Black Bean Soup for a sniffle

Black Bean Soup
Well, alrightie...it's been well over a year since I've posted to this blog. Ooops. Got busy.
I still cook often and love coming up with my own stuff, just haven't taken the time to do so lately. Until today...this is a good one to start back up with because McKinley is developing his first summer cold (blaaaah) and so is Cary - and I'm sure to follow. I made this soup today on a total whim and it turned out darned good. Room for improvement, as with anything, but all in all not bad!

1 can organic (or whatever) black beans drained, rinsed
3 small tomatoes seeded and roughly chopped
1 1/2 of water - more or less depending on desired thickness
1 Tablespoon chopped onion
1 splash of V8 juice (I used organic, but any will work!)
pinch of oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients into a pan over med-high heat. Boil for several minutes to develop flavor and thicken slightly, but not long enough to evaporate liquid. Remove from heat and puree in batches in food processor or blender or leave in pan and puree with emersion blender. *Liquids expand when hot, process in very small batches and cover blender to ensure safety.
Top with fresh grated parmesan or sour cream.
Add ins: grated garlic, sausage (after puree), light cream, roasted red peppers, basil

Sweet Potato Chips

MMMmmmm...these suckers were so good there were not enough left to take a picture! Hahaha
They're super easy and fast and really, really yummy. I'm sure they're good with regular salt, but the sea salt made for the perfect definition of sweet and salty.

Sweet Potato Chips

2 to 4 sweet potatoes, depending on how many chips you want
vegetable oil, for frying
sea salt, to taste

THINLY slice sweet potatoes, I would suggest using a mandolin slicer. If you do not have one just know that the key to the 'crunch' is all in the thin-ness of the slice.
Heat vegetable oil in fryer or in large sauce pan over medium high heat. Check with a thermometer. I began to fry mine at about 320 degrees or so. I threw a slice in to see if the oil was ready, just to be sure. Remember that the more slices you put it the quicker it will bring down your oil temperature. Adjust accordingly.
Place slices GENTLY in hot oil and fry until golden brown. You'll 'know' when they are done. Using a spider or skimmer, pull the chips out of the oil, placing them on a paper towel to soak up excess oil.
Immediately sprinkle with fresh ground sea salt. Let cool for 3 to 5 minutes and chow down.

Remember the old Lay's Commerical? Yeah, you can't eat just one of these! They do keep in an airtight container for 2 weeks or so...if they hang around that long.

Enjoy!

Asparagus Couscous

So, the grocery store had some AWESOME looking asparagus. I bought it on impulse. Some veggies are like candy to me, this is one. The cold weather is keeping me and McKinley in today, so I had to throw together some lunch for myself. I whipped out the couscous and had an afterthought to add some of that lovely aspargus, this was so easy...it took only minutes. Here's what I ended up with...all I can say is YUM!!!!!!!

Asparagus couscous

1 box couscous

chicken broth (if you prepare couscous with broth, I used water in this recipe)
parmesan cheese, fresh grated
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling

sea salt, fresh ground

5 or 6 asparagus stalks (or as many or as little as you'd like!), woody ends removed, remaining stalks chopped into bite size pieces.

Prepare couscous according to box instructions, add sea salt to taste. When the box calls to remove boiling water from heat, add couscous and cover add asparagus. The steam from the boiling water will cook the asparagus so that it is still crunchy.

After water has absorbed, add parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil and serve.

Enjoy!

Garlic Butter Shrimp, Roasted Veggies & Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I'm very proud of this...I came up with this recipe on my own and my husband LOVES it. The whole meal is so easy!

Garlic Butter Shrimp

1 package of frozen, jumbo shrimp (fresh, if you have it where you live!), deveined and peeled, tail on
2 Tbs butter
1 clove garlic, chopped
bamboo skewers (soaked in water for at least 15 minutes)

Preheat stove top grill or grill pan on medium heat. Skew shrimp, 6 per skewer and set aside. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt butter add garlic and lightly sautee until garlic is golden brown. Remove from heat. Brush the skewed shrimp with garlic butter sauce and place on grill. Cook until shrimp begin to turn opaque, turn. When shrimp are pink and opaque on both sides, remove. Brush with remaining garlic butter sauce. Serve with another batch of garlic butter sauce for dipping, if desired.



Roasted Veggies

2 Cups Roasting veggies (I use zuchinni, squash, red pepper, onions, potatoes-if I'm not making mashed potatoes-eggplant, etc), cut into equal sizes
1/2 Cup or so of extra virgin olive oil (enough so that each piece of vegetable is covered
Generous sprinkling of spice rub (I use Robert Rothschild Farm 'Chophouse Steak & Beef Rub... http://www.robertrothschild.com/)

Preheat broiler on low. In a medium, broil-safe baking dish combine all vegetables, coat with the olive oil and sprinkle on the spice rub. Toss to coat. Broil for about 10 minutes, check on them often. Each broiler is different, so cooking times will vary. You'll know they are done when the vegetables have shrunk in size and are browning nicely. Remove from heat and tent with foil.



Garlic Mashed Potatoes

5 or 6 large yukon gold, or gold skinned potatoes, peeled if desired and chopped into large bite size pieces
salt and pepper
2 Tbs butter, optional
1 or 2 cloves of garlic (depending on how badly you want to stink!), minced
generous dollop of sour cream
splash of cream, half & half or milk
1/2 Cup parmesan cheese, fresh grated

In a large pot, boil potatoes in salted, COLD water over medium-high heat until soft. Drain, reserving about a cup of the cooking liquid.

Place potatoes in a large bowl with butter, garlic, salt and pepper to taste, sour cream and milk. Rice the potatoes to desired consistency. Add more milk or cream as necessary. Stir in parmesan cheese and serve, topped with a little more parmesan.

Enjoy!

Margherita Panini

Yet another Giada recipe...I'm a real fan of her yummy recipes. This is so easy and so good! I did some tweaking again...turned out great!

Margherita Panini

2 slices of rustic bread (I used panini bread, or ciabatta)
fresh mozzerella (I think her recipe said 2 slices...I used 3)
fresh tomato slices
fresh basil (her recipe does not say to slice, I say cut it into strips
salt
extra virgin olive oil



Preheat a stove top grill or grill pan (or panini press, if you have one!) over medium heat.


I drizzle the outside of my bread and LIGHTLY salt it with sea salt before I toast it. I think it gives it a crunchy-er texture that I like. Layer the fresh mozzerella (use the fresh-it is SO worth it!), then tomato slices, then the basil. You can top with an extra slice or two of mozzerella, if you like. Toast the panini, and press the panini while it is toasting on the preheated grill until the bread is golden and the cheese is slightly melted. I used my nifty Paula Deen bacon press on top of the panini, but you can use a heavy pan, brick wrapped in foil, etc.


Serve with a light herb salad, this panini is very filling!


Enjoy!

Berry Smoothie

Again, harkening back to my GD (gestational diabetes) days...my doctor told me I had to eat breakfast. I don't like eating breakfast, so I came up with this. I alternated each day between a berry smoothie and oatmeal that I flavored with various spices. I got a hankering for my smoothie again this week, so here it is! It is so good, don't discount it because it is sugar free.

Berry Smoothie (pictured: blackberry)

1 generous handful of berries of your choice, frozen or fresh (I like strawberries, blackberries and blueberries best)
1 Tbs of Splenda (or more, if you like)
1 Cup plain, non-fat yogurt
splash of skim milk
1 generous handful of ice, if you are using fresh berries

In a blender or food processor, combine berries, splenda, milk and yogurt. Process until smooth, or to desired consistency. If using fresh berries, now add ice and process until there are no ice chunks.


If using a 'seeded' fruit, such as blackberries or strawberries, put the mixture through a strainer to eliminate seeds and ice chunks.


Serve in a pretty milkshake or ice cream glass (to make you feel like you are having a high-calorie, over-the-top-yummy treat), top with a dollop of the yogurt and a fresh berry.


Enjoy!

Chocolate pasta with vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate cabernet wine sauce

This is the dessert I made for Valentine's Day. YUM! My husband was not a big fan of the chocolate pasta, and I'm thinking it is an acquired taste, but it was yummy, all the same. Always worth a shot!

1 lb chocolate pasta

1 pint Hagen Daas light vanilla bean ice cream

1/2 Cup chocolate cabernet wine sauce (such as: chocolate rasberry cabernet Vintage Chocolate Dessert Topping by Chocoholics, http://www.gourmetchocolate.com/)

Fill a large pot 3/4 of the way full with water. Heat until boiling, add pasta. Cook until just under al dente. Drain and place in dessert dishes (I would suggest a balloon wine glass. That's what I was going to use, but the pasta was done so quickly that I didn't have enough time to get them down from the wine cabinet!).

While pasta is cooking, heat chocolate wine sauce over medium heat (or in microwave) just until warm. Fill glass with hot water and place an ice cream scoop in hot water. Scoop ice cream and place it in the center of pasta. Drizzle chocolate sauce across pasta and ice cream as desired. EAT!

Enjoy!