I watched an old Gordon Ramsay Christmas special the other day on Amazon streaming, and he made a pumpkin soup that he created from a beautiful French pumpkin that he filled with whole onions and fresh herbs, and baked in the oven before pureeing it into a magnificent soup. Inspired, I went to Whole Foods in search of a glorious French pumpkin, but in the end, I ended up with two cans of 365-brand pumpkin. So much for cooking completely from scratch. But the good news is that I made this soup in less than 45 minutes on a weeknight, and it turned out great. Below is a recipe that I've been making for years … someday I'll give Gordon's a try.

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
8 ounces baby carrots, chopped
2 14-ounce cans pumpkin
6 cups water
2 tablespoons Better than Bouillon
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1 cup whole milk (or half & half, if you wish)
salt, to taste
toasted walnuts
sour cream or plain yogurt

Directions:

1. In a stockpot over medium heat, add the olive oil and saute the onions, celery, and carrots for about 5 minutes.

2. Stir in the pumpkin, water, bouillon, and spices.

3. Simmer for 30 minutes, then remove from heat.

4. Let cool for 15 minutes.

5. Puree soup in blender and return to pot.

6. Finish with the milk, warm gently, and season to taste.

7. Top with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt and sprinkle with walnuts.

When my husband declares that there's nothing to eat, and we need to go to the store before dinner, I take that as a challenge and try to come up with something delicious based on what we have sitting around the kitchen. It's probably why I love the show Chopped so much. This particular chili was the result of one of those evenings, and it turned out so well that we made sure to write down all the ingredients so we could re-create it on purpose some other time. We've been making it for the last four years, and sometimes I substitute green peppers for the orange/yellow ones, olive oil and red pepper flakes for the fire oil, and any sort of tomato product for the Amy's bisque, but it always turns out great. You can also add some frozen corn to give it more color. And if you prefer real ground beef to veggie crumbles, I'm sure it would be just as good (or leave it out entirely and use another can of beans). And don't forget the cornbread! The leftover chili makes awesome Frito pie. Yum.

Two-Bean Chili

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Mongolian fire oil (or any sort of chili oil -- look for it at Super Cao Nguyen or the Asian-specialty section of your grocery store)
½ medium red onion, chopped
½ cup chopped red/orange bell pepper
1 package frozen veggie crumbles (or the real thing, cooked and drained)
3 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon cumin (or more)
1 tablespoon chili powder (or more)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more, depending on your spiciness preference)
6-ounce can tomato paste
7.5-ounce can Amy's tomato bisque
1 12-ounce can light beer
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable-base Better than Bouillon
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can kidney or pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Grated cheddar or Monterrey Jack cheese
Sour cream
Cilantro

Directions:

In a large soup pot, sauté the onions and peppers in the fire oil over medium heat until soft (about 5 minutes).
Add the veggie crumbles/meat and crushed garlic cloves, then stir in the spices.
Sauté 2-3 minutes longer.
Whisk in tomato paste, bisque, beer, water, and bouillon. Stir well.
Add the beans.
Simmer for 30 minutes (or longer -- this stuff is even better the next day).
Top each bowlful of chili with cheese, sour cream and cilantro. Serve with yogurt cornbread (recipe below).

Yogurt Cornbread

I got this simple recipe off a yogurt container some years back, and it's the only corn bread recipe I make now. The yogurt is similar to making baked goods with buttermilk -- it gives the cornbread a perfect texture.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
¼ cup sugar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¨ø cup cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, then add the sugar and mix well.
Whisk the flour, baking powder, soda, cornmeal, and salt together in a large measuring cup.
Add the dry ingredients alternately with the yogurt to the egg-sugar mixture.
Stir in the melted butter.
Bake in a greased 10-inch cast-iron skillet for 25 minutes.
Watch it closely after the first 15 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn.
Cool in the pan (but remove quickly, or it'll get that iron skillet taste)

Dates with Goat Cheese and Toasted Pecans

Three simple ingredients:

Medjool dates
Goat cheese
Pecan halves

I usually get my goat cheese and medjool dates at Sam's -- but I'd buy the pecans at a regular grocery store unless you really need five pounds of nuts. Toast the pecan halves in a toaster oven (or broiler), but be careful, they burn quickly! Make as many or as few as you need -- 3-4 per person should do.

Cut the dates in half and remove the weird little seed (the seed kind of freaks me out, I have to confess).

Fill the space where the seed was with goat cheese. It works best if the goat cheese is at room temperature, otherwise it's too crumbly. I use one of those tiny espresso spoons to get the right amount of cheese into the date.

Top each goat-cheese stuffed date with a toasted pecan half.

These simple little treats are amazing, the flavors all go together really well.

Rosemary Crackers with Goat Cheese and Chipotle Cranberry Sauce

Hopefully you have leftover Chipotle Cranberry Sauce from Thanksgiving (it lasts for a good month in the fridge), and you'll have extra goat cheese if you bought one of the giant packages of it at Sam's for the appetizer above. The rosemary crackers I used came in an entertaining sampler pack from Aldi, but I'm sure you can get a full box of just rosemary-flavored crackers somewhere. I sort of just threw this together a few nights ago when a neighbor stopped by, and it turned out to be a hit. My neighbor declared it to be a "flavor explosion." I think that's a good thing?

Also, three simple ingredients:

Rosemary-Flavored Crackers

Goat Cheese

Chipotle Cranberry Sauce

Top the cracker with a dollop of goat cheese, then drizzle the cranberry sauce on top. Voila!

If you don't have chipotle cranberry sauce on hand, I'm sure any kind of pepper jelly would work.

White Bean Hummus with Bell Peppers, Apples, & Pecans

A delicious, garlicky hummus topped with a festive red & green mixture. It's also low fat (and vegan, if you have to please a veggie in the crowd). Use some of the pecans left from the date appetizer above.

Hummus:

1 can white navy beans
3 cloves of fresh peeled garlic (use more if your guests won't mind)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped chives
½ teaspoon dried rosemary, chopped

Topping:

¼ cup toasted, chopped pecans
½ red bell pepper, finely chopped
½ green bell pepper, finely chopped
½ red apple, finely chopped
¼ cup finely chopped chives or green onions
½ lemon, juiced
½ teaspoon olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
water crackers/pita crackers/toasted french bread

Drain and rinse the beans. Puree in a food processor with the garlic and olive oil. Add the lemon juice, salt & rosemary and pulse until it's blended to a smooth texture. Stir in chives.

Mix together the chopped pecans, peppers, apple, onion, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt/pepper (if you're not serving right away, mix the nuts in right before serving so they keep their crunch).

Put the hummus in a serving bowl and garnish with cracked pepper, a fresh rosemary sprig, and olive oil. Put the apple/pepper/nut mixture in a smaller serving bowl.

Put the hummus on the cracker/bread of your choice and top with apple/pepper/nut mixture.