Weekend Cookbook Challenge is being hosted by La Mia Cucina this month and the theme is…pressure cookers (which I am scared of), crockpots (which I love) and Dutch ovens (which I also love, but I use pretty frequently already).

So, crockpot it is! And the cookbook I used was Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. This is also the only crockpot cookbook that I have. Typically, I just get crockpot recipes off that Internet thing.

Oh and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day — now, here’s a Mexican recipe!

Pinto Picadillio
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
3 cups slow-cooked* or two 15.5-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
One 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
One 4-ounce can diced green chiles, drained
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 cup vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cooked long-grain white or brown rice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup sliced black olives, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves (originally it called for parsley)
handful of chopped green onions
2 tbsp slivered almonds, toasted

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and cumin. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables to a 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker. Add the garlic, beans, tomatoes, chiles, apples, and stock; season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

About 10 minutes before serving, stir in the rice, raisins, olives, cilantro, green onions and almonds. In addition to a dinner right out of the crockpot, this makes a great lunch. Add some cheese, sour cream and chips. You know you want to…

* Cooking dried beans in your crockpot is easy! And fun. But kind of boring. Anyway, soak your beans overnight, then, drain put into your crockpot and cover with water (I covered by about 3 inches). Add an onion, halved and a few cloves of garlic, cracked open.

Cook on low for about 8 hours. Mmmm….beans. And, the nice thing is, I just drained out my beans, measured 3 cups out and then just used the crockpot to cook the Pinto Picadillio.

Thanks again to La Mia Cucina for hosting!

The other night I had a hankerin’ to make something a little different. Since jwa and I do enjoy the curry, I decided to give this recipe a try. It’s from the book, Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham and it was really good!

The lemongrass gives it an awesome flavor. Whack your stalks with a rolling pin or a wine bottle, or to live dangerously, the flat side of a knife. You want to kind of crack it open and release all the lemongrassy goodness.

I really didn’t change all that much. I probably used a little less chicken (maybe 1.5 pounds) called for originally and I added halved cherry tomatoes as a garnish.

Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes
3 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
2 pounds skinless chicken thighs
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp chopped shallot
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp ground chili paste or dried chili flakes, or to taste
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 lemongrass stalks, cut into 3-inch pieces and bruised with something flat
1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled, cut into 3 slices and bruised with something flat
1 1/2 cups fresh chicken stock or store-bought low-sodium chicken broth
3 carrots, peeled, cut on the diagonal into 2/3-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 yellow onion, cut into wedges
1 medium sweet potato (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

garnishes
1/2 cup basil leaves, cut in half
8 sprigs cilantro, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 scallions, chopped
8 cherry tomatoes, halved

Combine 2 tablespoons of the curry powder and the salt in a bowl. Add the chicken and turn to coat the meat evenly. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a medium pot over moderate heat. Add the shallot, garlic, chili paste and the remaining 1 tablespoon curry powder, and stir until fragrant, about 10 seconds.

Add the chicken and cook until the edges of the pieces are golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, ginger and chicken stock.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat. Add the carrots and cook for 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk, onion and sweet potato and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with basil, cilantro, tomato halves and scallions, and serve.

February’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is hosted by Foodie Chickie this month and she’s chosen Nigella Lawson as the theme. This is awesome as I recently got a Nigella Lawson cookbook. Perfect!

This is a super quick dinner (it’s from Nigella Express) and it was pretty tasty. Something about bacon drippings (or pancetta, I s’pose), wine, rosemary, white beans and tomatoes. Mmm!

Pollo alla Cacciatora
1 tbsp garlic oil
1/2 cup pancetta cubes (alternately, you can the fat from cooking 1 piece of bacon and add a clove or two of garlic)
6 scallions, finely sliced
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 pound chicken thigh fillets, each cut into 4 pieces (I used breast meat)
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 cup white wine
1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp sugar
1 (14-ounce) can cannellini beans

Nigella writes to put the garlic oil into a pan with the pancetta, sliced scallions and chopped rosemary and fry for a couple of minutes. Now, what I did is use some bacon grease I had in the freezer (instead of the pancetta), about a teaspoon and a half’s worth and sauteed the rosemary and green onions in that. I also added two minced cloves of garlic here. Worked well. But was there really any doubt? No. Not really.

Add the chicken pieces, stirring well, and sprinkle in the celery salt.

Pour in the wine and let it come to a boil before adding the tomatoes, bay leaves and sugar. Put the lid on and let everything simmer for about 20 minutes. Next, drain and add a can of cannellini beans and let it go for an additional 2-3 minutes.

Dish up, grab a spoon and nom-nom-nom-nom-nom.

Next time, I might try dredging the chicken in a little seasoned flour just to see what (if anything) that adds to it. Just because I’m like that.

Thanks again to Foodie Chickie for hosting this month’s event!

This is the second recipe that I’ve made out of Nigella Express and I have to admit, for a book I probably wouldn’t have just gotten on my own, it’s track record is pretty good.

I changed recipe a bit using 2% milk instead of full-fat milk and also adding some leftover, sauteed spinach and tomato. The original recipe was just ham and cheese, which is good, but honestly, I really need some vegetables in my brunch meals. But, that just might be me.

I used sourdough instead of multi-grain bread and dill Harvarti instead of Gruyere cheese because that’s also how I roll. This will feed at least 4 people, maybe 6 if you add a fruit salad and other brunch items.

Croque Monsieur Bake
Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson
6 slices sourdough or multi-grain bread
1/3 cup Dijon Mustard
3 thick slices dill Harvarti cheese (or 6 thin slices) alternately, use Gruyere cheese slices
3 slices ham
6 eggs
1 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup 2% milk
4 tbsp grated Gruyere, Dill Havarti or Parmesan cheese
6 slices tomato
1/3 cup sauteed spinach
sprinkle of Worcestershire sauce

Spread the mustard on the bread slices and proceed to put together 3 sandwiches with the cheese slices, ham, spinach and tomato. Cut each sandwich in half, diagonally, so that you have 6 halves.

Squish the sandwiches into a baking dish that is approximately 10.5 X 8.25 inches and 2.25 inches deep. Next, beat together the eggs, salt and milk. I had about 2 tablespoons of cottage cheese in the fridge that I needed to use, so I threw that in here too. I also added the Worcestershire sauce to the egg mixture because I wasn’t really paying attention to the directions. Woo!

Pour the egg mixture over the sandwiches halves and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in the fridge overnight. It’ll soak up a lot of the liquid. The next morning, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and sprinkle the grated cheese over the bread.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden. I found that after 30 minutes, mine was mostly all done but still a little runny in the middle. I found that slicing and plating a piece and then popping it in the microwave for 1 minute, completely finished cooking any remaining egg and still kept the top all crunchy. Excellent!

Oh, next week there will be Beef Wellington. But this week, it’s a lovely Russian Carrot Pie from the new edition of the Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. And how fitting that January’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is all about the healthy vegetables. Perfect timing! And, I’m even early. Hooray!

I’m not quite sure what makes this Russian…the dill? The carrots? I dunno, but we liked it. It’s the prefect meal to make before or after something really beefy. Or, you know, if you are a vegetarian, this is just a good everyday meal.

Actually, this used to be my favorite cookbook when I was a vegetarian. I had the older edition and then lost it sometime around when I moved to Arizona. But, I remember living in Indiana during grad school and making a lot of the recipes out of this cookbook with my friend Christy, who now has her hands full with, uh, Hadley.

Great…time for a recipe!

Russian Carrot Pie
1 tbsp butter
1 cup finely minced onion
1 lb carrots, thinly chopped (I used an extra 1 lb bag of baby carrots leftover from holiday snacking)
1/2 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 tbsp AP flour
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1 egg
3 tbsp fine bread crumbs
black pepper
3 tbsp minced dill
2 tbsp minced mint
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Nut Pie Crust (below)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet and add the onion and garlic and cook about 3-5 minutes. Next, add the carrots, salt and lemon juice. Cook until the carrots are soft but not mushy — about 8 more minutes. Sprinkle with the flour, mix well, and cook for about 2 more minutes. Remove from the heat.

Beat the egg with the cottage cheese in a large bowl. Stir in the herbs, some black pepper and the breadcrumbs. Add the carrot mixture (it’s okay if it’s still hot) and combine well.

Spread into the crust and sprinkle with paprika and Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees, then turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Nut Crust
6 tbsp cold butter
1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup finely minced nuts (I used walnuts)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp chopped chives
3-6 tbsp cold water

Use a pastry cutter or a food processor to cut the butter into the flours, salt, nuts and chives. The mixture should get to the point where it resembles course cornmeal.

Add the liquid a little at the time until the dough comes together. I used all 6 tablespoons, but you never know.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap for storage in the fridge. After about an hour or so, roll it out using flour and place into a 9-10 inch pie plate, forming a crust with an edge.

I chose to par-bake my crust — 20 minutes at 375. I used some parchment and dry beans to weight the crust down. After 20 minutes, remove the crust, take out the weights (beans, beads, whatever) and fill with the carrot mixture and proceed.

Thanks again to Sara for a great (and healthy!) Weekend Cookbook Challenge.

I recently came across Running with Tweezers call for chili recipes and I remembered that I had the most perfect cookbook for this — Chili Nation by Jane and Michael Stern. This is basically a collection of 50 chili recipes, one from every state. Now normally, when I make chili, it’s veggie chili and I just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot. But, since I had an actual chili cookbook, I decided to follow (well, kind of) an actual recipe.

So, I went with Montana and the “Working Person’s Green Chili Bowl”. Supposedly, it is from a tiny place called El Burrito in Billings, MT. I wussed out on all the peppers, though. The original recipe calls for 6 New Mexico chiles. Intead, I used 2 pasilla chile peppers and 1 poblano chile pepper. Wimpy! I know, but I didn’t want it to be too hot for my delicate lady mouth.

Let’s see, I also added beans. I just really prefer beans in my chili. I used white kidney beans and they worked really well. But, if you don’t like beans, the original recipe did not include them, so don’t feel bad about leaving them out. I also doubled the broth and added the cilantro.

Anyway, this book is awesome. I seriously have, like twenty page corners folded down that I want to try. Why did I pick this one? Well, I was very intrigued by the sage and tarragon in a chili recipe. And, after trying it here, I have to say it works. I’m not sure this is my most favorite chili recipe of all time, but I liked it quite a bit! It was a little spicy but not overwhelming and makes a great meal on a cold night.

Working Person’s Fancy Green Chili Bowl
Adapted from a recipe in Chili Nation (Montana), by the Sterns
1 poblano pepper
2 pasilla peppers
1 big handful of cilantro
2 cups chicken broth (original called for 1 cup chicken stock)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, chopped
2 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into cubes
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp ground cumin
1 can white beans, drained
1 tsp salt
Some crumbled goat cheese for the top
Optional: 1 tsp jalapeno powder

Prepare the chiles by placing them under a preheated broiler. Turn when the first side is charred and then blacken the other side.

Place in a plastic bag to steam. You can also wrap them in wet paper towels. When cool enough to handle, peel away the blackened skin and seed. Place the chiles in a blender with broth and cilantro. Puree and set aside.

Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add garlic and onion and saute until soft. Here, I added about half the sage, tarragon and all of the cilantro. Next, add the pork; cook and stir until well browned.

Add chile puree and remaining ingredients (the beans and the remaining spices and the salt) . Stir well. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook 10-15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Serve alone or over cooked brown rice. Also, this would be great with tortillas for dipping and, if you want to be a fancy working person, I think some crumbled goat cheese would be awesome on the top. Hmmm, I think I will bring it that way to work tomorrow. Because, yes, I am fancy.

Hope this is a good addition to the chili cook-off!

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is hosted by Mel’s Diner with the aptly chosen, Celebration Dishes as the theme. For this, I chose my newest cookbook, Nigella Express and made a lamb stew from it.

She calls it a tagine, but since I didn’t cook it in an actual tagine and I’m not familiar enough with Moroccan cooking to judge it’s accurateness, I’m certainly not going to call it a tagine. So, uh, no one get their knickers in a twist.

Anywho….I used a mix of olives here, mainly because that’s what I had — nicoise, kalamata and a handful of plain black, pitted olives. But, I’m thinking oil cured might be super tasty here. I also just made my own caramelized onions, rather than hunting down a jar of them (as the recipe calls for). I have never even seen jarred caramelized onions…maybe that’s a British thing? Another thing I changed is that I added carrots. I just felt the need for more vegetables with the big meatiness of the stew.

Let’s celebrate!

Lamb Stew with Olives and Caramelized Onions
Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson
2 1/4 pounds diced leg of lamb
1 head garlic, separated into cloves
12 ounces pitted black olives in brine, 5 ounces drained weight to give 1 1/4 cups
1 white or yellow onion, diced roughly
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
sprinkle of salt
3 tbsp capers
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground ginger
1 bottle red wine (I meant to use a merlot but I grabbed a cab by mistake — worked just fine!)
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots — about 1-2 inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Preheat a pan over medium heat — preferably a big Dutch oven that you can layer the whole recipe into for its trip into the oven. Add the olive oil and then onions and honey. Give a small sprinkle of salt. Cook until light brown and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Turn the heat down if need be to keep from burning.

Add the garlic, olives and lamb. Brown the lamb just for a few minutes, maybe 5 total, stirring a bit to get color on as many pieces as possible.

Next, add the wine, the capers, and the ginger and cumin. Increase the heat to high, give it a good stir and bring to a boil.

Put a lid on it and stick it in the oven for two hours total. After the first hour add the carrots and continue to cook until the lamb is super tender.

We had this with some couscous that I cooked with chicken broth, about a handful of shelled pistachios and a handful of golden raisins. What were we celebrating? Ah, a cold December evening!

Thanks again to Mel’s Diner for hosting WCC this month!

Okay, I am turning over a new leaf. I am going to try really, really hard to get back into posting at least 3 times per week. Really!

Here’s a super-good pasta recipe. When we were in Ashland last October, I caught some of Lidia’s Family Table on PBS and fell in love with the recipe. I made it almost immediately when we got back. I loved it. jwa thought the flavors were a little strong, but still liked it. So, this is one of those recipes where half the people think it’s the cat’s pajamas and the other half thing it’s good but not pajama-worthy. Of course, this was a sample size of two, so you know…ymmv.

Linguine with Black Olives, Pine Nuts and Raisins
Recipe from From Lidia’s Family Table,’ by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich
1 pound uncooked capellini OR other thin dry pasta such as spaghettini or linguine (I used wheat linguine)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 plump garlic cloves, sliced (about 1/3 cup)
1 1/2 cups oil-cured black olives, pitted and chopped into 1/3-inch pieces
1/2 cup golden raisins
3 tbsp fine long threads of orange zest
2/3 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
1 cup pine nuts, toasted in a dry pan
Hot water from pasta cooking pot
Salt
1 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
Optional: chopped arugula for a garnish — my addition

Heat a large pot of salted water to boiling. Five minutes before starting sauce, plunge pasta into boiling water. Pour 1/3 cup olive oil into a large skillet, add garlic slices and place over medium-high heat. Cook about 1 1/2 minutes, shaking pan, until garlic starts to color.

Add olives and stir with garlic. Cook another 1 1/2 minutes, shaking pan occasionally, as olives sizzle and caramelize. Add raisins and cook, stirring, 1/2 minute. Stir in orange zest, and cook, stirring, 30 seconds or more, until sizzling.

Carefully pour in orange juice (it will sizzle). Stir to moisten everything. After 20 seconds or so, stir in toasted pine nuts; stir to moisten. When orange juice has nearly evaporated, ladle in 2 cups boiling pasta water. Boil and stir sauce 3 minutes or more (while pasta is cooking). When sauce is reduced by half, stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt. Taste; add more salt if necessary. Stir in another tablespoon olive oil. Reduce heat to keep sauce hot until pasta is ready.

When the pasta is just shy of done, pull it out and add it to the pan with the sauce. Finish the sauce and pasta together in skillet, adding a little more pasta water or reducing it as necessary. Stir in parsley. Remove from heat; toss in a final tablespoon of olive oil. Makes 3 to 4 servings. Top with a little arugula if desired. I liked the green color on top and thought the greens helped lighten the flavor up a bit.

Okay. Coming up next week: Fruitcake update, December’s WCC post and lima bean-tarragon soup.

First of all, thanks so much to Sara of Weekend Cookbook Challenge for letting me guest-host this month! I had a great time picking a theme and I hope everyone had fun participating. And here are some nifty new seasonal recipes to try this month.

So, what kind of food does Halloween evoke? Soups, root vegetables, apples, huge fancy meals, snacks and sweets. Plus scary meat products! There’s a little bit of everything — something for everyone!

Okay, first up is the above mentioned Sara of WCC and I Like to Cook fame with this wonderful looking Pam’s Ham and Apple Breakfast Pie adapted from Bruce Aidells’s Complete Book of Pork: A Guide to Buying, Storing, and Cooking the World’s Favorite Meat. I bet her house smelled amazing while this was baking in the oven.

Gretchen, over at Canela y Comino in Peru turned to Cooking Light for inspiration and came up with a batch of Chocolate Gingersnap Cookies. Mmmmmm…ginger. Now these would sure be a great post snack after a Halloween meal!

My friend Vanessa sent me an awesome sounding recipe from one of her favorite cookbooks, Zuppa! by Annie Bianchi. Here’s a recipe for Ceci, Mele, Salisoccia E Patate Alla Garfagnana (Chickpeas, Apples, Sausage and Potatoes Garfangnana Style). Although she forgot to take a picture, I think we can imagine how tasty it looked!

Next up is Colleen, from Naperville, IL. Hey — that’s kind of by where I grew up! Neat. Colleen also picked a soup, Gelbe Erbsen Suppe, auf Berliner Art (Berlin Style Split Pea Soup. Like all good Fall meals, she says it’s “a wonderful tummy-warming dinner when you add warm bread and a nice side salad of baby greens & sauteed pears.”

My friend Christy at Beehive, who besides being like seven months pregnant, made an amazing Fall Feast for her Denver friends including Martha Stewart’s Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Icing. Damn! That all looks so good!

Okay. Who’s next? It’s LizG from Bits ‘n Bites who made a highly snackable Toasted Pepita Dip from the Whole Foods Market Cookbook. I’m not sure it gets any more Halloween-y than pumpkin seeds.

Molly at Batter-Splattered (great blog name!) created some delicious looking Quick and Easy Pumpkin Pie Bars from Heartland Baking from the Midwest’s Best Cooks. She says, “The crust and the topping gets plump and crispy and chewy while still maintaining its crustyness on the bottom layer.” Mmmmm!

Deborah of What’s in my Kitchen? asks, “Polenta = Halloween?” Uh, yes, I say! Yes! The answer to every question is polenta! Here she decides on Crispy Polenta with Mushrooms, from Cooking for Two by Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. This was her first time joining in WCC and I’m really glad she did. Oh and I love the Halloween bowl.

Cady at $40 a Week went all out and prepared Poulet a la Normande from Chez Panisse Fruit, while taking advantage of a yard full of apples ready to be harvested. Also, what’s more festive than lighting your Fall foods on fire? Exactly. A meal that’s both entertaining and delicious!

Into the homestretch here, people! Now Mike at Mel’s Diner took one for the whole WCC21 team and made the scariest recipe of the bunch — Zungenwurst. Not sure what that is? Well, it’s tongue pieces with pork fat in blood. Boo! Of his special WCC Halloween experiment he says, “I didn’t like it. I didn’t hate it, but it left a odd, disgusting aftertaste in my mouth.” Aw, poor Mike will need lots of Halloween candy to make the taste go away.

Finally, I made Honey Roasted Parsnip Bisque from Talk with Your Mouth Full. Both jwa and I liked it quite a bit and it was suitably Halloween-ish as we typically use parsnips for the noses on our jack o’lanterns!

Okay, whew! We made it through. If I missed your entry please send me an email and let me know. I’ll get it up asap.

Thanks again to Sara for letting me guest-host. I certainly have gained a newfound appreciation for how much work she must put into WCC each month!

I recently got the cookbook, Talk with your Mouth Full by Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh and I absolutely love it. So many pages turned down of recipes that I want to make. This first one I thought would be perfect for the Halloween theme I chose for this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge, which I am super excited to be guest-hosting.

Now, the recipe itself isn’t particularly “Halloweeny” but it is when you add bat and black cat shaped Parmesan croutons and serve it in a big pumpkin soup tureen! Although, every year when jwa and I carve pumpkins, we do use parsnips for the noses, so there you go.

Roasted Honey Parsnip Bisque
2 pounds parsnips, peeled and quartered lengthwise
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I subbed olive oil)
3 tsp salt, divided
6 tbsp honey, divided
6 cups water
1 bunch parsley
1 carrot, cut in 1/2
1 small onion
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp white pepper (I used regular, freshly ground black pepper)
3 cups heavy cream (here, I used about 1.5 cups half and half)
Garnish: chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Toss the parsnips with the oil and 1 teaspoon of salt and drizzle with 3 tablespoons honey. Place on a baking sheet and put into the top half of the oven. Roast 30 minutes, or until the parsnips are a deep golden brown; they tend to burn easily so make sure to toss often while roasting.

Meanwhile, put the water into a large pot and place over high heat. Lay a double layer of cheesecloth on a flat surface and place the carrot, onion, parsley, bay leaves and peppercorns in the center. When I did this, I couldn’t find my kitchen twine, so I just tied the cheesecloth up around everything. Then I realized I forgot my carrots. So, I just added those to the pot, figuring I would fish them out later. Oh and I threw in a garlic clove too.

Tie the cheesecloth up and around the vegetable and herb mix and drop it into the water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the parsnips from the oven and place them immediately into the stock. Add the remaining honey and salt and white pepper; simmer for about 20 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender, or in batches in a blender.

Return to the saucepan and add the cream (or half and half) and pepper. I found when I did this that a cup and a half made it super creamy so I just stopped there. Feel free to add the whole 3 cups. Stir well to combine and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

For a holiday garnish, cut shapes from sourdough bread using cookie cutters, brush on some olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Toast in the oven and serve with the bisque. Speaking of the bisque, it was so good and creamy — even subbing the half and half for the cream.

So, everyone get your cookbooks out (or even a food magazine) and find a recipe that could fit a Halloween theme, make it, post about it, and send me the link to your post by Monday Sunday, October 21st — you still have 6 days! I’ll round them all up here shortly after the due date.