anyone following home loans. President Donald Trump’s social media post about a 50-year mortgage stole the show, as economists and pundits critiqued the ins and outs of such a proposal.

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Though details weren’t provided, the three-word version says plenty: 50-year mortgage. A loan that, if you didn’t sell or refinance — which to be fair, most homeowners will at some point — would take half a century to repay. The idea popped up in a Truth Social post from the president over the weekend, which was quickly re-posted on X by Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte.

Aiding affordability is the intention of the proposed ultra-long loan, but reaction was swift and strongly negative. Let’s slow down for a second and dig into how mortgages work, and what a 50-year loan would look like.

Lower monthly cost, higher total cost

Reducing a loan’s monthly cost by taking longer to pay it back is basic math. Divide any loan amount by a larger number of months and you’ll get a smaller monthly payment, because the loan’s cost is spread over more time. A lower payment keeps more money in the borrower’s pocket on a month-to-month basis.

But — and this is a big but — over the life of the loan, borrowers pay less on loans with shorter terms. The vast majority of mortgages in the U.S. are 30-year, fixed-rate loans because these offer manageable monthly payments. But folks able to swing the higher principal payment on, for example, a 15-year loan spend less overall. That’s because, even with the same interest rate, the 30-year borrower is paying interest for twice as long as a 15-year borrower.

Here’s where it gets a little complicated: Home loans with different repayment terms also have different interest rates. Mortgage lenders’ interest rates are lower for shorter-term mortgages, because the money’s paid back more quickly. A shorter term means less risk for the lender.

So for example, while the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.14% APR this week, the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate home loan was 5.59%, a difference of 55 basis points, according to rates provided to NerdWallet by Zillow. (A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.)

Interest rates on a 50-year loan would be higher than rates on a 30-year loan. The 50-year loan might offer the lowest monthly principal and interest payment, but it would be the most costly option overall.

Comparing loan terms

Let’s look at some numbers to see how this would play out. This example uses principal and interest costs on a $400,000 loan — to keep it simple, we aren’t getting into homeowners insurance, property taxes and other costs of homeownership. We’ll round interest rates from this week’s averages, and assume a hypothetical 50-year rate.

The monthly payment difference between the 30 year and the 50 year is less than some mobile phone bills, with the 50 year leaving an extra $130 in your pocket each month. The total cost of the loan, however, is staggering: north of a million dollars, and over half a million more than the 30-year. (If you think our presumed 50-year interest rate is too high, at the same rate as the 30-year — 6.25% — the monthly savings would be about $280, and the total cost would still be over $1.3 million.)

Beyond cost concerns

There are other considerations as well. With a 50-year loan, “homeowners would build equity at a much slower pace,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, noted in a LinkedIn post. “After 10 years, a buyer might have only half the equity they would have built with a 30-year mortgage. This makes it harder to build wealth or move.” If home prices drop, homeowners with minimal equity face a higher risk of going underwater on their mortgages — owing more money than the home’s worth.

And speaking of home prices, if the prospect of a more affordable mortgage option drew more buyers into the housing market, there’s the potential for increased competition. “The design of this proposal is to boost home buyer demand,” Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com, noted in an emailed commentary. “More flexible financing is essentially a subsidy for housing demand, which will add to the pool and buying power of home buyers without increasing the supply of homes, which will drive home prices up.”

There’s also the fact that 50 years is a mighty long time. Decades ago, the 30-year term was established because it spread out payments long enough to make a mortgage affordable, but not so long that borrowers would still be paying their houses off after retirement.

If the idea of a 25-year-old buyer owning their home free and clear at age 75 doesn’t make you want to break out the champagne, here’s an even more sobering fact: Today, the median age of the American first-time home buyer is 40, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Imagine blowing out the candles on your 90th birthday cake and celebrating that this will be the year your mortgage is finally paid off.

Kate Wood writes for NerdWallet. Email: kwood@nerdwallet.com.

The article How to Spend a Million on a $400K Home: 50-Year Mortgage Math originally appeared on NerdWallet.