Happy Velumstimes

We can't talk about Valentines in this house without referencing this video:

(skip to 2:16 if you don't want to watch the whole thing)

Pretty great, right? You're welcome. 

I made a very unofficial goal this year to try to make holidays more memorable. All the smaller holidays can feel pretty ho-hum when your main interaction in the day is with a child who can't tell August 3rd from Christmas day, so I figured it was my job to make them more fun. Besides, I want to have fun traditions when Charly is old enough to get excited about the holidays. This year just gives me some practice time before the real deal when my child has expectations for holidays.

I planned on making cute decorations but didn't get around to it. Good thing this is a practice year, right? 

I did, however, get up early when Matt got up and made Valentines breakfast.

Mini German pancakes, made in a muffin tin, and dyed pink, of course! 

I found the recipe via pinterest, but you can go directly to the recipe through this link to Real Mom Kitchen.

Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash

I have been holding on to this recipe for a cold winter's day. It looks so rustic and warms me up inside just by looking at it.

Pho-Real!

Moving from a town of 6,500 people to the suburbs of Washington DC has provided a lot of opportunities for us as far as stuff to do. Top on my list of stuff to do is eat.We don't exactly have the disposable income available to us with the cost of living being so high in this area. We do however, crawl out of our cave every now and again and partake of some good food. The Chiropractor office I visit is right next to a Vietnamese noodle parlor that is always full of people when I drive by. Normally I just slow down to a creeper speed and salivate as I watch people slurp up delicious noodles. We finally decided to check it out, mainly so I wouldn't get a restraining order for putting my nose up to the glass and breathing heavily every time I am there.

I have never been to a restaurant like this and have never had Pho before and thought I would pass on my knowledge to anyone who is pho ignorant like I was. Pho (pronounced "fuh") is a Vietnamese noodle soup normally served with beef or chicken. The soup is normally served with a side of fresh basil, bean sprouts, chilies and lime. These can be added as the diner wishes. When selecting beef you generally have options of what cut of meat you want; steak, fatty flank, lean flank, and brisket.

I'm thinking I want to try to make some for myself. Here is the recipe I want to try:

Vietnamese Pho: Beef Noodle Soup by Steamy Kitchen




Source

 Move over Iranian Kabobs, I think I may have found my new favorite ethnic food! I wonder what we will try next? Is there any exotic or ethnic foods you have recently tried or want to try? Let us know, I'm always looking for something new!

How to Enjoy Autumn

The other day as I guilted myself about not writing any blog posts for most of the month of October, I stopped to ponder what I have been up to. You know what I realized? I have been busy drinking up all that is autumn. This is my favorite season, especially in Virginia. My time has been filled with apples and pumpkins, boots and scarves, and preparing for the seasons and holidays ahead. Here are a few of the things I've been doing to fully partake in the changing seasons:

1. Participate in the harvest

Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup

With the Super Bowl coming up I thought I would post a Super Bowl-esque recipe. My mother-in-law went to a cooking class a few years ago and it was geared toward cooking Super Bowl food. In this class she learned how to make a Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup. She posted this recipe on her blog lovinfromthebarneckoven.blogspot.com. We have been making this soup for a few years and love it every time! We started when I was on a big wing kick and would try anything with buffalo wing sauce in it. I also think you could cut out most of the chicken stock and add extra Velveeta cheese and make a dip if you shredded the chicken. But that is just a thought. This soup is really easy and will warm you up on a cold day. It is a winning recipe for any wing lover!

Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup

1 small onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1/4 cup (4 Tbs) butter

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

14 oz. Can chicken broth

2 cups cooked & diced chicken (1 used 3 breast)

4 oz. Velveeta cheese

1/4 to ½ cup Franks Red Hot or Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce

1/4 cup sour cream

Bleu Cheese Crumbles (if desired)

Cook onion and celery in butter until tender, stir in flour. SLOWLY whisk in milk and chicken broth. Add chicken. Add velveeta and stir until melted. Add hot sauce, sour cream and sprinkle with bleu cheese to your taste preference. Cook low, stirring constantly until heated through and bleu cheese is melted. SERVE!

This make enough for about 4 people. It is a big hit and the pot is usually scraped clean.

You may use rotisserie chicken from the grocery store if desired.

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

We made this last week and couldn't get enough of it. By now you should know I love to make soups and with winter coming up I'm sure I will post more soup recipes. This one was really easy to make and took only 40 minutes. If you don't have apple wood bacon that's ok, but look into getting some soon because it's so good! I really like Oscar Meyer's Super Thick Cut Apple Wood Bacon. This soup is creamy, but has the crunch of the bacon and corn that hit this one out of the park. Now that things are getting cooler it’s a good time to try this because you can still find some summer vegetables at the store. Also soup is really good to make extra of and freeze. Then when you don't have a lot of time to make dinner you just thaw and enjoy. That is exactly what we are doing today with this recipe!

Summer Squash and Corn Chowder

Ingredients
2 slices apple wood-smoked bacon
3/4 cup sliced green onions, divided
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 pound yellow summer squash, chopped
1 pound frozen white and yellow baby corn kernels, thawed and divided
2 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk, divided
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation
1. Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 2 teaspoons drippings in pan. Crumble bacon, and set aside. Add 1/2 cup onions, celery, and squash to drippings in pan; sauté 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

2. Reserve 1 cup corn; set aside. Place the remaining corn and 1 cup milk in a blender; process until smooth. Add remaining 1 1/4 cups milk, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to blender; process just until combined. Add pureed mixture and reserved 1 cup corn to pan. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt. Ladle about 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 4 bowls; top each serving with about 1 tablespoon bacon, 1 tablespoon remaining onions, and 1 tablespoon cheese.

Tuscan Yellow Pepper Soup

Holli and I babysat the Olsen’s daughter Eliza this last week. Holli is taking a class as training for work and had to do her homework after we put Eliza to bed. While she was reading I got bored and started looking at cookbooks. Luckily the Olsen’s have great taste in food and I really enjoyed looking at their cookbooks. I found this one in Gourmet Today pg. 122. I really wanted to make it so I took a picture with Holli’s phone. In turn I will give the Olsens some soup. Also for the record, the pictures on this blog aren’t mine. I normally post recipes from different blogs that I have tried and most pictures are from those blogs. Also on a final note…this soup was awesome!

Tuscan Yellow Pepper Soup

¼ cup Olive Oil; 1 ½ tesp. Olive Oil for the end

1 Medium Carrot peeled and finely chopped

1 Medium Onion (about ½ Cup) finely chopped

1 Celery Rib finely chopped

4 Yellow Peppers deseeded and cut into 1” strips

1 lb Boiling Potatoes peeled and cut into ¼” pieces

1 Cup Beef stock or Low Sodium broth

4 Cups Water

1 ½ tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Pepper

Heat ¼ Cup Olive Oil in a large pot until hot but not smoking. Add Onion, Celery and Carrots and cook about 10 min on Med High heat. Add Peppers, Potatoes, Water and Stock. Bring to a boil then lower temp to low and simmer for 40 min. Add soup to a blender in stages. Be careful blending hot liquids. You can also use an immersion blender. Pour blended mixture through a sieve. Add remaining Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper. Serve soup hot or cold. Top with fresh chives or a dollop of sour cream.

Cold Soup on a Hot Day

Cold soup has never sat well with me. I have been intrigued by gazpachos for a long time, but never brave enough to try one. Last week I ran across this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs and decided to give it a go. All the Gazpachos I have seen were tomato based and this one was just calling to me. I have a few suggestions after making this: 1) this soup is better as an appetizer or side and not a main course. 2) I added some homemade croutons on top and added in some sliced grapes and it was awesome. 3) Holli bought me an immersion blender for Father's Day and it was way easier and faster than using a blender or food processor, so if you have one use it. 4) If you are using almonds that have the skin on, they need to be blanched to remove the skin. If you don't know how check this link out http://gourmet.lovetoknow.com/How_to_Blanch_Almonds.

I really liked this soup and making it didn't heat up the house. If you are brave enough to try a cold soup this one is a winner in my book. Enjoy!

White Gazpacho Recipe

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of crustless stale bread, broken into pieces

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (use vegetable stock for vegetarian version)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup slivered blanched almonds (must be blanched, the skins are bitter)

2 cups green seedless grapes, sliced in half

2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped

1-3 chopped garlic cloves (depending on how garlicky you want the result to be)

2-3 Tbsp sherry vinegar or cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

Chives for garnish

METHOD

1 Heat the stock until it's steamy. Turn off the heat and add to the stock the broken up pieces of stale bread. Let cool.

2 Put the almonds, salt and garlic in a food processor and pulse until the almonds are pulverized. Add the soaked bread and any stock that was not absorbed by the bread into the food processor, then add the grapes and cucumbers. Pulse until the mixture is a rough purée.

3 Add 2 tablespoons of the vinegar and pulse a few seconds to combine. Taste and add the other tablespoon if it needs it – grapes can sometimes be acidic enough to leave out the final tablespoon of vinegar.

4 With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil. Turn off the motor and taste the gazpacho. Add more salt if needed.

Chill before serving, garnish with chopped chives.

Serves 6-8.

Lost

Well Lost is over, but we took it out with a bang! For the past few months we have been having Lost dinner nights with our friends Stephanie and Michael. We would switch off making a fancy dinner or a fancy desert. This week we combined forces and made a five course dinner. We started off with a salad with bacon vinaigrette and a poached egg next was carrot apple bisque, then a balsamic cherry tomato bruchetta. The main course was homemade cheese ravioli with a roasted garlic and tomato cream sauce. Desert was the crème brulee recipe that I posted last week. Let's just say it was delicious and I shed a tear for every course. I was even more satisfied after watching the LOST series finale. Ok here are a couple of recipes.

Frisée Salad with Bacon-Shallot Vinaigrette

Ingredients

3 slice(s) bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

12 ounce(s) (2 to 3 heads) frisée or 2 bags (5 to 6 oz. each) mixed baby salad greens

1 medium shallot, minced

2 tablespoon(s) white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon(s) Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon(s) salt

1/4 teaspoon(s) pepper

2 tablespoon(s) olive oil

6 large eggs

Directions

In 2-quart saucepan, cook bacon on medium 5 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet, heat 1 inch water to boiling on high to poach eggs in later. Trim and discard stem ends from frisée; cut leaves into bite-size pieces. Place greens in large bowl.

Remove saucepan from heat. With slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain; discard all but 1 tablespoon bacon fat.

Into bacon fat remaining in skillet, whisk shallot, vinegar, Dijon, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper. In slow, steady stream, whisk in oil until combined. Add warm vinaigrette to bowl with frisée and toss until evenly coated.

Reduce skillet heat to medium to maintain water at gentle simmer. Break eggs, one at a time, into cup. Holding cup close to surface of water, slip in each egg. Cook eggs 3 to 5 minutes or until whites are set and yolks begin to thicken. With slotted spoon, lift out each egg and quickly drain, still in spoon, on paper towels.

To serve, divide frisée among 6 salad plates; top with bacon and egg. Sprinkle egg with coarsely ground black pepper if you like.

Carrot Apple Bisque

4 Carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

1 Tbsp. butter

4-8 C. chicken broth

1 large apple, chopped, or 1 C. apple sauce

1/2 C. heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/3 C. green onion or chives, minced

In a sauce pan, combine carrots with butter and 1 C. of the chicken broth. Cook, covered, until carrots are very tender, about 15 minutes. Add apple and cook 5 more minutes. Remove pan from heat, take off lid and allow cooling for about 10 minutes. Whirl carrot mixture into a blender until smooth or force mixture through a strainer. You may need to add more chicken broth to blend. Return to saucepan. Stir in the cream and nutmeg. Stir in remaining chicken broth until the soup reaches the desired texture. I like mine a little more liquidy. Serve hot or cold. Top with chopped chives or green onions.