Venison Chili

I was gifted 3 lbs of ground venison from a student.  Turns out that we were having a chili cook off in my wing of the building, so what better way to spread the love of game meats?  Knowing that venison hasn't a lot of fat in it, I knew pork would have to be added.  Other than that, this is entirely a riff I made up on the fly.  If early tastes are any indication, this one is going to make them sweat.

Here we go.

Ingredients:

6 strips of bacon, fat rendered, bacon removed

2 lbs. ground venison

0.5 lbs. ground pork sausage

1 large yellow onion, diced

3+ tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1/2 bottle Schalfly's coffee stout

2 cans (small) Rotel tomatoes and peppers (Original) 10 oz?

1 large can Brook's chili beans (mild) 29 oz.?

16 oz. Hunt's tomato sauce

Directions:

In a large cast iron skillet, cook the bacon over low heat until crisp.  Retain fat, remove bacon and set aside.  Saute onion in bacon fat until translucent, about 3 mins.  Brown venison and pork with onion until brown.  Do not drain.  Add chili powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and mix well.  Move mixture to slow cooker.  Add 1/2 bottle of beer, Rotel, chili beans, and tomato sauce.  Cook over low for 8-10 hours.

Jerk Chicken Chili

Can we just agree that nothing beats chili on a cold day?  Nothing warms the soul like a smooth chili with bite.  Over the past decade, I've fallen in love with chicken and pork based stews.  This is one of my favorites.  This is definitely a winner.  Without further ado, I present my Jerk Chicken Chili.

Ingredients:

1 t olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

3 T chili powder

1.5 t thyme

1 t cinnamon

0.5 t ground allspice

1 large roasted chicken, meat removed and shredded (about 6 cups)

4 c chicken stock

14 oz. diced tomatoes

15 ox. black beans, undrained or only partially drained

15 oz. Cannelli (or other white) beans, undrained or only partially drained

1 roasted jalapeno

3 large garlic cloves, minced

1/2 c chopped fresh cilantro

1 oz semisweet chocolate

2 T cornmeal or masa 

Directions:

Heat oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add onion and bell pepper and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add chili powder, thyme, cinnamon, and allspice.  Cook until fragrant, about a minute.  Add shredded chicen and stir to coat with spices.  Add stock, tomatoes, beans, and jalapenos.  Bring to a boil.  Cover partially and reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer 20 minutes.

Add garlic, cilantro, chocolate, and cornmeal or masa.   Turn off the heat and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir well.  Serve.

Chili Verde (Chicken or Pork)

Fall is upon us and it will soon be soup and stew season.  If you are like me and a fan of Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine, you will really enjoy this recipe.  As for me, I'm in love with New Mexico chilis.  I'm always searching for new and exciting recipes that will allow me to make use these gems of the Southwest.  This traditional chicken stew inspires dreams of Southwest travel.  It makes generous use of lean chicken, tomatoes, tomatillos, onions and garlic.  Not spicy.  Not hot.  Just full of great flavor.  It is packed with protein, incredibly flavorful and only 2 Weight Watchers Smart Points per serving!   It can be made on the stovetop or in a crock pot.

Just a tip, I make this for all my Super Bowl parties.

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil
1.5 pounds cubed pork stew meat or chicken (I use boneless skinless chicken breasts)
salt and pepper to taste
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chopped, roasted New Mexico chiles
1.4 oz fire roasted tomatoes, with juice
1.5 c tomatillo salsa (you can buy store bought or make your own below)
2 c chicken broth
0.5 t dried oregano
pinch ground cloves

Tomatillo salsa:
8 large tomatillos, husk removed, cored
4 garlic cloves
2 c water
2 roasted jalapenos, skins removed

Place in blender and puree.  Use as tomatillo salsa above.  This will make more than called for.  If your pot will allow it, use it all.

Directions:

In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Season the pork or chicken with salt and pepper to taste, then place into the hot oil.  Cook until golden brown on all sides, about 7 minutes.  Once browned, remove the meat and set aside.  Reduce heat to medium, and add the onions.  Cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.

Return the meat to the pot, add the garlic and green chiles, diced tomatoes and juice, tomatillo salsa, and chicken broth.  Season with oregano and clove.  Bring to a simmer over medium high heat, then reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.

With a hand-held blender, blend a small amount of the soup until smooth.  You don't want to blend all of the vegetables; just enough until the soup is somewhat thickened.  To further thicken the soup, add up to one tablespoon cornmeal or masa .  Continue to simmer at least 35 minutes more.  Remove the chicken and shred, then return to the pot.  Eat with corn tortillas.  These are amazing!

This can also be made in the crockpot.  When I do so, I omit the oil, and I don't pre-cook the onions or meat.  I throw everything else as described in the crock pot and cook it on high for 4 hours or on medium/low for 6 hours.

CopyCat Recipe: Olive Garden's Pasta e Fagioli

Like you, I've seen a lot of copycat recipes on various recipe sites, Pinterest (follow me, by the way!) and so on.  I've never bothered to try many of them.  For one, you can often go directly to your favorite restaurant's website and get the recipe straight from them!

Olive Garden's Free Recipe Site

Red Lobster's Free Recipe Site

Panera Bread's Free Recipe Site

There are probably lots of others, but those were three I was curious enough about their recipes to locate.

In any event, if you go to Olive Garden's free recipe site, you will not find a recipe for their pasta e fagioli.  Pasta e fagioli (pronounced pasta fazool) is a classic Italian soup.  It is, to my mind, minestrone with pasta.  Literally translated, it means pasta with beans.  Every cook makes it differently, uses different beans or bean blends, puts some secret ingredient in and so on.  It's a versatile recipe that you can adjust to your own tastes.

I've never been a big fan of Olive Garden.  I always felt that their food was mediocre.  It bears no resemblance whatsoever to real Italian food which can be obtained at many small, family-owned restaurants scattered in mid-sized cities throughout the country.  One of my favorites is a place called Scotty's Italian Restaurant on 9th Street and Vine (I believe) in Cincinnati, OH.  It was about the only redeeming thing I found in Cincinnati, OH.  But I digress.

Back to Olive Garden.  Never a big fan. But I went there for lunch once many, many moons ago and remember that their soup and salad was pretty darn good.  The soup I had was pasta e fagioli.  So when I saw a copycat recipe, I decided to give it a try.  I'm glad I did.

However, it is pretty pedestrian as listed.  You may prefer it this way.  I think it pretty well mirrors Olive Garden's actual recipe.  This is a recipe you need to toy with.  Tinker with.  Try a major overhaul once in a while.  But for starters, here's the bones you'll get to work with.

Olive Garden's Copycat Pasta e Fagioli

1 lb. ground chuck/turkey/beef

1 small onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

2 large carrots, diced

2 15 oz cans of Hunts Fire-Roasted Tomatoes (to me, this is vital that they be "fire roasted)

1 15 oz can of tomato sauce (any brand, plain)

1 Tablespoon vinegar (recipe calls for white, I use apple cider vinegar because white vinegar is for cleaning, people)

2 cups beef broth
1 14 oz. can of red beans (I use red kidney beans)
1 14 oz. can of white beans (I use northern or canneli beans)

1.5 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 lb. ditalini pasta (or a small rigatoni, or even elbow macaroni--whatever you've got on hand)

In a large stock pot or dutch oven, brown the ground meat together with the onion, celery and carrot. I usually use ground chuck and there is so little fat to drain that I usually don't bother.  If you are counting every calorie, go ahead and drain it.  Return it to the pan and add the diced tomatoes, beans, broth, tomato sauce, vinegar, salt, basil, oregano,  pepper and thyme.  I usually also add one bay leaf.  I'm a rebel that way.

Bring to a boil and lower the heat until it is maintained at a slow simmer.  Cook for 50 minutes, minimum.  It's always better the second day.  It's practically illegal by day three.  Keep in mind that this soup works very nice as a poaching liquid for Italian sausage links.  Just saying.

After 50 minutes, put on a pot of salted water to boil.  When it reaches a rolling boil, add the pasta to the water and allow to cook according to package directions.  Remove when al dente.

Now, you can add your pasta to the pot if you like, but we warned that it will continue to cook in the soup liquid and will begin to absorb a lot of the liquid in your pot.  Next day, you'll go to have a bowl of soup and find out you know have a pasta chowder that has to be watered down again.  I'm not a fan of losing precious liquid to pasta and then having to water down my soup that I worked so hard to develop the flavor in.  I usually keep my pasta on the side and add abut a quarter cup to a single serving of soup.  Much better.

Now, I modify this recipe.  What do I do?   

I chop up two mild Italian sausage links and brown it with the ground chuck, onion, carrot and celery mix.  Sausage adds rich fat flavor.  It gives this recipe ummph and ummph is a good thing.  A nice breakfast sausage might work just as well.  Because Italian sausage links usually come in packages of five, I throw the remaining three in to cook as the soup cooks.  You can leave them in there as long as you'd like. Take them out and feed them to your husband.  Hide them in the soup and save them for yourself.  Use them in another recipe.  Go crazy!

Italian sausage is also heavy in salt, so I completely omit the salt.

I usually skip buying prepared beef broth and just toss in two beef bullion cubes with the tomatoes and add 2 cups of water.  You don't have to use beef broth.  You can use tomato juice.  V8.  Plain water.  I've even used leftover coffee!  Use whatever is handy.  Whatever liquid you use will marry in with the flavors and turn into liquid gold.

I add any Parmesan rinds I have hidden in the back of the fridge with the tomatoes and tomato sauce.  This really add some fantastic flavor.  You've been throwing those away?  Oh dear Lord.  Don't do that anymore.

I rarely keep dried basil in the house.  I have frozen pesto left over from last year's garden in the freezer, and I usually add a tablespoon or so of the thawed pesto to the pot.  Pesto, for those who don't know is a maceration of fresh basil leaves, pine nuts, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese.  Nothing there that would conflict with this recipe!

As I mentioned, I also add a bay leaf.  I fish it out before serving.

I usually add a generous 3/4 to a full cup of a good burgundy wine (Merlot, Shiraz, something along those lines).  I like wine in Italian dishes.  But be warned, this is going to change the tenor of this soup.  If you aren't a wine fan, proceed with caution.

I use whatever beans I have handy.  I usually try to stick with dark kidney beans, some white bean (Northern or Cannelli), or a bean mixture.  Pintos would fall apart. Avoid them.  Garbanzos?  No. You can use chili beans as long as they are rinsed.  You don't want Mexican overtones here. And Pasta e fagioli is not a spicy dish.

I almost always serve with a piece of chewy crusty bread.

Man, that's good eating.

Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Soup

Blame Charles Barkley. I'm back on Weight Watchers.  They have revamped their program.  I've decided to give this new, revamped program a try instead of going back to the program two changes ago.  Does that make sense?

In any event, I remembered some of my favorite WW recipes and since I'm leaving Illinois in the morning, I decided to use up some of the stuff in the house.  Try it.  Quick, light and refreshing.


1 butternut squash
1/2 sweet potato
1/2 cup carrots, peeled (optional)
1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and quartered (optional)
32 oz. Organic vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste

If you have an immersion blender, this recipe is so simple you'll feel guilty.  Peel and quarter the squash, potato, carrot, and apple if you used them.  Boil in the vegetable broth until soft about 20 minutes.  Use your immersion blender to puree the vegetables and salt and pepper to taste.  If you don't have an immersion blender, blend it in a regular blender.

Makes about 6 servings.
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 1 per serving (2 if you include the apple)

Mexican-Inspired Vegetable Soup

This is adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe.  Believe it or not, if you scour their recipe site, you can find some winners.  This is one I will keep in my arsenal a long time.  I grew up on vegetable soup.  I never liked it.  I think it was the cabbage.  You know, a little cabbage goes a long way.  And when you buy a head of cabbage, unless you are going to make cole slaw with half of it, there isn't much else you can do except put it all in the soup.  Therein, I think, lies the problem I had with vegetable soup as a kid.

Thank goodness, I'm not a kid anymore.

So without further ado, my Mexican-inspired vegetable soup (sans cabbage).  Weight Watchers PointsPlus, 1 per serving.  Serving size about 1 cup.

3-4 bell peppers, pick your color, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, fine diced
28 oz. diced tomatoes, canned
8 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth, low sodium
2 onions, diced
1 medium to large zucchini, diced
1 medium to large yellow squash, diced
3 whole carrots, peeled and sliced in medallions (or about 1 cup baby carrots)
1 cup whole wheat pasta (I prefer elbow macaroni)
3-4 clove garlic, minced
1 T cumin
1/4 t chili powder
3/4 t salt

You can add green beans if you'd like, but I'd avoid the cabbage.

Put it all in a stock pot and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat and cover and simmer until the macaroni is cooked through.  Serve.  Makes a boat load.  Hope you're hungry.  :)

Italian Vegetable Soup

Here is a recipe I had been dying to try for weeks. It turned out so good!! I will post the recipe in its original form, but I made several changes/substitutions and will note those. Hope you enjoy it!

• 
  Another note-I made the soup ahead of time and it sat for a while before we ate it. The noodles REALLY soaked up alot of the liquid in the meantime. I had to add an entire box of chicken broth to make it soupy again (double batch, remember). I will definitely use half the noodles called for next time. Also, I did not care for the flavor the parmesan gave after sprinkled on top, so I will forego that myself next time.
  
  
  My changes/substitutions:
  
  -Any brand of ingredients will do.
  -I doubled the recipe, it made a TON of soup.
  -I added two garlic cloves, minced (one for single batch).
  -I used slightly less onion.
  -The store I went to didn't have italian style stewed tomatoes, so I used regular stewed and added some ground italian seasoning. I also used diced tomatoes w/basil, garlic and oregano. (So for double recipe I used two cans regular stewed and 2 cans diced w/ basil, garlic and oregano.)
  -I used half veg. broth and half chicken broth.
  -Store didn't have canellini beans, so I used Great Northern.
  -Didn't have my basil EVOO, so used regular and it tasted fine. I also didn't use the parmesan on my serving.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  6 ounces COLAVITA Fusilli Pasta
  2 tablespoons COLAVITA Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  1 cup green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
  1 cup chopped onion
  1 red bell pepper, diced
  2 (14.5 - ounce) cans Italian style stewed tomatoes, chopped or lightly
  blended
  2 cups vegetable broth
  1 cup water
  2 medium zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  4 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach
  6 fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn
  1 (16 - ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  Salt and freshly ground pepper
  Pinch red pepper flakes, optional
  2 tablespoons COLAVITA Basilolio, or more to taste
  2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
  
  Preparation:
  
  1. In a large pot of
  salted water, cook the fusilli for 6 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold  water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
  
  
  2. In a large pot, heat the oil over low heat, add the green beans,
  onion and bell pepper, sprinkle with salt; cover and allow them to sweat for 10 minutes, do not brown.
  
  Add the stewed tomatoes, vegetable broth and water;
  bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
  
  Add the zucchini, spinach and basil; simmer another 10 minutes.
  
  Add the cannellini beans, pasta and red pepper flakes (if using) along with some additional broth or water if the soup seems too thick; simmer 5 minutes more. Taste and adjust seasoning.
  
  Ladle into warmed bowls, drizzle with Basilolio and a good sprinkle of
  Parmesan cheese. Pass additional cheese if desired.
  
  Serves 6 - 8
  Per Serving: 278 Calories (28.1% from fat); 9g Fat (1g Sat, 5g Mono, 1g
  Poly); 9g Protein; 42g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 2mg Cholesterol; 725mg
  Sodium. Food Exchanges: 2 Grain (Starch); 2 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Fat.

Cajun Cookin'

I found some shrimp in the freezer.  Two pounds of it that I refuse to let go bad.  I decided to make perhaps my favorite shrimp dish: seafood gumbo.  So I pull out my trusty Paul Prudhomme cookbook and open 'er up and got busy.

Gumbo is deceptively easy.  Sure, if you are going to make your own stock, you will have to start the day before  But you don't have to do that. I'll tell you about the short-cuts later.


First you chop some veggies.  I used two medium green bell peppers, a couple stalks of celery and at least two onions and about four cloves of garlic.  I was using rather large cloves, so if you have a normal-sized bulb of garlic, you might want to use six.  You'll need about two tablespoons worth.  I like the vegetables diced fairly small and  try to make all the cuts uniform.  Not quite a mince, maybe just a smidgen larger than a fine dice.

Next you need some shrimp stock.  Now under normal circumstances, you'd buy shell-on shrimp and peel the shrimp and use the shells to make your stock.  Making stock takes time, but it's actually a lot of fun. When else do you get to throw in halved unpeeled onions and an entire bulb of unpeeled garlic?  It is fun to watch the stock come together.  So much more fun that making chicken stock.  Unfortuantely, since I bought only tail-on shrimp, there wouldn't be enough shells to flavor a stock.  So I used some of this....

It really has decent flavor for bouillon.  These are large, oversized cubes.  Make a very dark, very pungent stock.  With stock ready, shrimp thawed, and vegetables chopped. I can get busy.  This dish takes a lot less time than you'd think for how great it tastes.

You create a spice mix, which is a combination of white, black and cayenne pepper, paprika, oregano, thyme and some salt.  Oh, and you'd better get the file and Tabasco ready.  This is Louisiana cooking after all.

Melt a stick of butter in a stock pot over medium heat.  When to temperature, add the chopped vegetables and cook for 6 minutes stirring constantly.  Add two tablespoons of file, and the spice mix and a full tablespoon of Tabasco.  Heat over medium heat for 5 minutes.  The file will become very sticky, so you must stir the pan regularly.  Over time, the file will begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, make sure you scrape off any brown bits.  They add flavor and reduce the ability of file to thicken the final product.

Add the tomato sauce and cook over medium heat for another 5 minutes....stirring constantly. Now all you have to do is add your stock and bring it to a boil over medium heat, then simmer over low heat for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Look at that nice rich color!

Now is a good time to put on some brown rice.  You don't need a lot.  Gumbo isn't a rice dish.  The rice is an accompaniment.  After 45 to an hour, turn the heat off the stock and add the shrimp and crabmeat and cover.  Ha!  I didn't mention the crabmeat, did I?  But you can't just have one kind of seafood in gumbo.  You can also throw in oysters if you are made of money, which I'm not.  In any event, when the shrimps turn bright red, the meal is ready!If at all possible, you should only put in as much shrimp as you can eat in one meal.  If you cook the shrimp and let it sit in the broth, it will get tough.  This meal is so fluffy I think I'm gonna die!  Oh wait. Wrong movie.

Wow this was good.

Here's the full recipe from Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen

1 lb medium shrimp
5 cups basic seafood stock
Seasoning mix:
1.5 teaspoons ground red pepper (cayenne)
1.5 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
0.5 teaspoon white pepper
0.5 teaspoon black pepper
0.5 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
0.5 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
1 bay leaf, crumbled

0.5 cup margarine
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped green bell pepper
3 tablespoons gumbo file (file powder)
1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce
1-2 tablespoons minced garlic
1.25 cups canned tomato sauce
1.5 cups, packed, crabmeat (about 0.5 lb)
1 dozen shucked oysters (about 0.5 lb) (optional)
1.33 cups cooked brown rice

Peel shrimp, rinse and drain.  You can use the shells and heads to make shrimp stock if you want.  Otherwise, refrigerate shrimp while you make the rest of the dish.  Combine the seasoning mix ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.  In a 4-quart heavy soup pot, melt the margarine over medium heat.  Add the onions, celery and bell peppers.  Turn heat to high and stir in the gumbo file, Tabasco, garlic, and seasoning mix.  Cook 6 minutes, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat to medium and tir in the tomato sauce; continuing cooking 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the stock and bring gumbo to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the shrimp, crabmeat and oysters (if desired); cover and turn off the heat. Leave the pot covered just until the seafood is poached, about 6-10 minutes.  Serve immediately.

For a main course, place about 1/3 cup rice in a bowl and top with about 1 cup gumbo.  For an appetier, serve about half that amount.

This is rich folks.  Rich, rich, rich.  And delicious.  And I gotta go eat.  :)

White Turkey Chili

Ok.  Made this recipe today from Mel's Kitchen Cafe with some modifications, so I'll reprint here and go through it.  I'm going to warn you.  I eyeballed some of the stuff in this, so the measurements are not exact.  Still, I think my estimates are going to be pretty close.

My turkey was pre-cooked, but if yours isn't, get busy.  I also made the northern beans last night.  I'm a little long on beans around here, and true to my promise to myself, I'm trying to use up my food and not just take the easy way out all the time.  Actually, I was really proud of myself.  I made the turkey and wild rice soup, and made some homemade refried beans, and the northern beans for this dish.  But you can certainly cut corners and use canned if you don't have the storage issues I do.  Oh, the yogurt wasn't in the original recipe, but I wanted to know what kind of flavor that would add.  I really couldn't tell it was in there at all after the fact.  So if you want to substitute yogurt for part of the sour cream, you can do so without too much fear.  I wouldn't substitute yogurt for all of it though.  I think that would give a weird flavor.

Ingredients
1 T olive oil
3 cups of turkey, chopped bite-sized, mostly dark meat
2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, diced
1 sweet red pepper, diced
1 can New Mexico green chilis
1 jalapeno pepper (from can), diced
3 heaping cups of northern white beans, rinsed and drained
28 oz. chicken (or turkey) stock
16 oz. fat-free sour cream
4 oz. fat-free yogurt, plain (totally optional, this was my experiment)
1.5 t cumin
.5 t cracked black pepper
.5 t salt
1 t oregano
.25 t cayenne pepper

Put olive oil in a pan and heat it.  Add onions, garlic, and bell pepper and cook until soft.  Add spices and stir through vegetables for at least a minute to develop some flavor.  Add the chicken stock, beans, green chilis and turkey and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, yogurt, and jalapenos.  Serve immediately.  Those little salad tortilla strips are really good on top.

Nutritional Data based on 10 - 1 cup servings:

KCals/serving: 256
Fat: 5 g
Carbs: 32 g  Dietary Fiber: 7 g
Protein: 21 g
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 5

This is a pretty darn good meal.  At 5 points, I'm going to enjoy this pretty much every time I sit down to eat.  But.  I think it was only marginally close to the kind of heat I like in my chili.  I may end up doctoring this recipe a little, mostly upping the pepper content. Perhaps more cayenne.  A few more roasted jalapenos.  But still, a very solid, tasty white meat chili.  Now let's just hope that that was cultured sour cream I used!

Creamy Potato Soup

I have made this soup several times and everyone loves it. I wanted to try a "lighter" version, so I tried that this past Sunday. I had worried it wouldn't be as creamy without the heavy cream, but it turned out great! I will post the original recipe and note my substitutions in parentheses.

********************************************************************
Creamy Potato Soup
by Leanne D
Serves 6

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter (I did not substitute here, but you could use canola or olive oil.)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 large carrots, peeled, chopped
2 to 3 cups diced ham, about 1 pound (I substituted chopped smoked turkey.)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth (Vegetable broth can be substituted if you prefer.)
1 cup water
4 to 5 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1 cup heavy cream (I substituted fat free half-and-half.)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup half-and-half or whole milk, more if needed to thin (I used fat free half-and-half.)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preparation:
In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add onion, celery, carrots, and ham. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute longer. Add broth, water and potatoes; cover and cook for about 25 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

Whisk flour into the heavy cream until smooth; stir into the hot mixture. Stir in the half-and-half or milk. Taste and add salt and pepper, as desired. Mash slightly with potato masher to thicken and add more milk if needed. Stir in the chopped parsley and serve.

We like it topped with shredded cheddar jack cheese.

Beef Bourguignon

Wow. This was a lot of work. But the sauce is so worth it. I followed the recipe published by Macheesmo. Since I've given you the link, I'm not going to the trouble of re-posting the recipe myself. I did make some modifications as I couldn't find pearl onions despite trying three different grocery stores. Not frozen. Not canned. Not fresh. I also used a rump roast instead of a chuck roast, but beware. I'll clue you in on why you might not want to do that.

I started the meat on to braise and while things were heating up in the pan over by the stove, I got to chopping. All in all, not too much prep involved in that. What we have here is onions, carrot, garlic, and parsley.




The meat had to brown on four sides.

Then you just dump it in your dutch oven.

Now you get the aromatics going in all that fat and butter. Add a little tomato sauce and it really starts to smell wonderful.

Deglaze the pan with a half cup of brandy and add that to the beef in the pot.

Then you add the better part of a bottle of wine and just enough beef broth to cover the meat. Throw in your parsley, some thyme, a few cloves of, well, cloves, couple of bay leaves and let it simmer for an hour.

After an hour, it starts to look like this.


You add some chunks of carrot and let it simmer for another hour. At this point, I sauteed some button mushrooms and because I couldn't find any pearl onions, I skipped that part.


And here it is. This sauce is beyond wonderful. It is every thing that was promised in a 3-hour sauce and then some. Only there was one problem. The beef was dry. Not just a little dry. Like, holy moly, did my mother cook this thing? In any event, I think it was the cut of meat. I had a rump roast and I think I should have used a chuck roast, a cheaper piece of meat. I think cooking some pieces of meat that long works and with others it just dries them out. The rump roast I used was one of the latter.

So I'm thinking I'll just save this sauce--maybe freeze it-- and when summer comes and I have a taste for a steak, I'm ready to go. Or maybe I'll just warm this sauce up in the microwave and drink it from a coffee mug to warm me up.

Really. It's that good.

Oh, Weight Watchers PointsPlus:  14 per cup.  Don't even think about it.

Avgolemono Soup

Backstory on this dish is this. In Chicago, almost every neighborhood diner is owned by a Greek family.  And every special on the menu usually has a soup course.  And almost every soup course has no selection, it just IS Avgolemono or lemon-egg soup.  Man, does this ever spell comfort food for me.  It also makes my heart ache for Chicago.

At least I can have a little bit of Chicago right here in southern Illinois with this recipe.  Added bonus:  it's not too bad on the ol' waistline.

Soup Addiction

I've been on a soup kick lately.  I've been gathering recipes for soups to get us through this long, cold winter.  Then, I went visiting Liv and she made me soup. A Schmale Favorite soup.  Chicken and Wild Rice.  It was great.  So great, that I was back less than 24 hours and I had to make it for myself.  So, without further ado, my version of Schmale's Chicken and Wild Rice.

Butternut Squash Soup

Easy peasy.  Tastes pretty good.  Do not make the mistake I made and use chicken broth.  Honestly, I could have sworn that said chicken broth.  In any event, chicken is the dominant taste when you use chicken broth.  It is also salty.  I'm going to make this again when I can read.

Here's the particulars. 
Serving size: 1 cup
KCalories, 82
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 1 
Fat, 0g
Carbs, 19g
Dietary Fiber, 3g
Protein, 3g

Ingredients
32 oz. vegetable broth, low sodium
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and chopped in 1" cubes
1/2 apple, peeled, cored and diced in 1" cubes
1/2 onion, peeled and diced in 2" slices
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Place broth, squash, apple and onion in a stock pot and boil until the squash is tender, about 15 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool at least 15 minutes.  Using an immersion blender, blend ingredients thoroughly.  Or put in blender in batches.  Return to pot.  Season with salt (be careful if you didn't use low-sodium broth) and pepper.  Add a pinch of ground nutmeg as a garnish before serving.  Can be served warm, cold, or room temperature.

Senegalese Peanut Stew (Vegetarian)

OMG. Stop what you are doing right now and go to the grocery if you have to because you have GOT to have this chowder and like NOW.