Tomato Soup

I love making soup, but have always been intimidated by tomato soup. And, honestly, I still am, in that I'm not ready to make it from tomatoes I pluck from the vine. But Rachael Ray, man, I love her. You know that, so long as you have the ingredients, you'll be able to make one of her recipes. Or, I know that I can, and feel like most people could, because she's very good at sharing easy, quick, real recipes.

Here's her recipe, with my modifications in bold parens:

2 (15-ounce) containers, chicken or vegetable stock/broth (preferred brand: Kitchen Basics) (30 ounces chicken broth, made from water and Better Than Boullion chicken base)
1 (28-ounce) can concentrated crushed tomatoes (organic crushed tomatoes - I couldn't find concentrated)
1 cup heavy cream
Coarse salt and black pepper

Fresh basil for garnish (I left off the basil only because I didn't have any)

Directions:
Combine broth and tomatoes in a medium saucepan over moderate heat. When soup bubbles, stir in heavy cream and reduce heat to low. Season with a little salt and pepper and simmer gently 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. With an immersion blender, puree soup. Serve bowls of soup with basil chiffonade and floating soup toppers (grated provolone, a bit of freshly ground pepper - delish!).

This soup is simple, easy, and so tasty. The flavor is more mild than Campbell's, but that doesn't mean there isn't depth of flavor. It means that there's no high fructose corn syrup. Looking at reviews, folks have switched the cream for lower fat options and have enjoyed the results.

Andy used the immersion blender just a bit, so there are some tiny bites of tomato, I love it like this. And, you could do this with a regular blender, just use your patience, as you'll be working with HOT soup.

T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

Yup, I am in trouble. I've found a recipe that would've been best left unfound, as far as my hips, tush and belly are concerned.

I have a bad habit of collecting recipes, so when there were *free* recipe cards on the candy aisle at Target, I didn't stand a chance. Each card features a chocolate mint recipe. It doesn't matter that we really don't like mint all that much in our house, the recipe cards were *free*. I took a card for each of the recipes.

Andy saw the card for the mint chocolate delights, and said, with no hesitation, "Let's make these, but with peanut butter chips instead of the dark chocolate and mint chips." I should've said no. I should've run the other way with my hands over my ears. I should not have gone to Sam's Club (of all places, seriously?) to buy a 12 pound bag* of peanut butter chips, along with 4 pounds** of butter.

These cookies are amazing. Whoever it was that first put peanut butter with chocolate, well she (or he) should be named a saint. Or burned at the stake. I don't know.

Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Delights

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 325'. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl, set aside. Beat butter, sugars and vanilla in mixer until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chips. Using your cookie scoop (if you are crazy like me and need your cookies to be uniform) or just two regular table spoons, place onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-13 minutes. Cool on sheets for ~2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack or directly to mouth (watch for burning pb chips!). I would love to give you a suggestion as to how best to store these, but eat them all at once, as fast as you can, with milk! really isn't a proper storage method. :-)

*that may be an exaggeration, but the bag is way too big for normal purposes. again, Sam's Club? seriously, Rachel?

** not an exaggeration

No Knead Bread

Seems like there are recipes for this all over the place these days. Here's my version, which originated from MEN's recent article.

7 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tablespoons yeast
1 tablespoon salt (or to taste)
4 cups lukewarm water (approx. 100 degrees)

Combine the dry ingredients. Mix with water until everything is uniformly moist. The dough should be wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container. Let rise for at least 2 hours, so that it begins to collapse. Refrigerate overnight (or at least 3 hours). DO NOT PUNCH THE DOUGH. As much as you may want to punch it, you need the gas that punching it will release. Resist the temptation!

On baking day, dust the dough with just enough flour that you can grab a grapefruit-sized ball (or really, whatever size you want). Plop said dough on a floured mat (I use my cutting board) and let it rest for about 90 minutes.
30 minutes before you want to bake your loaf, turn your oven to 450’. Make sure your cookie sheet (or pizza stone) is in the oven during the preheat – you want it nice and toasty warm. When your 30 minutes is up, slide your loaf from mat to cookie sheet. I have yet to figure out how to do this gracefully, my loaf usually rolls off the mat, reshaping itself as it goes. Place an oven-safe container with water in the oven – this moisture will help your crust to crust itself. Don’t you love my technical terms and explanations?

Bake for 30 minutes (adjust the time for smaller or bigger loaves).

This dough can stay in the fridge for 2 weeks, and you can bake it, one grapefruit-sized handful at a time. As the dough sits in the fridge, it will become sourdough. Yummy!

a little of this, a little of that

In an attempt to make up for my lack of blogging....

Andy's encountered some odd sexism lately. Nearly every time he leaves Wal-Mart with our cloth bags, he's asked to show his receipt. Only one time have I been asked, and I had a 'big ticket item' in the cart. Now that he's been shopping there a few months, it doesn't happen every time, but there is still one greeter (an older gentleman) that doesn't seem to be sure of a man using cloth bags without his hippie wife by his side.

~~~

Organic king size sheet sets on clearance for $19.99. woohoo. That made my day yesterday. They are dreamy-soft. And, because it is the little things that make me so happy, the sheets came packaged in a fabric bag that can be added to my collection of cloth produce bags. :-)

~~~

Spinach is my favorite food. Wilted down with onions and bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Or covered in the best dressing in the world*, and tossed with a handful of pecans for lunch. Mmm. I'm eating it every day these days.

~~~

Aubrey's home sick today. The severity of her sickness is questionable, seeing as she's wanting to be all over the place, very chatty and non-sick-like. But, she began sobbing in the middle of the night with stomach pains. She doesn't remember, but I do, so even if she's feeling better now, to have been in that much pain not that long ago, she'll stay home today. thankyouverymuch. At the moment she is reading Garfield to Oscar. Very appropriate.

~~~

I love, love, LOVE the Twilight books. Read them all about a month ago, then re-read Breaking Dawn, and am now starting over again at Twilight. Took me long enough to get to them, because I thought they sounded ridiculous. Really? A book about high schoolers AND vampires??? I'm almost 30. I'm too mature for that. Ha. Turns out I'm not too mature. Not too surprising, actually, seeing as I've been known to leave inappropriate comments on my friends' blogs (completely unrelated to vampires, but incredibly high school-ish!). ;-) And, anyway, they aren't nearly as immature as I imagined them to be.

~~~

The deer thought that my soon-to-be-a-jack-o-lantern pumpkin would be better as a mid-October dinner. I have pictures of the before and after. But my camera cord has gone missing. Again. So picture this: A big, pretty, bright orange pumpkin standing tall and proud by my front step. Now picture a sad orange pumpkin laying on it's side, half eaten. Note to self: keep the pumpkins in the house until October 31st, unless your plan is to feed the deer all month long.

~~~

Speaking of pumpkins, I think the stem is almost as important as the pumpkin. A crooked stem adds so much character.


And, Andy has a recipe for the tastiest pumpkin pie. The secret is that the pumpkin is not pre-baked at all. Just ground up raw (which is quite a job - pumpkins are tough, and not every blender or food processor is up for the job) and then mixed with the appropriate ingredients and THEN baked in the crust. Mmmm. I want pie.

~~~

Lately we've been cooking bone-in chicken in the pressure cooker. It's ugly as can be, but fall-off-the-bone tender. And EASY.

~~~

I'm trying to figure out what to do for my nieces (13 and 15) and nephew (13) for Christmas. I have no clue. Besided money. It'll probably just be money. Not creative enough for me, but oh well.

~~~

I'm so enjoying the church we've found here. It's significantly smaller then our WI congregation, and is 'in transition' - we've got an interim pastor and there are lots of changes afoot. Changes that aren't apparent to me, as a newbie. But apparently big changes. Oh, and as far as big changes and the 'big' church go - the ELCA assembly opens ministry to partnered gay and lesbian lutherans. This makes me happy. Very happy. I think God's church should be welcoming to all. After all, we are all sinners and we all need saving. Rev. Lee M. Miller, II: "I am not saved because I'm a heterosexual. I am saved because of what God has done." Indeed.

~~~

Since I can't seem to stop talking about food-related things, I'll add that Andy thinks our pantry smells liked chocolate cake. (Aubrey and I think it sometimes smells like dog food, but that's not the point of this story.) Andy gets mad every time he opens the door. Then I laugh at him. Then he cusses at me and demands I make a chocolate cake. "Make me a chocolate cake, Woman!" Then he closes the door and walks away. Then he gets me a snack while Sasha is nursing, and the entire cycle starts over again. I bought him a lava cake yesterday to satisfy his chocolate cake craving, because I am not going to make one (if I do, then he will enjoy a piece and go to work, leaving me with a pan full of cake just screaming at me to enjoy. I'm too much of a softie to ignore things that need me, and when a chocolate cake is begging to be eaten, how can I disregard it's wishes???).

~~~

Sweet Garlic Vinegarette (aka the best dressing in the world)

3/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1/4 C maple syrup
1/3 C balsamic vinegar
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/8 t dried, crushed oregano

Put all ingredients together in cruet (old salsa jar, tupperware... anything with a lid that you will then store the dressing in). Shake well to mix. Store in fridge.

Variations: I've swapped honey for the maple syrup, and apple cider vinegar for the balsamic, while omitting the garlic. It makes it much milder, and is Andy's favorite version.

biscochitos

Mmmm, to smell these baking this afternoon - it smelled of Christmas!
There are only about a million and a half different recipes for the official state cookie of New Mexico, and I wasn't sure which one to try, but when I found this one, with so few ingredients (that all happened to be in my pantry), I knew this was it. Luckily I struck gold with this recipe. :-)

I tweaked it a bit, and my tweaks are reflected below.

6 C flour
2 T baking powder
1 t salt
2 sticks plus 1 T unsalted butter
1 C crisco
3/4 C sugar
1 T cinnamon
3/4 C water
2 T anise seed
cinnamon sugar

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside. Cream butter ands crisco until fluffy, then add sugar and cinnamon. Continue beating until smooth. Add the flour mixture and water mixture slowly, alternating between the two, and at some point add the anise. This is a very dry, dense dough that had my standard kitchenaid mixer rocking a bit - be aware. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface (in several batches) to desired thickness. I got mine less that "1/4 but more than "1/8. Cut in desired shapes. I opted for triangles, and used my pizza cutter. :-) Bake at 400' for 10 minutes (that worked at elevation 910 feet). While still hot, coat cookies in cinnamon sugar (I used a pie pan and was very generous with this step, making sure to coat the bottoms of each cookie as well as the tops). Enjoy.

With the size I made my cookies, I got about 15 dozen. And, it's quite possible the cookies would bake nicely at 375' or even 350' - I didn't feel like experimenting that much today, but some of my bottoms are darker than I like.

The original recipe came from my Grandma Marg's recipe collection - a booklet put out by the Agricultural Extension Service of NMSU, Favorite Cookies from New Mexico Kitchens dated January, 1961. And they spell cookie "cooky."

Recipe: Granola

Please pardon any funky spacing issues, I am having issues with the layout. Also, real pictures will be coming, maybe tomorrow night - these pictures were already in the computer ready to go - I do want to show you what we've been up to lately besides crunching on granola.

Before I made this granola, I asked Andy if he liked granola and he responded with "Well I married one, didn't I?" :-) He makes me laugh.

Ingredients:
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey


First, spread the oats on a cookie sheet and place in the oven. Turn oven to 350, leave oats in for about 10 minutes (I usually leave them in until the oven gets to temperature).

While the oats are warming, prepare the "wet" mixture. If you measure the oil immediately before measuring the honey, the honey will not stick to the measuring cup. Seems obvious, but I never thought of it until someone else told me, so now I'm sharing with you, in case you didn't know.

It's pretty thick and sticky.....








At this time I chop my pecans and pull the pine nuts out of the freezer. These aren't on the ingredient list because you don't have to add them.

Next, add the warm oats to the sticky mixture.

Stir well. And remember to use a BIG mixing bowl - this gets messy. Once the oats are mostly mixed in, add the nuts. Or not. But adding the nuts now coats them in a bit of brown sugar and honey, and anyone who doesn't like their nuts coated in brown sugar and honey, well let's just say they don't deserve to eat this granola!

Now everything goes onto the cookie sheet. Spread it out pretty evenly.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350, stirring often. I stir every 4 minutes. OCD and all. After 20 minutes, immediately get that sticky deliciousness off your cookie sheet. I put it all on a big piece of parchment paper to cool. Then I employ the best (or laziest, depending on your point of view) method of washing sticky pans - the let it soak method. Break up the granola as you wish - if it's still kinda warm, it will be sticky but pieces will not fly around the kitchen as freely. At this time you can add your raisins, pumpkin seeds, etc. If the granola is given a chance to cool completely, store it in an air-tight container.

This recipe came from my Grandma Marg. I'm sure she has no recollection of having made it, but I know it was hers, so she gets the credit for this.