Brie Will Have a Good Time

This holiday season has been one of "what's in my pantry" toss stuff together food. Because with three kids, a full time job, and the holidays, who has time for much else?  As it is, my 10 year old made the Christmas cookies this year. Two amazing batches of chocolate chip!  But every so often I get a craving for something particular.  A friend of mine recently brought Brie and pears on toothpicks to a party. I swear I ate half the tray. I love Brie... Love it.  So of course I've been craving more.  And as I wandered around the over crowded grocery store the other day, it dawned on me I should do a baked Brie for a Christmas meal we attended last night.

Now, baked Brie is pretty basic. It's Brie. Baked until gooey.  And after much searching of the Internet, I found recipes to be fairly basic. Bake the Brie, drizzle honey, maybe some nuts.  But I was looking for more. So I wandered around the jammed grocery store looking for inspiration. Besides, the more time I wasted maybe the lines would get shorter? (Did not happen)

Roaming from aisle to aisle, throwing more things into my cart than I came in for to begin with, I rounded he dried fruit section and saw dates.  I haven't had dates in many years. I love dates. Dates are sweet. Dates have a great reference to one of my favorite movies Indian Jones. Dates... Yes dates! And other dried fruit! And that's how this recipe came to be. All the dried fruit I could think, and of course that "drizzle" of honey. Oh this was gonna be great. Let's play!

Ingredients

• Small wheel Brie
• Dried sweet dates
• Dried apricots
• Craisins
• Dried pomegranates
• Golden raisins
• Honey (I chose a Brazilian raw honey, only because I did not have a local honey in stock)
• Green apples

Steps

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Unwrap the Brie and place into oven safe bake wear or parchment lined baking sheet 
3. Cut four slices in top of Brie
4. Set aside until oven is warmed to temp 
5. Meanwhile...
6. Chop the dates, and apricots to be the same size as raisins, craisins, pomegranates.
7. How many of them Jenn?? - how much fruit do you want to serve over top? Little or lot? I had enough that when combined was about a cup and half
8. Put all chopped fruit into small sauce pan
9. Pour in honey, Enright to cover all fruit. I probably used 1/4 to 1/2 cup.
10. Bring to simmer and let the honey bubble around the fruit for 5-10 minutes so that fruit reconstituted a bit and absorbs the honey.

1. Once the oven is at 350, put the Brie in.
2. Let heat in the oven until soft and pliable. If you press down on top of cheese and it gives way easy, or starts to ooze out of the cuts you made.
3. Remove Brie from oven
4. If you baked in a bakeware dish, just pour the fruit and honey chutney right over the top, serve hot
5. If you baked on a cookie sheet, carefully remove Brie and place on plate, pour chutney over top, serve hot.

Slice green apples and serve as chips to dip. Don't bother serving this with actual crackers, the green apple tartness with the sweet fruit chutney and the bite of the Brie will be an explosion of flavor in your mouth.

Enjoy!!!

Ooey gooey amazingness going on right here.

Having a Ball for Thanksgiving

I've not been cooking much lately to be honest. With three kids constantly on the run between dance, piano and girl scouts, by the time we get home the most I can muster is dialing for take out or telling the kids there is cereal in the cabinet.

And when I do cook, it's pasta, or one of my staples from this blog like "Whatsa Matta..Chicken Picatta" or it's redo "Picatta more better dish" and other quick meals I should be blogging about... But it happened last week. I cooked.

It appears that blogs such as this are a thing of the past and going by the wayside.  Being replaced by short 30 second videos on Facebook or Twitter, or some other popular social media site of the minute.  They're videos by Tasty or a quick article by Buzzfeed regarding the latest Top 10 something or another.  Or maybe it was a Pinterest pin.  And thing is, it's catching on.  People are saving them.  People are trying them.  It's getting people cooking.  It's also to get people to click their stuff, and earn money.  And so I've tried a few Tasty recipes.  They've been complete and utter failures.  I've had to tweak, or change, or cook them often much longer than they say to.  So, when tonight's recipe showed up in my Facebook feed as a Tasty video, I knew I wasn't going by the books.  But do I ever?  And man I'm so glad I changed this recipe.  It's so much better to play.  I present to you, Thanksgiving dinner... meatball style.

Ingredients 

• 2lbs Ground Gurkey
• 1 box Turkey Stuffing Mix
• 1-2 Garlic Cloves
• Salt & Pepper
• Parsley
• Basil
• Thyme
• Chives
• 1 Egg
• Splash of Milk

And per usual, you're going to ask, so how much of everything?  And that's really up to you.  How much garlic do YOU like?  Or in my house, how much garlic can I get away with?  Picture to the right shows you how much of everything I dumped in for spices.

So, place all the spices into your bowl, drop in the ground turkey, crack open and put in one egg, then a splash of milk.  If I had to estimate, I would say I put in about 1/4 cup of milk.  The first time I ran this recipe, the meatballs were a tad dry, so I will be considering altering it next time with either more milk, or the original amount of milk plus a splash of chicken stock.  Thing is, turkey is a very wet ground meat, so making meatballs is sticky.
Next up, you have to crush your stuffing down a bit.  I liked having large pieces and crumbs.  So open your bag of stuffing and dump into a plastic bag.  Grab your rolling pin and crush away.




You'll need to add about 1.5 cups of stuffing to your meatball mix.  Go by look and feel as you start mixing your meat.  I prefer to mix by hand, you're able to incorporate all ingredients faster.  If you think you need more stuffing then add more.






Once it's all mixed, start making your meatballs.  I was able to make 20 balls out of the 2 pounds this mixture.  The meatballs were slightly larger than a golf ball.  I wanted something you had to cut into, but also not so large it took forever to bake, and couldn't be considered a meatloaf.








Any leftover stuffing I had, I sprinkled it on top and around the meatballs in the bottom.  Adding additional texture to the plate, not wasting food, and besides the fact that extra stuffing is always a plus.  Into your pre-heated oven they go.  They should bake for about 30-45 minutes on 375 degrees.  I like to turn mine about half way through so that you can an even cook throughout.  If you have any doubt they're not done, you can and should, always take their temperature with a meat thermometer.  Pull them out and let them rest a bit.




While the meatballs are in the oven, it's best to start cooking your sides.  This isn't a blog about how to cooks sides today.  Come back some other time.  So, I made mashed potatoes, peas and gravy.  And honestly, whatever the best looking rolls on sale were that day.  No one has time to bake their own bread anymore, and if you do, I'm all kinds of jealous.  I made real mashed potatoes, not box as these deserved better and I actually had time that day, but I did cheat on the gravy.  What? I never said it was going to be perfect.

I served my kids separate gravy from potatoes from peas from meatballs.  Cause we all know their foods can't touch.  But this was truly plated with the meatballs placed on a mound of potatoes, smothered in gravy.  Peas and roll on the side.

Not the most beautiful plating in the world, I blame the phone and the rush to the table because we were all hungry.  I'd be afraid to send this to Gordon Ramsay's Twitter feed for fear of what he might call it.  But regardless of what it looked like, it tasted AHHHMazing.

Results

• The almost 2 year old picked at it. What's she's two.. and had already snacked all afternoon.
• The 6 year old gobbled it down well enough.  
• The soon to be 10 year old gave me a 9.5/10 points.  When asked why the 1/2 deduction, I was told "just because" although I suspect it was because she doesn't like gravy.  Weirdo.  <3
•  The husband made it disappear pretty damn fast.
• Safe to say, this will be returning to our table.  Kids even had leftover meatballs for the lunches the following days.

Also, what kind of Thanksgiving meal would this had been had I not served cranberry sauce/jelly?  Served correctly, perfectly popped out of the can.


Enjoy!

Last Minute Easy Spicy Squash Soup

It's been a year since my last update.  So much going on.  New baby (ok not so new at this point, 10.5m old) and two older children taking up all my time.  Husband adding on to the house, me juggling trying to get the kids here, there, and everywhere.  I've had very little time to cook, let alone actually play with any recipes I've found.  There have been a few successes and a few failures.  None of which I have pictures for, but I'll attempt to get you caught up over the coming weeks.

It's my favorite time of year to cook.  It's crisp outside, so heating up the kitchen isn't quite as big a deal as it is in the summer.  I baked an apple pie yesterday.  Middle child is begging for a slice with every single meal.  Always a good thing, and I can validate pie for any meal with a variety of reasons.  Last week we went to the orchards; Russell's Orchards to be exact.  That's where the apples came from for aforementioned pie.

While there, I selected an acorn squash.  Just a small one, knowing full well I would be the only one consuming it.  However, middle child said she'd try it with me.  This is not my first time with an acorn squash, I ADORE acorn squash.  Roasted in the oven, then served with butter, maybe a smidge of maple syrup.  So much yum.  But, it sat all week.  One dinner went by, two, then three, then pizza take out, followed by Chinese take out.  Which got me where I am today.  Knowing I was going out tonight I wanted to make the squash, for myself, for lunch.  So I set the oven at 350 to pre-heat.  Sliced the squash in half, scooped out the guts, gave it a good spray of cooking oil (so it doesn't dry out), and placed them on a middle rack.  45m later out they came.  And that... is when I decided to do more with it.  Remembering back to a Spicy Pumpkin Soup recipe I received from a friend, I started to pull spices from my cabinet and decided to play.

Spicy Squash Soup

1 acorn squash, guts scooped, roasted to tender, cooled
1-2c chicken broth (I keep jars of Better than Bouillon in my cabinets should the need ever arise, I use it in everything)
Onion Powder
Ground Ginger
Curry Powder
Cumin
Coriander
Cinnamon
Salt/Pepper
Cream

1.) Scoop the squash into a blender, add to it 1c chicken broth
2.) Start adding spices, how much?  Come on, you know me better than that by now. If you don't like Curry, add less curry.  Don't want onion, don't add any.  Start with "less is more" and add some later.  But add a little bit of everything.
3.) Whirl it all together on puree setting.  If you like a thick soup, add less broth, if you like a thinner soup, add more broth.  I tend to go about 1.25 to 1.5c of broth.
4.) TASTE, adjust spices
5.) Whirl more, finish with a splash of cream, whirl again.
6.) Pour into pan to warm on stove, bring to simmer.  Let simmer for 15 minutes.  This is where the spices will really come into their own.

Serve.  Enjoy.

And then realize, that, you purchased this for your middle daughter try with you, and now that it's soup, she's not going to touch it.  Thankfully, this made just two servings.  Lunch today, and lunch tomorrow.  Win.

Soup is Easy

I recently signed up for a weight loss challenge at work.  What my actual weight is, is none of your business, but I have to lose 5% in the next 8 weeks.  I had to pony up $20 and all those in the pot who reach the 5% goal get to split the pot.  It's at $460 right now.  I'll take those odds.  Losing weight is not a first for me.  After the birth of my oldest child I joined Weight Watchers (WW) and lost 75lbs on the program in one year and kept it off for 2 years after that until the birth of my second daughter came along.  And I haven't been able to lose the baby fat since.  So I know my limits, I know my pain points and I know what I'm up against.  I can do this.

I dug deep into my memory bank to try and remember how I did it 7 years ago and remember starting in the first month and going WW recipe crazy.  I pulled out all the stops and measured and counted and followed all the rules.  In WW land, today those have all changed.  But one thing I remember that helped me jump start was by making soup.  WW has this soup recipe that's all broth and vegetables and it's REALLY GOOD.  But you think I could find that again?  I remember what was in it so I planned to just wing it.   Although, the grocery store had other plans for me, they didn't have 1/2 the ingredients I needed in the vegetable aisle.  So.  Ok.  I'll change it up and use intuition and play.  And here's what happened.

Ingredients
All amounts are relative to how much soup you want to make!

• Carrot
• Onion (I use vidalia, i like 'em sweet)
• Celery
• Rutabaga/Turnip
• Chicken/Vegetable Stock (low sodium)
• 1-2 cloves Garlic
• 1 Bay Leaf
• Caraway
• Coriander
• Basil
• Salt/Pepper
• Ditalini Pasta (optional)
• Olive Oil

Seriously?  Rutabaga (aka Turnip)?  Yep.  I didn't want to use potato, all that starch.  I recently made boiled dinner which got the flavor of Turnip/Rutabaga in my brain, and I really like that root vegetable.  (See it used with Beef Brisket boiled dinner)  And I started to research it after I bought it.  Granted, you can only trust half of what you read on the Internet, but most of what I found seemed to all corroborate these results.  They are low carb.  And calories in a Rutabega are much less than calories in a Potato.

"Mise en Place" aka Preparation

I heard Chef Anne Burrell use this a lot on Worst Chefs in America on the latest episode and I like it.  Basically, it's "get your stuff ready before you start cooking"

• Carrots - peel, slice down middle lengthwise and chop
• Onion - peel, slice off ends, slice in half, chop into 3rds
• Celery - trim dirty ends, chop
• Rutabaga - peel, slice dice into 1/2" cubes
• Garlic - smashed and finely chopped or pressed in a garlic press

Play

1.  In a large stock pot, drizzle the bottom with olive oil, turn heat to medium, add onions
   
2. Salt and Pepper heavily
3. Keep onions moving and saute until they start to soften and become translucent
4. Add carrots and celery
   
5. Add bay leaf, basil, carraway and coriander
6. Continue to saute until carrots become soft
7. Add garlic and saute long enough for the garlic to soften
8. Add stock, you're going to want at least 4cups, I used 6 as I had more veggies
   
9. Add Rutabaga
   

At this point, you need to decide if you want to add the pasta or not.
And if so, are you going to eat it now, or store it for later?
If you're not going to use pasta, you're done, serve and enjoy!

       10. If you're going to add pasta and eat tonight
             - let stock boil until Rutabaga is almost soft
             - add pasta and serve once pasta is at desire texture.
       11. If you're going to add pasta and eat the soup next day
             - let stock boil until Rutabaga is completely soft
             - add pasta and get soup into your containers.
             - As the pasta sits in the soup as it cools down, it will cook.

And of course, if you find yourself home the next night, alone, after the kids went to bed having had their own dinner, you can always have soup.  With grapes (NOT olives.  Ew)

It's Rare, but occasionally the kitchen gets clean!

Say what you want about a good meal, but there's nothing more comforting than a clean kitchen.

Not Your Average Chicken & Corn Chowder

Every once in a while I get in the mood for soup.  Which is great, because soup is so easy to make, and there are so many different ways to make the same soup, adjusting ingredients to your individual liking or taste at the time.  I don't think I've ever made the same soup twice.  The bad part is, I have yet to figure out how to make soup for 1, with a couple nights' leftovers.  When you make soup, you make for the masses.  One of these days I will have to master how to make soup for 5, and not 25.  See, I'm the only one in the household who will eat soup.  5 year old girls tend to be picky eaters at this phase, 2 year olds don't yet have the ability to manage it on a spoon, and well husbands... the one in my house just doesn't like soup.  And that's OK.  More for me!

Several weeks ago, some time around Valentine's Day, my mother in law throws this really fun party for the adult women of the family.  Much laughter, as you can imagine.  This year, I was unable to attend, but was there to drop my girls off for the afternoon.  Her menu for the party that day included Corn Chowder.  She makes a great corn chowder.  After finishing two and a half bowls of it quickly before we had to leave, I was determined to get it on the menu at my house in the following weeks.  And wouldn't ya know... Sunday night, I made a roast chicken.  How convenient for me, now I can make my own stock.  Score! 

I like chicken in my corn chowder.  Growing up, my dad was a Boy Scout Executive leader, and there was this one troop that had a chicken and corn chowder meal every year.  Raising funds for some project or another.  Well, the gentleman who was in charge of making the chicken and corn chowder had the most amazing recipe.  I have never had another like it.  So I always think back to that, and eventually I will find my recipe falling into that memory.

So, last night was Chicken & Corn chowder.  I didn't even bother with a recipe, I figured I could get it close enough.  I had a general idea of what is supposed to go into it and what it supposed to taste like.  I must say, I was right on.

Chicken Stock

One leftover roast chicken.  Put it in a large pot, fill with water to just 1 inch over the height of the bird, and boil it for about 3 hours.  Not a high boil, but a medium simmer.  You shouldn't have to add too much extra flavoring to this, since your chicken should have already had flavor to it when you roasted it.  We're going to add flavor to this stock later anyhow when we make it soup.  Once the 3 hours are up, you'll want to drain the stock into a collander over another large stock pot or bowl to save for later.  Keeping the bones out, but retaining the stock.

SOUP Time!


Ingredients
4-6 cups chicken stock
Chicken, shredded or cut into small pieces (as much as you like)
4-6 carrots (chopped to 1/2 inch pieces or smaller)
4-6 celery stalks (chopped to 1/2 inch pieces or smaller)
1 medium vadallia onion (chopped to 1/2 inch pieces or smaller)
2 cans sweet corn
1 can creamed corn
1 dozen small (golf ball size) red potatos - can't find the golf ball size, then adjust accordingly - chop in to bite size pieces
1 pint Light Cream
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper


In the bottom of a stock pot, drizzle the olive oil and heat to med-high heat.  Add your carrots, celery and onion.  This is a classic mirepox, or the holy trinity, of soup. Some people use this in just making the stock only and then dispose of it.  In this case, I like a colorful soup.  If it's not fun to eat, then why eat it?  I decided to leave these in.

Add salt and pepper.  Saute over medium heat until they are soft and the onions become translucent.  Don't rush this part, the longer they sit and marry, the better the flavor.  If you get a touch of burning on the bottom, that is ok, it's not actual burning, it's "fond" which I've talked about in past posts.  You'll scrape this off once you add the stock.

Once the mirepox is soft and translucent, add the corn and creamed corn.  Give them a good stir and let saute for just a moment.  Then add your chicken stock.  So how much?  How thick do you like your chowder and how much soup are you making?  Start by adding 4 cups and go from there.  After you add just 4 cups of stock, add the whole pint of light cream.  Stir everything together.  If you need more stock, adjust accordingly as you add the potatoes and chicken.  Bring the heat to high to boil 1-2 minutes, watching not to burn the milk.  Turn back to low and simmer until potatoes are tender.

Remove from heat, let cool so you don't burn your tongue... enjoy!