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Braised Collard Greens ♥

How to cook fresh collard greens in that inimitable southern fashion, just chopped collards, plenty of garlic, a touch of sugar and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, all slow-cooked on the stove until soft and almost buttery. These are the greens to cook to bring good fortune in the New Year but such a knock-out recipe, you just might find yourself hankering for a potful all year round ... and tempted to down the whole pot yourself. Fresh & Seasonal, a Traditional Food at New Year's But Also a Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Great for Meal Prep. Low Carb. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Not just vegan, Vegan Done Real . Naturally Gluten Free.

Quick Bite: Mann's Sugar Snap Peas

Happy New Year to All! No recipe today, just a quick story and a product tip for ready-to-eat sugar snap peas. My grandmother stood only 4'11" tall. Her body was small but came with a full-size sweet tooth so weight management was always a problem. As a child, I loved to sneak into her kitchen while the grown-ups visited in the living room. Right at the front of the top drawer next to the fridge, I knew, would be a bag of chips, usually chocolate but sometimes butterscotch, the bag torn open at the corner just enough to fit a couple of fingers. Me, I keep bags of chips safely out of the way in sealed bags inside tins stored at the back of the pantry. But this week, there in the door of my frig (fridge? keep reading) is a bag of sugar snap peas, prewashed and prestrung and full of crunch and freshness opened just enough to grab one or two. The sugar snap peas are a perfect snack after waaay too much holiday food -- and a sweet reminder of my grandmother. Many thanks to my dear

New Year's Turnip Greens ♥

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

Kitchen Parade Extra: Smoked Turkey Chowder ♥

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

Pumpkin Fruitcake ♥

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

Turkey Florentine ♥

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

Kitchen Parade Extra: Perfect M&M Cookies ♥

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