Wordless Wednesday- Soups
Tag: Soup
Cooking Adventures
Hello! I’m staying up late tonight because I’m cranky about going to bed. I’ll only have myself to blame tomorrow when I’m cranky about getting up, but such is life.
We’ve been experimenting some with recipes these past couple of weeks. I made some fancier foods and some regular recipes. This week is kind of a terrible week for food pictures, as the Husband’s job is moving buildings and everything is apparently a mess. I never know if he will actually be home for dinner or not. I’ll start with the fancy foods and then give you a quick run down of the regulars.
Probably the fanciest meal we had was duck! We had potatoes and swiss chard cooked in the duck fat as a side, as well as some kind of fruit that I can’t remember.
I followed this method from The Kitchn for cooking the recipe, just added the Swiss chard to the potatoes. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-cook-duck-breast-254046
I like their recipes as they are pretty uncomplicated and easy to follow. I was nervous, but I think I did do a fairly good job on cooking it.
We also had a fondue date night a few weeks ago and watched Star Wars. A cheesy dinner with a cheesy movie was perfect for us. Fancy drooled all over our feet and attempted big puppy dog eyes, but alas, no fondue was provided. Cheese is life to Fancy.
It was really rich and delicious. I shared the plate of fondue dippers in the Blue Plate Special photos, but here it is again.
It was a fun dinner. We had butterkase, sharp cheddar, and fontina cheeses in the fondue. I heavily modified a recipe from the Melting Pot. I used the leftover fondue to make mac and cheese which was also delicious.
Apparently I have been using my flamingo pink Fiestaware a lot lately. I should probably do a regular color rotation for the dishes. 🙂
Here’s the pink plate again, this time with a Valentine’s Day dinner of roasted chicken, stuffing, and buttery herbed carrots. I used the herb butter I made with garden herbs in all three items. The stuffing is Stove Top. The Husband likes it, so I do occasionally make it. It’s growing on me a little.
Here’s another fancy dish on the pink plate. 🙂 This one is a lamb shoulder chop with Cajun roasted potatoes and roasted zucchini for me. The Husband had a salad.
It was pretty decent, although a bit fatty for me, of course. The lamb was seasoned with garlic and rosemary. I used garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and olive oil on the zucchini and Cajun seasoning on the potatoes. Here’s the recipe for the chops. https://www.craftbeering.com/lamb-shoulder-chops-recipe/
I ended up frying the rest of the potatoes for breakfast the next morning. They were delicious.
I had them with eggs and sage chicken sausages. It was a good breakfast.
We’ve been pretty good about using leftovers for the most part. I made taco meat for taco salad one weeknight and we used the leftover meat for nachos on Saturday for lunch.
I added beans that I cooked down with lime juice, cumin, garlic, cilantro, and chili powder to mine and it was yummy! I also used fritos in my salad. I think the Husband used tortilla chips. Here are the nachos from the weekend.
We had delicious sandwiches for lunch one day too. When our toaster finally only toasted things properly on Thursdays, we decided to get rid of it and the Husband wanted to get a toaster oven so he could have toasted sandwiches. I do enjoy them as well.
I like them even better with homemade dilly beans!
We have also had some staple meals: mushroom cream pasta, chicken pot pie, and chef’s salad.
And of course, some baking. I made cupcakes from a box, but used a super fancy frosting recipe with chocolate marscapone cheese to make up for the box mix. We had them for dessert for my MIL’s birthday. They weren’t really interesting to photograph though. I thought I had saved the frosting link, but it appears that I haven’t actually done that. Whoops!
Tonight we had spicy wonton soup, since the Husband is starting to get sick. I used the wontons from Costco, plus a bunch of spices, including turmeric, white pepper, ginger, garlic, 5 spice powder, soy sauce, fish sauce, spicy chili oil, mushrooms, green onions, and carrots. It was lovely and spicy.
We’re supposed to get lots of snow tomorrow, so I’m not sure if I will end up at work or not. I haven’t had many cancellations yet, but that may change with the weather in the morning. I’m torn between wanting to get paid and seeing clients and staying home to bake, sew, and snuggle the dog. I’ll leave you with a picture of a snuggly Fancy to help you guess which option is winning. 😉
Happy Snuggling and Good Night!
Recipe Roundup
It’s hard to be creative about food when you can’t swallow anything and just getting dressed requires a nap. The featured picture was my essential meals for a couple of days. Smoothies, soups, and tea for days! Not that you could tell I have even been drinking tea. My stash is still quite large. More tea parties should be in my future, I guess.
I did manage to make some dinners and actually take pictures too! Fancy’s dog friend Moose, came with his owner for a visit and we had French Onion soup.
Both dogs were pretty well-behaved. Fancy didn’t try to jump on Moose at all! The soup was good. I used half beef and half chicken broth. One of our food shows once said all beef broth would make it too salty. I’ve also used all veggie broth to make it vegetarian. All of the versions seem to come out delicious. Katy helped make the salad, as I was trying to limit my germ exposure.
Mac and cheese was also on the menu. My throat is better, but softer meals seemed to help.
This was pretty much all cheddar. Made with a roux to start, it came out nice and melty. I baked this too. I added mushrooms and red pepper.
Turkey lettuce wraps helped us get some extra veggies in. 
I’ve made them enough not to use a recipe. I used soy sauce, hoisin, oyster sauce, sesame oil to cook the turkey, and sweet chili sauce. They were a nice quick dinner.
Last night we had chicken stir fry. I used a bag of marinated chicken and veggies I had made for freezer meals. I just sliced it up and added bok choy and mushrooms. The sauce needed to be a little thicker, but it worked.
I might set side a smaller amount to use in stir fry next time. This was two packs of boneless skinless leg meat from Costco. Originally, it would have been baked and served with rice, but I was home and wanted something different. It turned out pretty good.
This morning, I was in a baking mood and made this Cinnamon Coffee Cake from Pillsbury’s Best Muffins and Quick Breads.
It’s delicious! It has a cinnamon sugar glaze poured over the top. Just sweet enough, not overpowering. I did cheat and add cinnamon to the batter too. It only called for it in the glaze and I was concerned it wouldn’t be enough. I don’t regret it, even though the Husband teased me for it. Sometimes you just know what a recipe needs. 🙂
I’m in a baking mood today, so I might try a shortbread with lemon thyme (from my garden!) and a new chocolate chip recipe for the Husband. He’s been working hard and should probably have some cookies.
I’ll post a garden update soon. Other than the squirrels eating my marigolds, things seem to be growing well. 🙂
If I can get the dog off my lap, I’ll be baking up a storm shortly. Have a great, relaxing weekend!
Recipe Roundup
Mmm…crepes. They weren’t as good as my friend, Steph’s, but they were still delicious. She spent a year in Switzerland and learned how to make perfect ones there. I’m still learning. 🙂
My usual goal of 2-3 new recipes was definitely met this week. I surprised myself a little with how many I made.
I also made a second batch of the Pinch My Salt cinnamon ice cream, but this time, left it just vanilla. It was still so creamy and delicious. My plans for today include making another batch, but adding cocoa powder to make it chocolate.
So for new recipes, I used 3 online ones this week and one from a cookbook. Two were from Pinterest, one from a sewing blog, oddly enough. I’ll start with the one I have no pictures of. It wasn’t the prettiest of dishes anyway, so it’s probably okay.
It was Creamy Slow Cooker Portobello Chicken from Cutefetti.com. https://cutefetti.com/2015/04/portobella-mushroom-chicken-slow-cooker-recipe.html
It needed more mushrooms, but I hadn’t had time to get more, so only had half. I also got nervous and added some water to the slow cooker and didn’t really need too. It was alright, not the best thing I had ever eaten, but not something I will probably make again either. The Husband agreed.
The next recipe was a hit. It was Spicy Beef Tortellini Soup, from The Slow Cooker Gourmet. https://slowcookergourmet.net/slow-cooker-spicy-beef-tortellini-soup/
The Husband thought it had a kick, but I didn’t really find it. There’s a chance I’m turning into a chili head without realizing it. It was a nice meal on a cold day. The stew meat was mostly frozen when I added it in, but it got so tender by the end that it just fell apart. I used my frozen tomatoes too. The Husband doesn’t like the skins on the tomatoes, so next time I use them, I’ll have to pull those first. He did like the soup though. I’ll keep this one in the soup rotation.
We also tried Salt and Pepper Chicken from Sew Petite Gal. http://sewpetitegal.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-08-17T12:38:00-07:00&max-results=2&start=32&by-date=false
While it felt a little weird to make a cooking recipe from a sewing site, it was a good recipe. The chicken was coated in cornstarch before being fried, so it was a new technique for me. It was also double fried.
We had it over rice and I added a bunch of veggies to it. It needs a sauce, I think. I’m pretty sure it’s meant more as a snack, rather than a meal, but it was easy enough to make a bigger amount and add veggies. It tasted good and wasn’t greasy, like I feared it might be. I’ll keep this and start experimenting with it. The Husband liked it and is requesting more fried foods.
The recipe we used from a cookbook was from Good Housekeeping, section: The Story of Meats. We had bacon wrapped burgers with sautéed mushrooms and onions.
We the Husband cut the onions and mushrooms and did an excellent job. You can just see Fancy’s feet in the corner, she was very jealous and grumbled and whined throughout the entire meal. We ignored her, but did laugh a little first.
We had a couple of leftover meals this week, so this was pretty much all we ate. It’s nice to have leftovers. I had intended on making longevity noodles yesterday to celebrate, but was sick with nasty migraine, so we ended up having the beef soup again instead. We have a shopping trip to the Chinese market today to get party foods, so we’ll probably have the noodles tonight.
I never got Fancy’s new collar made, as I kept forgetting to get the last part I needed. If I’m honest, my organizing work in my fabric this week has made me realize I can’t be trusted at fabric stores when upset, or when in a shopping mood, so I never went back to get it. I might have something that will work downstairs though, so I’ll look. She may just get a pretty bow to wear with her party harness. Either way, she will be thrilled to see everyone.
Stay tuned for party pictures on Monday and quotes tomorrow!
Recipe Roundup- Leftover Edition
This week was a week of one recipe and two leftover recipes. I had a few freezer dinners and chili at work. It was “Hell Week” for the Husband’s play and he was gone until late all week. Fancy and I missed him a lot! His group performed “The Laramie Project.” It was so powerful! I’m not sure if I’m ready to blog about it, because it brought a lot of stuff up. Maybe I’ll tackle it all in a future post.
Fancy did get a new toy over last weekend, from the Husband’s uncle to distract her from the Husband being gone for so long. Poor little pig didn’t even know what was coming for him…
She’ll get one of her treat bones today with some homemade treats in it. It’s raining and she won’t go out except to use the bathroom. She’s going stir crazy though, so if anyone has a need for slightly crazy puppy cuddles, let me know. 🙂
I just made a chocolate applesauce cake today, so I’ll start with that recipe and end with the leftover recipes.
1- Chocolate Applesauce Cake from Taste of Home. https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chocolate-applesauce-cake
I was trying to recreate a chocolate applesauce cake my Mom makes, but this was not the right recipe. It’s delicious and moist, but not dark chocolaty enough. She said another name for it was “Chocolate Tea Bread” maybe, so I might look that up. I used my homemade applesauce for it. I wanted this cake since I made the applesauce, so I am happy with it. 🙂
2-Slow Cooker French Onion Chicken from Pillsbury. https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/slow-cooker-french-onion-chicken/ec69f51d-b79d-4ac0-8619-693a35167a87
First off, I didn’t make this in the crock pot. I baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes, maybe? I also used boneless thighs and drumsticks instead of chicken breasts. I ran out of time for the crockpot.
It was good. I liked the garlic and always like caramelized onions. I had it with green beans and a homemade herbed french bread roll. I forgot to oil the mini cast iron, so the bottom of it got stuck. It still tasted delicious though.
So I made a lot more chicken than I needed by accident and had to come up with a few things to do with it. I have no pictures of these ideas, but can give you the measurements from what I remember.
3- Chicken Salad, recipe by me.
I chopped up a couple of pieces of the chicken, added a few tablespoons of chopped celery, and about a 1/8 cup mayo. Also, salt, pepper, and I accidentally dumped at least a tablespoon of dried tarragon in the container. It was delicious! I was going to eat it with crackers, but they had gone stale in my snack drawer at work. Apparently my face was absolutely hilarious because my client burst out laughing in the middle of her sentence. 🙂 I ate it by itself after that.
4- Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup, recipe by me.
I chopped up the rest of the chicken, a small onion, a garden jalapeño, and two cloves of garlic. I added them to a box of chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of diced green chilis, and a can of tomato paste. Spices were cumin, garlic powder, a little turmeric, oregano, and salt and pepper. I let it cook overnight and promptly had it for breakfast on Friday. It’s delicious and spicy! It’s helping the Husband’s cold, we think.
I did learn that the massive jalapeños are probably massive in heat level, not necessarily size. I know this because I rubbed my eyes at 4:30 AM and cried for a very long time. I had cut one (only one!) up, washed my hands multiple times and went to bed. Apparently it was extremely potent. I think I might need gloves to make the salsa. Yikes! Not a good way to wake up for sure.
My work schedule is crazy as usual. I decided to move to one counseling center full-time, instead of part-time at two centers, so while this will eventually make it better, right now it’s not the easiest. I’m attempting to tell clients I’m leaving, but both last Friday and Monday, I had three no shows or cancellations each day. It makes it hard to move things along for sure. My plan is to be full-time at only one center by January. Hopefully I can have a couple of earlier nights during the week to actually cook things again.
Speaking of cooking, I should go make dinner for me. I’m going to make a grilled cheese with the herb bread. I’ve used it before and it was delicious!
Have a great weekend! May it be filled with naps!
Recipe Roundup
Since I had my review on Friday, I wasn’t able to post a Recipe Roundup.
We had quite a busy weekend, but I did finally manage to get some freezer meals packaged. I used the Freezer Meals cookbook that a friend gave me. We have 8 meals that can be thrown in the crockpot or oven for quick easy dinners. I made one of each recipe, except the fajitas, to try them. Once we know if we like them, I can make up some more.
So, on to the recipes:
1- Belgian Waffles from A Quilter’s Christmas Cookbook by Louise Stoltzfus and Dawn J. Ranck. Section: Breakfast Foods.
Modifications: I added vanilla Chai protein powder for some of the flour. You couldn’t taste it at all and it probably only added a few grams of protein, but any little bit helps. They were good.
2- Creamy Pappardelle with Broccoli from Good Eating Pasta. Section: Vegetarian.
Modifications: I really only used the sauce part of the recipe. I threw in mushrooms and used corkscrew pasta. I also used a shredded 5 cheese Italian blend instead of just mozzarella. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend a pinch of nutmeg in cheese sauces. I was skeptical, but most of the creamy pasta sauces have it listed and it is fabulous. We would eat this again. It was quick and didn’t require thawing meat.
3- Tacos, method by me. I always half cook the meat, drain and rinse it, and then add about half a jar of salsa, cumin seed, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Throw it on a tortilla with some lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes and you have a delicious dinner.
4- Coldstone Sweet Cream Ice Cream from Cooking Classy. http://www.cookingclassy.com/cold-stone-creamery-sweet-cream-ice-cream-make-it-at-home/
Modifications: None! This recipe uses corn syrup and cornstarch, no eggs. It may turn into my go to vanilla recipe. It was very good. It froze a lot harder than the other ice cream we have had and didn’t melt as quickly. I did add vanilla extract, as it was a pretty plain base.
5- Creamy Coconut Popsicles from Little Spice Jar. http://littlespicejar.com/coconut-popsicles-paletas-de-coco/
Modifications: This made a lot more than I thought it would. Next time, I will halve the recipe. It made 14 popsicles and a ramekin of ice cream left over. They are very good. The Husband doesn’t like coconut, so I don’t have to share! Well, with him at least. I’ll share with other people. I finally used our rocket shaped popsicle molds. (TJ Maxx and they fell under the “$10 or under” clause… Or I’m really just a 6 year old at heart.)
I also made tortellini soup and we had canned soup and biscuits this week as well. I made yogurt again too and it is nice and thick this time.
For not feeling so good for part of the week, I am happy with how our meals turned out last week.
This week is a weird week. I’ve got late nights three days this week and we are going to a concert on Wednesday. Our 5th Anniversary falls on one of my late nights, so we’re going out to eat on Friday instead.
We’re having a party on Saturday and there will be a pickle tray and possibly two cakes… I took Friday off specifically to cook and bake. I’ve got a bunch of new recipes planned for the party, so it will probably have its own post. Now all we need is people to come eat all the food!
Recipe Roundup
I used two new cookbooks this week and got a new one as a birthday present from a friend. The new one is freezer recipes and will be fantastic for my late nights at work.
We also had spaghetti and the Husband cooked some pork chops that, sadly, turned out to be not so good. I hadn’t marinated them this time, just added some dry spices and olive oil. They were actually thawed this time too and I think it made them dry.
I made a chicken that we ended up using in three different meals and I used the carcass to make chicken broth! I was pretty proud.
1- Roasted Chicken, no recipe. I put some bread dipping spices on it, along with olive oil. Baked it at 375 for about 80 minutes. It was still a tiny bit frozen. It was good all by itself with raw veggies and fruit.
2- Chicken Tortilla Soup, method by me. I was still sick and congested at this point, so I wanted something spicy to break up my sinuses. I used a couple of boxes of broth, cooked chicken, a can of generic tomatoes and chilis, frozen corn, onion, and carrots. Also, oregano, garlic powder, and fresh garlic, cumin, and chipotle chili powder. It turned out to be pretty good for something that was just thrown together. It was very spicy, so I think it helped.
3- Chicken Puffs made with homemade crescent dough with some rye flour. I ran out of all-purpose flour and didn’t have time to run out and get more. They turned out more hearty than usual. I used chicken, cream cheese, green onions, cheddar cheese, and a spicy 3 pepper cheese. I mixed all the filling ingredients up and rolled it up in the dough. Baked at 400 for about 20-25 minutes. http://gatherforbread.com/easy-no-knead-crescent-rolls/
4- Lettuce Wraps, based on a Damn Delicious recipe. http://damndelicious.net/2014/05/30/pf-changs-chicken-lettuce-wraps/
I’ve made these before and have no idea what mods I did this time, as I didn’t actually use the recipe. They turned out good.
5- Shrimp Albondigas from Classic Southwest Cooking by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger. Section: Soups and Stews.
Modifications: My Dad gave me this cookbook for my birthday! I was excited to find another way to use shrimp, but was not excited to food process them. They got really sticky and gross looking. I did not like touching them, but they ended up being tasty. They were put into a soup. I did add some garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the broth. I also used chicken broth instead of fish broth. We don’t eat fish, so I didn’t have any on hand.
6- Boller i karry/Meatballs with Curry from Scandinavia published by World Cuisine. Section: Main Dishes
Modifications: These looked so weird when I was mixing them. I thought for sure that they were all wrong and they weren’t going to stay together in the water. They were pretty gloopy looking. They did stay together though and they were pretty good. The curry sauce needed a lot more seasoning, so I added more curry powder, salt, and pepper. These were pretty good. I think I would double the recipe the next time.
It was a pretty good week for meals. Other than the pork chop, we had all good meals. I’m not sick any more and have a fancy new freezer cookbook to try. I also remembered to take pictures of all my dinners at least.
This week I have a few late nights, but have a few slow cooker or easy meals on my list, so it should go well. Since we had spaghetti tonight, we’ll have lasagna this week and we have leftover rice that I may try to make into fried rice.
It was fun getting back into using my cookbooks!