African Bean and Sweet Potato Soup

Well its back to soup again as it has been cold and we put some of this up in the freezer. I forgot to write it up so here it is now. This was tasty and made a good bit as we are enjoying it now as it is a cloudy and ucky day....Again. I don't know when we have had so many chances of snow. When we moved here as we are a little more south than Jackson we didn't think we would see snow but on very rare occasions. Especially after all the people calling the end is near with global warming. Tell that to the 4 inches we got. And its in the forecast again of course its most likely not here again but you never know.

1 tablespoon olive or peanut oil

1 1/2 teaspoons curry or cumin (we used cumin as we like it)

pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice

1 medium red onion diced

4 cloves garlic minced

1 med sweet potato pealed and diced

1 yellow bell pepper diced (we used a green that's what we had on hand)

1 jalapeno or other chillies pepper seeded and diced (be careful with peppers use gloves if you can and do not rub you eyes till after washing hands real well)

1 14 oz can black eyed peas rinsed and drained

1 14 oz can white beans rinsed and drained

1 14 oz can black beans rinsed and drained

1 quart broth we used chicken

1/2 cup natural peanut butter melted in a half cup of boiling water or broth.(we just threw in pot and we used crunchy Jiff and it worked just fine.)

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (we added more because we like it hot)

juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon brown sugar

salt and pepper to taste

chopped fresh cilantro

can add 2 cups chicken
Heat oil and cook onions,potatoes,garlic,bell pepper,jalapeno, for about 5-6 minutes

add chicken broth, beans, chicken,cumin and simmer for about 30 minutes
add in peanut butter pinch of cinnamon,lime,crushed red pepper

salt and pepper to taste.
garnish with chopped cilantro. we also used sour cream

Steak with Cherry-Balsamic Reduction

This was so good. We do not get a chance to have a steak very often as we are no longer a two income household. But we got the steak on sale and thought what the heck we even splurged for a bottle of wine. Sure do miss the wine tastings we used to go to but alas the times are changing.

For two

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 shallot chopped(we used a little red onion)

1/2 large clove garlic minced

8 teaspoons dry red wine (shiraz or zinfandel)

8 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoons cherry preserves

1/cup frozen dark cherries thawed

2 fillet Mignon we used rib eyes

salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and cook onions until soft and wilted not browned. about 3 minutes. Add garlic and stir for 30 sec. Add wine, preserves,vinegar and cherries. Increase the heat to bring to a light boil, stirring occasionally. Let the sauce reduce to half the original amount. About 10 to 12 minutes It should get thick and syrupy.

Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper and cook steaks until your taste.

Serve sauce on side or over steak.

Goat Cheese Craisin and Pecan Pinweels

I know the big V day is coming up and these make a tasty and attractive treat. Yes I know every one wants chocolate but these are also good. We first had these at Christmas.

2 8oz pkg of cream cheese very well softened

1- 5 1/2 oz chevre goat cheese.

1/2 cup finely chopped green onion(we added just a little bit more)

6 oz craisins

2/4 cup chopped pecans

4 large flour tortillas

In a bowl combine cream cheese chevre cheese green onions crasins and pecans.

evenly spread 1/4 of mixture on each tortilla and roll up tightly and wrap each in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate for several hours or overnight

Slice and serve makes about 32.

Black Eyed Peas and Rice

This a favorite of my wife's and pretty much every one down south cooks black eyed peas but my spouse must have it over rice, the better to soak up the juice. And of course we have to use frozen where she grew up with the ones her mother put up every year. Now that is a story for another day how our eating habits are so different today in fact I'll write about it on my next post. Now back to today.
2 2/3 cups fresh or frozen black eyed peas
2-3 slices of bacon
1/2 large onion chopped(yellow)
stalk celery diced
3 cloves garlic
4 cups chicken broth
pinch of salt and pepper to taste
In a dutch oven cook bacon until crisp, set aside on paper towel to drain
Cook onion,celery,garlic in bacon drippings until tender, add broth,salt,pepper and peas.
Bring to a boil and skim top if necessary
Lower to simmer add bacon and cook 30 min to 1 hour till peas are tender
Serve over rice or as side.

Swiss Ham and Potato Soup

Well we were in the deep freeze last week and we fixed several soups this is one that turned out good. For us here in the south to get down to 15 at night with the wind blowing is not very common and looking at the news of other areas I just can not imagine living in an area with the temp below 0. So I hope every one was warm. we were worried for outside cats we rescued and feed so the wife got up several times in the night to turn on the dryer so they would get some warm air for a while. The vent blower was under the house.
2 med potatoes peeled and diced. (we used red potatoes.)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 yellow onion or one small
2 to 3 cups milk
4 slices Swiss cheese
2 cups cooked ham
salt and pepper to taste
can add garlic
and we used crumbled bacon for garnish
Cook diced potatoes when tender drain and save liquid. and set aside
in separate pan saute onion and garlic and set aside.
In large sauce pan add flour to butter till incorporated keep stirring to golden brown (this is known as a roux)
Now add 2 cups of milk and 1 cup potato liquid and whisk until smooth and no lumps
Bring to a boil .
Add ham,cooked onion and Swiss cheese stir till cheese is melted
Add salt and pepper
if soup is too thick can add the other cup of milk.
garnish with bacon.
Be sure too have some bread to go with it. Ummm Good.

Have posted this before.

Grilled Cornish Hens with brown sugar, orange,cloves and other good stuff

We love Cornish hens and are always cooking some. We did this for our Thanksgiving dinner it is just to cold to grill out now. Of course my wife is loving it she still thinks its hot at night and we have the heat turned down. I'm freezing and have my side of the electric blanket cranked up and she has her fan on and it was 15 degrees last night!!!!! Oh well back to cooking. Again from Zaar.

1 piece fresh ginger grated about 1 inch.

4 green onions minced

4 garlic cloves minced

1 orange-zest and

juice of 1/2 orange

2 limes zest and juice

1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

3/4 ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3 Tablespoons canola oil

Basting instructions:

In a large plastic bag mix ginger,onions,garlic,orange zest and juice, lime zest and juice,sugar,soy sauce,salt and pepper, cinnamon and cloves and oil. place hens in bag (cut hens in half). place in frig and turn every now and then . Can to this at least 2 hours to 24. (we reserved about 1/4 cup to use later after hens were cooked.)

Fire up the grill and cook covered over low to medium heat until golden brown. Turn as needed to prevent burning basting with marinade. Once golden brown place away from direct heat and finish cooking with indirect heat until no longer pink at the bone. About 40 to 45 minutes. Basting every 10 minutes(this is a little time consuming but it taste good) minutes before you take off the grill stop using the marinade and discard. This is were having a little in reserve comes in handy. Along with this we had wild rice, sweet potatoes dressing and cabbage.

Craisin and Carrots

This was not as great as we thought it would be. We did a carrot dish a while back that I think we would rate as better in taste. The only thing we did not have was pure maple syrup but used pancake maple syrup as it was all we had on hand so maybe that is why it was not as good as the thought it should taste. If you out there in blog land make this and use real maple syrup let me know how it turns out.

2 lbs baby carrots

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup craisins (this is dried cranberries)

2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginge

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

salt and pepper

Cook carrots in saucepan with salted water covered. Bring to a boil.

Reduce to med heat and boil for 3 to 4 minutes till almost fork tender.

drain and set aside.

In a large skillet melt butter now add carrots and the caisins

Cook stirring frequently about 3 to 5 minutes till carrots begin to brown.

Now stir in maple syrup, and add ginger and rosemary, salt and pepper.

Cook until carrots are tender shiny and caramelized.

Corn Casserole

The computer has been a little on the fritz lately. Here is a new one that was very easy to fix, and has room to add and tweak. Again from Zaar and Dawn Allison. This was between a spoon and corn bread texture.

1 (8 1/2 oz box of Jiffy cornbread mix

1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn drained

1 (15 oz) can creamed corn

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup sour cream

1 egg beaten

cheese- you can choose we used Colby jack.

We also added about 1/4 cup onion (or more if you like onion)

dash of cayenne pepper

can of green chillies

Mix above ingredients in a casserole dish (we used an iron skillet)

and bake in a 350 oven for about 45 minutes or till set. Add cheese and cook till cheese meltes.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp

My mother in law gave me a pasta machine a few months ago but I have not used it till now. I have been wanting to use it but I always thought of it when I didn't have the time. Well I had last Wed off and the wife was out of the house at her painting class. I had the house to myself and the machine started calling my name. Actually it was pretty easy and it made a good bit. Now to find the perfect recipe for it. Giada came to the rescue. I have her book Every Day Italian and page 114 had a recipe for Fettuccine Alfredo. In her words this dish called for fresh pasta as dried could not stand up to the creamy rich ingredients. Of course we did add shrimp. Yummmmm A good bread and salad completed this as it is so rich.
Wife really liked the lemon flavor I felt it may have been a little much so if you don't like it real lemon tasting cut back on it a little.
1 ½ cups heavy cream
¼ cup fresh lemon juice( about one lemon)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 to 2 teaspoons fresh grated lemon zest
pinch of grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
9 oz fresh fettuccine
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (we love this stuff)
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
In a large heavy skillet stir in 1 cup of cream and the lemon juice to blend.
Add butter and cook over medium heat stirring occasionally, just until the butter melt about 3 minutes.
We add the shrimp here.
Stir in the lemon zest and nutmeg. Remove from heat.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally about 4 minutes. Drain Add to the skillet of cream with the remaining ½ cup of cream, cheese salt and pepper. Toss over low heat until sauce thickens about 1 minute, add more salt and pepper if needed. ( We also added a little red pepper just because we like it)Serve immediately

Swiss, Ham,Cauliflower and Potato soup

Last Friday was a really dreary day with rain and damp and generally feeling like we need to be building an ark around here. For the month of October we have more rain than normal. This recipe did not have cauliflower in it but since we had half a head of one to use up we threw it in and no one would even know it was there as it blended in so well. So as the rain came down wife and I enjoyed this soup. By Susie on Zaar

2 med potatoes peeled and diced.
1/2 cup margarine (we use smart balance)
1/2 cup flour
2 green onions chopped or 1/2 yellow onion (we used yellow onion)
2-3 cups milk
4 slices swiss cheese
2 cups diced cooked ham
salt and pepper to taste
we also added a little garlic--- every thing can use some garlic
and we had some cooked bacon in the frig that we used as garnish.

Cook potatoes in saucepan in just enough water to cover, when tender drain and set aside and save liquid.
melt margarine, saute green onions or yellow onion until tender (we add garlic here). Remove onion and set aside.
Add flour to melted margin and stir until incorporated. Stir till the flour turns a golden brown (this is called a roux.)
Using a whisk stir in 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of saved potato liquid. Whisk until smooth and no lumps are seen.
Bring to a boil or until soup thickens.

Add diced ham, cooked onion(and garlic), swiss cheese (and cauliflower) Stir till cheese is melted.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

If soup is too thick add 3rd cup of milk if needed.

Garnish with bacon.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

This recipe has been on several sites but we saw it first on My Kitchen Cafe back in July and have fixed it twice now. You can get her recipe by looking at July 27 2009. We fixed it just like she has it laid out except for one thing we like to add some cauliflower as we like how it seems to adsorb the flavors and adds a vegetable to our dinner.

Indian Chickpea Dish

Day one

leftovers

Here is another chickpea dish. We are new to eating Indian dishes and when kept seeing recipes calling for garam masala we were not really sure what it was but thanks to the Internet you can find out anything. Well we do have a little Indian grocery in Jackson and was able to locate some. By the way it is a combination of spices. We like it and used it as a side dish the first day and the next day we added some chicken to it and again placed it in a pita pocket. This was again from our favorite recipe go to place the Zaar. By Sue

2 medium onions chopped
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (we used powder as that is all we had)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
½ inch cinnamon stick
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon turmeric
salt to taste
¼ -1/2 teaspoon cayenne( we added more we like it hot)
2 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
½ 1 teaspoon gram masala
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice.

In a large saucepan over med heat, heat cumin seeds, bay leaf and cinnamon until very fragrant, stirring to keep from burning( This really smells the house up!!!)
Add ginger and garlic cooking until you can smell them then add onions. (my mother in law has lost her sense of smell and some of her taste after a bad cold I know this has to be a sad thing because the smell is wonderful.)
Saute onions stirring and adding a few drops of water to prevent sticking, cook till they are translucent.
Add tomatoes,coriander,turmeric,salt and cayenne. Taste and adjust according to what you want more of.
Bring to a boil then add garbanzo beans,cover and reduce heat and simmer on low for 10 to 15 minutes.
Stir in gram masala and lemon juice just before serving.
Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or Indian bread or pitas

Imitation Crab Salad

I know I have been bad and not posting much lately but I have been out of town a lot and we have not had that many great dishes or we have been remaking some of the ones we liked. My wife and I both like the seafood and crab at Subway so we found one near it on Zaar and tweaked it some.
For 2
8 oz imitation crab
1 tablespoon chopped red onion
1 tablespoon chopped celery
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon soy sauce
dash Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
dash of old bay to taste or Greek seasonings
Mix crab with lemon juice add onion,celery,vinegar,soy sauce, Worcestershire stir till mixed
add mayonnaise and salt and pepper and old bay or Greek seasonings to taste. Serve or refrigerate.
This was good still not quite like Subways but since the closest one is about 20 miles away this will have to do.

Red Beans and Rice

This is a staple here in the south and most people have a little variation on the dish. We use a spicy sausage to give it more kick but any will do.
1 yellow onion or ½ of a large one
¼ cup of bell pepper
2 to 3 cloves garlic
1 stalk of celery
two links sausage cut into bite size pieces
4cans kidney beans not drained
rinse the cans out and pour the water in pot at least 2 to 3 cans of water.
dash of Cajun spices we use Zatarains
my wife secret ingredient juice from Greek peppers about two tablespoons.

Cook onion,bell pepper,celery till clear then add beans reserving a few to smash up and place in to thicken mixture. Add everything else and let simmer for about 2 hours uncovered. Checking to see if more water needs to be added. Taste every now and then to see if anything needs to be adjusted like more Zatarains but over rice and garnish with green onions.

Add a little potato salad and garden tomatoes

Spicy Chick Peas and Couscous

We have a jam night about once a month and everyone tries to bring something. As our host are now on a low fat and low cholesterol diet we have brought out our low fat cookbooks and found this one to try. It was a hit but again we our taste buds are jaded and felt like it really needed more kick. It is really a colorful dish.

1 can (about 14 oz) vegetable broth
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon hot pepper sauce
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup julienned carrots
1 can (15 oz) chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup uncooked quick cooking couscous
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint or parsley for garnish.
Combine vegetable broth,coriander, cardamom,turmeric, hot pepper sauce salt and cinnamon in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add carrots and reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.(The smell is to die for) Now add chick peas and peas, simmer for 2 minutes uncovered.
Now stir in couscous. Cover, remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with mint or parsley.
Now what can we bring next time?????