Occasional cooks: warm meals and cold drinks

Here is your weekly thread to talk anything and everything food. 

Share your cooking this week, ask for tips or recipes for a dish, tell us about your meals out.

It's cold and wet here today - as I write, it's midday and feels like dusk. So apologies if these recipes lean a more little towards cold-weather comfort food...

via goodfood.com.au

This chicken and apples cooked in cider looks delicious, and seems perfect for pretending it's still autumn and not winter.

via goodfood.com.au

The recommended side dish is celeriac and spring onion rosti - yes please. Although this is the sort of dish where you need to know your pans and your stove-top heat really well, or you just burn the bottom long before the potato is cooked.

My winter side dish that is easy but seems a little fancier than mash potato is creamy pureed parsnip. Cut up your parsnip, in a saucepan, cover with half water and half milk, add a knob of butter, bring to a simmer and cook until the thickest pieces are soft. Blend until smooth.

Looking for something a bit more summery, I found a recipe for frozen prickly pear souffle! Prickly pear! Definitely not something I have ever seen in a shop, although I guess if you have one in your yard...

via goodfood.com.au

Here's something a bit more appealing - frosé.