Black Bean Soup

I love to make soup.  I like the entire process from chopping the ingredients, to mixing in spices, letting it simmer, enjoying the aromas throughout the house and finally sitting down to enjoy it.  There's something about a hot bowl of homemade soup that is downright COMFORTING.  You know what else I love about making soup?  It makes me feel proud that I took an empty pot and filled it with something other people find comforting ... that puts a big smile on my face.

I've made this Black Bean Soup several times over the past two years and it has become one of my favorites.  It has also quickly become one of my daughter's favorites ...she can't get enough of this stuff!  Hope you enjoy it too!      

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup diced white onions
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrots
1 red or yellow pepper, diced
2 tablespoons garlic, crushed
4 cans (15 oz) black beans
4 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon corn starch

DIRECTIONS

1.  Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan (I use a 3 quart pot) over medium/low heat.

2.  Add onion, celery, carrot, pepper and garlic to the oil and simmer slowly for about 15 minutes or until the onions are clear.

3. While the veggies are cooking pour the canned beans into a strainer and rinse under cold water.

4.  Measure 3 cups of the drained & strained beans into a food processor and add 1 cup of chicken broth.  Puree on high speed until smooth.

5.  Add pureed beans, remaining beans, remaining chicken broth, vinegar and spices to the pot & stir.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.

6.  Mix the corn starch with a little bit of water and stir slowly into the pot.  Simmer for an additional 40 minutes.

7.  Serve alone or top with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and/or tortilla chips.

Makes about 11 cups.

Recipe adapted from Food.com

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

When I started this blog my goal was to submit at least one entry per week.  I am sorry I am a little behind this week.  Here's why ... my almost 3 year old daughter who willingly used to take a long afternoon nap, sometimes 3+ hours, decided last week that she no longer needs to nap.  So you see, the time I used to have to cook and blog has diminished. I would have been a little more understandable about this nap issue if the 3 hour nap slowly went to 2 hours than 1 than none but we somehow pushed a fast forward button and jumped right to none = one sad mama missing her self-time in the afternoons.

Okay, I'm done venting.  Here's a yummy mashed sweet potato recipe that you can use as a side dish to compliment an entree this fall/winter season.  Outback Steakhouse used to have this on their menu and without warning, like my daughter's naps, took it off their menu leaving the customers who liked this side dish in pure disappointment. Well guess what Outback??...we can make the mashed sweet potatoes at home.    I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that sweet potatoes don't need to have anything added to them and that is true but every once in awhile it is fun to add some unhealthy stuff and push them over the edge in the culinary world to make them even tastier and wow your dinner guests.  These are so tasty that I even enjoy the leftovers cold.  The taste sort of reminds me of pumpkin pie and I have to admit I ate a spoonful right before I snapped the photo!!  These would be a great addition to your Thanksgiving menu.  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
4 medium sweet potatoes
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

TOPPING
1 tablespoon butter
6 tablespoons pecans, chopped
1/4 cup oatmeal (not instant)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
1.  Bake sweet potatoes in your microwave or conventional oven until soft.  I like to use the "baked potato" button on the microwave.

2.  Slice the baked potatoes in half and scoop out the filling into a large mixing bowl. Discard skins.

3.  Add butter, brown sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg to the potatoes and mash using an electric mixer until smooth.

4.  To make the topping melt the butter in a small saute pan.  Add pecans & oats and stir over low/medium heat for 5 minutes or until the mixture is hot (do not allow to brown).

5.  Remove from heat and mix in the brown sugar & cinnamon.

6.  When ready to serve reheat the potatoes in a saucepan or microwave until hot.  Top with the oat/pecan topping.

Makes about 6 servings depending on the size of the potatoes and it can be made ahead of time.

Recipe adapted from Food.com

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies ... they're a classic right?  They seem to be the cookie that almost everyone likes. Unfortunately I never really liked the way my chocolate chip cookies turned out.  I always just made the recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House package and time after time I was disappointed in the results.  I yearned for a perfect chocolate chip cookie that was comparable to one you would purchase at a bakery ... BIG, soft and chewy!!  So I started trying out some different chocolate chip cookie recipes until I found this show stopper, the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe that comes out perfect each time and just like the bakery cookies...perhaps even better.  Seriously, you've got to try these!!!  I've made this recipe several times and I will NEVER go back to the Toll House package recipe.  Granted, you can still use the Nestle chocolate chips, no issues with the chocolate just the recipe. I like to mix half semisweet chips with half milk chocolate chips but you can choose to use one or the other.  I have also tried this recipe with half chocolate chips and half peanut butter chips.  

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

2. Using an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips.  Refrigerate 2-3 hours.  

3. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

4. Using 1/4 cup measure dough and roll into balls.  Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart, press down slightly with the palm of your hand.  These make really BIG cookies so if you don't want them to be this big you can make them half the size using a cookie scoop (about 2 tablespoons in size).  

5. Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a metal spatula.

Makes 18 BIG cookies or 36 normal sized cookies.  Leftovers?... freeze them in a ziplock baggie, they thaw out in about 20 minutes and you can't tell they were ever frozen.  

Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Asian Chopped Salad

My little food blog has officially reached over 1,000 views!  WOW!  Thank you for reading my blog!! And for all the blog spam creators (yes, there are weirdos who write code to spam blogs so you think you get more hits than you really do) I'm happy to get 1,000 views whether all those clicks are real or not!  ;-)

Now for the Asian Chopped Salad ...

I love to cook but sometimes I get lazy and just don't feel like doing anything too creative (maybe I'm wasting my food creativity time on blogging, oops!).  When a lazy day rolls around I rely on quick & easy recipes (or there's always frozen pizza).  The Asian Chopped Salad from Sam's Club is one of my go-to EASY recipes.  I hope you're not laughing at me right now because I'm thinking/hoping I'm not the only one that has lazy cooking days.  Also, my blog has no rules so I don't have to create a new recipe every time I write an entry or maybe I'm just adding to my laziness by making a loop-hole to blog about a bagged salad, lol.  Anyways, everything you need is in the package and I simply add two grilled chicken breasts to the mix.  The bag contains cabbage, carrots, ginger sesame dressing, celery, almonds and wonton noodles for less than $3 ($2.58 to be exact).  Its super simple, super easy & healthy too.  For those of you who don't belong to Sam's Club, no worries, Dole makes an Asian Salad Kit that can be found at the grocery store.  Oh and one more thing - Ken's Steak House Salad Dressings makes a great Asian dressing if you feel like the little dressing packet in the kit isn't enough for you.

INGREDIENTS
1 bag of Asian Chopped Salad
2 chicken breasts, grilled & chopped

Mix everything in a bowl and serve!  Serves 2 people.

 

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

There's a little chill in the air this week as we get ready to begin the fall season.  I put my fall place mats on the kitchen table and exchanged a summer flower arrangement for one with fall colors.  I'm sad that summer has come to an end but also excited to begin a new season because fall brings with it all the birthdays of our family ... my husband, daughter and myself are all fall babies.  Burgundy is one of my favorite fall colors and it makes me think of the color of cranberries in an oatmeal cookie recipe that is perfect for fall.  The brown sugar and honey in these cookies make them chewy while the cranberries and white chocolate chips add great flavor and texture,  finally dust them with salt (if you dare) and you will keep people coming back for more.

INGREDIENTS
2 sticks of butter or margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs honey
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups oats
5 oz dried cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chips
coarse sea salt (optional)

Beat butter & sugar.  Add eggs, vanilla and honey mixing well.  Combine dry ingredients and add to the bowl.  Mix well.  Add cranberries and chocolate chips, stir until combined.  Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350'F.  Drop cookie dough by 2 tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet, dust with sea salt (optional) and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Recipe adapted from Food.com

Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

This is the entree I prepared last week for our anniversary dinner.  The original recipe came from a Pampered Chef " Celebrate" cookbook*.  I made a few changes including the addition of lump crab meat and they turned out to be DELICIOUS!!  Some recipes are considered "guest worthy"and this is one of them!

We had a nice evening celebrating our anniversary and continued the celebration Friday evening with a visit back to Hotel Hershey (the scene of the crime a.k.a. wedding venue).  They did some major renovations to the Circular Dining Room including the name which is now The Circular.  We were very impressed!  The dress code is more casual...men are no longer required to wear jackets (although most still did and I even saw one guy in a tuxedo). They built a bar in the middle of the room and have some very talented mixologists on staff.  If you're looking for a romantic night out or if you're a foodie, this is the place to go...the food and service is outstanding and the view is just as beautiful as it was 8 years ago.

Okay, back to cooking at home...these portobellos are as impressive as anything you'd find in a fine restaurant, they're simple to prepare and take less than 30 minutes to bake.  I served them with sauteed spinach and pinot grigio.  One piece of advice is to make sure you buy lump crab meat ... its okay to substitute less expensive crab for dips and other recipes but this is the star of the show and you don't want to mess with the taste, texture and look.  Hope you enjoy them!

INGREDIENTS
2 Portobello mushroom caps (about 4 inches in diameter), remove stems
2 teaspoons Italian salad dressing
1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
1/3 pound lump crab meat (you can use the other 2/3 pound to make crab cakes another night)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon panko bread crumbs

1.  Preheat oven to 425'F.  Brush mushroom caps with salad dressing and place them gill side up in a baking dish.

2.  Chop mushroom stems, cherry tomatoes and basil.  Place in a bowl and add the pressed garlic, cheese and bread crumbs.  Mix gently.  Fold in the crab meat ... do NOT over stir!

3.  Scoop the mixture evenly into the mushroom caps until its piled high on top.  Bake for 18-20 minutes.



*Recipe adapted from Pampered Chef

The Motivating Menu

A few months ago I purchased a white board for in the kitchen.  It immediately turned into a "Menu board" and it has been motivating me to cook ever since. This little board begs to be written on in the morning and is a cooking cheerleader as you pass by it throughout the day so I highly recommend this kitchen addition if you are looking for some culinary motivation.

Today my husband and I are celebrating our 8 year anniversary which is a BIG DEAL considering he almost filed for divorce when he read my OKRA Secret blog entry!!!  Just kidding!  Marriage can be hard work sometimes and so can menu planning ...not knowing what to make from day to day, pairing side dishes with entrees, pairing courses and wines, etc.   I don't always have a super creative menu with multiple courses, sometimes its just an entree and side dish and on lazy days it might even say "Hawk's Club" (ha, that's an inexpensive alternative when we don't feel like cooking...its a restaurant down the road from our house) but no matter what it says, it feels good to have a dinner "game plan" and on the days it does have multiple courses it makes me feel focused.

Tonight's menu starts with a champagne toast to celebrate our anniversary. Then we will have Caesar salads followed by crab stuffed portobellos paired with sauteed fresh spinach and for dessert warm chocolate pudding cake (if successful will be like the hot lava cakes at restaurants).  I'm excited to be cooking a special meal for my husband tonight and happy to be celebrating not just these past 8 years but our future together.  I can't thank him enough for allowing me to be a stay-at-home-mom which at the same time has allowed me to spend more time getting creative in the kitchen and sharing a food blog with you!  Slainte (cheers)!!

What's on YOUR menu tonight??