A Good Week for Cooking!

 

Blogging has been way down my list over the last couple of years.  Life has been busy and interesting.  I’ll not go into all the details except to say we’re hoping for a MUCH better 2023! 

Over the last couple of years we’ve had way too much carryout and not enough good old-fashioned home cooking.  Hopefully that will also improve in 2023.  At least over the last week it has.  We’ve made four new recipes, four old favorites and one blast from the past.  How did it go?  Well, one of the misperceptions I find is that folks assume since I’m a good enough cook I don’t have many failures.  And, truly I don’t wind up with many two’s.  But, I do have failures.  Usually they’re ok enough to eat the meal.  But, then the leftovers wind up in the trash.  Last week we had two such failures.  I’d read a recipe for a lemon/orzo/chickpea/spinach soup.  It sounded fresh and wonderful.  It wasn’t.  I listed it as “blah to the max.”  Then, there were the mussels.  Enough for a meal after we used some for cioppino.  Another blah to the max. 

Fortunately the other two new recipes were REALLY good.  One was the aforementioned cioppino from Taste of Home.  Another was a Monte Cristo sandwich – made with a Bisquick mix from Betty Crocker Right Size Recipes.  Then the blast from the past was a tomato basil soup.  I think it was my mom’s recipe.  It’s in a “cookbook” of recipes I put together about 15 years ago and has no provenance listed.  It’ll be a regular in our rotation going forward.  Particularly since I now know it can be served warm equally successfully.  And, last but certainly not least were the old favorites:  cauliflower cheese soup and barley vegetable soup, both from Park Tudor Treasures.  Plus Alex Guarnaschelli’s French Onion Soup with Short Ribs and a Kate’s creation chicken pot pie.

Let’s start with the Tomato Basil Soup since it’s SO very easy!

Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

½ c half and half

16 oz chicken stock

½ package basil ( we used about a handful of leaves)

½- 1 t sugar

 

Directions:

Combine everything in a food processor and process until smooth.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to blend.  You can serve this either cold or hot.

 

Chicken Pot Pie

 

Ingredients:

Shredded rotisserie chicken

Potatoes, diced and parcooked

Carrots, diced and parcooked

Mushrooms, diced and sauteed

Can of cream of chicken soup

Cream

Dry Sherry

Thyme

Gruyere cheese, shredded

Pie crust

 

Directions:

This is  one where you just need to put together whatever veggies you want with the chicken.  We were out of peas or they’d have gone in.  No parsnips either.  It’s pretty much a clean up the kitchen dish.  

You’ll want to dump the soup into a small saucepan.  Pour in about a quarter of a cup of sherry.  Then, enough cream to make a nice sauce.  Or less sherry and more cream.  Toss in about a couple of teaspoons of thyme.  Or whatever herb trips your trigger.  Then, a handful of the shredded gruyere.  Let that melt and toss in the chicken and whatever veggies you’ve cooked.  Pour everything into a pie crust lined casserole dish.  Crimp the edges of the crust and bake at 350 until the crust is nice and brown. 

 

Spicy Fresh Seafood Cioppino 

Ingredients: 

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 T olive oil

1 24 oz can tomato basil pasta sauce

1 8 oz bottle clam juice

1 c dry white wine or chicken broth (I used the wine)

Salt and pepper

1 t sugar

Crushed red pepper flakes to taste

1 t thyme

1 lb fresh littleneck clams (I was stuck with canned)

1 lb fresh mussels, scrubbed and beards removed

1 lb uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 lb uncooked bay scallops (I used a seafood medley from Trader Joes that also include calamari rings)

1 6 oz package baby spinach

 

Directions: 

Saute the garlic in the olive oil.  Do not let in brown.  Add in the pasta sauce, clam juice, wine and seasonings.  Allow it to simmer for 10 minutes.  Add in the seafood and cook until the shrimp is pink and the mussels and clams have opened.  Toss any that do not open!  Add in the spinach and stir to wilt it just a bit. Adapted from Taste of Home.  

We made another of our old favorites recently.  It's Alex Guarnaschelli's French Onion Soup with Short Ribs.  It's a long, complicated recipe and is totally worth the time it takes.  For me it pretty much sets the standard.  But, I'm not going to try and add the recipe to the blog.  Here are our photos:

LOTS of garlic in with the onions

The recipe calls for Korean short ribs but they're hard to find so I instant pot traditional short ribs.

Alex calls for 1/2 cup of shredded gruyere on each crouton.  She's exactly right!

You put the onion short rib mix on top of a handful of shredded gruyere.

Then, you pour in this magnificent broth.  

And, top it with a lovely broiled cheesy crouton of French bread.  Heavenly!