Vikings Win Despite Coach, I Eat Chili w/ Corn Fritters

It occurs to me that Coach Childress could not get a waitress from the dining room into the bar. Sad. Now we have to keep the coach.

A high point of game day was eating corn fritters as a side w/ chili. You can use your regular pancake recipe and add an extra egg and lots and lots of corn.

Sweet Potatoe Pancakes

When you have leftover squash or sweet potatoes, add them ( already mashed) to your pancake mixture. Adjust the consistency w/ the addition of some more milk, if necessary. You know how good butter and maple syrup are on pancakes? - they are even better on sweet potatoe pancakes.
Serve your leftover ham on the side, of course.

Naughty and Nice - Finnish Fish Soup

Another great cold weather soup is the Finnish version of fish soup - kala mojakka(sp) - that includes potatoes, carrots, onions, celery and fish in a milk broth, seasoned primarily w/ allspice. Gently boil the vegetables in water that becomes a wonderful broth until they are about done( 2o - 30 min), add milk or cream by 1 / 3 or 1 / 2, bring to simmer, and add fish portions ( 2 -3 inch)to poach for 5 minutes at the end. Ladle into bowls, strew fresh ground allspice over all, add a pat of butter to each, and serve w/ a rustic and/or whole grain bread. Fresh chopped parsley as garnish and flavor enhancer, too.

Simple, clean, healthy. An somewhat austere soup made auspicious and delicious by the generous addition of allspice.

My great Aunt Sofia would use whole black peppercorns and whole allspicecorns, which would sink to the bottom of the soup pot, and a whole northern pike including bones and head which produced a lusty barbaric flavor. She would suck on the tiny hard white inner eyeballs of the northern pike for hours, rolling them in her mouth like jaw breakers and her eyes would twinkle as she would tell stories, sometimes naughty.

Leftover Paella

I have an upcoming Christmas Dinner piece in the Compass Magazine ( of the Mille Lacs Messenger) about Paella - recipe, photos, etc... .

Leftover Pealla makes a rich and savory soup - simply add water/chicken broth and red pepper to taste and dunk w/ a rustic, crusty bread. Artisinal breads from Abbey Bakery or the New French Bakery are available locally - usually frozen if you are not in a bigger city - and are an excellent bake and serve product. Get some for the season - great for an appetizer base, too, sliced into rounds and toasted on a tray in the oven.

The ubiquitous cream of chicken wild rice soup is a bit more interesting w/ the addition of curry powder. Chef Glenn D'Amour of Izaty's a few yrs ago would do that. Best Chef they ever had there. Too bad Izaty's has gone the way it has.

A Great Date on the Coldest Day of The Year, with Snow

A bonus of frigid cold weather outside is frost patterns on the window. Snow drifts are like waves frozen in time. Beautiful.

Curried pork chops with peas and rice was a great supper during the blizzard last night. Hot and sweet, exotic. And simple. Season pork chops w/ salt, pepper, cayenne and garlic and brown in oil in frying pan, add heavy cream and a couple of teaspoons of curry powder ( or more to taste) and bake in the oven for about a half hour.

Have a date cake that you got at a church bake sale with plenty of softly whipped cream, for dessert.