Chili and Polenta Bowls

I’ve gone on about my love of chili before, but I’m going to do it again. I’m sure this won’t be the last time, either, just so you know. But I can’t help it. What I love most about chili is its versatility. Not only are there a million ways to make chili, but there are just as many ways to serve it. I’ve had it over rice and mixed in with rice. I’ve had it over burgers and over hot dogs, stuffed in poblanos and in burritos, and mixed with cheese for a fantastic dip. All these possibilities, and I haven’t even gotten to corn yet. Chili and corn have a natural affinity for each other. No really, I mean it. Chili and corn bread? Come on. Chili tamale pie? Yes, please. And now, my newest chili experience, chili and polenta bowls.

This is another terrific idea from Rachael Ray. Just pile some polenta into a bowl, make a well in the center, ladle in some chili, and there you have it. Chili and polenta bowls. They’re fabulous. I don’t know how many other people are eating chili right now—I mean, it’s more of a winter dish, right?—but I could never go three months without it. And there are plenty of ways to make it more fitting with the season. I added frozen corn to mine, but fresh corn scraped off the cob would be even better. You could add some grilled veggies or, instead of mixing canned tomatoes into the chili, top the dish off with some fresh salsa. Or, my favorite idea, top it with some fresh chopped avocado and a squeeze of lime. Served with some margaritas, that’s a perfect meal any time of year.

Chili and Polenta Bowls
Adapted from Chunky Chicken and Chorizo Chili

This makes a very thick chili. If you like yours a bit thinner, you can add some extra liquid in the form of beer, chicken stock, or crushed tomatoes. Just add the desired amount at the same time that you add your tomatoes.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 links fresh chorizo
1 pound ground turkey
1.5 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
Salt and pepper
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup quick cooking polenta
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Garnishes: chopped scallions, shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped avocado

Heat a deep skillet over medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil. Add chorizo, break it up a bit with a wooden spoon, and allow to cook until meat begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Push the chorizo off to the sides of the pot and add turkey. Brown and crumble the turkey for 5 to 6 minutes. Season with chili powder and cumin. Add the onions, garlic, and jalapeno and cook another 5 to 6 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Add the beans, corn, and tomatoes with their liquid and heat through. Season the chili with salt and pepper, to taste, and allow to simmer, covered, while preparing polenta.

Bring stock to a boil in a medium pot. Stir in polenta, and keep stirring until the polenta masses and thickens to a porridge, about 2 minutes. Stir in butter and thyme and season with salt, to taste.

Fill bowls half-way with polenta. Spread polenta up sides of bowls, making a well in the center of each bowl. Fill up bowls with chili, top with desired garnishes, and serve.

Noodle Love VI: Rotini

When I first saw Rachael Ray’s cauliflower mac-n-cheese, I had two thoughts. The first one was, Yum-o! (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist that.) The second one was, This reminds me a lot of Ina Garten’s cauliflower gratin, which I’ve made previously and really liked.

There are some fundamental differences between the two dishes. For one, the seasonings are different. Rachael's dish is seasoned with cayenne, paprika, and Dijon, whereas Ina’s dish features nutmeg. Rachael uses smoked Gouda, and Ina uses Gruyère. There’s also, obviously, the omission of noodles in Ina’s cauliflower gratin. Rachael’s recipe calls for cavatappi, but my store, much to my disappointment, has a pretty limited pasta selection and no cavatappi. I didn’t think elbows would work that well. I’d have to cut the cauliflower up pretty small to get it to be similar in size to the pasta, and I wanted to leave the cauliflower in larger chunks, like it is in Ina’s gratin.

What I finally settled on was the following: I went with Rachael’s seasonings (cayenne, paprika, Dijon) but used Ina’s cheese (Gruyère). I chose rotini for my noodles, because I thought they’d be about the right size, and their ruffly edges sort of remind me of the bumpy surface of the cauliflower. To finish the dish, I topped it with a fresh breadcrumb crust, just like in Ina’s recipe.

The end result was really good! I already want to make this again and experiment with the ingredients. I think a combination of cheddar and Gruyère might be good, and I’m also thinking I might try using nutmeg next time. Has anyone ever used nutmeg in a pasta dish before? I don’t think I have, and I’m intrigued by the idea.

Cauliflower Mac-n-Cheese
adapted from Mac-n-Smoked Gouda with Cauliflower
3 servings

Coarse salt
1/2 pound rotini
1 small head cauliflower, cut into florets
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 cups whole milk
2 cups shredded Gruyère
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Freshly ground black pepper
4 slices white bread

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt to season the cooking water, then add the pasta. Return to boil and cook for 3 minutes, then add the cauliflower and cook for 3 minutes more or until pasta is cooked to barely al dente and the florets are just tender. Drain well and return to the pot.

While the pasta cooks, heat a medium sauce pot over medium-low heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter and heat until it melts. Add the onions and cook for 5 minutes to sweat them out and turn the juices sweet. Raise the heat to medium, then whisk in the flour, cayenne, and paprika. Whisk together until the roux bubbles up, then cook for 1 minute more. Add the milk and, whisking frequently, bring the sauce to a quick boil. Once it bubbles, drop the heat back to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickens, a couple minutes more.

Add the cheese to the thickened sauce and stir to melt it, a minute or so. Stir in the mustard and season the sauce with salt and pepper. Combine the sauce with the pasta and cauliflower and then transfer to a greased shallow baking dish.

Remove crusts from bread and pulse bread to fine crumbs in food processor. Melt the remaining two tablespoons of butter and toss with breadcrumbs to distribute evenly. Scatter breadcrumb topping evenly over cauliflower mac-n-cheese, then bake in oven for about 20 minutes or until edges are bubbly and topping is golden brown.

Noodle Love V: Spaghetti Rigati

Adam has cooked for me a few times. There was soup once when I was sick. There were also some sandwiches here and there which, even though that’s not technically “cooking,” I will count because, somehow, a sandwich always tastes better when somebody else makes it for you.

The first time, it was spaghetti. Things started out well enough. Boil some water, add some noodles. Hard to go wrong. But it went downhill after that. He got a jar of spaghetti sauce, unscrewed the lid, and poured the sauce, straight from the jar, onto my plate. He then dropped some noodles on top of the sauce and, to top things off, added some chickpeas. The chickpeas, like the sauce, were unwarmed, and it’s possible they came straight from the can. I’ve worked hard to forget some of the gorier details, so it’s hard now to say for sure.

Because of this incident, I always thought of spaghetti and chickpeas as a sort of ridiculous combination. I ignored Adam’s future requests to add chickpeas to my pasta dishes. But eventually I saw Rachael Ray make Spaghetti alla Ceci, and I reconsidered the issue. Not only did Rachael warm the chickpeas, but she made them a fully incorporated part of the sauce. This was something I could handle. I made the dish.

I now rescind any earlier contempt I showed toward spaghetti and chickpeas. I was wrong. When it’s done right, it’s fabulous. A little wine, some garlic, a pinch or two of red pepper flakes—delicious! I’m not usually too big a fan of spaghetti and tomato sauce because I think it can be boring, but this dish definitely is not. It’s been added to my regular rotation, which isn’t something that happens very often.

Spaghetti alla Ceci
Adapted from Rachael Ray’s Spaghetti all Ceci
serves 2

1/2 pound spaghetti*
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Pino Grigio)
1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
2 tablespoons chopped parlsey
Grated parmesan, for serving

Cook spaghetti to al dente in salted boiling water.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and onion and sauté until onions begin to soften; add crushed red pepper flakes and garlic. Place chickpeas in food processor and pulse them to a fine chop. Add chickpeas to pan and season them with thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes. Add wine and cook for one minute, then stir in tomatoes and adjust seasoning. Drain pasta and toss with sauce. Top with parsley and grated cheese.

*I really like spaghetti rigati for this dish. The chickpeas make the sauce thick and a bit chunky, and those ridges really help hold the extra weight.

Chili Suizas Bake

I haven’t written about a Rachael Ray recipe in a while, and I’m excited to finally be doing so now. I’ve really been impressed with some of her recipes lately. She still has some of the same problems for me that’s she’s always had (clearly, Rachael and I have drastically different definitions of what it means for a sauce to be “thick”), and I’m still not buying the whole thirty-minute thing (without a staff of people prewarming your pans and putting all your supplies in arm’s reach, thirty minutes is hard to do), but since adding less liquid is not a problem for me, and I don’t mind spending a bit longer than half an hour on dinner, I’ve really been happy with her dishes this season. I think Rachael’s are some of the most creative recipes on the Network, and I’ve frequently been surprised by some of the things she comes up with.

Take, for instance, her Chili Suizas Bake. This is a great and original idea. It’s pretty basic—chicken and poblano chili topped with tortillas and Swiss cheese (suiza means “Swiss”)—but the flavors are wonderful, and, despite the basic idea, this recipe uses some interesting techniques, such as roasting the peppers and making your own tomatillo salsa. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find tomatillos, so I used a bottled salsa verde by Goya (tomatillo-and-jalapeño-based). It was pretty spicy, I thought, so I only used half a cup, but, of course, that amount can easily be adjusted to suit individual tastes.

I did roast the poblanos though, something I’ve never done before. I was a bit afraid that it would be a pain removing the skins, but it really wasn’t hard at all. They cracked a bit during roasting, and all I had to do was look for the cracks and pull the skin away from the flesh. Actually, the original recipe doesn’t call for removing the skins, and I can’t remember whether Rachael did so on the show, but I removed mine and I think I did the right thing. I made Adam taste a strip of skin and he said it had a funny flavor. You can taste it and make your own call.

Besides using the bottled tomatillo salsa, I only made a couple of other changes. I used only one cup of chicken stock (two is definitely too much), and used sour cream instead of crème fraîche. I have nothing against crème fraîche—I just always have lots of sour cream on hand.

I served this dish with chips and avocado sour cream, which is, very simply, two avocados slightly mashed (I like mine chunky) with a juiced lime, salt and pepper, and about a quarter cup of sour cream. I made plenty of the avocado cream so that I could dollop some on top of the chili suizas. It was a fabulous, fabulous meal.

The original recipe is here, and my slightly modified version follows.

Chili Suizas Bake
Adapted from Chili Suizas Bake

3 poblano peppers
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds ground chicken
1 large onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup bottled salsa verde
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons honey
Salt and pepper
1 lime, juiced
1/2 cup sour cream
3 cups lightly crushed tortilla chips
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 scallion, chopped, for garnish

Place the poblanos under a preheated broiler and char until blackened an all sides, 10 to 12 minutes, turning half-way through. Turn off broiler and set oven to 350 degrees. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the peppers to cool enough to handle.

While peppers char, heat extra-virgin olive oil in a high-sided skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and jalapeno and sauté until onions begin to soften, then add garlic and cook a minute more. Add chicken and cook until no longer pink, stirring occasionally and breaking up meat with a wooden spoon. Stir in salsa, then add chicken stock and honey. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer chili 10 minutes.

When poblano peppers are cool enough to handle, remove skins and seeds and chop. Stir into chili. Turn off heat and stir in lime juice. Transfer to a lightly greased casserole dish, and top with dollops of sour cream. Cover with a layer of crushed chips and top with Swiss and Monterey Jack cheeses. Cook in preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Scatter scallions over the top, if desired.

I will definitely be making this again, probably as soon as I see some tomatillos. And preferably on a Friday, served with some icy cold margaritas.

Cashew Chicken

For years, I ordered nothing but cashew chicken (and won ton soup, of course) when I went to Chinese restaurants. I never ordered anything else because I loved cashew chicken so so much, and I needed to take advantage of every opportunity I had to get some. Then one day I saw RR make it and I thought, wait, why haven't I been making this at home?

Rachael's isn't exactly traditional though. It has chipotle in adobe in it, which is very spicy, and I'm a wuss. I'm nowhere near chipotle level. I'm getting better though. I remember a time when I didn't use garlic; I don't remember what sort of food I was eating then, but I know it must not have been very good. The recent adoption of andouille into my repertoire was quite a milestone for me, and lately I've been known to incorporate a jalapeño or two, although always meticulously seeded and deveined. But I'm just not on board with the chipotle in adobe yet.


I made this dish for the first time months ago. I wasn't able to find chipotle in adobe in my store, so I got some chipotle chili powder, which Rachael said could be substituted. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 tablespoons, so, knowing myself, I used only 1 scant tablespoon. I stirred some in and tasted it, and--I'll never forget this--I couldn't believe how hot it was. I kept adding more of the other ingredients, trying to save the dish, but even though I was able to decrease the heat level a bit, there is no getting rid of that chipotle flavor. It is strong, and it permeates everything it touches. And, aside from the heat, I find I'm not that crazy about the flavor of it. Although I do enjoy the chipotle mayonnaise on a Sierra Turkey Sandwich from Panera. But I think mayo could make me love anything.


Anyway, I made the dish again, this time without the chipotle. It's really very good. It's not exactly like you would get in a restaurant, but it's close. It has its own unique flavor that I appreciate. I never would have believed that a sauce made from honey, maple syrup, and cumin would give me what I was after, but it works.


Now when I make it, I leave mine spice-free and stir in some chipotle powder at the end or sprinkle some on top for my fiancé, who likes it spicy. And when I go to Chinese restaurants, I find that I no longer have a problem giving other dishes a try. I've discovered that sesame chicken is quite tasty.

Deep-Dish Meatball Pizza

Today I took a 30-minute meal and turned it into a 2-hour meal. Sounds crazy, but I had good reason. Rachael’s Mega Meatball Pizza calls for already-made pizza dough. You can buy it, she says, or get it from your favorite pizza shop. Has anyone ever actually walked into a pizza shop and asked for some dough? Did they give it to you? I just don’t see it happening at the pizzeria across the street from me. As for store-bought dough, well, that’s just not an option. My store only carries refrigerated dough, not frozen, and you know what I’m talking about here—the stuff in a can that tastes like a poorly adapted biscuit. The last time I struggled with that stuff, cursing as it tore during my futile attempts to shape it into some semblance of a pizza, I swore I’d never use it again. And I haven’t.

So to make Rachael’s pizza, I made my own dough. I wanted something that would be no hassle whatsoever, and so I looked for one I could make in my bread machine. I used this one from recipezaar.com, and it worked really well. I flavored mine with (dried) rosemary, just like in Rachael’s recipe, and I got a perfect dough ball.

Because the toppings are a bit heavy in this recipe, I thought it would work well as a deep-dish pizza. I decided my 9x13-inch baking dish was my best bet for this, but I wasn’t sure how it would affect baking. I wanted to bake the crust a bit before adding the toppings, just to keep it from getting soggy, but I was afraid the center of the crust would puff up on me. I mentally scanned my pantry, thinking I could hold it down with some dried beans, the way you would a pie crust, but I knew I didn’t have any beans. Finally, I decided to just try it and see what happened. I greased my pan and then sprinkled it with cornmeal—the latter helped “grab” the dough as I tried to spread it into the corners of the pan. After working at it a while, I got the dough up the sides of the pan about half-way, then stuck it in a 375-degree oven for 11 minutes. Meanwhile, I made the filling for the pizza. I followed Rachael’s recipe exactly except I used 1 pound of ground beef and 1/2 pound of ground pork (instead of 1 1/2 pounds sirloin). This just felt more “meatball-like” to me.

After 11 minutes, I took the crust out of the oven. It puffed up even more that I had feared it would. I wish I’d taken a picture just so you could see how big it was, but at the time I was sure it was a disaster, and I’m not one to document my disasters. I added this to my ever-growing list of next-time-I’ll-know-better moments, and went ahead and piled the filling and cheese into the center. I put it back in the oven.

Eleven minutes later, it was done. I was terrified to cut into it. I pictured a chunk of bread with some meat sitting on top. But, bravely, I picked up my knife and forged ahead. I was completely surprised to see that the center had sunk back down during the second baking, and I ended up with a respectable deep-dish pizza, after all. A tasty one, too. The crust did taste more like bread than crust usually does, but that’s actually how this recipe is supposed to turn out. Rachael says she likes her pizza crusts to taste like focaccia, and this one definitely does.

This is very filling, and between two of us here, both with large appetites, we were only able to finish half the pizza. So feed a group or prepare for leftovers. Pair it with a coffee (or chocolate) float, and you’ve got a 2-hour 30-minute meal. Enjoy!

Chicken and Dumplings

Tonight we had Rachael Ray’s Chicken and Dumplings. This recipe may not contain “authentic” dumplings, but it’s pretty darn good nonetheless. Plus, it’s so easy, and on a weeknight, I really need easy. I’ll be making these again. Here’s the recipe adjusted to thicken the sauce a bit and yield two big, delicious servings. Enjoy!

Chicken and Dumplings
adapted from Rachael Ray’s Chicken and Dumplings

3 chicken breast halves
salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 russet potato, peeled and diced
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 dried bay leaf
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup and 2 tablespoons biscuit mix (I used Bisquick)
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 cup frozen green peas

Cut chicken into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning, a thin layer of each. Set aside.

Heat oil and 1 tablespoon of butter in a 5-quart pan over medium-high heat. Add potato, onions, carrot, celery, bay leaf, and garlic, and cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in remaining tablespoon of butter, and when it melts add flour to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to coat veggies evenly and ensure that flour doesn’t burn. Slowly stir in broth, add chicken, and bring to a boil.

Place biscuit mix in a bowl. Combine with milk, parsley, and thyme. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of prepared mix into the pan, spacing dumplings evenly. You should get about 10 dumplings. Cover pan tightly and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook dumplings for 5 minutes, remove lid and gently flip each one, then replace lid and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove lid and add peas; stir to distribute evenly. Taste for seasoning, and add salt and pepper as desired. To serve, ladle chicken mixture into bowls, top with dumplings, and sprinkle with parsley.

Loaded Sugar Cookie Bars

I adore desserts that begin with packaged cake mix or cookie dough. I love baked goods, but am not always thrilled about what it takes to produce them from scratch. It’s just all too involved. The separate mixing of the wet and dry ingredients, the adding of the eggs one at a time and the addition of the flour in batches, the gentle and time-consuming folding . . . it’s such a bother. I love a good short-cut dessert, and fortunately so does Rachael Ray.

Today I made her Macadamia Coconut Cookie Bars, but I used cashews instead and semisweet chocolate chips in place of the suggested white chocolate chips. I’m sure Rachael’s version would be delicious, but I was using up what I had on hand.

Sugar Cookie Bars with Coconut, Cashews, and Chocolate Chips
adapted from Rachael Ray’s Macadamia Coconut Cookie Bars

1 package sugar cookie mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1 egg, room temperature
1 stick of butter, room temperature, plus 1 tablespoon (butter should be very soft but not melted)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup roughly chopped cashews
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. With 1 tablespoon butter, grease 9x13 inch baking dish.

Toast cashews in a pan over medium heat, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Add egg and butter to sugar cookie mix and combine. The best way to do this is with your hands—the heat from them will help blend the butter into the dry mix. Add coconut, chocolate chips, and cashews.*

Again with your hands, transfer dough to prepared baking dish and gently pat down into an even layer. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Bars will still be gooey in the center when removed from the oven, but they will set up as they cool.

Cool for 1 hour in the pan on a wire rack before cutting and serving.

*I added the cashews to the dough while they were still somewhat warm, and this caused the chocolate chips to begin to melt which, in turn, caused the dough to take on a slightly darker color. If you don’t want your chips to melt this soon, let cashews cool completely before adding them.

Cheddar Soup

When I first heard of Rachael Ray’s Cheddar Soup, I thought it sounded weird. I like lots of soups that have cheese in them—cheddar corn chowder, cheesy potato soup—but a soup where cheese was the star ingredient…well, I just didn’t know. I was intrigued though, so I really had no choice. I made it.

This soup is…well…cheesy. But in a good way. Some jalapeños and chili powder give it the depth it needs, and sour cream and crushed tortilla chips on top work very well as finishing touches.

I suggest serving this as a side-dish or along with something that would make a good dipper. I served mine with taquitos. Those were store-bought though. There’s no room for soup and homemade taquitos in a thirty-minute meal. At least not in my kitchen.

Spring Rolls

These are actually Rachael Ray’s Supper-Size Egg Rolls, but I’m calling them spring rolls. I’m sure the differences go beyond the dough, but for me, the main difference I’ve always noticed between egg rolls and spring rolls is that egg rolls have a much more substantial, crusty wrapper than the relatively delicate, flaky crust of a spring roll. The rolls here definitely fall into the delicate and flaky category.


These have a pretty standard filling: pork, cabbage, bean sprouts, garlic, ginger. The clever part of this recipe is the dough. How do you make crispy spring rolls without frying? You use phyllo dough.

This was my first time working with phyllo dough. It requires a bit more of a delicate touch than I’m used to, but it’s really not difficult. You just brush a couple sheets with melted butter to adhere them together, fold the adhered sheets in half widthwise, add a few tablespoons of filling, then roll them up just like you would a burrito. They take only 15-20 minutes in the oven. Pretty good, pretty easy. Plus—and this is something I often find with Rachael’s recipes—this is very adaptable. I imagine this same method would make a great no-fry version of a taquito.

I think I know what I’ll be doing with the rest of my phyllo dough.

Thanksgiving for Two

I've never made Thanksgiving dinner before. I want to, but I never get the chance. Thanksgiving is always at someone else's house, which means that I'm not doing the cooking. But it just seems wrong that, on perhaps the biggest food holiday of the year, I'm not in the kitchen whipping up something new (or repeating something new I saw on TV). That's why this year I decided I would have two Thanksgivings, and one would be all mine.

Now, there's sort of a problem with that, as well. It's just me and my fiance at my place, and we can't eat a whole turkey. I would love to have leftovers (turkey sandwiches, turkey tetrazzini, turkey potpie . . . . so many possibilities), but I already have our little freezer stuffed to capacity. So I decided to do a mini Thanksgiving with just enough food for one big meal.

After scouring around a while for the perfect recipes, I decided on turkey cutlets with cornbread, sage, and prosciutto stuffing and brussels sprouts with pancetta. As with most Thanksgiving meals, the turkey, while good, was sort of forgotten among the sides, which were better than good.


The cornbread stuffing had a much finer texture than usual stuffing. It was made with corn muffins, and my muffins broke down a lot during the cooking process. But that's okay. This was one of those rare and wonderful recipes where I wouldn't change a thing, although I imagine it would also be really good with a bit of sausage crumbled in.


The other side was brussels spouts with pancetta. This was the first time I've made brussels sprouts on the stovetop. Normally I roast them in the oven with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and the outside leaves begin to brown and crisp and they're just delicious. This recipe (Giada's) calls for cooking the brussels sprouts in a pan with pancetta and chicken stock. These were good, but I missed those outer crispy leaves that you get with roasted brussels sprouts. The fiance, in perpetual opposition to me, liked the softer texture of these sprouts. I'll have to play around with this one some more. Maybe if I left out or reduced the chicken stock, I could get them to be just a bit crisp but not as crisp as ones done in the oven.

For dessert? Leftover pumpkin butter gooey cakes, of course.

So, in short, it was a very satisfying mini Thanksgiving. I actually much prefer a small meal at home to a big elaborate affair at somebody else's house. Of course, I didn't have leftovers, which as everyone knows are one of the best parts of Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll wait til next week and see if I can get a small turkey on sale and, if there's room in my freezer by then, I'll try again....

Choup

Rachael Ray’s latest invention is choup. If you haven’t yet heard, choup is a dish that’s thinner than chowder and thicker than soup.

Whatever you may think of the name, this stuff is pretty good. I love being able to make soup—er, choup—in 30 minutes. It was Rachael’s idea to garnish it with white cheddar popcorn, which I initially thought was sorta weird, but I’m glad I went with it. It actually works.

I made this even thicker by using half the amount of stock and the full amount of cream. I also threw in some garlic and celery, but you could toss in whatever you have around and it would probably work. It’s a very easy, very adaptable recipe. Yum-O!