Simple Mushroom Soup

Since winter is refusing to go away much to my dismay, hot foods are remaining a necessity to me.  The only silver lining is that the cold weather is at least offering me tons of opportunities to make soup!

This is a riff on a mushroom recipe I found on 101 Cookbooks. I’ve changed it enough, but the basic elements should be credited to her recipe. I just wanted a simple, no frills soup with chunks of potatoes in it. The original recipe only called for water but I wanted to bump up the volume a bit with vegetable broth. I only substituted half of the water for broth so I could make sure I retained the mushroom flavor.

Cheesesteak Egg Rolls

I live only a few blocks away from a few of Philadelphia’s favorite Cheesesteak shops but I rarely indulge in our signature sandwich. I’ve only had the famous Pat’s 1 time and have I never even tried Geno’s! I do have my personal faves of course: Dalessandro’s Steaks in the Roxborough neighborhood is awesome and I’ve always loved me a Jim’s cheesesteak on South Street. But this city has so much more great food that just this sandwich, that I never seem to be jonsing for one!

Years ago I tried an appetizer I had never heard of: cheesesteak egg rolls and was blown away! I never ordered anything else from that particular restaurant until recently when it seemed that the egg rolls were popping up on restaurant menus all over the place! Is this just a Philly thing or do they have these in like Ohio?

Spinach and Zucchini Soup

For the holidays, we got a whole bunch of new kitchen gadgets and I’ve managed to use most of them so far except for the immersion blender! I was waiting until I found the perfect, healthy soup that would require one. I turned to the healthiest food blog I know for this one: 101 Cookbooks for her Spinach and Zucchini Soup!

It tasted so fresh! I’m not a huge fan of cilantro unless it’s concealed enough within other ingredients that it doesn’t takeover my taste buds. In this soup, it literally made the soup taste fresh and clean. I think my body felt better after consuming so much “good for you” food! The only bad thing in here was salt…and of course the bread and butter…but this was a conscious choice to ruin a perfectly healthy meal with the obvious accompaniment…and I don’t regret it. Even if it takes away some of the healthy cred I tried to establish with posting this recipe!

This soup is hardy enough to eat as a meal, I think. I was full after one bowl….and many pieces of the beget (maybe that’s why I was so full…) Either way, this soup is delicious and chock-full of healthy ingredients that your body will love. I think anything that’s green has to be good for you right? And the soup turned out to be the prettiest shade of green I’ve seen! As always, my terrible iPhone pictures do it no justice…

Ingredients: 

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• big pinch of salt
• 2 1/2 cups potatoes (2 medium) cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 1/2 cups zucchini (2 medium), loosely chopped
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 4 cups fresh spinach leaves, loosely packed
• 1 cup cilantro, loosely chopped
• one lemon

Directions: 

In a large, thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot (but not smoking) add the garlic and onions and saute for a few minutes along with pinch of salt – just until they soften up a bit. Stir in the potatoes and zucchini. Add the stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are soft throughout, roughly 10-15 minutes.

Stir in the spinach, and wait for it to wilt, just ten seconds or so. Now stir in the cilantro. Puree with a hand blender until smooth. Whisk in a big squeeze of lemon juice. Now taste, and add more salt if needed. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

Ginger Scallion Egg-Drop Soup with Chicken!

I woke up feeling a little under the weather last week and was feeling a little  very helpless. I had that awful feeling in my throat that you feel right before you’re about to get the dreaded cold. So I took some Robutussin, ate a clove of garlic raw (oh, yes it’s as terrible as it sounds), took ibuprofen and finally downed some Airborne. I wish I could say I didn’t do this all at once, because I sound really fucking crazy…but it was all within a few hours.

STILL. That wasn’t enough. Everyone knows the benefits (perhaps mostly psychological) of chicken soup when you’re getting a cold! Well, I found this chicken soup recipe from Gourmet on Epicurious. It has the goodness of good old fashioned chicken noodle soup and a muted version of the aroma of a bowl of Pho! Win-win.

I felt better within hours. Was it the soup, the litany of the other things, or an amalgamation of it all? Who knows, who cares. The only thing I care about it that I’ve only made soup from scratch once before so I was glad it turned out tasting good! And it’s really fun to pour a  beaten egg into simmering soup and watch it cook!

Ingredients

• 6 scallions, divided
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (2-inch) piece peeled ginger, sliced
• 1 skinless boneless chicken breast half (6 to 8 ounces)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper (optional)

Directions

Smash 3 scallions and cut into 2-inch pieces, then put in a 2-quart saucepan with water, broth, ginger, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer, then poach chicken at a bare simmer, uncovered, until just cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and let broth steep, covered, 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop remaining 3 scallions and shred chicken.

Discard scallions and ginger from broth and bring to a brisk simmer. Add beaten eggs in a slow stream, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in scallions, chicken, and white pepper (if using). Serve drizzled with sesame oil.

Smoked-Out Charcuterie

Not only is Charcuterie a fun word to say, but it’s also a word I love because is means delicious cheeses and meats. I am a snacker at heart–I love standing around the kitchen making mini-cracker sandwiches or slicing at cheese piece by piece while paging through a magazine I’d otherwise have no interest in reading.

It also happens to be the perfect snack for a summer day or to graze on while you bake, or both! I got some apple wood smoked Gouda along with Americano uncured salami from Whole Foods while picking up some of their best cocoa for a baking project I was working on that day.

The Gouda and salami were great but after a few pieces, I was smoked-out. The salami was labeled as “sweet” so I thought, “COOL! Smoky and sweet? That sounds like a great flavor combination!” But I didn’t account for the fact that the salami would be sweet and smoky and with smoky cheese–ohhhh wowwwww. I felt like I was eating a wood-burning fireplace. But in a good way?

Anyway, both foods were delicious…but together? Ehhhh. I’m learning about flavor profiles as I go. I’m a foodie-wannabe after all!

Easiest Indian Flat Bread

What’s the WORST thing in the world for you? Carbs. Well maybe it’s not the worst thing but carbs definitely have a bad reputation. Countless numbers of diets sway their victims into thinking that carbs are the devil and you too, will be a grotesque, morbidly obese excuse for a human being should you consume them.

What’s the other worst thing in the world? Deep fried foods! A nutritionist or a well-meaning friend fun hater will probably say something like this to you, “Are those…is that….deep-fried!? C’mon girl, do you know what that will do to your hips!?”

My response to all of this: yes carbs are bad and yes, deep fried foods are EVEN WORSE.  However, there are times (in my experience, probably way too many times) that I think all health logic should be thrown out the window.

This Indian Flat Bread recipe is one of them of those very necessary times. Here’s why:

Number 1. It‘s too easy to not make this. No yeast, a handful of ingredients you probably have lying around your house anyway!

Number 2. It tastes really good. It’s crispy yet soft and everything you ever hoped for in your bread dreams.

Number 3. You will make people happy if you feed them this flat bread. That’s what life is about. Not listening to some snot read you the riot act about a couple of mozzarella sticks from TGI Fridays.

Obviously, this is not traditional naan or traditional anything Indian, but you will love it! My head is spinning thinking about the million ways you can use this bread! Powdered sugar on top maybe? No, my idiot healthy friends would disown me for life! The recipe is via Food.com.

Ingredients:

5 cups all-purpose flour (white or whole wheat)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 teaspoons herbes de provence (optional)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
olive oil, for frying the bread

Directions:

In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Stir all the ingredients together making sure that the baking powder is well-distributed throughout the flour.

Pour the flour mixture into your mixing bowl and slowly add milk to the flour and melted butter, while kneading the dough.

You should end up with stiff workable dough that’s not sticky. Add more flour if the dough is wet and sticky and add more milk if the dough will not stay together.

Divide it into small balls then flatten them out into patties. Try to flatten them so that they are about 1/8 inch thick so they will cook fast and evenly.

Heat up oil in a frying pan and cook them for a few minutes on each side until they get golden brown and puff up.

Asian Chicken Salad

Ramen noodles? Yes, ramen noodles. I had promised myself that I would never eat ramen noodles again after graduating college. Every broke and starving college kid understands that ramen noodles are a means to an end while in school. Graduating college means a lot of things–getting a degree, a real job, paying bills and never eat ramen again!

So I was kind of opposed to this recipe at first. My sister had learned it from a friend and wanted to share it with me…and more importantly, she wanted to cook it for me.

To my surprise, the ramen was just pan-fried. No seasoning. No microwaving. They’re just the crispy noodles in the salad and they are actually the best part of the salad!

We pan fried the noodles with almonds and Sesame seeds until everything was crispy.

Next, we pan-fried chicken–just the precooked stuff that’s meant for salad and the like. Later, we added that to the noodles and tossed it with lettuce, coleslaw lettuce, and carrots.

The Asian dressing we made was soooooo good. I want to put this on everything! Just put the ingredients in a saucepan and boil until the sugar is boiled out.

1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup rice vinegar
1/8 cup  apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup of vegetable oil
2 tsp of soy sauce

And bam! There you have it: the least authentic (but very tasty) Asian salad of all time!

Soft Pretzels

Making soft pretzels from scratch has been on my never-ending to-do list for some time, but only because I seriously underestimated how laborious the project would be. After researching recipes, Andrew and I finally agreed upon one that we adapted from Bobby Flay. The directions seemed simple enough, and the short list of ingredients led us to believe that making pretzels would be no sweat.

Now that I’ve had some time to digest the process, and the pretzels for that matter, it wasn’t as labor intensive as it seemed at the time…but I’m waiting awhile before I take a project like this on again!

We only encountered real trouble once, during the boiling stage. When we put the dough into the pan filled with boiling water and baking soda, the dough got too wet and soft and could not retain its shape on the baking sheets. We put the pretzels into the oven for just a few minutes prior to the boil and found they retained their shape better this way. We then proceeded to add the egg-wash and salt before placing them in the oven for about 18 minutes.

We ended up with a few questionable looking pretzels but overall they were delicious! The Brown Sugar Dip made the dish. We couldn’t find any recipes to follow as guidelines, so we just winged it. It turned out amazingggg. I mean, you can’t go wrong with mixing together cream cheese and brown sugar, ever!

If you have a lot of time, you should definitely give this a shot. For a normal person this is probably just a fun, everyday activity, but for someone like me who gets super frazzled in the kitchen real fast, it was a little overwhelming. Happy pretzel making!

Brown Sugar Dip

• 1 8 ounce package of regular cream cheese
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Soft Pretzels (adapted from Bobby Flay)

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons light brown  sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
• Vegetable oil or Vegetable oil spray (for lining the bowl where you will let the dough rise)
• 12 cups of water
• 3/4 cup baking soda
• 2 whole eggs, beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
• Coarse sea salt

Mix 1 ½ cups of water with 1 package of yeast and ½ cup of white granulated sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes before moving on to mix the dough. The package of yeast we used only called for ½ cup of water but the reaction improved upon adding 1 more cup.

In a stand mixer, combine the yeast and water with the sugar and butter and mix with the dough hook until combined. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Add the salt and flour and start by mixing on low-speed until the ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium and continue until the dough is smooth and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl for about 3-4 minutes. (If the dough seems too wet, add additional flour at 1 tablespoon at a time)

Remove dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Knead into a ball with your hands.

Oil a bowl with vegetable oil  and add the dough, turning to coat the ball with the oil. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap for about 1 hour, keeping it in a warm location. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a small roasting pan, add 12 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add in baking soda.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a flat surface. Divide into 8 equal pieces, about 4 1/2  inches each. Roll each piece into a long rope about 22 inches long. To get the pretzel shape, take the rope and make a “U” shape. Next, take the top of each side and bring down to the opposite bottom corner of the “U” shape.

Boil each pretzel for 30 seconds, splashing the tops with the water using a wooden spoon. Remove with a large spatula or spider. Place on baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash and season with salt. Place into the oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.

Lazy in the Kitchen

Last night I had grand plans of cooking up some Fettuccine Alfredo but I got lazy and didn’t have all the ingredients and would have rather watched CSPAN for 5 straight hours than go to the grocery store. I changed into sweats, got my Kindle fired up and settled in for an enthralling night of salad and leftovers.

Full disclosure: I am aware this post is not my finest work but it is indicative of my life and my relationship with the kitchen. Most food bloggers are posting fresh recipes and ideas every day but for me, it’s just not realistic. I LOVE food and love trying my hand at making new things and writing about them, but if I have to force myself to cook all of the time, I will just end up hating and resenting it.

I admire those who can spend hours upon hours in the kitchen and not tire out but that is just not who I am. This salad was the best thing to happen to me yesterday and it required no imagination, only 4 ingredients and all of 2 minutes to put together.

Oh, and would you want to leave your house for the grocery store while you’re watching your dog having a ball rolling in the grass? Me neither. I’m such a sucker for my little guy!

Way-Too-Simple Pasta Salad

I am chomping at the bit for summer, which is now only a few weeks away! I cannot wait to retire my winter clothes and leather jacket that I’ve been forced to wear every morning for sundresses and sandals.

With the warmer weather, I find myself craving lighter food options like most people. Sometimes, it’s the most simple of dishes that I crave like this delicious yet dumbed-down pasta salad. Comprised of only a few ingredients: garden pasta, shaved carrots, plum tomatoes, red peppers and basil for some sweetness, it’s the perfect balance of satisfying and lightness. Drizzle in some olive oil, mix up and serve.

The colors really pop and will stand out on any picnic table, too. Not that you can tell how pretty this salad is from the picture because my camera is regular old point-and-shoot and despite all of the journalism classes I took in college, I’ve never learned how take a proper photograph. I’m still trying to learn, but I’m probably just a lost cause with this one–sorry!

What lighter foods do you crave in the summer time?