Seasonal Sundays (Week 3) Winter Dinners

Seven cold-weather supper recipes, guaranteed to fill our kitchens with enticing aromas and feed our bodies simple whole foods. These are the recipes I'm not letting winter pass without making at least once ... you too, I hope?

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

As ever, thank you for welcoming me into your InBox and RSS feed reader. It's your kitchens, your lives, conjured while writing ...

So far, our "dry January" is confined to snow: we waken not to a winter wonderland but a skiff of frost creating window views straight from Carl Larsson paintings. (Word Dancers! Word-wise, is meteorological frost related to culinary cake icing? If it is, let's keep up that light touch instead of veritable drifts ... )

But let me say the quiet part out loud: I LOVE JANUARY.

So I scoffed when opening a "decorating for spring" post from a well-known blogger this week. Really? I maybe spied daffodil fronds peeking out on New Year's Day but that's worrisome climate change, not spring. I'm maybe seeing fresh asparagus in the grocery but that's imported from Mexico, not even from California. It's that moment in mid-January noticeably minutes longer with sunsets notably brighter but #notspring.

Even more: I LOVE COOKING IN WINTER. Somehow, these winter meals, started just at dark, feel more like culinary alchemy than the easy assemblies of summer.

Perhaps it's the stamp of a long-time seasonal cook, embracing the succession of seasons.

So rather than wishing away these next few weeks and even months of cold-weather food, or getting distracted by an early Easter, today I've gathered some of the dinners I just don't want us (any of us) to miss. If you're of similar mind ... you're going to love this week's recipe collection.

About the Photo By Popular Request, a Little Insight into the Top Image: It's not just Robert Frost who appreciates walking through lovely woods dark and deep on a snowy evening ...

In Praise Of . ..

• ... a dog who insists on love and scritches two or three times a day, refusing to acknowledge pleas for "later" or "I'm working now" and reminding us me to just stop for a moment and revel in another of life's great pleasures, canine and human.


• ... pre-cut parchment for roasting vegetables, baking cookies, "slings" for quick breads, "bases" for charcuterie platters. I pooh-poohed anything but rolls of parchment for the longest time but oh, precut parchment is an $8.50 luxury ...


• ... hot sandwiches to go with soup, just use a roll instead of bread for your sandwich, fill as usual, wrap in foil and bake in the oven at 425F for 15 minutes.

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SEASONAL INSPIRATION: WINTRY SUPPERS

• THE RECIPE Chicken Curry Reminiscent of London's curbside curry take-away.
• ANOTHER TAKE Sweet Potato Curry with Red Lentils, Roasted Peppers & Spinach Almost-creamy sweet potatoes and red lentils, spiked for a touch of heat.

• THE RECIPE Chicken Cacciatore The classic Italian dish, chicken slow-cooked in a rich tomato sauce.
• ANOTHER TAKE Italian Lemon Chicken Italian-style baked chicken, lemon-y and garlick-y.

• THE RECIPE Cast Iron Meatloaf My go-to recipe for meatloaf.
• ANOTHER TAKE Elk Meatloaf Adapted from the easy Quaker Oats meatloaf with ground beef, elk, bison, venison or even turkey.

• THE RECIPE Slow-Cooked or Slow Cooker Pot Roast Three easy tricks for tender, moist and flavorful pot roast.
• ANOTHER TAKE Emerald Isle Stew A hearty, gravy-rich stew.

• THE RECIPE Milk-Braised Pork Roast Be it ever so humble, milky good.
• ANOTHER TAKE Wine-Braised Pork Roast with Garlic Mashed Potatoes How to cook a pork roast in wine and rich spices.

• THE RECIPE Split-Pea Soup with Sausage & Kale A classic split pea soup recipe made extra-hearty.
• ANOTHER TAKE Scandinavian Split-Pea Soup Traditional on Tuesdays, without fail.

• THE RECIPE Chicken Stew with Chickpeas & Kale A hearty, one-pot supper with warm spices and fresh vegetables.
• ANOTHER TAKE Spiced Chicken with Roasted Cauliflower Tagine A one-pot supper with warm spices.

What's New?!

Wondering about a recipe from the last while? Check Recent Recipes from Kitchen Parade and Recent Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture.

• THE COLLECTION The Homemade Pantry Recipes for foods we could buy but choose to make from scratch.

A Quick Peek Into a Real-Life Kitchen

Since Christmas, I've focused almost entirely on cooking from the fridge, the freezer, the pantry, buying no more than milk, eggs and salad greens for quite awhile now. How long can I keep this up? We'll see!

But pantry cooking means our evening meals have been some times, well, let's call it "interesting".

My mom's Saturday Soup still appeals, decades later: she shopped for groceries on Saturday afternoon so used up all the odd bits and pieces in the fridge beforehand. The trick is to use it all up but to have nothing leftover. You definitely don't want "leftover leftovers" soup.

But me, to use up leftovers, I lean on three recipes that seem to take anything I throw at 'em and always taste wonderful, not like "leftovers" at all.

Useful? I hope so! Hello, a beef stew, a lentil soup and a meaty soup.

So let's call this ...

How to Use Up Leftovers In Ways That Don't Taste Like Leftovers

• RECENTLY Our fridge is full of beef so I used part of a round steak, then threw in cranberry sauce, some cooked chickpeas, some roasted mushrooms, a sweet potato and some drying-out mini potatoes, used up the last of the summery Pimm's, the gin-based liqueur. My husband was all-over this!
• THE RECIPE Winter Stew A master recipe, cook with confidence, no recipe required.

• RECENTLY We had tons of sausage leftover from our New Year's (that Finnish tradition of sausage and potato salad, sooooo love that!) and so instead of using hamburger, I threw in a bunch of bits of different sausages, the favorite here was one we didn't actually like much at New Year's, a Polish bologna, here it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I added an extra pepper or two, skipped the corn, threw in some cooked wild rice but definitely kept that bit of pasta, just a small amount, itself using up some leftover dried pasta.
• THE RECIPE Hamburger Soup A hearty soup with chunks of meat and a cornucopia of bright-colored vegetables.

• RECENTLY More sausage, plus some of the leftover Winter Stew got used here. Plus I skipped the canned tomatoes and the tomato sauce and instead used an open carton of tomato soup (that Roasted Tomato and Pepper Soup from Trader Joe's that's so good). Plus more odds and ends.
• THE RECIPE Oven-Cooked Lentil Soup Meaty and hearty, cooked in the oven on low heat.

Just Updated!

THE SERIES
• Introduction: How to Save Money on Groceries
• Part One Frugal Eating Starts In Our Heads
• Part Two Frugal Food Shopping Requires a Plan
• Part Three How to Shop Wisely for Groceries

EXTRA RESOURCES

• The Homemade Pantry Recipes for foods we could buy but choose to make from scratch. NEW!
• Freezer Surprises Surprising Foods That Freeze Well.
• Pantry Meals: How to Make a Meal with What You Have Select recipes for our favorite pantry ingredients.
• DIY Spice Blends & Homemade Seasonings Made to order, mixed to taste.
• Make Tonight a Pancake Night Move over Taco Tuesday and Pizza Friday.
• Easy Egg Recipes A collection of thrifty egg recipes.
• Considering Convenience: My Favorite Kitchen Tools

• THE RECIPE Oven-Baked Brown Rice So good, make it every week.
• ANOTHER TAKE Oven-Baked Whole-Grain Pilaf with Quinoa, Barley, Kamut & Other Grains A concept recipe.

• THE RECIPE Mediterranean Eggplant Skillet Quick, easy & tasty vegetarian supper.
• ANOTHER TAKE Moroccan Chicken A one-pot stew simmered with eggplant and tomato perfumed with Moroccan spices.

• IT'S NOT FOOD, IT'S DIY Homemade Foot Lotion Take care of your feet, three easy-to-find ingredients.
• MORE IDEAS The Homemade Pantry Recipes for foods (and lotions!) we could buy but choose to make at home.

Something to Read

I couldn't put down The Language of Flowers, a 2011 book that combines two favorites, something new (here, the Victorian practice of assigning meaning to certain flowers) and memorable characters (here, a cast of strong female characters of different ages).

So much so that once I finished, I skipped over my looooong to-read list to open up We Never Asked for Wings, her 2015 book which, hey! also combines something new (feather art) with interesting characters (again, a cast of interesting women, teens and children).

Diffenbaugh was born in 1978 so should have years of books ahead of her. That said, she's published nothing new in eight years and her own website is not just on life support but dead. Fingers crossed for new work!

• THE FIRST BOOK (affiliate link) The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• THE SECOND BOOK (affiliate link) We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh


• BOOK CLUB BOOK IDEAS My Reading Group's Book List since 1994!
• NO TIME TO READ? How I Read 4X More This Year Than Last What I gave up, how I read so much, what I read.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail (my current address is in the FAQs), dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, 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, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. 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. When you make my recipes, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below or better still, on the specific recipe's page.

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