Kale--too much of a good thing.

You can't buy it by the leaf or by the ounce. You've got to take a big bunch and either throw it away or wrack your brain to find a recipe to use it in. Look up "kale" in the index of older cookbooks and you won't find much; it's a veggie on an upward, farm-to-table trend. I'm not saying it's not pretty.

I'm just saying, it's a tricky ingredient. I put it in a white bean and mini ravioli soup last night and it flopped all over the spoon, spattering vegetable broth everywhere. I hate when that happens. Tonight's saute with mushrooms, a shallot, leek, and dried cranberries was much more flavorful and easier to eat, though it doesn't look like much wilted. "Wilted" is not a good food word.

What was I thinking?

It was love at first sight when I read the recipe for "Chili Mac" in the sample pages of the next edition of the Taste of Home Simple & Delicious Cookbook. Actually, my thought was, "Oh, Chuck will love this!" Any hungry guy would. Elbow macaroni, canned chili, ground beef, cheddar cheese... the only work besides twisting the can opener this required was chopping a green pepper and an onion. I'm embarrassed to say I made it, but then again, there are days when the sun never breaks through the clouds, kicked-up slush gets into your boots, and there's nothing to do buy pig out on junk food. Actually, this wouldn't make a bad stuffed pepper or baked-potato topping: up the vegetable quotient and the guilt may diminish.

This leg has legs

After a very merry meal of roast leg of lamb for Christmas (with its glaze of red currant jelly, pomegranate molasses, lemon, and more sweet-savory flavors

), we made a navarin printanier from MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING. We often have this as Le Veau d'Or, but now that we know we can make a reasonable facsimile, I think we can enjoy their delicious sole more often.

What Is It About Chicken Pot Pie?

I am absolutely obsessed with mini chicken pot pies. I could eat one every night of my life. Tonight's was delicious: cobbled together from an on-line recipe that had a puff pastry topping which I replaced with the shortcut pastry from SIMPLE FRENCH COOKING. It called for basil, salt, and pepper which I enhanced with celery salt. It must be the Chicago in me, but that celery salt made it! A mini pie is like doll food: a tiny, perfect approximation of the adult version. Eating out of this little foil pan, I feel like myself at six, sitting cross-legged in Weston, CT, with Susie Rogers, pretending that we're at a dinner party, eating out of old bowls Mom didn't mind if we broke. During this mid-life crisis of my career crashing down around me, at least there's something that gives total satisfaction.

Tasha Tudor Reigns

As if illustrating A LITTLE PRINCESS and THE SECRET GARDEN, raising corgis, and running a Vermont farm wasn't enough, Tasha Tudor also wrote a cookbook. I found it in a used bookstore in upstate NY and have fallen in love with it (see my post on her blueberry muffins in August 2011). With a few ripe pears left from a Harry & David shipment sent by my friend Judy Kessler of the publisher Creative Homeowner, I made Tudor's recipe for coffee cake this morning. Such a nice contrast between the moist cake and the crunchy, pecan-laced topping. I brought most of it to choir. Nothing gets a group of singers more excited than free, hot food.

Tomatoes in Winter

Well, it is 60º in December.... Tonight I met Miriam Rubin, author of the next book in UNC Press's delightful Savor the South(TM) series, TOMATOES. She gave me a small jar of tomato jam which I cannot wait to try tomorrow morning for breakfast on my corn muffin. Gina Mihalik, the Press's publicity manager, gave me a jar of bourbon figs from the Farmer's Daughter stand at the Carrboro Farmer's Market which will be a treat with vanilla ice cream left over from Thanksgiving as I gobble up more "Mad Men" on video. After the day I had, I almost wept with gratitude.

Brunswick Stew...Hold the Squirrel

Chuck has such good ideas for delicious Sunday night dinners. We received a catalog of Southern specialties in the mail--succulent smoked hams, juicy pulled pork, fluffy sweet potato biscuits--and among the delicacies was Brunswick stew. Even this herald of Southern tradition has eschewed the squirrel for chicken. While I could've gotten a bead on a couple of gray varmints in Carl Schurz Park this afternoon, the NYPD frowns on its citizens shooting for food.