TWTW - excitement abounds

Friday MFD and I took Bruce and Ben down to the beach for a sunset run (them running, not us, don't get it twisted), then he made crab and shrimp ravioli with salad. We started watching The Stranger on Netflix. 

Saturday In a miraculous turn of events, no dog got up before 8. We eased into the day. MFD got some stuffed bread and a pie for National Pie Day from Bennie's, and I picked up a book at the library along with the required groceries. 

I had the best friends out for a very cold sunset walk in their matching vests. LOL forever. I made veggie beef barley soup which is perfectly hearty for a cold winter day, finished a book, and we watched the rest of The Stranger. 

Sunday was a day of rest. We took a super freezing walk in the north end, I painted my nails (9th & Maxwell Eggplant), read a book, and we watched One Night in Miami and Places in the Heart.

I ended up throwing pork chops and baby potatoes in the air fryer and I did week prep things like making a fresh batch of coffee and putting recycling out and packing stuff up to go back to Philly and stuff like that. I finished a book and started reading another too late to be advisable. 

I slept like shit due to dogs and here we are. 

Good thoughts to Mom & Rich and Sean, they had to put their girl Sasha down on Saturday. 

How was yours? 

TWTW - that February flow

Friday I worked from home and switched it up a little. Instead of starting work at 7, I read for a bit and painted my nails (Zoya Madeline). Then I took a break to meet Michelle for lunch at Maggie's, dropped a box off at the post office and returned library books, and picked up a few groceries. Around five I made italian wedding soup for dinner, and dip three and four of the year (dips are being saved on an instagram highlight at the top of my profile with either where I got the recipe or what it is-some of them will make their way here but that’s where they are for now), worked from about 7:30-10 in the basement, and did a zillion loads of laundry (including the couch covers) while MFD hosted a debate party upstairs. I went to bed around midnight. Flexible work schedule rocks. 

Saturday was a leisurely start. I put laundry away, did my walk, then spent much of the day finishing a book and doing some organizing. We went to Dad & Carol's for family dinner and looked through a bunch of old photos and stuff from my Grandmom & Pop, which I love doing. I took Grandmom's dictionary home with me. I started a new book and had to force myself to put it down and go to sleep at midnight, it was so good. 

Sunday I did the normal morning routine of changing/washing sheets, then set up blogs, did my walk, and did some food prep. I meant to take the best friend dogs for a walk, finish working on my basement shelves, make chicken salad, and run to the grocery store in the afternoon but I cancelled life and finished Long Bright River and I loved it. I did manage to get dinner made with MFD pitching in on the mashed potatoes so that was fine. I had to bring my book along to get dinner going though.

Sunday night I started another book and half watched the Oscars. 

Weekly food prep: Breakfast is scrambled eggs topped with broccoli. Snacks are bananas and baby carrots. Dinner is pork and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and brussels and salad or chicken salad (must make tomorrow) on Dave's killer bread. Lunches are leftovers of everything. I made Gus's super high priced ground beef with organ meat because he can't process it raw, which I was planning on switching him to.

Show Us Your Books is tomorrow! See you back here for that. 

Chicken pot pie soup

I like when people share recipes in Instagram stories so I can just screenshot them, but then I have to keep finding that when I want the recipe so I end up transcribing it here. This recipe is adapted from one Just Ingredients (blog here) shared and I like following her because she talks about alternatives to all the crap in food/household/personal care products that is terrible for us. And she does it in a way that's not annoying. When available, I used organic of all ingredients as is my typical MO. 

Ingredients
4 TBS butter
1/2 onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/3C flour (she uses alternative flour, I use regular)

4 garlic cloves
1 small container baby bella mushrooms, sliced
4 medium yukon gold potatoes, chopped
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
1 quart chicken bone broth
2 cups milk or heavy whipping cream (I used one of each)
3 cups shredded chicken (I made chicken breasts in the air fryer then shredded them)
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs Italian seasoning

Directions
Put all ingredients from garlic cloves on down into a pot and get that going.

Separately, saute onion, carrots, celery in butter about seven to eight minutes. Add flour to veggies and cook another two minutes.

Then add this to the other ingredient pot. Cook on medium-low until carrots and potatoes are soft.

Happy birthday to my friend AEB today! 

Brocaulitato soup

I made that word up. Consider it my covfefe. Also file under: ugly food that tastes good.

I hate food waste, like, loathe. I had some potatoes that were on the downside so I thought I'd make soup this weekend. Creamy potato soup. Except I'm in the doughy AF part of winter right now and I don't need the creamy. A good way to get the creamy without the calories is an immersion blender. I decided to add cauliflower and then said fuck it, I'll healthy this up even more and add broccoli too. If you don't like the green color, don't add it.

Ingredients
1 half of a red onion, chopped (any kind of onion works)
1 tbs garlic, chopped
1 TBS olive oil
1 stalk of celery, chopped (cleaning out fridge, you don't need this if you don't have it)
4 cups stock, any kind you have
2 cups water
8 small to medium golden potatoes, washed and chopped (leave skin on )
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Penzey's fox point seasoning if you have it, if not garlic salt or anything else you'd flavor steamed veggies with, about 1/2 tsp
1 bag steamable cauliflower
1 bag steamable broccoli

Directions
Heat pot, add oil, add onion and celery and saute over medium for about 4 minutes. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add stock, water, potatoes and salt the water like you would if you were making mashed potatoes. Boil for about 10 minutes.

Steam both cauliflower and broccoli. Add to the potatoes and cool on low another 10 minutes. Taste broth to see if you need to add salt or pepper.

Remove from heat. Use immersion blender to smooth it out but be sure to leave some chunks.

Serve topped with cheese if you want a little extra something something.

Happy birthday to my cousin Tiffany today!

Pasta fazooooool

Yes, I know that's not how you spell it. Almost as cringe-worthy as seeing someone type wah-lah or viola! for voila!, right?

Anyway. Soup. On April 18. Not that there's anything wrong with soup year round, but I'm usually moving on to grilling things and fresh things now but it's still winter feeling so today, soup.

I like to say the name of pasta e fagioli  more than I like to eat it. Quick, cheap, and painless to make; and filling to eat without meat. I made 678 gallons of it last night to get rid of some ditalini and beef stock as I continue cleaning out my pantry.

Ingredients
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

4 carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced (or 2 tsp already jarred minced garlic)

Crushed red pepper - to your taste, mine is a few shakes. Some is required!

Oregano - 1/2 tsp

Kosher salt

15 oz can of kidney beans, rinsed

15 oz can of pinto beans, rinsed
Half bag frozen cut green beans

15 oz can of petite diced tomatoes with liquid

15 oz can of tomato sauce

3 cups beef stock (you can use chicken or vegetable or water for that matter, but you'll need a little boost if you just use the water)

Half a box of ditalini

Directions
Heat oil in a large pot. Add onion, celery, carrot, and garlic and saute about six minutes or until onion is soft and translucent.

Add beans, tomatoes, sauce, stock, and spices. A word about this - I do not like crushed red pepper and even I add a few shakes to this soup. It requires it. If you have bay leaves, sprinkle a few of those in there too. I couldn't lay my hands on mine quickly enough and shit was burning.

Stir well and bring up to a low boil. Add ditalini and cook over medium until pasta is done, about 10 minutes. I personally turn it down to low and leave it on longer so the liquid goes down to almost nothing and everything soaks in the flavor.  I don't like a lot of broth in my soups. MFD does so he adds more on the back end when heating up. 

To Freeze
I gave you the measurements for a single pot which will feed four. I doubled it and it made enough for at least two more dinners for two or more than a week of lunches for me. If it's just you and you don't want to eat it more than twice, freeze half of one pot. Remember not to fill your containers to the very top - what you're freezing needs room to expand and breathe.

I spent all last night thinking it was Wednesday night so today actually being Wednesday is a low blow.

Corned beef and cabbage...soup

Happy corned beef month! Is that a weird thing to wish you? Shush, now, and let me sing you a love song about corned beef. How do I love thee, corned beef? Let me count the ways.

I love to roast corned beef topped with a little brown sugar and ground mustard. I love to make a Guinness roasted corned beef. My least favorite way is boiled corned beef with cabbage in the traditional style. I think I like that way the least because even though it's the simplest, my Grandmom killed it on that dish and I have never made it so it tastes as good as hers did, even though she gave me instructions and said mine was passable...but not hers. LOL

Last year I came upon SkinnyTaste's corned beef and cabbage soup and I was intrigued. I never made it last year or any time throughout the year because every March I make corned beef and my heart sings as I eat it so I vow to make corned beef at other times of the year. Then the next time I eat it again is the following March because I have no corned beef follow through.

So on a March day in Philly that's going to get to 80 degrees, I give you an early St. Paddy's gift of soup.
p.s. fellow Americans...it's St. Paddy's. Not St. Patty's.

Ingredients
2 leeks, chopped and washed (white and light green parts only)
1 tbs garlic
4 medium carrots, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 small head of cabbage or half of a large head, cored and chopped
2 medium red potatoes, washed and chopped
1 tsp bay leaves
1 tsp parsley
2 tbs olive oil
1.5 lb corned beef + the little seasoning packet (I got a 3 pounder, cut it in half, and baked the rest)
6 cups water

Directions
Put your potatoes in a bowl of cold water so they don't turn black in the next few hours.

Heat oil over medium low heat in large pot or dutch oven. Add leeks and saute for five minutes.

Add corned beef, seasoning packet, bay leaves, parsley, and water. Cover and bring to a boil. Cover it and simmer it over low heat for three hours.

Pull the corned beef out. You can shred it with a fork or use a food processor to break it up. I chose the latter because it was 10 pm and I didn't have time to be playing forksies.

Return corned beef to the pot, drain and add potatoes and cabbage. Add salt & pepper if needed. I think corned beef is super salty so I declined...and I am the queen of salt.

Cook about 30 more minutes until the potatoes and cabbage are tender.

Slainte!

Turkey Rice Soup

If I come to dinner at your house, I am going to help you clean up. It's just how I am. If I just enjoyed a turkey dinner at your house, I am totally going to motion to your turkey carcass and say, "You're not going to throw that away, right?" If you are going to throw it away, I'll ask you kindly for two garbage bags and I'll be taking a turkey carcass home with me like a distant relative to a redneck.

There is nothing in the world like soup that starts out as stock made from a carcass. Nothing. This is the soup I made from the Sannelli Christmas Turkey Carcass.

Ingredients
48 oz turkey stock (I make homemade - see my stock process and ingredients here, it's the same for a turkey)
turkey meat to your taste - I use about a cup and a half
5 carrots, not peeled, sliced into coins
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup celery
1 tbs minced garlic
1/2 cup - 1 cup frozen mixed veggies
1 can corn
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup rice - I used 3/4 cup brown minute rice and 1/4 cup white regular rice. I wanted to use wild rice but I was fresh out.

Directions
Preheat oven to 425. Toss carrots in 1 TBS olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put on a baking sheet. Roast for about 25 minutes. The roasting ends a depth of flavor to the soup. Remove and set aside.

Heat 1 TBS oil in a soup pot. Add onion and celery and saute over medium for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and let it go another minute or two.

Add stock, carrots, and frozen veggies to pot. Bring it up to a boil. Add rice and turkey and let cook for 12 minutes. Add corn and cook another two or three minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste.

*****************************

Haikuesday:

It's post-soup nap time.

Tryptophan makes me happy.

Rock a bye baby.

*****************************

Two must reads for you today: 

Kathy's hilarious list about why she sucks at being a girl

Steph's walk down obscure 90s TV shows memory lane. MFD insists I look like Brad from Hey Dude in profile, and I do. Go jog your memory.

Tomorrow: January recommendations. 

Sunday Soup - tomato bisque a la Disney Cruise Line

I am a crazy Disney Cruise lady. I love everything about them, especially the food, which is glorious. They serve a lovely tomato bisque that my friend Jill requests frequently. I found a recipe for it online and recreated it, lightening it up a bit. It did not disappoint.

Ingredients
2- 28 oz cans plum tomatoes
6 oz can tomato paste
3 tbs butter
diced celery - 1 cup using a liquid measuring cup
sliced carrots - 1 cup using a liquid measuring cup
diced vidalia onion - 1 cup using a liquid measuring cup
salt to taste
16 oz light cream
16 oz fat free half & half

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Drain juice from tomatoes into a bowl and set aside.

Place tomatoes on a baking sheet with a lip and roast for 25 minutes.

Melt butter in a stock pot and saute onion, celery, and carrots until translucent. Add reserved tomato juice and tomato paste. Stir until the paste is broken up. Add tomatoes and cook for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing sticks to the bottom.  I put a lid on it because Sweet Brown ain't got no time to clean up tomato splatter from the entire kitchen.

Remove from heat. Using an immersion blender, blend the crap out of it. If don't have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender and blend in batches.

Heat cream and half and half on the stove, stirring so it doesn't stick. Add to the soup, stirring well to mix. Add salt to taste. Top with basil if you choose.

If you are doing this, maybe don't wear a white t-shirt or if you do wear white, maybe just don't be a spazz like I am and get it everywhere.

Paired with grilled cheese, this was a perfect meal for a snowy and cold Saturday.

Enjoy!

Rustic Tuscan Sausage Soup

Try your hand at this simple, hearty soup. You won't be sorry. Plus I love the word rustic. So play along.

I found the recipe at Feast on the Cheap and modified it to my liking. If you double this, it will feed an army. It freezes well. It's always good to have some soup in the freezer. 

Ingredients

1 lbs. sweet Italian sausage patties

3 carrots, washed well and chopped (I don't peel them) 

1/2 sweet onion, chopped  

2 tbs minced garlic

1/4 cup water

2.5 quarts chicken broth

2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes with juice

1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 tbs dried basil

8 oz whole wheat shell pasta, uncooked

8 oz spinach leaves (you can use frozen)

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Brown sausage over med-high heat in the bottom of a large stockpot. Crumble the sausage as you brown it. 

Add the carrots, onion and garlic and saute until tender and starting to turn a bit golden, about 7 minutes. Add water if it starts to get a little dry or too brown.

Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, beans, pasta and basil. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer. Cover the pot and continue cooking for 7 minutes.

Stir in the spinach and cook until just wilted. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

MFD tops his with parmesan cheese. He likes it. And now Haikuesday:

Rustic sausage soup

Whisks me off to Tuscany.

Airfare is too high.

Congrats to Nadine, winner of the Chloe + Isabel $25 shop credit!

p.s. Tuesday sucks.






Linking up with Blissfully Miller and Let's Get Bananas for

The Soup Series: Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients
half of one small onion, chopped
4 carrots, washed and chopped

2 stalks celery, washed and chopped

1 clove garlic, sliced paper thin
8 cups chicken broth

1 cup bone broth if you have it
1 small bundle of escarole, washed and chopped OR 1/2 of one small bag of baby spinach chopped OR 1/2 of 1 10 oz bag frozen spinach 
1/3 box of small pasta - I usually use acini di pepe or ditalini or pastina
kosher salt

meatballs:
1 lb meatball mix
1 egg

A dash of half & half
1/4-1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1.5 tbs dried parsley
1 tsp onion powder -eyeball it but at least 

1 tsp garlic powder 
1 tsp celery salt

salt and pepper

Directions

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a stock pan or dutch oven. Add the carrots and celery and cook about 5 minutes, then add the chopped onion and garlic and saute another three minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil.

While the stock is working, make your meatballs. You want to mix everything together by hand, adding bread crumbs by feel. You want them to stick together but not be too wet or too dry. Start with a quarter cup and add more if you need to. If you add too many bread crumbs, correct with half and half. 

Complete and set aside, and when the stock is at a boil, drop them in one by one close to the pot. Let those go on medium heat while you clean up any mess you made from making them. Resist the urge to stir.

Hit it with a few pinches of kosher salt and make sure it's at a boil. Add your small pasta.

Let it boil to package directions for firm pasta. Throw in your escarole or spinach towards the end of that. 

This freezes well so don't be afraid to do that.

If you just came for the recipe, there you are. If you are someone who likes reading beyond that, here you are: 

If you've read this blog for more than five minutes, you know I cook a lot yet I rarely post recipes. Why? Because I don't measure a lot of the time, and I'm always adding or subtracting or substituting, and I always want to tell people what they could do differently which gets really long. Bottom line, I'm loosey goosey. I wasn't always that way - it only comes from loving to cook, doing it often, and learning the rhythm of food. Now I like to have recipes to start with, but I tweak everything a little to make it more fun. However, people often ask for the recipe of something I made. And people want measurements, goddamnit. I'm approximating so I can share some recipes on Tuesdays because Tuesdays suck so I will feed you recipes to make you feel better.

But first a haiku for Haikuesday:

A haiku for soup?

Slurp me up, lovin' spoonful.

Good to the last drop, mofo.

I know you don't often hear this, but this soup is a situation where you want your balls to be small. Your meatballs that is. Hey ohhhhhh.

You can use any small pasta for this soup. I chose ditalini. Why? Because in the song Brass in Pocket I always thought the line I've been driving, Detroit leaning was I've been driving, ditalini. That's why.

I went crazy on the spinach, so I strained some out and got myself a nice little spinach side dish. Popeye, call me.

Enjoy. 

Friday Five powers, activate! Form of: Sunday Soups

Via

What? I know. I'm mixing days of the week and I'm using the Wonder Twins to activate this post. September is but a fart in the wind, my friends. POOF. Gone. It's getting chillier. I'm excited. Sweaters, scarves, candles in my favorite fall scents, and soup. Soup is crucial to my life. I make a pot of Sunday soup most weeks in winter to take for lunch. I grew up coming home from school to my Mom Mom's house and she'd have a pot of soup on the stove, just about done. I'd eat saltines with butter and my bowl of soup. To me, soup is Mom Mom. Childhood. Home. Comfort. Love.

I like to try new soups every year, but I have some tried and trues that are always on the menu.

1. Veggie Beef Barley Soup

1/2 Cup chopped onion (you can cheat and use frozen chopped onions)

1 Cup frozen green beans

Up to 8 oz mushrooms (optional)

2/3Cup uncooked barley

1 Cup corn

1.5 Cups water

1TSP salt

1/2 tsp thyme leaves

S&P to taste

1 lb ground beef

1 lb beef stew meat (optional)

4 14.5 oz cans beef broth (or two cartons)

2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes 

8 oz can tomato sauce

Stovetop: Brown ground beef and onions, drain and put aside. If you are using mushrooms, saute for about seven or eight minutes, put aside. If you are using stew meat, toss in a bit of flour and sear. Add broth, water, and the rest of the ingredients in or back in. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 30 minutes. 

Crock: Brown ground beef and onions, drain and put in crock. If you are using mushrooms, saute for about seven or eight minutes. If you are using stew meat, toss in a bit of flour and sear. Add to crock with all other ingredients and cook on low 7 hours or high 3 hours. 

2. Hungarian Mushroom Soup
12 oz mushrooms, sliced (I usually use 8 oz carton of baby bellas and 1/2 carton of white)
2 cups chopped onions
2 TBS butter
3 TBS flour
1 cup milk (I use 1%)
1 tsp dill weed
1 TBS paprika
1 TBS soy sauce
2 C stock (beef, veggie, or chicken)
2 tsp lemon juice
dried parsley
salt and pepper
1/2 cup sour cream

Saute onions in 2 TBS of stock for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms, 1 tsp dill, 1/2 cup stock, soy sauce and paprika. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes

Melt butter in large saucepan. Whisk in flour and cook, constantly whisking, for about 2 minutes. Add milk and cook, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes over low heat. It should be thick.

Stir in mushroom mix and remaining stock. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Add salt, pepper, lemon juice, sour cream, stir well to combine.

I often double this recipe so we have enough for the week. I only add one additional cup of onions though, not two.

3. Stuffed pepper soup a la Skinny Taste.

1 lb ground meat (I've used turkey, beef, chicken - all good)
1.5 cups chopped pepper (I like to use two different ones. Green and red or orange or yellow)
1 cup onion, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatoes
2 cups tomato sauce
4-5 cups broth (I've used chicken, veggie, beef - all good)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp of marjoram (if you're like WTF is marjorum, use 1/2 tsp oregano or thyme)
3 cups cooked rice (use brown - it's healthy and you really can't tell in this soup)

Brown meat and drain, reduce heat. Add peppers, onions, and garlic. Cook for about five minutes on low.

Add tomatoes, sauce, broth, marjoram and S&P. Cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes. Add rice.

This makes a lot, and it's very freezable. I allow it to cool and freeze in quart size freezer safe bags - lay flat and flash freeze, then stack in the freezer.

4. Creamy Cauliflower Cheddar Soup from Annie's Eats. Click the link and follow her directions - the only thing I do differently is sometimes I use onion for the shallots, and I don't do the croutons.

5. Potato soup

10 medium potatoes, scrubbed well and cut into cubes (I use red or gold and I do not peel them - peel if it's your preference)
3 TBS flour
6 slices bacon, chopped and cooked (optional)
2 TBS bouillon/base (I normally use chicken but have also used veggie)
1 TBS ranch dressing mix
Dried parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, ground black pepper to taste
3 Cups of water
1 Cup half & half or milk (I've used half & half and 2% milk, both were fine)
shredded cheddar and green onion for topping (optional)

Put the potatoes in the bottom of the crock, top with flour and toss to coat. Throw bacon bits, bouillon and all spices over. Add water.

Cook on low for 7 hours or high for 3-4. Pour half and half in, cook another 15 minutes. Dunzo.

Sometimes I put my immersion blender in and make it a little smoother.

You can also do this on the stove top, just bring to a boil and then simmer until potatoes are tender, add in the half and half and cook for another 10 minutes.