December 2011 - Mostly Balanced

Last week was extremely busy at school, with little time to cook, even less time to take pictures, and next to no daylight in which to take good pictures. Now, with a little less on my plate, I got to spend the weekend testing out new recipes that I’m considering making for my family’s Christmas dinner and the meals leading up to it. (It also doesn’t help that the first time I wrote this post I closed out of the browser without saving). I tried this chorizo cornbread stuffing back in November, but I think it would work just as well for December holidays. The sweetness of the cornbread and the spiciness of the chorizo are a good combination on their own, regardless of whatever they accompany.

A tale of two pastas: one decadent and delicious, the other a healthier bake that still tastes impossibly fresh and cheesy. After David and I planned our Thanksgiving menu, we bent our heads together over the grocery lists and divvied up the ingredients we needed to buy by store: Whole Foods will have happy turkeys and chorizo sausage, let’s get them there and Trader Joe’s has the cheaper frozen corn and potatoes, it makes sense to get those there. But when we came home on Wednesday night with our bags of goodies, we found that we hadn’t exactly sorted out who should buy the staples and ended up with three pints of heavy cream. Whoops. Some got used up in a rather lackluster cauliflower gratin, more of it in a pre-Thanksgiving clam chowder David made, and a little topped off the pumpkin pie. But as the weekend drew to a close, we still had 2 almost-full pints sitting in the fridge.

Cornbread Stuffing with Chorizo & Sweet Italian Sausage

Cheesy Chicken Casserole with Kale