Pueblo Pepper Jack Chowder

(image from jsonline)

Pueblo Pepper Jack Chowder
I found this one while scanning through the Milwaukee Journal recipes and marked it for a future trial.  Hmmm....it was OK.  Anything with Pueblo in the title gets my attention; however, this was medicore.  I like the Flying Star Corn Chowder a bit better, so I guess if I'm going to make something along the creamy and spicy corn soup lines, I would choose that one instead.

I used skim milk instead of half and half and just used regular baking potatoes.  I don't think either of those was the deal breaker in this recipe.  Eleanor isn't going to eat it since it has Pepper Jack in it, so I'll be eating this for a bit.

So...probably not card worthy, but it isn't as bad as some of my soup trials (like the blechy pumpkin and sweet potato and peanut butter adventure). The picture above from jsonline looks better than i thought the soup tasted.

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Chevre, Tomato, and Roasted Garlic Pizza

Anything with arugula is a winner in this house!

This pizza is from the James McNair book, Pizza.

I used chevre, roasted garlic and sun dried tomatoes to top the crust and served with arugula drizzled with lemon juice and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

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Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls by Alton Brown

It just warms me from the inside to smell these baking in the morning.  The problem with making them the usual way is that it would require me to get up in the middle of the night and do something like punch down the dough.  I have used the artisan bread and rolled that dough like cinnamon rolls to address that a bit, and then I found these. Another good hot breakfast idea with minimal morning preparation.

I didn't make the icing...that seemed a bit too decadent for a weekday.  I may just do that another time....
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Comet Cafe Chili

Comet Cafe Chili Recipe
 I'm a huge fan of chili....as you probably know from last winter.   I found this vegetarian chili recipe to add to my collection.  Eleanor is anti-spice and anti-tomato which is the reason I don't have chili once a week all winter.  It's just not fun to make something that 1/2 of us or 1/3 of us (depending on Paul's travel schedule) don't like. This recipe was so easy...there's really no excuse with recipes like this not to make dinner at home.  It's not too involved, chopping a tiny bit and opening cans are the only skills needed on this one.  Yet, it tastes good and is good for your body.  I made this after a late swim practice and it came together in 15 minutes or so.  Usually I buy white cheddar and grate the cheese myself, but this was a quick effort with cheese right from the package.  It works.  I did add the peanut butter mentioned in the recipe since no one here has a problem with peanuts.  I'm glad that I did because it's what made this recipe a bit different.

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Steeping Leaf Scones-Parmesan Berry

 I have mentioned the Teashop Girls book series in a past blog.  The books are a bit young for Eleanor now, but we both still enjoy them, in part because they are nice stories and in part because it takes place in Madison.

 The second one has quite a few recipes in it.  I always like a novel with recipes!
Parmesan Berry Scones:
2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1/2 t salt (I omitted)
3 T cold butter
1 egg
2/3 c buttermilk ( I used skim milk with a squirt of lemon juice in it)
1 c grated Parmesan cheese
1 c stawberries
1/2 t secret ingredient ( I assume it's tea, I omitted)
1/4 whole milk (I omitted this as well) for brushing the top before baking
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients together first then cut in butter.  Stir in one beaten egg and add cheese and berries. Slowly add buttermilk to form a thick dough.  Knead and roll to 1" thickness and cut into triangles or rounds.  Place each on greased cookie sheet (I used silpat) and bake for 12-15 minutes. 

This is a nice combination of flavors....not too sweet.  We have made quite a few of the scone recipes from the book (Eleanor has been really into baking scones), and this is our favorite. 
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Creamy Curry Sweet Potato Soup

I found this recipe in the paper and noted that I would like to try it.  The flavors sounded good to me, and we are huge sweet potato fans in this house.  Eleanor's still recovering from her "Oklahoma diet" which included a bit fewer fruits and vegetables that she is used to having in her diet.  Not that I have anything against Oklahoma, it's just that the strange times the swimmers needed to eat didn't usually involve restaurants with fresh produce.  That's part of why this was a good experience for her....she now knows that she'll have to figure out a way to stockpile a few more nutrients in her room. And that's how you learn that sometimes you just have to eat what's there, even if it isn't what you would normally choose. 

Creamy Curry Sweet Potato Soup was one more recipe for her vegetable recovery week.  I had a huge bunch of cilantro left from something else (more on that another time), so it was the perfect time to make this. 

This recipe is from Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, a place I have never been not being a casino fan.  I have never been to Oklahoma either, so I'm posting about a lot of things I don't know!  If you don't live here, you'll probably really enjoy saying "Pot-o-watt-o-me".  I know how to say that and I know how to make soup, so I have part of this going on!

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Slow Cooker Chicken and Pasta Soup

 Slow Cooker Chicken (Turkey) and Pasta Soup

I came across this recipe while looking for fun new recipes to try.  I'm usually up for making something in the crockpot, and a bowl full of broth and vegetables seemed to be in order after Eleanor had been travelling for a swim meet.  All those days of food on the road had her craving fruits and vegetables.

I used the leftover turkey from Thanksgiving that I had in the freezer to make this.   I'm anxious to make it again using "regular" chicken since it was a bit too smoky tasting this round.  The flavors were good though, so this one will be a keeper.

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Cream Puffs

Not sure what made us decide to make cream puffs.  They are a bit famous as a treat at the Wisconsin State Fair, but it wasn't Fair weather when Eleanor and I had this idea.  We had been thinking about making these for awhile, so on a recent Saturday with the only post swim practice plan being homework and cleaning, we decided to make these. And since Paul was gone it was more for us:)

We made pudding for the filling (a previous blog post from 7/21/11).  After I photographed these we had the idea of drizzling chocolate sauce over the top. Yea, that was a good idea.

The recipe we used to make these is the one in the cookbook Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.
1/2 c butter
1 c water
1/4 t salt
1 c flour
4 eggs
Heat butter, water, and salt over medium heat until mixture boils.  Remove from heat.  Add flour all at once.  With wooden spoon stir vigorously until mixture leaves sides pan.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, until smooth.  Cool slightly.  Drop mixture onto cookie sheet (I used silpat) in 2 large mounds.  Bake 50 minutes.  Remove from oven and cut slit into each side.  Return to oven and bake 10 more minutes.  Turn off oven and leave the puffs in the oven for 10 more minutes.  Cool.  


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Sour Cream Apple Bars

Sour Cream Apple Bars

I guess I have been looking through the Ovens of Brittany book lately.  That was my reference when looking for something to make for a recent swim meet while not going to the store for anything.  When I found this I knew I had a match!  All the ingredients in my house and something a bit different.


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Cauliflower Pie

 Cauliflower Pie
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you already know that kohlrabi, celery root, and cauliflower are not favorites in this house.  They aren't disliked either.....but I have found a couple good recipes for each of these will go a long way for everyone's happiness.

I have used this recipe for years, and I decided to make it with some of the cauliflower in the freezer from this year's CSA.  Although I usually am a white cheddar fan preferring it over the orange-ish variety, I have found that this dish needs a bit of color to avoid the dinner being too white, so orange cheddar is perfect in this recipe.  It's recipe that works well with a few substitutions as well.  I have made it with some carrots and broccoli also.

Cauliflower is one of those things that just seems to go better with a little bit of cheese.




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Amy's French Toast

 This recipe is from our mutual friend, Amy.  She's the dirty snowball lady as well as the sausage and corn chowder chef.  She knows that hot breakfast is part of my day, so she passed this recipe on to me.  The original (or her version, anyway) calls for blueberries.  Eleanor has a bit of an aversion to blueberry stained teeth, so we changed this to peaches.  Amy noted peaches were good too.

I have made this a couple times without getting a picture, but I remembered this time.

loaf French bread
5 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/4 t baking powder
1 t vanilla
1/2 c sugar ( I used 1/4 c)
1 t cinnamon
1 t cornstarch
4 1/2 c fruit ( I used frozen peaches pulled out of the freezer right before adding the fruit)
2 T butter, melted (I didn't use)

Slice bread into eight 3/4" slices; arrange in shallow baking dish.
In medium bowl whisk together eggs, milk, baking powder, and vanilla.  Pour over bread turning to coat evenly.  Cover with plastic wrap and let stand 2 hours at room temperature or overnight in refrigerator. 
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Spray 13X9 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Mix sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch in a medium bowl; gently fold in fruit until well coated.  Spread into prepared pan; place egg soaked bread wettest side up, on fruit, wedging slices tightly.  Brush tops of bread with butter and bake 20-25 minutes until toast is golden and fruit is bubbling around the edge of the pan.  To serve place toast on plates and spoon fruit over the top.  Amy recommends sprinkling with confectioners' sugar.

I used 16 oz frozen peaches and would use more next time....like two bags maybe.  The recipe calls for 4 1/2 c fruit, and I think it would be better with that much.  The last couple bread slices were a bit dry. 

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Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with dried cranberries and chocolate chips

So, have you discovered Stumbleupon.com yet? If not, you need to go and start stumbling.  Basically this website allows you to pick interest areas and then you click on the "stumble" button and the computer randomly takes you to websites that might interest you.  Totally addicting, but I have found some fun recipes and some fun crafts.

I received another pie pumpkin in the CSA box last week so I decided to try this recipe that I found while stumbling!  I cooked the pumpkin and then created this cookie dough. They were such a hit, that a second batch was made this week and I remembered to take a picture! Last week I made the cookies with pumpkin, this week I used squash...one more interchangeable use! Hopefully my loyal blog followers aren't getting overloaded on squash recipes...I know that I am starting to think we are going to all have an orange tint to our skin soon :)

This makes a lot of cookies, so I made about 2 dozen frozen dough balls for a later baking...I also added about 1/8 cup of flax seed meal to the recipe(ground flax seed) and the flavor wasn't altered at all.  Enjoy!

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Cranberry Lime Shrub Sparkler

 Cranberry Lime Shrub Sparkler
You have to admit that this sounds a bit intriguing!  I saw this on one of my favorite blogs which was Elizabeth's blog discovery, thebittenword .  These guys take cooking magazine recipes, try them out, and write their opinion of the recipe.  It's fun to see what they're making.

My plan was to make this drink for Thanksgiving.  That didn't happen..just 'cause a lot of things happened that prevented me from putting this together beforehand.  That's OK though since we have regrouped a bit and are now ready to try it. There were things that were  more important and this got triaged down a bit.

Eleanor was home sick the other day.  It was my usual day off, but I didn't really want to leave to run errands or do my usual workout, so I was looking for some home activities.  This had been a couple day run of the bug for her so the house was already clean (relatively speaking).  I had cookies to make for an upcoming swim meet and for an upcoming orchestra concert...that kept me busy.  But, I also had time to make the shrub.  It isn't that involved, but it's just on a normal day my choice is making dinner or making this frou-frou beverage, so I usually go with the dinner option.  This day, I could do both.

The shrub: Eleanor said it made her tummy hurt.  I kind of liked it even though it was a bit vinegary.  Paul had the vodka version and didn't like it.  Anyway, it was a fun experiment into colonial era beverages.


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Minced Pork/Turkey and Shrimp in Coconut Milk

We do like the Thai inspired flavors in a dinner. This is a quick one and gets three endorsements from our house. The original recipe calls for ground pork, but I used ground turkey and it was good.

1 can coconut milk

2 chiles, minced

1 T minced ginger

1 T minced garlic

Put above ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Stir in:

1/2 lb ground turkey/pork

About a minute later add:

1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and finely chopped

Cook for 3 minutes or so and stir in:

1 T fish sauce

Serve with chopped scallions, cilantro, and limes over rice.

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Snack Mix

Bon Appetit Party Mix
Umm...can you say mediocre?

Admittedly I did not have the Terra Stix, but I think I'm done with this one.  I would much rather have regular 'ol party mix.  I just didn't realize Bugles were so darn salty.  And the peas...not so good.  I had to make two separate batches since the peas were roasted in a facility with tree nuts.  And, now I have a large bag of roasted peas I need to figure out a way to use.

I served this before Thanksgiving dinner since the smoked turkey is a bit unpredictable on its completion time...and we were timing dinner around THE football game (that was the Packers versus the Lions) . In case you don't know, the Packers are undefeated!


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Beet Pizza

I tried the Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.  It's the variation on the bread recipe. I do like my "regular" pizza dough recipe a bit better but will probably use this on occasion for the quickness factor. 

I have mentioned in previous posts....we are huge beet fans in this house.  Put beets with goat cheese and it's really a winner.  This ideas is in the book; although I did not have quite as many beets as the picture in the book...so I'll have to buy more beets next time.

Eleanor said that she was happy the entire day thinking about this for dinner....it was really good!
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Multigrain Pumpkin Pancakes

This recipe was born because of my overabundance of winter squash. I called them pumpkin pancakes because that seems to me to be a more appealing name than Squash pancakes, but I used winter squash not pumpkin.  I have found that the two are very interchangeable, so you may use whatever you like! These are fantastic and we have gone through 2 batches in the last few days.

1 c flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c ground flax seed
1/2 c oats(either quick or old fashioned)
4 T corn meal
4 T brown sugar
3 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1 t salt
2 c milk
1/2 c pumpkin or winter squash puree
2 T oil
1/2 c egg beaters or 2 eggs

Blend dry ingredients. Blend wet ingredients, add wet to dry and cook on griddle.


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Corn and Sausage Chowder

Blackwolf Run Corn Sausage Chowder
Our mutual friend Amy had a facebook post that she had made this soup.  Elizabeth and I both wanted the recipe.  In fact, I was so anxious to make it that I did an online search for it and found this.

As Eleanor said, it has all good flavors mixed into one bowl of soup.  The sausage was a tiny bit spicy, the potatoes and evaporated milk a bit creamy, and the corn a bit sweet.

I will make this again, for sure!


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Winter Minestrone

 Winter Minestrone with Swiss Chard and Sausage

 I made a huge pot of this the day after I received both Swiss Chard and Kale in my Fall CSA box.  I altered the recipe a bit, adding summer squash and beans from the freezer, also from my CSA earlier in the year. This is a great, hearty winter soup. My daughter was a bit upset at the inclusion of squash and the inadvertent omission of pasta(when I made this, I omitted the pasta because it was going straight into the freezer), but the rest of us thought it was quite tasty! When I serve it next, I will cook some pasta so everyone can add as much as they would like.  A salad and some fresh bread rounded out a great meal.
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Asparagus and Chicken Carbanara

Chicken Carbonara
 Well, this was just an OK recipe. I had two chicken breasts left over from the Chicken Piccata, so I used this as the chicken and otherwise followed the recipe.  The recipe does have a warning that the meal becomes a bit pasty if not eaten right away, and I would agree with this. I don't think I would repeat this as it was too bland for us. Overall decent taste, just not to our liking!





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Buttered Maple Sauce

The waffles were served with buttered maple syrup sauce. Can it get any better than that? I won't even talk about that sugary mess that pretends to be syrup....ugh. I would have my waffles dry before I'd eat any of that corn syrupy mixture. Enough about that artificial food for now.

Just for variety, Eleanor asked me to try the buttered maple syrup recipe, so I did. She found it in the cookbook she gave me for Christmas, All About Breakfast and Brunch.

In a saucepan combine,

1 c maple syrup

1/3 c sugar

Stir constantly with a wooden spoon, bring to a boil and cook until the spoon spins a wispy thread.

Remove from heat and add:

4 T butter

2 T water

Stir briskly until the butter is melted and the sauce is thick and creamy.

Whisk 1 egg in a bowl until frothy.

Slowly whisk the hot syrup mixture into the egg. Rinse and dry the pan and put the sauce in it and stir until thickened.

This just looked too sweet for me...I just couldn't try it. She said it was good...and she swam well that day, so maybe all the sugar was put to good use.

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Breakfast Pizza Cups

Let's see how many times Elizabeth and I can rave over the book, Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day!  This recipe comes from their latest book, Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.  Um, yea, this is a good book too.  It's a tiny variation on the other books.  Although my family prefers the pizza dough I usually make, it does seem like there is room for this one in my cooking repertoire as well.

I made them in greased muffin tins, just like the recipe suggests, and we ended up with these delicious and portable breakfast pizza cups.  Instead of cheddar I used a sprinkling of goat cheese...tasty variation.  I will make these another morning...they were good.
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Shrimp with Apples and Snow Peas

Shrimp with Apples and Snow Peas

The link to the exact page in my recipe book will give you all the information you need on how to make this recipe.  I do remember that I made it years ago, and I had a note on it that said it was good; but, I didn't remember it.  I guess that means it has been a long time.

Paul was gone the night I made this.  I served it over rice and really liked it; however, Eleanor gave it a so/so. 

There is a great description of it on the link, so read it if you're interested.  I liked the creaminess as well as the crunchiness.


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