I’ve been thinking more about the blog. Blogging seems easier in the winter. Also when you’re sick. I didn’t actually make any chicken soup today, but I did have a picture of some Chicken Tortilla Soup that I made a while back, and thought it was the perfect recipe to jump back into the blog with.

It also helps that I’m home sick today and am bored. I feel well enough when I’m lying down, but as soon as I stand up, everything goes wonky inside. It’s a strange day.

OK - This is more cheese then anyone needs on their soup. I admit that.

This recipe I got from my friend Sarah’s mom. The first time I went to California, I went to stay with my friend Sarah’s family. She was my bible study group leader in university, and we always had a great time together. Her mom was always used to having people in the house, and this was one of her go-to’s for company. It’s one of mine too. It cooks up easily, and can go for miles. The only problem is trying to scale it down for when it’s just me who wants it. That what I did on this day. So my soup was actually just inspired by the one you see below. The soup is classic “Mexi-Cal” – lots of store bought ingredients that you probably don’t use in Mexico, but make life a little easier.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

• 2-3 chicken breasts (or the equivalent chicken from other parts), boiled, cooked and shredded. I’ve also just used a rotisserie chicken for this.
• 1 Tbs. oil
• 1/4 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 can tomato sauce, plain
• 1 can water
• 1 package taco seasoning
• 1 can corn
• 1 can black beans
• Corn chips (This soup is ridiculously good with plain old Fritos corn chips. Plain tortilla chips can be used as well)

Toppings

• Cheese, shredded
• Green onions, thinly sliced
• Sour Cream
• Guacamole

1. Place raw chicken in water, and boil until cooked through. You’ll get a lot of fatty foam, that looks and smells a little like – boiled chicken, I guess. Once the chicken is cooked through, pull the meat apart with your fingers or two forks. You’ll want to let it cool a little if you’re going to use your fingers. Sometimes I’ll do the cooking step a day before.
2. Sautee onions and garlic in the oil.
3. Add tomato sauce and one can of water
4. Mix in taco seasoning. You could also add a bit of hot sauce if you wanted a spicy soup. I don’t usually. Actually I haven’t ever. I’m just assuming this would work.
5. Drain the corn.
6. Drain and rinse the beans.
7. Once the liquid comes to a boil, add the corn, beans, and shredded chicken, and reduce to a simmer.
8. Once the chicken and beans are heated through, it’s ready!
9. Have dining companions put tortilla or corn ships in their bowls, pour hot soup over top, and everyone can add their own toppings. Yummm. Even though I don’t want any food at all, I still would like some of this.

Unfortunately, I don’t even have a picture of it for you. All I have is this;

All that remains from my delicious pasta dinner.

Empty bowls and pots. It was good though. I promise. And I’ll try to start taking pictures of real food again soon, not just my dishes.

Lemon Shrimp Pasta

• The zest of one lemon
• The juice of one lemon
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 pinch pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Shrimp – umm, I used 20 medium shrimp for two servings
• 1/2 cup peas – again this is what I used for two servings
• Spaghetti or some other long pasta. Or rotini. Anything you have really.

1. Put water on to boil and cook your spaghetti.
2. Put oil, lemon zest, garlic, and red pepper into a cold pan. Out over medium heat. I think this lets the oil absorb the flavours, rather then fry them.
3. Once the oil is warm, and it starts to smell good, add the lemon juice and salt. This may cause a lot of sizzling, depending on how hot the oil is, so watch your hands.
4. Add the shrimp and peas to the pan and cover. Let cook until the shrimp is cooked through.
5. Drain the spaghetti, and add to the sauce pan. You can add a bit more oil at this point to make sure that everything is coated well.
6. You can sprinkle with parmesan at this point, but I just like it plain. This should be very lemony, and a bit spicy. You can add more of anything you’d like to get the flavour balance right. I’ve also made it with spinach instead of peas. So really, whatever goes. That’s why this is a “go-to”!

I like to think that my eyes are the colour of broccoli.

Clean, empty of broccoli salad, pretty blue bowl.

Before and after glamour shots of Broccoli Salad. I think that you know how much I love my broccoli salad. And this is even a Broccoli Salad without bacon. You could add bacon. You could also add a bit of diced red onion for a little extra bite. Or you could be like me, who really doesn’t need the extra bacon that would be lying around the house after the broccoli salad, or the taste of raw onion lingering in my mouth for hours. Just sayin.

This recipe is from me “Bite Me” cookbook – the one that had the squash and maple and pecan deliciousness. And that Apple Cake we made one time that didn’t make it in to this blog. Arrgh. I am trying to get better at this. See. Even two posts in one night. This is good. So is the Broccoli Salad. I’m sorry there’s no picture of the deliciousness in between the broccoli and the empty bowl.

Broccoli Salad

It should probably be said that I’ve never made a full recipe of this. Since it’s just me, I can’t say that eating four cups of chopped broccoli would be especially easy on the ole digestive tract. That might have been too much. Even for a blog.

1. Make the dressing.

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise. I used Miracle Whip. Light. So there.
• 1/2 cup sour cream. I used full fat.
• 5 Tbs. sugar
• 2 Tbs. vinegar

2. Chop the veggies and fixings, and put them in a bowl.

• About 4 cups of chopped broccoli. I’ve even started including the stems. Alton Brown says that very the vitamins are. Or extra flavour. It’s been a while since I’ve had cable and the Food Network.
• 1 1/2 cups red grapes, sliced. You could use green grapes, but I like red. Blogging makes me feel a bit pedantic.
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup salted sunflower seeds

3. Put the dressing on the salad (don’t use all of it at first. It makes more then enough. Maybe if you’re using really dry broccoli you’ll want more?). Mix.

4. It’s better to let it sit for about 1/2 an hour before you eat it. But it’s good picked out of the bowl right away too. It last about 4 days in the fridge.

I hope you like it, and can pace yourself for the sake of your digestive system.

I’ve only every had paella at a Mennonite’s house – a German Mennonite, not one of those who came to Canada by way of Paraguay, which to me is a pretty interesting trek to take. Oh you crazy Mennos. I love ya. Paella with farmer’s sausage. Good, but not exactly true to the Spanish roots of the thing.

Paella is delicious. Rice. Sausage. Chicken. Shrimp. Tilapia. Peas. OK. So the peas aren’t really that that exciting. But saffron is. Saffron is the MOST. EXPENSIVE. SPICE. In the WORLD. $13.oo for a tiny amount. But, the taste was great. I think you could do without it. All of the internet says you can’t. So just know you’re really flouncing in the face of the masses on that one.

I took my Paella from Jamie Oliver. That guy. He’ll try anything. I’ve decided though that Paella is a feeling, not a recipe. So that’s what you’ll get. My feelings about how to make Paella.

1. Dice two chicken chicken thighs. Slice about a cup of Chorizo. Chop 1 medium onion in to small pieces. Mince 3 cloves of garlic. Make sure you have 4 cups of chicken stock ready to go. Get about 20 medium shrimp out, and dice a firm white fish into chunks. I used tilapia. It was cheapest. That was key after buying the saffron. It’s key to have everything ready in paella. The next time around, I would probably also have a small can of diced tomatoes ready to go. I think my paella was missing a tomatoey flavour. It might not be authentic, but I think it would have been good, and at least tomatoes are more Spanish then farmer’s sausage! Measure out 2 cups of rice. You’ll also want salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes ready to go too. Oh. And the Peas! You’ll want about 1 1/2 cups peas.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan, over medium heat. Cook the chicken and sausage until they’re golden. Take the sausage and chicken out of the pan. Just set them aside.

3. Add the garlic and onions to the pot, scrape up any bits of sausage and chicken left in the pot, and mix them all together until the onion softens.

4. Add the chicken stock, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, one pinch of saffron and rice to the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and let the rice cook. After about 15 min. check the water level. If it’s looking dry, add some water. Also put the raw shrimp and fish, and the peas on top of it all to steam. Re-cover. Let cook for 5 minutes. After five minutes mix it all together, and add the chicken and sausage back in. Let continue to cook until the fish and shrimp are opaque.

5. Eat it in a bowl. Be pretty happy with yourself and grateful that you’re living a life that allows you to enjoy the MOST. EXPENSIVE. SPICE. In the WORLD! Life is pretty OK.

Hope you’re having fun baby-sitting tonight (I just saw it on Facebook). I’m at home in my tiny apartment cooking. So that’s fun too.

The finished masterpiece.

A suefull is what I called it in my mind when I got home from work a bit early and thought, “I think this gives me time to make a souffle”. What, you’ve never thought that? You’ve never got home on a Friday night and thought that a souffle was your best option…even skipping out on a party to do it? That’s right. I’m guilty of skipping a World Cup party to make a souffle. I also washed my kitchen floors. I’m an old maid. An old maid with delicious souffle making skills, and a wicked french accent (in my head) that’s just going to waste.

I’ve made both a chocolate and egg souffle before, and they’re actually surprisingly easy. It was actually a lot easier this time around as I had an electric mixer. Whipping egg whites to bring them to a firm peak with a hand whisk isn’t fun, no matter what Julia Child says.

The main ingredients in a souffle are butter, flour, milk, eggs, and cheese. Basically, you’re frying the flour in butter, adding milk to thin it out, adding cheese for flavour and heft, and using the egg yolks to bind it all together, and the whites to fluff it up. Easy. But we all know that’s not why souffles are impressive, they’re impressive because they come out of the oven in a towering marshmallow like fluff of savoury deliciousness.

It’s also incredibly rich. A small piece will do you. But the thing is that you won’t realize that right away. So you’ll eat too much of the souffle. Guaranteed. Eat a salad, or some carrot sticks first, cause the air in the suefull won’t let you know that you’re much too full until it’s too late. Too late. So eat a salad my friends. Just eat the salad first.

The other good news is that this recipe is straight out of Betty Crocker. So you already have it. This is really just for the benefit of the whole wide internet!

Classic Cheese Souffle

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground mustard
• Pinch of pepper
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar or other flavourful hard cheese
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar.

1. 

   Burned, gross start of a souffle. It was bad.

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heavily butter a souffle dish. This is one of those small, deep dishes. My souffle dish is about 6″ tall, and I was still worried that it would fall over the edge.

2. In a small bowl, mix the flour, salt, ground mustard, and pepper.
3. Grate 1 cup of cheddar cheese.
4. In a largish saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. This is where I went wrong, incidentally. I put the butter on the element to melt, and then prepped all my other ingredients. This lead to disaster in step two…since I didn’t have the flour ready to go, the butter was too hot, and it burned while I was measuring out all the salt, mustard, etc. It was gross. Very gross. This should be a light colour and very light until you add the cheese. When it looks burnt, and smells burt. You should just throw it out, and start again. That’s what I did. At least if you just burn it at this point, you’ve only wasted butter and flour…not the cheese and egg. Which is a bit of a consolation. Back to the recipe. I’ll recap. Melt the butter over medium heat.
   

   This is the clumpy stage of the flour butter mix.

5. Once the butter is just melted (not bubbling hot), add the pre-measured flour, salt, ground mustard, and pepper, mix constantly until the mixture goes from clumpy until smooth and bubbly.
6. Once it’s smooth and bubbly, remove from heat.

7. 

   The smooth and bubbly stage of the souffle base.

   Stir in milk, and return to heat, bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Once it’s boiling (it will look like a think lava, an oozing kind of boiling), boil for 1 minute.

8. Add the cheese, stir until all the cheese is melted, and then remove from heat. Set the mixture aside.
9. Separate the eggs.
10. In a medium sized bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until they are “stiff, but not dry”. Basically, when you take the beater out of the mix, and a peak will stand up on it’s own on the end on the beater, you’re done. It’s like a Dairy Queen cone.
11. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until they’re thick and a light yellow colour. About the colour of butter. You should always do the egg whites first, because you’ll want a clean beater as any egg yolk in the egg whites means that they won’t set up. You can use the same beater from the white in the yolks…they don’t care, and it saves you having to wash out your mixer half way through making the souffle. A little tip from me to you.
12. So you have two bowls and your saucepan of cheesiness. Just checking.
13. Add the egg yolks to the cheese mixture, and stir until well blended.
14. Add 1/4 of the egg whites to the cheese mixture, and stir to incorporate. Do this gently. You want to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.
15. Now pour all of the cheese mixture into the egg whites (everything should end up in that one bowl), gently fold the cheese mixture in to the egg whites.
16. Gently pour the mixture into your prepare souffle dish, and put the dish in the oven. Bake for 50 – 60 minutes. You’ve probably heard that loud noises in the kitchen will cause the souffle to fall while baking. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I chose to sit quietly and watch a couple episodes of Criminal Minds.
17. You want to serve souffle when it comes right out of the oven, that’s when it’s at it’s most impressive. Since it was just me, I let it wait long enough so as to not burn my mouth. It’s also tasty reheated, just not as dramatic. It’s a thick, baked custard like thing at that point.
    

    Tasty, but now fallen, souffle. But we're all fallen aren't we?

So that’s souffle. It is a lot of work and timing. But while you’re waiting for it to bake you’ll have time to do the dishes and make that accompanying salad I mentioned. It’s a French thing I think . The art of having everything to the table without looking like you lifted a finger.  Mais oui, c’est vrai.

I also really like scones. I like their heavy bready cakeiness. I like adding “ness” to words as well. Apparently real adjectives aren’t enough to describe how much I love these types of things.

I first had these scones at one of Melrose’s Ladies Night Outs. I started going to these with my mom when I was in high school. There was always a craft, a little devotional, and then delicious eats and tea. These scones are from Pat Promney, and are featured in “Melrose Favourite Recipes”, the church cookbook from 1999. In addition to Oatmeal Scones, the book also contains “Sheppe’s Oatmeal Cookies”, Alison Byworth’s quiche, it’s also a hidden treasure trove of all my mom’s best recipes.

I didn’t realize this until I had to make Sweet Potato Casserole for Thanksgiving and couldn’t get a hold of my mom on the phone. Not a problem, Melrose Favourite’s to the rescue!!! Other homestead hits include:

• Baked Rigatoni & Meatballs
• Stove-Topped Macaroni & Cheese
• Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken
• Rhubarb Bread Pudding
• Whipped Shortbread

There’s also a bit of scary stuff that used to show up at all the church potlucks. But it doesn’t need to be named. If you ever read it’s title, you’d know to avoid it.

It was also published the year I left for university – so the last time I was really attending Melrose regularly, and it’s just nice to me to read all those names of people who submitted recipes, and remember that they prayed for me, and really loved my family. It’s just nice. They’re also a lot dear old crazy souls. And that makes me happy too.

Oatmeal Scones

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups oil
• 1/3 cup buttermilk

Some of the best oatmeal cookies growing up were from a recipe called “Grandpa’s Oatmeal Cookies” and they were oatmeal chocolate chip, and definitely not from one of my grandpas. These cookies started with a recipe from the Pioneer Woman’s blog, and then I’ve added a few things to make sure that they’re more the type of cookie I like.

I’m picky about my cookies. I hate flat cookies. I want mine to have some heft, and look a little lumpy. These do that. I’ve listed a bunch of mix-ins, but you could really do what ever you want. Oooohh….maybe I should try substituting some of the flour with some cocoa…that would be good. I think. Also, this is half the recipe, I never make the full because I live alone, and it would make me feel much worse to eat a whole batch of cookies by myself then two half batches. Go figure.

Oaties

The past few months it has been all about just getting by and comfort food. I’m feeling more and more stressed out about the job thing…I actually felt less stress when there was nothing on the horizon then now, when there’s been so much on the horizon, and not of it working out. If only this blog were to take off and be loved by Oprah. If only.

Till then, I may be stuck with my diet of things that can be coated with Sharon Kirstiuk’s salad dressing, Bread products, oatmeal cookies, and apples. Not helping my waistline, but helpful to my soul.

Sharon Kirstiuk is my friend Alex’s mom. Alex is a loving and gracious host, and has learned it all from Sharon. They are also a ridiculously healthy family – one of Alex’s trademarked lines is “Mmmmm, fresh garden veggies, nature’s candy”. This while eating some fresh romaine. Delicious? Yes. Candy. No. Not like a Cadbury’s Mini Egg is candy. And we both know that that is candy. Candy is of man, not nature, and I have embraced it, even though it’s likely a result of “The Fall”.

But being a veggie loving family, you know that their salad dressings are the real deal, delicious stuff. I’ve been using it on roasted vegetables, lettuce salads, a couscous salad, anything that grows in the dirt really. But I love it with red and green peppers, cucumbers, and feta in my “Tomato & Olive Haters Greek Salad”. I also made this dressing in the mixer you gave me. BRILLIANT! Have I told you yet how much I love it? It works really well, and yeah. Makes eating this salad dressing for every meal but breakfast a lot easier.

Sharon K’s Dressing

• 1 cup oil (I use canola ’cause it’s cheaper than olive, and doesn’t firm up in the fridge.)
• 1/3 cup lemon juice (lime can be substituted for a more…limey flavour)
• 1/3 c. red wine or balsamic vinegar (I’ve mainly been using balsamic because my old roommates each left a bottle of it in my old apartment that I kept)
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 3 tsp. dry mustard (OK I asked Alex for the recipe I mentioned that I didn’t have any dry mustard, and so she GAVE me an extra jar that she had around. This is a friend to learn from!)
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning (I uses 1/2 tsp oregano and 1/2 tsp basil. That does the trick)
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp. dried minced garlic, or 1 minced clove.

Now my T&O Haters Greek Salad is good, but not totally satisfying without some carbs. If I were having it tonight I would eat some chips on the side. But last week I ate it for three meals with some of Amy’s Biscuits on the side. I can’t remember which Amy I got this recipe from. It was either my old roommate Amy, or my university friend Amy. Ah well. Neither are currently in touch and wont’ read this blog. Unless Oprah mentions it.

Pac Nor West Biscuits

So the South has the claim on the greatest biscuits in the world, apparently they have a different type of flour then can grow in our northern climes, and their flour is “gentler” then ours which needs a tough husk to survive a Saskatchewan winter. Hey, I get that. So I work with what I got. And what I got is good.

• 1/2 cup butter (frozen, cut it before you freeze it. It may seem obvious, but I forgot last time, and had fun experimenting with a hot knife and butter shards.)
• 2 cups flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk

1. Freeze the butter
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
3. Once the butter is solid, grate it with the large holes on a cheese grater. This keeps it from integrating too much with the flour, and allows steam pockets to be created during baking. Put it back in the freezer while you mix the other ingredients.
4. Mix all the dry ingredients.
5. Add butter, mixing with your hands until it is even distributed throughout the flour
6. Add the butter. Mix with a spoon until it just sticks together
7. Grease a baking sheet with butter. I don’t normally but did this last time, and I must of used a heavy had because the bottom of the biscuits had this delicious fried thing going on. It was amazing. I closed my eyes while eating the biscuits.
8. Turn the dough on to the cookie sheet and pat into a square, slice the dough into smaller squares…about 16 biscuits? What ever looks right.
9. Bake for 12 – 15 min until the biscuits are golden delicious. You will love them. Love them.

I’m making a dessert for Rib Fest tomorrow. Maybe I’ll blog that!

That explains my blog absence.

Watch for:

• Delicious biscuits
• Greeky Salad with my friend’s mom amazing dressing
• Oatmeal Cookies ( I think I’ve done that already, but these have chocolate chips!)

That’s all. When I stop feeling stressed out about my life and finding work, maybe I’ll start making interesting things again.

Cheers yo.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t occasionally regret that I sent the rest of the pie filling home with you. I think I dreamed about that Chicken Pot Pie.

As you know, it was easy to make, but I thought I’d post about it anyways so we could all remember the lovely times that we spend together, and be reminded of how difficult it is to take pictures of two (or more) Havercrofts at once.

I looked up an actual roux recipe for us – I just decided to wing it, but there are probably a couple of ways that you could go about making the pot pie. Like if you wanted to make it all even faster, you could just cook all the ingredients in some water, make the sauce separately, then drain the vegetables, add the chicken and sauce, and then top it all with crust. It would probably be easier to keep the sauce from burning that way too. Milk is really easy to burn. It’s something of a miracle that it didn’t happen with our pie.  But here’s the recipe – faithful to the experience…

Chicken Pot Pie

• 2 Tbs. butter
• 3 Tbs. flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 (or more) cups chicken or vegetable stock (we used vegetable)
• 3-4 medium white potatoes, diced
• 1 1/2 cup diced baby carrots (I didn’t count them pre-dice so I have no idea how many it took)
• 1/2 medium onion minced
• 3 stalks celery
• 2 cups diced cooked chicken
• 1 can refrigerated crescent dough

1. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add flour all at once and stir in quickly. You want to keep cooking the flour and butter until it turns golden-y brown, and starts to smell cooked. It smells a bit nutty, and a bit like cookies when it’s done.
2. Slowly (like a tablespoon at a time), start to mix in the milk. Once the whole thing gets pretty liquid-y, you can add larger amounts of milk, until it’s all added in.
3. Add the chicken stock.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Add in the potatoes, and the rest of the vegetables. Bring the whole thing up to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes and carrots are soft. If all goes well, the sauce should have reduced by this point so it’s thick and creamy.
6. Open the crescent rolls. You could smoosh all the seams together and make a full sheet of dough, or you could do what we did and just layer all the little triangles over top until everything’s covered.
7. Decorate with any extra pieces of dough, and bake for 20-30 minutes, until deliciously golden brown.
8. Dig in. Enjoy a lovely stick to the ribs meal with your brother and sister-in-law.