I wasn't born or entirely raised in North America, so there's a lot on this continent that doesn't make a ton of sense to me. That being said, a good Midwestern casserole is - to borrow Jolen Tsai's wording - a thing of "ugly beauty." The weather's just started to turn a bit and I find myself craving a good, hearty casserole!
I have tried for years to find a congee recipe I actually like - as opposed to endure - and had given up until recently when I decided to give savoury rice porridge for breakfast once more try. Southeast Asia is home to some of my favourite cuisines as well as a large southern Chinese diaspora, so I decided to take a look at Thai and Vietnamese recipes for congee and use them as a springboard. (Hungry Huy's recipe and Thai Awesome's recipe were particularly helpful.)
This recipe is a quick 'n easy, light meal for two - in my family anyways! - and a great way to use up leftover rotisserie chicken. I've adapted Spend with Pennies' great recipe, so feel free to carry on to the source, especially if you like your chicken salad to have a bit of a crunch. (I do not like crunchy chicken or tuna salad, hence my modifications below.) Whatever you do, enjoy!
When I moved to northeastern China I quickly discovered that as a foreigner I was supposed to really like kung pao chicken (宮保雞丁 / gōngbǎo jīdīng in Mandarin), which was news to me as I couldn't even remember if I'd had it before! I grew up with Cantonese food and stereotypically Chinese-American food, but we moved enough during my childhood that I really couldn't say whether or not kung pao chicken made an appearance on my plate when we were in North America and Hong Kong - if it did it certainly didn't stand out. Despite all this I caved to the pressure to try the kung pao chicken in Manchuria and was a little embarrassed to realize I did indeed really like kung pao chicken!
Green borscht is a much less well known part of the borscht family, one I've long wanted to give a try! I wasn't able to source all the authentic ingredients where I live, so I've written my recipe with the necessary substitutes. If you want to check out original recipes from actual Ukrainian cooks (Ukraine is the home of borscht after all!), then check out Nataliia or Iryna's great recipes!
Chicken pot pie is one of those things I've often craved and rarely made because of what a process making pie crust can be. What follows is my simplified approach (based on this lovely recipe) using store-bought crusts that has made this a dish I can contemplate making without the thought being followed by pulling up the DoorDash app on my phone. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Fried rice - what's not to like? I wish I could say my fried rice recipe comes from my Chinese mother-in-law or a good Taiwanese friend, but alas it's just the result of my experimentations over the years. This recipe is nothing fancy, but it's a lovely weekday go to when there's leftover rice on hand in the fridge. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments!
First off the bat, no, this recipe is not trying to reignite the chicken or the egg debate, it just shows my pasta of choice in its name! It's just started snowing again here in Saskatchewan - a month after our first snowfall! - and so naturally my favorite fall soup came to mind! I wasn't feeling the version with rice I often make though, so this is my attempt at a chicken noodle soup. I hope you like it as much as I do!
I was catching up on the videos of one of my favorite YouTubers, Beryl Shereshewsky, and she reminded me in one of her recent videos about the existence of one of those classic staples of the church potluck, the broccoli chicken casserole! The video as a whole really took me back to that world of very classically American potluck cookery, and left me with a craving for some broccoli chicken casserole in particular! (Also, I had some broccoli and chicken that I needed to use up...)
Chicken soup has long been a favorite fall and winter go-to, and with all the health issues facing us this year and no doubt next I decided to up the garlic content of this cold weather staple! If you don't like garlic...well, this isn't the cooking blog for you! Given the health benefits of garlic, I'd suggest sticking to the recipe, but to each their own!
This is inspired by West African peanut stew, which I first encountered in university thanks to a lovely Ghanaian friend. Since then I've only made it on occasion, but I've always been delighted when I have! The following is an adaptation of this recipe, updated in August 2026.
