Lasagna Soup

This was wonderful!

And it gave me another plus for the Instant Pot

over a slow cooker.

I'm in and out of the house most days.

When I have something cooking in the slow cooker,

while it smells wonderful,

it makes me hungry ALL day!

 This would have done me in.

https://temeculablogs.com/instant-pot-lasagna-soup/

The only change I made to the recipe was that

I used bulk Italian sausage 

instead of ground beef.

I say, when you see a chance for more flavor, 

take it!

Soups!

So, when

God 

and the

devil

are messing with your mind

what's the best medicine?

SOUP!

Making it, that is.

 As my previous post will prove, 

my head has been in pretty deeps waters lately.

Today I decided it was time to get the funk out!

I love to make soup. 

It's one of my favorites. 

Today I pulled my three favorites, 

tomato, 

sweet potato, 

and asparagus. 

I decided to change things up a bit by roasting all the vegetables.

So delicious!

I also threw a bit of white wine in all of them.

The sweet potato was the only one that called for it, 

but hey, what could it hurt?

Turns out, nothing!

I also put some red pepper flakes and fresh

thyme in the tomato soup. 

Pretty, huh?

Here are the links:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/asparagus-soup-with-herbed-goat-cheese-recipe/index.html

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sweet-Potato-Soup-with-Buttered-Pecans-1332

4

http://www.marthastewart.com/343299/creamy-tomato-soup

And then I took a long walk and started

thinking all over again.

Hence the previous post.

:)

French Onion Soup

And mini cocottes.

I would call them mini casseroles

but I just GTS and it seems 

part of what makes a 

cocotte

a 

cocotte

are it's two handles. 

Hmm.

I love all things 

mini

as well as all thing

Le Creuset

as well as all things 

Shanna, 

so what a perfect combination.

Mini 

Le Creuset

cocottes

from

Shanna! 

And here is my inaugural 

foray into 

mini cocottes:

French onion soup.

The cocottes came with a cookbook

so I took their recipe, 

Googled recipes, 

and came up with this.

It was great!

Here's what I did;

I sliced up A LOT 

of onions and then sautéed them in 

4 tablespoons of butter for 35 minutes, 

not a minute less!

All the flavor gets developed here so you just can't

skimp on the time.

The I added some dried thyme leaves, 

a splash of red wine, 

a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce 

and enough beef stock 

to bring it to a nice consistency

and then simmered it a bit to reduce down.

 I transferred it into the cocottes

with a toasted baguette slice 

and grated swiss cheese on top

and put them under the broiler to brown up.

So good!

Cooking Soothes The Soul

Or at least mine it does.

It's been a rough month or so for me.

I've been "cooking" but not 

"creating."

Today I created and I feel a bit better for it.

It's a gloomy day here, and for once it's not

just my mood.

So gloomy screams soup to me.

Mom and Big bequeathed a butternut squash 

to me a couple of weeks back.

I scoured around my vegetable bin and came

up with:

said squash,

a sweet potato,

a couple of carrots,

a red onion

and 4 garlic cloves.

And did this to them. 

I left the garlic cloves in their paper, 

it's supposed to protect them while roasting 

but still have them get all mellow and buttery.

It did, and they did.

I drizzled olive oil over the whole mess, 

threw on some salt and pepper, 

and then roasted them at 425 degrees for 

30 minutes.

My house smelled amazing!

Once they were all roasted up put them in batches

 in my handy-dandy Vitamixer with some

chicken stock and made this:

It tasted as good as my house smelled.

Here's a little idea I had, know how you 

deglaze pans when browning meat?

Well, I deglazed the roasting sheet with

 some of that chicken stock. 

I didn't want to lose one bit of the stuff that

smelled that good!

I may toast up some chopped pecans in butter

to put on top......

or I may just grab a spoon and start eating right out of the pot!

Christmas With The Girls Part 2

Asparagus Quiche and Asparagus Soup.

Quiche just screams Ladies Who Lunch.

I used America's Test Kitchen's recipe.

It's so creamy and easy. 

You pre-bake the shell for about 

5 minutes and then add the goodies, 

I was using sauteed leeks, blanched asparagus

and swiss cheese.

 The you top it all off with a mixture of

2 eggs, 2 eggs yolks, 

3/4 cup heavy cream, 3/4 cup milk, 

a little salt, white pepper and a hit of nutmeg. 

I only used the tips of the asparagus and was 

feeling wildly decadent about that but very 

wasteful with the stems, so hey, 

make soup!

I used Giada's recipe with the herbed goat cheese. 

I even happened to have some honey goat cheese

in the fridge. I think the honey was a pleasant addition.

It cracked me up that I could lay my hands on 

the Christmas dishes so easily. 

It even snowed! 

German Onion Soup

With a pretzel grilled cheese on the side.

We've been on vacation for the past week.

A good friend once told me that if there is a washing machine

or a kitchen, it's not a vacation. 

I have lived by that little piece of wisdom

ever since.

So whereas I do enjoy a week of being waited on, 

I can't wait to get back in my kitchen and COOK!

To that end I picked up the October issue of

Cuisine at home 

at the airport for the flight home.

It may be my favorite resource for recipes.

This month I think I may just cook my way through 

the whole thing.

This soup was terrific, a german twist to 

french onion soup. 

One problem;

That's !!6!! LARGE onions.

The knife there would lead you to believe that I chopped all 

those but actually(actually) I used my mandolin.

Wonderful invention.

But it did not help with the river of tears I cried.

Nor the smell that so permeated my house that

when I returned home from being gone a couple of hours

I could smell the raw onions in my car as I drove

into the garage.

So heads up, after you cut up that many onions, 

cook them immediately!

Also, the recipe would have you *float* the pretzel

sandwiches on the soup like a crouton. 

While that would be way cool, 

how would you eat it?

PS, at some point do you think I will figure

out that I can cut a recipe in half?

GPBS Soup

It's title is too descriptive.

But it's how you turn this:

into this:

The recipe calls for you to add a cup of whipping cream at the end. 

I didn't for a couple of reasons. 

I want to freeze some for Nancy and I think it will freeze better without 

the dairy, and, Mike and dairy don't get along.

I did throw a splash of cream in my bowl and it really helped

to mellow out all the flavors. 

If you can stand to do it, you should.

Oh, and this wonderful soup is called,

German Potato Butternut Sausage Soup. 

Whew. 

http://reluctantentertainer.com/2011/02/making-soup-together-german-potato-butternut-sausage-soup/

Asparagus Soup

Smiley did it to me again.

Giada made
Asparagus soup with herbed goat cheese.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/asparagus-soup-with-herbed-goat-cheese-recipe/index.html

And so did I.
This was way easy and fast!
I didn't think to take a picture of it but it's really pretty and
very green.
The goat cheese is not over powering so only if you really
can't stand goat cheese, omit it. It really brings a
great flavor to the party.

Giada calls for chicken broth but I don't see any
reason why your couldn't substitute
vegetable broth and make it vegetarian.
Right? Vegetarian can have the cheese, Vegan cannot?
I also think there is room in there to sub out white wine
for some of the broth.

Oh, and here's a handy dandy tip for you,
treat your fresh asparagus much as you would fresh flowers.
Cut off the bottoms and stand it up in water.
But keep it in your fridge,
not on the table,
like a centerpiece,
like you would flowers.
...but you figured that out....

"Blizzard" Dinner

I'm not entirely sure I'm on board with this whole

"blizzard" thing. 

There is *some* snow and I will allow as how

it is blowing around quite a bit.

I have been photo documenting it.

If it gets impressive at some point, I'll post.

Until then, 

Dinner!

This is Martha Stewart's tomato soup.

It's so simple, 

saute onions and garlic in butter,

add 28 oz. can of tomatoes,

3 cups chicken broth,

simmer it all together for a while and then puree.

Voila!

(Wa-La?)

I usually add some red pepper for fun.

The, hmm, shall we call them,

"crustini"?

Are chibatta that I toasted, rubbed with garlic and then topped

three ways:

Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

Tomatoes, bacon and cheddar,

Tomatoes, bacon and Parmesan.

All in all not a half bad way to cozy up and enjoy a

not half bad "blizzard".

Chicken Tortilla Soup

An experiment that went right!

Who doesn't love soup?

I got it in my head to create a chicken tortilla soup.

I make a Taco soup that is so easy it's dumb.

I figured if I took the bones of that and just take it up a notch

I could be on to something.

Here's the Taco soup recipe:

1 lb. ground beef that you brown with a taco seasoning packet

1 - 24 oz can crushed tomatoes

1 - can corn (not drained)

1 - can beans

And that's it!

Stupid easy, right?

Here we go, 

I got bone in, skin on chicken breasts, rubbed taco 

seasoning between the skin and the meat and baked

them in a 350 oven for about 40 min.

I shredded the meat and then took the bones and skin,

put them in a pot, covered with water and simmered for 4 hours.

This made some pretty intense stock so I used mostly 

regular chicken stock and just a hit of this stuff.

Probably 3 to 1 ratio. 

The rest I put in quart size ziploc bags

and froze, with a warning on the label, "hot".

Now the construction! 

Into my pot:

The shredded chicken,

black beans that I drained and rinsed,

frozen roasted corn (from Trader Joes)

24 oz. can crushed tomatoes

14 oz can of diced tomatoes with chilies

The chicken stocks

and the the secret ingredient,

strips of corn tortillas!

They melt away and thicken the soup and give it that

extra layer of flavor.

Ina would be so proud!

For toppings I served the usual suspects, shredded cheese and

sour cream, but then I made my own tortilla strips.

You just take corn tortillas and sprayed them with Pam,

sprinkled them with a little salt, cut them into strips

and then baked them in a 375 oven for about 30 minutes.

They're baked, not fried.

They're a health food, right?

Pacific Natural's Everyday Chef Challenge Part Two

   I have my second recipe up on the Pacific Natural's site.

It's kind of complicated but it looks way cool and tastes pretty darn good too!

Surprise!

It's the first time I used egg roll wraps in a pasta kind of way. I have seen bunches of recipes that call for them when making ravioli so I figured they may work here, and they did. They are in the refrigerated section of the produce department at Meijer. 

http://everydaychefchallenge.com/everyday-recipes/floating-mini-lasagnas/

The other part of this challenge is for guest food bloggers, one of whom is my friend, Aggie. She has an amazing recipe up for Creamy Butternut Squash and Shrimp Pasta Bake. It looks amazing and I'm pretty sure I'll be trying it tomorrow. 

Here's the link for it for you convenience :o)

And while you're there, vote for her, K?

And then, go vote for me too, K?

http://everydaychefchallenge.com/everyday-recipes/creamy-butternut-squash-and-shrimp-pasta-bake/

This gives me the perfect opportunity to share a little something, something with you.

You know those recipes that call for 2 teaspoons of tomato paste, but those cans have what, 20 teaspoons in them? 

Here's what I do:

I use the scoop that I use to make cookies and scoop out the rest of the can, place them on foil, or parchment, or whatever, freeze them and then transfer them into a zipper bag. Each one is about a tablespoon. 

Genius!

I know.

You're welcome.

;o)