I made the buffalo chicken dip for dinner to tonight - it’s been on my mind since I posted this. I roasted a few chicken breasts last night and chopped them up. It separated a bit, which it hadn’t the times before, but I may not have mixed it well enough. We had it with crusty bread and veggies and it hit the spot on a rainy cold night. It felt very Friday night-ish.
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It looks fantastic! I tend to use linguine or fettuccine for shrimp pasta, but I should give orzo a try some time.
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Love this recipe (shrimp and orzo)! It’s in our regular rotation.
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CRUNCHY BRUSSELS SPROUTS AND APPLE SLAW
I was looking for a Thanksgiving side dish that was (a) not going to require cooking or reheating, and (b) complementary in texture and taste to the rest of our sides - largely starchy and fatty. This fit the bill and
worked really well, and had the added benefit of being easily prepped ahead of time! Yesterday I sliced the sprouts and shallot on a mandoline, both right into a storage container. I also made the dressing and stored that little container in the bigger one. This morning, I peeled and sliced the apple, added the dressing, then put the lid on and shook it all up. This was about 8 hours before dinner so they softened up quite a bit, both in texture and taste. I skipped the cheese/almonds at the end, and I don’t think the dish was missing them. My only complaint, if that’s even the right word, was that the shallots were very strong and I should have separated them before mixing everything together.
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Soaking them in cold water for several minutes takes the bite out.
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Awww. Just saw this as a recommended gift from Wirecutter.
Too bad this thread ends Dec 31.
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@linguafood, the beauty of COTM and cooking-from threads is that they go on in perpetuity! It may not be the current COTM, but people are always encouraged to keep on adding when they cook something from the relevant source.
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That is truly beautiful, indeed. I’ve seen plenty of older COTM threads have lots of recipe links posted to them well into the present (and why not), but generally not much of a discussion about cooking these recipes — at least after the initial month/quarter had passed — but perhaps I’m looking at the wrong ones 
I think part of the idea of designating this “+ COOKING FROM” is to have it be not just a quarterly COTM, but an ongoing catchall for cooking from NYT, since it’s such a popular recipe source.
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ORZO WITH SPINACH AND FETA
I just made this for a late late dinner after a day of endless junk food and while I skipped some key ingredients (didn’t have scallions, wasn’t in the mood for anything garlicky), it’s a great antidote to all that junk. It was ready in under 15 minutes. The lemon zest is subtle, just a brightness in the background, and the spinach makes me feel somewhat virtuous. It’s almost got a risotto like texture without any of the work. A winner, an done I’ll repeat.
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I made these popular SLOW COOKER CHIPOTLE-HONEY CHICKEN TACOS and ate about half of it before throwing the rest out. Kind of boring and one-note.
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I have had this recipe bookmarked forever. Curious if you used baby spinach and added it when the recipe called for? The length of cooking time for the baby spinach and debates about it in the comments have deterred me.
Funny you mention that because I made it before reading the comments and noticed some people debating the spinach. I used regular spinach that I chopped and sauteed/wilted it in the butter (def not for 5 minutes though!) at the beginning and then added everything else as instructed. It melted into the orzo but because I chopped it pretty well I didn’t find the texture displeasing. Easy to add it in later if that’s your preference.
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Also quick-pickling them in a little dressing (or just salt and/or vinegar)
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I riffed on this CHEESY BAKED PUMPKIN PASTA WITH KALE for dinner tonight to use up a half can of pumpkin and various cheeses I had lying around post-Thanksgiving. I didn’t have kale, so I fleshed out the pasta (cavatappi) by adding cooked spicy Italian sausage crumbles, a sauteed onion, fresh sage and a copious amount of fresh parsley. I also couldn’t be bothered with blending the sauce and just dumped the pumpkin into the pan of cooked sausage and pasta with the other liquids (in my case, heavy cream, sour cream, some wine and pasta water) and cheese, and stirred it up until everything came together. I accidentally set my oven too low, so I ended up baking at 375 for about 20 mins and then broiling.
This was DELICIOUS. Mr. Bionda was highly suspicious when I told him what I was making, but ended up licking his bowl clean. The pumpkin doesn’t scream pumpkin, it just adds a subtle sweetness and lots of creamy body to the sauce. I used a mixture of mozzarella, Cabot Mad River Reserve cheddar, gruyere and Alp Blossom (a nutty, rich semi-firm Alpine cheese), plus the called-for dollops of ricotta. I’m sure it’s great with kale/no sausage too, but the sausage was absolutely fantastic in it. Big winner.
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Glad you liked it! I love the sausage idea!
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I’m so glad you posted it, it would not have been on my radar otherwise!
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Glad you liked it. Sausage goes so well with the sweetness of the winter squashes
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