| Hi, everyone, and good Saturday morning. After a few weeks away, I'm glad to be back in the saddle — and your inboxes. (Thanks to assistant recipes editor Olga Massov for so capably covering for me!) Today is just like every other morning I've experienced for nearly the past two weeks: chilly, gray and, yes, still snow-covered outside in my neighborhood. Things don't look much different for the week ahead. Single-digit temperatures are forecast in the next few days. 🥶 It is what I could call spoon-meal weather, when all I want is something warm and saucy or brothy. Soups, stews and curries are a lot of what my husband and I are cooking, including Aaron Hutcherson's Leftover Turkey Chili, thanks to my freezer stash of surplus Thanksgiving turkey meat and broth, and my Triple Tomato Soup, which I had daily for lunch with grilled cheese when our D.C. snowstorm hit a few days into the new year. Speaking of chili and its infinite variations, Aaron was back at it this week with his Sweet Potato and Ground Beef Chili. While it may not please the purists out there, he's right when he says you shouldn't let a single definition keep you from trying this recipe. Said one reader: "I'm an expat Texan who NEVER liked chili, but somehow this sounded great and really hit the spot!" The nonna-approved Tofu Cacciatore that Joe Yonan shared from cookbook author Giuseppe Federici is already hitting the spot with readers, too. This riff on the classic Italian dish combines craggy baked tofu with peppers, mushrooms and onions in a marinara-based sauce. (Want a chicken version? Try my Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore adapted from Marcella Hazan.) According to readers, it's "excellent as written, and very quick and easy," and "delicious!" The cacciatore makes use of good jarred marinara (though you could certainly make your own), and Daniela Galarza's Leftover Roast Chicken Soup smartly takes advantage of another store-bought staple: rotisserie chicken. You'll use the carcass and aromatics to make a quick chicken stock, then add leftover pulled meat and more vegetables to round out the soup. It's ideal for cold days, sick days and, well, any day that ends in "day." Kara Elder offered her take on another classic dish, Pennsylvania Dutch Schnitz un Knepp (Dried Fruit and Ham Stew With Dumplings). The foundation of this flexible recipe is a smoked pork shank or ham hock, which lends flavor to the broth and meat for the finished stew. The sliced, dried apples are the unexpected MVP. Trust me on this. They may have been my favorite part of the entire dish. Kara offers plenty of suggestions to make this stew your own, including mixing up the protein and the veggies, as well as adapting it to be vegan. Ellie Krieger says her Date Nut Bread reminds her of sitting in her grandmother's kitchen as a child, and that's the kind of cozy feeling I like to cook up when it's chilly out and all I want to do is hibernate under a warm blanket. This better-for-you version features whole-grain flour, oil (instead of butter), and naturally sweet dates and maple syrup (instead of refined sugar). What else are you in the mood for to keep you comfy this winter? I'd love to hear about it in the live weekly cooking chat that Aaron and I host Wednesdays at noon Eastern. Submit your thoughts and questions now, then return when the conversation kicks off. Until next time, happy cooking. | 
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