hopeful

Our house has been overtaken by bugs -- not the six legged variety, but the itty bitty kind that manifest as aches, chills, fevers, nausea, coughs, headaches, and runny noses. No one is super sick, but everyone is a little bit sick with a whole spectrum of different symptoms. It was therefore not difficult to declare this chilly Saturday a stay-at-home-and-take-it-easy kind of Saturday. It's 5 pm and the boys are still in their pajamas, and I think we're all feeling a little stronger for the R and R.

With the boys deeply entranced in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the latest obsession around here - they spend most of their days chasing each other with chopstick wands), I found myself on Pinterest whilst half watching the film. As a result, I added a dozen projects to my sewing and knitting boards, found a DIY washing machine cleaner that I am presently testing out, and decided to make a healing pot of chicken noodle soup.

I didn't change too much about the original recipe, save for the addition of roasted garlic. It just seemed that a soup commissioned with eradicating various and sundry bugs from the house should have some garlic in it, and since I had time while the stock simmered, I threw a handful of cloves into the oven to roast. Suffice it to say, the house smells amazing.

With wishes of health from my family to yours...



Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Adapted from Simply Scratch

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To begin, prep the chicken: dice the white and dark meat and put it in one bowl, throw the bones and skin and little leftover pieces into a large stock pot. Place the diced chicken in the refrigerator for later. You should have about 2 cups.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Brown the chicken parts in the stock pot over medium high for a few minutes. Then throw in the roughly chopped carrot, celery, onion, parsley, thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns. Pour in 12 cups of water and scrape up any browned bits that are on the bottom of the pot. Cover and bring up to a simmer with the lid on, for one hour and thirty minutes.

Place the unpeeled garlic cloves on a square of aluminum foil. Top with the olive oil and wrap, lifting and twisting the corners to form a small packet. Roast at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until soft. Set aside to cool.

After the hour and a half is up, drain the stock through a strainer into another large pot. Discard the remaining bones/vegetables.

Bring the stock back up to a simmer and add in the two diced carrots, celery and onions. Add in the teaspoon of kosher salt, the half teaspoon of black pepper and the chopped thyme. Squeeze the garlic out of the the skins into the soup. Cover and let simmer until the vegetables are tender, about ten minutes.

Meanwhile bring a second pot of water to boil (I reused my original stock pot so as to save dishes). Season with sea salt and drop in the noodles. Cook according to package directions. Drain and then add into soup along with the diced chicken and stock concentrate.

Stir and simmer until chicken is warmed through.

Enjoy!

Eeee, gads...I can't believe it has been an entire month since I've posted. There are several draft posts that just didn't get finished, and an ever growing list of things I want to post about...but alas, time moves quickly in this new chapter for our family. I have definitely been cooking a lot less (our new motto is "We can't be out of food, we still have eggs") but in many ways enjoying the cooking I do a whole lot more.

Anyway, enough of that. I'm back with a delicious slow cooker recipe for creamy tomato soup. The temperature outside literally dropped forty degrees between Saturday and today; we were doing yard work in short sleeves then, and it is now hovering right around freezing. When I made my grocery list last week and asked Finn if there was anything he wanted me to make, he replied, "Homemade soup and homemade bread." He got his wish for Sunday dinner (and, before we started to eat, reminded us to thank him for the great idea...), and I'm happy to share this with you today. It is a family favorite. I highly recommend throwing down the extra change for good quality canned tomatoes; I love the Muir Glen Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes.

I'll be back soon with a fantastic advent calendar I've been working on as well as a few retrospective Halloween costume details. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Creamy Tomato Soup
From More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

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NOTE: This serves 4-6. My family of 4 ate almost all of it for dinner. If you want leftovers, it doubles beautifully.

2 14 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup broth (the recipe calls for beef, I used vegetarian)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. dried basil
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 14 oz. can evaporated milk (to add later)
2 tbsp.  butter (to add later)

In a blender or food processor, puree tomatoes and onions then add to slow cooker OR if you have an immersion blender, do it right in the slow cooker.

Add broth, brown sugar, basil, Worcestershire, and cocoa powder. Stir. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 to 4. Stir in the milk and butter at the end. Cover and cook on high for fifteen minutes or until the butter melts and the soup is hot.

Enjoy!

Oh my goodness, this was a huge winner all around...sooooo delicious. It has a lot of the same flavors as our favorite peanut sauce, but with the yummy textural addition of sweet potato and chard. I served it over quinoa with roasted plantains on the side. I had never thought of roasting plantains - I typically fry them - but they turned out super good and were so much less messy and hands-off to prepare. In this household, things that cook at high heat in the fully enclosed oven are much more easily prepared than those cooked on the stovetop, particularly if there is splashing oil involved. I roasted them at 450 for about 20-25 minutes, flipping once about halfway through.

As with so many savory dishes, this tasted even better the next day. Make a big batch and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Mmmmmm.

Roasted plantains

You put it all together...

West African Groundnut Stew
Adapted from Vegetarian Soup Cuisine

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1 tbsp canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 serrano chile, seeded and minced
2 cups water
2 cups tomato juice
1 14 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced (2 cups)
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 1/2 tsp. thyme
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter, preferably natural
2 cups chopped Swiss chard

In a large saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion, pepper, garlic, ginger, and chile and saute 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the water, tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, sweet potato, and seasonings and cook for 25 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the potato is tender.

Aggressively stir in the peanut butter. Stir in the chard and return to a gentle simmer, stirring frequently. Remove the stew from heat and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and serve with couscous or rice and roasted plantains.

I'm rolling out a new feature on this here blog. My world is suddenly structured in a way it hasn't been in a while, so I think it would be advantageous to throw in some structure to my blogging efforts as well. That said, I present to you the inaugural Weekday Winner posting!

Here's the idea:

• Every week I cook three or four dinners I haven't cooked before. This isn't changing because I've gone back to work. If anything, cooking has once again become my beloved, much anticipated, end-of-the-day hobby, and I'll be eager to try new things.
• At the end of every week, I'll share my family's favorite from the week before. 
• If you play along with me, you'll have a whole arsenal of weeknight meals at your disposal. Doesn't that sound great?

I'll say upfront that most of these will be vegetarian, since that is pretty much how we are eating these days. Most of these will be fairly kid friendly (though my kids are more adventurous than some). Most of these will be fairly easy on the budget. Most of them will take thirty minutes or less to prepare. And all of them -- I promise -- have been tested and tasted and passed the rigorous weekday winner criteria.

So...to start off the weekend, a DELICIOUS recipe for garden gazpacho that is just the thing to have in hand before heading to your Saturday morning farmer's market. I served this on my fancy soup and sandwich platters with open face egg salad sandwiches on the side...super yummy all around.

Enjoy!


Garden Gazpacho
Adapted from Vegetarian Soup Cuisine

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2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small serrano pepper, seeded and minced (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups canned tomato juice
Tabasco to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend thoroughly. Transfer about three-quarters of the mixture to a blender or food processor; process for five seconds. Return the pureed mixture to the mixing bowl. Alternately, use an immersion blender in the original bowl, being careful to leave some chunks. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve in chilled bowls garnished with fresh parsley. 

I've been trying to grocery shop every other week instead of every week; no reason, really, except that I'm constantly tweaking my grocery habits to find what works best for our family so I thought I'd give this a shot. There are definite upsides to less frequent shopping - it makes me plan very carefully, it means one less big trip to the store with two kids in tow - but there are downsides as well. Case in point: when I made the grocery list, it was cool and rainy and rather March-like, so I planned for lots of soups...and for the last few days it has been in the lower eighties, sunny, and warm. Really, nothing says spring like a steaming bowl of Baked Potato Soup, right?

Weather aside, this soup was absolutely delicious. How can you go wrong with a recipe that, as a final step, instructs you to throw in two blocks of cream cheese? This is another slow cooker recipe - I promise to get back to "fast" cooking one of these days, I'm just loving my new cookbook!

The recipe is included in full at crockpot365. I used vegetarian bouillon instead of chicken broth, regular salt instead of seasoned, and reduced fat cream cheese with no ill effect. For toppings, I served chopped scallions, crumbled bacon, and sour cream.


I used my friend Maggie's recipe for bread bowls - so good, so easy, and so much fun for the kids! Her recipe is here (along with another yummy-sounding soup recipe).



Enjoy!

I'd say that nearly 90% of what I cook for dinner can be made in 45 minutes or less, and I would venture to guess that the same is true for many of you. I put a lot of effort into planning and making good meals for my family, but I generally avoid recipes that require a lot of time; I'd rather spend that time with aforementioned family, after all. There are, however, a handful of super special recipes in my stash that take a lot of time and effort but that are so worth the time and effort. This recipe is one of those.


If you ever have the opportunity to visit Chico Hot Springs in Pray, Montana, do. It is an incredibly special place with a rich history, year-round geothermally heated pools, and an amazing gourmet restaurant. It also happens to be up the road from Yellowstone National Park and in the foothills of the Absaroka Mountains. I have been fortunate enough to spend some time at Chico, and on my first visit, I picked up their cookbook, A Montana Table by Seabring Davis. Of all the recipes I've made from this book, this recipe for Roasted Red Pepper Soup is the one I go back to again and again.  



The recipe as transcribed below includes several tweaks I have made over the years. Additionally, here are a few tips:

- The original recipe calls for 2 quarts of homemade chicken stock. I have always used vegetarian Better than Bouillon to keep the recipe meatless.

- I typically take two days to make this recipe - one to roast, peel, and seed the peppers and a second to throw the soup together. I have always used fresh bell peppers (this is my go-to recipe when red peppers are really cheap at the farmer's market) but I suppose you could use jarred. Eight peeled and seeded roasted peppers yields about 3 cups.

- The recipe calls for 1 cup of sherry. I typically use super cheap cooking sherry with great results. You can also use red wine if that is what you have around.

- Because the soup gets pureed in the end, don't waste your time with precision cutting on the veggies. Just give them a rough chop.

- The original recipe has 1/2 tsp saffron whisked in with the cream. I have always skipped this since I generally don't have saffron around, but if you do, by all means use it.

- As noted in the cookbook, you can add steamed mussels, clams, or other shellfish as a last-minute topping. You can also add a generous sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano.

Enjoy!

Image courtesy of A Montana Table

Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Adapted from A Montana Table

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6 to 8 large red bell peppers
2 quarts soup stock
canola oil
2 large yellow onions, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
4 large shallots, peeled and chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup sherry, divided
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp of hot sauce (optional but oh-so-good)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Roast whole red bell peppers over an open flame on a gas burning stovetop or grill; remove from flame when skin is mostly blackened and immerse in an ice bath to remove skin easily. Seed and dice. ALTERNATE METHOD: Roast peppers in a 450 degree oven, turning occasionally, until blackened. Put peppers in a paper bag and close the top for 10-15 minutes to loosen the skin. Peel, seed, and dice. Set aside. (Can be done one day ahead - store in fridge).


2. In a large soup pot, warm stock on medium-high heat until boiling. Add roasted red peppers and let simmer.

3. Heat a large saute pan with canola oil and saute onion, carrot, shallots, celery, and garlic until browned (about ten minutes). Add tomatoes and heat through. Transfer vegetables to soup pot. Use 1/2 cup sherry to deglaze the saute pan and add to soup pot. Cook over medium-high heat, allowing mixture to reduce to half, about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

4. The next step is to puree the soup. I have found that this is both difficult and dangerous to do while the soup is hot unless you have an immersion blender. If you don't, let it cool a bit before transferring it to a blender or food processor and pureeing until smooth.

5. Return to soup pot on low heat. Whisk in cream, lemon juice, remaining 1/2 cup sherry, and the optional hot sauce. Add salt and pepper to your taste, simmer for ten minutes, and serve!