Have you ever had the soup can classic chicken rice casserole? I admit, I have not, though the idea of it intrigued me recently. It sort of reminds me of my mother's arroz con pollo, but with mushrooms and without tomatoes. With this recipe I set out to make a scratch cooking version of chicken rice casserole, sans the cans, with the goal of extracting as much flavor as I could out of the ingredients. First you will note that we use chicken thighs, instead of the more popular (and more expensive by the way) breasts. The thighs have more flavor, and are a little fattier, meaning they won't dry out with long cooking. The chicken pieces are browned in olive oil, removed, and then the onions are cooked in the same pan with the chicken browned bits. Then the mushrooms are browned, and the whole pan is deglazed with dry sherry. All goes into a casserole dish with stock, cream, sour cream, herbs, rice, topped with the chicken, and baked in the oven. The rice cooks in the stock, the chicken finishes cooking, and the resulting dish is, as my 10-yr-old nephew says "really good".

These days when I step outside, I just want to turn around and go back in the house. Sacramento makes up for its blazingly hot summers with foggy, gloomy, dark, dismal, chilly winters, perfect weather, come to think of it, for hearty stews such as this one. Root vegetables rule the season, sweet carrots and parsnips, turnips, and the happily named rutabaga. (Rutabaga. Rutabaga. Sounds like it could be the name of a latin dance, doesn't it?) This stew is loaded with flavor. Don't forget the gremolata (parsley, lemon zest, garlic garnish which I forgot to photograph in the stew); it gives the stew a great zip. For those of you lamb-non-eaters, if you try it with beef (use chuck), let us know how it goes. I imagine it will be just as good.

Whenever I make ice cream from scratch, we usually have lots of leftover egg whites to use up. Meringues (or as my nephew calls them, "little pavlovas") are little cookies made with basically just egg whites and sugar, with a little vinegar and salt added to help the mixture hold its structure when whipped. In this recipe we've folded in some crushed peppermint sticks, leftover from Christmas. Mini chocolate chips can be added as well. What I love about making these meringues is that you just put them in the hot oven, turn off the heat, and walk away for a few hours. Come back to sweet little meringue cookies, light and airy that practically melt in your mouth.

Looking for a last minute New Year's appetizer? From the recipe archive.

Brie wrapped in pastry and baked until it has thoroughly melted inside is one of the world's easiest yet tastiest appetizers. In this recipe the brie is topped with raspberry jam, surrounded with pastry and drizzled with maple syrup.

Please welcome guest author Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen as she treats us to fabulous shrimp coated with panko and coconut flakes. ~Elise

In my kitchen, there are a handful of Asian ingredients that I’m never out of. There’s the usual like soy sauce, oyster sauce and ginger, of course. But, there’s the other category of foods that are so versatile, they can be used in any style of cooking, whether Asian, Italian or Greek.

And at the top of that list is panko bread crumbs. Panko is a Japanese breadcrumb that really shouldn’t be named “crumb” but rather bread “flakes.” It’s incredibly light, airy and crisp/crunchy when fried.

What I like about panko is that it doesn’t absorb as much oil or grease as regular breadcrumbs and its super-thin flakes create an airy, lacey coating that you can’t achieve with regular breadcrumbs.

Admission, I love eggnog. When I was a kid my parents would get a couple cartons at a time, which they still had to ration, because I, like my 5 siblings, could easily drink a carton apiece. These days I make my own eggnog, and sadly must submit again to rationing, self-imposed this time, for the sake of my not-so-girlish-anymore figure. A reader suggested that eggnog would make a good ice cream, and once that idea lodged in my brain it never let go until the ice cream was made. Three cheers for all things eggnog! This recipe is similar to the eggnog recipe, but with a couple more egg yolks, and a slightly different milk to cream ratio. You could probably easily use already prepared eggnog, even the store-bought stuff. But if you've happened to spike it to the point of tasting the alcohol, it won't churn into ice cream because the alcohol won't freeze.

D'Oh! I forgot to pick up parsley!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our house to yours. May you remember everything you went to the grocery store to get. (While you're still at the store, not on the way home.)

May you stay warm, and well fed. May you be surrounded by family and friends. May the peace of the season be upon you.

:-)

The texture of a Yorkshire pudding is nothing like a pudding in the modern sense of the word. Not a custard, it's more like a cross between a soufflé and a cheese puff (without the cheese). The batter is like a very thin pancake batter, which you pour into a hot casserole dish over drippings from roast beef or prime rib. It then puffs up like a chef's hat, only to collapse soon after you remove it from the oven.

Given that it's loaded with beef drippings (read fat) or butter, or both, Yorkshire pudding is probably not the thing you want to eat regularly if you are watching your waistline. But for a once a year indulgence, served alongside a beef roast? Yummmmm.

Yorkshire pudding is traditionally made in one pan (even more traditionally in the pan catching the drippings from the roast above). You can also make a popover version with the same batter and drippings in a muffin tin or popover pan.