What chicken soup is to us, pea soup is to the Dutch -- an everlasting standby and cure-all.
When I have no vegetables on hand, I make this soup, which requires only onions and leftover bread. Grated Gruyère, one of my mother’s favorite additions to the soup, is a great flavor enhancer.
Hot chocolate holds on the stove for an hour or longer, and can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 days.
Lighter than yams, easily done ahead and good hot or tepid, roasted sweet squash turns almost candy-like in the oven.
Barley is a great substitute for risotto, especially when you don't have a lot of time to spend stirring the pot.
You can use just one of the vegetables or any combination
A real caper is the flower bud of a caper plant, Capparis spinosa, and its large seedpod is called a caper berry. The seedpods of nasturtiums look just like the caper plant's buds, and when pickled they taste remarkably similar. Nasturtiums usually don't start forming seedpods until late in the summer and you have to search for them. You'll find them attached to the stems underneath the foliage, where they develop in clusters of three. Pick only young pods that are still green and soft. When they mature, they turn yellowish and the seed inside the pod is very hard and unpalatable.
When roasted, the flesh of winter squashes such as butternut, acorn, and kabocha becomes creamy and dense and caramelizes on the cut surfaces.
Notes from Ruth Alegria: Mexican chocolate is composed of bitter chocolate, sugar, cinnamon (soft bark) and almonds. Well-known brands available in the United States are Ibarra and Abuelita.
What This Recipe Shows: By rolling the dough balls in plain sugar first, the confectioners sugar does not soak in so much and stays on the surface better.