"Chili, Soups and Stews" Show Airs on WILL-TV

You may remember that I put out the word about this show back in January, when WILL was asking people to send in recipes. Well, turns out mine was one of the recipes selected for inclusion on the show. Thus, I and eight other cooks from the community sliced, diced, chopped, and puréed our little hearts out on live television this past Monday night.

The recipes we demonstrated included my spin on Portuguese kale and sausage soup; a Morrocan-spiced cauliflower soup; beef stew; an African-inspired peanut stew; a low-fat take on gumbo involving an interesting technique for making a "roux" without oil—and many more.

If you missed the show and are interested in catching it, it's going to be re-broadcast twice this coming weekend. Here are the dates and times:

Chili, Soups and Stews
WILL-TV (channel 12 in C-U)
Saturday, March 14, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 15, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

If you're wondering why a 3-hour cooking show was necessary—it isn't quite that long. There's a pledge drive going on over at WILL this week, so the nine cooking segments are separated by pleas for support. If you love cooking and want to donate to our local public television station, calling in a pledge while the show is on would be a great idea (and would make us cooks look very popular). A pledge of $60 or more will get you a DVD of the show plus the accompanying cookbook, in which you'll find all of the recipes. If you aren't interested in donating to WILL, you can still watch the show; just hit the Mute button between recipes.

Oh, and my segment is second to last, so don't expect to see me with my big knife and my two enormous Le Creuset pots until toward the end of the show. I hope it's worth waiting for.

For those of you who saw the show and have asked where to get the lamb Italian sausages featured in my recipe, here's the lowdown. As I hope I mentioned on the show but can't remember for sure, the sausage is made by the folks at Country Cottage Farm in Fisher, IL, and you can buy it right now at Strawberry Fields grocery on Main Street in Urbana and at the Common Ground Food Co-op store in Lincoln Square (east entrance). At both stores the sausages will be in the freezer case. Once the Urbana farmers' market starts in May, you can buy the sausages and other fine lamb products from Deb and her husband there.