December 28, 2025 – January 3, 2026

Sunday:                      Pittsburgh Stewarts Holiday Cocktail Party

Monday:                     Vegetable and Oatmeal Soup with Sausage

Tuesday:                     Leek and Potato Soup

Wednesday:             New Year’s Eve Party –

                                                Cheddar Cheese Cracers, Paté, Hilda’s Endive

                                                Tenderloin of Beef, Crab Cakes, Salad, AuGratin Potatoes

                                                Ceil’s Trifle

Thursday:                  Herbed Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes, Sauerkraut/Sausage

Friday:                       Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches

About that New Year’s Eve Party.  That party, hosted serially by our friends and us is one of the high points of my year.  This has nothing to do with watching the ball drop in Times Square (you could not pay me to stand there in New York, shivering, not knowing when or where I would get my next drink or be able to find a rest room, all to watch a giant tschotske ooze down a pole while being jostled by complete strangers, many of them even more inebriated than myself.)  No, my love for our annual New Year’s Party with friends has to do with my love for our friends and for Ceil’s Trifle.

I must confess that I was coming down with a cold on New Year’s Eve and undercooking or overcooking everything, and not even obeying SWMBO (I have since apologized).  But such is the power of friendship and Beez’s tolerance that by the end of the party – well before midnight – I was happier than a clam, in spite of myself.  Why happier?  Well, clams do not drink martinis or champagne, but I, being omnibibulous, was nicely lubricated for the new year.  And now, for something entirely different.

In Jacques Pépin We Trust

I have had immense fun and some small success in cooking recipes from all sorts of chefs – from high-enders like Geoffrey Zakarian and Eric Ripert to low-enders, like the cooks featured on ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.’  And every week the New York Times offers at least 5 new recipes and every month, bon appétit offers, maybe 15 recipes, and every two months Milk Street offers 20 or more recipes and Beez clips things out of magazines and friends and relatives send along cooking instructions and . . . well, it is easy to get inundated with so many things that you want to cook that you have trouble deciding what you are actually going to cook.

What keeps me from freezing like a deer in the headlights – maybe a culinary student during a test would be a more appropriate image – are the hungry mouths that gather around Casa Stuarti, begging for food like newly hatched birds fighting for their parents’ attention.  Although, like adult birds with hungry mouths to feed, a sense of futility and an experience of fatigue can set in from time to time and when that happens, my tendency is to turn to the tried and true – Alex Guarnaschelli, Ina Garten, Julia Child and, above all, Jacques Pépin.

I’ve been doing that a lot, recently, since Billy gave me Jacque’s (new to me) Cooking My Way.  The recipes are simple, they don’t require ordering exotic spices or cooking utensils from Amazon and they are supremely tasty.  I had forgotten how absolutely life-changing a well-seasoned gratin of tomatoes and eggplant can be until two nights ago (maybe I’ll share Macaroni Beaucaire with you next week).

The dish below is one that I had to think about for a while before committing to it.  Did I really want oatmeal to be part of a main course for dinner?  Well, I’m glad I took the plunge because the resulting soup – served with parmesan crostini – was one of those things that made everyone say, “Oh, this is really good,” which comment to any cook will cure a whole lot of fatigue. 

Vegetable and Oatmeal Soup with Sausage

(Adapted from Jacques Pépin – he didn’t use sausage)

Timing:                                            Maybe 30 minutes

Ingredients:            Serves 6 as a starter, 4 as a main course

1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal – I used steel-cut oats, but the old-fashioned whole oats would be better, and, if you have barley, use that

2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into ¼-inch or ½-inch dice

4 scallions cut into ½-inch pieces

1 onion, cut into ½-inch pieces (about 1 ½ cups)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

 Cups water

1 teaspoon kosher salt or fine sea salt

¼ tablespoon ground black pepper – we used more

Grated cheese – Swiss, Parmesan or cheddar for garnish – optional

Also optional – maybe 1/3 lb. of crumbled, cooked sausage – NOTE:  This is not in Jacques’ recipe, but I had leftover sausage from pizza-making and through it in – it adds body and savoriness to the dish and gives a sort of haggis-twist to the soup, which is appropriate because of the oatmeal.

Prep:

Cut the carrots, scallions and onions and measure out the oatmeal and the water.

Cook:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium high and then add the onion scallions and carrots and cook, stirring, occasionally for 3 minutes.  Note:  If you use the large pieces of carrot (1/2”), toss the carrot in first and cook for 2 minutes before adding the onions and scallions.

Add the water and bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and boil gently for 5 minutes.

Now add the oatmeal, the salt and pepper, and bring to a boil again.  Cover and cook over medium-low for 10 minutes – toss in the cooked sausage, if using, just at the end to heat it.

Serve and garnish with grated cheese, if you wish.