Stormy Day Dinner

It's all about a warm pot of baked beans today, but these aren't the usual New England style baked beans. These have a bit of a spicy twist. Perfect with a pan of cheesy jalapeño cornbread. This dinner took the chill out of our first ice and sleet storm of the season.

White Beans with Italian Sausage and Escarole

A good stew is a thing of beauty. This particular stew is healthy, relatively low in calories, filling, and a small enough batch that it doesn't grow 'old' on the palate. The recipe makes enough for two hungry souls with a bit left over for lunch in the next day or so. A good meal that doesn't overstay its welcome!

One Sick Mama, Risotto, and the Tree ...

Well, I could make one more cookie cutter Christmas. I'm good at that ... making cookies, pulling all the same stuff out of the closet and sorting through it meticulously. This year, though, things are a bit different. The kids will be making Christmas Eve dinner. We are attending a different church. I am sick with a horrid cold and don't feel great. I need comfort food, a slow approach to all the decorating and hub-bub. I have been doing a series of home made gifts that I really want to concentrate on and damn the commercial end of things. Thank goodness, I got most of the foodie gifts made before I turned into Typhoid Mary ... now I can sit around on my ass and stitch the rest of the presents ... and hopefully, ditch this sickness!

Virtual Supper Club ... A Jump on Summer Indulgence

May's Virtual Supper Club theme asks us to contemplate 'our favorite indulgence' ... and I am here to tell you that come May, my favorite indulgence is jumping the season to grab onto summertime seafood, fresh summertime vegetables, corn that I have stockpiled from last summer and placed in the deep freeze, and light citrus zest and juice to make a tribute to what's coming full speed in the next few months!

Beer Braised Shrimp and Sausage with Louisiana Salsa and Rice

... Cajun 'holy trinity' is the base for a chilly fresh salsa ...

Starting with a chop of celery, green pepper, and red onion, one can put together a nice little shrimp and sausage slurry that sure makes for a nice spicy supper ... meal made in thirty minutes while listening to pre-game chatter, ball game on at first pitch,  and feet up with bowls of Beer Braised Shrimp with Louisiana Salsa and Rice sitting in our laps ...  go Red Sox !!!

Cooking With Nigel - Baked Apple Chicken Sausages and Golden Mash

I'm not quite through with my fascination with bangers and mash, as you can see. This week's version highlights apple chicken sausages that are browned and baked with onions, apple slices, fresh thyme leaves, black pepper, and a brown sugar sweetened gravy of broth and dark beer.

Saturday Night Supper Courtesy of Nigel Slater

Tonight, it's all about the eggs and sausage ... I could have gone all fancy on you and made more meringues or lemon curd, or some other such fancy Brit sweet treat, but it's Saturday night and I've been busy all day. All I want is a warm, stick-to-my-ribs supper and I remembered a segment from Slater's webpage that he did on breakfast hash.

You can watch him at the link below or trust my version of the recipe as seen further on.

BBC TV's Nigel link to Breakfast Hash

Turkey Sausage Chili and Herbed Cheese Bread

Getting outside early the other morning, I found the most beautiful frosty leaves on our lawn and in our gardens. The air was so crisp and as Sprout Sara and I drove off for our weekend foodie adventure, the mists were rising off the area lakes and ponds. If I hadn't been on a strict timetable to get us to Newmarket on time, I'd have stopped in several locations to try to capture the beauty with my camera, but alas, we drove on and just marveled at the sights - wispy streams of steamy fog rising off the water and the sunshine coming through the bright golds and deep browns of the beech and oak trees ...

Panzanella with Chourizo

Dinner came right from the garden this evening ... the sun was still in the tomatoes. Really! They were warm from the sunshine. SB picked a big bunch of basil that smelled incredible! The corn that came from a friend's roadside stand was chilled from the burlap bag that held it in icy water. SB pulled an artisan loaf from the freezer that I'd baked a month ago and then shucked the corn in the back yard while I put together the rest of the tomato and bread salad. While the salad rested, we boiled up the corn. Such a simple supper that was so satisfying!

January and the 'Must Make' Soup List ...

If you take a look at the sidebar of The Spice Garden this month, you'll find my personal 'must make' list of soups. I am finding such inspiration around the web and from my friends' foodblogs! I'm also digging around in my cook book collection looking for some new inspiration. I invite all of you, dear readers and friends, to make your own list of  'must make' soups ... and post a few! I'll be looking around the web all month. By the time February arrives, I'm hoping to have a whole list of soups for experimenting with for the rest of the winter!

Random Recipe - First or Last ?

This month Dom has challenged us to randomly pick a cookbook and decide whether to make the very first or the very last recipe in said book. Well, THAT'S fun! We get to choose this month!

My random cook book is one that is a recent addition to the collection. It's called Farmstead Chef and it has a mish mash of recipes that revolve around homesteading and agricultural advocacy - that is, families on small farms and in residential settings that use their homes and acreage for producing their own foods and supporting the local farmers that supplement with their fresh and local produce. The key here is homemade, preserved, less processed and more fresh and local meats and produce, and making the process of mealtimes a family affair. The authors are enthusiastic and fun-loving and the recipes reflect that ... the book has everything from homemade play dough and homemade cocoa mix for the kids to  Rhubarb Cordial and Creamy Leek Pastries for the more sophisticated palate ... it's a good little cookbook.

I chose to make the last recipe in the book - Lentil and Polish Sausage Soup. It's been a chilly cloudy day here and I have a big loaf of multigrain bread and a chunk of Cheddar that would sit nicely beside a big hot bowl of soup.

Ella Brennan Inspired ...

Sometimes you just have to go to a place where the food and the atmosphere pull you in, wrap around you, and make you settle back in total comfort - a place of happy people, happy food, and happy music.  Ella Brennan has played her game on that premise for many, many years! She has been a signature presence in the restaurant business for most of her life, starting young in her brother's New Orleans restaurant as a kitchen grunt and working her way up to menu development and front house management. When his restaurant ran into financial trouble, she took over and as they say, ''the rest is history". She has spent her years creating just the kinds of places of which I speak!

                                                                                                               photo by Steven Forster of the Times-Picayune

Okay, so that's the back story ... let's come forward. She is considered the grande dame of New Orleans haute creole/cajun, has worked with the likes of Prudhomme and Lagasse, has a chain of successful restaurants that the family runs, has stepped back because of age and family factors but still keeps a presence in the New Orleans Restaurant, Commander's Palace. Her awards are many, but when all is said and done, she is really just an excellent hostess with impeccable taste in food and style ... and a great business sense! What a lady!

White Bean and Sausage Soup with Kale

I call these frost feathers and they are especially beautiful this morning! Every window in the upper story of the grey cottage is decked out with different patterns. The temperature was -8°F … that’s -22°C for those who use the Celsius measurements.