Parsnip and Potato Soup

I am so happy that my son's schedule is starting to get a slight bit more predictable and I am able to cook dinner again!  Usually it ends up being a quick and easy meal that gets made as my husband is putting the baby to bed, and dinner time ends up being 9pm, but we get to eat a home cooked meal, so we're ok with that.

One of my go-to shows to watch during this maternity leave is The Rachael Ray Show (it happens to fall at a time that usually ends up as my son's morning meal time and it keeps me entertained).  While I enjoy watching the show in general, it's also a great place to get meal ideas!  Last week she made a parsnip and potato soup that looked so delicious that I knew I needed to make it as soon as possible.

The soup starts out with bacon, which (obviously) I can't use, so I substituted a little oil and added a little more salt than it would have taken if we used salty bacon.  I didn't feel there was anything missing flavor-wise with these substitutions.  Something else I did that wasn't in the original recipe is that while I blended the soup I left some chunks of potato and parsnip, which my husband agreed was a nice touch.  It added a little more texture to the soup (we always laugh when the judges on Chopped refer to texture in dishes, but it's a very valid point!).

This soup is a perfect dish for a fall evening.

Parsnip and Potato Soup (slightly adapted from Rachael Ray)

Ingredients

2 tbsp cooking oil (I used grape seed oil)

2 tbsp butter

2 large Russet potatoes, 1 1/4 lbs, peeled and diced 

3 to 4 large or 6 medium parsnips, peeled and chopped (3 cups)

1 onion, chopped 

4 cloves garlic, chopped 

Black pepper 

1/8 tsp grated or freshly grated nutmeg 

1 bundle of parsley, tied with string

1 qt Imagine No-Chicken stock or vegetable stock

1/2 pt cream 

Salt

Toasted pumpkin seeds to garnish

Sourdough rolls to serve 

Directions

- Heat a soup pot with the oil over medium-high heat. Add butter to melt.

- Reduce heat a bit, add potatoes and stir to coat.

- Add parsnips, onions, garlic, black pepper, nutmeg and parsley; partially cover and cook to soften 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. (The color of vegetables should be light golden.)

- Remove parsley.

- Purée potatoes and parsnips in batches if necessary in a food processor or blender with stock or just add stock to the soup pot and use an immersion blender, leaving some chunks.
- Stir in cream then season the soup with salt to taste.
- Serve in bowls, garnish with pumpkin seeds, with sourdough rolls on the side for dunking.

Irish Tea Cake

I should start by apologizing for my absence of new posts lately.  A lot has happened since my last update and this post is long overdue.  I am going with the theory of "better late than never" on this one.  But let me back up and explain from the beginning...

About two months ago I received an e-mail inviting me to participate in a "virtual baby shower" for Jessica of Sunny Side Up.  A virtual baby shower is when a "host" blogger reaches out to a group of other bloggers and assigns a theme for the "shower" and a date for their blog post to go live.  Essentially everyone invited makes a dish that they would bring if they were invited to a real baby shower but instead they blog about it.  I was excited to participate because A) I had never participated in a virtual shower before and I had always wanted to be involved in one and B) Jessica and I had become "labor buddies".  She was due 15 days before me and although we met originally through a cooking message board over a year ago, we ended up on the same pregnancy board so we paired up to talk about everything we were going through.

The date for the shower was August 27th.  With everything going on between the move and preparing for our baby, I had set aside the morning of August 25th to bake my contribution.  And then that morning rolled around, and SURPRISE!!  My water broke!  So instead of doing something to celebrate Jessica's baby, I ended up with one of my own!

So as you could guess, the last month has been quite busy.  We're finally getting a hang of this parenthood stuff and I was able to get back into the kitchen this weekend and bake.  The first thing I wanted to do was to actually make my baby shower dish since we were actually looking forward to eating this one and were a little disappointed we missed out last month.

The theme of Jessica's shower was to make something Irish, to celebrate her daughter Maeve.  After some Googling, I found this recipe for Irish Tea Cake.  It is a super simple recipe, and doesn't take much time at all to prepare.  And best of all, I had all of the ingredients in my pantry already!  I think that this is the perfect treat for any daytime party (such as a shower) or when you have company over for tea (or coffee).  This might end up as my go-to dish when I want to have something around the house or to bring to a friend's house for a visit.

You can check out the full shower "menu" at Jessica's blog here and be sure to check out her latest blog post to see baby Maeve, who arrived on September 3rd (and is quite the little cutie!).

 

Irish Tea Cake (slightly adapted from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter; softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
confectioners' sugar for dusting


Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9 inch round pan.
- With your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs (one at a time), then stir in the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir into the batter in small amounts, ,alternating with milk.  If the batter is too stiff, a tablespoon or two of milk may be added.
- Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on a wire rack, then turn out onto a serving plate.
- Dust with confectioners' sugar right before serving.

My new digs

You've probably been wondering where I've been in the past several weeks.  No, it's not baby time quite yet (few more weeks to go!) but we DID make a big change in our lives.  We bought a house!  And the best part of the house?  Our kitchen!

We went from this tiny thing...

(photo is property of Equity Residential)

To this....

Just look at how much more space we have!  Especially counter space!  And the light!

I cannot wait to share with you the delicious things that we make in our new home.

Margarita Chicken

During the summer I am always looking to make dishes with a lighter feel, and ones that don't take long are even better so I don't have to be in the kitchen for longer then necessary on a hot day.  This recipe fits perfectly on any summer menu.  And an extra bonus for me, since I can't enjoy a nice cold margarita this summer, I do get a little of that flavoring in this dish.

The one thing about this dish (which I've questioned with other dishes as well) is it says to serve it with a warm tortilla.  What is the purpose of this???  My husband cut up his chicken and made it into a taco which he said wasn't bad.  I ate the tortilla plain on the side.  If anyone has other ideas as to why they tell you to serve it with tortilla, please let me know.

The glaze on this chicken in so light and delicious, I could put this on the menu a few times a month and not tire of it.

Margarita Chicken (from Better Homes and Gardens Big Book of 30-min Dinners)

Ingredients
1/2 tsp finely shredded lime peel
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tbsp tequila
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
4 medium skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb total)
4 flour tortillas, warmed
1 medium tomato, cut into wedges
1 medium avocado, seeded, peeled and cut up
lime slices, cut in half (optional)

Directions
- For glaze, in a small saucepan stir together lime peel, lime juice, tequila, honey, cooking oil, cornstarch, garlic salt, and pepper  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir for 2 min more.
- Rinse chicken; pat dry.  Place on the unheated rack of a broiler pan.  Broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat for 6-7 minutes, turn once, broil for another 2 or so minutes.  Brush with some of the glaze and broil for an additional 5 minutes (chicken should be tender and no longer pink).
- Arrange chicken, warmed tortillas, tomato and avocado on 4 plates.  Drizzle chicken with the remaining glaze.  If desired, garnish with lime slices.

S'more Bites

The summer is always full of barbeques and other outdoor get-togethers, and I'm always searching for the perfect dish to bring to the party.  When this month's issue of Self magazine showed up, it had a section of "fresh, easy, fun" dishes that don't take a lot of cook time.  The recipe for the s'more bites immediately jumped out at me because, well, who doesn't like s'mores?!

I made these for a 4th of July barbeque and they were a big hit.  And according to the magazine they're not too unhealthy

They were pretty easy to make, though I had to make sure I was spreading things out evenly.  The rice crispy layers I ended up just using my hands to break it apart and make sure I filled in any holes.  And I had spread the chocolate a little too thin and in some pieces the graham cracker didn't adhere to the chocolate, so next time I'll make sure that I leave it a little thicker so it can fuse together a bit better.

What's also great about this is that you mix the butter, marshmallow and rice crispys on the stove, and you have to melt chocolate, but there's no oven used in this and it's served at room temperature, so I was able to make this shortly before we walked out the door and didn't have to make it in advance enough to cool down, etc.

S'more Bites (recipe from Self magazine)

Ingredients
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 bag (10oz) marshmallows
6 cups rice-crisp cereal
1 cup melted, semisweet chocolate chips
rectangular graham crackers (approx. 15 squares)
1 cup marshmallow crème (such as Fluff)

Directions
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in marshmallows and cook, stirring until smooth, 2 minutes; remove from heat.
- In a bowl, combine marshmallows with cereal; mix well.
- In the bottom of a 9x13 in pan, spread half of the cereal mixture into a thin, even layer.  Top with warmed chocolate.  Place graham crackers in a single layer over chocolate, breaking crackers as needed to fit; top with crème.  Spread remaining half of cereal mixture over crème; press lightly to cement layers together.
- Let it sit at room temperature for at least 15 min before cutting and serving.

Cold Chicken Satay Noodles

I've mentioned in the past that my husband and I like to cook together.  Well, sometimes he takes over in the kitchen and makes dishes entirely on his own (or maybe with me as his sous chef chopping, etc as needed like he does for me).  The following is his first guest blog post, featuring one of our favorite summertime dishes - Rachael Ray's Cold Chicken Satay Noodles.....

This is a great recipe because the hardest part of it (the rotisserie chicken) is already made.

The rest is just simple ingredients that require very little prep work.  It is also a great summertime

 dish because as delicious as it is warm, it tastes even better when served cold as leftovers. 

The peanut butter and whole wheat pasta are a very flavorful combination and the vegetables add a 

nice freshness to it.  Just slice the vegetables, cook the pasta, combine all of the ingredients, 

dig in and enjoy!

Rachel Ray’s Cold Chicken Satay Noodles (recipe from Rachael Ray)
Ingredients

Salt
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti

1/4 to 1/3 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup tamari
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp hot sauce
3 tbsp peanut or sunflower oil
Handful of shredded carrots
4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
1 cup spinach, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
2 cups shredded store-bought rotisserie chicken
2 tbsp chopped, fresh cilantro or flat-leaf parsley 


Directions

-  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Salt the water liberally, then add the pasta and cook to al dente.

  Run the pasta under cold water to cool.  Drain well.
-  While the water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, heat the peanut butter in the microwave in 10

second-intervals until softened.  Place in a large bowl with the honey and warm water.  Whisk in the

tamari, garlic, lime juice, and hot sauce, then whisk in the oil in a slow stream.  Add the noodles,

veggies, and peanuts to the bowl and toss until the ingredients are well mixed. 
- Serve the noodles in shallow bowls topped with the chicken and cilantro

Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust

This month's theme for What's Baking was "sweet n salty".  This left open so many possibilities!  I had made salted caramel blondies last fall which were delish, but did I want to go that route again?  I turned to trusty ol' Google and came across this recipe for a chocolate tart with a pretzel crust.  Yes, please!!!

It was a little time-consuming, though I could have split it up a bit more and done the crust either earlier in the day or the night before, but I didn't mind spending the time on it (it was a lot of "do this then let it chill for 30 min" steps so I had some free time to do other things).

One issue I ran into was with the crust.  It was super hot in my apartment when I was making this, so I'd take the dough out of the fridge from chilling, and it would warm up pretty fast.  This may have been the cause for the crust not staying formed when I went to bake it.  Even with the pie weights the crust rose more than it should have.  But even if the end result was more crust than chocolate (I ended up being able to put in maybe 3/4 of the filling) it still came out delicious.  I don't know if I needed more chocolate, and the crust was so good I wanted more of it.

I ended up bringing this as a dessert for our Father's Day celebration with my in-laws and not only did everyone enjoy it, but I got the best compliment of all - as we were saying our goodbyes my nephew only wanted to know if the chocolate pie was staying!

Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust (slightly adapted from foodandwine.com)

Ingredients 
Crust:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened 
1 1/4 cups coarsely crushed thin pretzels (3 1/2 ounces) 
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar 
1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
1 large egg 
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

 

Filling:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream 

3/4 lb milk chocolate, chopped 

sea salt, crushed pretzels and crème fraîche, for serving  

Directions
- In a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with 3/4 cup of the pretzels and the confectioners' sugar at low speed until creamy. Beat in the flour and egg. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of pretzels, being sure to leave some pretzel pieces intact. Flatten the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 30 minutes.

-  Roll out the dough between the sheets of plastic wrap to a 12-inch round. Peel off the top sheet and invert the dough over a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough into the corners and patch any tears. Trim the overhanging dough and refrigerate the shell for 30 minutes or until firm. 

- Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Off the heat, add the milk chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Transfer the filling to a bowl and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.


- Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line the shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake for about 30 minutes, until nearly set. Remove the parchment and weights and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the tart shell is firm; cover the edge with foil if it darkens too much. Let the shell cool completely. Brush the melted chocolate over the bottom and up the side and refrigerate for 10 minutes, until set.

- Pour the filling into the shell and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and crushed pretzels. Cut into wedges, top with crème fraîche; serve.