Butternut Squash, Leek & Brie Galette

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Butternut Squash, Leek & Brie Galette

The past few days have been “melty” here in Minnesota.  Everyone seems a little happier and finally has a little skip in their step now that we’re seeing a glimmer of spring.  The end is finally, maybe, in sight.

Perfect.  Except for one thing.  One thing I can’t believe I’m about to say.

Have I had my fill of winter cooking yet?  Am I ready to trade in the hearty root vegetables and braised meats for asparagus and artichokes?  I better get in a couple more soups.  Maybe a stew.  Better do some baking. Bread pudding?  Polenta.  Gooey cheese.  Root vegetables.  Roasts.  Winter squash.

Squash!  No, I haven’t quite had my fill.  I loaded up on it in the beginning and then it fell off my radar.

Alright, tonight squash’ll get crossed off our winter eating bucket list.  We’ll roast it, combine it with sautéed leeks and Brie, and use it as the filling for a savory galette.  Nice, 3 checks off our list: squash, cheese, and baking.

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Maple-Walnut Pork Tenderloin with Wilted Kale

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Maple-Walnut Pork Tenderloin with Wilted Kale I know.  Kale (unless it’s in juice form) is, like, so 2012, but I still can’t get enough of it.

You know what else I can’t get enough of?  Recipes that deliver huge, tasty results with minimal effort. Recipes that are endlessly versatile.  Meals that taste like they took hours  but require only 30 minutes of popping in and out of the kitchen.  I can’t get enough dinners like this roasted pork tenderloin over wilted kale.  And the maple, Dijon mustard &  walnut vinaigrette that dresses the dish?  Would things get weird if I told you I wouldn’t mind bathing in it?  You’re right, forget I mentioned it.

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Crispy Braised Chicken with Grapes & Pearl Onions

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Crispy Braised Chicken with Grapes & Pearl Onions

Sometimes I feel like such a cliché.

What am I talking about?  Well, I’m about to go off on a rant about the weather.  Typical Minnesotan.

I’m freezing.  The temperature has been below zero all week.  Below ZERO.  As in zero degrees would be an improvement.  It’s cold and I can’t do anything productive because the thought of getting up from under an afghan is too much to handle.  I want to sit around, drinking tea or red wine, and eat.  Eat warm, nourishing food.  Comforting food like braised chicken. Mashed potatoes?  Obviously.

Okay, I can get out from under the afghan as long as it’s for a good cause and it involves turning on the oven.  And I’d say this is a pretty good cause: chicken thighs with crispy skin, braised with pearl onions, rosemary, and red grapes.  For good measure, we’ll serve it up on a mound of garlic-y mashed potatoes with a smattering of roasted Brussels sprouts and plenty of pan juices.  I’m feeling warmer and more good-natured just thinking about it.

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French Onion Soup (Soupe à l’Oignon Gratinée)

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It’s way too easy to get caught up in a project and forget why you ever started it in the first place.

Take blogging.

You start a blog about cooking because you really like to cook.  Then you become some weirdo who risks eating lukewarm pasta because you just really, really want to shoot a good pic for your website.  You start being a little crazy about numbers, checking your site’s analytics 5 times a day to see how many hits you’ve gotten.  You set up an adsense account, make 2 bucks, and think you’re going to take over the world.  You make a really delicious onion soup and you almost don’t share it with your readers because you haven’t reinvented the wheel.

Like I said, it’s easy to get lost.  Also, it’s easy to get crazy.

I don’t want to be nuts though.  I just want something good for dinner and I want to share it with you. Sometimes I make stuff up.  Sometimes I’m revolutionary (uh…), other times classics are where it’s at.

Tonight, it’s all about a classic: French Onion Soup.  You know it, you love it.  How couldn’t you?  It’s covered in melty Gruyere.  Caramelized onions.  Cognac!  Soul-warming broth.  It’s a bowl of hugs, afghans, mommies, fuzzy slippers, good memories.  Nothing new, but nothing you’ll ever tire of.

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Roasted Kabocha Squash & Sunchoke Soup

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Kabocha Squash & Sunchoke Soup

It’s actually embarrassing how little cooking I’ve done the past few weeks.  I might have 2 pizza boxes out waiting for the trash man this very moment.

You can relate though, right?  I mean you spend all this time before the holidays baking and planning the BIG dinner without really thinking about all the little meals in between. You come home, starving, look in the fridge and realize every time you’ve run to the grocery store in the last week it was for butter, heavy cream, another bag of flour, powdered sugar…

…and the pizza man’s phone rings.

But now it’s time.  The Christmas cookies have been baked and (mostly) eaten, the big dinner is over.  It’s time to break the cycle, time to erase the pizza delivery number from your recent call history.  Time to get back to cooking real food.  It’s time for soup.

Today it’s a velvety Kabocha squash and sunchoke soup.  And it’s a good one.  Really, really good even. It’s creamy and comforting with warm spices and a little sweet, nutty, can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-it-yumminess from the roasted sunchokes.

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