Soup & Salad Night

Hey Y'all! Guess what. I made a new broccoli cheese soup recipe tonight and there are 2 very good reasons why I am positive I will be making it again:

1. It tastes remarkably close to Panera Bread's broccoli cheese soup... according to my (at the moment) skimpy memory.

2. It calls for the broccoli stems to be used as well as the florets. This is not a spectacular thing to me, but Alex always remarks when he sees me chopping broccoli for a veggie tray or something and I throw away all the stem. He aboslutely hates to see it go to waste! Haha, as a compromise, I started leaving longer stems on... and when his parents were visiting (this was before Titus was born) I noticed my mother-in-law daintily eating the broccoli florets (that is what they're called, right? Now it sounds funny to me!) and leaving the excess stems on her plate :). Oh well. Anyways, he was impressed that it used the whole broccoli stalk!

So without further ado, here is the recipe!

Creamy Broccoli Cheese Soup

From Tammy's Recipes (www.tammysrecipes.com)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 onion, chopped

2 large heads broccoli (about 14 ounces, fresh)

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

12-16 ounces American/processed cheese, cubed

salt, to taste (at least 1 teaspoon!)

Instructions:

1. In large stock pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook and stir until onion is tender.

2. Wash and trim ends of broccoli and then chop broccoli (including stems). Add broccoli and chicken broth to pot. Cover adn bring to a boil. Simmer until broccoli is tender, about 10-15 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, cornstarch, pepper, and garlic salt. Add to boiling broccoli mixture, stirring until thickened, about 3-5 minutes.

4. Reduce heat to low-medium low and stir in cheese until melted. Add salt to taste (important!).

I found that the salt was not as important as she stresses it- maybe my processed cheese is saltier than she uses. Anyways, do remember to taste it before adding any!

P.S. Have y'all heard of Stacy's brand pita chips? I'd heard of them but was under the impression that they would be found at a pricey health food store. Well, we were at Sams Club last Saturday and discovered a 24oz bag for $4.98!! Considering that name brand potato chips are usually closer to 10oz for $2.50-$3 I didn't feel guilty at all trying these out! And they're good! We got the "bare naked" flavor (nothing but sea salt!) and they are good with dip or... SOUP!!! :) I was dipping them in my soup tonight :). Anyways, just thought I'd give y'all a heads up on them, since they're actually healthy, reasonably priced, and good! Ta ta!

Snacky Supper Anyone?

We got this cool little cheese lovers cookbook in our stocking, and here is the first recipe I have tried so far... its really similar to Mom's chili cheese dip, but more ingredients and its pizza instead of chili. Haha!!! Anyways, I had some leftover cheesy breadsticks (Papa Murphy's!!) and I made a half batch of bread's worth of breadsticks to go with it, and also picked up this tub of spinach artichoke parmesan dip stuff on sale at the grocery store that day... so I threw it all on a tray and made it look sort of fancy and took a picture, just for you guys! :) Mmmmm, we really liked it!

Layered Pizza Dip

1pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 cup prepared pizza sauce (I used part of a can of spag sauce)

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 package (3.5oz) sliced pepperoni, finely chopped

Toasted pita bread wedges to serve (or crackers, or breadsticks, or SOMETHING!! Maybe just spoons?)

Preheat oven to 350*. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Stir in sour cream, Parmesan cheese, and garlic salt. Spread into a lightly greased 9-inch pie plate. Spread pizza sauce over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over pizza sauce and top with pepperoni. Bake about 20 minutes or until heated through. Serve warm with pita bread.

Yield: about 3 cups dip

P.S. Does anybody know why cookbooks always capitalize the P in Parmesan but not the M in Mozzarella? Just wondering...

Aunt Chris's Bean Dip

This is the best bean dip ever. Right? Right. And I think that everyone who didn't ask her for this recipe years ago, is nuts. We are talking survival food here. So, from a piece of "Clarion Hotel" paper, swiped from Aunt Janice's kitchen drawer, of her old house, and Aunt Chris's own handwriting, I copy the following:

1 large & small cans of refried beans
8oz sour cream
8 oz cream cheese
8-12 oz shredded cheese
1/2 pkg taco seasoning
minced onion 1/4

...and that's it!

OK, the rest of the instructions were verbal. And don't ask what "minced onion 1/4" means. 1/4 cup? 1/4 of an onion? I think which ever makes you happier. Hmmm. My memory isn't what it used to be... I think she said she usually started it on the stove-top, and transferred it to a crock-pot to keep warm, but you can do the whole thing in the crock-pot. She also stressed a couple times, that if you want it to be creamier, add more sour cream and/or cream cheese.
I usually skip any stove-top cooking with this, because who needs more dirty dishes?! When I'm in a hurry, I use the microwave, and throw it on the table in minutes. Oh, I do use onion powder then too, so's to avoid nasty hunks of crunchy onion. That would ruin everything!
Of course this stuff is wunderbar with tortilla chips, but it also makes great bean & cheese burritos. I used to always use the leftovers that way. Now: "...what leftovers...? The boys ate the bowl!"
Well Abby, it was only what, 6-8 months ago I promised to put this here? Not bad.

The Fries that Changed Our World

Josh wanted fries for his birthday. Fries are work. And they don't improve with time, so you HAVE to work fast. A new technique was needed here, and www.ourbestbites.com once again stepped into the gap. Their french fry recipe is the best.

Potatoes (we do 1 per eater, but they were good sized mediums)
Frying oil (we like coconut [coacoanut anyone? You did all read Two Heads Are Better Than One, right?])
Salt

Alright nasty part first: scrub the potatoes. I

DO NOT

like scrubbing potatoes. I supose you could peel them. But I kinda like fries with skins. The potatoes are so much more real. Cut into 1/4 inch strips (If you've got a good mother-in-law, and she'll help you with this step, all the better). Alrighty then, we want to heat our oil to 325 degrees. This is where if you found an electric frying pan at a garage sale it's going to be a little easier, but a thermometer in a stove top pan works fine too. I do both so as to get enough before breakfast the next day. I need my sleep. When the oil is hot enough, gently dump in a layer of future fries. Cook for 5-6 minutes. Remove from oil and place on a plate. At this point I don't bother to line the plate or anything. Put the next batch in when the temp is back up to 325, and continue until all strips have been half cooked.
Now raise the oil temperature to 375 degrees. And, now replace the first batch of fries in the oil. Cook for 1-3 minutes, or until browning. OBB says they continue browning after being removed, so don't over do it. I say, yeah, somewhat. Now fish them out, and place on paper towels (or an environmentally responsible substitute) to drain, and salt while blazing hot. Repeat with remaining limp, pale, half cooked potato strips.
Now, grab a big burger with all the toppings, or in Josh's case, a slab of Stromboli, and dig in! On second thought, if you don't grab that burger, you'll have more room for more fries.

2009 Pizzas of the Year

I recently participated in a survey from a popular restaurant, about their newest product ideas. They are top secret and I vowed not to tell anyone about them, but I DID NOT promise not to MAKE them! So, the next Friday night the new pizzas (Ruse style) were tested, tasted and... (I'll let the tension build for a second here...) approved!! Wildly approved, I may say.

Pizza #1
Bread Stick Pizza

All righty. Our goal here is to have a pizza with a wide border of crust, filled with mozzarella, (think cheese filled, garlic butter slathered, pizza in the middle)... pizzaness.

1 pizza's worth of pizza dough (technical, I know)
pizza sauce
pepperoni (it's what was in the picture, but I suppose you could use other toppings...maybe?)
mozzarella sliced and shredded
butter
garlic powder
olive oil

OK. These amounts are all based on personal taste, so you're on your own, unless you come to my house for this, in which case you're on ... my own. I guess.


Heat oven to pizza temperature. For me this 405 degrees. Regretfully all ovens are different, so it may be (is probably) different for you. By the way, it took me a LOT of pizza to figure out "pizza temperature" for my oven. And, as far as I know, Mom still hasn't figured it out for hers. It's rough being a cook. Very scientific.
Spread some olive oil on your stone, or pan. Press out your dough so that it hangs off the edges of your pan by... oh, a couple inches. If there are only say, two of you and you don't need so much pizza, you could just start the dough out the size of the pan. Is any of this making sense? Well, you all have my phone #.
Now our slices of mozzarella should be around 1-2 inches wide. And we need to lay the slices on the dough around the edge of the pan. You know, so there is a little more than enough dough left to fold over the slices, hanging out beyond that. Ok, good. Now fold the edge over the cheese, and sort of seal the edges all the way around. Now we're gonna want to brush that cheese filled edge with olive oil. We want these "bread sticks" to be the ultimate in chewy, buttery, wowness. Last, spread that sauce in the middle, sprinkle with shredded cheese, and douse with pepperoni (you're on you own if you didn't use pepperoni).
Throw it into the oven for ... well ... pizza time. Sorry to pull that one again, but for me that's 7 minutes then rotate pans (I have to do 2 at a time), and then 7 more minutes. I bake for less than 14 minutes though, if I'm only doing one. Maybe 12ish? Anyway, when the crust is turning golden, and nothing looks raw, pull it out and stick it on a counter. Do NOT cook like a man and set this on the stove top for the next step. Counters are much much much MUCH easier to clean than stoves. At least mine are.
Melt the butter. I probably use... hmmmm, 2- 3 tablespoons per pizza? Maybe? I don't know, make a guess. And, brush that over the wide breadsticky crust. And give it another coat. And another. Ohhhhhh... go for a little more! Now sprinkle with the garlic powder while it's still wet.
Now for the most important part: let it cool for a few minutes so all the toppings don't slide off and disappear when you cut it (that wasn't the most important part), and slice and... CHOW DOWN (this is the important part)!!!

This stuff is fabulous hot or cold and probably anything in between. I LOVE the leftovers and totally regret every Saturday morning, that we don't have pizza for breakfast any more and I'll have to wait forever until evening to eat these pizzas again.




Pizza #2
Pizza With a Lid

This one is a little easier to understand than #1, but slightly more time consuming. BUt only slightly. These are both quite simple to do, as long as you can figure out what I'm saying here.

OK. Our goal here is pretty much a basic pizza, perhaps a few more toppings that usual, with a top crust that is once again, nice and buttery, garlicky. James likes this one best, as do Micah and Kenton.

dough- one batch of my bread recipe is enough here, otherwise a slightly larger amount of dough than 1 pizza usually requires
sauce
cheese
other toppings of your choice (we tend to do this as a meat lovers pizza)
butter
garlic powder
olive oil

Spread oil on your stone or pan. Divide dough into 2 parts, one a little bigger than the other. Smoosh the bigger one out on your stone. Decorate in the usual pizza style, sauce, toppings, and cheese. Now grab the remaining dough, and if it's sticky, lightly oil a section of counter top, and smoosh out a little bigger than pizza size. It will be a on the thin side, so be careful not to rip it. Cuz if you do... well, it'll be ripped. Now for the talented part: hoist that puppy up over the top of the pizza. Once again if it's sticky, a little oil massaged over it should keep it from sticking together in a wadded up mess while you try to pick it up. Now tuck the edges under the bottom crust and pinch to seal. I like to do the pie crust pinch. My kids all stand around and ask me why, and a gazillion other questions about it, so it's fun and gives me company.
Bake at pizza temp (see above) for a pizza time (see above again), or until browning and not raw. Yank out of oven, hurl on counter (once again, again for above reasons). Melt butter, brush over the en-tire top, and DON'T skimp!!!!! Sprinkle with garlic. Hurry Up And Eat. Everyone is hungry!
These here things are good.

Milkshake anyone?

I finally went to http://www.ourbestbites.com/ last Friday after Becky referred to it for the bazillionth time and... WOW!!! She really has some yummy-looking recipes. Of course this being fall and all, when I saw the pumpkin pie milkshake recipe I decided to try it. We had some leftover pumpkin in the fridge from some cookies I made that needed to be used. Well, actually it turned out to be slightly moldy. So I didn't let a little thing like that stop me... we ran to the store for some more pumpkin, and boy was this ever worth it!!! Well, in my humble opinion anyways. Alex doesn't like pumpkin pie. So he said it was ok (probably only because it had ice cream in it and he can't resist that!) but I loved it and Titus seemed to like the 2 bites he got. He was busy munching on a graham cracker :). And he'd just eaten a bunch of spaghetti. That boy amazes me with his love of spaghetti! Alex says we could probably get him to eat anything as long as we stick some noodles in it :). Hmmm, here I am posting about milkshakes and I get off on spaghetti again. Can you tell that my fellow inmates in this house are slightly obsessed with spaghetti? :D Anyways, here is the recipe- copied and pasted straight from Our Best Bites!!!! :)

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake
Recipe by Our Best Bites
1/3 C pumpkin, canned or homemade
1/4 - 1/2 C milk
1/4 t vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
1/16 t cloves (just use a 1/8 t measure and fill it half way, or do a pinch)
1/16 t nutmeg
2 T brown sugar
2 C vanilla ice cream
1-2 graham crackers

Pop everything but graham crackers in a blender. Start with 1/4 C milk and then slowly add more if needed to make the blender process it all. I used somewhere between 1/4-1/2 C.

A note about blenders: Here's the problem with making thick, diner style milkshakes at home: A lot of times you have to add so much milk to the thing to get the blender to process that it turns into a milk-slushie instead. Or you have to blend and plunge, blend and plunge, etc. You know the drill, right? So if you have any trouble with your blender, I would recommend blending everything but the ice cream first and then mashing it into the ice cream by hand (well, with a hand. Holding a fork or spoon :) If your scooped ice cream sits out at room temp while you measure the other things and get them all ready, then by the time you mash it all together it should be a good consistency.

Sprinkle with crushed graham cracker crumbs before serving. It reminds me of DQ's Pumkin Pie Blizzard!

Happy Birthday to Alex!!!

For Alex's birthday Saturday we had several friends over for supper. And here is what Alex requested. Brace yourselves!

Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken

2 Tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup dry bread crumbs
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. In a bowl, blend the olive oil and garlic. In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, basil, and pepper. Dip each chicken breast in the oil mixture, then in the bread crumb mixture. Arrange the coated chicken breasts in the prepared baking dish, and top with any remaining bread crumb mixture.
3. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.


I got some chicken breasts on sale and they were HUGE! I ended up cutting them all in half before dipping and coating them, so we had 12 pieces and it took a 9x13 and also an 8x8 pan! And they were both rather crowded! Anyways, I like to serve this with noodles and hot spaghetti sauce and top with more Parmesan cheese. Mmmmm! We love it! And recently we have discovered that Titus takes after his dad in the noodle loving department. He hogged out on Saturday- I couldn't believe how much spaghetti he ate!