The voting for which Gourmet recipe I should make ended in a three-way tie between the Farmhouse Butternut Squash soup, the Braised Chile-Spiced Short Ribs with Black Beans, and the Beer-Braised Beef and Onions. I've decided to cast the tie-breaker vote, since I'm the one who will actually be cooking (and eating) the results. And I have access to a little insider info, in that Stinger wants the Beer-Braised Beef enough to promise to make it himself sometime this week, so I'm eliminating it from the list. Also because I checked out the recipe and while I'm sure the finished dish is delicious, the cooking process looks quite dull and straightforward. Beef + beer + plus onions + low heat = tasty but boring to do.

Braising, in general, is a fairly uncomplicated process where the oven does most of the work for you--but prepping a dish for braising can be fun, and that would seem to be the case with the short ribs. The kick of dried ancho chiles mashed together with smoky canned chipotles and dark, sweet molasses is very tempting. But it's the butternut squash soup, accented with tart green apple and my perennial favorite, bacon, that gets my vote. Plus, I don't think I've made butternut squash soup at all this winter, and it's one of my favorites. The first year we lived in Ohio I made it at least half a dozen times, using recipes from cookbooks ranging from Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Simple to Spectacular to a curried version my mother clipped from the New York Times. A brand new recipe like the one in this month's Gourmet is almost a moral imperative for me.

So stay tuned! Pictures and reviews tomorrow.

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 8:37 AM