The last vegetable recipe of 2007: a New Year's traditional food said to ensure 'financial success' in the new year. Fresh greens cooked slowly with onion, ham and seasoning. Happy New Year's to all! So are we ready for New Year's Eve festivities? Champagne, check. Fancy appetizers, check. Check. Check. Check. But come New Year's Day, we need a recipe for black-eyed peas for good fortune and greens for financial success. These greens are really rich. It cooks down to just two cups but I suspect it'll go a long ways -- even though I skipped a whole five tablespoons of fat from this Paula Deen recipe. (I know, what was I thinking ...) HOW to CLEAN & STORE GREENS This technique helps fresh greens 'keep' for at least three days. Soak the greens in cool water in the sink for a few minutes, sloshing them around every once in awhile to loosen dirt. Then rinse the leaves individually under running water, making sure to get water into the crevices. Throw

When it comes to New Year's, it's a quandary. Some years, champagne and lobster, sure! Others? Well, there's nothing like a bowl of rich and creamy soup, one that cooks a long, long time on the stove, as if in remembrance of all things past. This week's Kitchen Parade column introduces my local readers to the slow food movement, including St. Louis' own Slow Food chapter . It's at KitchenParade.com and includes the recipe for Smoked Turkey Chowder . But whatever your New Year's plans, whether bubbly celebrations or morning-after breakfasts or comfort food on New Year's Day, Kitchen Parade's archives has New Year's recipes for inspiration. And for good luck in the new year, don't forget to cook some black-eyed peas . See you on the other side! Happy New Year's, all! SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column that my Mom started writing for our family newspaper when I was a baby. Today it's published

A tender spice-rich fruitcake made with pumpkin purée, filled with dried fruit, moistened with marsala or tawny port. So the whole world is baking for Christmas and behind the pixels, me too! Now by any rights, if I were to share a proper fruitcake recipe, it would be my grandmother's and the season would be summer. You see, her recipe needs shall we say? to soak awhile for what shall we call it? lushness. But since it's winter (really! look at the snow!) and there's no proper fruitcake in the pantry, this recipe for pumpkin fruitcake caught my attention. And I have to say, for a make-it-now and serve-it-fast fruitcake, it's got all the right parts. Now piles of people think fruitcake is a scourge and for good reason, for truly inedible fruitcakes abound. I've got two tricks for great fruitcake, ones which I think might turn the tastes of the most ardent fruitcake hater. Use real fruit, not that candied red and green and syrupy sugary gooey gunky rock-hard

Today's Vegetable Recipe: An easy turkey casserole. Layers of frozen spinach and leftover turkey topped with a cheesy sauce. Low carb. Turkey leftovers! I like them so much that after our turkey-less, ham-happy Thanksgiving, I roasted a big turkey breast and all the trimmings just for the leftovers. But after a bit, just like anyone else facing a mountain of turkey, I was asking, What to do with leftover turkey? This easy casserole used up the last of the turkey in a one-dish meal, tasted great and fed a small crowd quite happily. FLORENTINE? What does 'florentine' mean? In recipes, it usually means something on a bed of spinach. In general, it means something from the city of Florence, Italy. VEGETABLE RECIPES from the ARCHIVES ~ more spinach recipes ~ ~ one year ago this week Date-Night Chicken from Kitchen Parade, not all that different! ~ MAKE IT A MEAL Ha! This already IS a meal so will be added to the still-being-updated list of Main Dishes , recipes for main dishes

Tomorrow is my annual cookie swap and for perhaps the 15th time in 15 years, my friend Kathy will bring her M&M cookies. Now why would someone make the same cookies year after year? Because these M&M cookies are oh-so-good and because they're so good, we won't let her bring anything ELSE. But she might be off the hook, because Kathy gave me permission to share her recipe -- it starts with the classic Tollhouse cookie recipe, with M&Ms. But Kathy's been tweaking the recipe for more than a decade, so now they're absolutely perfect mix of crispy chewiness and chocolatey sweetness. So here you go, Kathy's recipe for Perfect M&M Cookies . CHRISTMAS COOKIES from AROUND the WORLD One of my favorite food bloggers is Susan from Food Blogga and she's collecting Christmas cookie recipes from food bloggers all over, it's a great collection of cookie recipes , be sure to check it out! Perfect M&M Cookies are so very American, yes? The reci

Today's Simple Vegetable Recipe: Fresh Brussels sprouts braised in shallots, cream and broth, then stirred with mustard and parsley. Low carb. Here's another winner, just fresh Brussels sprouts cooked in liquid in a covered skillet (yes, that's what it means to 'braise'). "BUT MY FAMILY WON'T EAT BRUSSELS SPROUTS!" I know, I know. Discomfort with Brussels sprouts and other vegetables in the cabbage (ahem) family is likely all about a sensitivity to bitterness. And the bitterness comes from chemicals called glucosinolates. If someone in your family is hesitant, resistant or outrightly militant in opposition to Brussels sprouts, know that the trick is to break up the center of the sprouts by cutting them in half and then, in order to leach out the chemicals, to cook them in a lot of well-salted water . (Thank you, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen , for this lesson.) Or, like tonight, as I learned, well-salted cream. When trimming

So this week I mixed up some muffins to serve hot from the oven when family visits over the holidays. (What? Mixed muffins now? for serving in three weeks? Yes!) Talk about make-ahead recipes! The batter keeps in the frig for five weeks. Along the way, bake fresh muffins (as many as you want, even just one or two) any time. The recipe is from a 2002 Kitchen Parade column, published today online for the first time. So check it out, it's my recipe for Five-Week Bran Muffins . The recipe is just one in a collection of recipes for Christmas in Kitchen Parade's Recipe Box. ~ how to host a cookie exchange along with my favorite roll-out cookie recipe ~ ~ the cranberry-macadamia nut cookie recipe I'm making for this year's cookie swap ~ ~ the graham cracker toffee that everyone finds so addictive ~ ~ one way to share the true meaning of Christmas with children, Jesus' birthday cake ~ SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column

Today's holiday recipe: Potato latkes fried in oil for Hanukkah. Crispy on the edges, warm and potato-y in the center. After writing about Hanukkah recipes for Blogher yesterday, the only question was 'what kind' of latkes would we have for supper? Carrot? Spinach? Sweet potato? I chose traditional potato latkes, prepared (I think, based on other bloggers' recipes) in a somewhat unconventional method. Instead of grating, the potatoes are whizzed in the blender with onion, apple and egg to the consistency of applesauce. This lets them 'splat' into hot oil for cooking, creating lots of crispiness. Served with sour cream, warm applesauce and sorghum, the latkes were completely delicious, enjoyed immensely by both my dad and me. Since this was my first time to cook (and eat, too?) latkes I have a few impressions but certainly can't be considered an expert. While crispy is good, Dad and I both preferred the latkes crispy on the edges (way more than in the phot

Today's Christmas-y salad recipe: Quick sautéed spinach with a garlicky yogurt sauce, toasted walnuts, pomegranate seeds and fresh mint, a street food specialty called "salatet bil s'banegh joz" from the Middle East and North Africa. Totally captivating and refreshing, way more than the sum of its parts. Low carb! And isn't it festive and pretty?! And the unexpected combination of ingredients with a Middle-Eastern feel – spinach plus fresh mint, toasted walnuts, pomegranate seeds and yogurt – somehow really work. This salad has a lot of parts but luckily they're not "moving parts" and if you're inspired to serve this for a holiday meal – it has the right colors, yes? – all but the last step could be done in advance. The recipe comes from Street Food: Exploring the World's Most Authentic Tastes by Tom Kime, what's turning out to be a real treasure. I love the irony that a street-side specialty called "salatet bil s'banegh joz

Glazed winter root vegetables, simple cubes of turnip and carrot in a slightly sweet glaze. Weeknight easy and yes, kid friendly! Imagine a pair of seven-year olds, they're BFFs – for the uninitiated, that's Best Friends Forever – my back-door neighbor who appears on A Veggie Venture on occasion and her best friend. Talk about adventurous! Both were willing to spear still-cooking turnips and carrots straight from the skillet. They flashed big smiles and pronounced them "good". And then, after another bite? They exclaimed, "These are wonderful!" I snapped a quick photo and sent the girls home with a container for supper. But I was sorry to see it go! These cubes of turnip and carrot are really good, slightly but not too sweet with brown sugar, slightly but not too bright with lemon. I will totally do these again, they're already on the menu for over Christmas. And the color is so festive, completely unusual for turnips. MY FRIDGE, THE ROOT CELLAR If

If you're from St. Louis, you'll likely love this post filled with gift ideas from/for our area. If you're not, don't worry, tomorrow there will be a great recipe that works worldwide! The St. Louis food bloggers are exploding in number and today some of us are posting about our best ideas for St. Louis food gifts. What do we mean? Well, we'll see! Maybe local somethings, maybe local sources, I haven't seen the other lists yet but am dying to know what we come up with collectively. Here's who is participating -- Kitchen Conservatory , St. Louis Eats & Drinks , Iron Stef , The Cupcake Project and Stl Bites -- check out their ideas for food gifts, too. And now, here you are, my own ideas for St. Louis Food Gifts. American Visions - American Visions is the lovely gift shop at 9854 Manchester Road in Rock Hill, filled with pieces from American artists and craftsmen. My favorite food items are the beautiful-but-useable measuring cups and measuring spoons