Winter Veggie Soup

I like to stick to fruits and vegetables that are in season as much as possible, which can be tricky when a) it's the dead of winter and b) you can get just about any kind of produce at the store.  But here's a great soup made from winter root vegetables.

Recipe:
4 tablespoons butter
2 onions, peeled and chopped
5 carrots
2 parsnips
1 rutabaga
2 potatoes
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
Garlic
Salt, pepper, spices

In a large stockpot, melt butter and cook onions until translucent.  Meanwhile, peel and chop all vegetables and add to the pot.  Add about a cup of water, cover and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add stock, garlic, salt, pepper, and spices (I like thyme and sage).  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until vegetables are tender.  Remove from heat and puree using either a regular blender or an immersion blender.  Add more stock or water if soup is too thick.  Season to taste and serve.

This soup was great!  Very mild and earthy, perfect for a cold, blustery day.

Spaghetti Pie

This is such a fun dish to make, and super easy.

Recipe:
8 oz. Spaghetti
3 tablespoons Butter
2 Eggs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese
1 cup Ricotta Cheese
1 jar Spaghetti Sauce
1 1/2 cups Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

Cook spaghetti until almost done, drain and stir butter into hot pasta, set aside.
While pasta is cooling, butter a 9 inch pie pan.  Heat oven to 350.
Beat eggs with parmesan cheese.  Stir into cooked pasta.  Transfer pasta to pie pan and arrange into a crust.  Spread ricotta cheese into the center of the spaghetti crust.  (At this point you can add spinach, cooked sausage or ground beef, or anything else to the pie) Top with spaghetti sauce.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and bake an additional 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melted.
Cool 5 minutes and serve.

This is so delicious, the flavor is like lasagna, but much easier to make.  I like to add spinach to mine.  When I have fresh spinach, I just steam it for a few minutes to wilt it, and then pat it dry before putting it on top of the ricotta.

Spaghetti pie is one of my favorite comfort foods.  Mmmmm...

Spinach Soup

This is a new recipe for me.  I had a big ol' tub of baby spinach in the fridge and keep thinking of things to do with it.  I thought a pureed spinach soup would be good, but couldn't really find a recipe that sounded like what I was imagining, so I took this recipe, and modified it.

Recipe:
3 cups Stock (Chicken or Vegetable)
3 stalks Celery
1 small Onion
Fresh Spinach (I'm not exactly sure how much I used, I filled up a big colander and used about half of the container of spinach)
Salt, Pepper

Bring stock to a boil, roughly chop the celery and onion and add to the stock, cook 15-20 minutes.
Remove the biggest stems from the spinach and rinse.  When the celery is tender, add the spinach to the soup.  Cook for 5-10 minutes, remove from heat.
Puree the soup, using either an immersion blender or regular blender.  Return to medium heat, add salt and pepper to taste.  (I also added a bunch of basil and lemon juice)
If desired, stir in 1 cup of cream, half and half, or milk.

I threw some little spinach and cheese ravioli in mine, which was delicious.

This soup, with it's fresh green spinachy goodness, tastes like summer and sunshine, which is perfect for this time of year.

P.S. This doesn't keep well, so don't let it sit around for more than a couple of days.

Quick and Easy Pea Soup

This recipe for pea soup comes from my favorite cook book: Nourishing Traditions.  It's an amazing book, with great recipes, and loads of great food and nutritions information.

Now, split pea soup usually takes awhile, with the soaking and the cooking and everything.  This is quick and dirty, it's done in less than twenty minutes and it's super tasty.

Recipe:
2 small Onions, peeled and chopped
4 tablespoons Butter
2 pounds Peas, fresh or frozen
1 1/2 quarts Chicken or Vegetable stock
Salt and Pepper to taste

Saute onions in butter until tender.  Add peas and stock, bring to a boil.  Simmer 10 - 15 minutes, remove from heat.
Puree with an immersion blender (if you don't have an immersion blender, puree in batches in a regular blender).  Add salt and pepper to taste.

This has a delicious fresh, green flavor, and pureeing gives a it a great creamy texture.  Last time I made it, I diced some ham and added that after pureeing. It's also good served with a touch of sour cream.

Like I said, this soup takes about twenty minutes to make, and since it works perfectly with frozen peas, it's pretty economical.

Fudge Brownies

This is one of the most popular things I make, and they're super easy.  I'm serious, all you need is a pot and a spatula.  You don't even need a mixer.


Recipe:
1/2 Cup (1 Stick) Butter
1/2 Cup Cocoa
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
Dash of Salt


Preheat oven to 350° F.  Butter an 8 x 8 inch pan.
In a medium sauce pan, melt butter.  When melted, remove from heat and stir in cocoa until well blended.  Stir in Sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, add vanilla and mix well.  Stir in flour and salt.  Do not overbeat.
Spread in greased pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes before slicing and removing from pan.

Look at those! I bake mine about 25 minutes, so they're chewier.  These brownies have a great texture -- a little crunch on the top, and then dense, chocolate-y goodness.


Now, about cocoa: My favorite brand of cocoa is Saco.  It's a blend of natural and Dutched cocoa and it has an amazing flavor.  I've done these with other brands, like Hershey's special dark cocoa, and they're pretty good.  Not as amazing as with the Saco, but still good.


I've also experimented with adding things to these, like chocolate chunks, nuts, a little mint flavor, and so on.  Which are all good, but something I recently tried that's really good is Horlicks the delicious, malty, hot beverage.  A table spoon of this, added before the flour, gives the brownies a nice, subtle malt aroma and just a little of that malty flavor.  It's not enough to turn them into, like, chocolate malt brownies, but it adds a little something that even malt haters can't complain about.


Enjoy!

Quick Intro

So, just a quick introduction to me and what this thing is about before we get into the food!

I'm currently a full time grad student at Syracuse University in Syracuse New York, but more importantly, I love to cook.  I've been cooking since I was little and quickly fell in love with baking -- cookies, cakes, pies, any kind of sweets basically.  I still love baking, but these days I do more cooking since I live on my own and, well, can't live on sugar based goodies.  And anyway, there are so many amazing foods, who would want to restrict themselves?

I try to eat healthy, and I love vegetables, but I'm not pushing any sort of veggie-centric health food agenda here.  Mostly I just love food and I love to share my cooking.  Living by myself I don't really get to share my cooking as much as I would like, so posting pictures of my food creations on Facebook became a way for me to share.

I like to keep things simple and good, and I like to share so there'll be lots of pictures, recipes, and useful things that I've picked up along the way.

Enjoy!