It is Up and Running

The moment I have been waiting for. My new blog is up and running. I think it looks great and you can now search for recipes easily. Realize that I have to go through every recipe from Jan.-8-2013 to Jan-2010 and categorize the contents of the post.  So searching for a recipe between those dates could be difficult.  My genius who created this blog for me is not a cook so I have to edit.  But I decided that you should look at the new blog and work with it. 
Go to lindasrecipes.com.  In the upper right, you will see Contact Linda.  Please let me know of any difficulties you encounter.  This information will come to me at my email address.  No one but me will see your comment or your address.  There will not be any more posts on this site.  Everything has been transferred.  I hope you are as pleased as I am.   

To my Faithful Readers

The Onion Soup will be the last recipe posted on this blog.  I will soon be rolling out a new blog and will then post where you will be able to find it.  It is almost finished and you will love the new one.  You will easily be able to sort to find a recipe you remember or by an ingredient that you have and want to search to see what I have made with that ingredient.  I am also sorting by holiday meals.  The new post is so good looking.  It looks like a cooking post.  My friend Jonathan has done a fantistic job, but now I have to do some editing and transfering all recipes since January to the new site.  In the mean time, go back to some of the old ones.  I am making a recipe for green beans from 2010 that I had forgotten about.  Bon Appetite!

Onion and Ale Soup with Blue Cheese Croutons

I have made this soup two days in a row.  Jim loved it when we had it Saturday night so I made it again and served it with just appetizers. 

Ingredients:

¼ C EVOO divided

1 ½ # yellow onions, halved through the root and thinly sliced lengthwise

Kosher salt

½ C pale ale, such as Saranac or Sierra Nevada (I found Sierra Nevada)

2 ½ C lower salt chicken broth

1 ½ C lower salt beef broth

7 oz. sour dough bread, cut into 1” cubes (5 C)(I bought multigrain sourdough)

4 ½ oz blue cheese, crumbled

Freshly ground black pepper

2 T thinly sliced fresh chives

Directions:

1.       Heat the oven to 425.

2.       Heat 2 T EVOO in a 5 qt. Dutch oven or other heavy-duty pot over high heat.  (You need a heavy bottom pot so you do not burn, but brown the onions.) 

3.       Add the onion and reduce the heat to medium.  Cook without stirring until the bottom of the pot begins to brown, 5-7 minutes.  Sprinkle with ¼ t salt and stir with a wooden spatula.  Continue to cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot frequently and adjusting the heat as necessary until the onions are well browned, 20-30 minutes or longer. 

4.       Add the ale and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat slightly and cook at a vigorous simmer until all but a thin layer of the ale has evaporated, about 2 minutes.  

5.       Add the chicken and beef broth and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes to all the flavors to blend.

6.       On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the bread cubes with the remaining 2 T of EVOO.  Spread the bread in a single layer and bake until golden, 10-12 minutes. 

7.       Remove from oven and push the bread cubes closely together, and sprinkle with the cheese.  Bake until the cheese had melted, about 3 minutes.  Let cool slightly.

8.       Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with the croutons and a sprinkling of the chives.

This soup made a delicious first course for four.  It is much lighter than the traditional onion soup.  We loved it.    

Party Canapes

Last night we had company and I went all out on appetizers.  There was an article in the paper that was about party canapés.  It had the following subtitles:

Bases

Toppers

Garnishes

Spreads

Under these were the following:

Bases

Multigrain crackers

Slices of seedless cucumber

Toasted baguette slices

Purchased phyllo cups (freezer section)

Toppers

Small cooked and peeled shrimp

Shredded cooked chicken

Halved cherry tomatoes

Crabmeat

Small wedges of Manchego cheese

Garnishes

Shaved parmesan cheese

Sliced green and black olives

Sliced hot peppers

Sliced scallions

Parsley (I added this)

Spreads

Garlic-herb cream cheese

Zesty barbecue spread

Orange sweet potato spread

The barbecue spread did not appeal to me.  I made the other two and put them in small plastic bags to squirt on the bases.

Garlic-herb cream cheese

Ingredients:

4 oz. softened cream cheese

2 T milk

Pinch of salt

¼ t black pepper

1 T chopped fresh thyme (1t dried)

1 T chopped fresh oregano (1 t dried)

1 t minced fresh garlic

Directions:

In a medium bowel beat together all ingredients.

Orange sweet potato spread

Ingredients:

1 smallish sweet potato, microwaved until fork-tender

2 T orange marmalade

1 T cider vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.       Peel the sweet potato, then place it in a medium bowl and mash it.

2.       Stir in the orange marmalade and vinegar, then season with salt and pepper. 

So how easy was that to make the two spreads?  With these two you can make multiple choices to create all different appetizers.  I did not go nuts as there was only going to be 4 of us. 

For the first one, I topped a sliced cucumber with the garlic cream cheese and placed a ½ cherry tomato on top.  I did not garnish.  The second one was a salt and pepper Triscut with the sweet potato spread. I topped it with a shrimp and sprinkled with parsley. 

The sweet potato topping was by far the favorite and I am going to make more for Jim and I tonight.   

Fiorentini with Butternut Squash

Friday I started making chicken broth cleaning out the freezer of chicken parts and vegetable trimmings.  During this process I found something straight out of a George Carlin’s Icebox Man routine, “Is it meat or is it cake?”  Honestly I could not tell.  So I decided to thaw the unidentifiable product.  It ended up being the remains of a beef roast that I made back in February.  I had planned on making a vegetarian pasta dish, so I decided to slice this up to make Jim happier.  I proceeded with dinner and my broth.  I really do not follow a recipe when I made broth.  Usually I just freeze all the trimmings from vegetables and then make vegetable broth, but this time I had about 5# of trimmings from whole chickens that I had cut up to make a dinner where I only wanted legs/thigh, breast pieces.  I looked in the Barefoot Contessa book and to my veggies and chicken pieces added peppercorns, thyme and dill.  I did not add salt or garlic.  I thought this would interfere with dishes I make.  Even the best of the chicken stocks, are salty to me.  I brought it to a simmer on the stove and cooked it all day and night on low.  I should think about using a Crockpot for this from now on.  Then I went about making this absolutely delicious pasta dish from the February Bon Appétit.

Ingredients:      

2 T EVOO

2 T unsalted butter

5 C butternut squash grated (use the grating attachment on your food processor)

¼ C thinly sliced fresh sage

1 # pasta (I used whole wheat macaroni)

Kosher salt

½ C finely grated Parmesan

Directions:

1.       Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. 

2.       Heat EVOO and butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat.  Add squash and sage and cook, stirring occasionally, until squash begins to brown, about 10 minutes.  (Recipe says 2, mine took longer.)

3.       As you start the squash cooking, add the pasta to the pot.  My squash took as long to brown as the pasta to cook.  Drain the pasta reserving the water.

4.       Add the pasta and ½ C pasta cooking liquid to the squash.  Cook over medium heat, stirring, adding more cooking liquid as needed to coat the sauce.  I used 2cups.

5.       Stir in ½ C parmesan cheese and provide more for topping each serving. 

This dish serves 6 and we have about ½ leftover as I also served the “found” beef.  I should add that fiorentini is a short curled pasta.  I live in the south and am lucky to find pasta.   

Lentil Soup

We got home from vacation yesterday.  We went to Phoenix to celebrate my brothers 60^th birthday.  He lives outside of Chicago and we both thought, AZ in the winter was much better than the north.  Based on the weather we had verses Chicago last week, we made a really good decision.  We had a fabulous time, except for one day.  I played golf with Jim.  At the end, I asked him if he knew the Taylor Swift song that is titled; I am never, ever, never, never, ever, getting back together with you again.  He said yes, I said change some of the words to playing golf with you again!  And I mean it.  I will never, ever, never, never, ever, play golf with Jim again.  If we go somewhere, I will ask them to pair Jim with other a-holes on the course and fix me up with someone who knows how to have fun. 

Anyway coming home late, I had not planned dinner today, but had my eye on a recipe from Rachael Ray’s, My Year in Meals.  I did not have everything, but will let you know the substitutes and it was great.

Ingredients:

¼ C EVOO

¼ # speck, diced (this is a smoky pancetta, I used bacon)

1 onion finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

1-2 ribs of celery with leafy tops, finely chopped (Did not have celery, so chopped up all the parsley left in the fridge.)

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1-2 T thyme leaves, chopped (used 2 t dried)

1 large bay leaf

Leaves from 1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped (used 2 t dried)

Salt and pepper

3 T tomato paste

1 C dry white wine

4 C chicken stock

2 C water

1 ¼ C brown lentils

1 small bunch kale (I had a large container of fresh spinach, I used it.  I like kale, but not enough to run to the grocery store)

Freshly grated nutmeg

Directions:

1.       In a large soup pot, heat the EVOO, add the bacon, and render out the fat. 

2.       Add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and salt and pepper.  Partially cover and cook for 7 minutes. 

3.       Stir in the tomato paste and cook until fragrant.

4.       Deglaze with white wine and reduce one minute.

5.       Add the stock and water and bring to a boil.

6.       Add the lentils and cook to tender about 25-40 minutes. 

7.       Wilt in the kale, add a little nutmeg, and adjust salt and pepper.

I figured even though I did not have all the ingredients, RR is very loose.  I was right, this turned out very good.  It serves 4-6 and we actually have enough left over for one lunch serving. 

Sounds like Thanksgiving

This is probably unusual, but I looked in the freezer today and realized that a half a turkey breast has been there for a long time.  Defrosted and used Barefoot Contessa, How Easy Is That cookbook as a guide. 

She has a turkey recipe called Accidental Turkey.  It is for a whole turkey and I had ½ breast.  She also starts 2-3 days before.  I started this morning. So I defrosted it and before cooking warmed the oven to 450 degrees.  This half had one of the manufactured pop ups,so I watched for it to pop. I adapted the recipe as follows.

Ingredients: 

Half a turkey breast

Thyme

Butter

Salt and pepper

Directions:

1.       Heat the oven to 450 degrees.

2.       Slather the breast half with butter and then cover with salt, pepper and thyme. 

3.       Place in the oven for 30 minutes. 

4.       Reduce the oven to 325 and roast the turkey for approximately 45 minutes depending on the weight. 

5.       Remove and cover the breast for 20 minutes before covering. 

Jim said the turkey was outstanding.  I baked a very large sweet potato that we shared.  While the turkey was resting I increased the oven to 400 degrees and roasted some asparagus and a sliced yellow pepper.  Jim served a very young Zinfandel, but decanted it and it was great.  I think this coming Turkey Day I will try this recipe with a whole turkey. 

I know not too creative, but remember I served Jim tofu the night the club was serving prime rib.  I had to do something to get back in his good graces.