This is the fourth day of Meat & Potatoes. Which is a lot of these hearty starchy partners, I know. But I have promised a week of these satisfying meals– so plod on I must!

We started with a traditional Pot Roast. Well, not that traditional, because I roasted my veggies separate and gave the sauce a big swig of vinegar. Thus improving both the taste and texture of this one-dish-wonder.

Speaking of traditions. The French have a Lamb & Potatoes gratin of sorts that they call Lamb Champvallon. In Day 2 I tweeked tradition, re-wrote history and updated my version with a bold new spice and boneless chunks of succulent lamb.

So as not to appear ready to re-write the culinary history of just one country. I also let loose my imagination on the Scots. They have a traditional side dish made with Turnips & Potatoes that they call Neeps & Tatties. Well, Sippity Sup was named after a nursery rhyme afterall, so it just made sense to translate the lyrical nature in that phrase for my selfish purposes. So I came up with Neeps & Tattie-Cakes, making my version reminiscent of another great bit a children's verse. I chose to serve these Tattie-Cakes with Zinfandel Braised Short Ribs.

Neeps and Tatties. That did not come out of my brain. But I have had them on my brain ever since I first read about them over at The Daily Spud. It seems Neeps and Tatties are a traditional Scotish favorite, though my version is hardly traditional.

I am sure you can guess that the Tatties are taters. Actualy potaters. But Neeps may be new to you. If so I hope the name makes you smile as much as it does me. Especially when said in conjunction with Tatties! Neeps and Tatties. I dare not say where my mind goes when I hear that phrase.

But where my mind should be going is to the Scotish turnip, or what we would call a rutabaga. Because that's what a Neep is. A super huge rutabaga. I used regular old American-sized rutabagas so keep that in mind when reading the recipe. It's a long recipe too so I want to get a move on here. But I do need to say this is another entry in  my week of Meat and Potatoes, or rather my week of Meat and Tatties (with Neeps).

It’s February and half the country is snowed in. I heard there was snow in Florida last week! Well I live in Southern California and we are feeling the effects of some cold weather too. Not snow, of course, but chilly none-the-less.

Cold weather puts me in the mood for substantial dinners. Soup is good food and can be just the thing for a winter’s chill. But snow and ice require real sustenance, the kind that sticks to the ribs, and gets our butts into endurance mode. I am talking survival of the fittest, manly meals.

Manly meals require animal sacrifice. I am sorry, that is just the way it is. We are the masters of the King Of The Hill mentality, and that mindset requires us to eat other creatures in order to show our dominance. I am not kidding. It requires that.

So I have a whole week of eating other creatures planned for you here. But not wimpy little creatures that my baby sister might eat. Little girly creatures like chicken, squab or fillet of sole. Nope that’s not the kind of meat that I am talking about. In fact you won’t see anything with feathers or gills here at all this week.

Let's just say the weather made me do it!

I had sorta sworn off soup at SippitySup. That's because I broke my jaw last summer and was wired shut for eight weeks. I was pretty sure I was finished with liquid food for the rest of my life. In fact, I remember making a pact with myself. No more soup. I could just learn to live with out it. Too many bad broken jaw memories attached to soup. No soup for Sup!

But nope, I awoke this morning all nestled under a down comforter (that somehow appeared during the night) and noticed that the weather had turned a bit chilly. The ineveitable Southern California rain started its pitter-patter on the copper roof of the balcony outside my bedroom.

I knew this tune. I've missed this song. I found myself getting a little emotional as I began to hum along to its rhythmic beat. Could I love the rain in Southern California that much? No, its not the rain making me feel this way. Rather it is the sound of the rain– drip, drop, clip, clop... I suddenly realized that the mellifluous drizzle tapping away on my bedroom window was the sound of soup! I have missed soup.

Well I bounced out of bed. A man with a purpose. I would make soup today.

I am having a little trouble getting back into the swing of SippitySup this New Year. I don't know if it was my trip to Panama (details coming soon, I promise) or the Holidays... or possibly even something less defined, but lazy is the order of the day in my kitchen these past few days.

Still we gotta eat and I gotta feed you, my virtual eaters, too. So who says simple can't be spectacular?

But the thing about simple foods is in order for them to succeed you need to be sure the simple method you choose is not just simply a short cut, but rather the fast lane to perfection.

Root veggies are a great example of a food that can achieve perfection in the simplest of manners.

Sometime in our past we humans were digging around in the dirt and we hit about the idea of eating roots. The world has been a better place ever since!

Well, Diane Morgan has done it again. There are some cookbook authors that you just know can hit the ball good and solid every time. Diane Morgan is just such an author. She seems to have found a formula that just keeps working.

That’s because she is a sensible cook and a straightforward writer. Diane’s approach to food is practical. She seems to know just what her audience expects, and she delivers exactly that. Yet somehow, without ever straying too far from the tried and true she manages to bring something fresh and modern to her work as well.

When I first picked up her latest title from Chronicle Books, The New Thanksgiving Table, I was a little confused. After all, I considered her previous book The Thanksgiving Table to be the definitive guide to this particular holiday.

But I have to admit, I was taken with just how easy this new book is to read. Which to me translates into a cookbook that is easy to use as well. It is laid out with plenty of space between the text and recipes. The useful information is highlighted with simply shaded boxes. The ingredients are in bold type, which makes list making a breeze. So despite my pre-conceived notions of redundancy, I found myself already liking this book.