More Soup...Meatball Soup

We are still is super bowl mode here, so another soup recipe it is! I made this recipe today. It has been bookmarked on my computer for weeks and I finally decided to just make it. It was good. I made a few changes. I made the meatballs the way I usually make them, not the way the recipe said (I made a huge batch and froze some for when baby arrives!)I also did not have cabbage since we don't eat it. So I made it without. I also added some extra potato chunks. Overall it was different and we enjoyed it.


Ingredients

* Meatballs:
* ¾ pounds Ground Beef
* ½ cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
* 3 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley, Minced
* 1 whole Egg
* 2 cloves Garlic
* ½ teaspoons Salt
* ½ teaspoons Black Pepper
* ¼ teaspoons Ground Oregano
* 2 teaspoons Lemon Juice
* SOUP
* 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
* 7 cups Low Sodium Beef Stock
* 2 cups Water
* ½ teaspoons Salt
* 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
* ¾ cups Onion, Chopped
* ¾ cups Carrots, Chopped
* ¾ cups Celery, Chopped
* 1 cup Russet Potato, Chopped (do Not Peel)
* ½ pounds Cabbage Chopped
* Grated Parmesan Cheese To Serve
* TIED IN A CHEESECLOTH BUNDLE
* 4 Tablespoons Fresh Parsley, Minced
* 2 whole Bay Leaves
* 1 teaspoon Peppercorns

Preparation Instructions

To make meatballs, combine all meatball ingredients and mix well. Shape into small balls and chill for 30 minutes.

Gather 4 tablespoons parsley, bay leaves, and peppercorns in a cheesecloth bundle. Tie to secure.

After chilling, heat olive oil over medium-low heat in a heavy pot. Briefly brown meatballs, then remove to a plate. To pot, add beef stock, water, salt, tomato paste, and herb bag. Bring to a boil, then simmer 30 minutes.

Add onion, carrots, celery, and potatoes. Simmer 15 more minutes. Remove herb bag.

Add cabbage and meatballs. Bring to a boil, then simmer 8 to 10 minutes.

Serve with plenty of freshly grated Parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top.


Recipe adapted from the pioneer woman cooks.

Souper Bowl???

I have made 2 different soups this week. Here is to hoping it helps the Steelers win and head to the Super Bowl... Not really. Its just nice to have soup when it is chilly out.

Earlier this week we had Sherried Tomato Soup. It was yummy with our grilled cheese sandwiches (made in the same sandwich maker I have had since college!)



Ingredients

* 6 Tablespoons Melted Butter
* 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
* 1 bottle (46 Oz.) Tomato Juice
* 2 cans (14 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes
* 1 Tablespoon (up To 3 Tablespoons) Chicken Base
* 3 Tablespoons (up To 6 Tablespoons) Sugar
* 1 pinch Salt
* Black Pepper To Taste
* 1 cup Cooking Sherry
* 1-½ cup Heavy Cream
* Chopped Fresh Parsley
* Chopped Fresh Basil

Preparation Instructions

Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Then add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, chicken base, sugar, pinch of salt, black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste.

Recipe is from : here

Another day I was to lazy to make dinner so we picked up a rotesserie chicken from Costco. I made soup with the leftovers. I have a pretty good home made chicken soup recipe but this was a lot easier. I even made home made noodles to go in it.



Things You'll Need:

* Rotisserie chicken
* 2 qts. chicken broth
* 1 qt. water
* 2 tbsp. olive oil
* 2 white onions, cut into a medium dice
* 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into rounds
* 2 stalks celery, chopped
* 3 cups noodles
* Salt and pepper


Bring the broth and water to a simmer in the large stock pot. While you wait for the broth and water to heat up, separate the rotisserie chicken meat from the skin and bones, setting the meat aside for later. Add the skin (optional) and bones to the broth, bring it back up to a simmer and allow it to simmer for 25 to 30 minutes.

Strain the heated broth through the colander then discard the skin and bones. Reserve the broth in a large heat-safe bowl. Place the stock pot back on the burner, setting the heat to medium-high.

Add the oil, carrots, and celery and saute until soft. Add the broth and bring the mixture back up to a simmer.

Add the noodles, simmering until they reach the desired tenderness.

Chop the chicken and add it to the cooking noodles.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.


Homemade Noodles

2 cups of flour
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp milk

mix together and roll out. Cut into noodles. Let cook in broth for about 20 minutes.

No bake cookies

I never liked these growing up. Maybe it was the way they looked (I was/am a very picky eater). Maybe its b/c most of the time they had nuts (since most recipes call for chunky peanut butter). Who knows? But today I wanted them and they tasted yummy. I wanted cake the other day, made one and it was a bust. Very depressing, especially when you are pregnant and REALLY wanted it. So today it was a quick recipe to satisfy my chocolate craving. Here it is:

Ingredients

* 2 cups white sugar
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 cup margarine (I used butter)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 pinch salt
* 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I use regular/creamy peanut butter)
* 3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, cocoa, milk and margarine. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, salt, peanut butter and oats.
2. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Allow cookies to cool. Makes 24.

Christmas cookies

What did you make over the holidays? I haven't been cooking too much. But I did do a lot of baking for our Christmas cookie tray.

This year we had:
chocolate chip cookies
sugar cookies
oatmeal scotchies
peanut butter cup cookies
candy cane hershey kiss cookies
buckeyes
oreo truffles
mint oreo truffles
golden oreo truffles

I got the sugar cookie recipe here: http://creatingpostitnotes.blogspot.com/2010/02/almondine-sugar-cookies.html (here). They were delicious. She sells them so I knew they had to be good.

I also tried a new recipe. These turned out very good. Moist, chewy and just enough mint. I did not add the peppermint extract.

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1¼ cups butter, at room temperature
1 tsp peppermint extract, optional
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup finely chopped Candy Cane flavored Hershey’s Kisses
granulated sugar
additional, unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses- about 30

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Make room in either refrigerator or freezer for your cookie sheet.

2. In large mixer bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often until creamy (2-3 minutes). In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet mixture and beat, scraping bowl often until well blended (1-2 minutes). The mixture will be a bit crumbly. Stir in chopped Kisses.

3. Shape dough into ¾-inch to 1-inch balls; roll in granulated sugar. Place 1-inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. As soon as they come out of the oven, press a Candy Cane Kiss in the center of each cookie. They’ll crack a little around the edges, so just use your fingers to kind of hold the cookie together while you set the kiss inside. Put cookie sheet (with cookies) immediately into the freezer (preferred) or refrigerator so that the Kisses will set quickly. As soon as you press them into the cookie, they will begin to soften… so if you can get them into the freezer then they will keep their Kiss shape.

4. Store in a covered container- at room temperature for up to a week. In the freezer they should be ok for a couple of weeks.

Yield: About 2 1/2 dozen

See recipe here

Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings

It is a super cold day here...man I miss Florida. This recipe hit the spot. I just got back from our vacation and have lots of unpacking to do. This is an easy one. And did I mention it is freezing. This is definitely comfort food.

Ingredients

* 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
* 1 onion, finely diced
* 1 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces

Directions

1. Place the chicken, butter, soup, and onion in a slow cooker, and fill with enough water to cover.
2. Cover, and cook for 5 to 6 hours on High. About 30 minutes before serving, place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker. Cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

I got the recipe from all recipes. I add some garlic and other seasonings. Sometimes I add some veggies too.

Got Pumpkin?

This is probably a little late since Thanksgiving is now over. But maybe you have extra pumpkin that you need to use up...

This year I made a pumpkin sheet cake. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. But instead of eating it as is, we made it into cake balls. They turned out really good. How do you make cake balls?

Make 1 cake (box or from scratch)
Make some icing or just buy it in a can.

Let cake cool. When its cool crumble it up in a big bowl. Add some icing so it gets all sticky. Then roll into small balls. Freeze for a few minutes. Then dip in chocolate (white or regular). Then decorate as you like.


Here is the recipe that I used for the cake: here




Since I had leftover pumpkin we also made pumpkin chocolate chip coookies. I love these.




Ingredients
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1.Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2.Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3.Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Enjoy! We hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Oven Roasted Potatoes

We had chicken with garlic cream sauce the other night with broccoli and cauliflower. I had some left over potatoes from when we made potato soup (I will have to post that recipe later) so I was looking for a way to use them. I found this recipe at all recipes.

I would think you can use whatever seasonings you want. These had a tiny kick to them b/c of the red pepper flakes. We liked that, but if I was making them for company I would maybe leave them out since not everybody likes that.

Ingredients
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
2.In a large bowl, combine oil, garlic, basil, marjoram, dill weed, thyme, oregano, parsley, red pepper flakes, and salt. Stir in potatoes until evenly coated. Place potatoes in a single layer on a roasting pan or baking sheet.
3.Roast for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.