Butternut Squash Soup

It's getting chilly outside!  Time for some soup, not the usual soups you would think of like chicken noodle, vegetable beef, or chili.  Oddly enough I had on hand a beautiful butternut squash.  (I had planned to peel, chop, toss with olive oil, salt & pepper and roast it to have as a side dish.)  Not so fast, this is going to make a savory soup that I've never made before.  So here goes.

 

This recipe is from the Whole Foods website:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 cups cubed butternut squash, *fresh or frozen
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I used homemade stock)
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

*Butternut squash is kinda tough to peel and chop!  Be careful!  Peel the squash with a vegetable peeler, then using a sharp knife, chop into segments and then into chunks.  The squash has seeds that will need to be cleaned out.

Heat oil in a large soup pot. Add carrot, celery and onion. 

Cook until vegetables have begun to soften and onion turns translucent, 3 to 4 minutes.

 Stir in butternut squash, thyme, chicken broth, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until squash is fork-tender, about 30 minutes. (Note, I also added two bay leaves)

Use an immersion blender to purée soup. 

Alternatively, let the soup cool slightly and carefully purée in batches in an upright blender. 

Lastly, I stirred in a little half and half to make it creamier.  

Serve warm as a starter--how about for Thanksgiving Dinner?

This is yummy!

Enjoy friends!

Cassoulet -- My Way

Today is cloudy, cool, and rainy!  A perfect day for some comfort food.  I had some big fat chicken legs in the fridge and some canned great northern beans, so cassoulet!  This is a much simpler method for making cassoulet. So here goes.  Oh, one other thing, I have fresh herbs growing in pots on my patio and you definitely need fresh herbs for this recipe.  Actually it's not so much a recipe as a process.  Let's get cooking!

First brown the chicken legs in a skillet.  I have recently been using coconut oil for cooking and baking.  (No, it does not taste like coconut--its just healthy clean pure oil.)

While the chicken legs are browning, chop up some onion, carrots, celery, and garlic.  I used half a large white onion, two stalks of celery, two large carrots, and two cloves of garlic.

Other stuff you will need...

Take the chicken legs out and place them on a plate.  Add the chopped onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.  Saute for a minute or so until fragrant, add salt and pepper.   Chop some fresh rosemary and thyme--about a tablespoon of each.  Add to the vegetables.

Next pour in a can of chicken broth and a can of tomatoes.  I used San Marzano tomatoes that I canned last summer.

Place the chicken legs on top of everything, cover, and place in a 350 degree oven.  Bake for about one hour.

Drain and rinse two cans of great northern beans, or navy beans, or canellini beans, pour over the chicken.  Add more chicken stock at this point if it looks too dry.  Sorry, this photo is sideways!!

Back into the oven for another 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, 3 tablespoons of butter, and some chopped flat leaf parsley -- about 3 tablespoons.  Mix the parsley into one cup of bread crumbs.

Remove the dutch oven and uncover.  Sprinkle the bread crumb parsley mixture over the chicken/bean/veg mixture.  Drizzle the melted butter over the crumbs.  Place back in the oven uncovered for another 10 minutes or until the bread crumbs are golden brown.

Serve each person a chicken leg (or two) with some of the crispy crumbs, beans, and vegetables.  A slice of buttered bread goes well with this dish.

Enjoy friends!

Chicken Pot Pie

So, chicken pot pie, the ultimate comfort food!  

There's really no recipe, so just follow along with the photos.

Chop carrots, onion, celery, and mushrooms, add some frozen peas.

Season with salt and pepper.  

Saute in some olive oil and butter until the vegetables are tender.

Add a can of cream of chicken soup and mix well.

Alternately, you can sprinkle in some flour, stir, and add chicken stock, 

cook until it thickens.

Chop up some cooked chicken, this is a good time to use a rotisserie chicken from the deli.

Add the chicken to the vegetable mixture.

Since I like easy clean up, I lined the casserole dish with some non-stick foil.

This is a sheet of puff pastry, thaw it out, unroll, and place it on top of the vegetables in the casserole.

Bake at 350 degrees F. until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

Serve and dig in.

Enjoy friends!

Jambalaya

I do not profess to be familiar with Cajun cooking, but this is easy and really good! We like the combination of chicken, smoked sausage, and shrimp.  Other variations add smoked ham in place of the shrimp.  Use the ones you like or have on hand.  Brown rice is not typical for Jambalaya, but it does work.  This recipe is for two hungry people.

Gather up the ingredients and let's get cooking!

1 smoked chicken sausage 1/4" slices

1 skinless boneless chicken breast cubed

4 large shrimp ("shrimps" if you are cajun :)

2 tsp. creole seasoning

1 C chopped onion

1 C chopped green pepper

1 C sliced celery

1 8oz can tomatoes

1/2 C chicken broth

1 C pre-cooked brown rice

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet.  

Add the cubed chicken and cook until the pink disappears.

Add the smoked chicken sausage, stir and cook until the sausage is browned.

Note:  don't add the shrimp until later in the recipe,

otherwise it overcooks--not good.

Now add the onion, green pepper, celery, and creole seasoning.

Stir this up and cook until the veg are almost tender.

Add the chopped tomatoes, mix it all up.

Add the brown rice.

Add the shrimp and 1/2 cup chicken broth, bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Time to serve up the Jambalaya!

yum, Yum, and YUM.  

This is a meal on its own, but serve with a slice of crusty baguette if you like.

Enjoy friends!

Stuffed Peppers Tex-Mex Style

These peppers mix it up in a different way.  Serve them with tortilla chips and salsa.  

Gather all the players:  ground beef, green peppers, canned tomatoes (from our garden last summer), chicken broth, and rice.  Dice some celery and onions!

Start with making the rice.  Add a little oil in the sauce pan. Get the seasonings ready.  Today I used salt, pepper, chili powder, cilantro, chipotle pepper powder. I also like like like cumin, but darn I'm out and it is Christmas Day so no going to the grocery store!

Measure 1/2 cup of long grain rice.

Saute the celery and onions until tender.

Next add the 1/2 cup of rice and the seasonings to taste.

Add 2 - 3 whole tomatoes, and 1 cup of chicken broth. Stir it up!  Bring to a boil, put the lid on the saucepan, reduce the heat and slowly simmer for 20 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, brown 1/2 pound of ground beef, drain well.  Grate some cheese.  This is cojack, try not to use the pre-grated variety -- this is much fresher.  Cut the tops off the peppers, clean out the seeds and veins, cut 'em in half, and put 'em in the casserole dish.

MMM the rice is done.  (Sorry, this photo did not come out very clear!)

Get ready to stuff!  Mix the browned ground beef with the cooked rice.

Stuff away.  Add all of the rice/beef mixture into the casserole.  Pile it on!

Top with a little cheese, cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Remove the foil add some more cheese and let it bake another 5 minutes until cheese is bubbly!  

Bubbly goodness!

Get ready to eat!  yum, Yum, and YUM!

Chips and salsa on the side!  Today the only chips available were these little ones, you really need the big ones to scoop up all that goodness!

Enjoy, friends!