What's on the Menu? Salsa Verde

This is my first year to grow tomatillos and already I'm a fan!  Both plants are HUGE and covered with little yellow flowers.

And since I've never grown tomatillos, I was surprised to find the fruit growing in little casings that remind me of paper lanterns!  So cool!

I never in a million years thought that these things would produce at the level they do.  I have tomatillos coming out of my ears!  Now I have to admit, I don't know much about using tomatillos.  I have one sauce that I make for fish tacos that calls for a few tomatillos, but that's it.  So here I was, faced with a HUGE bowl of them wondering what the hell to do.  Then it hit me, Salsa Verde!  Duh.

First I had to remove the husks.

Then I washed them and put them on a cookie sheet (about a pound or so of them) with some olive oil, 1 onion, about 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, and a couple of de-seeded jalapeños (I wanted it mild enough for the kids) and popped them in the oven on about 400* to roast for 15 minutes, stirring them on occasion to make sure they didn't burn.

Afterwards, I dumped them into the food processor, oil, juices and all, added a couple of teaspoons of cumin and about a teaspoon or so of salt, a good handful of washed cilantro and the juice from 1/2 a lime.

After a good whir, I ended up with a wonderful, flavorful sauce that was perfect for dipping chips!  I also took about half of it to add to my sour cream chicken enchilada recipe, YUM!

So hooray for tomatillos!  You can bet I'm going to be enjoying A LOT of salsa verde this summer!  :)

Plum Tasty!

A friend of mine sent me home with a TON of tiny, little plums on Sunday.  By Tuesday I was well aware that these tiny, little plums were going to start rotting.  Fast.  So I frantically got online to see what some options were.  I found a plum upside cake, which looked MARVELOUS, but I didn't have buttermilk in the house.  I eventually came across a recipe for plum sorbet at Simply Recipes and I immediately heard a little chorus of "Hallelujah" in my head!

First I started peeling and pitting these.

Yes.  I actually hand-peeled and hand-pitted these little plums because the recipe called for a fine mesh sieve to filter out the large pieces of skin and I didn't have one.  Anyway, after peeling and pitting I ran the plums, sugar, lemon juice and pinch of salt through the food processor until the mixture was smooth.  (Sorry about the sucky pic.)

I poured it all into my handy dandy ice cream maker and spun it for about 25 minutes.  At first it was more like a really thick smoothie, but after about 3 hours in the freezer it looked like this...

Sheer perfection!  And can I just say, YUM!  It was just sweet enough with a hint of tartness and the perfect dessert for a warm summer night!  So when life hands you plums, make sorbet!

What's on the Menu: Cauliflower Soup

Soup seems to be the menu item of choice these days!  What can I say, we got rain today and the cooler temps just made me crave soup!  And hey, lucky me, I had a head of cauliflower in the fridge!  Anyway, talk about a quick easy dinner, this soup can be made in about a 1/2 hour tops!  It's full of flavor, so much so even my kids like it!!

I found the recipe on the "Taste of Home" website.  I pretty much follow the recipe except I add turkey bacon!!!  It kind of defeats my dreams of going veggie 2 nights a week, but it's SO good with the bacon!

What you need:
1 med. head of cauliflower, broken into florets
1 good-sized carrot, shredded
1 stalk of celery, chopped
2-1/2 c. water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
3/4 tsp. salt (I use a little less since the bouillon is so salty)
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 c. milk
1 c. shredded cheese

In a large pot, combine cauliflower, carrot, celery, water and bouillon cubes.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 min. or until cauliflower is tender.

In another pan, fry the turkey bacon!  I chop mine up into small pieces.

Set aside the bacon until the end.

In the bacon pan, melt 3 tbsp. of butter.  Then stir in the flour, salt and pepper.  Whisk until smooth.  Add the milk a little bit at a time.  Boil over medium heat, cooking and stirring until it thickens slightly.  We're not shooting for gravy here!  ;)  Turn off heat, add the cheese and melt.  Stir in the bacon bits and SERVE!  I like mine with a nice dash of Tabasco!

Enjoy!

What's on the Menu: Tomato Basil Soup

One of my favorite meals is grilled cheese sandwiches paired with tomato soup.  I was raised eating Campbell's Tomato Soup, and never really thought to change it up, but then I had REAL tomato soup at a restaurant not too long ago and was like, HOLY CRAP.  I have been eating canned swill for years, I NEED to find a decent tomato soup recipe in all haste.  So I started pawing through all of my recipe books and index cards and found exactly diddly squat on the tomato soup front.  Found a great recipe for Mulligatawny soup, but that's another entry.  Finally, I happened across an old "Mothering" magazine article from 2007 that had several different soup recipes and lo and behold... Tomato Basil Soup. 

What you need:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
2 c. chicken or veggie stock
1  14-1/2 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp. honey
1/4 sour cream (although I almost think it should have been more)
1/4 c. fresh chopped basil
ground pepper

Heat oil and butter in a pot over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic and salt.  Saute until translucent.  Add stock, tomatoes, and honey.  Simmer for 15 min.  Let cool a bit.  Put half of the soup into a blender with sour cream and blend until smooth.  Transfer to another pot.  Blend the rest of the soup and add to the first half.  Warm the blended soup.  Serve with fresh basil and ground pepper.  This recipe makes about 4 servings.  Serve with hot bread or a nice grilled cheese sandwich!

What's on the Menu? Broccoli Cheese Soup

It's the time of year that soup becomes a major staple in our home.  1)  It's economical.  2)  It's pretty quick and easy.  3)  Soup effin' RULES!  I pity the fool that doesn't dig on soup!  Today's offering is Broccoli Cheese Soup from my super, totally awesome "Treasury of Christmas" cookbook.  It is a thick, creamy, and luscious soup that is always a big hit in our house!

What you will need:
1 small onion, diced
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/4 c. flour
3 cups water
**This recipe calls for 2-10 oz. packages of frozen chopped broccoli, but about 6 cups of fresh can be substituted.

4 chicken bouillon cubes
Worcestershire sauce (pronounced Were-shur-shur-shire in our house)
About 3 c. of shredded cheddar
2 c. half and half

In a large pan, cook the onion in the butter until tender.  Add the flour and stir until it becomes smooth.  Add the water slowly, then dump in the broccoli, chicken bouillon and Worcestershire sauce.  Cook over medium heat until soup has thickened and broccoli is tender.  Usually about 10 min. or so.  Add cheese and half and half.  Do NOT boil.  Stir until cheese melts and serve.  See?  Easy-breezy!  Leftovers can be refrigerated, but I don't know about freezing.  Obviously, I eat mine with plenty of Tabasco Sauce!  Yummy!

What's on the Menu? Mulligatawny Soup

I seem to be on a food kick lately!  Eh, who am I kidding, I'm ALWAYS on a food kick!  I can't help it, I love to cook and I love to EAT!  Last week, I was under the weather, some stupid cold or something.  Anyway, I was looking for a soup.  Something hearty and tasty and nothing brothy and thin, I wanted stick to your bones, nourishing soup.  So I started digging through my recipes.  Lo and behold, I came across an old recipe, from my Portland days.  Honestly, I haven't made this soup in eight years!  An anesthesiologist I had the pleasure of working with in Oregon gave me this recipe after we had a soup-themed potluck one day.  It was so tasty and amazing and I was raving about it and trying to figure out what the starch was in the recipe as I knew for sure it wasn't potato.  I thought maybe it was turnip or parsnip or something along those lines, boy was I ever surprised to find out it was little green apples!  Had someone informed me of that at the beginning, this little country girl would have never put that soup in her mouth!  Apples in soup, CRAZY!  But nobody told me until later and I am thankful for it!  So don't be squeamish!  Chop up those little apples and TRUST me, you won't regret it!

Mulligatawny Soup--courtesy of K. Lalwani

Before you begin, cook some rice!  You'll need about a cup of cooked rice at the end of the recipe.

Saute the following:
1/4 c olive oil
1 chicken breast cubed
1/2 c onion
1 large carrot, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced

Add 1-1/2 tbsp. flour and 2 tsps. curry powder, cook for about 3 minutes.  Pour in 32 oz. chicken broth and simmer for about 30 min.

Add and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes:
1 medium tart apple, diced
Between 1/2-1 c. cooked rice (I use closer to a full cup)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. thyme

Immediately before serving, stir in 1/2 c. heavy cream. 

All I can say, is this is one of those recipes that got lost in the little box of recipes.  I can guarantee, I won't make that mistake again!  Enjoy!

What's on the Menu? Corn Chowder for a cold evening!

OK, it's cold outside and my pantry is severely depleted since I was out of town all weekend.  The last thing I wanted to do was go to the store in 17*F with wind to boot!  Obviously I wanted to feed my family something warm and stick to your ribs, but what to make?!?  I opened the freezer and saw that bag of frozen corn and I knew exactly what I was going to fix!  Creamy Corn Chowder!  Nothing hits the spot like a good soup!

This is a Betty Crocker recipe that I tweaked a bit to suit my taste!  You gotta love Betty!












4 slices of bacon (I use turkey bacon, more meat, less fat, just as yummy)
1/4 c butter
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 small carrot, shredded
2 gloves of garlic, minced
(I added chopped red bell pepper, about a 1/2 of a big one.)
3 tbsp. flour
3 c. chicken broth
3 c. frozen corn
2 medium potatoes, cubed small
3 c. half & half (I only used 2 cuz that's all I had!)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook bacon in a large soup pan or Dutch oven until crispy, remove and crumble.  Add butter, onion, celery, carrots, bell pepper and garlic to the pot and saute until tender.  Add flour, stir well, cook about 2 minutes.  Slowly add broth.  Stir in corn, potatoes, half & half, herbs and seasonings.  Heat to simmer.  Cook about 15 minutes until potatoes are tender.  Add in the bacon crumbs.  Serve and enjoy!

I served the chowder with fresh popovers!  It was awesome!  I'm thinking Tabasco might have been a tasty addition, but we were out, so I don't know for sure!

What's on the menu? Aunt C's Chicken Supreme

Just an FYI, if you don't have a problem with canned condensed soups then this will be a great recipe for you! If you have issues with canned soup, just stop reading now!  As many of you know, this is my first month of hardcore budgeting and menu preparation. After the first two weeks, I was struggling, trying to find some interesting meals to make as I'm not in the same mindset as my son who could seriously eat meatloaf every week! I was flipping through cookbooks and my handy-dandy recipe notebook and came across a recipe that was given to me almost a year ago by our wonderful Aunt C. formerly of Amarillo, TX and now residing in the DFW metroplex. She served it to us while we were stopping over on the way home from New Mexico and it was AWESOME!! So I thought, what the heck, let's see if I can pull this off. So here goes...


Chicken Supreme

1/2 stick margarine
1-1/4c brown rice
1 can cream mushroom soup
1 can cream chicken soup
1 can cream celery soup
1 can beef consumme (as you can see, I didn't lie about the soup!!)
1/2 soup can of water
1/2 c slivered or sliced almonds
6-10 chicken breasts (I actually used 4 large breasts that I cut into pieces and pounded down a bit)
Parmesan cheese

Melt margarine in large roasting pan. Spread uncooked rice on the bottom of pan, stir in the almonds, then lay chicken on top of rice. Heat soups and the 1/2 can water in a pan, then pour over the chicken and rice. I jiggled the pan a little to make sure it dispersed throughout. Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese and bake uncovered in a 275*F oven for 3 hours. Then... ENJOY!!  Oh yeah, there was totally enough to have for dinner the next night!!

What's on the menu? Chocolate mini muffins

I have been such a good girl, sticking to my planned menu and I have to admit, it's kind of nice knowing exactly what you'll be cooking and what you'll need to do beforehand to prep for the meal instead of flying by the seat of your pants! However, this morning came and I was UNIMPRESSED, to say the least, with the prospect of toast or oatmeal. I have been sick for two days, eating bland crap and the last thing I wanted was more bland crap! So. Doo-do-do-TOOOOOOO!

Chocolate chip mini muffins (Oh yeah!)

1-1/2 c flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 c milk (I use powdered milk to save real milk, 1/3 c powder into 1 c water = 1 c milk)
1 egg
1/3 c melted butter
chocolate chips

Grease your muffin tins and preheat the oven to 350*. Combine all of the dry ingredients then add the milk, egg, butter, mix well. Add chocolate chips to your liking. I like mine fairly sparse, so the chips aren't just one big blob in the muffin. Pour batter into greased mini muffin pans, bake 15-20ish minutes until they are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

These are so easy to make, the kids LOVE them and it makes enough to have for snacks later!! Enjoy!

What's on the menu... Makeshift Rice Frittata

The kids wanted pancakes for breakfast but I wasn't really in the mood for syrupy sweet this morning so I started to rifle through the fridge to see what my options were. I had leftover rice from stir-fry, various veggies, spinach and cheeses, and of course eggs! So I grabbed the rice, mixed in two eggs, shredded some spinach and a little colby jack cheese, sprinkled in some salt and pepper, then slapped it all into a non-stick frying pan. After a few minutes on each side I ended up with this...
And it was YUMMY!

What's on the Menu? Pork tenderloin and root veggies

As you know from the previous post, I had a pretty healthy harvest of turnips. So I of course had to figure out something to do with said turnips! I didn't have enough to make mashed turnips, so I thought maybe if I roasted some other root veggies with them, I'd have enough for a full dish. So I went online looking for some sort of recipe for roasted veggies and lo and behold, Paula Deen came to the rescue! She had a marinated pork tenderloin with root vegetables that looked easy and yummy! So I thought what the hell? For the recipe, please click... Paula Deen's Pork Tenderloin with Root Vegetables. The only thing I did different was substitute rutabagas (which I didn't have) with more turnips and sweet potatoes. And just as an FYI, the sweet potatoes rocked! The whole meal was SUPER easy to prepare and it was absolutely delicious. I complemented the root veggies and tenderloin with the turnip greens (you have to LOVE a vegetable that you can eat the root AND the leaves!) I prepared the greens with a little dijon mustard mixed into the broth and it was stellar! And as if that wasn't enough good food, I finished the meal off with a warm, down-home, apple pie with vanilla bean ice cream. Scrumptious! Don't believe me? Then judge for yourself!

Main course

Dessert!

What's on the Menu? Rice Pilaf

So for years I bought pre-packaged boxes of rice and preservatives to serve with my chicken or fish. Lucky for me, the brand that I liked bumped their prices through the stratosphere! If anyone thinks I'm going to spend damn near $4 on a box of RICE they are sadly mistaken! I was in a panic, rice is a big deal in our house. And for some reason I thought rice pilaf was just out of my league! I'm not sure why, I just did. I mean obviously if they had to mass produce it and put it in boxes it was just way too complicated for regular folks like me! So I began to research and ended up feeling like a dunce! How was I to know that a basic rice pilaf was nothing more than rice, broth, olive oil and salt?!?! I kept it simple the first couple of times, just to be sure I could get the consistency to come out nice, as it turns out Jasmine rice is MUCH better for pilaf than your average white rice. And honestly pilaf has become one of my favorite recipes to mess around with. I come up with something different every time. So I would just like to share the concoction I ended up with last night to accompany a nice baked roughy.

Rice Pilaf with peppers, mushrooms and spinach

About 1 tbsp. of olive oil
1 1/2 c. Jasmine rice
2 1/4 c. broth and/or water (I generally use vegetable broth, especially when making rice to accompany fish)
1 tsp. salt
Pepper to taste
Onion (about a half of a small one chopped fine)
Bell peppers (I like orange, yellow and reds, the green is a little harsh for this one)
Mushrooms sliced thin
Fresh spinach chopped

Pour olive oil into a hot pan, add rice and begin to saute. After a minute or so add in the onions and bell peppers, continue to saute. Once the rice starts to brown a little, add the mushrooms and saute until the rice is golden brown. Add the broth or water. Salt and pepper and turn the heat down to simmer. Some people cover theirs, I usually don't. Simmer the rice until it reaches that nice soft consistency, but not sticky and mushy. I do have to add a little more water on occasion if it hasn't reached the desired softness, it won't hurt anything if you need to do so, just add a little at a time. Once you reach the desired consistency, turn off the heat, add in the spinach and fluff it with a fork. It will wilt down nicely and viola, you have a lovely pilaf! I would be willing to bet that slivered almonds or pine nuts would be really nice in this dish. Anyway, once you have the basic four ingredients down, you can play with pilaf and come up with all sorts of things. I curry mine, I sometimes add meat and make it a full meal, golden raisins are nice, dried apricots are amazing, the sky is the limit with rice!