Your favorite chilly weather foods...
 

I'm looking for some more cool weather recipes and dishes to add to my repetoire.
I just love spending a Sunday afternoon slow cooking or baking something delicious to end a weekend.
Do you have those favorites when the weather turns?

I'm currently baking some pumpkin-cream cheese muffins based on that Weight Watchers recipe where you mix a 15 oz can of pumpkin and a box of spice cake mix. But I mix up a container of neufchatel cheese, 1/2t of vanilla, a splash of almond milk and two egg whites and blend until smooth with some freshly grated cinnamon and nutmeg. Layer them in large tinfoil muffin liners and bake for 30 minutes at 350. They're the bomb, baby. And really good for you. Good for the GI tract. LOL.

I also love to cook up a big pot of chili, though I can't post the recipe because it's a secret. :paranoid: It's got Guinness, cocoa, coffee and some other yumminess in it. We keep a fish chowder, a chicken noodle, a sundried tomato tortellini, a tomato basil florentine and a beef and barley soup in the freezer most of the time. But since the weather is getting colder, I'm looking to add more hearty (and still healthy) stuff to the menu. Any ideas?

omg...chili with Guinness? Can I come over for dinner? Please? :D


My boyfriend and I make our own version of pasta fagioli: a can of Schiavone's Hot & Spicy spaghetti sauce (it's locally made, not sure how available it is in other places); about half a can of water to thin it out and make it more "soupy;" a can of Navy beans; a can of kidney beans; and about...ummm...maybe 1/2 cup of macaroni. (we never actually measure anything, and constantly change the recipe depending on what we feel like at the time.)

Anyway, cook the macaroni, then throw everything into a pot and heat it a little above simmering (around 3 on his stove, but I guess that would vary. basically anywhere between simmering and medium.) Let it go for at least ten minutes, until everything is warm and smells wonderful. And that's it.

It's soooo yummy, and great for cooler weather.

Corned beef and cabbage. The minute the weather cools down they're asking when I'm making it. :p

Anything that cooks for a long time and smells fabulous while it's cooking. Beef stew works, too!

EDIT: Almost forgot!! Any pumpkin-based soup.

My very very favorite cold-weather food is cottage pie--essentially, beef stew covered in mashed potatoes and cheese served in a bread bowl. I wouldn't exactly call it a "healthy" dish, but it'll warm ya to the bone. There's a restaurant here in Louisville, the Irish Rover, that is famous for their cottage pie. My own version isn't quite as good, but it's still good. Really, how can you go wrong with mashed potatoes included in a dish?

Verenika - the ultimate comfort food.

There are two ways it's prepared, in one large dumpling with ham gravy, or several small dumpligs w/gravy. I prefer the large. It's basically a hot cottage cheese dumpling.

Make a basic dough, except substitute powdered milk, about a third cup for flour, add baking powder, 2 eggs, 1/3 water, slat to taste, roll it out.

Mix a small container of cottage cheese with two eggs, pepper, place it in the dough, and wrap it up. You can either boil it or bake it. I prefer baking. About 25 minutes at 450.

Ham gravy - you know, some ham, some flour, some milk.

You can't! :) We make vegetarian shepherd's pie from time to time. I take a short cut by using frozen mixed veggies, and picking veggies we like. Basically, cook up an onion in a little butter, add some garlic and a bay leaf, add some flour to make a roux, cook a bit, add some veggie stock to thin it out, then add the frozen mixed veggies. Sometimes I'll throw in a fresh carrot and fresh celery and use a mirepoix as the starting base. Eventually you end up with cooked veggies covered in gravy, which you then place in a baking dish and cover with mashed potatoes. I like to cover the very top of the mashed potatoes in seasoned panko bread crumbs for a crispy top. You can also use this as filling for a veggie pot pie, another cold-weather favorite around these parts.

One potato-based cold-weather dish I haven't gotten around to making yet is colcannon. I want to get to market and pick up some kale. This recipe from the NYTimes sounded tasty: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/he...prod=permalink

One thing we've eaten a lot of in past winters are variations on gratins and variations on macaroni and cheese. One recipe I found combined the two in a recipe for using spaghetti squash with jalapeno cream, but I haven't tried it yet either: Spaghetti Squash with Jalapeño Cream Recipe - Cheese - MyRecipes.com For some reason, I really enjoy making macaroni and cheese on a cold day. I love making the bechamel sauce. Sometimes, for depth of flavor and a bit of winter raciness, I'll add a bit of my favorite winter ale to the sauce--voila, Beeroni and Cheese.

I'll keep you posted, noodle and others, as we definitely enjoy our winter comfort food around these parts.

Cabbage and sausage soup or home made chili or even grilled cheese sandwhiches...................

Chinese chicken dumplings with garlic & hot sauce. MMMMmmmmmm...... (drools).
Pardon me, I have to go buy something.

Channa masala on basmati rice. It warms you from the inside out. It radiates.

Oh, and just about any soup. I like bean and lentil soups. And miso.

I like home made braised pork tacos on a cold day. They're perfect finger food, and they can feed an army. The whole house smells like cumin for like 3 days.

Pumpkin pancakes (the best recipe ever!) also hit the spot when it finally starts to get cold. There's something terrifically festive about allspice, and it's wonderful to have in the morning with some ground walnuts and warm cider. It's not fall without pumpkin pancakes. It's just not.

And let's not forget Thanksgiving dinner: Turkey and gravy, chestnut stuffing, simple mashed potatoes, rolls, quince mousse... the possibilities are endless!

my chili

feijoada - a kind of bean stew with several meats and sausages...hearty and yummy.
I'd tell you how it's made but I doubt you'd be able to get the right ingredients for it.

Not healthy though :eek:

Bacalhau com Grão - Cod with Chick Peas. This one is easy if you can get a hand on salted cod. Basically just boil the ready prepared salted cod (having removed any bones first), and separately boil chick peas and potatoes, and separately the green veg of your choice (I use broccoli), and serve, covered in lashings of minced onion and parsley, and copious amounts of olive oil and vinegar. Delicious. I imagine this recipe is a bit healthier.

These are both Portuguese. Of course...what else? :p

chicken cacciatore - salt and pepper chicken pieces, lightly dredge chicken pieces in flour, brown chicken in olive oil in a dutch oven or huge pot, remove from pot. add garlic, onions, celery, maybe bacon if you want, sautee a few minutes. add mushrooms, carrots if you want but not many, add red wine and scrape up all the burnt bits at bottom of pot (YUM!). add tomato sauce, oregano, 4 or 5 cloves, basil, 2 or 3 bay leafs, chicken broth, and browned chicken pieces, and simmer for a few hours, tasting in the last hour to adjust with salt, pepper, maybe some sugar.

Butternut squash anything (but particularly soup).

Hot oatmeal in the morning, especially with apple/spices.

Are we not including drinks?... if we are, then I count seasonal ales, hot mulled wine, and spiced apple cider. :thumbsup:

+1 on the miso soup. This exsplains why I tend to eat more Japanese food in the winter.

Kit Carson's Wife:

1/4 c Cooked chicken or turkey mea
Pieces
1/4 c Rice; cooked
1 c Rich chicken broth
1/4 c Garbanzo beans; cooked
1 pn Leaf oregano
1/4 Chipotle pepper; chopped
1/4 Avocado; sliced
1/4 c Monterey jack or muenster ch

1. Heat broth to boiling and add chicken (or turkey), garbanzos, chipotle pepper, rice and oregano. Serve in large individual bowls, and add cheese pieces and avocado just prior to serving.

I find the avocado to be optional. I like to get flour tortillas and warm them (use a tortilla warmer ( La Tortilla Loca tortilla warmers, wholesale and retail! ) get a fabric one like this - cheap, easy, and works). Spread softened butter on teh tortillas and make scoops out of them by folding in half twice (to get a triangular piece that you can fold a bit) Eat the soup that way for a few bites.

Hot cocoa with a splash of peppermint schapps or torani's (one alcoholic, one not). Oatmeal cookies with peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. Chicken and dumplings. Pork roast or pot roast. Mainly, things that take longer to cook so that the oven keeps the house warmer.

French onion soup. Just doesn't do it for me in the summer, but in the winter....mmmm. And, of course, gotta use real crock bowls so the cheese drapes and bakes on it.

Winter ales are my favorites. Yum. I've been drinking Deschutes' Jubelale with some frequency lately. I'm still waiting for Full Sail to bring out their Wassail.

One of the local coffeeshops is now selling hot cider that they get from a local orchard. I haven't tried it yet, but I imagine it's delicious. Nothing tops fresh-pressed apple cider. I'll have to ask them to put a little bit of caramel in it. I've been meaning to swing by the orchard's stand and pick up a jug of cider, but it's a ways out of town. I like to fill my enamel cast iron Dutch oven with it, add suitable spices, and warm it up; the scent of the cider and spices just makes the house smell so wonderful. Sometimes in winter I just throw a small pot of water on the stove, heat it up, and add ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg to make the kitchen smell nice.

Hell yeah. :thumbsup:

I'm a big fan of Fall and Winter beer. There's a couple of locals in NoVa that brew their own (home of the infamous beer ice cream). For commercially available, I love Sam Adams Winter and Anchor Steam's Christmas.

I've read that a lot of people don't care for Anchor Steam. I like it.

I didn't use to be impressed with Sam Adams, until I moved to Iceland and that was pretty much the closest thing to a "specialty" beer that they had in the stores here. YEAH. So anyway, I've become a big fan of both the Winter and Octoberfest ales, and the Black Lager is awesome, too.

Can't WAIT to get back to the US and drink proper beer again, seriously. I think I'm just going to drink a beer a day all through next winter, just because I CAN. :D

Yeah, we laugh at people who drink Sam Adams out here ;)

Yeah, I used to. Until I moved here. Does that give you a clear idea of just how bad the beer selection is here? :)

I can imagine!

Did anybody say poutine yet? No? I can't believe that. Well, okay, Poutine. Now there's something that will put hair on your chest and keep you warm in those cold winter months!


http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1...00/poutine.jpg


Neatorama Blog Archive Poutine: Fries with Cheese Curds and Gravy.

When the winter comes around that's when I like to go out and get sushi or tempora and hot sake.