Cornbread and Sweet Potato Soup

Hey guys, no pictures this time.  I just wanted to let you know of two recipes I've been enjoying lately.  The first is a cornbread that I make to serve with Jambalaya and it's delicious.  I've made it 3 times or so, including a dinner for Liz and the boys and one for Michelle's family (so I'm sure they can vouch).  The second is a sweet potato soup I've made 3 times as well, including while Liz and the boys were here.  Today, I started making it and Jaime was interested in the process and got to help with stirring, dumping, etc.  Near the end she saw me taste it and wanted a taste. So, I gave her a taste and then she wanted taste, after taste, after taste...you get the picture.  To be honest though, she didn't like it so much that she would sit in her highchair and put her bib on to get a bowl of it.  I made it ahead of time and will reheat for dinner.  The comments on the website say it's better after it sits for awhile.  I love these two, so enjoy!

Buttermilk Cornbread

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk [I make this ahead of time with vinegar and milk]
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Stir together butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until well blended.  Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture.  Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended.  Pour batter into greased 8 inch square pan. Bake for 30-40min at 375 degrees until toothpick comes out clean.  [This also makes 12 cornmeal muffins.  If you do muffins, cook for much less time, about 20 minutes.]

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

• 2 TB olive oil
• 1 1/2 lbs peeled raw sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
• 1 large onion, cut into large dice
• 1 TB butter
• 1 pinch sugar
• 3 large garlic cloves, thickly sliced
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half [I used milk, but Jaime even liked it without]
• salt and pepper, to taste
• garnish: chopped honey-roasted peanuts

Heat oil over medium-high heat in medium soup pot.  Add sweet potatoes and onion and saute 7-8 minutes until golden brown.  Reduce heat to low and add butter, sugar and garlic.  Cook about 10 minutes until vegetables are a rich spotty caramel color.  Add ginger, nutmeg and cayenne and saute 1 minute until fragrant.  Add broth, bring to a simmer over med-high heat.  Reduce heat to low and simmer partially covered until sweet potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.  Blend mixture in blender or food processor until smooth, venting appropriately for steam release.  Return to pot and add half-and-half or milk until desired consistency.  Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.  Heat through and ladle into bowls.  Enjoy!

Biscuit Casserole

So, I randomly got a craving for a dinner I had once about 7 years ago, and even then it was one of those deliciously unhealthy dinner-in-a-box things.  I scoured the internet for recipes for this homemade chicken and biscuit casserole, and with help from James and Justin I was able to find a suitable recipe to base it off of.  I left the chicken out, added extra vegetables and made the biscuits half wheat flour.  Come on.  Who are you talking to?



Biscuit Casserole

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1  cup chopped onion
• 1 rib celery [I did 2 ribs]
• 1/3 cup white flour
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 tsp dried sage [I don't have sage, so I used half thyme half rosemary]
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken [omitted - used extra peas until mixture was good consistency, I would also recommend chopped potatoes]
• 2 cups vegetables of your choice [I used a frozen bag of mixed veggies]
• salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in medium-sized pot.  Stir in the onion and celery, cover and cook for 7-8 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Add the flour, stirring 1 to 2 minutes.  Whisk in the chicken stock.  When it starts to thicken, whisk in the milk.  Add spices, chicken and vegetables and stir until mixture is heated through.  Remove from heat, spread in casserole dish and set aside.

For biscuit topping:

• 2 cups flour [I did half white half wheat]
• 1 TB baking powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 3/4 cup milk

Meanwhile, turn oven on to 375 degrees and begin biscuits.  Combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  Cut in butter using hands.  Add the milk and stir briskly, just until the dough pulls together.

Flour your work surface, knead the dough two or three times, and flatten to about 1/2 inch thick.  Using a cup or biscuit cutter, cut the dough into round biscuits and place on top of casserole, edges touching.

Bake until biscuits are golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 20-30 minutes.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Makes 6-8 servings.

We all enjoyed it, but in retrospect I'd do a few things differently.  First off, the creamy filling wasn't quite as delicious as I thought it should be.  Suggestions?  I think it needs a bit more flavor, and might even be good a bit spicy.  Also, the biscuits weren't nearly as fluffy as I wanted them to be.  All white flour?  Biscuits from a can? Homemade rolls instead?  Those are my thoughts.

Chocolate Chubbies

Best.

Cookie.

Name.

Ever.

Marquie and I made these today as a great farewell treat to, well, ourselves. We've had such fun cooking and chatting in the kitchen this week, and this was a totally out of control, over the top way to finish off what has been a truly amazing week. Here's how you eat them:

Step 1: Contemplate

Step 2: Prepare

Step 3: Rocket that thing into your mouth so fast your hand is blurry

Step 4: Lick Fingers

Step 5: Reaction

Chocolate Chubbies

Adapted from Sarabeth Levine

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

9 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups superfine sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

2 cups peanuts

Preheat oven to 350˚F and line two sheet pans with parchment. Place oven racks in upper and lower thirds oven.

Combine butter, 9 oz. chopped chocolate and 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate in top of a double boiler and heat over barely simmering water until melted completely, combined, and silky smooth. That there is chocolate amazing. Pull it off the heat and let it cool—you'll probably have to stir it from time to time to make that happen in a timely manner.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Put eggs in a large mixer bowl with whisk attachment and beat until they are foamy, about 1 minute. Slowly add sugar and vanilla and continue to beat on medium speed until thick, creamy, and richly pale yellow, 3-4 minutes. Add melted chocolate and beat just until combined. Switch to paddle beater and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

Now you add your chubby ingredients: chocolate chips and nuts, and mix until combined. Now, I decided you can use almost anything you have on hand for this, but you need the amounts indicated in the original recipe. We had peanuts and different chocolates, so that's what we used, and they're great. They'd be better with the original walnuts and pecans, to be sure, but what can you do when you're baking cookies first thing in the morning?

Yeah, we're like that.

Use your cookie scoop to mound these onto your cookie sheets, and bake 15-18 minutes, or until they are shiny and just barely start to crackle. Try not to overcook them—you can even leave the centers a little mushy if you want. Cool on the pans, then eat them the way Marquie showed you.

Pancakes and Waffles...now healthier...

I love my new wheat grinder. The great thing about it, besides the fact that it provides freshly ground wheat flour any day, any time, is that is grinds all sorts of other grains. I am now actively grinding dried corn and pursuing recipes that involve cornmeal. Know any good ones?

I have a few recipes lined up to try and today I tried the pancake recipe from this discussion board. It was delightful, and I recommend it to anyone wishing to add more grains to his or her diet. I'll sum up.

Cornmeal Pancakes

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 TB sugar
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 TB butter
• 1/2 cup flour [I used white, but I'm sure whole wheat would have been good]
• 2 tsp baking powder

Combine cornmeal, salt and sugar. Stir in boiling water, cover and let stand 10 min. Meanwhile, beat together egg, milk and butter in one small bowl and mix together flour and baking powder in another. Add them to the cornmeal mixture. Cook on pan or griddle.

After pouring our first pancake we thought it was too runny, so we added flour, then we decided it was to thick and added milk, and in the end we think the original texture was probably just fine, but you are welcome to play around like we did to find the right thickness for you.

We decided to have waffles for dinner one night and I maintained that I did not have a reliable waffle recipe. Dang you Bryce and your '3 second pour of oil' crap! I went fishing on allrecipes.com. This is often where I go looking for recipes. The trick is that once you search for something, click "sort by rating." This way, you'll see all the recipes that everybody just loves. Another trick is to take a glance at the comments, for they often have useful tips for adjusting the recipe to be even better. After such a long intro, here is the recipe:

Whole Grain Waffles

• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup skim milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil [you can replace this with applesauce]
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup flax seed meal
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup white flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 TB sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix dry and wet ingredients separately and then combine. Cook in waffle iron until waffles are crisp and golden brown.

Popping Gnocchi

I wish I cooked enough to actually post something useful on this blog, but fortunately Bryce and I found something far better than anything we could have come up with in the kitchen on our own. Check out the popping gnocchi.

Calzones

Okay, so this picture is totally just to make you jealous. But really, they were that good!

I want to let you know what I put in these creations. First, I should let you know that I made these for our "break the fast" meal on Sunday. They were delicious, but we only managed to eat half each!

I made a 1/4 recipe of Heather's pizza dough recipe (half white, half whole wheat), and then put together a mixture of staples and leftovers from the fridge for the filling:

• onions
• garlic
• cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 a cucumber, diced
• 1 cup lettuce, minced
• 1/2 can corn
• 1 shredded carrot
• 1/3 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup pepperoni slices, quartered

I'm sure there were more things in there, but I can't remember them. I used any and all leftover vegetables I had in the fridge. I combined it with a homemade cream sauce (2 TB butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk), some leftover spaghetti sauce (1/4 cup), and a sprinkle of italian seasoning. Justin did the rolling and pinching, making sure to add shredded cheese on top of the mix before sealing. We baked them at 420 degrees until golden brown and painted with pesto from Costco.

The best part? Jaime loved it. She's starting to be a finicky eater and I get excited when I find something she'll eat a lot of. Excuse me, something HEALTHY that she'll eat a lot of. She's down with junk food.

Butternut Bisque

For Thanksgiving Dinner this year, we had a four course meal and served one course at a time with musical programs and even just a little visiting and playing in between courses. It was a great success and made it very fun for the cooks who labored in the kitchen for two days that the meal lasted hours instead of minutes. Plus we cleaned up each portion between courses, so clean up seemed to be a snap!

So, here is our recipe for our first course...soup....it was delicious! We juiced our own apples for the apple juice, so my guess is it was a bit sweeter and thicker than it would be if we had bought juice at the store. Even the kids liked it!

Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons sweet butter
2 cups finely chopped yellow onions
4 to 5 teaspoon curry powder
2 medium-sized butternut squash (about 3 pounds)
2 apples - peeled, cored, and chopped
3 cups chicken stock

1 cup apple juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 shredded and unpeeled Granny Smith apple (garnish)

Directions:
Melt the butter in a pot. Add curry powder and chopped onions and cook, covered, on low until onions are tender, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, scrape out the seeds from the squash and chop the flesh. When onions are tender, pour in the stock, add squash and apples, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered, until squash and apples are very tender, about 25 minutes. Pour the soup through a strainer, reserving liquids, and transfer the solids to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, or use a food mill fitted with a medium disc. Add 1 cup of the cooking stock and process until smooth. Return pureed soup to the pot and add apple juice and additional cooking liquid, about two cups, until the soup is of the desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper, simmer briefly to heat through and serve immediately, garnish with shredded apple.

Serves: 4 to 6.