noodle

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. 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?

__________________

CinnamonGirl

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


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.

__________________
"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

jewels

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

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.

__________________
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

SabrinaFair

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?

__________________
"With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
-Desiderata

Poppinjay

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.

__________________
I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

snowy

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.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

newtx

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

Amaras

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

__________________
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
-Noam Chomsky
Love is a verb, not a noun.
-My Mom
The function of genius is to furnish cretins with ideas twenty years later.
-Louis Aragon, "La Porte-plume," Traite du style, 1928

Baraka_Guru

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.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Willravel

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!

Hanxter

my chili

little_tippler

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

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?

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

skizziks

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.

abaya

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.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

lostgirl

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

shakran

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.

ItWasMe

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.

__________________
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .


"Ok, no more truth-or-dare until somebody returns my underwear" ~ George Lopez

I bake cookies just so I can lick the bowl. ~ ItWasMe

ngdawg

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.

snowy

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.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

abaya

Hell yeah.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Poppinjay

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 think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

abaya

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.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

snowy

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

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

abaya

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

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

snowy

I can imagine!

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Leto

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!





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

__________________
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr

http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Leto_Atreides_I

Meier_Link

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

__________________
life is a sexually transmitted disease