Hello, foodies…
I’m already starting to get used to this gets-darker-earlier thing, but I’m having trouble acknowledging that we’re more than a week into the month of November! Thanksgiving is three weeks away! Christmas is less than two months away. Luckily, my In the Kitchen with David team helps me stay on track and we’ve got great some holiday planning help coming up in the next few weeks.
We’re already featuring Pies and Sides as our theme for the month of November and Sunday’s recipe is a twist on a classic side.
Creamed Swiss Chard
Serves 4–6
This recipe is prepared with the Cook's Essentials® Hard-Anodized Color Nonstick Set (K40940).
Go to David's Recipe Item Page for the full list of items that David has used in his recipes.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs Swiss chard
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 1-3/4 cups milk
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2 Tbsp grated Romano cheese
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
Preparation:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Remove the stems from the Swiss chard. Keeping the stems separate, cut them into 1/2" pieces. Blanch the leaves in the boiling water until tender, about 3–4 minutes. Remove and cool. Cook the stems in the boiling water until tender, about 4–5 minutes. Drain the water from the stems and set aside.
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a 2-qt sauce pot. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute. Stir in the flour. Add the milk and stir until the mixture begins to simmer and has thickened. Add the Parmesan, Romano, lemon zest, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
- Squeeze the water out of the Swiss chard leaves and chop. Add the leaves and stems to the cheese sauce and heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through.
This recipe takes about 15-20 minutes to prepare and doesn’t require your oven like most creamed spinach recipes. So, on Thanksgiving, when the oven is busy with your turkey and other sides, you can cook this right on your stove top.
Last Sunday, we announced that the Clef Hangers—the men's a cappella singing group from my Alma mater, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill—would be on In the Kitchen with David. Well, we’ve been Tweeting with them all week and are thrilled to welcome them to QVC this Sunday.
Way back—not quite as far back as when dinosaurs roamed the earth…but close—I was a Bass in the Clef Hangers. I found my old college yearbooks and thought you might like a Throwback Thursday photo…times three!!
Gosh, I remember those photos like they were yesterday. I even remember when I knew I wanted to go to UNC Chapel Hill. I had always dreamed of being a Tar Heel, but when I was a freshman in high school I also figured out that I wanted to pursue a degree in broadcast journalism, which Chapel Hill was well-known for. That, coupled with the fact that UNC Chapel Hill was just far enough away from Charlotte (where I grew up) so I could get away, but still come home on the weekends, sealed the deal. So off I went.
I joined the Clef Hangers at the end of my sophom*ore year. I auditioned in the spring and was a member as a junior and senior. I remember being excited to audition—I loved to sing, I was involved in choir and musicals in high school, and I had heard the Clef Hangers—who sang everything without instrumentation—as a freshman and sophom*ore. Everything I had hoped the experience would be, was. We performed just about every week. We were hired by girls dorms to sing at spring socials, we were hired to sing at football games, big alumni brunches, and we even sang the national anthem before some basketball games. Every fall we toured and went to various places up and down the eastern seaboard…sometimes for competitions, sometimes to sing at other universities.
I’ll never forget the year we sang at Disney World over spring break and on the way down we stopped in Charleston, South Carolina. We were driving through downtown and passed a horse-drawn carriage with a bride and groom inside, clearly on their way to their reception. Well, we wanted to serenade them. So all 14 of us piled out of the van, chased after them, stopped their carriage and had just started singing, “When I Fall in Love,” when the horse decided to go to the bathroom all over the street. There was no way to ignore it and we all—even the bride and groom—died laughing right then and there.
I'm so proud to have been a Clef Hanger and being a part of the group is one of my fondest college memories. I still keep in touch with friends I made way back when. What about you, foodies? What is one of your fondest, oldest memories? And do you still keep in touch with friends from grade school, high school, or college? Don’t miss the show this Sunday at Noon ET, foodies...so much fun is in store.
Keep it flavorful!
—David
