Tuscan Vegetable Soup

I do really like soup, but I feel every time I have made one from scratch (not counting chili...my chili is good!), I am not completely satisfied with how it comes out. It will be edible, but I won't look forward to having the leftovers. I have had a theory that soup taste better the longer it cooks and marinades. Soups made in a crock pot are probably best, but this soup has proved me wrong. In about 40 minutes, you are eating a flavorful bowl! 

Here's the recipe for Tuscan Vegetable Soup:

Ingredients:

 
- 1 (15-ounce) can low-sodium canellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 large onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 2 carrots, diced (about 1/2 cup)
- 2 stalks celery, diced, (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 small zucchini, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 32 ounces low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can no salt added diced tomatoes
- 2 cups of frozen spinach
- 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan, optional

Directions:

1. In a small bowl mash half of the beans with a masher or the back of a spoon, and set aside.
2. Defrost spinach in a microwave safe bowl.

3. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat.

4. Add the onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, garlic, thyme, sage, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, and cook stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
5. Add the broth and tomatoes with the juice and bring to a boil. Add the mashed and whole beans and spinach and cook for about 3 more minutes.
6. Serve topped with Parmesan.

Original recipe can be found here.

Everything taste better in a jar

Mom and I are obsessed with Undercover Cupcakes from Cookie Confidential in Philly. Today we made our very own copycat versions!

I love drinking out of mason jars. Everything always seems to taste better in a jar! So why not put a cupcake inside one? Genius, right? Such a lovely presentation AND it allows for extra layers of frosting which helps fill my motto: the more frosting, the better!

Directions:

1. Bake up any cupcakes of your choice.
2. After they have cooled, cut each cupcake in half horizontally. You will be using 1.5 cupcakes in each jar.
3. Prepare your favorite frosting and get it ready to pipe out. (You could also just spread it, but I found to get down deep into the jar it was easier to aim with the tip of a bag.)
4. Place your first layer of cake in the jar and pipe a layer of frosting on top.
5. Repeat process two more times.
6. Voila perfectly pretty jar filled cupcakes.

You know you are a cornbread fanatic when.....

These 3 events happen within a span of a week.

Sidecar Bar is my new favorite place in Philly. Because of this:



One of my favorite place to get cornbread is Whole Foods. They sell slabs out that you pay for by weight. While in NYC, I might have worked above a Whole Food and bought these on a daily basis. BUT to this day I have never had such a thrill as this:



Cranberry Cornbread!?!?!?!?! It's amazing! And only Philly is so lucky to have it!!!

I got home after Thanksgiving weekend and well whipped this up:

Spinach Pesto

This girl loves pesto, but sometimes you can’t get your hands on basil. Spinach is a staple I usually have around. I saw a recipe using spinach instead of basil. Nothing can really compare to the real deal, but this is a pretty tasty alternative.

Spinach Pesto

 

Ingredients:

 - 2  cups fresh spinach well-washed and stemmed 

- 1/2 cup pine nuts toasted

- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

- 3 garlic cloves

- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

- 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

- 1 teaspoon dried parsley or italien seasoning

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients into food processor and process to a fine paste.

2. Mix into warm pasta or to use for later transfer into a container and pour a little olive oil on top to prevent browning.

Recipe can be found here.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

 

When I paid a visit to my lovely friend Lauren out in Portlandia she made this dinner and it was to die for. Tonight I re-enacted this meal of Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Sautéed Kale. It was just as good as I remembered it and super easy to make.

This was actually my first time buying and preparing a Portobello. I am just now opening up to mushrooms more. Not that I disliked them before. I just feel like they have a pretty plain taste. You really have to doctor them up, but doctored up like this, can’t go wrong.

Here’s the recipe:

Lauren’s Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 Portobello Mushroom

1/2 cup onion chopped

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cut the stem off the mushroom and chop it up.

3. Put the head of the mushroom on a baking dish and drizzle with vinegar and oil.

4. Sauté the onion in oil and season with salt and pepper.

5. Mid-way through add in the chopped stem.

6. Once cooked, add breadcrumbs and stir together.

7. Pour mixture on top of mushroom head.

8. Bake for 20 minutes.

(This is for one serving. If you have company double it up!)

It comes out nice and tender and marinated! I paired this with sautéed kale and a big chunk of skillet cornbread.

Crispy Clustered Granola.....Good for snacking!

I really like some of the batches of granola I've made over the years, but I have never made a recipe that resulted in big clusters in the mix. When I'm snacking on granola, I love a good cluster. It is just easier to grab and munch. And aside from eating it for breakfast, I have been snacking on granola, a lot. Carbo loading I guess.

Today I decided to try making a batch with Rice Crispie Cereal in the mix as well. I also read about a method of adding in an egg white for the last ten minutes of baking to help clump the mixture together. This did help some cluster to form woohoo! But I think the one egg white was not enough to mix in with the amount of granola I had so it wasn't all clustery.

Here is today's recipe:

Crispy Clustered Granola

Ingredients:

- 4 cups of Rice Crispie Cereal

- 3 cups of Rolled Oats

- 1 cup chopped Almonds

- 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/3 cup brown sugar

- 1/3 cup vegetable oil

- 1/3 cup honey

- 1 egg white

Directions:

1. Preheat the over to 275 degrees

2. Combine cereal, oats, nuts, seeds, and baking powder and set aside.

2. Combine oil, honey and sugar in a small sauce pan and heat on medium to low heat until sugar dissolves.

3. Add salt to liquid mixture and then pour over dry mixture and combine.

4. Spread sticky mixture on a sheet pan and bake for an hour.

5. Make sure to stir occasionally. I give the mixture a little stir every 15 minutes.

6. When only ten minutes are left, pour an egg white over the granola and mix to spread it over as much of the granola as possible, then put the pan back in for the last ten minutes to cook.

 

7. After it has cooled add any fruit mixtures you would like to throw in. Today I went with raisins!

Snack on!

You can make Homemade Cheese?!?

My sister is the best present giver. This year she turned into a mind reader. Awhile back my friend Amanda had made homemade cheese and posted about it and I was obsessed with this concept and really wanted to try myself. I never told my sis, but for Christmas this is what I had waiting under the tree.

YES! And while making cheese, I had great tunes to listen to. For my birthday she got me the greatest speaker on the planet, which I just so happened to have pinned on pinterest and she didn't even know. She just saw a weird ceramic bear and thought of me!

 So on to the cheese making.

Here is the recipe courtesy of the DIY Cheese Kit:

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cool water
1 tsp citric acid
1 gallon milk
1 tsp cheese salt

Other tools:
Large pot (5 quarts or larger)
Cooking thermometer
Colaner
Fine Cheesecloth

Directions:
1. Pour water into a small bowl and stir in citric acid
2. Pour milk into large pot and add citric acid solution and cheese salt and stir well.

3. Set the pot over medium heat and gently check the bottom of the pot with a spoon every 2 minutes or so, so there is no scorching. Avoid stirring as much as possible to allow curds to form. If the milk seems to be sticking, reduce the heat. Heat the milk to 180-185 degrees.
4. As soon as the curds and why separate clearly (you will see white curds floating in yellow whey when you move the curds), turn of the heat. Let stand, undisturbed, for 10 minutes.

5. Line a colander with cheesecloth then carefully pour the curds and whey into the colander. Drain until the cheese reaches the desired consistency, 15 to 30 minutes. To expedite the process, gently lift the cheese cloth by the corners and rock the curds around.
 
Here are my tidbits on the whole process. This is a lot of work and you need a helper. I was impatient waiting for the curds to form. I may have stirred too much, but it did come out just fine. The draining took a long time to not have a really watery cheese. I feel like the cheese cloth got all clogged with cheese at a point and nothing more was draining. We finally got it to the right consistency, but ended up using a fine mesh colander we have.

The cheese was delightful and I was pleased with the result after all that work! This is what I did with my cheese.
 

Roasted Vegetable and Ricotta Pizza

Ingredients:
1 pizza dough (I bought a TJ's Whole Wheat)
3/4 cup of homemade ricotta cheese
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
Half a package of fresh baby spinach
1 cup sliced red pepper
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped onions
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375. (Usually you put the oven at 450 for the pizza stone, but that would be too hot for the veggies)
2. Sprinkle oil, salt and pepper over pepper and mushrooms on a baking sheet and cook in the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes.
3. Saute onions in olive oil until cooked. Add in balsamic vinegar and removed from heat.
4. Saute spinach in olive oil quickly. It doesn't need much since it will also get to cook in the oven.
5. Raise the temperature up to 450.
6. Stretch the dough out.
7. First sprinkle down the mozzarella.
8. Then add spinach, peppers, mushrooms, and balsamic glazed onions.
9. Finally dollop ricotta cheese on top and spread around.
10. Cook for roughly 18 minutes.