These are lettuce and pea seeds I put in last week. They are growing in my back yard, in a plastic container that held spinach. Yes, it is cold. And it freezes and sleets and ices up, still. But this is winter gardening and people do it even in colder climates than northern Virginia.

You just wash a plastic container that has a lid, punch some holes in the top and bottom, put in some soil (I use a seeding mix) and sprinkle in seeds. Water, close the container, label it with a permanent marker. Place it outside in a sunny area. Now you have a greenhouse environment for your seeds to grow. I may need to transplant these into a larger container before it gets warm enough to plant in the garden.

I also have some flowers and pampas grass sprouting.

Your seeds really want to grow, even in harsh conditions. Like us, they are animated by the life force.

Seeing as how we were talking about cornbread . . .

and we’ve been talking about cornbread for over a year now . . .

Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five serve you up some “Beans and Cornbread.”

It makes no difference
What you think about me
But it makes a whole lotta difference
What I think about you

Miss Nell would start her cooking shows with, “Now as everyone knows I hate to cook so let’s get started and get out of this kitchen.”

Though it’s not nearly as famous, there is a non-New-England kind of clam chowder out there. Instead of the heavy cream or milk, this one is laced with tomatoes and a healthy abundance of other vegetables.

It makes for a lighter chowder, but still a comforting one, especially during frightful weather. This Manhattan clam chowder recipe from Martha Stewart hits all the right notes. There is the porky base, the chunky vegetables, and of course the all-important clams.

Deron Bauman: Gluten-free vegan nachos.

Sheila Ryan: Refreshing lemon dessert.

Or: New England vs. Manhattan clam chowder.

Errol Morris interviewed competitive eater El Wingador:

El Wingador is a man truly committed to a certain kind of excellence — or at least, a certain kind of excess. Sure, I could have picked a different eating champion, but I guess I have an affinity for chicken. It is evident that chicken is his favorite competition food — particularly chicken wings. I asked him, “Why not hot dogs?” The simple and compelling answer: “Hey, my name is ‘El Wingador,’ not ‘El Hotdogador.’”

When I was a little kid and we lived in South Haven, Michigan for a while, the house my family rented had one of those old electric ranges with the built-in deep fat fryer. Please remember this was back before unhealthy fried food was invented.

My mom would buy pre-made doughnut dough, the kind in a tube (like biscuits or crescent rolls). She’d pop ‘em open and separate the flat die-cut doughnut parts and fry them. The doughnut holes, fresh out and almost too hot to eat, were golden heaven. We’d sprinkle powdered sugar on them sometimes. Is there anything better than fresh, homemade doughnuts? No.

I don’t remember what we did with the doughnut parts outside the cut circles. Maybe we cooked and ate those too, never speaking about it or looking at each other.

At Serious Eats, we care about the big questions. “What’s the difference between Sicilian-style pizza and grandma pizza?” “What’s the difference between a slider and a mini-hamburger?” And, more recently, “What are all the different styles of doughnut?”

Because there are cake and yeasted and crullers and fritters, cider and potato and sour cream, malasadas and beignets and churros—wait, do we count churros? We’ll get to that later.

Come meet all the different doughnuts in this great land.