Around the Kitchen Table: In the Bleak Midwinter + 4-Book #giveaway

VICKI DELANY: It's mid-winter where I live, although I know it’s not where some of you are.

I am a big believer in seasonally appropriate foods.  Barbeque, salads, cold soups, pasta with a light fresh tomato sauce,  stir fries packed with vegetables, in summer. Big hearty soups and casseroles suit me in the winter. The winter is also a time to make big batches of those soups and casseroles and put them into the freezer.  One of my absolutely favourite meals on a cold winter’s night is this Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup.  Even better if a storm is raging outside and a fire is burning in the fireplace. A good meal goes a long way to taking the bleak out of the midwinter. 

Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup from Vicki Delany (mysteryloverskitchen.com)

What about the rest of you?  Do you cook up special winter meals, or do you live someplace where winter isn’t much different than summer? If so, perhaps you can tantalize us with a summertime recipe to look forward to! 

🥓 🌰 🔥

MADDIE DAY: Seasonal eating is big in our house. I refuse to eat a fresh tomato that isn't locally grown. Same with corn on the cob and other warm-weather treats. When the wind is howling and you risk frostbite going out uncovered, stews and soups, squash and sweet potato, biscuits and breads, coffee cakes and cookies are the only thing for it. We enjoyed a ham for Christmas, and the stock I made from boiling down the bone made a delicious split pea soup recently. And what better to accompany it than a batch of Stout-Cheddar Biscuits - which will also serve you well for St. Patrick's Day.

🥔 🥖 🥕

TINA KASHIAN: I dislike winter tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash at the supermarket. There is no comparison to Jersey fresh tomatoes and the produce at our local farm stands. I also love soup during the long, cold winter months. One of my favorites is vegetable quinoa soup and I shared the recipe at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen here: I don’t entirely hate winter, and there is nothing better than snuggling with the dog on the couch while reading and drinking tea.

 

🥔 🥖 🥕

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Like so many of us, I live in winter country, making me a big fan of foods whose temperatures flip those on the thermometer! That steaming bowl of soup or noodles that warms us in mid January is far less appealing in July, and in my house, ice cream consumption pretty much stops when the temps begin to drop! The big meal salads we love in summer don't show up much on our winter menus. When temperatures begin to rise, winter's cooked cereal, like this Morning Glory Oatmeal, becomes summer's Fruit of the Wild Granola. 

Some foods, like beans, carrots, and potatoes, work well in both summer and winter but most cooks typically prepare and combine them differently. And we season them differently, too. For example, a big winter hit in our house is this Tuscan Bean Soup with Asiago Toasts. (I admit, we love it as much for the chance to say "Asiago Toasts" as for the taste, which is pretty wonderful.) It's full of white beans, tomatoes, and chicken or turkey sausage, hearty stuff that fills the house with an onion and sage aroma that even smells warm. Perfect for winter! But in summer, those same white beans and tomatoes are just right combined with green beans and basil pesto in Erin's Two-Bean Pesto Salad, another family fave.

Of course, the baguette and the glass of wine are hits all year round!  

 

            🌱 🍜 🌿

 

LESLIE KARST: Here in Hilo, this is what’s in season in February. Which, of course, is the reason we winter here.

 

But on those damp and dreary days we often get (it is Hilo, after all), nothing satisfies like the local dish, saimin—a Japanese-influenced noodle soup akin to ramen. 

 

Often served with sliced fish cake, green onions, and a poached egg, this is a filling and delicious soup, perfect for a rainy day. Saimin (pronounced sai-meen) is peculiar to Hawai‘i, and it’s so popular that it could perhaps be considered the state dish. Okay, so maybe that would be actually be Spam musubi....

 

🍄 🌿 🍞

MOLLY MacRAE: Winter temperatures in central Illinois aren't the worst you'll find. They do shift from above zero to below and back again without much notice, and the windchills can be atrocious. To counter that, we love cooking anything that'll add extra heat and a bit of steam to the house. Soups, stews, biscuits, and bread? Definitely. And dessert! Here's a recipe for a perfect, warming, mid-winter dessert - Golden Syrup Steamed Pudding. 

☕ 🍞 🍪

PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: In the summer, I'm all about grilling--everything from steak to corn on the cob. I do a lot of kebabs, too, and a particular favorite is chicken satay--chicken with peanut sauce. I also grill shrimp and vegetables like zucchini and eggplant. In the winter, I break out the heartier recipes like chili, soups and stews. There's nothing like a steaming bowl of something when it's cold and snowy outside--which is a lot of the time in Michigan! Winter is a long season sometimes starting as early as October and lasting until nearly Memorial Day.  A favorite soup we enjoy when the winter winds start blowing is this ham and bean soup.

🍅 🌴 🌿

LUCY BURDETTE: Ummm, I hate to rub it in, but although it's winter here, it's pretty darn hot. That doesn't solve the tomatoes in January dilemma though, as the produce in Key West is lacking. (We live on an island made of coral, after all.) Luckily, John grows some tomatoes and basil on our deck and our neighbor grows even more, and shares them. So we are able to serve pasta with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.

 ☕ 🍝 🍁

CLEO COYLE: Send some of those warm Key West and Hawaiian breezes our way Lucy & Leslie K.! The arctic blasts from the north have turned us into popsicles here in New York City, and that happens (at some point) every winter. We’re low on snow this year, however, and that’s a bit disappointing. I do love the seasons of fall and winter and appreciate the beauty of a snowy day. My husband, Marc, on the other hand, prefers the kind of snow one does not have to shovel. :)  As for food, Vicki, yes! We definitely change things up in winter, eating more stews, soups, pastas, casseroles, and roasts—especially roasts. When it’s very cold, a nice roast dinner will keep our oven on for hours and help to heat our home. Winter is also the time of year we tend to catch colds and flu, and we recently shared two recipes that come handy for us every winter. Here they are for anyone who missed our recent posts: Cinnamon Stick Tea (for your sore throat, cough, and brain functions) and One Hour Chicken Soup (to help alleviate cold and flu symptoms).

Click here or on the image above
for Cleo’s Cinnamon Stick Tea recipe
(for your sore throat, cough, and brain functions)

Click here or on the image above for
Cleo’s One Hour Chicken Soup
(to help alleviate cold and flu symptoms)

🌸 🍷 🌸

MAYA CORRIGAN: Where I live, near Washington DC, the winters are less severe than in more northern areas. Today, however, it's still in the 20s around noon, and that's definitely below normal for our area. I like a warm drink when I come in from the cold. Usually, that drink is black tea with milk, but I can't have any caffeine later than mid-afternoon if I want to sleep soundly. So later in the day, I sometimes enjoy a hot wine punch. The recipe I shared in January makes a cup or two of punch from cranberry juice, brown sugar, white wine, cinnamon, and cloves. With just a few ingredients and little time, you can make yourself a drink perfect for frigid weather. 

🍵🍵🍵

GIVEAWAY!

To be entered in this week's drawing

for the 4 terrific mysteries below,

join us in the comments.

Do you cook up special winter meals?
Or do you live someplace where winter
isn’t much different than summer?

Join the conversation!

Include your email address,

so we can contact the winner!

> Body on Baker Street by Vicki Delany 

> Bake Offed by Maya Corrigan

> Brewed Awakening by Cleo Coyle

> Argyles and Arsenic by Molly MacRae 

Comments open through

Wednesday, February 8

Don't forget to include
your email address.

🔎