Seasonal Sundays (Week 01) Happy New Year!

Prepare to welcome the New Year, a collection of holiday and post-holiday recipes and ideas. Happy New Year's to All!

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays!

Well, hey there, 2020. You are real now, even if it'll be weeks before we reflexively write 2020 instead of 2019, even if it's unconscionable unbelievable that 2020 isn't far in some future life, that the worry of Y2K is now two decades past.

This week is one of straddling, December into January, the time off for the holidays and back to work, the old year and the new, even the 2010s careening into the 2020s.

For some, it's holding tight to the holidays, the festivities of the next few days, often low-key but often Instagram-exciting.

But for others, it's already a time for taking stock, turning the calendar, making a fresh start, taking a stand, just gettin' on with life.

And for me, no glam, no glitter, just a quiet time of simple but deep gratitude, looking back on the year that shall soon be fully in the past, wanting to hang tight onto the highs of love and health and family, the lows already blurring into nothingness.

And for me, Kitchen Parade readers guide and focus that gratitude. Every day, but especially at the end of a year of renewal for both Kitchen Parade and A Veggie Venture, I'm grateful that you welcome my work into your InBoxes and kitchens, that you see yourself and your own food sensibility in my recipes, that you take those recipes and make them fully your own.

And you? ♥ How do you mark the ending of one year and the beginning of another? Are you full of resolution? Or is January 1 just another day ...

My wish for you is all the good things you reach for and hope for and strive for ...

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PICK ONE

Pick One is for those of us overwhelmed by life's unending choices. If that resonates, then check out this one recipe and then call it a day. It's one that I think could make the most difference, the one I hope will become a regular in your kitchen, as it is in mine.

This is no every-day apple crisp, it's one worthy of occasions yet takes mere minutes to make. Serve it warm and you just might hear ... silence.

• Cranberry Apple Crisp, a wintry take on fall's favorite, my signature dessert during cold weather
  

Let's Ring In the New Year!

My hand-picked collection of New Year's recipe ideas covers, I think, the range. Casual gatherings at home. Romantic dinners in. Big parties and small parties elsewhere, with a dish to carry.

But here are a few highlights, the first two are definitely make-ahead comfort food, I made both for our Christmas and oh! they're so good. They're also super-big in flavor but also super-healthy because, well, it'll soon be January after all and wouldn't we now rather invest our calories in a sweet ending?

The third is what I have in mind for our own New Year's meal, given my husband's it's-just-another-day mindset. Me? I'm going for special, just at home ...

FIT FOR A FEAST
• Lazy Man's Ciopinno
• Ham & Beans
• All Courses Lavender: An Easy Romantic Dinner

FOOD TRADITIONS from the AMERICAN SOUTH
• Lucky! Black-Eyed Peas lucky soup & salad both!
• Hoppin' John Soup, the traditional soup at New Year's
• Summer Black-Eyed Pea Salad, a big fresh salad for year-round buffets and potlucks
• Braised Collard Greens, simple fare

SWEET ENDINGS
• Cranberry Pudding, a old-fashioned moist cake with a dreamy butter sauce
• Gingerbread Pudding Cake, layers of cake and pudding. It's magic!
• Mini Tiramisu Cups with Pralines, made with cooked now raw eggs

Best Recipe of 2019

This is the time of year when food bloggers highlight their "best recipes" of the past year. I l-o-v-e pouring through other bloggers' lists and once upon a time, I loved creating my own.

But when my elderly father came to live with us in 2016, new recipes moved to the backburner (heh-heh) and so I started to pick just one recipe per year as the "best recipe of the year" – the single most useful recipe of the entire year. Just one!

For 2019, there's no question! It's the salad dressing I make over and over again for meal prep, never the same twice, My Everyday Creamy Herb Salad Dressing!

• Kitchen Parade's Best-Ever "Most Useful" Recipes 2002 – Present, updated for 2019
• Best Recipes of 2015 (I owe this to you myself & my sense of order)
• Best Recipes of 2014
• Best Recipes of 2013
• Best Recipes of 2012
• Best Recipes of 2011
• Best Recipes of 2010
• Best Recipes of 2009
• Best Recipes of 2008
• Best Recipes of 2007
• Best Recipes of 2006
• Best Recipes of 2005
• Best Recipes of 2004
• Best Recipes of 2003
• Best Recipes of 2002

A Little Love & Attention

But if there were an honorable mention for Best Recipe of 2019, it would be Green Chile Scrambled Eggs, an extra high-protein skillet breakfast adapted from the much-loved make-ahead breakfast casserole, Easy Green Chile Egg Casserole, you know, the breakfast casserole without bread!

So if you're always on the lookout for easy, healthy breakfasts, just know that we love these simple scrambled eggs jacked up with extra protein and green chiles, either from a can (so convenient) or just-roasted Anaheim, poblano or Hatch chiles or even a simple green pepper (so seasonal). Add a warm tortilla and a little avocado, it's a breakfast feast.

Funny thing is? These scrambled eggs just didn't capture your imagination. They really do deserve a little extra love and attention. How about a second chance?!

• Green Chile Scrambled Eggs, an easy, healthy breakfast.

Seasonal Showcase: Winter Drinks

During the holidays, coffeeshops in Finland serve not only the usual coffee and hot chocolate but also ... swoon ... hot red wine, the mulled wine so popular across the Nordic countries and also in Germany, Austria and other cold-weather climes.

It's hard to come by in the U.S. although once-upon-a-time, my husband talked a bartender in a Chicago hotel into making some for me during an otherwise slow and snowy afternoon before New Year's. Sweet, yes?

But most of all, I remember a last-minute trip to Finland (where I was an exchange student during high school) at New Years to see my Finnish host mother, who had just revealed a diagnosis of fast-moving Alzheimer's. Her daughter, my dear friend Ritva, and I sat in a coffeeshop grappling with the news and the ramifications. We sipped on warm red wine (just one glass, this stuff is potent!) as snow softly fell on the near-dark city outside our window seats.

Make some memories with hot red wine, why don't you? ♥

• Glöggi (Hot Red Mulled Wine), Scandinavian-style hot red wine "mulled" with spices, fruit and for good luck, an almond
• Hibiscus Tea with Ginger & Vanilla, my caffeine-free coffee substitute, served hot or chilled
• Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix, how to make hot chocolate mix from scratch, for a crowd, for gifts, for home
• Mulled Apple Cider, turn supermarket apple cider into something special and irresistible.
• Sugar-Free Chai Tea, just good ginger, good spices, good tea and good milk

There's an App for That

For a few years, I've been loving an app called Waterlogue from Tinrocket which turns even so-so phone photos into works of art. I love this app! It works right on your phone, works in seconds and is easy to save to your photoroll.

FYI I do find that people shots can be a little odd with Waterlogue, faces can be a little blobby.

Tinrocket has other interesting-looking photo apps too and whoah, I just realized that there's a Mac version of Waterlogue too. I'm on it ...

I really want to record the last few years of my photos turned into watercolors in a hardcopy Blurb book. Blurb is my favorite way to move pictures off my desktop onto printed pages, the books are just gorgeous, I've done several for gifts and just for myself.

For the record, this is NOT a sponsored post. I'm just sharing an app I love and use because, well, it just might inspire you too!

Another idea? At least for those of us who change out our phone home pages often?

Take a screen shot of each new home page, then collect the screen shots or sure, create a Blurb book.

PS Isn't that a lovely shot? My sister took it the day of my cancer surgery, me reaching for my husband's hand afterward.

Just Updated!

• Quick Cauliflower Soup or Quick Broccoli Soup, healthful veggie soups on the table in minutes
• Slow Cooker Curried Vegetable Stew, a spiced stew with many vegetables!
• Swedish Red Cabbage & Apples, pretty color for the plate and buffet
• Chipotle Chickpea Salad, big flavors, lots of rave reviews
• Lentil, Pepper & Spinach Supper with Crispy Tofu & Indian Spices, vegan and adaptable
• Summer's Best Corn Chowder, for visitors from the southern hemisphere!

Text Me Back!

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com, dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a rambling Christmas letter, slip a note into a fortune cookie, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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