We've certainly been around our fair share of cold and virus germs this season. As a matter of fact, Courtney came down with a cold last weekend. It's my job to take care of everyone when they're feeling under the weather so when my family gets sick - I make homemade chicken soup. I'm sure there have been lots of studies done on whether or not homemade chicken soup has potential healing powers over germs and virus but to be perfectly honest, I'm not interested in the research. I don't know whether it's truly something in the soup or just the fact that it's made with love, but I do know that it makes a sick patient feel better. A warm bowl of homemade soup served on a tray with crackers and a 7up is guaranteed to make anyone feel better. The last time that Courtney was sick, I decided to stray from traditional chicken noodle soup and go with something a little less conventional - shrimp tortilla soup. I found this recipe on www.cookingplanit.com. It's creamy and hearty and delicious. Shrimp Tortilla Soup 2/3 cup carrot, sliced 2/3 cup onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves 2/3 cup celery 1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped 3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice 1 jalapeno 1 1/4 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined 4 corn tortillas 14 ounce can petite diced tomatoes 3 cups seafood stock 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 1 teaspoon cumin 2 oregano 1 cup water
I love the rich flavor and the creamy texture - without having to add cream. You need to give this soup a try. What do you have to lose?
Ciao!
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I realize that this post has been in my cue for a while because my front yard doesn't look anything like this picture any more. Oh well, better late than never. When we moved into our house 7 years ago, the 3 maple trees in our front yard were fairly small. I had grand visions of the majestic trees that they would become and of the beautiful colors that they would display in the Fall, but every year my expectations ended in disappointment. They just seemed to struggle to get any sort of faded color in the leaves before they finally turned to brown and eventually dropped to the ground in mid February. I blamed the trees for its shortcomings and I just figured that we didn't have the right kind of maple trees. Turns out, I was all wrong. We do have beautiful maple trees. I am not a tree expert in any sense of the word but I think that the excessive amount of rain this spring, contributed to the gorgeous color that the trees displayed this Fall. Poor trees - maybe if I would have given them a little more water over the past 7 years, they wouldn't have struggled so much. It's taken me a while but I think I've figured out the secret to getting beautiful color on my maple trees. I don't know if there is a name to accurately describe the brilliance of that color but I love it. A perfect Fall hue. The day that I took these pictures of the trees in my front yard, I also made a batch of zucchini chips. They turned out to be a great little spicy snack. I accidentally added a little more cayenne than I had planned but they were really delicious. Most of the time my accidents in the kitchen turn out to be disasters but sometimes they turn out even better than what I had intended. This is one of those times when my mistake turned out for the better. This recipe takes a plain old vegetable and turns it into a deliciously crispy little spicy nugget. The inspiration for this recipe came from skinnyms.com. Zucchini Chips 1 (large) zucchini, cut into 1/8" - 1/4" slices 1/3 cup whole grain breadcrumbs, optional Panko 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese, reduced fat 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Kosher or sea salt to taste 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper 3 tablespoons low-fat milk Dip zucchini slices into milk and dredge into bread crumbs to coat both sides. Note: It may be necessary to press crumbs onto zucchini slices to ensure the crumbs stick.
Allow to cool to room temperature before storing in an airtight container. NOTE: Zucchini Chips will continue to get crispier while cooling. Since my family complains when I take pictures while they eat, I decided it was about time I posted a picture of myself eating. Not the most flattering picture - I admit - but an action shot, none the less. Ciao!
Like most families, our family has a rhythm. Everyone comes home at fairly regular times in the evenings - probably because I serve dinner at roughly the same time every night and if they're late - they miss it. We have a rhythm to our meals too. We all tend to take on the same tasks to help with meal preparation and we even sit in the same seats mat the table. When it comes time to clean up, we all have our jobs to help make the process as painless as possible. It all just works. Well it works we're all home that is. Ben had to do some traveling last month which shouldn't really impact our meals all that much but it just seems to throw off our family rhythm. For some reason, when Ben's out of town, dinnertime just doesn't have the same flow as it does when the four of us are together. I've finally learned to stop trying to find a new, temporary rhythm for the 3 of us and we just do things completely different when Ben's out of town. I make kid friendly food and I tend to pull more things out of the freezer for easy meals. This roast beef wellington in puff pastry triangles recipe is perfect for a quick and easy meal when it's just the 3 of us. These can be made ahead of time and pulled out of the freezer, placed on a baking sheet (still frozen) and cooked in about 20 minutes. Roast Beef Wellington 1 Tablespoon butter 1 ½ + 1/8 cup T. horseradish ¼ pound mushrooms, sliced salt and pepper 1 Tablespoon shallots, minced 17 ounces puff pastry sheets 1 clove garlic, minced 1 egg, beaten 1 teaspoon fresh parsley 1 Tablespoon water 6 ounces Swiss, grated ¾ cup sour cream 6 ounces roast beef, sliced 1/8 teaspoon garlic
Bake 20 minutes at 400. Sauce: Combine sour cream, 1/8 T. horseradish and garlic. (I didn't make the sauce to go with these because I was in a hurry but you definitely should try it.) Serve. You can serve this for dinner, as an appetizer or even just a snack. They are super good and easy to make.
If you want to make them ahead of time, you can fill the squares, fold them into triangles, crimp the edges, brush with egg and then pop them into the freezer. I freeze mine on a cookie sheet for about an hour or until they are firm and then pop them into individual ziploc freezer bags. I transfer them right from the freezer to the oven and add an extra 10 minutes or so to the cooking time. Ciao! These may be some of the worst pictures of a soup that I have ever taken. Seriously, this bowl of soup looks so unappetizing. The good news is that it didn't taste anything like it looks. It is REALLY good. Don't be thrown off by the weird pictures - those are my fault for not doing this soup any justice. Trust me when I tell you - it's way better than it looks. This recipe came from my Bon Appetit magazine. It is super simple and really delicious. I changed a few things in the recipe so I will give you my version of the recipe. Black Bean Soup with Roasted Poblano Chiles 2 poblano chilies 2 Tablespoons shelled pumpkin seeds 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 4 garlic cloves, minced 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes 48 ounces chicken broth 2 cans black beans, drained 1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco Slice poblano peppers in half and take out seeds and ribs. Place on a foil lined baking sheet and place under broiler until blackened on top. Place peppers in a paper bag and let sit for 15 minutes.
Heat oil in saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook 8-10 minutes.
Ladle into bowls and top with pumpkin seeds and crumbled cheese. This is the perfect soup for a cold winter day. Trust me - If MY kids eat it - it must be good. So don't take it from me - take it from them. There were 4 empty bowls on the table after this meal. (Yea!)
Ciao! Why is it that my dishwasher breaks at the most inconvenient times. (Is there really ever a convenient time for the dishwasher to break?) We had a dishwasher malfunction in early November, during homecoming weekend while my parents were visiting. The good news is that we happened to have a big stack of paper plates AND everyone chipped in to help wash the dishes that we did use. While the dishwasher was out of commission, (for 7 weeks!) I learned to be very conservative with the number of dishes that I used while I was preparing dinner. I think food bloggers use even more dishes than the average Joe cook because we're constantly moving food to clean dishes so it can be photographed. I had never given it too much thought because I would just put all those dishes in the dishwasher. Now that I have to wash them all by hand, I'm much more conscious of the ridiculous amount of dishes that I use to create and photograph one meal. My non functioning dishwasher has caused me to reevaluate my dish use so my blog posts are going to look slightly different until the dishwasher gets repaired. Fewer dishes to wash equals a happier food blogger. Ryan is well into his wrestling season and he is trying to maintain his weight so we've been opting for more salads for dinner. I found this recipe on mykitchenescapades.com and since Ryan is such a big peanut fan, I was hoping that he would appreciate this salad. I changed the recipe from the original quite a bit. I didn't marinate my chicken but I put about 8 chicken breasts (enough for the whole week) on the Big Green Egg and grilled them with a little salt and pepper. I left the instructions for the marinade from the original recipe because I think that it would be even better with marinated chicken. I also couldn't find Thai sweet red chili sauce at my Wal Mart supermarket and I was not in the mood to go to another grocery store so I decided to just leave it out. I ended up combining the dressing and the peanut sauce into one peanuty vinaigrette. It was yummy. As you can see, this is one of those salad recipes that you can change and adjust and adapt to your own taste. It would be hard to mess this one up. Peanut Chicken Salad Chicken marinade 1/2 C vegetable oil 2 Tb rice vinegar 1/4 C sugar 1 clove garlic, minced 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped 1 lime, juiced dash of salt and pepper 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts - about 2 1/2 pounds total Salad 2 hearts of romaine, chopped 1/2 large head of napa cabbage, chopped 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped 2 carrots, shredded 1 red bell pepper, chopped 5 green onions, chopped 1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped 1 C salted peanuts Dressing 1/4 C rice vinegar 1/4 C Thai sweet red chili sauce 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp sugar pinch of salt and pepper Peanut Sauce 1/4 C natural peanut butter 2 Tb soy sauce 1 Tb rice vinegar 1 Tb Thai sweet red chili sauce 2 Tb water In a ziplock bag, combine all the ingredients for the chicken marinade. Mush it all around, then place it in the fridge for at least 4 hours to marinade. Cook the chicken either on a hot grill, 6-8 minutes a side or in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Allow it to cool a bit, then chop up all the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Add peanuts and toss. Generously drizzle the peanut sauce over each serving of salad then top with the peanuts and chicken. This salad was crunchy and nutty and delicious. Ryan loved the chicken with the peanut vinaigrette. He didn't eat a lot of the salad but he did pack some for his lunch for the following day. I thought this was a really delicious salad and I am definitely going to try it again with marinated chicken and some Thai sweet red chili sauce.
Ciao! |
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