This Ginger Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup is one of the recipes from Keepers that I made a note of right away. I liked that you create the broth by poaching the chicken in water while the aromatics simmer, a technique I’ve tried before with this Pressure Cooker Pho Ga. I was also drawn to the garnish of black vinegar and chili crisp. We love chili crisp.

I had about 2.5 pounds of chicken so I scaled up the broth, but I don’t think that was really necessary as it doesn’t simmer long enough to reduce very much, and the flavor of the broth itself is pretty mild. Deb doesn’t call for this, but I skimmed the broth once it started boiling, mostly to remove the gunk. (I only removed the big, obvious fat deposits on the chicken. You could probably avoid skimming if you were a little more detail oriented in prepping your chicken.)

This filled my 6 quart dutch oven with just enough room for it to come up to a boil without spilling over, so if you don’t have a large dutch oven or stock pot you’ll want to scale down the recipe and possibly use more than one pot.

I definitely used more ginger than called for, and didn’t mince it quite as much as I should have, so next time I’ll be more mindful of that. (I don’t recommend the jarred ground ginger for this.) I’ll also make less chicken and add either broccoli florets or halved baby bok choy while the noodles cook.

Speaking of the noodles, it’s worth finding ramen noodles or something similar. I used a store brand of somen noodles, similar to this brand in type and packaging. You could also do rice noodles, but I think having something with a little heft here is nice. Thin spaghetti would probably work OK too.

Do make sure you follow her note regarding the noodles. You cook them in the broth, but if you expect to have leftovers don’t make all the noodles at once. Or make them in a separate pot, add to the bowl, and top with broth & chicken. That way you can store them separately. I made enough noodles for two servings and just did my best to fish them out of the pot when serving. There’s a couple of stray noodles in the leftovers, but not enough to worry about. The other thing to note is that the texture of the noodles will change as they soak up more liquid, and they won’t be as good.

A note about chili crisp

Every type of chili crisp is different, but it’s effectively aromatics in oil. It can be spicy or more salty and umami. The one we like is Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp, which in my opinion is not that spicy unless you use a lot of it. (And honestly, this is one of those condiments where too much is too much.) I like the textural contrast it brings to a dish, and it’s a great way to perk up leftovers.

Bon Appetit has a nice round up of chili crisps. Off of this list, we’ve also tried the Crunchy Garlic, which I liked but not as much as Lao Gan Ma, and the Fly By Jing, which I didn’t care for but I don’t remember why. Anyway, if you’re curious to try some, try to get either the S&B Crunchy Garlic with Chili Oil or the Lao Gan Ma. You might be able to find it in the Asian foods area of your grocery store, or another store nearby. (Grocery delivery sites might be able to help you scope out the stock ahead of time.) A small boogie market will definitely have at least one brand, and you can always order online.

I made this for dessert on Christmas day. The original plan had been to make cupcakes, but much like deciding to make waffles instead of cinnamon rolls, I wanted to simplify. So instead I paged through Smitten Kitchen Keepers and decided to make the Whole Lemon Poppyseed Cake.

Like her Whole Lemon Bars, this recipe uses a whole lemon blitzed in the food processor. And in this case since there’s no crust to make, you can make the whole thing in either a food processor or a blender, which was fun.

Mine was cooked through in about 30 minutes but didn’t brown on the top at all. I put it back in for 5 minutes to see if it would start browning, but it did not. I think my oven wasn’t keeping the temperature well, which happens from time to time. (The pilot light is kind of finicky.) In addition to not being browned it’s a bit denser than I expected, but since mine hadn’t risen the way Deb’s did that’s not surprising.

This was good but is just a smidge more bitter than I want. I’m not sure if that was my lemon, my oven, or just the way of this cake. If I make it again I might try adding a little more sugar, or planning for it to be more of a snacking cake rather than a dessert.

This one got on my list because Deb mentioned it when I heard her speak. I have no idea what the context was but in the moment it sounded very appealing and so here we are. I believe that was actually when I took out my phone and started a list of recipes I wanted to make and/or was wondering why I hadn’t made.

This was very straightforward, the only thing that tripped me up was that the potatoes have to roast for an hour and I was hungry. But while they’re in the oven you prep everything else, and you have plenty of time to do so. I recommend checking your potatoes when you take out the cauliflower. I could tell mine needed more time, but that they wouldn’t need the full hour. In the end they were done in about 45 minutes.

The only change I made was to chop the cauliflower into smaller florets than called for, because I wanted it in smaller bites. But I roasted it for the full time given for large florets, which got some browning on the cauliflower which I found delightful.

I made the full recipe even though I was only serving myself for dinner because I wanted the leftovers for lunches. To that end, I didn’t combine the cheese sauce with all of the potatoes the night I made it for dinner. I finished one dressed potato in the oven as directed, and everything else went in the fridge.

This is not a particularly photogenic meal, but it was a very savory and satisfying dinner for a chilly night when you are very hungry. I skipped the sour cream and didn’t miss it. It is very filling, so if you’re serving anything else with it – even just a green salad – keep that in mind. Depending on your appetite you might only want half a potato.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving is the last market of the season for my farmer’s market, so in addition to picking up our turkey, it’s my last chance for squash, apples, and cider from Kuhn Orchards. Since it was my last chance, I grabbed a quart of cider and justified it by saying it would be good to have to offer our guests on Thanksgiving.

We didn’t open it on Thanksgiving — I don’t think I even offered it — and it sat in the fridge for a week or so after that. As we enjoyed our leftovers and the fridge returned to something more like its normal state, I realized I needed to use the cider before it started to ferment. Seemed like the perfect time to make the Apple Cider Old-Fashioned from Smitten Kitchen Keepers (also on Deb’s Instagram Reels).

I didn’t have pie spice on hand, so I just used some ground cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, a couple of whole cloves, and the innards of a few cardamom pods. I’m not sure how long it took to cook the cider down, but it was an easy, hands-off process. I puttered around the kitchen doing other stuff and gave things a stir every so often.

Once it started to get down to something close to the amount called for, I paid more attention so I could catch it before it cooked down too much. I strained it directly into a mason jar and let it cool, then added the bitters and bourbon straight into the jar, capped it, and gave it a shake. I chilled it in the fridge and we enjoyed it over a nice big ice cube later that night.

As you can guess this is a fairly sweet cocktail, but one that you can rebalance a bit as needed with a little more bourbon, or water down with some crushed ice. There’s something really nice about having a bottled cocktail ready to go in your home bar; it’s like your past self is showing your present self the hospitality you normally show your guests.

This has kept well in the fridge, but it doesn’t make a huge batch so I don’t think you’ll have it around for long anyway.