Picnic Soup

Spring is definitely in the air, you can smell it!  And what do you do in Maryland when you feel spring in the air?  Why, you eat soup...outside...of course! What, you don't? So it's just us, then?

It's been a terribly cold February and a snowy start to March.  It was still kind of cold this weekend when I prepped some meals for the week.  I baked a handful of sweet potatoes (great for lunch with some almond butter or goat cheese and those roasted grapes I made on Friday), some Butter Chicken (I cheated and used a jarred sauce with chicken, peppers and onions.  And by the way, if you are eating Indian and don't have any Major Grey's chutney, peach jam plus a cinnamon spice blend makes a pretty good substitute!) and this soup...

Creamy Pumpkin, Sausage and Kale Soup

which reheats extremely well.  Sausage, onions, peppers, pumpkin, kale and some cream.  I made it the first time a few weeks ago and I had been jonesing for it again. Only I couldn't find baby kale again so I got spinach this time...still tasty but a bit slimy--stick with the kale.

We were a bit late leaving school tonight as I was conferencing with a parent, so I'm very glad I had prepped for the week.  And I am loovvving the time change and our new back yard!! The kids came through the house and straight out back when we got home.  While I was heating dinner, hubby and I did that eerie thing married couples do...he said "where are the lawn chairs" at just about the same time I said "grab a blanket, we should have a picnic."

This picture sums up our evening...

And because I prepped, even though we got home late, the kids got to play with chalk outside, we had dinner, the biggest girl got two nights of homework and reading done, the littlest got a bath and I actually cleaned the kitchen all before bedtime!  What a wonderful evening--we even got a cosmic high-five!!

Rock on!!

I'm Back!!!

So I've taken a bit of a hiatus for almost a year...it wasn't on purpose, it started because I was letting myself get bogged down in the minutiae of life and some really bad time management.  When I began to get my feet under me, things happened like an emergency appendectomy, the biggest girl starting Kindergarten, and moving to a new house (and into a smaller, poorly designed kitchen).  Meanwhile, we dove headfirst into the paleo lifestyle.  If you don't know what that is, in it's simplest terms, it is eating like a caveman--lean meats and vegetables mostly. After my appendectomy, we ate strict paleo for about a month in an attempt to heal my gut.  As a result, hubby and I both dropped some weight and felt enormously better (turns out carbs make me verrrry sleepy!)  We aren't so strict all the time now, but "paleo" dictates alot of our food decisions.  I'm not going to take this blog in a paleo direction intentionally, we are not strict enough for that.  I'm still going to stick to what works for us and what works for our kids, and what I am doing in my tiny kitchen.

Let's get to it...we've had two snow days in a row this week.  Snow days are meant to be spent in the kitchen.  Baby Girl wanted crepes for breakfast. No problem, but usually I stuff them with a sherry spiked cream cheese or nutella.  (BTW, we've tried paleo crepe recipes and none have worked so far...this is an instance where we are not strict paleo.  I'm not eating pancakes or french toast but an egg-heavy, flour-light crepe is okay by me)  So I started thinking about other things besides sugar laden yummy stuff to eat with my crepes, and what did I already have in the fridge, since it is a snow day.

Side-bar: If you like my "soft-focus" pictures and want to recreate them on your own, give your cell phone to your grubby pawed children for a bit, they'll smudge up the camera lens so that every picture looks like a close-up of Cybill Shepherd on Moonlighting.

Creamy mushrooms with thyme was up first, then when the kids started eating grapes, roasted grapes with thyme was born (and yes, I ate some of that too for second breakfast).  The grape recipe comes from here:

http://www.alexandracooks.com/2011/09/07/lunch-roasted-grapes-with-thyme-fresh-ricotta-grilled-bread/

and I've made it about a half dozen times--love it on bread but try the grapes on pork, on a sweet potato with goat cheese or just drink the elixir from the bowl, it's delicious!  Not wanting bread, I thought that rolling the ricotta in the crepe and serving the grapes on top might be pretty good...I was right!

Crepes Two Ways
Crepes (makes about 8 8-inch crepes)
3 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
pinch salt
pinch sugar (optional)
2 Tbs melted butter

Mix all ingredients in a blender.  Let batter stand for about 15 minutes.  Cook in a very thin layer in a nonstick skillet or fancy crepe pan if you happen to have a mom who gives the best Christmas gifts ever!

Creamy Mushrooms with Thyme
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs butter
8 oz mushrooms, sliced (white or crimini)
3-4 stalks of thyme (no need to strip leaves)
salt and pepper
2 Tbs white wine
2 Tbs heavy cream

Heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the mushrooms and thyme and saute for 5-7 minutes.  Season mushrooms with salt and pepper.  Add wine to the pan (on a snow day when you have white grape juice in the house and you don't feel right about opening a bottle of wine at 8:15 in the morning, you can sub the juice for the wine...it works although I'm sure it's much better with the wine).  Reduce almost completely.  Remove the thyme from the pan and add the cream and stir. Pour over folded crepes and serve immediately.

Roasted Grapes with Thyme
About 1 lb of red grapes, removed from stem, washed and dried (of the water, not made into raisins)
5-6 stalks of thyme (no need to strip the leaves)
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbs honey, divided
sprinkle of kosher salt
1 cup ricotta cheese

Preheat oven to 425.  Toss grapes, thyme, oil and 1 Tbs honey on a sheet pan and roast in oven, stirring occasionally, until the grapes burst and give off juice, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix ricotta with remaining honey and spread on crepes and roll up.  When the grapes are done, spoon over rolled crepes and serve immediately.

I added some whipped cream on the grapes for the picture...what do you do with the leftover whipped cream? Give it to the littlest...

Mini Spinach Pies

In our house, we have a two "no-thank-you-bites" rule.  When we have a new food, the children must take at least two bites before they are allowed to say a polite "no thank you" and move on to something else.  With the littlest, sometimes it goes like this "just take this bite and I'll leave you alone."  Sometimes, with the biggest, it goes like this "I didn't see you take two bites, take another one--SQUIRREL--oh, sorry honey, didn't see that one either, take another one..." and so on.  The next time we have that particular food, they have to eat it if that is what we are having for dinner.

That being said, you have to know your children.  We have learned that Charleigh's favorite food is asparagus and that she really doesn't like meat (I keep telling her that she can be a vegetarian when she is 12, but until she will eat the right foods to get enough protein, she has to eat her meat).  We have also learned that Dani is the only one in our family that doesn't like asparagus, so we don't make her eat it.  Charleigh likes spinach raw, Dani likes it cooked.  Each of them will not eat it the other way.

So I stock the freezer with these little spinach pies for Dani and when we have asparagus for dinner, we just defrost a couple ("Five, because I am five years old, Mommy!") for Dani to eat.

Just a little background for you...Dani was borderline anemic when she was a baby and even feeding her beef five times a week wasn't correcting it, so we were trying all iron-filled food.  We started with spinach filled things, like quiche (check out that blog post here).  Each time, she would say "I don't want the crust...I don't want the egg...I don't want the ham..." Then we tried spanakopita but she didn't want the crust.  So we ended up with making these little spinach pies--kind of the filling of spanakopita but without the pastry (or the fuss, thank you baby girl for making my life a little easier here).  Oh, and here is the cutest thing--she still calls feta cheese "marshmallow cheese," as she did when she was a toddler.  Well, it does look like marshmallows!

My little photobomber...I can't get her out of pictures when I'm cooking.  When photographer Daddy wants to take pictures, she will not cooperate--Yay 3-year-olds!

Chop and saute onion.  In the past, I have tried to hide this step from the biggest.  She thinks she doesn't line onions.  This time, she saw me and I told her that I was making some spinach pies for me and I like onions.  Then I took a HUGE risk...I asked her "can I tell you a secret?  I've been making yours with onions for a long time now.  I just cut them up really small so you don't see them.  Can I make yours with onions this time?"  I held my breath for a beat or two...then she shrugged an okay and left the kitchen.  Phew!

Squeeze the water out of the spinach and set aside in a bowl.  I used to do this with a towel.  Now I just do it by the handful, it is actually less messy that way.

To get the rest of the water out of the spinach, toss with the onions in the skillet for a few minutes.  Place back in bowl to cool and add oregano, lemon zest, parsley and a pinch of nutmeg.

Stir in feta, parmasen, and eggs, stir to combine.

Remind your husband that there is raw egg in there as he tries to eat the feta out of the bowl.

Scoop into a greased mini muffin tin.

Bake 20 minutes at 350.

Mini Spinach Pies

4 boxes frozen chopped spinach (9-10 oz each)
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs dried oregano
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
zest of one lemon
8 oz crumbled feta cheese
2 oz shredded Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350.  Squeeze the water out of the spinach and set aside in a large bowl.  Saute the onion in the olive oil until softened.  Use your fingers to separate the spinach a bit and add to skillet for a minute or two (just to dry it out a little more). Add oregeno, nutmeg, salt, pepper, parsley and lemon zest to the spinach and toss to combine.  Place back in the bowl and let it cool a bit.  Add feta, parmesan, and eggs and stir.
Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick spray.  (This recipe makes 36 pies, stuffing the tins full.  You can easily stretch it out into 48 pies)  Fill each tin to the top with the spinach mixture.  Bake 15-20 minutes til golden brown on the edges.  Serve warm or let cool completely and freeze.  To defrost when frozen, heat 5 pies on a plate for 1 minute at 50% power.

Snow day, round 3...my Momma's vegetable beef soup

As I write this, my children are being forced to enjoy my mother's vegetable beef soup.  Mother Nature saw fit to dump yet another winter storm on us...8 inches this time.  So in between shoveling and playing in the snow, I was working on this soup.  It is super simple and remarkably delicious.  And if you pour off all of the broth, a three year old will eat it.  Only if you feed it to her like a baby.  And she will chew the beef for five minutes like it is a piece of bubble gum, even though it is possibly the tenderest piece of meat I've made in awhile.

 FYI--this recipe is also featured in my book Only the Good Kids Get Broccoli.  Check it out here

Gather ingredients...let the meat stand at room temperature for a bit before cooking so it warms up.

Get the oil rippling hot.  Salt the beef and sear...

About 5 minutes each side--you are looking for a good crust on it.  Add beef broth, bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.  Simmer until the meat is fall-apart tender, 2-3 hours.

I like to slice the cabbage into thin strips.  It ends up being like noodles in the finished soup.

Remove meat to a plate and cool until you can handle it.  Pour vegetable juice into pot.  Add tomatoes, soup mix and cabbage.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer at least 20 minutes.  Shred the meat or cut into bite sized pieces and add back to the pot.

Nannie Norma's Vegetable Beef Soup
2-3 lb boneless beef chuck roast
3-4 cups beef broth
32 oz vegetable juice (like V-8)
15 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
16 oz package of "soup mix" vegetables
1/3 head cabbage, sliced into thin ribbons

Season the beef on both sides with salt.  In a heavy bottomed pot (dutch oven) sear the beef in 3 Tbs vegetable oil over medium-high heat, about 5 minutes per side.  Add beef broth to pot, enough to come up about 3/4 the way up the side of the beef.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.  Simmer until beef is fall-apart tender.  (My 2.8 lb piece took 2 hours, 45 minutes)  Remove beef to a plate and allow to cool enough to handle.  Meanwhile, add to pot the vegetable juice, tomatoes, soup mix and cabbage.  Bring to a boil and reduce to low.  Simmer at least 20 minutes until the cabbage is softened, but you can let it go longer if you wish.  Shred or cut the beef into bite sized pieces.  At some point during the simmering, add the beef back to the pot.  Serve while hot, or it's even better the next day.  After the soup has refrigerated a bit, you can remove the hardened fat.  This soup freezes beautifully, so don't be overwhelmed by the vat of soup on your stove right now.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, Mini-sized

Tomorrow is our "just because" ice cream party.  While shopping for sprinkles, magic shell and other various project materials (we are making ice cream playdough and painting with shaving cream mixed with glue--it stays fluffy), I found these adorable little babies...

We have ice cream and chocolate dipped sugar cones covered, but what about cupcakes?  I've made full size ice cream cone cupcakes...small ones--even better, especially when the kids will be eating ice cream too.

So preheat your oven to 350, mix up a cake mix, line up the cones on a cookie sheet (the little ones actually stand up better than the big ones do), fill the cups 2/3 with batter and bake 15 minutes.  Easy-peasy.  They are so small that from turning the oven on to icing and sprinkles was a few minutes shy of an hour.

To show how little and cute these are, I tried to find something that everyone knows the size of to compare.  The bananas were hanging next to the stove...

Well, that's better, they are about the size of a shot glass.

Cute. Cute. Cute.  All ready for tomorrow.

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

So I promised this recipe last night...didn't happen, but the final episode of season 2 House of Cards did.  Love binge watching, but so sad when we run out of episodes!

Anyway, the inspiration for this dish was a yummy concoction hubby and I had on an anniversary trip to Williamsburg two years ago.  It was a special at one of the restaurants where we had dinner.  Hubby ordered it, I couldn't stop eating it.  They stuffed it with barley, sausage, some veggies and topped it with what we deduced was a creamy balsamic syrup.  The savory stuffing was a nice contrast to the sweet squash and syrup.

If you have read my book (thank you), you know we usually make acorn squash with butter and brown sugar (and Grand Marnier for hubby). I grew up eating it that way--you cook the squash then put a pat of butter and a couple tablespoons brown sugar in the cavity (and brush some Grand Marnier around the rim for the hubby).  We got our kids eating it by calling it candy squash.  Whatever it takes, right?

We tried to recall everything that was in the dish from Williamsburg, but neither one of us could truly remember.  Back in the fall, I tried two different combinations in the filing, this spinach / mushroom / goat cheese was the hubby's favorite.  It might be because we are putting goat cheese on everything right now.  Even at restaurants, we'll look at each other "you know what this needs...goat cheese."

Cut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Try to make sure that your two halves will sit up straight.  If not, slice a tiny sliver off the bottoms to make a level bottom.

Brush cut sides with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast cut side up in a shallow dish at 350 about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook quinoa according to your package directions.  Mine said to rinse, then cook with a 2 parts liquid to 1 part quinoa.  I made double what I needed for the recipe and I used vegetable broth.  I will portion and freeze the remainder for another use.

Cook sausage over medium-high heat until brown and cooked through, remove from pan.  I've used a roll of breakfast sausage in the past.  This time, I used a mix of hot and sweet Italian sausage.

Add pepper and onions and cook until slightly tender, about 5 minutes.  Then remove from pan--add to sausage in a bowl.

This is the sausage, peppers and onions waiting for me.  I made enough for four servings, but I only had one acorn squash.  (Bonus...I used half of this sausage and pepper mixture with a small can of mushrooms in half a jar of Ragu.  Poured that over some al dente penne mixed with ricotta cheese, topped it all with a handful of mozzarella and baked it for about 20 minutes.  Easy weeknight dinner last night).

Saute mushrooms.

Add spinach and toss to wilt.

Well, that was fast.  And look how much that spinach cooks down.

Add sausage / peppers back to pan.  Stir in quinoa.

Stir in goat cheese.

Brush cut side of cooked squash with maple syrup.  Fill cavities with the sausage / quinoa filling.  Bake at 350 til golden and hot through, about 20 minutes.

Sometimes we top it with an extra drizzle of syrup.

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash
2 Acorn squash, halved and seeded.
1 Tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked
1 cup water, chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 lb sausage (breakfast or Italian)
1 red pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz mushrooms, diced
8 oz baby spinach, chopped
4 oz crumbled goat cheese
1 Tbs pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350.  Place squash in a shallow dish and brush cut edge and cavity with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast 40 minutes in the oven.
Meanwhile, place quinoa and liquid of choice in a covered saucepan.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
Cook sausage in a skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through.  Remove sausage from pan and place in a bowl.  Place peppers and onions in skillet and cook over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes.  Place peppers and onions in bowl with sausage.  Cook mushrooms in skillet over medium heat (add extra olive oil if necessary) about 5 minutes.  Add spinach and toss until wilted.  Add sausage and peppers back to skillet with spinach and mushrooms.  Stir in quinoa and goat cheese.
Brush cooked squash with syrup and fill cavities with sausage / quinoa mixture.
Bake in oven about 20 minutes until browned a bit and heated through.

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

I am so looking forward to spring.  This has been the strangest winter the east coast has seen in awhile.  It has been bitterly cold.  So unusually cold that I've been carrying around extra snow pants and blankets for the kids in the car, just in case we'd get stuck and have to walk somewhere.  Blech, and the snow...I actually like snow, but it has to be more than 4 degrees outside if you want to play in it.  And frankly, I am tired of waking up at 4:30 in the morning to make a decision on if my employees could sleep in or brave the icy tundra and get to work.

Rant over.  Here is what I'm going to miss about winter...the food.  Yeah, I know that you can make a beef stew in the summer, but who really wants to?  While I am already dreaming of corn on the cob and zucchini, I am making my last effort on the winter food front.  Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Stuffed Acorn Squash (check back tomorrow for the Acorn Squash recipe).

The Brussels Sprouts were quite the hit on my facebook page last year.  When the Ravens were in the playoffs last year, I had my own little superstitious ritual going on.  These Brussels sprouts were my "game day food."  While other people were making wings and dips, I was getting my roast on.  Every time I made them during a game, the Ravens won...all the way through the Super Bowl.  A few playoff games in, I posted a picture on facebook.  I am amazed at the number of people that like Brussels sprouts.  More than once, I had to post the recipe.  Here it is, so it will always be available...enjoy!  Go Ravens!

 First, attract a great deal of attention by purchasing one of these at the grocery store.  (You could also get a bag of pre-trimmed sprouts, but where is the fun in that)  I was so excited to see these make an appearance at our local store about two years ago.  I thought what a great way to get the kids involved in the kitchen, they will most certainly eat Brussels sprouts now!  (Insert Family Feud XXX here).  They still think Brussels sprouts are disgusting and that I am weird.  But I keep trying...

 Trim and cut the Brussels sprouts to about equal sizes.  The ones that are the size of a quarter get halved; the half-dollar sized ones get quartered.  Does that make sense?  Toss on a cookie sheet with chopped onion and diced bacon.  Drizzle with olive oil, pepper and just a bit of salt.

 Roast at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes.  The sprouts will get wonderfully brown.  I usually let the bacon tell me when the sprouts are done.

Finish with a pat of butter, a squeeze of lemon juice and a squirt of honey.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 lb Brussels sprouts, halved or quartered (uniform pieces)
2 medium onions, chopped
1/3 lb bacon, diced
2 Tbs olive oil
salt and pepper
1 Tbs butter
1/2 lemon
1-2 Tbs honey

Preheat oven to 425.  Toss Brussels sprouts, onion, bacon, olive oil, salt and pepper on cookie sheet.  Roast in oven for 20-25 minuets, stirring every 10 minutes.  Remove from oven, stir with butter, lemon juice and honey.