Chicken Taco Soup

Materials
Shredded chicken (~1.5 chicken breasts)
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 packet taco seasoning
4 cups chicken stock or water
Cheese

Methods
I had leftover chicken from the Chicken Pockets (I just poached it in the crockpot overnight -- so moist and easy to shred :) - definitely a good way to cook chicken).  I combined the chicken, beans, corn, tomatoes, taco seasoning, and stock.  I brought them to a boil and let them simmer for a while before serving.  Had I gotten the day started earlier I would have just used my BFF, the crock pot, to heat them up.

Verdict
This made the cut, especially with cheese to garnish.  For a simple soup it was good and filled my need for soup of the week.  I ate it with a cheese quesadilla, sort of a southwestern style grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I plan to eat it a la qdoba mexican gumbo over rice the rest of the week for lunch. :)

Chicken Pockets

Some history....  I used to go to Washington DC every year for a conference in January.  A couple of years ago I had a club sandwich at the restaurant/coffee shop up the street from our hotel, except it was a club sandwich made using puff pastry.  Absolutely Amazing. We talk about it to this day, 2 years later.  Kate was there for that amazing meal, so she fell in love with the concept -- she started making puff pastry roast beef sandwiches.  It was fabulous.  I saw a recipe for cooking a chicken breast in puff pastry, which reminded me of "the sandwich".  I had to modify it and try my hand at "the sandwich"

Materials
Shredded cooked chicken (~ 1.5 chicken breasts)
1 sheet puff pastry dough, defrosted
Vermont white cheddar, shredded or in chunks
bacon
1 apple, chopped
Ranch sauce for dipping

Methods
We started out with David cooking several slices of bacon.  Once cooked I chopped it up into pieces.

Meanwhile, I took the puff pasty dough and cut it into four square pieces and rolled each one out to make a larger square.  One one half of each pastry square I mixed together chicken, bacon, cheese chunks, and apples (for mine). I wrapped the other end of the pastry over to form a turnover pocket and brushed the top with a little Oil.  I cooked the pockets for about 20 min at 350 until the middle was warm and the pastry was cooked and golden brown.

I served with Ranch sauce for dipping for David.

In terms of thoughts... it was good, seemed to pass everyone's tests.   I would think about using a semisoft cheese that was better for melting, or just more of the cheddar next time. 

Green Beans and Tomatoes

David volunteered me for Green Bean Casserole for Christmas Dinner at his Aunts.  I had slight issue with this since I don't really do Green Bean Casserole.  Turns out he just said that I made Green Bean Casserole at Thanksgiving.  I had seen this other recipe in Ambrosia, the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary cookbook I received as a going away present so I decided to give it a try instead.  It was a success.  Big win, I enjoyed it!! The vegetable eaters all seemed to really like it... and David's father's comment was "This isn't your mother's green be casserole". :)

Green Beans and Tomatoes
adapted from Ambrosia, by the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh green beans
1/4 cup butter (I would look at oil for next time I make this)
2 tbl sugar
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
several fresh basil leaves torn and chopped
1-1.5 pints grape tomatoes chopped

Methods
Trim the ends of the green beans and remove strings.  Boil in a large saucepan for about 20 minutes and drain.

melt the butter (or oil) in a skillet.  Add the minced garlic and begin to saute to infuse the garlic taste.  Stir in the sugar, salt, pepper, and basil.  Add tomatoes and cook until slightly softened.  Toss the green beans and tomato sauce.

Squash Soup

Squash Soup adapted from the Barefoot Contessa, Barefoot in Paris

Ingredients
3 tbl olive oil
1 chopped yellow onions
3/4 -28 oz can pumpkin puree
2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
32 oz chicken stock or broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup half and half

Methods
Heat the butter and oil in your stockpot or dutch oven. Add the onions/garlic and cook over medium low until translucent ~10 min or so.


Add the pumpkin puree, squash, chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer over medium low heat for about 20 minutes until the butternut squash is very tender.

Process the mixture using your immersion blender. Add the half and half and heat slowly. If the soup needs more flavor add another tsp of salt. For a thicker soup reduce the amount of chicken stock.. For a thinner soup, increase stock.

Verdict
Delicious! As always!  I always enjoy pumpkin and squash soups.  I definitely enjoy anytime I get to use my immersion blender too :)  So this was a win.  I love having a pot of soup to eat for lunch :)

Apple Cranberry Pie

Nothing says holidays like pie, or something.  The evolution of this pie:  I wanted to bake a pie and use my Great Grandma's recipe and was thinking about pumpkin at Thanksgiving, but David had it covered.  While traveling through South Bend my cousin Abby gave me her apple pie recipe as a substitute for the pumpkin.  Later, my sister suggested substituting cranberries for the raisins in the apple-cranberry pie.  A few weeks later, voila!

Ingredients
2 pie crusts (store bought... or Grandma Goerss's recipe)
8 gala apples, peeled, and thinly sliced
1 tbl lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbl all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 ground nutmeg
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Methods
1. Prepare 2 pie crusts and put one int he bottom of a deep pie pan.

2. Sprinkle apples with lemon Juice.  Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Add apples and cranberries and toss to coat.

3. Place apple-cranberry mixture in pie shale and trim the pastry.  Cut slits in the second pastry (I used a snowflake cookie cutter!) and place on filling, sealing and crimping. 

4. Cover edge of pie with foil and bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes until the top is golden.  Cool and serve.

Verdict.
Good.  Very good.  Repeat after me:  I like pie.  The crust was as good as I remember, and as easy.  The pie was great.  I liked the cranberry add.  Any time I can eat cranberries I'm happy :)  They are a superfood after all!  Only down side -- I used 8 small gala apples and that was too much.  There was seepage out over the edge of the pie onto the bottom of the oven since I didn't do an expert job with my crimping.  Otherwise happy pie.

Amazing Roast Chicken

Adapted from Jamie Oliver (Naked Chef), as seen on Ezra Pound Cake.

Materials
4-5 lb roasting chicken
salt and pepper
4-5 lbs potatoes
1 lemon
1 head garlic
olive oil
rosemary and thyme
2-4 slices of bacon

Methods
Start out by cleaning the chicken, rinsing, patting dry and liberally applying salt and pepper to the inside and outside of your chicken.  Preheat the oven to 375 and allow your chicken to sit while you work on the potatoes.

Bring a pot of water to boil while you peel and cube the potatoes (golf ball size?).  Meanwhile, remove the garlic from its papery wrapper.  Boil the potatoes with the garlic cloves and lemon for about 12 minutes.  Drain the potatoes and remove the lemon and garlic.  Take a spoon and stir the potatoes around in the hot pot.  This makes them 'chuffy' as Jamie calls them.  I say it smooshes up the outsides and makes them roast even better!

Poke a handful of holes into the warm lemon.  Take the lemon, thyme (or rosemary), and garlic and place in the chicken cavity. Rub the outside of the bird with oil and apply extra salt and pepper if necessary.  Roast that bird for 45 minutes.

At the 45 minute mark take the bird out your pan.  Add the potatoes and some rosemary and stir them up in the pan, using your chicken drippings to coat the potatoes for roasting.  Place the chicken back in the center of the pan, surrounded by the taters.  Finally, the coup d'etat, put some bacon across the chicken breast.  Roast for another 45 minutes.  Crumble the bacon into the potatoes and serve.

Verdict.
Amazingly good.  Ok, maybe just good, I'm not sure.  This was the first chicken I've ever roasted.  I think that they can turn out badly, really dried out and bland.  Rumor has it that usually happens to your first roast chicken.That didn't seem to be the case -- this chicken was extremely moist, it had a good flavor, and was exceedingly appetizing.  The potatoes were good, the chuffy  thing appears to work.  In fact, i would say the parboil pre-roasting and chuffing thing is awesome.  I would recommend going in and tossing the potatoes mid cooking to get them good and roasty on all sides though.  Definitely a keeper -- I think David even enjoyed it. 

I even did things up fancy.  We had dinner at David's on Christmas Eve and at his Aunt's on Christmas night. This wasn't anything fancy (I had meant to steam some asparagus but lost track of time) but we did eat it off of my Christmas setting :)

Barefoot Contessa’s Lentil Sausage Soup

Adapted from Barefoot in Paris (Ina Garten)

Materials
½ lb lentils
Olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Several springs fresh thyme leaves
Ground cumin
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 lb baby carrots, chopped
1 quart chicken stock
¼ cup tomato paste
1 lb turkey kielbasa, cut in half and sliced

Methods
1. I rinsed and sorted the lentils, cleaning out any shriveled lentils or rocks. I placed them in a bowl and covered the lentils with boiling water, allowing them to sit for about 15 minutes

2. Meanwhile I heated the oil up in the bottom of a stockpot and added the onions, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, and thyme. I sautéed them over medium heat until the onions were translucent. At that point I added the carrots and celery and stirred, allowing them to cook for about 10 minutes.

3. I added the lentils, chicken stock, and tomato paste, stirring and bringing to a boil. I covered and simmered for an hour to cook the lentils thoroughly. At that point I added the kielbasa and allowed it to simmer for a few more minutes until heated through.

Verdict
I have never made this particular soup, but I had it several years ago while visiting my cousin and her family in South Bend. Good memories of fun times with extended family and a realization that Barefoot Contessa‘s recipes were actually do-able for us mortal folk. Luckily, she warned me that it feeds quite the crowd, so this was my attempt at modifying and halving the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe to make a dinner for a cold rainy night and lunch for a snowy week at work. It was great - super hearty and filling and smelled amazing before eating this. I really do love soup at this time of year. Being in a land where winter is real is making my love for soup even deeper. I’m pretty sure it is not just a passing fancy since it seems to have spanned a few years now J

BTW…Barefoot Contessa recommends 1 tbl freshly chopped thyme leaves for double this amount of soup. I actually just put in a bunch of sprigs and remove the stems before serving. Also, she chops her veggies up pretty small to be closer in size to the lentils whereas I like to leave my veggies chunky, I enjoy the texture and juxtoposition of the large veggies and the little lentils.

Um yeah, I repeat. Great soup. Filling. Full of lentil fiber goodness. And flavor
BTW…I was trying to explain what lentils were to my mom, including what they taste like. Any suggestions as to how you would describe them besides merely fiber filled goodness?