Booze Soup!

The night before the Brain and I left on our honeymoon, a week after the wedding so we could relax and sleep and get all those thank you notes out, his parents took us to a restaurant by the Cleveland airport for dinner. There we were, grateful the wedding was over, ready to start our lives together, fairly exhausted from the wedding planning and execution, excited to go on our honeymoon, and ready for some quiet time. The weather was beautiful and sunny, a dramatic change from the snow on our wedding night (in APRIL). Yes, winter never ends here. Anyway, poised on the beginning of adventure, there we were at this really good restaurant, and I had the beer soup.

I'd never had beer soup before. I think on some level I mourned the 35 years of my life that went by without me having tasted it. Kind of like how I feel about sauerkraut balls and fennel and other such delicious things I grew up not knowing about. It was delicious and cheesy and tasted definitely of beer. And up until now I've simply lived with the memory. The Brain doesn't do so well with dairy.

But then a couple weeks ago, my sister in law handed me a cookbook with this recipe marked. It is the Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread cookbook. The recipe was the Tomato and Potato Cheddar Soup with Beer. She had thought it looked like a good recipe, but her terrific kids happen to be mighty picky eaters and the cookbook just had more elegant tastes than the kids would eat. I happily took the cookbook off her hands and decided that I would make the soup (or my version of it) and eat it for lunches while the Brain was off with the older men on Thursday afternoons, and during Rotary and times like that.

Well now, the Brain looks at my soup and I keep telling him, "no no no, you can't have this soup". It's mean of me. I know. But this soup is REALLY good. And it would make his tummy REALLY hurt. And I did, after all, make him Manwiches *shudder* for lunch today, so it's not like I don't cook what he likes to eat. In fact we've had so much pizza and Chinese and spaghetti and more pizza this week, that I really have to apologize that I didn't try anyone else's recipes this week. I barely made enough to blog about. Sorry, it's been a lazy lazy week.

Tomato Potato Beer Cheddar Soup

adapted from the Daisy Hollow Soup & Bread Cookbook

1 bottle Ale

6 large potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/4 inch slices

4 cups chicken stock

3 bay leaves

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1 large onion chopped

1 rib celery chopped

1 carrot peeled and sliced

5 cloves of garlic crushed in a garlic press

1 15oz can petite diced tomatoes, undrained

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp flour

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce

1/2 tsp dry mustard

12 oz. extra sharp cheddar, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

fresh flat leaf parsley for garnish

1. Pour the beer into a heavy dutch oven. Add the potatoes and stock. If the potatoes aren't covered add enough water to cover them. Add the basil, oregano and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile in a large skillet, melt the butter and saute the onions until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the celery, garlic and carrot and saute about 5 minutes more. Add the tomatoes, Worcestershire, and soy sauce, and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 to 20 minutes until the liquid evaporates. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and cook, stirring constantly for 1 to 2 minutes. Gradually add the cream and stir while cooking until the mixture thickens. Add the dry mustard and Tabasco. Transfer the entire mixture to a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

3. Stir the cream mixture into the dutch oven.Turn down the heat so that the liquid barely simmers. Add the cheese and cook, stirring frequently until the cheese melted and the potatoes are falling apart, about 20 minutes more. Once the potatoes are falling apart, blend the soup with an immersion blender until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let sit for about an hour to let the flavors develop and then bring back up to temperature and serve garnished with parsley.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Spicy Eggplant Sauce

Well the snow has started. It started at about 10am. One full hour earlier than it was supposed to start. Fortunately the MRI people called me when there was a cancellation so I was able to go in 2 hours earlier. That was a relief. The open MRI was also a relief. It was still noisy like a regular MRI, but there wasn't that hideous feeling that rises up in my throat that I am going to get stuck and trapped for the rest of my life. There was no hyperventilating. I didn't need to be drugged. Although, while driving through the snow I couldn't help but think how much I like that quick little bit of Valium. Its just so calming and lovely.

So yeah, the snow has started. We're scheduled to get between 10 and 15 inches and we've got a blizzard warning that starts at 4am and runs until Sunday. I will be shut inside the house just a chilling, maybe making some of that unbelievable Julia Child French Bread. Somebody suggested, and I apologize for not remembering who, making a double batch at the same time to get more bread, same all day affair. Brilliant!

But I digress, while the Brain has been cleaning the house, not because he saw this article, but because he's worried we'll lose power if we have a blizzard, I made dinner. I made this delicious and oh so very easy dinner in way less than half an hour. It's quick. It's easy. AND it's super healthy. There's a mere 1g of fat and 9g of dietary fiber. The best part about it though is that it's really darn good. Even though I made the, oh so common for me mistake, of cooking the entire box of spaghetti instead of just the 8oz. Ooops.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Spicy Eggplant Sauce

from Betty Crocker's a Passion for Pasta

4 servings

8oz. uncooked whole wheat spaghetti

1 small eggplant peeled and cubed (about 3 cups)

1 can (14.5oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

2 tsp parsley flakes

Cook and drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking water.

Heat the eggplant, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and red pepper in a skillet. Simmer, stirring occasionally until the eggplant is tender, about 12 minutes. Add some of the pasta water if the sauce gets too dry. Stir in parsley flakes. Combine pasta and sauce and garnish with more parsley and some Parmesan cheese.

Per Serving: 265 calories (10 calories from fat); 1g fat (0g saturated); 0mg cholesterol; 630mg sodium; 62g carbohydrate (9g dietary fiber); 11g protein.

Carrot Salad with Lemon Walnut Vinaigrette

We are expecting yet more snow. Somewhere around 8 to 14 inches of snow is predicted. It's just downright depressing. The Meijer's was packed full of people stocking up before the storm when I went grocery shopping today. I have to admit I was stocking up too. But I was only stocking up until the big doctor's appointment next Friday. I also went to the library and although I discovered that it has a larger cookbook section than the local Borders, it took me almost 2 hours to find 5 books to check out. I was careful, just in case, to pick books that I can renew for 3 weeks at a time, so that IF I have to be off my feet I'll have something to read. I've also learned that I need to alphabetize my book list by author and genre (fiction, nonfiction, etc.) because either I was looking in the wrong places or my book list is highly obscure. I'd love it if you could recommend a good book to add to my reading list.

So by the time I got home, I was cranky and developing a headache. I wanted something to eat that wasn't a lot of hassle, yet tasted good. I started some soup. While the soup was cooking (for 30 minutes, but at that point it seemed like forever), I made this wonderful perky salad. Yes, I called it perky. Try it, you'll see what I mean.

The hardest part about the salad was shredding the 2 whole carrots. But even that I did on the box grater instead of the Cuisinart. We don't have a dishwasher and it was a cleanup issue. So once the carrots were shredded, bing bang boom, I mixed up the vinaigrette and it was done. And it was good. The mustard and lemon and walnut oil created a surprisingly happy combination. To quote one of the actress guest judges on the original Iron Chef "Hee hee hee hee. It tastes like a party in my mouth. hee hee hee hee."

Carrots in Lemon-Walnut Vinaigrette

from Healthy Cooking For Two (Or Just You!)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp walnut oil

1 1/2 cups coarsely grated carrots

Salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and mustard until blended; then gradually whisk in oil.

Add the carrots and toss well. Taste the salad and season it with salt and pepper as needed.

Per Serving: 78 calories, 4.7g total fat, 0.4g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 32mg sodium, 0.9g protein, 9.1g carbohydrates, 2.7g dietary fiber.

If you have a nut allergy, you can substitute canola oil for the walnut oil.

Spicy Bell Pepper Salad

Sometimes when I go to the grocery store things aren't on my list and I know that I'll need them for recipes I've planned to cook through the week. These are the staples. Things like carrots, potatoes and peppers. You would think that I would remember whether or I have these things or not, but remember, I've run out of flour without knowing it before. Sometimes I think I don't have them at home and I end up with enormous excesses of them. Remember the 10 pounds of carrots? And sometimes I forget that I don't have them at home. I did this with potatoes this week. It's hard to make a potato dish without potatoes. Unfortunately, instead of those potatoes I grabbed peppers. Close, but no cigar. Suddenly I had 6 bell peppers of assorted colors in the fridge. And really I'm not eating 3 days of stuffed peppers. I like them, but that's too many days in a week.

I could repeat the chocolate bell pepper salad, but it's been cold outside and sleeting and generally yucky and I wanted something cooked. My mind has officially drifted to wishing it was spring. This of course was not helped by the fluke sunny 50 degree morning we had on Monday. Now I want to plant my garden and grill on the BBQ (which currently is under a healthy layer of sleet).

And this salad would go great with BBQ. It's the Spicy Bell Pepper Salad courtesy of Bon Appetit. It's not really too spicy. The spicy actually brings out the sweetness of the peppers. I'm sure it would be better with fresh dill, but my dill plant is also under a nice covering of sleet and has been dead for a long time. I used dried dill and it worked pretty well, although the fresh dill would be prettier. I'd like to try it next time with fresh. And yeah, there will be a next time. With a nice grilled steak. or chicken. and a beer. mmmmmmmm.

Spicy Bell Pepper Salad

from Bon Appetit

1 1/2 tsp caraway seeds

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp dried crushed pepper

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/3 inch thick rings

1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/3 inch thick rings

1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/3 inch thick rings

1 medium onion, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds, separated into rings

1 lemon

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 Tbsp dried dill or 1/4 cup fresh

Peel lemon with potato peeler so that you have wide strips of the zest (no white parts).

Toast caraway seeds in large skillet over medium high heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in oil and crushed red pepper. Add all of the peppers, onion rings, lemon peel, and the garlic slices. Saute until all of the vegetables are crisp tender, about 7 minutes.

Transfer pepper mixture to a bowl, mix in dill and cool. (Here you can remove the lemon peel, but I found it added a really interesting and cooling dimension to the dish.) Juice the lemon and mix it in with the salad and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Hooray it's my 100th post!

Oh Yeah They're FIERCE!

CB over at I heart Cuppycakes and Andrea over at Born to Entertain are hosting a "fierce" cupcake challenge. See it's inspired by this designer on Project Runway who reminds me of a gay little boy version of Paris Hilton. Fairly amusing. Fairly annoying. But as I've been feeling a little on the fierce side of life myself as of late I decided this was one I was going to get in the spirit with.

So here they are. My super fierce, oh yeah, oh no I didn't cupcakes. These luscious and yet kicky treats aren't taking crap from anyone. They aren't too sweet and have one heck of a bite. What's more, they get on with their fierce selves in full makeup and the utmost in fashion footwear. They're also fierce 'cause they aren't afraid to speak their minds. Good luck getting to shut them up in fact. There were 4 of them, but Roxanne plunged to her death in the hot oven rather than be objectified by the masses. She's still haunting me to this day.


Lola

Sophia

and Veronica

And really it's a good thing there were originally only 4 of them. If there were say 18 or 20 I might just have to eat them all myself. They were so very delicious. And yet kicky. (This is actually the first thing I've made out of this cookbook and it worked out really well!) And this was what getting their picture taken was like...



Really Fudgy Fierce Cupcakes
adapted loosely from Small Batch Baking

4 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 ounce semisweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp yogurt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
yolks of 2 medium eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp Hershey Special Dark cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350°F. and prepare 4 muffin cups.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave just until melted and set aside until cool, but still soft.
Whisk together the yogurt, egg yolks, buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.
Place the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cayenne, and salt in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the butter and half the yogurt mixture. Beat with a hand mixer until combined. Pour in the melted chocolate and the remaining yogurt mixture and beat for about 1 1/2 minutes until well blended.
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Bake the cupcakes until a tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. About 20 minutes.

Fierce Chocolate Ganache

1/4 cup chocolate chips
2 Tbsp heavy cream
2 pinches cayenne pepper

Place the chocolate chips in a little bowl. Add the 2 pinches of cayenne to the heavy cream and heat in the microwave until hot, but not bubbling. Pour the cream mixture into the little bowl and let sit for a little bit to let the chocolate melt. Stir to combine.

To assemble:

The cupcakes will have developed a divot in the center of each cupcake. Pour the chocolate ganache into the indents to create the open mouth of the screaming cupcakes. Wait until the chocolate has set. This is the hard part. Once the chocolate has set use decorating icing to create a mouth, eyes, lips, and teeth. Further embellish with sprinkles and jimmies.

E Rated Red Cabbage

When I started this little blog, I had no idea how much fun it would get to be and how many wonderful people I would get to know. And really, if anything, the outpouring of support I recieved in my last post for this whole silliness that's going on with my knee just means so much to me. I love that this community has helped me to stretch what I thought I could do and has introduced me to so many different cultures. And I'm so happy to say thank you to the lovely Deborah of Taste and Tell who gave me the Excellent blog award. Thank you! Deborah is a really super woman who presents healthy and delicious dishes and always leaves such kind comments.

So now I'd like to pass this award on to Cynthia at Tastes Like Home who is from Guyana and lives in Barbados and consistently blogs about Island food. Her pictures are mouthwatering and she's always helpful if you email her.

Secondly I'd like to pass this award on to Courtney at Coco Cooks. She blogs from Chicago and her blog features fantastic recipes that I would love to duplicate. Her cakes are beautiful and sometimes she pushes the envelope and comes up with exciting new dishes. Other times she makes me just want to lick the computer screen!

Thirdly I'd like to pass this award to Laurie at Quirky Cupcake. You might also know her as the host of the monthly Cupcake Hero. I love her sense of humor and I know I can tune into her blog for either some heavy duty drooling or a little bit of hilarity.

Last, I'd like to recognize a non-food blogger. I'd like to pass this award on to Marti at Standing Still. Marti has had so many challenges and situations over the last several months and yet she handles it all with grace and sensitivity and a wicked sense of humor. She also has some seriously great pottery.

SO those are my excellent blogs I'd like to recognize. Just a sampling of the many many excellent blogs out there.

And now for the recipe, which was really just a way for me to use up the second half of the red cabbage I used here. I wasn't planning on blogging about it, but then I tasted it and I knew that I had to share this red cabbage recipe. This is Red Cabbage with Bacon and Caraway from Bon Appetit.

Now I grew up eating ethnically German food. I am no stranger to red cabbage or caraway seeds or bacon. But most of the times I've had red cabbage before, either at home or at German Restaurants it's been cooked until it's dead. Soft, squishy, sweet and tart. Don't get me wrong, the dead kind is delicious and is total comfort food. BUT, and I really believe this, when vegetables are cooked 'till they are falling apart dead, you tend to lose the actual flavor of the original vegetable. For example, my Grandma U's green beans never actually tasted like green beans. That's not to say that the red cabbage I grew up with was tasteless and salty like Grandma U's green beans. It tasted of cloves and apples and vinegar and brown sugar and all sorts of yummy stuff.

But this red cabbage was still a little on the crispy side. We actually had to chew it. It was GREAT! And call me silly, I just love the beautiful purple color of red cabbage. I think it's so pretty You can still taste the wonderful saltiness of bacon and the brown sugar and cider vinegar, but the red cabbage taste comes through too. The Brain and I both really liked it.

Red Cabbage with Bacon and Caraway

from Bon Appetit

4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 head red cabbage, thinly sliced

3 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 Tbsp dark brown sugar

1 tsp caraway seeds

chopped fresh parsley

Cook the bacon in a heavy skillet until crispy. Remove from the pan and let drain on paper towels. Drain out about half the bacon grease. Saute the cabbage in the same skillet for about 3 minutes. Stir together the vinegar, sugar and caraway seeds and add to the cabbage. Saute until the cabbage is wilted, but still crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan, season with salt and pepper and mix in the bacon. Add more vinegar as needed. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and enjoy!

One Crazy Day of Bread and Tears

When the Daring Baker's challenge for this month was revealed to be Julia Child's 18 page French Bread recipe, picked by Mary the Breadchick and Sara of I like to cook, I have to admit I was scared. Scared like I was the first time I went on a date with the Brain. Scared in the I want to do this, but it's going to change my life. And what do I do if I put all this work into it and it turns out to be nothing? (call me kooky, but I was really nervous and excited about the first date with the Brain.) This whole Julia Child and french bread thing was the same way.

I had to make sure I had a lot of time set aside for this bread. Julia herself says that the whole making of the bread takes at least 6 1/2 to 7 hours before baking it. And I almost made it while I was at my mom's, but she's got a convection oven and frankly that scares me. So finally I decided on last Sunday. It was going to be the day for bread baking. We were house and dog sitting, so I almost did it in my mother-in-law's oven, because mine is a throwback to the era of non-digital clocks and rough estimates on dials. But in the spirit of Julia, who never seemed to mind making a mistake and fixing it, I decided to bake at home so I could reproduce the bread again if I wanted. (Without waiting for the Brain's parents to go on a trip.)

The problems actually started on Saturday when I asked the Brain if he wouldn't mind sometime when his shoulder felt better, fixing the leaky kitchen faucet. So on Sunday, after I'd started making my bread and it was snug in it's first 4 1/2 hour rise (it's cold here so the rises took longer) we went to Home Depot to get a new faucet. We picked out this gorgeous one that goes straight up and curves back down so that I could fit bigger pots under it. Incidentally it's great for filling up my circulating ice cooler, but I'm jumping ahead of myself here. I also checked with the Home Depot people about those unglazed terra cotta tiles and completely confused them. Well, until one finally figured it out and said I should just get a pampered chef baking stone 'cause that's what he had.

Back home again, we set about to changing the faucet. I was underneath just a screwing and unscrewing away. Of course I learned that it is important to shut off the water to the faucet before unscrewing the pipe, but no problemo, this was kind of fun. But then we realized we didn't have the part that went from the faucet handle parts to the water pipes. So Brain went and got some parts while I did the deflating and prepped the dough for the second 3 hour rise. The Brain came back and the part was about an inch to short, so out he went again.

When he came back he quickly went to work screwing these last two pipes in. I sat there kneeling with my feet on my but watching. (This is important you understand. I was just sitting there on my heels watching him finish.) When he finished we applauded and I stood up careful not to knock over the drip bucket. All of the sudden, HOLY JESUS! There was shooting pain going down from my knee into my calf. White hot pain that had me doing my fake Lamaze breathing (really what would I know about Lamaze breathing besides what I've seen on TV, but that's what I imagine in my head.) So there I was forcibly exhaling and the Brain asking "what the hell did you do?" What did I do? I started to cry. I hopped in our 120 year old house over to the couch (with visions of breaking through the floorboard into the dug out basement. Pleasantly plump girls do not hop in 120 year old houses unless they have to.)

According to the doctor who is an Ohio State fan (will the horribleness never end?) I have an angry medial compartment. Well the compartment matches the rest of me. How ridiculous to hurt myself standing up. I mean really I've exerted myself much more in the past and this is something I've done literally thousands of times before. Sooooo now I get to go through an MRI, if they can't do an open one, he's assured me I will be nicely drugged up. I'm a touch claustrophobic. And then probably surgery. All because I stood up.

But back to the bread. By the time I was back to breathing normally I was wondering what to do with this bread and my inability to walk really. The Brain told me I could throw it out, but I had several hours invested in it and really at that point I needed to bake. Baking is soothing for me. So I scooted the spare computer chair into the kitchen. At this point the Brain went to let the doggies out who were probably crossing their legs and dancing it had been so long. Standing on one leg, I managed to shape them into fairly decent looking boules. I slashed two of them straight down the center and I tried to get fancy on one and cut it in a crescent.

Then I somehow managed to get a pan of water into the oven without spilling any. And in the bread went. I couldn't find my squirt bottle to mist the bread, but to be honest I wasn't really in the mood to tear the house apart looking. I went with the whole basting the bread with water bit. I set the timer and went back to the couch. After a bit, I became aware of a burning smell. It turns out that one side of my oven is hotter than the other and the crescent cut boule was far more toasty shall we say than the others. The Brain tasted the bread the next morning and came up with the oh so explicit critique of "It tastes like bread."

I am a little more verbose than my handsome other half. I thought it was tasty. It was really really really tasty. It had a real nice crust. The crumb was chewy and there were some nice air pockets to it. It was exactly the kind of bread that I wish I could buy here in North Central Ohio, but I haven't found. It's all gone and I want more. I'll definitely be making it again. Whether I need surgery or not.

For the recipe go here. It's a big long one, but Julia made it really easy, I thought. If you're lucky like me and actually have Volume Two of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" it starts on page 57. And for more fabulous breads, go here.