Polish Stew

This is such an easy soup that I have loved for as long as I can remember. Now KC loves it just as much as I do, and we love that it's cold so we can enjoy it more often. I don't know how authentic the name is, but that's what I've always called it.half a head of cabbage, cut into thick shreds
half of a kielbasa sausage, sliced, or cubed
1 c corn, frozen or canned (or you could use the whole can. whatever)
4-5 potatoes
half a medium onion
enough chicken broth to cover the cabbage, maybe 4-5 cups
Spicy brown mustard

In a large pot, saute in the sausage until starting to brown and renders a little fat. Add the potatoes and onion and let the potatoes start to brown a little. Add the shredded cabbage and corn, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until the cabbage and potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. Serve hot with mustard. It may sound weird, but the mustard is what makes it so good. Squeeze it right into the soup. Either stir it in, or enjoy it visibly on each bite. I like to add more as I go. I'm a little bit of a mustard fanatic. If you don't like mustard, it's good anyway. I hope you give this a try.

Spicy Potato soup

We made a smaller batch than this, but here's the full recipe. I made a few changes that I'll note in the recipe. Both versions are delicious and perfect for the winter.

1 lb. ground beef (I used turkey)
one onion, chopped
4 c water
4 c potatoes, cubed
1 c frozen green beans cut in half (my addition for color)
3-8 oz. cans tomato sauce
2 t salt
1 1/2 t pepper
1/2 t hot sauce (I used a little of this, and a little cayenne)
a few shakes of paprika and dried basil (I added these)
plain yogurt ( I added this for garnish)

Brown the meat and the onion until there is no pink showing. If using beef, drain the fat. Add everything else (except yogurt) and let simmer for about an hour, or until the potatoes are tender. Serve with a nice dollop of yogurt to help mellow the heat. Add fresh herbs like basil or parsley is you have any.

Mexican Pizza

I'm a HUGE fan. I'm telling you. When is Mexican food NOT good? I have so many recipes I want to post from many meals ago, but this was last night, and I couldn't wait to post it.

So, I made the good old salsa, crock-pot shredded pork the same way that many of us have made it. I guess it might be more well know to be made with chicken. It's much like the bbq chicken below, but instead I made it with a pork loin and salsa verde. I made a lot so I had a lot to play around with for other meals. We had it as soft Tacos the first night. I was feeling Pizza since I usually do it when we make bbq pork/chicken. But since the pork had the lovely Mexican flavors from the salsa, I thought maybe a cornmeal crust would help with the all around Mexican flavor. Lo and behold, someone has thought of this before, as I found when googling around for a cornmeal pizza crust. Here's what I did.You'll need:
One recipe Cornmeal Pizza Dough(we only used half and froze the other half, and I went ahead and used some wheat flour , like the recipe said, but I think you'd be able to get the cornmeal flavor better with all while flour.)
Shredded salsa pork (pork loin and salsa verde in a crock pot for about 7 hours)
more salsa verde
tomatoes
red onions
cheese
black beans
corn (this and the beans were acutally left over from our tacos. I had cooked them with an onion and a sprinkling of the same spices as below.)
cilantro
lettuce
cumin
chili powder
garlic power
s&p
cilantro-lime dressing (Made famous by Cafe Rio. The recipe can be found many places, though I used the one found here. I used like 3 times the amount of lime juice the said, and next time I'll use half sour cream, half mayo, instead of all mayo like the recipe says. Still so good.)

Roll your dough on a pizza stone that has been sprayed and sprinkled with more cornmeal. Spread a little salsa on as a base. Add as much pork as you'd like. Follow with the corn/beans, red onions, tomatoes, more salsa if you'd like, the cheese and the spices. Bake in a 475 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until the crust is baked, and the ingredients are warmed through. Cut into slices and serve with lettuce, cilantro (or any garnishes/flavor additions) and a good drizzle of the dressing. Oh, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed each bite. And, you probably need to eat this pizza with a fork.
The best part is, we STILL have tons of pork left. I'm thinking Navajo tacos. Tonight.

Salad with Grilled Fruit , Bacon, and Feta

I am getting so lazy about this blog. I have been cooking. Not as much as usual, but I have. I have a few recipes to catch up on, so hopefully any of you readers out there haven't given up on me yet.So for the Grilled Peach Salad. I am a huge fan of grilled peaches, starting this summer. I have always loved the idea of grilling fruit making the natural sugars of the fruit so delicious and caramelized, but I haven't really experimented much with peaches until now. I got the idea for this salad from Cooking Light Magazine. It was originally Grilled Peaches over Arugula with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto. Sounds so delicious, but the store where I was shopping didn't quite have all those things, so I improvised. I used romaine and spinach in place of the arugula, feta in place of the goat cheese, bacon instead of prosciutto, and added grilled pineapple to the mix. Very simple changes. Although, I'd love to try our the other version sometime. It seems weird to make a recipe for a salad, since they can be made so many different ways. Things can be added and omitted with out changing the overall purpose of the salad, so please, alter as you wish. Dressings are a fun way to experiment with salads. I did use the Magazines recipe for the dressing. It's so simple and seemed perfect since there were a lot of flavors already going on. Here's what I did:

Bring 1/4 c balsamic vinegar to boil over medium high heat. Simmer until reduced to two tablespoons. Remove from heat and stir in 2 T honey. Let cool to room temp.

Crisp up a few slices of bacon in a skillet. Drain and crumble.

Cut the peaches and pineapple in wedges (big enough to not slip through the cracks) and place them on a hot grill. Leave them on just until that have formed nice grill marks on each side. 30 seconds or a minute per side. You don't really want to cook them, but sear them. Set aside.

Combine 1 T Olive Oil and a dash of salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add your 10 cups of greens and toss to coat. Arrange the greens on individual plates or on a large platter. Top with grilled fruit, bacon, and feta cheese. Drizzle with the balsamic syrup and serve immediately.

You probably already know this, but this was our Father's Day dinner.

Spicy Caluiflower Soup

Any excuse to put sour cream and avocados on something, and I'm there. This was a nice change from regular chili or tortilla soup.

Saute a medium onion in olive oil. After 8-10 minutes, when they are translucent and starting to brown, add a clove or two of garlic, minced, a couple small bell peppers of your choice, 1-2 c of chopped cauliflower and a little, cumin, chili powder, curry powder, red pepper flakes, and a little cayenne if you really want heat. Cook for about 10 minutes to soften the veggies and add a can of diced tomatoes and about 1-1 1/2 c vegetable broth. Let simmer until everything is cooked and tender, then add a good amount of chopped cilantro. I had some half and half on hand so I added it at the end to subdue the heat a little, but you could certainly leave it out. Serve like chili with chips, cheese, sour cream and avocado. We just did a dollop of sour cream , avocados, homemade corn tortilla crisps and a fresh squeeze of lime juice.

Corn tortilla crisps:
Brush a few corn tortillas with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt. Broil until nice and golden, about 2 minutes checking constantly to make sure they don't get too dark. Slice into wedges and dip in soup.

Little variations: This would also work well as a blended soup. When the veggies are good and soft from all the simmering, blend or put in the food processor until smooth. You could even make it a day ahead, blended and all, and just heat before serving.

Chicken and chicken broth would also be a nice addition. I just wasn't in the mood the night I made this.

French Onion Soup

This is so easy and so comforting. Saute three sliced onions in olive oil and salt/pepper for about 10 minutes until they are soft and starting to caramelize. Stir in about 1 tablespoon of flour and cook for about one minute. Add 2 cans of beef broth, a bay leaf, chopped rosemary and about 1/4 t dried thyme and cook about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place bread,( toasted or not if it's a nice hearty bread. We used garlic bread, but most rustic bread work fine) on top of the soup and sprinkle on any cheese. I used Cracked Pepper Gouda and Parmesan. Broil until brown, about 1 minutes, and serve immediately.

C-Soup

I call this C-Soup because it is make with cauliflower, cider, and curry. It was based off a recipe I saw Rachel Ray make on her show. It looked so good and warm, so I made my rendition. I did mostly the same things she did, but I substituted some cider for stock, and added curry powder to the sauteed veggies. It was very good. But I didn't add heavy cream to ours, just a dollop of sour cream is usually a great compliment to blended soups. Although the cream would be a nice treat sometime.

Turkey and Dumplings

I made a this a while ago with our turkey leftovers. It was so nice and comforting. I just did a basic creamy turkey soup, and used the biscuit recipe from here. For my soup, I started with olive oil and cooked an onion, a few carrots, a couple stocks of celery, some minced garlic, fresh thyme, sage, and salt and pepper until they were slightly cooked through. I added a little more olive oil and sprinkled some flour in. I cooked a stirred for a couple minutes and added a can of chicken broth, and some milk. I also added a little more chicken flavoring. You can adjust the liquids to your liking. I let it come back to a boil and simmer to cook the vegetables through, sirring occasionally. Sometimes, if it's not as thick as I like, I add a little cornstarch water mixture to it. I suppose I should actually measure one of these times to get the roux just right to make the soup as thick as I want. Anyway, I then added the leftover turkey and I continued with the dumplings just like above recipe says. I sprinkled a little cheese for fun and it was a very nice warm meal. I think this is the first time I have made a dumpling entree. I have made fruit and dumpling desserts before, but never for the main course. I think it will be on our winter list of menus.

Black Bean Soup with Mojo

This was an especially good fall soup. I got the recipe from the Food Network website. I didn't have any dried black beans at the time, so I made a quickie version using canned. I'm sure it is better the slow cooked way, but it made it in about and hour, and KC seemed happy with it. I did mostly what the recipe said except cut up the pork and sauteed it with the onions, head of garlic, and spices/herbs. Then, since the beans were already hydrated, I only added about 2 cups of broth with the drained beans, and then about a handful of fresh cilantro, the bay leaf and crushed red pepper. Them let it simmer for about 15 minutes, food processed about half of it and let it simmer a few minutes longer.

With the mojo, I did everything the same, except I blended it in the food processor. Serve with sour cream, chips, ans cheese. That's how I like it. Next time I'll try it slow cooked.

Red Wine Stew

I call this red wine, rosemary, Stew. I chopped up and onion, carrots, and celery and put them in a crock pot with some stew meat. I put a whole sprig of fresh rosemary, a roast beef seasoning packet ( I know it's a short cut, but you could also use beef broth and a few more herbs like a bay leaf and thyme, and salt and pepper instead. I just happened to have it on hand.), canned chopped tomatoes, about 1/2 cup of red wine and 1 cup or more of water, depending on how much stew you are making. I let it cook for 6 hours and it was perfect. I recommend a crusty bread with it.

Corn Chowder

This is Corn Chowder. Sadly, no recipe. Just a little of this and a little of that. And yes, those are crackers in my soup. That's how I like it.

Curried Carrot Soup

This is delicious and can very easily be made a day ahead of when you are eating it. The recipe is here. I usually add a dollop of sour cream on top. It is very good for you and full of flavor.

Salads and soups

We love hearty salads for dinner. I rarely have it as a side. A salad deserves all the credit in the meal.

Potato bacon salad: A take on Mom's potato lovers salad. I usually make this with a mixture of sweet and red potatoes.Split pea soup: This is even better the next day.
Steak salad: The next two salads are different versions of a steak salad. Not quite sure what's in both of them.


Irish Stew: This is now a St. Patricks day tradition.
Cobb salad with tortilla crisps: We have this whenever I want a quick dinner.
Another Cobb salad: This one had muenster cheese, red peppers, and delicious mini crunchy cucumbers.
Roasted vegetable salad: Cauliflower, sweet potatoes, red peppers roasted under the broiler. I love warm salads sometimes.