Weekly Recap 12/30/07

I tried to do this a few times in the past, but never kept up with it. I'd like to try again because I think it's interesting to see what families have each night for dinner - or how people cook "in the real world". How many times to they eat out each week? Do they make fancy meals every night? What kinds of side dishes do they make? And not just dinner - how much do they bake each week? Do they make desserts often? Inquiring minds want to know!

And even though I keep a blog of a lot of my cooking, it doesn't necessarily reflect what I cook on a daily basis since I usually only post new recipes. Sometimes I cook a lot of new recipes, sometimes I just throw things together, and sometimes I might cook an old favorite.

Now that we live far enough from town that ordering out, take out and even going out to eat aren't all that convenient, I tend to cook almost every night. Though I would certainly use the term "cook" loosely many nights - on busy nights, it might be something as simple as canned tomato soup and Wegmans pierogies sauteed in onion and butter. Nothing fancy, but in most cases, still better than what we'd eat if we were ordering or eating out.

No time like the present to get started, so here goes (we were out of town Sun-Weds):

Wednesday
pizza take out

Thursday
Spinach and Smoked Mozzarella Skillet Strata (new)
orange slices

Friday
Curried Tempeh with Brown Rice and Peas (new)
baby carrots

Saturday
Breakfast:
Alysha's Pumpkin Waffles (t&t)
Dinner:
Classic Beef Pot Roast (new)
mashed potatoes
green beans

I will have the recipes for the strata, the tempeh and the pot roast up shortly.

Coming up soon, the recap for 2007!

Christmas Cookies 2007: Pecan Logs

Okay, this is the last one I promise. Here I am still posting about cookies when everyone else is probably focused on how to work off all the cookies they ate over the holidays. I'm even getting tired of cookies. But I'm sure that will only last a day or two....

Pecan Logs

This cookie (and yes, it's another one from Martha Stewart) was probably my favorite of this season; or maybe it was the Iced Hermits. If I can't have a chewy cookie, then my second favorite is a buttery shortbread-type cookie. These pecan logs aren't as melt-in-your-mouth-tender as the Russian Tea Cakes, but they are very good. Like other shortbread-type cookies, they taste better as they age.

Next up, lots of savory recipe, I promise!!

Christmas Cookies 2007: Chocolate Sandwiches

As I said before, I'm still trying to catch up with my recipes - I haven't even finished posting the holiday cookie recipes yet!

This cookie is from, shockingly enough, Martha Stewart. It's a time-consuming cookie that involves lots of rolling, cutting, chilling, icing and assembling. In other words, not something I would normally pick to make so you can be sure that this was chosen by one of my sons.

Although they turned out to be one of the prettier cookies we made this year, it was my least favorite. I thought the chocolate cookie part was uninteresting and I didn't really care for the white chocolate filling either (but I don't care for white chocolate in general, except on the Oreo Truffles). DH, however, thought the cookies had great chocolate flavor while one son agreed with me, so I guess it's a draw.

Chocolate Sandwiches

The recipe calls for cutting the dough into little squares, but I found it much easier to use a cookie cutter, so we ended up with round cookies and scalloped edges - cut them however you please, it's all good.

Many more recipes to come - more cookies and several vegetarian recipes from the Jack Bishop cookbook - but it will be hard to catch up because I'm also cooking new recipes almost every day!

Cranberry Walnut Pancakes: Why didn't I think of that?

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday! I had hoped to get a little blogging done over the holidays, but we were away from home and it just didn't happen.

I am always running across recipes that make me want to smack myself and say, "Why didn't I think of that?" They are humbling moments that make me realize that while I might be a decent cook, I'm really not a chef.

I've made blueberry-pecan pancakes many times, so it's a bit befuddling that cranberry-walnut pancakes would never even cross my mind. Fortunately, I stumbled on Joe's blog where he recently posted a recipe for cranberry-walnut pancakes (though he skipped the walnuts). We used to get cranberry-walnut bagels from Panera, but we no longer live near one, so I miss this seasonal treat. We did manage to snag 4 - yes, only 4 - from Panera this weekend on our way back from Virginia. Fortunately for me, Wegmans made an organic, whole grain cranberry-walnut bread this year and it's quite good. But back to the pancakes.....

Cranberry-Orange Pancakes with Toasted Walnuts

Instead of trying the recipe Joe posted, I decided to go back to our favorite homemade whole grain pancake mix from King Arthur. I did boil the cranberries for a bit and then chopped them, as instructed in Joe's recipe. At the last minute, I decided to add the zest of one orange - orange is a classic pairing with cranberry and walnuts and it worked really well for this recipe. I did not measure the cranberries or walnuts - I just sprinkled them on the pancakes as I cooked them, rather than mixing them into the batter. They turned out fantastically! This recipe will allow me to satisfy that cranberry-walnut craving pretty easily here at home.

I hope to have quite a bit of time to get more posts up this coming weekend. I really need to get posting - the pictures are piling up!

Happy New Year, 2008

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To one and all, I wish you a very, very Happy New Year.

And now...a drinking song.

Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup! And surely I’ll buy mine! And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

We two have run about the hills,and picked the daisies fine; But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine; But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !And give us a hand o’ thine! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.

Oreo Truffles

Or otherwise known as Alysha vs. Candy, round 1.

As I know I have stated several, if not many, times before, candy and I don't get along. My attempt at almond brittle once came out like a sugar brick with expensive almonds trapped inside, the caramel slid off of my caramel apples (and I was only using packaged caramels) and the caramel on my apple tart got a little too close to hard crack stage. And those are only some of my candy stories! After each failure, it takes me a good long while to get back in the saddle to give it another shot.

This recipe - which I found on Joe's blog - only has 3 ingredients and does not involve a candy thermometer, so I decided to give it a try. Only I decided to try it for a pot luck at work which meant that I was #1, very anxious for it to come out nicely and, #2, making them on a weeknight. Recipe for failure again???

Well, almost. First, I had a hard time getting the balls to roll nicely. The recipe only calls for breaking the Oreos into fourths and then beating them in the mixer. This yields some fairly large chunks of cookiewith create crumbly pockets and can cause some of the balls to want to separate. I would process the Oreos into a finer crumb next time to avoid these dry pockets. I made the balls using a tablespoon - I was not in the mood to make 50-60 of these little suckers. The recipe made about 33 or so by the tablespoonful.

Once I had the balls formed, I put them in the fridge to chill. My mistake was in not making sure the pan was secure - the balls slid right off the pan and fell into the fridge. Frustrating to be sure, but they were firm enough to just pick right up and put them back on the pan.

Next, it was time to melt the chocolate. No problems there. Dipping the Oreo truffles was a whole other story. First, I just couldn't figure out how the heck to get the stupid balls off of my dipping tool and onto the pan without wrecking the nice white chocolate coating. I tried the dipping fork, the other two dipping doohickies and a toothpick. Nothing seemed to work well. I did like that with the dipping tools at least, you could tap off the excess chocolate, but I just could not get the truffles off the dipping tools easily. Next, I noticed that they balls just weren't chilled enough - little flecks of chocolate were breaking off into the dipping chocolate and they were sort of sticking - to the dipping tool and to the parchment paper.

Oreo Truffles

So, I chilled the balls in the freezer and decided to use silpat. Of course was they were in the freezer, I stumbled upon a tip that suggested that you NOT freezer your truffles first - as they rewarm, they will expand and cause the chocolate coating to crack. I decided to risk the cracking over the too-warm Oreo/cream cheese balls. (And by the way, they never did crack - I think white chocolate is a bit softer/more pliable than dark, so maybe that helped.)

Once the Oreo balls were nice and cold, I tried to perfect my dipping technique. I finally decided that my cheap dipping tools were just not working and tried my fingers (another suggestion I read online). Nope - all that did was leave marks on either side of the truffle where my fingers had been. GRRRR! Finally, my DS suggested using a regular old work. And what do you know? It worked! It was still a little tricky to get the balls off the fork, but they slid off much easier than with the dipping tools.

I still ended up with little bits of Oreo in the white chocolate, but I suppose that sort of adds to the Oreo or cookies and cream sort of look? Once you get the little drizzle of regular chocolate on top, it draws your eye upward and and away from the flaws - most of the flaws were toward the bottom of the truffles where I tried to get them to slide off the fork/tool. I found that 12 ounces of white chocolate wasn't quite enough to coat all the balls nicely, so I would melt 16 ounces next time to ensure there is plenty to go around.

Throughout the process I did let go a few choice words and started to get grumpy, but I walked away and came back with a positive attitude and it all turned out in the end. They didn't come out perfectly, but I was pleased. I took them to the all-college potluck and they were a hit. I did, however, discover one reason that one might want to make these by the rounded teaspoonful rather than larger like I did. As my coworkers were raving about the truffles and asking for the recipe, I noticed little bits of black stuck to the front of their teeth...........yeah, bite-size might be best................

Menu For Hope 4. Win Dinner at Camaje or Hammacher Schlemmer's Upside-Down Tomato Garden

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***Update: As of 12/18 we have raised more than $36,800. There are fourteen bids on the dinner, and twelve on the garden. Thank you all so much!***

It is my great pleasure and honor to offer not one, but two fantastic gift prizes for this years Menu for Hope 4.

What am I talking about?

I am talking about an annual online raffle event started by food blogger/philanthropist/all around fab lady, Pim Techamuanvivit, to raise money for a worthy cause during the holiday season.

This year, we (and by we, I mean me and you and international food bloggers galore) will be raising funds for the UN World Food Programme. We are specifically going to help provide school lunches for children living in Lesotho, Africa.

To explain, allow me to quote Pim, "The program is a model program in local procurement - buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP is buying directly from local subsistent farmers who practice conservation farming methods in Lesotho to feed the children there." And by providing these lunches, a child stays healthy, misses less school and has a better chance in life.

A worthy cause indeed.

So, as I said, I am extremely proud to be offering two fantastic and very food-centric gifts that for a minimum of a $10 donation, you may win in our raffle!

Now open up your wallets and join on in!

The first, (CODE UW19) is dinner for two* at the ever-excellent Camaje Bistro & Lounge on MacDougal Street in New York City. (And yes, you must be in, or go to, NYC to eat the meal...)

I was supremely fortunate to be treated to a fantastic dinner at Camaje recently. After the first sublime bite, I knew had to ask Chef/Owner (Friend/Inspiration) Abigail Hitchcock if she would be willing to help out with this cause. And because she is such an amazing soul, she did!

I just wanted so much to share with one of you the wonderful experience I had. It is such a warm and inviting space and the food, well, the food is superb. It is restaurant that will capture your heart.

Chef Abby makes a meal like none other. Delicious, refined and daring, it is without parallel. I love this woman, I love her food.

I hope you will bid on item UW19 to experience for yourself just how rewarding a meal at Camaje can be.

For loads more info, visit her website to read all the glowing accolades and tempt yourself with a few sample menus...and check out her cooking classes and dark dining... they are amazing.

Next up, the incredibly generous people of New York's Hammacher Schlemmer (America's longest running catalog, known since 1848 for carrying the Best, the Only, and the Unexpected.) have kindly donated an Upside-Down Hanging Tomato Garden! (CODE UW20)

The garden is an ingenious, compact planter that "takes the toil out of tomatoes by elevating the planting bed so vines grow downward. Hanging vines need almost no attention as tomatoes ripen in the air (not on the ground) where they won't rot. Complementary plants like basil, parsley, rosemary, and peppers can be planted on top, which holds up to 80 lbs. of topsoil."

It is a marvel. And wow, talk about eating local...nothing is more local than your own home!

Think about it kids...this could be all yours, for donating to a good cause.

Now get donating and let's make this year a great year for the children of Lesotho.

Here are the simple instructions on how...

1. Choose a prize. (There are many more listed on food blog website Chez Pim too! Don't feel limited to these.)

2. Go to our donation page at First Giving.

3. Specify the prize you would like in the 'Personal Message' section in the donation form. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW19 and 3 tickets for UW20. You just write 2xUW19, 3xUW20.

And that's it!

Bids will be accepted until the end of day, December 21st 2007. Winners will be announced on January 9th on Chez Pim.

Thank you all SO much, in advance, for your generous support of this event!

*Some restrictions apply.
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Please visit Hammacher Schlemmer online to see their amazing array of products, or if you are in NYC, their landmark store is located at 147 E. 57th Street New York, NY 10022. They can also be reached toll free at (800) 421-9002

CAMAJE Bistro & Lounge is located at 85 MacDougal Street (between Bleecker and Houston)New York, NY 10012. The telephone number is 212-673-8184. Zagat's 2008: Food: 23, Decor: 15, Service: 19, Cost: $35. "With the air of a "secret" find on an "out-of-the-way Paris street", this "terrific little" Village bistro's French-American fare comes via a "sweet" staff; it can be a "squeeze", but it's "romantic" for dining a deux; P.S. "try the cooking classes" or don a blindfold for one of their 'Dark Dining' events."

Christmas Cookies 2007: Magic/Seven Layer Bars

Amid all the holiday baking just for fun, I also had a few functions to bake for - a holiday party at work and a band concert for my boys (the oldest play saxophone and the youngest, percussion). Bar cookies are always an easy choice when you need to bake a large quantity quickly, but choosing which bar is always hard! I decided to go back to an old favorite from childhood that I hadn't made in quite a while - Magic Bars. Or Seven-Layer Bars, whichever you prefer. One pan for each function and I was done.

This time I tried a recipe from The New Best Recipe from Cook's Illustrated. They make several suggestions on how to make these just right. For one, they have you line the pan with parchment or aluminum foil. While this did make the bars pretty easy to lift out and then cut (I don't like cutting bars in the pan), a small amount of the butter tended to seep underneath the aluminum foil and could not be mixed into the graham crumbs. Since it did make cutting the bars easier, I would definitely recommend using the parchment or foil, but next time I would mix the butter and crumbs in separate dish and then press into the pan.

Magic/Seven Layer Bars

These were quite good, but something was missing. For one, the walnuts did not come through and nuts are an important part of this recipe in my opinion, so definitely more walnuts next time. One thing I really appreciated was that the crust held together nicely and did not crumble apart as I was cutting which can be a real problem with some graham cracker crusts. Again, these were good, but they didn't make me swoon as much as they have in the past. I'll have to dig up my old recipe and compare the two.

The baking is not finished yet. I have a few things to bake this week and one more cookie to finish this weekend. Stay tuned........

From Sweet to Savory

As much fun as I am having posting all these cookies - and sweet treats always get the most comments and attention - it's time for something savory.

Canned tomato soup is a staple at our house for nights when we want something really fast but somewhat nutritious. We pair it with grilled cheese or maybe some frozen pierogies and onions sauteed in a bit of butter. However, I've been wanting to find a basic tomato soup recipe that I could make on my own, avoiding the high fructose corn syrup found in the canned varieties.

Creamy Tomato Soup

The Jack Bishop cookbook that I took out from the library - A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen - has a recipe for Creamy Tomato Soup. Only there's no cream. So I'm not really sure why he calls it Creamy Tomato Soup at all. In any case, I tried it and loved, loved it.

This recipe calls for roasting canned tomatoes to intensify their flavor. This step is not hard, but it takes a bit of time - especially since I once did a double batch - which probably keeps it from being a true quick and easy recipe. The tomatoes are paired with leeks, tomato paste, a bit of freshly grated nutmeg and butter. While I did cut the butter down by one tablespoon, I would not recommend skipping it entirely - I think it is responsible for some of the lovely flavors that shine through in this soup.

And lovely it is. It's a simple soup with only a few ingredients, but it ends up tasting more complex than you might expect. Each time you take a bite, it seems like a new flavor surprises you. I overdid the cayenne a little bit the first time - tomato soup is not generally something I expect or want to be spicy - but did keep it in the second time in lesser amounts just to give the soup a little punch - not heat really, just an added dimension.

I was able to JUST barely fit a double recipe in my Dutch oven - it very nearly overflowed the top. I have one batch tucked away in the freezer but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to resist bringing it out for dinner.

Christmas Cookies 2007: Chai Shortbread

With these cookies, I've done something I don't normally do - I've chosen to make a cookie from Cooking Light. I don't normally do low-fat cookies. However, with 51% of the calories coming from fat, this one isn't so low-fat.

Chai Shortbread

I love chai and I love shortbread and the combination of the two sounded like heaven. While these cookies are quite good, they didn't quite measure up to what I think these could be. First of all, I think it's unrealistic to expect a lower fat shortbread cookie to measure up - after all, shortbread is ALL about the butter. Secondly, the chai flavoring just didn't shine through enough for my tastes - the flavoring was nice, it just didn't seem "chai" enough. My favorite chai tea is Celestial Seasonings India Spice Chai - one of the most flavorful chais I've tasted.

I'm not giving up on this idea though - I still believe it's a match made in heaven, we just need to do a little experimenting. The shortbread part would be easy - I can just go back to a full-fat version - I've tried a very good one from Martha Stewart in the past. As for the chai spices - that will take some experimenting to find just the right blend. I'm also interested in finding a nice chai blend to augment some teas I've bought that haven't been up to snuff - if I can add my own chai spice mix to them, maybe they won't go to waste. I will post if I come up with a good one.....

I've been cooking, baking and taking pictures and it's starting to really pile up. Hopefully I'll have time over the holidays to get things caught up here on the blog. Maybe I'll even have time this week - the Christmas shopping is done with just a little wrapping to do..........

Christmas Cookies 2007: Iced Hermits

It's that time of year again! DH and the boys have picked out their cookies for this year and baking has commenced.

First up, DH's choice - Iced Hermits. I've heard of hermit bars, but I've never seen one or tasted one, much less made one. One thing I love about DH and the boys picking cookies for me to make is that they tend to pick things I never would and this cookie is no exception. For one thing, it calls for icing - I tend to avoid cookies with icing.

Our source is, once again, Martha Stewart's 2005 special holiday cookie supplement. I can't get them to look at anything else! But I can't blame them, this magazine is so well done with enticing pictures for each and every cookie - truly an excellent layout for a magazine.

This bar cookie is baked in a 10 x 15-inch pan. I only have 11 x 17-inch pans, so I did a little improvising. I didn't want the cookies to turn out too thin, so I turned my 11 x 17-inch pan into a 11 x 14-inch pan. I cut an 11 x 14-inch piece of parchment paper and placed it in the pan. I then cut a piece of tin foil to sort of serve as the "wall" to get a nice edge on the cookies and to keep the exposed end from over-browning.

Iced Hermits

The ingredient lists appears fairly long for these cookies but most of it is spices and not as involved as it first appears. The cookies come out thin and chewy - a spiced cookie with a strong punch of ginger and a bit of sweetness from the raisins. They are topped off with an easy icing. I'm not a big fan icing, but this icing is delicious and should not be skipped - the butterscotch/caramel flavor from the brown sugar and butter nicely complements the spiciness of the cookie. The diced ginger adds even more bite and a festive holiday sparkle to top things off.

This still may not be a cookie that I make just any old day, but I'm glad that DH inspired me give it a try. This would definitely be a pretty and tasty cookie to make for a cookie exchange or holiday party.

Stay tuned for more Christmas cookies to come.........

Christmas Cookies 2007: Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies

This was my oldest DS's pick this year - yet another recipe from the 2005 Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies issue. He did all of the work himself with me serving as advisor and sous chef - meaning mostly what I did was clean up behind him. Man, I wish I could have sous chef in the kitchen with me when I cook!

Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies

I have to admit that I tend to avoid any kind of blondie or brownie with anything swirled in it. Not because I don't like them - they are usually delicious - but because they are fussy. I'm not fond of fussy. But this was DS's pick and after all, it is the holidays. It was also a chance for DS to find out why I'm not so fond of making these kinds of treats. Getting the batter to swirl proved to be quite challenging - the cream cheese batter was quite light and the blondie batter was quite dense so that we never really did succeed in getting a proper swirl - more of a layered effect. This did not prove to be a problem - they were delicious anyway. I would note though that these turn out more like a dense cake than a blondie. Again, not a problem.

Still to come: Chai Shortbread and Magic/Seven Layer Bars........

Dark & Spicy Gingerbread Cake

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It was shaping up to be a bracingly chilly night, (by Los Angeles standards) and it was time for my dearest Ombudsman to thrill us with his annual holiday concert (he plays in an orchestra in his free time. Oh that man. So suave.)

The Hostess was coming over for a bit of warming sustenance before we headed out for the two hour, pre-dinner, Haydn extravaganza. In my hazy holidazed state, I commited three hours to whip something up that would sustain us. Inspection of my overburdened pantry shouted out that gingerbread and mulled wine were the order of the day. The natural fit for a winters night and the ingredients were all on hand.

While my usual gingerbread recipe is quite nice, I decided on a whim to see what else (the late)Mr. Sax, author of flawless cookbook, Classic Home Desserts had to say on the matter. It is my go-to tome for solid baking ideas indeed, and for years, I stuck with a recipe he calls Eliza Acton's Gingerbread.

But for some reason, my eyes drifted to the left side page, and what did my dancing eyes see? The gingerbread therein? Well my dears, it was East-West Ginger Cake, developed by the one and only David Lebovitz of Parisian baking/blogging fame! How chic and fab is that!

There was no doubt about it, I had to make it. But, being me, I changed it substantially...to make it less sweet and more richly spicy. What I retained from super-fab David was the fantastic simplicity of the method, and the judicious use of fresh ginger. He really was on to something there! Brilliant.

It is impertive that in making this you recall that, in the grand tradition of gingerbread cake, this really, really, really does improve as the days go by. So if you can keep some on hand for three days, you will have a cake beyond compare.

Try this my dears, and taste the joy.

2 3/4 cups white flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 T. melted butter
1 cup molasses
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup golden raisins/sultanas

Preheat your oven to 350F

Butter and lightly dust with flour a 10 inch square baking pan. (Don't try to do this with canola oil bakers spray. Wow does that not work.)

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground ginger and fresh ground pepper.

In a large bowl mix together the sugars, oil, melted butter, molasses and eggs. Beat them with an electric mixer until well blended. Stir in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

Mix the baking soda into the boiling water. Careful, this will fizz. Pour that into the batter and stir. Add the ginger and raisins and stir again.

Pour into the pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool completely before serving. Ideally, let it sit for two days, then serve.

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Sweet Suzanne. Is there nothing she can't do?

Looking for an amazing meal in NYC? Try Camaje!

The Tsukiji fish market, transit point for 3,000 tons a day of the world's freshest seafood, in recent years has become a prime attraction for intrepid foodies. With the number of curiosity seekers growing, an outright ban is being considered (and seems reasonable in light of the dangers). And the market itself faces shutdown and relocation, probably in 2012, to a much larger and more modern facility at Toyosu on Tokyo Bay -- though the move has generated controversy, most recently because the new site, formerly owned by Tokyo Gas Co., has been found to be contaminated with toxins that include arsenic. - WSJ.com

Delicious Soup That Couldn't be Simpler!

I had no pre-made plans for dinner tonight, so I started looking for soups recipes in the Jack Bishop cookbook I mentioned last night and the Simple Suppers from Moosewood. In the Moosewood cookbook, I found a super simple recipe for a soup that consisted basically of broth, bread and cheese. Hey, I can handle that.

Italian Bread and Cheese Soup

This is the kind of soup that lends itself well to tinkering - add any kind of broth, bread or cheese you happen to have on hand. The Moosewood version starts out with garlic and a homemade vegetable broth. I only had canned vegetable broth on hand and was a bit hesitant to use that as a base - I think the canned vegetable broths are a fine base for a more substantial soup, but probably not good enough to pull off a soup with so few ingredients. I opted for canned chicken broth (I couldn't call it a vegetarian meal any longer, but it was a meal without meat in any case). Since two cans only equal 28 ounces, I made up the last 4 ounces with white wine - another ingredient that I thought would help make up for the lack of homemade broth.

My fresh parsley was slimy and I didn't have any fresh basil, so I threw in a bit of Italian herb seasoning when I sauteed the garlic.

To assemble the soup, you place the stale or toasted bread in a bowl, along with the shredded cheese and then ladle the hot broth over top. Sprinkle in a little parsley or fresh basil and add some freshly ground black pepper and that's it! I used the leftover croutons from the butternut squash soup and again, the whole grain sourdough worked really well.

To construct this soup you take the stale or toasted bread, place it in a bowl along with the shredded cheese (I used Fontina) and then ladle the hot broth over top. It was surprisingly good. In fact, we liked it quite a lot and I can see this - and many variations - becoming a regular at our house.

I really am enjoying the simplicity and fabulous flavors that are coming from these two cookbooks - they are proving to me that you don't have to slave in the kitchen all day long to turn out some really fabulous dishes - fabulous, fast food that fits into a busy weeknight schedule.

Cream of Leek Soup

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Let us be Frank.

Or, Helen.

Really, does it matter?

I mean, if I told you that was a picture of, say, cream of leek soup...that could be entirely true.

But I'm being Frank (despite the fact I am Rachael) and have to confess...it isn't.

It is something else entirely. What, I'm not really sure even you want to know. It is just such a fantastically ghastly concept, it makes me shudder to recall it.

So I shall share a Cream of Leek soup recipe...since that is warm and lovely, and it is possibly a variation of what that soup really was. (Dreary and unsalvageable. And not at all my idea to make. I tried to extract myself from the proceedings, I assure you. It just proved fruitless. What can I say.)

Below though, is my Cream of Leek soup recipe, for a bowl of heady delight. Meltingly sweet leeks, and a touch of cream. I am willing to bet, the results will look alarmingly like that which is pictured above...oh had that only been this...

Now go on and taste the joy.

7 leeks, white and pale green parts sliced
1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup white wine
6 cups chicken or onion stock, warm
1 cup heavy cream, warm
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
Crispy bacon for garnish

In a small sauce pan, heat the wine.

In a large soup pot, melt the butter. Saute the leeks and onion until softened. Add the flour and stir.

Slowly add the wine, stirring to combine. Let simmer, stirring, for three minutes (you are trying to cook off the raw flour and wine tastes)

Add the stock and the rest of the ingredients, except the bacon

Let simmer for five minutes.

Serve with bacon garnish.

Makes eight servings.

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I found this blog, which has real Austrian recipes

Pop Rocks were developed in 1956 by General Foods research scientist William A. Mitchell and introduced to the market in 1975. Tiny air pockets of carbonation (CO2) are released when melted in your mouth and has a mild "crackling" sensation and "popping" noise. - Pop Rocks Candy.com

The Bella Turkey Burger at Ruby Tuesday's Restaurants has 1,145 calories. A Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo'd Power Smoothie has 900. The Chipotle Mexican Grill Chicken Burrito has 1,179. Chili's Awesome Blossom packs 2,710 calories and Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing has 2,900 calories. Even if you split those "starters" with three friends, you'll have downed a dinner's worth of calories before your entrée arrives. - Men's Health Magazine, 20 Worst Foods.

Brrrrrrr........Jack Bishop and some Butternut Squash warm us up!

Brrrrr.....it's cold outside. The wind is howling, with gusts expected to be around 50MPH or so. Cold is bad enough, but cold and a wind like that and I'm more than happy to stay inside and not step foot outside. Brrrr.....

This kind of weather definitely makes for good soup weather, though and soup was on the menu for tonight.

I recently checked Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen out of the library. I am absolutely loving this book. So far I have tried 3 recipes and we have loved all of them - Creamy Tomato Soup, Black Bean Chilaquiles and tonight's dinner, Butternut Squash Soup with Chipotle Chiles and Garlic. I promise to come back and review the other two recipes later....

So, here I am the next day continuing with my post. The boys and I sat down to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas last night and I fell asleep! Anyway, back to the butternut squash soup....

I am continuing to use up the butternut squash in our freezer that I mentioned on a previous post. Before I go on to the soup, let me briefly mention that I used butternut squash puree in place of pumpkin in my favorite pumpkin bread and it worked beautifully (I left out the chocolate chips, though).

Butternut Squash Soup with Chipotle Chiles and Garlic
(please excuse the cruddy picture!)

The soup was a very simple recipe - pretty much just butternut puree, water, garlic and chipotle chiles. My soup ended up not being very vegetarian though, I'm afraid. I had some leftover chicken broth and butternut puree from a soup I made recently, so I dumped that in, along with 2 additional cups of puree. I can't really say that I followed any of the proportions exactly, but we got the main gist of it.

Mmmm...it was very good. With the exception of baked goods, I generally don't like my squash to be sweet, so the spice and heat from the chipotles was the perfect way to play up the savory aspects of the butternut. The croutons - I used a loaf of whole grain sourdough from Wegmans - add a nice crunch and a bit of relief from the heat. The nuttiness of the whole grains pair nicely with the squash. The soup was also extremely easy to make, considering that I already had the puree sitting in the freezer.

We are having so much fun with butternut squash puree that I have decided that I will plant at least one butternut plant in the garden next year. Our freezer supply is now down to only about 4 cups, so I'll have to be careful about what I choose next - and I've already promised my oldest that I'd make the Butternut Squash Risotto, so that really only leaves 2 cups.....maybe some more "pumpkin" bread, that was sooo good......mmm.........

Beets & Onions & Carrots with Trader Joe's Dried Fuji Apples

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While browsing the menu in some of your local dining establishments, you may have noticed the propensity of the proprietors to describe every last itsy bitsy thing that will be on each tantalizing platter, should you opt to order it.

So much so, that when you order the such-and-such with a dusting of blah-blah and sprinkling of whatnots, you can actually end up deflated that the whatnots appeared in such small quantities so as not to have exactly merited being mentioned...driving you to distraction, or worse, dissatisfaction.

And yet...

This excessive description behaviour continues.

Why is this do you suppose?

Me, I think it is because the person crafting your first impression of the victuals, wants you to know exactly what they are proposing you consume. They want no surprises. No one sending a piled high round of porcelain back to the kitchen untouched, based on the fact an offensive component had not been described.

And in all honesty...it makes total sense to me.

I mean, I tend to get amped imagining the Grass Fed Neiman Ranch Porter House Steak on a bed of Star Route Farms Arugula (I have no idea if the good people of Star Route really grow that, but I'm a touch lazy at this moment, and will just have to ask you to indulge me on that one. It was the first name that came to mind. I could have just as easily said Bellweather Farms, though, I think they make goat cheese...oh...nevermind) with Fennel Pollen and Maytag Blue Cheese on a Acme Sourdough Baguette Crouton with a dusting of fresh ground Malabar Black Pepper. But if after all that, a smattering of Paramount Farms Salt Roasted Pistachios make a guest appearance, well, that can throw a girl. Perhaps prompting a return. So I say, keep up the novel writing approach. It suits me just fine.

This dish too, has all its components up front. Sweet, crunchy, boldly beautiful. It would make a menu proud.

Try it, and taste the joy.

3 large beets, roasted
1 large red onion, sliced
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 oz package Trader Joe's Dried Fuji Apples, Diced (or any dried apples, though, I gotta say, these things are beyond amazingly delicious.)
3 Teaspoons red wine vinegar
Olive oil, salt and pepper to taste


Peel and slice the beets. Toss with the onions, carrots and apples. Season with red wine vinegar and olive oil. Toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper.

Serves six as a side dish

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Figgy Pudding dates back to 17th century England. The ancestor of figgy pudding (and plum pudding) is a medieval spiced porridge known as "Frumenty". Today, the term figgy pudding is known mainly because of the popular Christmas carol; We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Sufganiot are jelly filled Israeli donuts, typically made on Hanukkah