I have got to snap out of it! It's the eleventh day of the New Year and I have yet to really cook! I mean turn the oven on cook! I mean use my brain cook! I mean the kind of cooking that puts the neighbors to shame!

The cold poached Asian pears from yesterday are fabulous, I am not saying they are not. In fact we are enjoying them over vanilla ice cream tonight. But as delicious as they are, they are not really cooking. I am a tough judge and even tougher on myself than I am on other people.

So I gotta admit, tonight I am not really cooking– again! Yep, it's default pasta night at Sups! house. And though it is one of my favorite nights of the week I am not really burning any barns here. No wheels are being re-invented.

Still, I promise you it's going to be tasty. Afterall the popularity of default pasta night lies in the fact that it's a sure fire shortcut to success.

Two more recipes for your consideration!

In this the last of my Thanksgiving Double-Takes, I am tackling the green beans. Green beans are usually seen this time of year in an oozy-gooey, over-baked casserole topped with something crunchy that I can never actually identify.

Well I have a confession. I won’t eat that. I won’t watch you eat that, and I certainly am not cooking that and putting that mess on my lovely blog! I won’t do it.

But I do understand tradition. Really, really I do. And I know a whole lot of you require this side dish each and every Thanksgiving. The funny thing is you require it, with out really liking it. Come on admit it, you don’t really like it. Just ‘cuz your Gramma made it a certain way you feel obligated to reproduce it just so. Then you force yourself to choke back a few mouthfuls every year. It’s a tradition, right?

Well not at Sups! house. Not now. Not ever…

Happy Halloween! In keeping with the season I have a tricky treat for you. This treat is in the form of a mini-horror film I call Brussels Sprouts: The Revenge Of Farmer John! Click here or on screen grab below to watch film.

You might call it Brussels Sprouts: All Smelly and Green. Because be they supernatural or merely tricky to cook. I say they are indeed a treat most any time of the year.

But it’s true many people are afraid of Brussels sprouts– even horrified because they are often prepared in a horrifying manner…boiled.

Boiling really does not suit Brussels sprouts. That is because they are technically a cruciferous vegetable. Which is a fancy way of saying cabbage. As we all know, boiled cabbage can be stinky and mushy. So too, Brussels sprouts. In fact, in French they are called les choux de Bruxelles, which means cabbages of Brussels. So all the mistakes people make cooking cabbage can be amplified in these “little cabbages”!