January FotM Recipe: Julia Child's Potage Parmentier (Potato Leek Soup)

I started with this recipe.

It's such a simple and basic recipe.  I made a few minor changes simply based on ingredients that I already had on hand.

Potage Parmentier (Potato Leek Soup) from yumsugar.com

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed oil  (I used avocado oil)
• 4-5 medium russet potatoes (1 pound), peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 large leeks (1 pound), cleaned, and thinly sliced
• 6 cups vegetable stock (or light chicken stock)  (I used turkey stock that I made around Thanksgiving)
• Kosher salt, to taste
• 1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup crème fraiche  (I used 0% fat plain Greek yogurt, because we had it)
• 1/3 cup minced parsley or chives

DIRECTIONS  

1. Heat the oil in a large stockpot or dutch oven (six quarts or larger), over medium heat. Add the leek and potato. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have begun to soften and brown slightly, about 8-12 minutes (this time will vary greatly depending on the surface area of the bottom of your pot).
2. Add the stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
3. Blend until smooth either using an immersion blender, or by carefully transferring to a blender in batches.
4. Add the cream, and season to taste with salt (I start with 1 teaspoon and go from there, tasting frequently) and lemon juice
5. Ladle into bowls and garnish with a dollop of crème fraiche (or yogurt), and a healthy sprinkling of minced herbs.

So, what's the verdict from my three kids and picky husband?  Well I loved it, and my girls loved it.  My husband wrinkled his nose, then ate it and scraped the bowl clean...  and, well, my son refused to taste it (but that's just how five-year-old boys are sometimes).

I say, why not try it out?  Chances are you'll fall in love.

Have you ever made this soup?

What's your favorite soup recipe?

January FotM: [Healthy] Soups and Stews

Happy New Year!  ….a little late, we know.

We’re trying our best to start the new year off right, but with all of the snow we’ve had in the Chicagoland area, we still want our comfort foods!  For us that means lots of soups and stews, which can sometimes get a little fat-filled and calorie dense.  So, this month, we’re talking about healthier versions of these classic comfort foods.

check out our recipe for

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Rosemary & Chipotle

Storage

Soups, stews and stocks should always be cooled before refrigerating or freezing to prevent the growth of harmful bacterias.  You can do this by placing the pot of soup directly into a sink full of ice water (being careful not to dump the soup, or water it down, of course!), or by allowing it to cool in the storage container on the counter.  After cooling, soup can be kept refrigerated for about 3 days or frozen up to 6 months (any longer and you risk freezer burn).  Be sure to leave about ½” of headspace when freezing to allow for expansion.

Of course, stocks and many soups can be pressure canned as well.  When canning, be sure to use only recipes written for canning and to follow them exactly, otherwise you run the risk of botulism and other foodborne illnesses.

Recipes

There are so many wonderful recipes available in a variety of places.  Here are a few of our favorite places to dig around for good recipes:

• MarthaStewart.com
• WholeLiving.com
• TastyKitchen.com
• Pinterest.com (Kassy has a pinboard dedicated entirely to soups and stews and a bunch of soup/stew recipes on her “recipes I love” board)
• Kassy has a post about canning chicken stock on her blog

Make it HEALTHY!

Most often, recipes for soups and stews are very forgiving and easy to tweak.  You can easily make small changes to recipes to cut the fat and calories without sacrificing the flavor by:

• reducing the oil/butter (sometimes you can get away with only using half!) or replacing half (or all, if you can get away with it) of the butter/oil for healthier oils such as coconut oil or avocado oil
• reduce heavy cream when called for or substitute with a lower fat milk, or even better, almond milk…  in some cases, when making a “cream of” vegetable soup, you can even get away with omitting any dairy at all as long as you give it a good blend (as our favorite broccoli soup demonstrates)

What’s your favorite soup recipe?

December FotM recipe round-up: Our 2013 Holiday Sweets

To make up for the lack of posts this month, here's a round-up of recipes for the cookies and sweets that we made (with LOTS of help from my mom and kids) this holiday season...

ginger cookies

Santa's favorites

sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies with royal icing

cranberry bliss bars

buckeyes

rolo pretzel thingies

peppermint patties

peanut brittle

hot cocoa cookies

figgy cookies

What kinds of recipes did you make this holiday season?

December FotM Recipe - Figgy Cookies

In honor of my love of Figgy Pudding but the desire to make it easier to eat I combined oatmeal cookies with Figgy Pudding....and voila!....Figgy Cookies!!!


We also cut a corner in the Christmas present department by quadrupling the dry mix portion of the recipe, portioning out (we put half the dry ingredient amounts from the recipe below in each jar) and giving some out as gifts....with instructions of course (listed below recipe).


Figgy Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/16 teaspoon clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup figs
• 1/4 cup dates
• 1/4 cup rasins

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2. In large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

4. PREP 15 mins

5. COOK 10 mins

6. READY IN 1 hr

Brandy Icing

• 1/2 cup brandy, simmered for about 15 minutes to cook off most of the alcohol
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1. Stir together ingredients until smooth.

2. Dunk cookies, top side down into glaze (or drizzle over the cookies if you'd like them a little less sweet).

Jar Cookies

Add the following to your jar mix...

(there is 2 ⅓ cups of mix in each jar)

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Note: Don't forget to include a tag with baking instructions on the jar!

These things are so delicious that Kassy didn't even think about taking

a picture of them until she was half done eating the last one!  Oops!

December FotM recipe: Hot Cocoa Cookies

I first made these cookies about two years ago when we first moved into our current home.  I fell in love before I even tasted them.  They taste like a warm hug.  Chewy chocolate, cinnamon and cayenne.  Delicious.

Then I had a brilliant idea:  curry instead of cayenne.  Holy crap.  YUM.

This Christmas, since Nikki and I both gave them as gifts along with some homemade hot cocoa mix (recipe coming soon), we left out the cayenne and cinnamon and used a combination of granulated sugar, red sanding sugar and white sparkle sugar (a.k.a. sprinkles).  We ended up with a nice, generic, sugar coated chocolate cookie, which is exactly what we were going for.

We also turned the basic recipe into a jar mix, which would make a great gift as well…  just include a small bag of the sugar/whateveryouwanttorollthedoughballsin in the top of the jar, along with some baking instructions.

Hot Cocoa Cookies 

(recipe from Martha Stewart’s Mexican Hot-Chocolate Cookies)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 ½ cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cups sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon chile powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. 

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. 

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down side of bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined.

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and chile powder (if using). 

Using heaping tablespoons, form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Place, about 3 inches apart, on parchment-lined baking sheets. 

Bake until cookies are set in center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 week, or freeze for up to three months)

To make jar mix: mix all ingredients except eggs and butter, place half of the mixture into a quart-sized mason jar.

To make cookies from jar mix: cream together one egg and one stick of butter.  Stir in dry mix until dough looks consistent.  Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

December's food of the month: Cookies!!!

Happy National Cookie Day! (Well, yesterday now...)

The holidays are upon us and with them come the arrival of lots of treats (and stretchy-waisted pants, gotta love leggings and yoga pants!)…  more specifically, COOKIES!  In the coming weeks, we’ll share some of our favorite recipes along with a few that are new to us.  

Mint meringue cookies from Tinsnips and Scissors

Storage

Many cookie doughs can be made ahead of time then refrigerated or frozen until you’re ready to use them.  The general rules are as follows:

• Chunky cookies (anything with chips, fruit or nuts), drop cookies, or cookies that you roll into balls before baking should be portioned as if to bake, then frozen.  Once frozen, the dough balls should be placed in an air-tight bag or container for storage.  Bake them all, or just one or two at a time.
• Slice-and-bake cookies (like shortbread) can be pressed into a log, then wrapped in parchment or waxed paper and stored in freezer bags.  Allow these to thaw in the fridge for a few hours prior to baking or give them at least a few minutes to warm up so they don’t crumble when you start slicing them.
• cookie dough can be frozen in discs (like you would do for a pie crust).  Again, allow to thaw for a few hours in the fridge if possible, or for a few minutes on the counter top.
• Most cookies will take a minute or two longer to bake after being frozen.
• Most cookie dough can be frozen for up to three months.

(reference: thekitchn.com)

When storing the cookies after baking

• Be sure to allow them to cool completely, then layer them between sheets of parchment or waxed paper.  
• Cookies will stay crisp and fresh longer in metal tins rather than plastic storage containers.  
• If you plan to give them as a gift in a cardboard box, be sure to line it with parchment or waxed paper.  
• Keep crisp and soft cookies in separate containers (the crispness of cookies can be restored by heating in a 300° oven for about ten minutes).  

(reference: marthastewart.com)

Recipes

There are hundreds of thousands of cookie recipes available around the world.  Pinterest is a good place to start your search for a cookie recipe that will suit your tastes.  MarthaStewart.com has TONS of recipes along with a plethora of cookie related knowledge that will get you through just about any holiday cookie crisis.

What’s your favorite cookie recipe?  Let us know and leave a comment!

November FotM: Cranberry Sauce - Four Ways

With ease, you can make Cranberry Sauce with a twist.  Below we will take you through the very easy process of making your own cranberry sauce.  After it is complete, simply add a few additional ingredients for an accent to any type of meal.

Here we will cover what we added to create the following types of Cranberry Sauce...

• Original
• Orange
• Pecan
• Pepper

Original
recipe is from MarthaStewart.com

yield about 2 1/4 cups

3/4 cup sugar
1 bag (12 ounces) cranberries
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 cup water

Bring all ingredients to boil in heavy medium saucepan, stirring often.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until most of cranberries burst, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.  Transfer sauce to medium bowl.  Cool, cover, and refrigerate cranberry sauce. 

Basic Cranberry Sauce can be prepared up to 1 week ahead of time.  Keep refrigerated.   Note: Cranberry Sauce freezes well (Approximately 3 months).  Be sure to make extra to pull out later and you can even add these additional ingredients at this time to change things up.

Note: Try on ice cream...you will be pleasantly surprised.


Orange
Peel and segment one or two oranges and stir into cranberry sauce.


Pecan
Roughly chop 1/2 cup of pecans and stir into cranberry sauce.


Pepper
Stir 1/2 cup of pepper jelly into cranberry sauce, add a couple of pinches of chopped fresh rosemary and thyme if desired.  Note: If you have extra pepper jelly (we used jalapeno) spread it on top of cream cheese for a quick dip for crackers.


Mmmm turkey with cranberry sauce...

Be creative and comment below with your own variations.