Happy Halloween and Soup Revisited

The ghouls and goblins are out tonight.....or they're supposed to be anyway. DH has taken the boys out to trick-or-treat and I'm sitting here waiting for the little ghouls to start arriving. I was told that we could expect about 40 or so trick-or-treaters, but here it is, 10 minutes past the start time (6-8) and no one. This will be a HUGE change from our last house. In our last neighborhood, we would typically get 300-400 trick-or-treaters! There would be a constant stream of kids, usually starting a bit before the official start time. You barely had time to do anything but plunk candy in buckets and bags as fast as you could. That was a little much. But hopefully things will pick up a little more than this........

Tonight's dinner needed to be quick and easy so that I could get my own goblins out there door. I ended up making a soup from Cooking Light that is part of our regular rotation and one that I've posted about before. I figure it's worth revisiting once in a while, those recipes that we tend to make on a regular basis. That, and now that I've figured out how to work my camera without the flash and without daylight, my pictures are coming out better than when I last blogged about this soup.

Old Picture.........

New Picture..........
North Woods Bean Soup

Hey, at least it's improving a bit, eh?

Okay, it's been 20 minutes now, no goblins. They have to come help me get rid of some of this candy!!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Tags: soup, Cooking Light, low fat, recipe

Cookbooks

Quite often, the subject of cookbooks comes up over at the CLBB. Recently, someone was trying to find the King or Queen of Cookbooks - the person on the boards with the most cookbooks. As I read over the responses, my jaw dropped. 100? 190? 250? 293? 500? The numbers kept growing!

The winner? Our own Sweetnicks who came in with 932. Nine hundred and thirty-two cookbooks! I can't even fathom a number that large! Never mind that I don't have room to house that many cookbooks, I can't imagine ever having the time to even appreciate each and every one.

The more I read about some folks' love of (or is it obsession with?) cookbooks, I've come to realize that I really am not a cookbook person. I'm much too fickle. I'm commitment phobic when it comes to investing in a cookbook.

It's not that I don't appreciate a good cookbook, I do! I loved Mollie Katzen's The Enchanted Broccoli Forest with all the little notes and instructions all penned in Mollie's own hand, no less. Some cookbooks are beautiful, like Martha Stewart's Hors D'Oeuvres Handbook. Gorgeous photos and so many lovely-looking appetizers. I didn't care if I ever made a recipe out of it, I just had to have it.

Thing is, I find that I make a handful of recipes from each one and then I seem to lose interest. Perhaps I need to go through my cookbooks more often, but sometimes that just seems plain tedious. It's one thing if I just want to see what's inside - it can be fun to just casually browse, discovering and rediscovering - but it's another thing when I want to make something with chicken and end up hauling them all out, thumbing through each and every one, only to find there's nothing in any of them that I really feel like making.

I find that the internet better suits my needs most of the time. I can try recipes from many different sources without really having to commit to any one. And there are so many recipes floating around in cyberspace, there almost isn't any need for cookbooks. Almost......

Except that it just isn't the same to click as it is to turn the pages in a book. You really can't get any feel for the author of a recipe or cookbook by simply looking at a recipe online. Kind of like buying the single without buying the whole album (Did I say album? I meant CD.) You can still enjoy the song on its own, but you get a better feel for the creator if you buy the album, er, um, CD.

So, I still like and value cookbooks, I just don't want to own very many. At some point it truly begins to feel like clutter. I'd love it if my library had a more extensive collection so that I could take them home, look them over and then give them back when I was done. And maybe now and then, even decide I like one well enough to commit to it.

One of these days I'll get around to listing the few cookbooks that I do own here on this blog. You may have noticed that I put up a new section over on the sidebar a few weeks ago - Kitchen Hardware. I've begun listing many of the useful, fun or just plain practical items that make cooking more enjoyable. I hope to expand these lists and include cookbooks too. Won't be tonight though. Blasted Blogger isn't letting me upload any pictures - I guess I was lucky to get the one.

Off to figure out my menu for the week so that I can get to the grocery store tomorrow or the next day. What to make, what to make, what to make............??

Tags: cookbooks

Comparison Shopping

So, yes, it's been a lot quieter in the kitchen this week, but I've still been cooking. I managed to spend only $34.06 at Wegmans this week, but that doesn't mean we're not eating pretty well. By having a pretty well-stocked pantry and freezer, we've managed to have Easy Layered Beans and Rice, the Chicken Sausage and Provolone Penne Bake, Laura's Lean Beef Burgers, and pork chops with Baked Triple-Bean Pot. Supplemented, of course, with various frozen and fresh vegetables. Not bad.

I will probably throw one or two new recipes on for next week, but will still be trying to cook from the freezer and pantry. We still have plenty of beans, tuna for tuna melts, Wegmans' pierogies and raviolis, meatballs and marinara, a flank steak, and leftovers of Garlic Harvest Soup and Black Bean and Chorizo Chili.

Last week I started my comparison shopping between Sam's Club and Wegmans and it turned out to be very informative. While Wegmans does have competitive prices when compared to other grocery stores in the area and especially to what we were paying in Indiana at Meijer, most of their prices just don't compete with Sam's Club. Especially when it comes to meats and cheeses. Here are a few examples (all prices are per pound except Boursin which is by the container):


These prices are based on the cheapest items available at Wegmans, including their own store brand. Quite often, even their store brand can't compete with Sam's. There are some exceptions such as boneless, skinless chicken breasts - they will often be priced at $1.99 at Wegmans, but more often I see them for $2.59 - the price seems to change on a whim, never actually published as a sale. I haven't quite figured that one out.

My list is a lot longer than what I posted above, but a few exceptions, Sam's Club is still the most competitive. Look at the difference in goat cheese prices! For some reason, Wegmans seems to carry only a very expensive variety with no lower-priced options. If I were to buy just one pound of each of the items listed above, I'd be saving $32 at Sam's Club over Wegmans. That's nearly the price of the yearly $40 membership right there.

Looks like I'll be holding onto that membership. There are quite a few items, however, that I will continue to purchase at Wegmans even if they are cheaper at Sam's just because the bulk size at Sam's is just too large or more than we need at one time. If you can't even fit the container in your cupboard or fridge, it's not really all that convenient........

This week I will be near Giant with some time on my hands, so I will be collecting some prices in their store to see how they compare with Wegmans.

Pasta

Chicken Sausage and Provolone Penne Bake

Last night I managed to find a new recipe to make that did not require the purchase of any new ingredients. It's a recipe that's been on my to try list for a while and it's from Cooking Light.

It makes quite a large portion - it can definitely serve 8 very healthy-sized portions. While it was good, it was not spectacular. A good, solid recipe that is nice for an uncomplicated weeknight meal. As I was making it, I realized that it really didn't go much beyond what you might think to throw together on your own, but I was hoping it might end up being one of those recipes where the sum is greater than the parts - that maybe the balsamic would add an unexpected dimension to the overall flavor. Nope - just your basic pasta bake. Don't get me wrong - I would make it again, it's just that for a published recipe, it's not really all that original or exciting.

For the record, I used Wegmans' spinach and feta chicken sausage and I used a combination of ziti and rotini (using up those half-used boxes of pasta sitting in the cabinet). In the future, I would up the balsamic and red pepper flakes - perhaps that would push it from good to very good.

While I was out...

If I'm not going to do much in the way of new recipes this week, my posts may get a little random! Like this one.........

Today I went to the mall and to Sam's Club. The main purpose of my trip out there was to write down the prices of the things I tend to buy at Sam's Club and compare them to Wegmans to see if my membership there is really worth it. Of course it would have been more helpful to have completed this before I renewed my membership last week, but nonetheless, it will help me decide if I should renew it next year or not.

Wegmans seems to be quite competitive with Sam's for many things, but not all. Tomorrow night I will walk through Wegmans while DS is at Tae Kwon Do and write down their prices and do a comparison once I've gathered all my information. Can you tell I have a lot of time on my hands? Well, I do have the time and I do need to keep us on a budget, so I may as well do a little research. Eventually I hope to get to Giant and do some comparing there too.

I showed great restraint and walked out of Sam's spending only $20. I really only needed Halloween candy. I got one bag of 120 pieces for about $10. In Indiana, we lived in a neighborhood where we got 300-400 trick or treaters. I usually ended up spending close to $40-$50 for candy (we didn't live near a Sam's Club), so spending only $10 was kinda nice! I asked around and this neighborhood gets about 40. So, for $10, we can give each little goblin 2 pieces of decent candy instead of handing out one teeny tiny Tootsie Roll at a time for fear that we'll run out.
The other $10 went to my one and only impluse buy - a bag of Hershey's Almond Solitaires. Mmmm...these are good - and I'm not even a fan of Hershey's chocolate. I've tried quite a few different brands and have never been happy with them - except for one brand I bought online, but the price and shipping made them too expensive to buy regularly. I've tried some from Fresh Market, but the chocolate was a bit gritty. I tried some from Wegmans, but the chocolate had an unpleasant, plasticky coating. I know I tried a few others - can't remember the brands - but they were only okay.

These are quite good. The almonds are big and crunchy and the chocolate is rich and dark - the kind of dark that has a hint of espresso. Yum. If you like chocolate-covered almonds (mine have to be dark chocolate, no milk chocolate) and have a Sam's Club membership, you might want to run out and get some - the sign said they are a seasonal item. If you don't belong to Sam's but want to try them, I did find them on Amazon.

My other purchase today was a pair of slippers. Whoopee. Now that my laundry and scrapbooking area are in the unfinished part of the basement with a cold concrete floor, I really needed a pair of slippers. While I was looking, I found some Isotoner slippers that looked and felt oh-so-comfy. I was considering the bright red pair until I saw a Breast Cancer Awareness/Pink Ribbon Store display and saw these:I'm not big on pink, but I decided what the heck. It's for a good cause and who cares what color your slippers are anyway? As I was buying them, I remembered that Sweetnicks has been doing a nice job of displaying pink items you can buy to help fund Breast Cancer Awareness. Check out her site for more ideas for Pink Ribbon purchases in her "In the Pink" series, there's Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The slippers above are available at department stores like Macy*s - I also found them on the Isotoner site.

That's it for tonight. Until tomorrow............

Slowing Down

It's been a few weeks of quite a few new recipes for this kitchen, but it's time to slow down in an effort to keep to our grocery budget. This week's goal is to buy fresh fruits and vegetables and little else. Even when we're not on a budget, I like to do this - it's a great way to force yourself to dig into the pantry and the freezer and use up some of the things that tend to linger - collecting dust or ice crystals. I'll be cooking, just not much in the way of new recipes.

Smoked Sausage, Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Soup

I still have a few recipes to share though! The first one is from this weekend. I made this soup - from Emeril on Food Network - for the first time a while back in an effort to get us to try butternut squash. We were watching Emeril's show and my son said we had to try this recipe! Who am I to deny such a request?

The squash is pureed and used as a base for the broth and is paired with smoked sausage, corn and wild rice. We really like this soup and it was the perfect way to try a new vegetable - sometimes trying a new vegetable as a background to other foods you already love can be a great way to get familiar with it and open the door to other experiments down the line.

It's not written as a low-fat recipe, but with all of the other flavors involved, I think you could easily get away with substituting a lower fat milk for the half and half. If it were a butternut squash puree with little else added, the half and half would be a lot more critical, but the chicken broth, wild rice and sausage can carry the flavor of this soup without the added fat. This time around I used the half and half, but I did cut the fat by using a turkey smoked sausage which is much lower in fat than the regular version.

Since butternut squash is the base of this soup, I think I'll submit it for Sweetnicks' ARF/5-A-Day round-up tomorrow night. This is a great soup to try if, like us, your family is not exactly enamored of squash. Be sure to visit Sweetnicks tomorrow to see all of the other veggie recipes joining the round-up.

I may not try any new recipes for dinner this week, but I wonder if I'll be able to resist baking - as long as I already have the ingredients on hand...................

More Figs....

Continuing the goat cheese and fig theme, we tried another appetizer yesterday. Although these too were very good, they were in the unenviable position of following the spectacular appetizer from Friday and they didn't quite measure up. The consensus was that the prosciutto rolls were better.

But, just because they weren't as delicious as the prosciutto rolls doesn't mean these weren't wonderful in their own right. It was once again a nice balance of sweet and salty - sweet coming from the figs and shallots which are simmered in a Port wine and thyme sauce and salty from the goat cheese. They are easy to assemble and the fig jam can be made ahead of time.

Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini

This was our first time trying fresh figs. Since I've never eaten a fresh fig, I had no idea how to pick out a good one and have no idea if the figs I bought were good figs or not so much. They didn't have much flavor as far as I could tell, very mild and a bit sweet, but the pretty colors revealed when they are sliced made for a very nice presentation.

Overall, our first experiments with figs were a great success. While searching Epicurious, I saw quite a few other recipes involving figs and/or goat cheese - I will have to go back and see if I can find a few more gems to try.

Tags: figs, goat cheese, appetizer, Epicurious, recipe

Fantastic new appetizer.

With company coming this weekend, I set out in search of a new appetizer to make. I love appetizers and I'm always looking for something new and yummy to make. As I was searching, I found several recipes that were quite different from the sorts of appetizers I'm usually drawn to, so I decided to step out of the comfort zone and try something new. Coincidentally, both appetizers I found happened to involve figs - something I've never cooked with before.

The fig appetizer we tried tonight was amazing. Elegant in presentation and unusual in its combination of ingredients, it was a delight to the eyes and the taste buds. The saltiness of the prosciutto and goat cheese, paired with the sweetness of the figs and accented by the peppery arugula - it all worked beautifully.

Prosciutto is topped with goat cheese and figs and drizzled with olive oil/lemon juice.

Next, the arugula leaves.......

It's fairly easy to prepare - you just have to make sure the prosciutto isn't too thin and that the goat cheese is very soft. I warmed my goat cheese in the microwave which made it very easy to spread, but I think it altered the texture too much - after it was chilled again, it became crumbly. I feared that might happen, but it was worth a try.


This will be a definite repeater for us. It would make a nice summertime appetizer as it requires no cooking whatsoever.

Prosciutto Rolls with Arugula and Figs

Tomorrow......an appetizer with figs and goat cheese again, but a little different........

Tags: figs, goat cheese, arugula, prosciutto, appetizer, Epicurious, recipe

3 New Recipes

We have company coming again this weekend, so I used their visit as an excuse to try 2 new muffin recipes.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins

The first batch - Oatmeal Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins - smelled and looked fantastic, but tasted only okay. I think the main problem for me is that they weren't sweet enough and they were a tiny bit dry. Admittedly I was a bit short on banana - maybe by a 1/4 cup - so I added one tablespoon of canola oil in an effort to replace some of moistness that would have come from the banana. They do have a nice texture and you can definitely taste the banana and the peanut butter, so I'd give these another try and see if the sugar fixes the problem. And maybe add one more tablespoon of oil.

Cran-Apple Muffins

The second batch came out much better. I haven't had a chance to fully evaluate them, but the few bites I had were nice and tart with a hint of cinnamon shining through. I used a Cameo apple which I'd liken to a Gala in taste - it was crisp, not too sweet, not too tart. I think a sweeter apple works best with this muffin since the cranberries supply a lot of tartness on their own. Unfortunately I was out of raw sugar, so no topping this time, but it would be a nice addition not only for looks, but as an added contrast to the cranberries.

Last but not least, it's soup night again. I've been wanting to try a cheese soup recipe, but was ambivalent. The nutrition-concious side of me wanted to try a reduced-fat version but the rest of me knew that it probably wouldn't work. I almost ditched the low-fat version in favor of this awesome-sounding soup that Sweetnicks just posted about last night, but I chickened out and opted for the a Cooking Light recipe.

As I thought, it turned out only so-so. Not bad by any means, but not what I wanted out of a cheese soup either. I did up the fat by using only full-fat cheese. I am not a fan of reduced-fat cheeses and refuse to use them. This recipe calls for 1% milk, but since I don't like to have to buy all sorts of different kinds of milk, I just used the skim milk we already had and added a bit of cream to up the fat content. Actually, I used a full 1/2 cup, so it probably upped the fat content a little too much.

I'm including a photo, but I haven't figured out how to make these kinds of soups look good in a photograph.........

Beer Cheese Soup

Even the cream couldn't make this soup a repeater for us. Next time, we're going full-fat. Some things just aren't meant to be lightened and this is one of them.

Up tomorrow - those appetizers I was talking about. The new, secret ingredient I'll be using is figs! Along with goat cheese, arugula and prosciutto...................

Quick & Easy: Raspberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken

This is an oldie but goodie from Cooking Light. It's easy and delicious. The sauce is so good that I usually make a bit more than the recipe calls for and use it to drizzle over my green beans as well.

Raspberry-Balsamic Glazed Chicken

Speaking of quick and easy - I paired the chicken with roasted green beans and roasted potatoes. The whole meal came together in a snap with little fuss and lots of nutrition.

When making the chicken, I cook the chicken first and then cook the onions instead of putting the onions in first. Just seems to make more sense and ensures that the onions don't get overcooked. Be sure to simmer the sauce a bit - once it reduces a little, it becomes thick and syrupy. Love the sweet with the zing of the balsamic - perfect combination.

Looks like my post tonight will be quick and easy too. Stay tuned tomorrow and later this week for more good things to come - more new muffin recipes, a cheddar soup, a butternut squash and smoked sausage soup and two new appetizers involving a new-to-us ingredient.

Tags: chicken, balsamic, Cooking Light, low fat, recipe

Rachael and Ginger

The two new recipes that came out of the kitchen tonight - Rachael sandwiches with a twist and chewy chocolate Ginger cookies.
First Rachael.........

I keep thinking that we don't eat enough sandwiches. This is partly because when I want a sandwich, I want something other than a couple pieces of meat thrown between two slices of bread.

Photo from dhs.gov

Ho-hum, nothing special, kinda boring.

I want something more like this:

Spanish Grilled Sandwich and photo from BHG

Now that's a sandwich! Interesting ingredients, fresh, crusty bread, something to make it really rock!

For some reason, it just doesn't occur to me to make sandwiches for dinner. Maybe because I think of sandwiches as something quick and easy for dinner, not something that can take time to create. But in order to make the kinds of sandwiches that I really love, it's going to require a little more than simple assembly, so I have to start thinking bigger.

The other day I was watching Food TV and caught this episode with Rachael Ray cooking up a kielbasa version of the popular Reuben sandwich. The typical Reuben ingredients are corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and Russian dressing on rye bread.

While I love the idea of the Reuben, I'm not a fan of sauerkraut, so I prefer the Rachael (which typically uses pastrami and coleslaw in place of corned beef and sauerkraut). But Rachael wasn't cooking up a Rachael, she was cooking up a Reuben. Since I prefer the Rachael, I decided to take her idea and cook up a kielbasa Rachael.

The Rachaels are ready for the skillet.

So, I got some prepared coleslaw (which I drained first to avoid soggy bread) and some swiss cheese. I couldn't find Russian dressing at the store, so I took a guess that Thousand Island dressing would make an acceptable substitute. Why don't they sell Russian dressing I wonder?

Kielbasa Rachael

The only thing missing from our sandwiches was a killer loaf of crusty rye bread. We already had the plain old Pepperidge Farm type of rye in the freezer, so I decided to be economical and stick with that. Not bad, but not the bread of my sandwich dreams. Still, when I finally get that Griddler I'm longing for (thanks to the very bad influence of the folks over at the CLBB), and have the means of making paninis, I will get the killer crusty loaf of bread. Even without a crusty loaf of marbled rye, the sandwiches were quite good. Definitely not your boring old turkey and cheese sandwich.

Now, on to Ginger...........

I recently spotted a recipe for ginger cookies over on the CLBB that sounded unusual and yummy - Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies. They went to the top of my to try list when I visited Culinary in the Desert Country and saw he had baked them earlier this week. Wouldn't you love to be his neighbor?!

As a puny 2 dozen cookies just doesn't cut it in this house, and since we have company coming again this weekend, I doubled the recipe. The only problem this presented is that once the dough is rolled into balls, it needs to be chilled. Since I doubled the recipe, I didn't want 4 cookie sheets in the fridge, so I chilled them on some wax paper, all on one cookie sheet until I was ready to bake them. One surprise for me - these cookies don't use any eggs! I was very surprised and had to check the recipe several times before I convinced myself it wasn't a typo.

The dough balls are chillin'.

I will reserve final judgement until tomorrow - cookies almost always taste better the next day - but for now I'm not sure. They are definitely good, I'm just not sure if I love them enough to make them again. There are so many cookies that I truly love and I'm not sure these are crave-worthy. But they are good - and certainly a nice change from the kind of cookies I usually make. Although I may never crave these cookies, I would make them for a party or a cookie exchange for a nice change of pace.

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Check it out - I finally got a picture with decent lighting at night without using my flash! I'll figure out how to make my digital camera work well yet! I'd really love to have a digital SLR with manual focus and more manual controls - I have a 35mm SLR, but that's not so convenient for blogging..........


Tags: Rachael Ray, sandwich, kielbasa, cookies, recipe

Time for Tempeh Too

We tried tempeh recently and while we all thought it was okay, we were more than a little underwhelmed. I definitely could detect an unpleasant bitter taste, so I knew I had to do a little research and try it again. I asked my SIL - who doesn't eat meat but isn't quite a vegetarian (she still eats seafood) - and she said that no matter how you cook it, you need to cook it for a minimum of 20 minutes to get rid of the bitter flavor. I completely forgot that she said she'd send me some recipes until an large envelope arrived in the mail on Friday, full of tempeh recipes. I happened to have an 8-ounce package left in the fridge, so I put it on last night's menu.

I picked a recipe that I knew would go over well - a spicy peanut sauce. What wouldn't taste good in a spicy peanut sauce? I morphed two recipes - the recipe she sent me and a recipe from Cooking Light to come up with a lightened version. Although I would have liked to have thrown in some snow peas or red pepper, all we had on hand was zucchini and instead of coming up with a separate way to prepare it, I just sauteed it and threw it in with the tempeh.

Tempeh with Spicy Peanut Sauce
(It tastes better than it looks!)

The sauce is wonderful and the tempeh just soaks it up and assumes its flavors. Cooking it in a tasty marinade helped it to absorb even more flavor and did away with any bitterness. I'm still not crazy about tempeh all by its naked self, but throw it in the right sauce and I'll eat it up.

The jury is out on whether it's worth cooking regularly with tempeh. It does provide an alternate protein source to meats, but it's expensive. Though I'd love to cook with all organic, whole or otherwise very healthy products, budget wins out at this point. For now, it will likely remain a once in a while thing.........I'm sure my family won't object if I don't serve it very often. They are tolerant and try just about anything I fix, but all the same, they'd probably rather have a burger.

Tags: tempeh, vegetarian, recipe, cooking, food

WDB and a New Blog!

I'm not sure if this WDB will appear at Sweetnicks this week or next as she's been on vacation, but I'll go ahead and post today. Look for the roundup either later tonight or next Sunday.

Here's a picture of poor Bailey being teased by his humans. While he tends to welcome just about any attention, even negative attention, I don't know if he was all that fond of this little bit of tomfoolery.

I'd also like to announce the first posting of my new
health and fitness blog -
Living Well!!

A while back I had tried to do some diet and exercise posting here at The Savory Notebook, but it just didn't seem to fit. I had a lot I wanted to do, but I felt it distracted from the main theme of this blog, food. So, I'm giving a separate blog a try. I realize it may prove too hard to keep up with two blogs, but it's worth a try. I will keep all of my cooking posts here, linking to this blog when I review a healthy recipe.

Speaking of healthy recipes, tune in tomorrow night for our second tempeh adventure.......

Making do

It's always interesting to try to cook with or make do with what you have on hand - which is essential now that we live too far out for last minute runs to the store. Sometimes I get a craving for something, find a recipe, but I don't have exactly the right ingredients on hand. Sometimes only a few minor adjustments are needed, sometimes what you end up looks little like what you started out making and sometimes you just have to deny your craving until some other day.

Cajun-Buffalo Chicken Dip

I had planned to shrimp and grits recipe from Epicurious tonight for dinner, something I've always wanted to try and was craving. Then I got a craving for an appetizer. I made the mistake of voicing this desire out loud and suddenly I was roped into making some sort of dip. All I knew is that I wanted to make something hot and cheesey, preferably with cream cheese. Many dips I came across sounded yummy, but most of them called for sour cream and we didn't have any. I finally decided on a buffalo chicken dip - we only had 1/2 the amount of hot sauce called for, but I was pretty sure it would work anyway. And it did. Yummy. And it was plenty spicy enough with the added cajun seasoning. We didn't have very many chips left, but just enough to give everyone a healthy portion.

What I didn't realize as I was making the dip was that I had planned to use the cream cheese as a sub for heavy cream in the grits dish and that I also needed a teaspoon of hot sauce. This was in addition to all the other changes I was already planning on making - like using bottled roasted red peppers instead of fresh, using fat-free half-and-half in place of cream, and Parmesan and Provolone cheeses instead of feta. Turns out my bottled roasted red peppers were moldy, so I had to make yet another change - I chopped up half an orange bell pepper we had in the fridge and added it along with the scallion and garlic.

Fortunately, everything worked. The grits were very flavorful - the sharp provolone was a nice addition - it added a nice bite without being overpowering, so 1/2 cup was just right. The shrimp cooked nicely atop the polenta and didn't dry out as I feared they might (I did toss them with a little olive oil first, just in case).

Shrimp and Grits

This dish has the potential for endless variations - you could probably add any cheese or vegetables you happen to have on hand and still turn out a very satisfying meal. Still, some day, I'd like to try the recipe as written.

Soup Night! Garlic Harvest Soup

I had planned to put a little more distance between our beef-a-thon last weekend (Friday night - hamburgers, Saturday night - steaks, Sunday night - Korean beef BBQ) and our next beef meal, but I've really been wanting to make this soup. So here we go with the beef again. I did, at least, manage to get in 4 nights of vegetarian meals inbetween the beef meals...........

We are headed off to the HS football game tonight - my oldest son is playing in the middle school band and they are playing until half time. I need to get dinner on the table early and then head on out the door.

20+ cloves of garlic!

This soup comes, once again, from a poster on the CLBB. This poster has blessed us with two other fabulous recipes - the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies and the Peanut Butter Ice Cream. With those two great recipes, I was very excited to try her soup, which received great reviews.

Look at all that garlicky goodness.....

The soup has a lot of garlic, but don't let it intimidate you - whole cloves are simmered, producing a very mellow garlic flavor, much like roasting. In fact, I would have liked more of the garlic flavor to come through. I didn't measure the puree, so I may have been short the 1 cup she calls for in the recipe. While I though the soup was good, it was missing something. I tried adding a bit more salt and a teaspoon or two of truffle oil, but it still needed something. Not a bad soup by any means, it just didn't, ahem, bowl me over. That said, soups tend to taste better the next day, so maybe it will surprise me tomorrow.

Jewel's Garlic Harvest Soup

I ended up using only 3 cans of beef broth and it was plenty. Not only would 5 cans (plus two cups of water and all the solid ingredients) not fit in my soup pot, I don't think it was necessary. I like a soup with lots of goodies in it, so a little less broth was a good thing.

All in all it was good, but I think there are probably recipes out there that we like better.

Warming up the House with.....

...peanut butter and butternut squash, but not all in the same dish.

While the boys were at school and a stiff, chilly wind was blowing, I warmed the house by baking the latest treat from the CLBB to tempt me. Val, one of the resident bakers who frequents the CLBB, posted a recipe for peanut butter brownies. Mmmmm......peanut butter. I happened to have some Hain Turbinado Sugar in my cabinets, just sitting there. Here was the perfect opportunity to finally use up this little bag that's been hanging around for quite a while - me not quite willing to toss it out, but not sure what to do with it either. So, why not peanut butter brownies?

Oh, my, these are really good. I doubled the recipe and baked them in a 9x13-inch pan for about 30 minutes and they seem to have turned out perfectly. They have a nice dense, chewy texture - just what I like in brownie. I did have to substitute a scant 1/2 cup of granulated sugar for a 1/2 cup of the turbinado or raw sugar and that seems to have worked just fine. My mind is already churning over a couple of minor tweaks that might add to these brownies.

Peanut Butter Brownies

A chilly, blusterdy day is also the perfect time to pour a glass of wine and stire a pot of risotto. We are not big squash fans in this house, but we do like to challenge ourselves to try new things in new ways. When I try new things, I try to pair them with things we already love, and we love risotto. I knew I had to make this recipe when I stumbled on it in my Williams-Sonoma catalogue. I may not be able to afford most of the stuff in the catalog, but I CAN make the recipes. In typical fashion, I forgot to check the recipe before going to the grocery store, so I came home with the butternut squash, but not the rosemary or sage. Not to worry, I just substituted a bit of these herbs in their dried states. Not as good as fresh, but worth a try.

Oh my again. This is one of those recipes that entirely lived up to my expectations. It's fantastic. I did tweak a bit here and there. For one thing, I've made several risottos and 7 tablespoons of butter seemed excessive. I scaled it back to 2 tablespoons and the risotto was still plenty rich and flavorful. It is a little on the sweet side, in part because of the caramelized onions, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Butternut Squash Risotto

This dish is time-intensive - even more so than most risottos because you need to bake the squash and caramelize the onions - but it's worth the effort. I tend to serve risottos as a main dish anyway - not only are they a lot of work, but they are filling and for me, they are usually the star of the meal anyway, with everything else on the table coming in a distant second. So why compete?

Mmmmm....what a tasty way to spend the day inside while the wind roared outside.

Tags: butternut squash, risotto, peanut butter, brownies, recipe

Korean BBQ: Galbi and Bulgogi

I don't know that I've ever had Korean BBQ before, but suddenly this past year, I've had it three times and love it.

This past spring, my DH's boss and his wife had us over for dinner. They are from Korea and they served a traditional Korean BBQ using thinly sliced beef short ribs. Later this summer, a friend of mine served a similar dish, but a thicker cut of beef rib, and again, we loved it.

My friend was not pleased with the results of using this thicker rib cut, so she was very excited when she finally found a traditional Korean cut of beef at the store and offered to bring it for us to cook for dinner during their visit. When we opened the package of beef, I was surprised to find a package of very thinly sliced beef.

When I looked up information on Korean BBQ beef dishes, I found that there are two popular but similar Korean beef barbecue recipes. One involves thinly sliced beef short ribs and is called Galbi. The other is very similar, but uses very thin slices of boneless beef and is known as Bulgogi.

Both beef BBQ involve the same basic marinade: soy sauce, sugar, garlic, and sesame oil. The Galbi traditionally includes pear juice. Bulgogi recipes often add sesame seeds, scallions and ginger to the ingredients above.

Overall, I think I would prefer doing the Galbi on the grill and saving the Bulgogi for my wok pan. The very thin slices of beef cooked very quickly on the grill and demanded constant attention. By the time the pieces were laid on the grill - which could be tricky in and of itself - it was time to start turning the first pieces to hit the grill. I'd recommend having someone nearby to help turn and/or hold a plate for the finished pieces - it all goes very quickly.

Photo from Trifood

I don't have any photos to share, so I'm borrowing, but check out this blog - it shows you the basics for Galbi. This site shows pictures and recipes for both.

This is the recipe we used:

Korean BBQ Marinade

1 cup soy sauce
2 cups water
5-6 cloves garlic
2 to 3 green onions
1 tablespoon sesame oil
black pepper
sesame seeds (I used about 1 teaspoon)
1 cup sugar

I would tweak this a bit and reduce the sugar to maybe a 1/2 cup or so. We marinated the beef overnight which I would definitely recommend. The musts in this recipe are the soy sauce, garlic and sugar. The rest can be adjusted according to tastes and preferences. It's a forgiving recipe, so don't be afraid to tweak and adjust.

My next task is to search out a butcher in the area that carries one of these cuts of beef........if DH will remember to ask his boss, he should be able to hook us up.

Breakfast Casserole

As promised, here is the recipe for the breakfast casserole. It turned out quite well and was very easy to throw together. I really wanted something that was very little fuss - something I could throw together quickly while they were at church yesterday - and this worked really well.

It's not low-fat by any means, but with a little creative tinkering, I'm sure you could successfully lower the fat and still have a pretty tasty outcome. I, however, have decided that breakfast casseroles are one thing that I prefer full-fat. I've tried a few lower-fat versions and they always seem to be lacking something - especially those that call for egg substitute - I've decided that I really don't care for egg substitute, so I only use real eggs.

The only thing I would definitely change next time would be to add onion in some form - maybe chives. And maybe a touch more salt. It's nothing fancy - just your basic egg casserole, but sometimes, that's all you want or need.

I grabbed this picture quickly this morning before DS had a chance to eat this very last piece of casserole. Unfortunately I didn't realize it came out blurry until after it was in DS's tummy............oh well............you get the basic idea.............

Hash Brown Quiche

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Photo from Cooking Light
Pumpkin Cheesecake with Ginger Snap Streusel

I found a quick minute to sneak on the computer - everyone is at church - I stayed home to prepare brunch.

The recipe I'm sharing has combined two recipes from Cooking Light. The Pumpkin Cheesecake and the Pumpkin-Streusel Cheesecake. We have tried and enjoyed both of them, but I much preferred the texture of the Pumpkin Cheesecake - it sits high and is fairly firm (as firm as a low-fat cheesecake is going to get), more like a full-fat cheesecake. However, I liked the added flavor and bite from the ginger snaps of the Pumpkin-Streusel version, so I morphed the two.

Since my cheesecake is still sitting in the fridge uncut, I am going with the picture for the Pumpkin Cheesecake from Cooking Light for now, so you are not seeing the streusel topping. If I remember to get a picture when we serve it tonight after dinner, I will try to post one later.

Time to go get brunch ready.......I'm crossing my fingers that this casserole turns out well. I think it's one of those things that can't really turn out badly, it just may turn out to be nothing special.............

Shrimp Potstickers

Our guests arrive tonight and I've been doing some cooking to get things ready in advance. They are not arriving until about 9 or 10 tonight, so I have plenty of time to squeeze in some advance prep, and a little blogging.

Dinner tomorrow revolves around a Korean Beef BBQ recipe that my friend shared with me. We liked it so much that she offered to bring the special cut of meat that is traditionally used for this recipe.

To go along with the beef, I'll be making Shrimp Potstickers, a side of grilled veggies tossed in an Asian-style dressing and some rice in the rice cooker. I'm not a big fan of Asian desserts, so I'll be breaking with the Asian theme with a pumpkin cheesecake that is chilling in the fridge.

Photo from Martha Stewart

Shrimp Potstickers

First, the potstickers. This is a Martha Stewart recipe that is top-notch. If I had to pick the best appetizer that's come out of my kitchen, it would probably be this one. It's better than some I've eaten in Asian restaurants. They are time-intensive and messy to cook, so I don't make them very often. This time around, I decided to try preparing them a day in advance and then warming them in the oven. I'm sure they are best fresh from the pan, but I don't like doing time-intensive, messy cooking when I have guests I'd rather be spending time with.

I've made these potstickers quite a few times, and each time it's been a learning experience. Since I have learned the hard way, maybe I can share some tips to make it easier if you decide to give these a try.

There is a difference between gyoza wrappers and wonton wrappers other than that one is round (gyoza) and the othe square (wonton). If you can find gyoza wrappers, I've had much better luck with these than with wonton wrappers. The gyoza wrappers that I have used in the past have been thicker and sturdier than wonton wrappers. They hold up better to the frying process and they respond better to the pleating - both in flexibility and in being better suited to pleating because they are round.

If all you can find is wonton wrappers, you can still make these work nicely. However, I have found that to make wonton wrappers work, I had to make a few changes. First, I found that wonton wrappers, because they are more delicate, tend to stick more - I had several disasters trying to do wonton wrappers in the cast iron skillet (but had very good luck with the gyoza wrappers). So, I now do them in a nonstick skillet. You don't need as much oil - maybe a teaspoon or so versus over a tablespoon - another plus if you want to cut down the oil.

The wonton wrappers I found were not quite square. On the back they show how you can fold them over and make a little triangle - kind of hard to do with a rectangle. So, the first thing I did was to trim off a bit of each wonton.


Then I put a teaspoon of filling in the middle of each square.

Next, moisten the outer edge of the wrapper with water and fold over, pressing along the edges to seal.

I found that the wonton wrappers I was using did not respond well to pleating - they kept cracking - so I modified my design. I then set the dumpling upright and curved the corners up:


Now they were ready to fry/steam. To make potstickers, you really fry and steam. Frying gives it the nice crispy bottom - which is what makes a posticker a potsticker - without the crunchy bottom, it's just a dumpling - still very good, but not a potsticker. The steaming cooks the filling and tenderizes the wrapper. From this point on, you can follow the recipe instructions pretty much to the letter. Although, as I said, you won't need as much oil if you're using a nonstick skillet.

These are sooooo good. I'll let you know how the day ahead prepartion works out. I'm really hoping it works! They do take some work and it does take some practice to get adept at pleating them (unless you use the wontons and don't pleat) and exactly how to cook them according to what kind of wrapper and/or pan you're using , but once you get the hang of it, they are really not hard - time consuming, but not difficult.

I will also be serving a small brunch tomorrow morning before or after church. I know I want to make an egg casserole of some kind, but I haven't decided which one yet. I'll be serving the casserole with some of the muffins I made earlier in the week and stashed in the freezer (the Cranberry Whole Wheat, the Pumpkin Apple, and the Apple) and fried apples.

Not sure when I'll get the chance to blog again, but stay tuned for the recipes for the Korean Beef BBQ recipe, the pumpkin cheesecake and a recipe for the brunch casserole, if it turns out well.

What's for Dinner? Ginger-Glazed Salmon

That's what was on the menu for tonight. I get easily bored with our salmon recipes, so I'm always on the lookout for something new to try. This one looked easy, but packed with flavor. And flavorful it turned out to be. When I dipped my finger in the sauce before cooking, the ginger was overpowering. Cooking, however, mellowed the ginger and resulted in a delicious sauce that complemented the salmon wonderfully. This dish got a big thumbs up all-around. It's nice to have salmon dishes that can be done in the oven when it's too cold to grill.

Ginger-Glazed Salmon

We tried this with a green bean dish that introduced us to a new way of cooking green beans - roasting. If someone had asked me if you could roast green beans, I would have said no way! Still, I'm always up for trying a new way to fix vegetables - especially if they are easy - so I gave it a try. I based it on a recipe from CL, but I gave it an Asian twist to complement the salmon. In place of olive oil, I used sesame oil and added a teaspoon of sesame seeds. The beans were very well-received too. Of course that may be because I used two teaspoons of sesame oil for just a 1/2 pound of green beans, which was definitely overkill, but I must admit, they were very good this way and I'd be tempted to do it again.

These beans pair well with the salmon in flavor and can be cooked at the same temperature, making it easy to cook the beans during the last few minutes the salmon is in the oven.

Sesame Roasted Green Beans

Tags: salmon, ginger, low-fat, Cooking Light, green beans, seafood, recipe

Nothin' Cookin'

Due to a change in plans, the salmon dish has been postponed until tomorrow and my kitchen, for what seems like the first time in a long time was quiet.

I could get started making more things for our guests coming the weekend, but it's Thursday night and that means Grey's Anatomy.

You know, I can relate to Izzy's manic muffin episode. Baking is relaxing and comforting. I could see myself retreating, going into automatic - exercising control over something, anything, when everything else is out of control. Latching onto something familiar and routine and not being able to stop.......if you stop, you have to think about what you don't want to think about.

So, I'm off to pour myself a glass of red wine and get comfy on the couch.................

Apple Muffins and Peanut Butter Cookies

A bit belatedly, here, finally are the recipes for the peanut butter cookies and the apple muffins.

I froze the apple muffins before remembering to take a photo, so all you get is a picture of an apple. Considering my muffin photos - or almost any of my photos for that matter - you're probably better off with the picture of the apple. And a borrowed picture at that (not sure where from, though).

Apple Muffins

The recipe calls for adding 2 large apples, chopped. Apparently mine were jumbo apples because once I was done chopping it looked like an awful lot of apple to me. To give you an idea, I weighed one of the apples (whole, not chopped) and it came to a 1/2 pound, so I estimate I had about 1 pound of apples in there.

I mixed them in anyway and once mixed in the batter, it really looked like too much apple. There was nothing to do but try to bake them anyway, so we put them in the oven and crossed our fingers. The muffins actually fared pretty well, but were a bit prone to cracking and falling apart since there wasn't enough batter to hold them together really well. Still, they were moist and flavorful and turned out fine for the most part. I'd be inclined to decrease the amount of apple next time so that I could better enjoy the flavor of the actual muffin. If, however, you like a muffn with LOTS of apple, then this muffin is for you.

Because of all the apple, I got 16 muffins instead of 12. I baked the first 12 at 450º for 10 minutes and then 400º for 10 minutes. The tops got a little overly browned. For the last 4 muffins, I baked them at 425º for 10 minutes and 375º for 10 minutes and this seemed to work better.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These peanut butter cookies were posted by Jewel on the CLBB. Normally I turn my nose up at cookies that call for shortening - all butter, all the time for me, thanks - the butter flavor is just unbeatable. These cookies, along with pie crust, are one of the few exceptions. Peanut butter cookies can be unpleasantly crumbly and I'm a big fan of chewy cookies. I believe that the shortening in these cookies give them a bit more chew than the average PB cookie and they keep their shape nicely.

Up tomorrow..........a glazed salmon dish. Until then.............

Tags: peanut butter, oatmeal, whole grain, apple, muffins, cookies, King Arthur, recipe