Switching gears, the cabbage family. Big and diverse and super healthy, I decided to start off this week with a swiss chard, part of the cabbage family, taking center stage. This slab-style pie makes a great light lunch, a snack or even an appetizer. I personally also think it would be a great thing to bring to a picnic or a potluck as it can be enjoyed hot or at room temperature.
Sometimes, when it is cold like it has been this January and February — I mean, disproportionately cold! — you just want some hearty soup and this one fits the bill. Hearty, a little bit spicy (and easy to bump up the spice with additional jalapeños or hot sauce). It’s nutritious and kept me warm all evening.
Staying on my “Hand Pie” kick, here is a recipe for making a whole lot and freezing them. It’s a “from scratch” recipe — meaning first make your curry, then make your hand pies, but you can easily just make hand pies from any leftover curry that you might have. Just the other day, I purposefully saved some butter chicken to make some additional hand pies. Easy and always great to have in the freezer for a quick lunch.
Happy Superbowl Sunday! As I think I write every year, I am more a fan of the game-time snacks than the game itself, and usually I try to make everything the day before the big game, but somehow my week got a bit discombobulated and today I am scrambling. I also forgot an few key ingredients and am not much in the mood to go to the shops, so I’ve decided to re-evaluate my day and just share this one thing with you instead. It’s the annual chicken wings! So far, there are 6 recipes for wings on the site, so this makes 7. Tart and spicy, crispy and delicious. Feeds a crowd and if you double the recipe, you could feed the entire neighborhood!
So I know that it might seem that I toil in the kitchen for hours, and sometimes I do, though “toiling” isn’t exactly the word that I would use as I enjoy spending time in the kitchen, as it is my refuge, but I am all about convenience food as well. And batch cooking. So here is something that I often make in batches: Hand pies. These are Spinach Mushroom + Cheddar Hand Pies. They are fantastic right out of the oven, but also freeze phenomenally well and with just 30 seconds in the microwave and 5 minutes in the oven to crisp up again, one (or sometimes two, shhhhh, don’t tell anyone) they make a great lunch or snack for dinner in front of the game if I am really too lazy to cook. If you search on hand pies, you’ll find more recipes too.