Cashew Butter & Bacon Soup {Inspired by Goober Peas & African Groundnut Stews}

This month's Creative Cooking Crew Challenge - hosted as ever by the lovely and talented Joan of Foodalogue and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks - centers around four key ingredients: green apples, bacon, nut butter, and vinegar.  Participants have been tasked with creating any dish they like, using as many or as few ingredients as they please, as long as it  incorporates some version of these four components.

For good or ill, I will cheerfully turn just about anything into soup, and this challenge has done nothing to discourage this propensity of mine. Here I took inspiration from a Southern American dish, goober pea soup, a peanut-based soup eaten by the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  The ancestor of this dish is of course West African groundnut, or peanut stew. Goober is an African word for peanut, an example of the indelible imprint that African ingredients and foods, via the slave trade, made on the cuisine of the American South.

Steak, Pepper & Goat Cheese Crustless Quiche {Brunch, a Plea}

I made a surprising discovery recently while doing some research for my monthly Style recipe column. The concept of brunch, which I had long supposed to be a uniquely American invention, was in fact first mentioned in print 1895 by British author Guy Beringer in the rather melodramatically-titled article "Brunch, A Plea."

He opined, "Instead of England's early Sunday dinner, a post-church ordeal of heavy meats and savory pies, why not a new meal, served around noon, that starts with tea or coffee, marmalade and other breakfast fixtures before moving along to the heavier fare? By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers."

A man after my own heart, this Guy. Naturally, I heartily approve of supplanting the dreary moralizing activity of churchgoing with the life-affirming pursuit of eating, especially when it's undertaken at a civilized hour, like noon. And then there's his wholehearted approval of Saturday night carousing: no puritanical guilt or whiff of self-flagellation for an evening of indulgence here. A laudably healthy attitude.

Another Cauliflower Risotto Post {It's Just Cooking, After All}

As a professional food writer, food blogger,  and sometime paid cook, I believe people generally expect me to be obsessed with cooking shows in general, and cooking competition shows specifically. And I used to be. Sort of.

My original interest in the genre began before I could fry an egg,  back when I was living in NYC and Bobby Flay had not yet sunk his ginger claws into the Iron Chef franchise. (He was instead busy grilling things and using ancho chiles in everything with Jackie Maloof on Food Network.)

Bangers & Mash-Up: A Meat and Potatoes Challenge

Nothing will shake me out of my blogging doldrums like a good old Creative Cooking Crew challenge. This month's challenge, hosted by the fab Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! and the lovely Joan of Foodalogue,  was as wide open as it gets: We were tasked with creating a dish around the theme of "meat and potatoes."

So. Where to begin? Well, given that I have been on something of a British television kick lately (particularly BBC Sherlock, but as this is a food blog and not a fangirl's Tumblr I will spare you the details) I decided I would look to the traditional cuisine of the U.K. for ideas.

Whiskey, Three Ways: Lovely Booze-y Cocktails for Valentine's Day ... or Anytime

When I was invited by the Four Seasons to participate in their Taste by Four Seasons Valentine's Day virtual cocktail class  it took me about thislong to say "yes!" After all, the featured ingredient was to be whiskey - in this case, Knob Creek Rye Whiskey. And you know me.

Bourbon, whiskey, Scotch ... I love it all, whether neat or in a well crafted cocktail, and given that participants would be learning recipes from three Four Seasons mixologists, I felt confident that these cocktails would be beautifully balanced. I was absolutely correct in that assumption.

Tofu "Bulgogi" and Kimchi Fried Rice {vegetarian}

This is one of those posts where I confess that I have no fascinating story to share with you that relates to the dish I am about to describe. Escapades involving rice, Korean food, tofu, and runny fried eggs neither lurk in my past nor are buried deep in my unconscious.

It's just a good dish, and that is all.

No-Egg Gnocchi with Roasted Garlic Cashew Nut "Cheese" {Vegan}

It's a new year, and the 5 Star Makeover group has undergone a transformation. We have a new logo and name:

As you can see, we're now the Creative Cooking Crew, helmed by Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks and Joan of Foodalogue. Rather than doing makeovers, our mission each month is to create original dishes inspired by a theme.

This month, the challenge was to create a vegan dish inspired by a meat or animal-product-heavy meal. I drew inspiration from one of my very favorite fattening things: gnocchi slathered with plenty of butter and Parmesan cheese.

Creamy Chicken Soup with Parsnips, White Pepper, & Peas {to cure a bad mood}

I've been having one of those weeks. You know the kind - where everything and everyone conspires to  irritate, annoy, and infuriate.

But that's okay, because I have a secret weapon: soup. Yes, soup. We all know the restorative properties of chicken soup, and this version adds even more punch with the addition of a little cream and half and half and a sinus-clearing amount of white pepper.

Each slurp of this soup not only contributed to an increased sense of equanimity and well-being, it gave me strength to (figuratively) vanquish my annoying enemies.

Or maybe that was the booze?

Chicken, Cabbage, & Cashew Stir Fried Rice

Do you really need me to tell you how to make a simple stir fried rice dish I made for dinner one weeknight?

But what the heck - I'll tell you anyway. After all, as my professional recipe development, food and travel writing, and photography obligations grow (I am neither complaining nor humble-bragging - I unabashedly love it!), I find that I have less and less time to make complicated dishes just for fun. Which is what this blog is supposed to be - fun.

Bucatini in Tomato Saffron Cream with Wild Salmon

Pasta and cream. Not exactly a New Year's resolution friendly dish. But that is kind of my point. I am posting this simply because I feel like it.

Let me back up and explain.

I have noticed an off-putting proscriptive tendency creeping into some food blogging lately. Year-end posts have popped up here and there purporting to be the last word on what food blogging should and should not be, and what we bloggers must and must not do.

As snarky as I know I can be, I find these proclamations - even when they claim to be tongue in cheek - a little too self-congratulatory for their own good.