'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house... were the sounds of "A Christmas Story" playing on the television. Each year there's a cable channel that delivers 24 hours of Ralphie and his quest for the Red Rider BB gun. At this point I have seen the movie, or at least healthy snippets of it, hundreds of times. After so many viewings you tend to notice many subtle things. One of them is the "in joke" that, other than Christmas Day, the family eats the same dinner each time we see them at the table. Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and red cabbage.

The movie is set in Hammond, Indiana sometime in the late 1930's or early 1940's. Given the time and place it's not far off that they might be eating that for dinner many nights during a winter stretch. Meatloaf is American comfort food and even more so, a Midwestern comfort food. The first residents of Hammond were German farmers newly arrived from Europe. These European immigrants brought their culinary traditions with them. Meatloaf is similar to a traditional German, Belgian and Dutch dish; Falscher Hase or "Mock hare" in German. Not only that, but during the Great Depression, cooking meatloaf was a way to stretch the food budget for families so it makes sense that the Parker family would have it often given the backdrop of a post-Depression /pre-WWII Indiana.

Tis the season for butternut squash.  It's everywhere. Thankfully, there are many options for its preparation; each one signaling fall or winter comfort.  On this site alone, we have a number of options from risotto, to a simple roast, to a purée.  Markets big and small have realized that peeling and chopping butternut squash might be too daunting a task for some.  Vacuum-packed, prepared chunks of squash can be found at most stores these days. It's really quite a luxury. How often can you purchase ingredients as well as the services of a sous chef or a line cook for $3.29. Personally, I enjoy conquering the squash all on my own.

The funny thing about cooking for a family holiday is that once a dish is a "hit" it becomes hard NOT to bring it each year. Everyone looks forward to it. My aunt made a coconut cream pie on a whim one Thanksgiving when I was about 7 years old and she's been making it now for the last 30 years.

And so it is with this following recipe. I first made a gratin of Swiss chard several years ago after reading an article in a food magazine that had suggested such a preparation. Now not a year goes by that I'm not asked to bring "the gratin" to Thanksgiving or Christmas. It has also become a sort of tradition for me to swing by the farm stand and clean them out of all the chard I can lay my hands on.