Cheddar Horseradish Soup

You probably guessed that I'm on a winter soup kick right now, and I'm back to the 50 Easy Soups by Food Network Mag. This is their cheddar-horsey soup, and it is good. I'd puree the carrots next time, I think... they were too thick for the amount of cook time. Maybe I didn't 'sweat' them long enough, but would have liked smaller pieces. I also omitted the leeks, as I don't like them. And I'd bake and serve the crouton bread on the side in triangles so they didn't get soggy in the soup. Otherwise, pretty nice, and anything requiring a bottle of beer to cook is good for me!

#29 Cheddar Horseradish Soup

2 diced leeks

2 diced carrots

pinch cayenne

pinch salt

3 T flour

2 T dry mustard

1 bottle beer

1/4 c horseradish

3 c water

dash of Worcestershire

2 c. half-n-half

1.5 c cheddar

Sweat the diced veggies in butter. Add cayenne, salt, flour, and dry mustard. Cook 2 minutes to make roux. Add beer, horseradish, water, Worcestershire. Simmer until thickened. Whisk in h-n-h and cheddar. Top with cracked pepper and croutons (or serve on side).

Like Pea Soup out there!

It's time to use up that leftover ham hock, so here goes: 

Hock, carrots, celery, shallots, rosemary, bay leaf, thyme, and chicken stock making goodness.

Split Pea with Ham and Rosemary being prepared as we speak.

Waiting to see how the end results turn out. More to come later as the final edition comes together.

Merry Christmas!

This is honor of my Grandma Trent's traditional Christmas Eve dinner...rib-eyes grilled, potatoes, and creamed corn. I used thin rib-eyes, pan-roasted with Montreal steak seasoning and a side of horseradish cream sauce, homemade creamed corn with bacon and chives, baked potatoes, with sour cream & bacon & chives on top.

Tomorrow: Afternoon supper Trebesch/Eyre style with mashed potatoes, niblets corn in butter sauce, rolls, and dessert of chocolate silk pie.  Bring it!

Leftover Turkey...what to do? What to do?

There's the turkey salad sandwich, your standard Turkey Tetrazzini, Turkey casserole, and now, Rachel Ray's turkey croquettes.  I was skeptical, as she isn't my favorite cook, and is no chef. But, I tried them and we were pleasantly surprised. Here's the photo gallery and the recipe follows:

Ingredients

            2 tablespoons vegetable or any light colored oil, plus some for frying

            1 stalk celery, finely chopped

            1 small onion, finely chopped

            1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

            1/4 cup chopped parsley

            1 pound leftover sliced turkey

            1 1/2 cup leftover mashed potatoes

            1 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs, divided

            1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

            A few pinches whole nutmeg

            Salt and freshly ground black pepper

            1 egg, beaten

            Gravy           

Yields: 10 croquettes

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery, onion, carrot and parsley, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Heat a 1/4 of an inch of oil in a large skillet with high sides over medium-high heat.

In a mixing bowl, shred the leftover turkey using two forks. Add the mashed potatoes, 1/2 cup of the breadcrumbs, poultry seasoning, nutmeg, salt, pepper, egg and cooled veggies. Mix to combine and form 10 patties about an inch thick.

Dredge the patties in the remaining breadcrumbs and brown in two batches in a single layer in the hot oil for 2 minutes on each side or until deep golden brown. Drain on paper towels and transfer to a serving plate. Serve with gravy.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup Recipe

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/2 medium chopped onions
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups half-and-half cream
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 lb fresh broccoli
• 1 cup carrots, julienned
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 8 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Sauté onion in butter. Set aside. [ I used shallots because I had them around the house.

1. 2. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and add the half & half.3. Add the chicken stock. Simmer for 20 minutes4. Roughly chop the broccoli. Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat 20-25 minutes.
   
   
   5. Add salt and pepper. Can be puréed in a blender but I don't. Return to heat and add cheese. Stir in nutmeg.
   
   6. Serve!
   
   
   

How to make really great roast beef at home for sandwiches...on the cheap!

• 
  Want to make really tender sliced beef for less? Here's a way to take an eye roast, an inexpensive cut which can be tough, and make it tender.  
• 
  

3 # Eye of Round roast

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Season the roast with salt and pepper and place in a roasting pan or baking dish. Do not cover or add water.
2. Place the roast in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Roast for 21 minutes (seven minutes per pound) then turn off the oven and let the roast sit in the hot oven for 2 1/2 hours. Do not open the door at all during this time! (I have a gas stove and opted to leave it at 170 degrees for the remaining time, because it isn't very well insulated)
3. Remove the roast from the oven, the internal temperature should have reached at least 145 degrees F (65 degrees C). Carve into thin slices to serve.

This is really surprisingly good. It isn't dry, and it's cooked perfect for me; my husband would probably hate it, because he likes it well done , but this was seriously perfectly pink inside. Great!

Holiday Baking...Commence!

Aidan and I spent our Tuesday off making holiday cookies; there is nothing better than the smell of fresh gingerbread! Mmmm. Here he is gathering and rolling out the ginger snap dough balls, and rolling them in sugar. Below, the finished gingersnaps and Mexican Wedding Cookies aka "sandies".

Trattoria Trebeschi

* I don't know which I enjoyed more, the making of this from scratch, or the fact that as I rolled the dough, my son flew in a Lego craft he'd made from scratch and the commentary was something akin to "captain! It's Pizza Land! We're coming in for a bombing. Hit the cheese crater!!". SO funny.

This recipe is my all time fav for dough, via Tratorria Grappola in Santa Ynez, CA.  The Curti brothers, as featured on Giada's show, are amazing.  Their head waiter is kind of a dick, but it's allowable when the food is this good. No slight to either Guiseppe's of Ambler, PA or Celebre's in South Philly here, either.  You two still sit warmly in my heart!

Here's our homemade version and the dough recipe to follow:

Dough Recipe:

1 pkg active dry yeast

2 c lukewarm water

4 tsp sea salt

4.5 c all purpose flour

2 T EVOO

Set up your dough hook attachment; in the bowl, mix the water and yeast until combined. Add salt, then flour until dough begins to form and is not sticky (10-12 minutes). Place dough in bowl coated lightly with EVOO. also coat entire dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap & let rise for 1 hr in a warm place. remove to working surface & divide into 6 balls, about 6 oz each. place each on floured surface and cover with a towel to rise 45 minutes.  Roll each dough ball out until a thin 10 inch round shape is formed.  You can freeze them in plastic wrap for later use.

PIZZA:  Preheat over to 450 with pizza stone inside for 1 hour. Dust a smooth working surface with flour to roll out your dough.  Spoon pizza sauce over top and sprinkle with mozzarella generously. Using your pizza peel (or shovel), place it on baking stone for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown (watch carefully- I go with 10 min to start; also, I use parchment paper to make the transfer and clean up easy). Remove from oven, and drizzle with olive oil.

SAUCE: 2 c tomato puree, 2 T evoo, oregano (dash), 1 smashed clove of garlic, salt to taste... blend until combined. 

It's the most light, airy, bubbly, fantastico pizza ever!  Thin crust rules, anyway.

Cornholio!

This is "Candy Corn Bark".  The recipe is 16 Halloween Oreos, chopped, 1.5 c pretzels broken, 1.5# melted white chocolate, topped with candy corns and orange sprinkles.  It is currently cooling and we will review it soon.

Okay, SO sweet, which I guess is good for some people, but I'm now kind of nauseous and if you have diabetic issues, this is a killer. I like the salty sweet, but there was WAY too much white chocolate in the recipe.  I think I'd do this again by dipping half an oreo in it, and topping with A pretzel and ONE candy corn.  

Pumpkin Bread...from scratch!!

It's that time of year, and lovely pie pumpkins, a.k.a. sugar pumpkins, are 2 for $5.00 at Albertsons.  Hooray!  In the words of my cousin Meaghan, also a foodie, "put 'pumpkin' in anything, and I'm all over it".  OK, so maybe those weren't her exact words, but you get our love affair with the orange squash. 

I purchased my pie pumpkin while at the store hunting down a cheesecake sampler for Boss's Day. Leave it to me to exit the store with something else and a baguette for myself. Yep. I said myself. I ate baguette for dinner! 

French bread fetishes aside, let's get back to the pumpkin bread.

Utilizing said 'pie pumpkin', I waited for the little pumpkin-carving bandit to go out with Daddy to visit grandpa, and away I went to break-it-down. First, we cut in and remove the seeds, but we DO NOT throw them away! You must, and I mean, MUST roast them: 

Mix with about 2T EVOO, salt with sea or Kosher, and roast at 300 for about 20 minutes (start with 10 then give it 5 additional as needed) You want them to have a nice brown edge, but not be burnt!

Next order of business, cook the pumpkin. I opted for the micro method so I could roast my seeds simultaneously. Slice the squash in half, scraping out the stringy stuff and place in a microwavable bowl. Add about 1/2 c water to the bottom of the bowl and micro for 15-20 minutes.  If it isn't soft yet, add 5-10 minutes more. When cool, scrape the pumpkin "mush" out and discard the rind.  You'll need 2C mush for 2 loaves bread.

After 15 minutes, my pumpkin was nice and soft. I let it cool a bit, then scraped the meat of the squash: 

It still appeared a bit stringy, reminding me of cooked spaghetti squash, but then to the next step. We puree in the Cuisinart food processor until we have what looks like pumpkin baby food:

I tasted it at this point, and was surprised at the nice flavor. I learned online that the canned pumpkin from Libby's and others are really a mix of butternut squashes, so this was a more true pumpkin flavor.  Now to the bread preparation!

Ingredients:

•    2 cups of fresh cooked pumpkin (or 1 can pumpkin) •    3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (not self-rising flour) •    2 tsp. baking soda •    3 cups sugar or 3 cups of Splenda OR a 50:50 mix of the two. •    4 eggs, beaten •    1 cup vegetable oil •    1 and 1/2 tsp. salt

•    2 tsp. cinnamon •    2 tsp. nutmeg •    1/2 teaspoon allspice •    1 cup chopped pecans (optional) •    1/2 cup raisins (also optional) •    Water: 1/2 cup water if you are using fresh cooked pumpkin OR 2/3 cup water if you are using commercial canned pumpkin •    Makes 2 loaves.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Preheat oven to 350 F. 
 

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and sugar (or Splenda). 


 

Add the eggs, water, oil and pumpkin. 





 

Stir until blended. 








 

If desired, add the raisins and/or nuts. Mix well, either by hand or with a mixer. Pour into two lightly greased and floured 9x5" loaf pans.  Or, use muffin pans if you want muffins instead of loaves!


 

Bake approximately 1 hour at 350 F (175 C). The test for doneness is the knife test: when a clean knife can be stuck in and removed cleanly. 

 

Remove from the oven and cool slightly (10 minutes). 

 

Then take out of pans to let cool on a rack.

Chicken Barley Soup

Soccer & Baseball have taken over any time I've had to cook, but today we had a reprieve on a Saturday afternoon thanks to Friday night baseball!  I used some already baked chicken and leftover pearl barley in the pantry to make Chicken Barley Soup. Lots of yummy vegetables also. Now that the heat has broken, and we're inching our way to a So Cal winter, soup's on!

Baked chicken and mushroom gravy over rice

Framed by me new issue of Food Network Magazine...my chicken is smothered in mushroom soup gravy with a hint of parsley. Yum.

Fish On!

Grilled Lime Tilapia with Risotto and Peas

Sunday Dinner

* Went raspberry picking at a farm yesterday with the boys and had a blast picking our quart of fresh fruit. We ate a lot off the vine, and were nearly full by the time we got back to the barn store!

Tonight, using up the summer squash and leftover pesto, we have:

Pesto grilled chicken with macaroni & sauteed squash.

Something raspberry for dessert perhaps? You know what's good? I bought pumpkin butter and had a peanut & pumpkin butter sandwich today and it was delicious! Fruit butter is lower in sugar than jams or jelly too, so it was a nice alternative.  Yummy!

Leftover tonight: Bone-in grilled pork chops with doctored BBQ sauce (combination of hickory bbq sauce & leftover Chik-fil-A sauce), and a side of sauteed veggies (green beans, tomatoes, onions, roasted corn leftover from last night).Decent redo for this fare.

Last night, I had sauteed summer squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, with leftover pico de gallo. I added a little Trebesence, and stir fried away.  Oh. So. Good. All larger veggies courtesy of our friends Cathy & Brian, who have erected a chicken coop and receive a shipment via US Mail of chicks yesterday. One- day-old chickens are SO cute. We had a blast visiting with the "chicks", all various names like Angelina, Jennifer, Pamela, Carmen... seems the boys were in charge of naming the new additions.  Soon, they shall have lovely brown eggs to make homemade omelets from! Yummo!

Happy Birthday to Me

Julia Child died on this day, 2004.  We lost an icon 7 years ago.  I'd rather remember that than the fact that I'm 40 today.

Made my own dinner tonight, as tomorrow we'll celebrate at a champagne brunch and the horse races at Del Mar.

              Chicken Mozz with Pomodoro Sauce and a
                side of buttered, basil macaroni.

Today's simplistic lunch.

Grilled carne asada tacos with homemade pico de gallo. 

Backyard Farm & Back-to-School

I'm so excited to share what I found in the garden this morning: 

Finally, the green beans have come to fruition! Yahooie!

Additionally, I received the new FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE and was excited to locate the 50 Ways to Use Bacon.  They had me at bacon. 

Inside was a lesson on how to make a "pencil" cake out of Sara Lee pound cakes and icing to celebrate the BTS season.  Aidan and I were mesmerized, and he said, "we can do THAT Mom!". So we did:

Basically, you need 2 loafs from the freezer section, food coloring, one tub of vanilla icing, 2 T of chocolate chips, and sour green candy strips.  I improvised with fruit roll ups because we couldn't find the sour apple or watermelon strips at our store. Here is Aidan with our result:

The tough part was carving it properly to shave the sides into angles for the pencil shape and the chocolate "lead" wouldn't stick on too well with the icing.  Next time, I think I'd just carve the extra pencil point and ice it with chocolate icing or melted chips, instead.  But, it's tasty and fun anyway!

Lazy Sunday

 Last night was a tequila night, so I've been a bit sluggish today.  The chicken I had marinaded to grill yesterday became today's fare, so it had plenty of time to soak up my homemade marinate of white wine and Trebessence.  Not exactly Emeril's recipe, but a concoction of my own of : paprika, garlic powder, chives, and season salt.  I may have put a pinch of cayenne in there, too, as the chicken had a little kick now and then, but it was really moist.  There are so many ways to grill chicken, it's hard to go wrong.  A little green bean and wild rice medley, and it was chow time.  Mmm mmm.  Basic and tasty.

                                                            

Anyone have some suggestions for other marinades for skinless grilled chicken?  I plan to be eating a lot of this as I work on changing my recipes for more low fat, protein rich, higher fiber meals and attempt to lower that pesky blood sugar again!  Here's an interesting one I found online that I hope to use this week:

Provence Chicken Marinade (chicken served with a side of pesto-tossed pasta)

Combine:

1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons EVOO
1 clove garlic, crushed (or 1/8 tsp garlic powder)
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary (I'll use 1 T chopped, fresh rosemary from my garden)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Since Aidan and I made that fresh pesto, it'll need to be used up this week, so this is a lovely way to do so and use the chicken breasts on hand in my freezer for marinade/grilling.  I'll report back on my Poulet de Provence later this week. 

Cooking with Aidan, Episode 1.2

Today, out of sheer boredom, I decided to allow the little dude to help me make two of my go-to sauces.  Allow me to introduce you to my sous chef, Aidan, who enjoys cooking without a shirt on. This is not conducive to cooking, however, as evidenced by the episode of the flying tahini and its subsequent landing on his belly.  Nonetheless, we got to work. 

The first step was to prune my kitchen window basil plant for the main ingredient in sauce numero uno: Pesto.

We needed to have 1 packed cup of fresh basil leaves for the recipe.

Next up was 1 TBSP of pine nuts, or pignole, as they say in Italy.  You can find these at the grocery store.  Fresh & Easy didn't have them, so I went down to Claro's Italian Market to pick them up.

Sous chef "no-shirt" was ready with his EVOO.  First, we added the basil to the Cuisinart Food Processor- this one is a mini-prep, but you can use a larger one and double the recipe to freeze the remaining pesto for later use.  I like to freeze some each time I make it fresh, so I know I have some to go at a moment's notice,  if I need it.  The basil leaves are not always ready for plucking, so sometimes you need to go with the ready-made, and I prefer to know it came from my own plant, as opposed to paying extra for the mixed pesto in a jar at the grocery store.

After the basil leaves, we sprinkled in the pine nuts, and 1 clove of garlic, minced. Note: we used garlic powder today as a substitute, because I'm out of fresh cloves.  

 Next up is adding a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese.  Here you see grated, but you can also use shredded if you have that on-hand, so long as the blade of your food processor can cut it up into small bits.

 Finally, we added 2 T of EVOO, which, we realized after the fact, was a bit under what we should have added.  I think we ended up with about up to 3 or 4 total tablespoons for the right consistency of the pesto.  It was far too chunky with just 2 T.

 Mix it up in your processor for a minute or so, until it becomes like a wet paste.  If you think it is too thick, add a bit of EVOO until it is a pasta-coatable consistency.  (Ha... I just made that word up!)

 Here's the final product, ready for the refrigerator and hopefully, for a pasta or pizza tonight or tomorrow. I have some homemade dough and fresh mozzarella in there, too, so I'm seeing a pizza in the near future with a bit of this lovely green stuff.

Next up for our experiment o' the day was homemade Hummus.  This is a middle eastern dip that is lovely on crackers ("kaki" as my son used to call it when he was going to daycare in a Lebanese home) or on vegetables or with warm pita.  First,  we needed the two main ingredients:
                                                     
Tahini is pulverized sesame seeds.  It's basically sesame butter;  like natural peanut butter, it has oil on top when you open it, and it has to be mixed well.  2 T of tahini and 1 can of garbanzos (chick peas) go into the food processor:

Then add 4 T lemon, 1 clove garlic minced, salt & pepper to taste, and 2 TBSP EVOO.  Mix until, again, you get a blended paste-like consistency.  You can add more oil if it's too thick.

 To finish off our dip, we sprinkled a little more EVOO on top and some paprika, then cut up some celery for dipping.  Yum!  I was surprised to see that Aidan even at it and wanted to try some of the "red stuff" in the middle.  At first he thought it was chili, and he got a little nervous, but he took a bite with celery and then said, "Wow! That's good!"  I love his excitement.  Everything he makes is good, even if five seconds later, he's "all done for now".  Ha!

These are two really simple dips/sauces that can be made cheaply at home, and if your weather is good for growing basil and you're overrun with leaves that need to be used up, it's great to make something different with a basil flavor that can be used in many different ways.  Pesto is great on pasta and pizza, but it makes a good steak marinade too, or a grilling baste.  Enjoy!