This column first appeared in the Gillette News Record. Ashley Franscell Detrick is online editor of the Gillette News Record. She can be reached at adetrick@gillettenewsrecord.net.

You can caramelize onions in it and put them on top of a steak or burger. Use it in sauces and gravy. Or to batter shrimp. Steam a bratwurst in it. You can even dump a couple tablespoons in your pancake mix. There’s the obviously beer breads and chocolate stout cupcakes. But you can also add a Belgian fruit lambic to a berry crisp.

And that’s just to name a few. Isn’t that awesome?!

But first, one of our favorite beer recipes: Stout Chili.

Stout Chili
(makes 8 servings)

Several weeks ago, Lori Thompson flipped through her family’s homemade cookbook. On the page before all the cookie recipes, she found the words “I love you” scrawled across the page in her son’s handwriting.
She flipped through more pages and there it was again. Next to the chicken tamale pie recipe — one of the favorites of her four boys.
Most mothers would have been angry. But not Lori. The blue, block letters from a Bic pen that took up a large part of the page brought tears to her eyes.
“It was so nice to see these little reminders of him,” she said.
About two years ago, her son, Brady, died at age 18 after suffering from seizures that ravaged his body since he was 4 years old.
For years, they flew him all over the United States to meet with doctors and test different treatments. Some worked better than others. When they finally put in a Vegus nerve stimulator, he was seizure-free for many years.
Eventually even that started to fail, and once again, Brady suffered seizures. Some were small, which seemed like a quick nod off to sleep for a few seconds. Some were bigger, dropping him to the ground, and caused him to scrape his knee or elbow. One Easter several years ago, he fell down the yard stairs, cracked his head open and ended up in the emergency room.
The big ones, though, were the hardest, on both him and his parents. They called them grand mals and they would leave his whole body convulsing, often several times in a row. And most often at 3 or 4 a.m.
Brady was on hospice care for almost four years as his health continued to deteriorate. The seizures continued more frequently and took a toll on his body until it was rail thin.
But the thing about Brady was that no matter how hard he fell or how many times he seized, he always had a smile on his face. And his smile always put a smile on everyone else’s face.
Somehow Brady knew that.
That’s why he left his mark where he knew Lori would find it, in her favorite cookbook, the one where Lori puts all her family’s favorite recipes.
Of all her recipe books, it’s the one she uses the most. She started putting it together after her wedding 27 years ago. But it took her two years after his death to flip to the right page and to find Brady.
Through the tears there was a smile.
She wonders when he actually wrote in it. Toward the end of his life, he wasn’t able to hold anything, much less a pen. And he always used a pencil.
But divine intervention has a funny way of expressing itself.
Lori’s best guess is that some time in the four years he was on hospice care, he scrawled the message in her cookbook, and in several other novels in the house. But how it took her all that time to find them is left to the unknown.
But for the rest of her life, when she flips through the cookbook and sees his message scrawled across the page, she’ll smile.
Of all the gifts of food for family that we can find in our favorite cookbooks, Brady left the best gift of all. Something of himself.

This column was first printed in the Gillette News Record.

Ashley Franscell Detrick is online editor for the News Record. She can be reached at adetrick@gillettenewsrecord.net.

Spicy Cocoa Roasted Almonds Recipe
(Adapted from My Kitchen Addiction)

Ingredients:
3 cups whole almonds
1 egg white
1 Tbsp. vanilla bean paste
Few drops of water
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder (I prefer dark cocoa powder, but whatever works!)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 – 1 tsp. cayenne pepper (see tip below)
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 275°F.  Line a baking sheet with a silicon baking mat or with parchment paper.  Set aside.
Whisk together the egg white, vanilla bean paste, and a few drops of water in a mixing bowl.  Beat mixture until it is light and frothy.  Add the almonds and toss to evenly coat with the egg white mixture.
In a separate bowl, combine the sugars, cocoa powder, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt.  Whisk together very well, being sure to remove any lumps.  Add the almonds, and toss to coat.  Spread the coated almonds out on the prepared baking sheet.  Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes.  Keep a close watch on the almonds because they will burn quickly.
Once the almonds are done, spread them out on a large piece of parchment or waxed paper until they have cooled completely.  Store in an airtight container.
Tip:
If you’re not a fan of spicy, cut the cayenne to just 1/2 teaspoon.

Temperatures dropped yesterday so I finally dusted off my soup cookbook and made Barefoot Contessa’s Roasted Potato Leek soup. I’ve made this several different times, but this time I decided to change it up a bit. There was no arugula at the store so I substituted fresh rosemary instead. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but it was delicious.

The recipe is a little time consuming since you have to roasted the potatoes and leeks for about an hour before hand, but it’s so worth it.

Roasted Potato Leek soup
adapted from the Food Network, Barefoot Contessa

• 2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts, cleaned of all sand (4 leeks)
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons rosemary
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, plus extra for serving
• 6 to 7 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock for vegetarians)
• 3/4 cup heavy cream (I used milk, cut down the calories a bit)
• 8 ounces creme fraiche
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine the potatoes and leeks on a sheet pan in a single layer. Add the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and toss to coat the vegetables evenly. Roast for 40 to 45 minutes, turning them with a spatula a few times during cooking, until very tender. Remove the pan from the oven and place over 2 burners. Stir in the wine and 1 cup of the chicken stock and cook over low heat, scraping up any crispy roasted bits sticking to the pan.
In batches, transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor fitted with the steel blade, adding the pan liquid and about 5 cups of the chicken stock to make a puree. Pour the puree into a large pot or Dutch oven. Continue to puree the vegetables in batches until they’re all done and combined in the large pot. Add enough of the remaining 1 to 2 cups of stock to make a thick soup. Add the cream, creme fraiche, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and check the seasonings.
When ready to serve, reheat the soup gently and whisk in 2 tablespoons white wine and 1/4 cup of Parmesan. Serve hot with an extra grating of Parmesan.

Chocolate avocado mousse
from “If It Makes You Healthy” by Sheryl Crow and Chuck White

2 large, ripe avocados (halved and pitted)
1/2 cup agave (or honey)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender for 2 to 3 minutes or until the mousse is very smooth. If not sweet enough add more agave/honey. Serve chilled and garnish with raspberries. Or shortbread cookies.

I will make this again. I’m determined to make it mouth-watering.

Eggs baked in an avocado

Preheat oven to 425 degree. Slice avocado in half and remove the pit. Place the avocados, cut side up, in the pan and crack the egg inside the hole. (Warning: some of the egg white will likely spill out, so it might be helpful to scoop a bit of avocado out to make a bigger hole) Sprinkle any seasonings on top and bake in oven until the eggs are done the way you like them. Good by itself of on top of toast.

Photo by Sara Davidson

It’s a new year, with new goals and resolutions.

For the past several years I’ve tried to come up with 100 new recipes for the year. I’ve been pretty successful and have found some real gem recipes that we now eat over and over and over again. This is one of them.

The yogurt sauce is the perfect balance of cream and tang and goes perfect on top of the soup. I can never get enough and eat seconds and thirds and then clean my husband’s and my plate with homemade bread.

It’s the perfect winter meal.

Carrot Almond Soup
from the Food Network
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup whole almonds
1 pound carrots, sliced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Freshly ground black pepper
6 cups vegetable broth
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the almonds and stir until toasted, about 3 minutes. Transfer nuts with a slotted spoon to a small plate and reserve.

Add the carrots, onion, salt, cumin, coriander, ginger, and pepper to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 10 minutes. Increase the heat to high and cook until the vegetables brown, about 4 minutes more.

Add the water and chickpeas to the pot. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook until the beans are very tender, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir together the yogurt, cilantro, and lemon zest in a small bowl.

Roughly chop the reserved almonds. Transfer half of the almonds and half of the soup to a blender. Pulse at first, and then puree, to make a smooth soup base. Return the pureed soup to the pot and heat. Stir in the yogurt mixture, divide among warmed bowls, and serve with the remaining chopped almonds sprinkled on top.

We recently made a trip to Chile where we had some fantastic meals: empanadas, ceviche, rolls, pisco sours and fish. It was all amazing. Delicioso!

Now that I’m home and it’s a new year I’m inspired to recreate some of these dishes at home.