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!

Turkey Overload: Meal Planning and a Call for Ideas

I have been trying to do some better meal planning.  When I started thawing a turkey last week, I thought that I would be ready to tackle turkey dishes around Thursday of  last week.  It took significantly longer than that for the turkey to thaw in the fridge, so I moved on to other dishes.  Unfortunately, those dishes lasted me longer than I anticipated.  When I finally got around to cooking the turkey on Monday, I was still working through other leftovers.  Now, I'm faced with an entire 13-pound deboned, skinless turkey sitting in some premium turkey broth  that HAS to be processed this weekend or thrown away!

Gasp!

So, meal planning for this week is heavy on the turkey.

I like brussel sprouts

Following up on my earlier post, I was true to my word and bought and prepared brussel sprouts.  I followed the recipe suggested by Mama Bee from over at Smitten Kitchen, and guess what?  I liked 'em.  Okay, the recipe did call for a few slices of pancetta, which I didn't have, but bacon I did, and it didn't exactly explain whether one should drain the bacon fat before preparing the sauce, which leaves me with a rather tasty, but way expensive vegetable dish, points-wise, calorie-wise, and any-which-wise you look at it.  It was, however, good.

For starters, I thought brussel sprouts were a winter vegetable.  Nonetheless, I had to pay $3.69 for 12 oz. of sprouts.  I was shocked to have to pay that much for a simple vegetable in season.  That is as much if not more than asparagus.  Perhaps it wasn't fear of the sprouts that kept me away all this time. But, I kept the cost down by having a number of the items requested on hand.  I had some frozen bread loaf-ends in the freezer, which I gave a spin in the food processor, mixed with a small amount of olive oil and toasted in the oven.  Swell.  No out of pocket cost there.  I had the onions, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and bacon on hand as well.

This is how it looked when prepared as directed.  I had to move one of those sprouts on top so you'd actually believe I made the things.

I paired this vegetable with some turkey thigh and some of the leftover vegetable lasagna.  (Yes, I am STILL eating on that stuff and it is still HO-HUM.)

And I would be willing to try brussel sprouts some other ways.  For instance, I thought the pan smelled mighty good when all it held was brussel sprouts, bacon, onions, and garlic.  If I didn't add the balsamic vinegar and beef stock, I'd have probably enjoyed those sprouts just as much, if not more.  (I'm coming to the sneaking suspicion that many recipes should be discarded at the point where the smell of it  makes your mouth water--recipe be damned!)

So I'm glad I tried the sprouts.  Maybe when I win the lotto, I can have them more often.

Balsamic braised brussel sprouts a la Smitten Kitchen
4 servings
Kcal:  231
Fat: 15 g  Saturated fat: 6 g
Carbs: 18 g
Protein: 8 g
Fiber: 4 g
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 5

Saturday Brunch

 Breakfast today was a nice, hearty huevos rancheros.  Just a pair of corn tortillas topped with some leftover northern beans I was given, generously sprinkled with jalapenos, then topped with New Mexico salsa an two poached eggs.  Fantastic and what a way to wake up the taste buds.

Then for lunch, a little of this.  A lovely split pea soup.  Can you tell I was feeling a little in need of comfort food today?  Oh well, it's all tracked on the diet.  I have to go exercise now.  :)

Bloody Breakfast

Would you eat this for breakfast?

I do.

Raspberries over steel-cut oats with a side of grapefruit and a slice of spinach quiche.  Two cups of black coffee.

My morning ritual.

Man, it's good to get up in the morning.

Lemon Cake

I had found a recipe on a cooking forum I belong to and it sounded really, really good! I copied it and worked on trying to reduce the caloric content a bit. Here is the end result. I was a little disappointed I didn't reduce the calories more, but am happy with the result. If you can stick to one serving you won't do too badly. It is a delicious cake.

Lemon Cake (my version)
by Leanne D
9 servings
248 cal./serving
~11 grams fat/serving

Preheat gas oven to 350 farenheit (325 for electric oven)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup Splenda sugar blend
1/2 cup Egg Beaters (equal to 2 large eggs)
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsps baking bowder
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
Zest of 1 or 2 lemons, depending on how lemony you want it to be. (I used zest of two.)

Cream butter and Splenda together, beat Egg Beaters in one half at a time. Sift 1/2 of flour and baking powder into the butter/Splenda mixture. Stir and pour in 1/4 cup milk. Stir until well blended. Repeat with last half of dry ingredients and then the rest of the milk. Stir in the zest.

Pour into a 9x9 or 8x8 cake pan or round pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 35 min. at 350 derees or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Glaze:
1/4 cup sugar (I did not replace the sugar here as I was afraid it would affect the glaze.)
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix sugar and lemon juice and pour over hot cake in oven. Turn oven off and let cake sit in oven for about 10 minutes.

Cut into 9 servings.

Anyone Else Ever Do This?

When I was a kid and my mother made chicken or turkey, my sister and I got to break the breastbone.  Or wishbone as we liked to call it.  Whomever scored the keel bone got their wish.

It's weird, but I can't make myself throw these things away.  So if you ever come to my house and are in need of some luck, some mojo, or just want a bit of friendly competition, Just ask.  Seriously.  These things are starting to pile up.

They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore

This is one of my most trusted cookbooks. A gift from my Gram.

I love this cookbook.

I would guess that it was put together in the early 80s by the American Baptist Women of the Twenty-Sixth Street Baptist Church in Huntington, West Virginia.

My Gram is in her 90s. Lady Elsie May, we call her. Like the rose. She was born, I believe, in 1918. She was married and a mother during the Great Depression.She still attends the Twenty-Sixth Street Baptist Church, to which she drives herself every Sunday when she feels up to it and the weather is decent. She also goes to the church to quilt on Wednesdays. When I was a kid, sometimes she would take us to church with her on Sundays. I didn't understand the Baptist church. It was a lot different than the church we attended.

It was a rather modern building. Probably built in the 60s. They had these GIANT murals depicting different scenes from the Bible. And honestly, they had the most intimidating paintings of Jesus I had ever encountered. I think it was because they were so big. It was just GIANT Jesus. And every mural was painted in the same sleepy shades of blue and grey. Like it was perpetually overcast wherever Jesus went. That's what I remember about the Twenty-Sixth Street Baptist Church.

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.

Zucchini Bread - Two Ways

Leanne D got me to thinking about zucchini bread.  I had some zucchini in the fridge and decided to treat the kids at school tomorrow, who, I'm sure, will be sorely disappointed when they find out they aren't getting a snow day.  So I pulled out my trusty cookbook and went to one of my favorite recipes.

Since Leanne insists that her zucchini bread is a favorite because she uses whole wheat flour, I decided to give it a try.  I made one batch for the kids the traditional way with white flour and whole sugar.  I made a second, heart-healthier version with whole wheat and half the sugar.  Both versions worked well. This is my favorite zucchini bread recipe and it comes from a church cookbook my grandmother gave me when I was in my early 20s.  But more on that later.

In both recipes, I substituted applesauce for the oil.  In the whole wheat batch, I substituted sucralose for half the sugar, and since I was a bit low on zucchini by that point, I added a few carrots to round it out.  The first batch was just as expected.  It produced a nice, high loaf.  The whole wheat batch looked a little different.  It didn't rise as high and I attribute that to the decreased sugar.  Sugar creates texture as well as taste.  Sucralose just dissolves and offers no structure at all.  Because the sugar didn't react with the zucchini as much in the second batch, it was much thicker and the crust is a bit craggy looking.  The loaf is denser as well.  Although applesauce will never recreate the tender crumb that you get with oil, it is a small price to pay for the decreased calories.  In any event, both batches produced great looking and great tasting loaves.  Thanks for the great suggestion, Leanne!

Ingredients:
3 cups flour (all purpose or whole wheat)
3 whole eggs, beaten
1 cup applesauce, no sugar added (or oil, depending on your preference)
2 cups sugar (or one cup sugar and one cup sucralose)
1 T cinnamon
2 T vanilla extract
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 cups shredded zucchini

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat eggs, add sugar, vanilla, and zucchini.  Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.  Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before cutting. 

Nutritional Information.

Servings size: 2 loaves, 8 slices per loaf or 16 servings

Kcal: 204

Fat: 1 g

Carbohydrates: 48g  Dietary fiber: 4g

Protein: 4g

Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 4 (made with whole wheat, 1/2 sucralose, and applesauce)

Yum!

The Best Foods I Ever Ate, Episode 1

I love food.  Nooooo, you say.

Yes, I swear.  I love food. And National Peanut Butter Lover's Day last week got me to thinking about my favorite foods.  And even more specifically, the best foods I ever ate.

What are the best foods you ever ate?  It's a hard question.  So I decided I was going to explore some of the most memorable tastebud tinglings that I have had the pleasure to enjoy.

We will start with a trip to Florence, Italy.  Florence is a fantastic place.  They have David.  They have beautiful tile roofs.  After an afternoon of sightseeing, climbing to the top of Il Duomo, and viewing the Baptista, you know what would sound good about now?

Ice cream.

Stuffed Green Peppers

A "cleaning out my fridge meal" and nothing more.  I found these beautiful, cavernous green peppers on sale at Schnuck's for 2/$1. They were screaming "stuff me".

So I did.

Saturday morning was the Ground Hog Day Brunch and I took about 2 lbs of sausage.  I had about a half pound of crumbled sausage left and I decided to put it to use here.

Did you know that breakfast sausage is incredibly fattening?  I KNOW!  Who'da thunk it?  Oh well.  There are many, many ways to make stuffed peppers and I've tried a number of recipes over the years, but for some reason, my tastes tend to gravitate toward just-a-little-bit-spicy and let-the-peppers-shine.  So, I try not to overdo the spices in this dish.  Also, since I tend to make it once a year when it's cold and wet and crappy outside and when it seems spring will never come again.  This is comfort food, plain and simple.  You just want something that makes you warm and happy.  And has sausage in it.

Ingredients:
6 large bell peppers
2.5 cups calrose rice (uncooked)
1/2 lb. cooked breakfast sausage
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
1 zucchini, diced
2 small cans or 1 large can original Rotel tomatoes and peppers
1 jar spaghetti sauce

Cook rice according to package instructions.  In my case, I used 2.5 cups of rice in 4 cups water.  When cooked, set aside to cool.  Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the seeds and membrane inside.  Remove the stem from the top, but retain the top.  Place the rice in a large mixing bowl.  Add the ground beef, sausage, zucchini, and Rotel (do not drain) to the rice and mix well.  Scoop the rice mixture into the green peppers.  Stuff them well and place the top of the pepper on top of the rice mixture.  Place all peppers in a baking dish.  Pour the spaghetti sauce into the dish and bake the peppers in a 325 degree oven 35-40 minutes.  The peppers should be cooked but still firm.

Servings: 6
Kcals: 516
Fat: 27g
Carbs: 44g  Dietary fiber: 5g
Protein 24g
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 16

Yowza.  That's a lotta points for one bell pepper.  So when I made it, I left out the ground beef.  Because really.  You thought I was gonna leave out sausage?  Hahahahahaha!  Anyway, sans ground beef, we're down to 13 PointsPlus, but 3 points is a big savings.  What the hell.  They don't call it comfort food for nothing.

Post script:  You can't eat a whole one of these peppers.  I ate 3/4 of one and thought I was going to have to lay down for a bit.  A half of one is plenty for an adult's main meal.  This cheap little meal is going to last me  LONG time!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Well, I'm a little tardy for PB Day, but here is an awesome recipe for peanut butter cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes 2 1/2 dozen
by Leanne D

Preheat gas oven to 350 degrees (325 for electric).

1/2 cup butter flavor Crisco
1 cup brown sugar
-cream the above together

add:
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter (I use smooth Jif)

sift or whisk in separate bowl:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients into peanut butter mixture. Wrap in plastic and chill. Roll into 1 inch balls and press lightly onto ungreased cookie sheet. With a fork dipped in flour, make a criss-cross design into top of cookies and flatten.

Bake in preheated oven for 9 min. Let cool for a minute or two on baking sheet then transfer to wire rack or wax paper to cool.

Meal Planning

I'm taking a stab this week at actual meal planning.  As part of my diet, food control is fairly important.  As a poverty stricken graduate student, not wasting food is, too.  I also need to consider that I'll probably be moving in May (to a location to be determined), so I need to clean out my freezer.  So, I'm taking stock of my current food situation and trying to see if I can't swing an entire week without a substantial grocery trip.

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.

National Peanut Butter Lover's Day

At last, it is here! National Peanut Butter Lover's Day! January 24!!!

Peanut butter is my favorite food.

Of. All. Time.

Popcorn is a close second, but it is second.

In honor of the most fabulous food day of the year, I will list my top 10 list of Best Ways to Enjoy Peanut Butter.

Southwestern Rub

A very simple rub for chicken and pork. Made it up myself. I make a large batch of this and just have it on hand for Mexican food emergencies.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt or seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
pinch of ground cayenne pepper

You can go less or more on the cayenne, depending upon your heat tolerance.

Store in an airtight jar and use liberally to rub on meat. Get creative!

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.

Ciabatta!

 In the town where I grew up, there were two grocery stores:  IGA and Gateway.  And sometimes, if you were very, very lucky, Gateway sold freshly baked bread.  It was right there on the counter in this miniscule bakery they had right by the meat section.  And when we smelled that heavenly smell, my sister and I made a bee line to see if there was any bread left.  Maybe that's where I first fell in love with homemade bread.  If so, thus began a lifelong love affair.  Since I fell in love with cooking and eating, I naturally decided to master bread baking.  I'm still working on that mastery.

Baking bread is an art.  It takes knowledge and skill, imagination and faith.  Ciabatta is a prime example.  The dough is so wet that you are certain there is no way that is every going to make anything other than a re-creation of Jabba the Hut.  Well, I'm here to tell you that ciabatta is possible, if you just have faith.

Ciabatta (from America's Text Kitchen Television Show 10th Anniversary Best Recipes 2001-2010)

Sponge
1 cup (5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1/2 cup water, room temperature

Dough
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for the dough and work surface
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1/2 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1/4 cup milk, room temperature
3/4 cup water, room temperature

Number of servings:  2 loaves x 8 slices per loaf (this is a generously sized slice!  so 16 servings)
KCal:  88
Total fat: 0g
Carbs: 18g Dietary fiber: 1g
Protein: 3g
Weight Watchers Points Plus:  2


Mix the sponge in a medium bowl until a uniform mass forms, about 1 minute.  Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for at least 8 hours but up to 24 hours.  Over this 24 hours, the yeast will begin to ferment the bread, bubbles will form on the surface, and the sponge will begin to look very wet.  Like so.

Honestly, it reminds me of a pancake ready to flip.  When the sponge is done, ready the dry ingredients.

Then the wet ingredients.  A little tip: if you are lactose intolerant, you needn't worry about that these days.  This stuff will do.

Put the sponge and the wet and dry ingredients in the Kitchenaid mixer and using the paddle, let her rip.  Did I mention that sponge would be VERY wet?

Takes about 6-8 minutes til the dough comes together as a single mass.  You must have faith.  It takes that long for the gluten to develop.  You will doubt yourself at this point because SURELY no bread dough was ever this wet.

Then you switch to the dough hook.  Another 10 minutes.  I just set a timer and let it go.  Sometimes the dough will come together as a mass.  Today, mine never did.  I was fearless.

Now you must let the dough rise.  (Cover with plastic.)  When it has doubled in size, you take a bench scraper to the sides of the bowl and draw the dough over onto itself 8 times (turning the bowl a quarter turn as you work).  Cover again with the plastic wrap and let it rise again until doubled or tripled in size.  My kitchen was cold, so this took a while.  Maybe two hours.

Lots o' bubbles at this point.  Now, you want to cut out two pieces of parchment about 6"x12".  Dust them liberally with flour and spill out that very wet dough onto them. You will want to liberally dust all sides of the dough right away so you can work with it because it is seriously very Jabba-the-Hut-like at this point.  Take your bench knife and divide it in two, putting each piece on its own parchment. Do not forget to liberally dust the parchment before you attempt this.  You'll spend the next 20 minute of your life trying to detach the bread from the paper.  When you can handle it, stretch each dough piece into a very long rectangle.  You want to pick the dough up (with well floured hands), stretching it to about 3 feet in length and fold it like a business letter in thirds.  It will shrink up a little bit.  Then form it into a rough rectangle and let it rise for at least 30 minutes while your oven preheats to 450 degrees.

Although they are hard to see in this pic, there will be little air bubbles forming all over the surface of the dough.  This is good. 

Bake 22-27 minutes on a baking stone (opening oven to spray dough with water twice during the first 5 minutes.  So, ok.  I don't have a water sprayer or an oil sprayer.  So I flick a generous amount of water onto the dough.  It doesn't seem to matter.  Because look!  Voila!  Perfect ciabatta!

I can't even describe the smell, but you are going to have a hard time holding off from slicing it right away.  The crust is chewy, the airy interior is tender.  This stuff is dangerous.  Dogs must be locked in another room.  I take this bread and I slather it with a lovely jalapeno-infused honey that I made back in the summer.

Man, life is good.  Isn't it?

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.

Ho hum Vegetable Lasagna and Kick Ass Eggplant Dip

I made a Weight Watchers recipe of roasted vegetable lasagna for New Year's Day at Bek's.  Spoiler alert:  I'm not impressed.