Baked Potato Soup

It's the time of year when we are going to need some stick-to-your-ribs comfort food. Baked potato soup is on the top of that list for me. I did it a little different than I usually do and actually baked the potatoes first this time.

•3 lbs Red Skin Potatoes - cleaned and cubed
•Place in a baking dish, coat with olive oil and add fresh minced garlic, shallots and S&P
•Cover with foil and bake 45 min @ 350
•While that is baking sauté a couple strips of bacon in a soup pot until crispy
•Remove the bits and set aside
•When the potatoes are done, remove about 2/3rds of the from the dish and into a food processor, mix to purée, you could add some heavy cream or milk to help thin this down a little
•Chop the remaining chunks into bite sized pieces
Back to the pot-
•To the hot bacon grease add a couple tablespoons of flour, stir to absorb all of the grease and until the flour starts to brown a bit. This is a rue.
•Add in enough milk or cream (whichever you desire) to fill the pot to about half, stir to incorporate the rue
•Add in the pureed potatoes and chunks, including all of the oil and bits of garlic and shallot left in the baking dish and the bacon bits
•Mix everything together, let simmer to thicken and season to taste with S&P
•Serve piping hot topped with cheese, sour cream and chives

"Butter Noodles"

This is my go to meal.  In all it takes about thirty minutes to make.  It includes things I always have and my son loves it.  Plus I get to live vicariously through him.  Watching him enjoy these almost makes me feel as though I ate them myself.

Boil about 2 ounces (enough for one starving toddler) of pasta while you do the next couple steps...

2 tablespoons of butter

2 teaspoons of flour (don't add too much or it with be gummy and not creamy)
dash of garlic salt and another dash of regular salt

Cook those in a pan until creamy.  About 5 minutes.  It should not smell like cereal anymore before adding the cream.

Add a splash of half and half.  Stir until creamy and no lumps.  Add a splash of half and half.  Stir until creamy and no lumps.  Add a splash of half and half.  Stir until creamy and no lumps...you should end up with about 1/2 cup of sauce.

Add 1/4 cup or so of shredded cheese to this sauce.  Once blended and creamy again add the almost done noodles.  Don't rinse the noodles.  You'll need a little of their moisture.

Simmer until thick and you cannot stand being around them anymore. 

I will also add another dab (or two) of butter on top to keep it creamy while it cools in the bowl.   

Gorganzola Vinegarette

I love homemade Vinegarette and Gorganzola! I mixed them all together and I think I've come up with the perfect salad dressing!

Dressing for one-

-Red Wine Vinegar
-Fresh Basil and Oregano
-Gorganzola Cheese
-Olive Oil
-Agave Syrup

Mix together and season with: salt, pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper

Sorry no measurements! That's the fun thing about Vinegarette! Make it up!!!

Tex Mex Brisket Tacos

Steamed Corn Tortillas filled with:

• Slow Roasted Beef Brisket seasoned with Goyza, cumin, chipotle chili powder, garlic powder and black pepper. Bake on top of 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped garlic clove and 1/2 bottle of dark beer. Cover and bake fat slab on top for 3 hours @ 275 degrees. Slice thin across the grain.
• Homemade Salsa
• Guacamole
• Lettuce, black olives, green onion, fresh cilantro and lime juice

• Chipotle Chili Lime Cream (FF Greek yogurt, chipotle chili powder, fresh lime juice and salt)

SO, SO GOOD!!!!

Seafood Tacos w/ Fruit Salsa

One of my favorite dishes at our local Mexican restaurant is the Tacos De Pescados. It's a simple, light dish of broiled talapia, corn tortillas, lime and a mango salsa. 

 

I decided to make up my own. It was a pretty simple meal aside from all of the chopping for the fruit salsa but that was well worth all of the work.

FRUIT SALSA

Chop the following and combine all in a bowl....

1/2 of a Pineapple

1 Apple

1 Grapefruit (meat only)

1 Orange (meat only)

1 Mango

8 Strawberries

1 Kiwi

1/4 C Cilantro

1/8 C Mint

1/2 of a Jalapeno Pepper

1 Poblano Pepper

1 Green Onion

Juice of 1 Lemon and 1 Lime

1/2 tsp. Salt

Mix, marinate and enjoy!!!!!

 

SEAFOOD TACOS

Broiled Grouper (0r any mild white fish)seasoned w/ Old Bay Blackened Seasoning

Sauteed Raw Shrimp w/ 1 T Butter and Fresh Lime Juice

Lime Cilantro Slaw (made with cabbage, lime juice, green onion, FF Greek yogurt, cilantro, red pepper, salt and a little agave syrup)

Guacamole(I used FF Greek yogurt instead of sour cream to lower the fat and it worked great!)

Fresh cilantro, black olives, poblano peppers limes and cilantro

All served on steamed corn tortillas

(soak about 4 paper towels with water, squeeze off excess water, open and put corn tortillas inside, fold tortillas in paper towels, wrap all in a dry clean kitchen towel and microwave for 1 min, open and separate. The tortillas should be perfectly steamed.)

Blue Buffalo Chicken Dip

Buffalo chicken dip is a huge success at any get together I've been to but it is in NO way healthy. I threw some stuff together last night and came up with a super healthy yummy buffalo chicken dip.

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts cooked and chopped
1 small 5.3oz container of Plain Greek Yogurt (fat free)
1/4 C Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce (add more if needed)
1/4 C Blue Cheese chunks
salt and pepper to taste

Mix, heat up and serve with tortilla chips!!!

Salsa

This has to be the easiest salsa recipe you will ever make!

In a food processor combine:

1 small onion

1 small garlic clove

2 small cans Rotel tomatoes

1 lg. can stewed tomatoes (not the Italian version)

1 large handful of cilantro- stems removed

The juice of one lime

1 tsp salt (est)

1 tsp sugar (est)

Mix it up and serve with tortilla chips!

Side note:
 Some stewed tomatoes require more or less sugar and salt. 
Mix it all together and season it to taste.

Seared Ahi Tuna

Reposting some oldies but goodies...

I'm going back in time to look for some of my favorite recipes to pin in Pinterst. I'm going to re-post some that I thought were worth mentioning again. 

Blackberry-zin

1. Muddle blackberries with sugar

2. Mix with white zinfandel

What The Pho?

I couldn't resist doing that as the title.  This post is going to be all about my recipe for Pho broth.  I will tell you what I use and why I use it.  I will even go on about things I've tried in the past.  Past tries will be linked at the end of each section so you don't really have to read those unless you want to.  There are many other parts of Pho that go together to make a complete bowl of soup.  Most of which I haven't gotten to yet because I have spent so much time just trying to get a balanced broth that I love.

I am obsessed with this because I used to go to this teeny tiny mom and pop restaurant called Khiem's Cuisine almost every day.  I now live two hours away from that place and I miss their soup dearly.  Michael Symon used to go there.  I'd see him or members of his staff picking up their lunch sometimes.

From reading other blogs and checking out recipes, I have learned that Pho is something very commonly made in Vietnamese homes.  Every mom/grandmother has her own slightly different version.  Just like dad's chili recipes.  They all have the same basic stuff, but each person has their own twist. I hope you like my version!

Step One:
Broil one big sweet onion and peel a big hunk of ginger. I don't roast the ginger first like some recipes call for.  I actually like the taste of it better not roasted. Past tries.

Step Two: 

about 8 whole star anise

about 8 cloves

1 teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon

Roast those in a dry pan for a couple minutes to release the oils and flavors 

Step Three:

Wrap all of the spices that you just roasted in cheesecloth.  This way they'll stay submerged the whole time you are simmering the stock.

Step Four:

Add all of the above ingredients plus these next five into your stock pot.

1/4 cup raw sugar

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon oyster sauce. Past tries.

6 quarts of COLD water

1 pound of raw chicken wings (doesn't matter if they are still frozen).  Past tries.

I am lucky and have a pressure cooker.  I can just pressure cook mine for an hour and half.  That's why I don't have any pictures.  You probably know what a pot looks like anyway since you are reading this.  But, before I had a pressure cooker this is what I did...

I chose a pot that is taller than it is wide.  I put everything in the pot and then covered it with one of these steamer thingies to keep it submerged.

You will also need to dust off your skimmer.  This is the kind that I use.

Simmer all this for one million hours (skimming the gunk off of the top every so often).  Make sure everything is always covered with water.  I keep a tea pot nearby so I can top it off with hot water every hour or so.

You are not done yet.

Step Five:

Now that everything has cooked for EVER it is now time to strain out all the bits.  I will strain it a couple times through a small mesh strainer.  Then I pour it all in a four quart pitcher and let it sit over night.  My pitcher is not full because I already ate some but this should make four quarts of Pho broth.  I like this pitcher because all the fat has less room to settle at the top and it's easier to scoop out the next day.  You have to let this sit overnight!  I don't know why but the laws of nature dictate that stock takes a whole day to form that fatty layer on the top.  Get rid of that because the white fat steals flavor.

Step Seventy Eight:

This is where the real fun is.

You put raw thinly sliced pieces of veal and half cooked rice noodles in your bowl.  You then pour over some of your boiling Pho broth.  It has to be boiling so it will cook the meat and finish cooking the noodles.  I got the below pictures online.  I think they correctly display the outcome you should have.

You then get to add any combination of condiments to taste.  Most people will add a little of each.  In the below picture is Thai Basil (OK, I have to use regular basil), lime, Sarancha and bean sprouts.  I've also seen cilantro and raw hot pepper slices.

ENJOY!

Side note:  I freeze some Pho Broth so I can have it any time.  I also freeze some lime juice and basil.  Fresh is always best but I will take any Pho I can get!

I haven't actually done the veal part at home yet.  I wanted to get the broth down first before I bought any.  This broth is veal worthy.

Lime Juicy Juice

I always need lime juice handy.  I use it in drinks and in almost everything I cook.  I feel like a traitor to cooking when I use the store bought kind in the bottle (plus it has a weird fake-like after taste to me).  Fresh lime is good but my favorite is the lime juice I can get out of my juicer.

I first cut "almost" all of the skins off.  If you leave them all on the lime juice will not be good.  I will leave a tiny bit of the skin on for juicing and it adds a great zestiness to it.

Next, after mostly peeling about 30 limes, I juice them.  Afterwards I put it all in a Ziplock baggie and freeze it.  It stays oily enough to kind of make a slushy.  Once every couple of hours I will shake the bag around to break it up while it freezes, too.

J and I have been doing this for a long time and we both love having this zesty juice on hand all the time.

Personal Pita Pizza

Quick, easy, healthy and satisfying!

•Wheat pita brushed w/ olive oil and seasoned with garlic salt

•Pizza sauce, parmesan cheese, mushroom [any toppings you desire], mozzarella cheese, basil and oregano

•Broil on low until cheese browns

Bon Appétit!!!!

Ponzu Steamed Veggie Buns

These are a staple in my diet.  I thought I blogged about them once but couldn't find a post to link this to.  These are soft little pillows of bread filled with sauteed veggies, mostly radish. 

Usually I just take them straight from the freezer, steam them and eat them plain.  They are delicious! 
Last night I decided to try something new with them and poured Ponzu Sauce over them in the steamer when they were frozen and then steamed them.  I dipped them in some Ponzu that I heated and topped with chopped cilantro. 

I like it!

Here is the link to another recipe that I used Ponzu in.  It is kind of like a zesty soy sauce with citrus juice in it.  At least that is what it tastes like.

Bruschetta

This might have to go on my last dinner menu! I have no plans to die anytime soon, but if I did this would be one of the appetizers that I would request!

~French bread sliced thin, brushed with olive oil and topped with garlic salt, oregano, basil, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Broiled just enough to melt the cheese but to keep the bread soft on the bottom.

~In a bowl mixed Campari tomatoes-diced and strained of most of the juices, a little bit of fresh garlic finely minced, fresh/frozen basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. Let this marinate at room temp for a while.

~Spoon tomatoes onto bread and prepare for a heavenly snack!

Apple Pie

My first attempt at apple pie was a success according to my veteran taste testers!

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was.  I may just have to make pie more often!

My Pie Recipe

Preheat oven to 425

In a bowl combine:

3/4 C Sugar

1/4 tsp. Salt

2 T Corn Starch

3/4 tsp. Cinnamon

1/8 tsp. Allspice

1/8 tsp. Nutmeg

2 T Melted Butter

1 1/2 T Fresh Lemon Juice

6 peeled, cored, thinly sliced Jonathan Apples

Mix together.

Pour into pie pan lined with pie crust.  I used a store bought roll out crust.

Top with 2nd pie crust w/ slots cut into it or lattice strips of 2nd crust.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake 50 min, uncovered, in 425 oven!!!

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream or both!

Enjoy!!!

Mediterranean Prime Rib Sliders

- Wheat Pita topped with olive oil, salt, oregano and goat cheese - broiled

- Hummus

- Prime Rib Sliders topped with more goat cheese broiled to melt

- Cucumber

- Pepperoncinis

My belly is so full and so happy!!!

Spicy Pumpkin Bean Dip

I thought that the enchiladas were good, but this was amazing!

I had to make myself stop eating this it was so good!

Different than any bean dip I've ever had before, that's for sure, but really good!

I had pumpkin bean mixture left over from the enchiladas and didn't want to waste it

so I used the rest of that.  Probably about 2 C left.

-ADD-

1 Can Rotel rinsed and strained- minus the spoon full that I used in the orginal recipe

1/2 Can Green enchilada sauce- left over from the enchiladas

Seasoned with S & P and garlic powder.

Puree all together in the food processor.

Heat, dollop with a good spoon full of sour cream and serve with tortilla chips!

Chipotle Pumpkin and White Bean Enchiladas

I know, I know...this one is weird! 

I needed to use up the rest of my roasted pumpkin, spent some time staring into my pantry and

this is what I came up with.

I was going to make a soup but I currently have a freezer full of soup that I made 2 weeks ago and haven't touched since.  I was in a Mexican mood all day today. 

I even got myself some Taco Bell for lunch. 

::RECIPE::

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil

::Add::

1 Can Great Northern Beans rinsed

1 Can (about 11/2 C) Pumpkin

1 T Rotel Tomatoes drained

::Season with::

S & P

Chipotle Chili Powder

Chili Powder

Garlic Powder

Cumin

Oregano

Saute everything together to cook out most of the moisture

Puree it all together in a food processor.  Season to taste.

Steam corn tortillas.

Fill with pumpkin bean mixture.

Roll, place in baking dish.

Top with green enchilada sauce and cheese.

Bake @ 350 for about 15 min.

Top with sour cream

(I would have used green onions, cilantro, lettuce, tomatoes as well

 if I would have had them on hand, but I didn't.)

Serve!

You will be very pleasantly surprised by this!

Promise!!!

Millet

I will be making this more! Bailey told me this was the best thing on her dinner plate! Can't argue with that considering the others were canned green beans (I have a secret love affair with canned green beans....shhhhhh!) and a mediocre pan seared pork chop. She was right! The millet took the prize tonight! Hers was extra good with a pad of butter melted into it!

I'm trying to use up small amounts of random grains that I have in my pantry and millet was the first thing I grabbed this morning!

In a medium sauce pan I toasted 1 C of millet in just a little bit of olive oil and flax seed oil mixed. It started to smell like popcorn and smoked a little. That is when I knew it was time to add the water.

2 C water
A pinch of caraway seeds, sea salt, black pepper, fried garlic flakes and flax seeds
1 bay leaf
A chunk of white onion

Cover and simmer for 30 mins

Fluff and serve!!!

P.S. I did not stage the position of the onion. I stirred it and this is how it stayed! Pretty cool if I do say so myself!