I grew up thinking I hated tomato soup, when what I really hated was Campbell's tomato soup. I have a hard time justifying making tomato soup when tomatoes are in season because they are so lovely I can't bring myself to do much more than slice them and sprinkle salt and pepper over the slices. Deborah Madison has a recipe for Cream of Tomato Soup in her cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I made it today for lunch and tweaked it just a bit. It is delicious.
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 small onion, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 1/2 t dried basil
pinch of ground cloves (I added more because I loved the flavor)
2 T flour
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes in puree (only had tomatoes in juice so I added about 1/2 T of tomato paste to compensate)
pinch of baking soda
2 1/2 c vegetable stock (I used chicken stock)
1 to 1 1/2 c milk
salt and freshly ground pepper
Combine olive oil and butter in soup pot over medium heat. When butter has melted add onion, celery, basil and cloves and cook until onion is limp, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and add tomatoes, tomato paste, baking soda and stock. Bring to a boil, then partially cover and lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. (She recommends pureeing it at this point but I left it as is) add milk and season with salt and pepper.
I cut up some leftover bread into cubes and toasted it in the oven at 350 degrees until crisp and topped my bowl of soup with some of the croutons. A lovely lunch for winter.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Quite possibly the best ice cream. Ever.
I was completely floored by the amazingness of this ice cream the first time I conjured it up. Bryant was impressed, but not to the same degree. Jonathan and Amy came up this weekend and I made it again and was happy to see that they were also floored and dubbed it the best ice cream. It is simple, but oh so good.
2 c buttermilk
1 c sugar (taste as you add so that you get the sweetness that tastes best to you)
1 c cream (I've used whole milk in a pinch)
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla
Combine buttermilk and sugar and whisk until sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients and freeze in an ice cream maker. Eat it all in one sitting. Repeat.
2 c buttermilk
1 c sugar (taste as you add so that you get the sweetness that tastes best to you)
1 c cream (I've used whole milk in a pinch)
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla
Combine buttermilk and sugar and whisk until sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients and freeze in an ice cream maker. Eat it all in one sitting. Repeat.
Monday, January 16, 2012
What we are eating.
Bryant and I decided to do this 21 day eating challenge (shortened into 15 days because that is the longest amount of time we are both in town this month) and we started yesterday. I'm posting the link because everything we have eaten so far has been surprisingly delicious. There were some recipes I was dreading (like the kale and cabbage slaw) but have ended up loving. The first week your meals consist of fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds and lots of water. I thought we were going to starve. But I'm not. And I am interested to see as we reintroduce foods (sea food and legumes, then eggs and non gluten grains, and eventually dairy and gluten and sugar) how each item makes me feel. 21 days (or 15 in our case) doesn't feel like forever and it has been a great way to try some new veggie based recipes and to learn how to incorporate more nuts and seeds into our meals. So no fun dessert recipes from me until February.
Do you want to know what I miss the most? Cheese. I love cheese.
Do you want to know what I miss the most? Cheese. I love cheese.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Christmas 2011 recipe links
Clementine Sherbet: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/magazine/04food-t-001.html?_r=1&ref=magazine
*made with clementines instead of tangerines, would use a bit less salt next time, but amazingly delicious nonetheless.
Sugared Cranberries: http://blog.mychefonline.com/2011/12/sugared-cranberries/
*don't blend up sugar, superfine sugar is not needed, good old regular sugar works perfectly for dusting. We didn't use any spices. Next time save the syrup after soaking cranberries to flavor drinks or drizzle over something delicious. We couldn't stop eating these.
*made with clementines instead of tangerines, would use a bit less salt next time, but amazingly delicious nonetheless.
Sugared Cranberries: http://blog.mychefonline.com/2011/12/sugared-cranberries/
*don't blend up sugar, superfine sugar is not needed, good old regular sugar works perfectly for dusting. We didn't use any spices. Next time save the syrup after soaking cranberries to flavor drinks or drizzle over something delicious. We couldn't stop eating these.
Cranberry Cake
It just wouldn't be Christmas without this cake.
6 T unsalted butter
2 c sugar
2 c evaporated milk
4 c flour
3 T baking powder
2 t salt
4 c whole cranberries, rinsed and picked over
Cream butter and sugar. Add evaporated milk. Add combined dry ingredients. Fold in cranberries. Smooth batter into a greased 9x13-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. *Batter is really thick! Don't be concerned.
Serve cake warm with hot butter sauce:
In a double boiler combine:
1 c unsalted butter
1 c sugar
3/4 c heavy cream
1 t vanilla
Heat through and then add vanilla. Serve immediately. You'll want a lot of this sauce on your cake.
6 T unsalted butter
2 c sugar
2 c evaporated milk
4 c flour
3 T baking powder
2 t salt
4 c whole cranberries, rinsed and picked over
Cream butter and sugar. Add evaporated milk. Add combined dry ingredients. Fold in cranberries. Smooth batter into a greased 9x13-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. *Batter is really thick! Don't be concerned.
Serve cake warm with hot butter sauce:
In a double boiler combine:
1 c unsalted butter
1 c sugar
3/4 c heavy cream
1 t vanilla
Heat through and then add vanilla. Serve immediately. You'll want a lot of this sauce on your cake.
Friday, December 9, 2011
The Shaffer Family Christmas Cookie
The majority of my favorite cookie recipes come from my Nana and Papa's hometown community cookbook. This gingersnap recipe is incredible. We think it should be renamed gingersoft because that is a more accurate description. The recipe makes a huge batch. Huge. Your house will smell like Christmas and you will have so many cookies that you can take up to half the batch into your closet and eat them one by one all by yourself and no one will suspect a thing.
2 c sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c shortening
1/2 c plus 2 T molasses
5 c flour
1/2 t salt
2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
2 t ginger
Sugar for rolling (I now use turbinado sugar to roll the dough because it gives it a crunch on the exterior and I like the contrast in textures, but regular granulated sugar is just fine)
Cream together sugar, eggs and shortening. Add molasses. Scrape down sides of bowl. Sift together other ingredients and combine with creamed mixture. Roll into smallish balls and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes.
Your cookies are done when they just begin to crack. Take them out and cool them on the sheet for a few minutes and then transfer cookies to a cooling rack to completely cool. They set up as they cool.
2 c sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c shortening
1/2 c plus 2 T molasses
5 c flour
1/2 t salt
2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
2 t ginger
Sugar for rolling (I now use turbinado sugar to roll the dough because it gives it a crunch on the exterior and I like the contrast in textures, but regular granulated sugar is just fine)
Cream together sugar, eggs and shortening. Add molasses. Scrape down sides of bowl. Sift together other ingredients and combine with creamed mixture. Roll into smallish balls and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes.
Your cookies are done when they just begin to crack. Take them out and cool them on the sheet for a few minutes and then transfer cookies to a cooling rack to completely cool. They set up as they cool.
The Peppermint Bark Cookie
Sunset magazine had a recipe for White Christmas Dream Drops that I tweaked due to a lack of ingredients and came up with this mound of deliciousness. Bryant doesn't like peppermint bark (weird) or meringue (even weirder) but loved these cookies. Go make some.
(I doubled the recipe. I may quadruple it next time because these are so very good.)
2 large egg whites, room temperature (if you forget to put your egg whites just put them in a bowl full of hot water and let sit for 5 minutes or so and it will do the trick)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (didn't have, but if you do have it you might want to add it)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
4 oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate, finely chopped (the original recipe calls for 1 c white chocolate chips - I think it would be fun to use both, but haven't tried it yet)
1/3 c crushed candy canes (crush it as fine as you want, I didn't want to bite into a huge chunk of candy cane so I crushed mine more on the fine end of the candy crushing spectrum)
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and salt. With mixer on high speed add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time and beat for 10 to 15 seconds with each addition. Scrape sides of bowl and beat for another 15 seconds or until meringue is glossy and forms straight, stiff peaks. Fold in chocolate and crushed candy canes.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silpat and drop meringue in rounded 1 T blobs, or if you want it to be fancy schmancy pipe them with a large star tip. Bake until they feel dry and set but are still pale in color, about 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Turn off oven, open door, and let cool in oven for 10 minutes. Remove pans from oven and let cool completely. You aren't supposed to eat them until they are completely cool, but I recommend eating 1 pan warm and 1 pan cool and then you will have the best of both worlds.
(I doubled the recipe. I may quadruple it next time because these are so very good.)
2 large egg whites, room temperature (if you forget to put your egg whites just put them in a bowl full of hot water and let sit for 5 minutes or so and it will do the trick)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (didn't have, but if you do have it you might want to add it)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 c sugar
4 oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate, finely chopped (the original recipe calls for 1 c white chocolate chips - I think it would be fun to use both, but haven't tried it yet)
1/3 c crushed candy canes (crush it as fine as you want, I didn't want to bite into a huge chunk of candy cane so I crushed mine more on the fine end of the candy crushing spectrum)
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and salt. With mixer on high speed add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time and beat for 10 to 15 seconds with each addition. Scrape sides of bowl and beat for another 15 seconds or until meringue is glossy and forms straight, stiff peaks. Fold in chocolate and crushed candy canes.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silpat and drop meringue in rounded 1 T blobs, or if you want it to be fancy schmancy pipe them with a large star tip. Bake until they feel dry and set but are still pale in color, about 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Turn off oven, open door, and let cool in oven for 10 minutes. Remove pans from oven and let cool completely. You aren't supposed to eat them until they are completely cool, but I recommend eating 1 pan warm and 1 pan cool and then you will have the best of both worlds.
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