(photo by wm. christman)

Need to create something new? Thinking about revisiting an old favorite? Have the urge to start putting up supplies for 2009? Since we're in the middle of the 2008 holiday season, there's an extra helping of inspiration out there for any need.

Something New
Pasta making is a bit of an undertaking if you haven't done it very much or even at all. But doing it once or twice will either turn you into a pasta-experimenting machine or cure you of ever wanting to do it again. If you're one of the former, then consider chocolate pasta. Yes, chocolate pasta. Tagliatelle to be specific.

There are a boatload of recipes and opinion about making this type of dessert pasta but the photos on this recent posting on Leonor de Sousa Bastos' flagrante delicia blog may just push you whip out the pasta machine. The added bonus is that de Sousa Bastos also includes a recipe for both the pasta and the sauce:
Read about: flagrante delicia - Chocolate tagliatelle with chocolate sauce

Old Favorites
You may have heard more about sous vide in the past few weeks and it's mostly because Thomas Keller's sous vide cookbook Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide was released. The sous vide method is cooking food in vacuum sealed bags in low(er) temperature water to preserve a food's color, flavor and texture.

The chef and co-owner of Chicago's Alinea restaurant, Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas, posted a 2-part YouTube video of a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner (with dessert too!) cooked with the sous vide method. Although there are some interesting debates about the safety of sous vide without the "proper" equipment, these two videos just demonstrate that you can do your own sous vide using some pretty simple kitchen items. The comments on these pages also have some info to guide you as well, notably the water temperature being kept at 175 degrees and potential cooking times, that trying this for a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa dinner seems entirely achievable.
View: Achatz ThanksGiving, Part 1
View: Achatz ThanksGiving, Part 2

Getting ready for 2009
The reason that Michael Ruhlman's Notes From The Food World blog is featured in the food sites area to your right is that it is a consistently excellent read. Literate and insightful, this is a blog that deserves a page reload several times a week.

The subject of slaughtering your own animal (cow, pig, chicken, et al...) is sensitive for some people. It makes me a bit squeamish too but I believe that actually knowing where your food comes from is an important part of understanding why we eat the things we eat. I may have to opportunity to participate in this early next year and Ruhlman's post comes at the right time and now has me really thinking about the mental (as well as physical) preparation for this.
Read about: Notes From The Food World - Pig Day

Dreaming
As an extra bit of inspiration, No Salad As Dinner posted about dining at The French Laundry. Although The French Laundry has been written about many times in blogs, newspapers, and magazines, the descriptions and thoughts in postings like this one always spur me on to: 1) plan to make that call to get on their waiting list and 2) continue to dream about eating there some day.

Read about: No Salad As Dinner - The French Laundry