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A LOOK INTO A HEAD FULL OF RECIPES.

Broccoli Cheese Soup on a Cold Rainy Day

10/29/2018

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It's already cold in the mitten state.

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It has been cold for the last several weeks and it is shifting into the time where making soup and stew is a weekly ritual. I happen to like a lot of different soups, but had been craving something I hadn't had in at least seven or eight years. Broccoli cheese soup is my absolute favorite soup for a few reasons...

One, I love broccoli, and I love cheese.
Two, It fills me up for a while.
And three, it makes me warm when it's cold.

I never really used somebody else's recipe because I thought it would be easy... I was right, but still, I should have looked at a recipe or two for some idea of ingredients besides the broccoli and cheese. To add cream or not to add cream? What cheese works best? Do I have to blend it? So many questions that I had in my head.

I wish I had some kind of awesome story to tack on with this recipe, but I don't. This wasn't something from my childhood, just something I sampled from a certain bread restaurant that we all know, and I found it way too salty so I made my own. Simple as that. What else is there?

So instead of a story about soup, I am going off on another tangent for a minute because I feel like the ending can be compared.

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 Right now, life is rough. You already know that I miss my dad and that I cannot say enough about that, but other things are happening too. Being an adult can suck sometimes, and right now, that is how I feel. I mean, we all get hit with it from time to time, and sometimes even all at once. For me, it's that every time that Bruce and I have something fixed, another thing is broken. Every. Single. Time. For instance, I swallowed my pride to talk to my mom about my car. I didn't exactly ask for money because I don't feel right to, but I did gripe about it. She gave us the money, and we got all the big things fixed that needed fixing; the muffler, the suspension, and some other important things that make the car safe to drive. We get that fixed and it's running great! I mean, there is still a little work left on the muffler, but it's so much better and we can actually hear ourselves think when we're on the highway, and relax instead of having our hearts in our throats in the hopes of not being pulled over for noise violation and get slapped with a ticket. All of that is great, right? Hallelujah! (FOREVER GRATEFUL!!!)

But then, bad news comes. "Hey, my uncle is in a coma, we need to come to the hospital." -- That was the day before my birthday that we went. "Hey, let's take you out to eat." Can't enjoy my food, dad isn't around to call and wish me a happy birthday, Bruce's uncle is on HIS way out and reminding me of Daddy, and then all kinds of little things: the water pressure being out of whack, not getting a hot shower and only getting cold bird baths from the sink... Stuff clogging, stuff breaking... People asking for money you don't have and you feel like a terrible person for letting them down. You start to wonder why on earth it's all happening at once and just want to yell at the air for being polluted.

And then you get a reminder of little things that don't suck. Being hugged by your spouse and cuddling up while asleep because the weather is cold, wrapping up in an afghan your late grandmother knitted because it's like being hugged, and eating a bowl of soup because it is also like a hug.

That is why I wanted to make soup. So I did...

Life is not all peaches and cream, but you can still dream of the cobbler they can make.

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Gluten Free Cobbler, Click the pic for the recipe.

This is not diet food... But it is healthier than it could be.

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I want to preface this recipe with a few things... First, I wanted to make it gluten free and not use a roux as a thickening agent. Two, I wanted it to be a little easier... Three, I wanted it to still be creamy, but I didn't want to add heavy cream. Little changes!

The Recipe

Ingredients
  1. 1 Cup mirepoix (1 part carrots, 1 part celery, 2 parts onion) - Rough chop... I added some of the whites of green onions into that as well.
  2. 1  Tablespoon Olive Oil
  3. 1 Medium Potato, diced
  4. 4 cups chicken stock
  5. Seasonings To Taste: Sea Salt, Fresh black pepper, tumeric, parsley, thyme, and rosemary, scallion greens
  6. 1 1/2 large packages of frozen brocolli (About three heads fresh)
  7. 1 cup Greek Yogurt
  8. 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese  (Or more if that is what you want)
  9. 1/4 cup Swiss cheese
Equipment
Dutch oven
Measuring cups
cutting board
knife
Blender
Wooden spoon
Rubber spatula
Ladle

Putting it together...

  1. In your dutch oven, drizzle olive oil, then add the mirepoix, tumeric, and a pinch of salt. Let the veggies do their thing until they are softened.
  2. Add the stock and the taters, let it come to a simmer and half cook the taters. (About 5 min after bubbling)
  3. Add the broccoli and cook until soft, but not sickly green, that is when it gets to smelling like sulfur. Add seasonings except for the scallion greens.
  4. Pull out some of the broccoli and set aside, then blend the rest of the stuff... The soup is going to look funky, but remember that looks can be deceiving. If you want a smoother texture, pass through a fine sieve. I like mine a lil more rustic.
  5. Add yogurt and the broccoli pieces and stir until combined.
  6. Add cheeses a little bit at a time so it doesn't clump up
  7. Serve, garnish with the scallion greens and some cheese, and some black pepper(Garnish optional, yo), and enjoy.
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Okay, potatoes? Yogurt?

Yes... You read the text right!

First, the taters... The taters replaces the starch that the flour in the roux would have given you, which helps the cheese to bind into the soup. I tested this out because I would like to pass it on to those who are on a gluten free diet can enjoy it too. (See, I DO love you. :P)

The greek yogurt is because I put sour cream instead of heavy cream, and I wanted that tangy flavor. The creaminess of the yogurt makes it more decadent.

I loved it with the changes!

I can honestly tell you that it still filled me up, that it tasted great, and that I couldn't even tell there were potatoes in there. The only reason I cannot call it diet food is for the fact that cheese is pretty fatty. But you CAN cut down on some of the fat so you can feel LESS guilty, and still feel like you did nothing out of the ordinary to your soup.

I normally don't use turmeric in my broccoli cheese soup, and that also helps because it enhances the flavor of the broccoli in all the right ways.

Some updates and other Stuff!

  1. I have created a new Facebook website so y'all can get updates on recipes and stuff.  Please do like it and share it! Clicky clicky!
  2. Speaking of Facebook, there is a new commenting system, I moved into the present! You no longer need to fill out a form to comment, you just do it with Facebook.
  3. I added a new affiliate, JanTink. Please do give her site a look see if you are into stuff like stamps and hand made cards.
  4. I will have some tips every now and then regarding easier foods that need no recipe.
  5. I was presented with the ad-sense option and I am thinking about it for the sake of making some money, but at the same time, it feels like selling out and I'd rather get some sponsors than do the add thing (unless it is approved by me, of course)

And that's all she wrote.

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Steak Pizzaiola

5/25/2018

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Marie Barone isn't the only one...

I have been holding onto a secret for quite some time… or rather, secret recipe.
 
Did you ever watch the show, Everybody Loves Raymond? Marie Barone was one of my favorite characters. I mean, she could cook some beautiful foods, though she was very secretive of this. One recipe in particular got my gears moving and my curiosity on high alert. It was steak pizzaiola, a name that I memorized and thought about quite a bit.
 
Carne Pizzaiola means “meat in pizza style,” and is mostly made with cheaper cuts of beef, but can be other meats such as chicken. Basically, it is a wide range of combinations that you can use. The best way to put it is that the meat is a replacement for pizza crust. I have no idea on where in Italy this dish was first made, or even when, but I thank the Italians for such lovely fare.
 
I decided to look a recipe up and you’re probably going to giggle at where I found it at… I hijacked Martha Stewart’s recipe for her easier version (she has both that and traditional). I made it the first time several years ago, but right away I decided to change what I saw because her recipe seemed so… well… herbless?  She was using round steak, which is quite lacking of flavor to begin with, and there wasn’t much in the way of even Oregano. I don’t even remember if she used it or not.
 
I thought about how I like my pizza in general and went for it. My family gobbled it up, including my very picky dad who didn’t like flavor much (aka, he had a bland pallet, the poor man). Guess what? It’s actually very easy to make, and you don’t even have to tenderize the meat because it’s a slow cooked, one pot/pan meal!

The Recipe

Ingredients
  1. 1 large eye of round, cut into four to six pieces, salted and peppered well.
  2. 3 TBSP or so olive oil – eyeball it for the pan
  3. 1 medium-large onion, diced
  4. 1 bell pepper of your choice, I use green
  5. 3-4 cloves garlic
  6. 1 4 oz can tomato paste
  7. 1 12-14 oz can petite diced tomatoes
  8. Use the can to add water or beef stock if needed
  9. Oregano, Basil, and Parsley to taste – or just the oregano
  10. 8 oz Mozzarella, shredded, and parmesan to taste
Equipment
  • Cutting board
  • Knife
  • Electric skillet or stove top works, with lid
  • Grater

The Method

  • After you have prepped your ingredients, (vocabulary of the day, Mise En Place – Everything in place), make sure your pan is nice and hot and then add your olive oil.
  • Once the olive oil is shimmering, then you add your steak. Sear for a few minutes (4-5) until you get a nice crust. This gives it some good flavor.
  • Remove the steak to a big plate along with juices, and do one of the following…
Ain’t nobody got time fo dat, method:
  1. Lower the heat some, add your onions and diced peppers, stirring until onions become translucent
  2. Add your garlic and sautee with the veggies for a few moments to get the raw taste out.
  3. Drop in your tomato paste and stir. When it starts to smell sweet, it’s ready.
  4. Pour in the tomatoes, juice and all, and water/beef stock(as necessary), stirring until mixed.
  5. Add a small amount of salt and pepper
  6. Put the steak and juices back into the skillet and cover with the sauce. Then cover pan and simmer on low heat for 2 hours, checking periodically to make sure it doesn’t scald. About 1 hr 45 min into this, add your herbs.
  7. Once the steak is done (it should be fork tender at this point) add the cheese on top of each steak, recover and let that melt.
  8. Serve with your choice of sides
 
Totally optional but worth it, refined method:
  1. For Electric Stove: Before you even start cooking the beef, place whole pepper into the oven at 425F for 20-30 minutes until skin is charred. For Gas Stove: You can char the skin using one of your burners while your beef is cooking, and once charred, place into a bowl and loosely cover with cling film or the bowl’s cover. Set aside to let the skin loosen.
  2. Turn the heat in the pan down, add some more olive oil, toss in your skillet, add salt to draw moisture out and then keep stirring them every minute or so. Do not leave the stove, not even to answer your phone, as your onions can and will burn if you do not pay attention to them. In about 20 minutes or so, turn the skillet off and let the residual heat finish caramelizing the onions.
  3. Pull your pepper out of the bowl, and using a paper towel or tea towel, remove the skin, discard the seeds and membranes. DO NOT remove skin with water, that takes flavor away and we don’t want that.
  4. Turn the heat back on to your pan, add the peppers to the onions, along with garlic and stir until the garlic is cooked a little.
  5. Follow steps 3-8 from the easy method.

Serve with pasta or bread if desired!
Note: I omitted the paste because that is how I like the sauce, so it might look different on my plate than it will look on yours if you use the paste.


Prep Time: 10-45 min
Cook Time: 2-3 Hours
Serves 4-6
Nutrition facts for 6

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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving 
Calories 318
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 16.3g21%
Saturated Fat 5.1g25%
Cholesterol 65mg22%
Sodium 257mg11%
Total Carbohydrate 10.1g4%
Dietary Fiber 2.3g8%
Total Sugars 5.9g 
Protein 33.2g
Vitamin D 0mcg0%
Calcium 227mg17%
Iron 2mg13%
Potassium 720mg15%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice.
The best part of this recipe is that you can play with it, adding what you like on pizza. If you are so inclined to add mushrooms, or other meats, or what have you. I like to keep it simple, closer to traditional. If you use a different meat, your cooking time might change, Chicken breast is better added back into the pan close to the end of the sauce cooking so it doesn’t dry up, chicken thigh would probably work better.

Funny Story...

Funny story about a different protein that I used once for this recipe… My dad absolutely loathed venison. He swore up and down that he would be able to tell if it was deer or not. My sister asked me to cook dinner for a Christmas gathering, perhaps a few years back, knowing that dad would throw a fit if he knew it was Bambi in the pan and not Heifer. Challenge accepted. I made one of my best batches of pizzaiola that evening, making sure I was there before everyone else so dad wouldn’t see the venison before it was cooked. It turned out so tender and delicious that dad ate seconds… I had fooled him into eating deer meat!

When I told him a year or so later that we fed him Bambi, he said, “I knew it all along,” in that tone of voice a kid gets when they find out they’ve been duped.

And I laughed and laughed. (I kid)

With that all being said, I bid you good day and:

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Easter Yummies - GF Peach Cobbler

4/8/2018

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As you may know from my previous blog post, I lost my father on March 21 of this year, so my inspiration has not been present very much as my family and I try to heal from this major loss. I decided to invite my mother over for Easter, which happened to be the Sunday after the funeral as well as April Fool's day. April Fool's Day is o high significance for me because of the practical joke war that my dad and I had going for years, at least until I surpassed everything he ever taught me and made him proud.

I spent the day trying to go at a relaxed pace. I chose to have a later dinner than we would normally do for a holiday (my family usually eats celebration suppers either at noon if we are at his step parents' house, or 3 pm if at my mother's house), but damned if things didn't go the way of a certain fellow's law that shall not be named; but we all know and loathe him.

I melted down over missing croutons. Yeah. That was me.

Even with all of the chaos going on in my head that day, as well as things throughout my house, I was able to pull dinner off and even got dessert going with time to spare. Despite the melt down, I was okay by dinner time and happy to have my mom at my table.

My mom does gluten free, so I had to figure out what to do for dessert, Lucky for me, she had her baking mix already handy and handed it over to me the day prior when my hubby and I spent time over at my sister's house. Since I already had frozen peaches, I used those and what mom handed me, and I threw together the cobbler.

The cobbler is super easy, really!

Gluten Free Peach Cobbler

Ingredients
The Crust
  • 3 cups gluten free baking mix
  • 1-2 cups milk
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
  • 3 TBSP Sugar
  • 1 TBSP Vanilla Extract
The Filling
  • 1 lb frozen peach slices
  • 2 TBSP granulated sugar
  • 1-2 TBSP Potato Starch
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Equipment
Iron Skillet (Or casserole dish)
2 medium mixing bowls
2 mixing spoons
Mesh Sieve
Fork
Measuring cups/Spoons

The Method

Preheat Oven to 350

Sift baking Mix into a bowl, add melted butter and mix with fork until pea sized clumps form.
Add your milk, vanilla, and your sugar and cut into the mixture until you form a loose dough or paste.
Grease your cast iron skillet with butter for best result, oil or spray will do as well.

Toss the peaches with both wet and dry ingredients and spread over biscuit dough

Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until peaches caramelize, top of biscuit will be pale but the bottom will be brown

Serve and enjoy!

Mom was happy to eat it right after it came out of the oven and had a chance to cool only slightly. She loved it. Unfortunately, I fell asleep before I could eat some, but it was fantastic when it was cold as well.

If you want to do this with regular ingredients, just add the three TBSP of sugar and the vanilla to this recipe when you add the milk to this recipe!

I hope you have enjoyed this post and I hope you give it a try! It was delicious, I am telling you.

Onward!

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