I live in the mountains of western Massachusetts. Our winter’s been pretty uneventful, we’ve had one snow day. That’s fine with me: I hate winter, except for the eating soup all the time part. Still, it seems awfully unfair that the mid-Atlantic is being covered in snow while we don’t have any in our near future.
In honor of my friends in Virginia and Maryland and the fact that spice was super popular in the blogosphere this week (perhaps it’s super bowl related?), this week’s Highlights from my Reader are all about spicy foods to keep you warm while you’re snowed in.
Highlights for January 31-February 6: Hot Stuff
Want to spice up your computer? Download this desktop background featuring chili peppers from Chow.
Mental_floss has a list of 4 amazing things that chili peppers can do.
Slashfood has 5 tips that will make your “recipe from the back of the can” chili taste even better.
The LA Times (on their surprisingly bad looking website) has an article on the history and various versions of chili.
Serious Eats posted 2 chili recipes this week. This spicy one and a vegetarian chili recipe that has rice in it. I may have to try that one soon.
Another recipe that looks worth trying is Cajun Chicken Pasta from the Pioneer Woman.
If you want to know more than you ever thought possible about oven-fried buffalo wings, Serious Eats has the analysis for you, as well as a fried vs. baked wing taste test.
Into taste tests? Slashfood put chips and salsa to the test, just in time for the big game.
Finally, Endless Simmer noted that people in DC were hurrying to the store to stock up before the storm hit. Gansie posted her list of the 5 things she really needed to weather the storm. If I was going to get 30″ of snow, I’d probably stock up on: soup, pasta, tea, chocolate and fruit.
