Cream of Broccoli Soup

My son LOVES broccoli!  Soup?  Not so much.  Unfortunately for him, winter has finally hit Long Island with a vengeance!  What I crave in cold weather like this is soup.  Canned soup is traditionally high in sodium, but homemade soup is seriously so easy to make.  Even if you are not big on cooking, you can make soup!  I figured I would try making this soup, and because the little guy's favorite veggie is in it, he would try it!  I used homemade chicken stock (another great way to control the sodium in your homemade foods), and added some carrot and potato (in lieu of a roux to thicken it up) to add a little extra vegetables!  I just had some for lunch, and it was pretty good for a first attempt!  Tonight, I'll find out if it is child friendly in my house!  (**UPDATE:  He did not like it the first go; he tasted it, said it was good but wouldn't have any more.  So like the saying goes, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"**)

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 cups broccoli, chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 4 cups of chicken stock (I used homemade, but you can use whatever you have on hand)
• 2 cups of milk, preferably skim or low-fat
• dash of nutmeg, roughly 1/4 teaspoon
• kosher salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

• If you can, the night before chop up all of your vegetables to you're ready to go!  Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter on the bottom of a large stockpot.  Add the carrots, onion and garlic and sweat until the onion is transparent and the carrots start to soften up a little.  Be careful not to burn your butter or your garlic and onions.

• Add the stock, broccoli and potatoes and bring to a boil.  Cover and bring down to simmer until the potatoes are tender and the broccoli is bright green and tender; about 15 minutes.  

• Take the soup in batches, and transfer to a blender.  Make sure you only fill blender to about halfway and cover the top with a towel!  The worst thing is to be burnt by exploding soup!  Puree thoroughly and transfer to another pot.  Continue until all of the soup has been pureed.
• Add milk and stir to combine thoroughly.  You can add more or less milk, depending on how thick you want your soup to be.  Season with the nutmeg and salt and pepper.  Heat through and serve.

Baked Lemon Garlic Salmon

I know I haven't updated the blog in forever!  Between hurricanes, winter storms in the fall, and then the holidays, life has been pretty hectic!  Now I'm trying to play catch up on about 6 months worth of recipes!  This is a pretty straight forward recipe.  I love fish flavored with lemon!  Sometimes, I have fresh items on hand, but if I don't, I always carry the basic staples in other forms!  Instead of using fresh lemon juice and garlic, I had bottled lemon juice, and jarred minced garlic in the fridge.  Sometimes, you just have to use what you readily have!  I served these fillets with some Parmesan Mashed Potatoes and corn.

Makes (4) 6 oz fillets

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 3 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 3 TBSP lemon juice
• 1 TBSP parsley
• 4  6-oz salmon fillets

Directions:

1. Mix all of the ingredients, except fish, in a bowl.  This is your marinade.
2. Marinate fillets in marinade for at least an hour.  Can marinade up to overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
4. Place aluminum foil over casserole or baking dish.  Place fish on aluminum foil, pour marinade over fish and make tent out of foil.
5. Bake for about a half hour until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Peppermint Bark Cookies

This past year for Christmas, I wanted to make desserts that incorporated the flavors of the season:  peppermint and eggnog.  I really wanted to make one dish that took both of these flavors to a whole new level, and may wind up doing so next year.  I have made spiced sugar cookies for the past two years, and decided to add another cookie into the Christmas cookie rotation.  I used a basic homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe and then added a bunch of crushed peppermint candy twists (the hard ones, NOT the soft ones!), but you could use starlight bursts or candy canes as well.  I crushed the mints in the food processor, much easier to do than by hand!  I love the combination of chocolate and peppermint!  A perfect marriage of cookie and peppermint bark!  Sometimes, peppermint bark is just too rich!  I used white chocolate chips in half, and dark chocolate chips in the other.    They came out fantastic!  I doubled the recipe, making two balls of dough, and made about 4 dozen cookies, give or take.  This year as part of Eoin's gift to his family members, we made each (about 8 in total) little gift boxes filled with 2 kinds of cookies.  We also filled a bucket for each of his Grandparents with both cookies, made a tin-full for my landlord and still had some to keep for ourselves!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup of white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup chocolate chips (your preference as to white, milk chocolate or dark chocolate; or a mix of all 3!)
• Between 1/4 and 3/4 cup of the crushed peppermint.  Less if you want a more subtle taste, more if you want the flavors to be more prominent.

Directions:

1. Using an electric mixer, mix together the brown and white sugars and the butter, until it becomes incorporated and resembles wet sand.
2. Add the vanilla and egg to the bowl, and beat.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the salt, flour and baking soda.  
4. Using your hands (because it's way easier), add the dry ingredients to the wet, a little at a time.
5. When your dough has become thoroughly incorporated, mix in the chocolate and the peppermint.  
6. Wrap dough in wax paper, and then wrap in clear plastic wrap.  Chill dough at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 350ºF. 
8. On a parchment lined baking sheet, take approximately 1 tablespoon worth of dough and roll into balls.  Eoin loved helping with this part!  Just beware!  The dough is extremely sticky!  
9. Bake for about 10 minutes, until golden brown.
10. Cool on tray for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

I used to go out and buy pumpkin pie spice to use in my pumpkin breads, pies and pancakes.  However, for a small 1.5 oz container, you wind up paying between 4 and 5 dollars!  You can make your own at home, for literally cents a teaspoon!  When you look at the back of your Pumpkin Pie Spice, you will notice that on the list of ingredients, it says "allspice."  After careful research, I have found that all "allspice" is, is a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.  The great part about cooking, is if you find one of the ingredients too strong, play around with the flavors until you find the best combination that suits your tastes!  Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves are all spices that most people have at the ready.  I save and clean out jars from sauces and condiments and then use them for various things around the house.  Right now my homemade pumpkin pie spice is sitting in one of these jars.  Why pay a fortune for something that you can get for literally pennies?  

This recipes yields about 10 teaspoons, but is easily doubled or halved depending on your needs.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1-1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1-1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

• Mix all of the ingredients together and store in an airtight container (tupperware or jar).