Braised Mushroom Soba Soup with Nori

Braised Mushroom Soba Soup with Nori
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We have arrived at soup season, which is a very good thing. I don’t much care for winter but I do love soup. And I particularly enjoy soup when my cheeks are stinging from the cold and my feet are outfitted in loud, chunky socks. Perhaps there is hope for winter after all…probably not. Today’s Braised Mushroom Soba Soup is the perfect companion to obnoxious winter socks. It’s loaded with umami and equipped with hearty, slurp-able noodles. It’s a brothy, meat-free number, so it also happens to be very January-friendly without being bland. This is definitely the type of soup you could dive right into, so let’s do just that.

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Blistered Jalapeño White Bean Enchiladas

Blistered Jalapeño White Bean Enchiladas
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These Blistered Jalapeño White Bean Enchiladas were almost mac and cheese. Yes, when I first envisioned a cheesy, jalapeño-flecked cream sauce, I thought it was destined for a pot of tubular pasta. But when I got to the other side of the holidays, I found myself pasta-ed out. I do find it interesting that I was still game for cheese, in spite of inhaling quite a bit of it during the month of December. Clearly, when it comes to cheese consumption, I was built to persevere. But pasta and I needed a hiatus, so enchiladas it was. I have no doubt pasta and I will be reunited shortly.

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Cannoli Arancini with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Cannoli Arancini with Dark Chocolate Ganache
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Consider this my New Years’ offering and my final post of 2020. And what better way to bid adieu to one of the crappiest, strangest years on record than with a Frankenstein of a dessert. These Cannoli Arancini are not the classiest things to grace a dessert table. But they are so good – achingly good. And yeah, no one asked for a weird hybrid of cannoli and arancini. But I like to think I filled a void the world didn’t know it had. Call it a public service or an affront to Italian cuisine. It all depends on your perspective…or taste level, I suppose. But if you’re down with unholy snack cross-overs, these Cannoli Arancini are for you.

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Five Spice Gingerbread Cake with Chestnut Cream

Five Spice Gingerbread Cake with Chestnut Cream
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Many thoughts ran through my head while I was constructing this Five Spice Gingerbread Cake. “Why am I doing this to myself?” was the loudest and most insistent among them. This whole over-the-top exercise began when I got the “fun” idea of doing a gingerbread diorama on a cake. And once that idea took root in my brain, I knew I was in trouble. I don’t make gingerbread – I’ve never even attempted a prepackaged house kit before this. And my experience with royal icing is…scant. But I’m stubborn, so I persevered and I am so glad I did.

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