More Soups from Soup Week

Emily wanted this recipe from Soup Week.  I love it at this time of year, because I can make it at lunch time and come home after a cold soccer game to a warm meal.  It's a recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  I modified it for the crock pot.  I like it better that way.  The beans are creamier.  Yum!

White Bean and Garlic Soup

1 lb white beans (The recipe calls for cannellini beans, but I've always used great northern beans.)
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped fine
1 small head garlic, top third and loose papery skins removed and discarded
6 cups chicken broth
salt
1 sprig rosemary, or 1 tsp dried
1/4 c. minced fresh parsley, or 1 Tbsp dried

1.  Soak the beans by either bringing the beans and 6 cups water to a boil, simmer for 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let soak for 1 hour.  Or you can put the beans in a big pot the night before you want to make this, cover them with water and let them soak until you are ready to make the soup.  Drain the beans and put them in your crock pot.
2.  Cook the bacon in the same pot you used to soak the beans in over medium heat until crisp.  Transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate, leaving the rendered fat behind in the pot.  Add the onion and cook until softened.  Stir in the garlic head and cook for 30 seconds.
3. Transfer the onion and garlic to the crock pot.  Add the broth and 1 tsp. salt (If you are using the dried herbs, add them now).  Turn on the crock pot to low and cook for 6 hours.
4. Add the fresh herbs, if you are using them now.  Remove the garlic head and squeeze out the softened cloves.  Mince the softened garlic and return it to the soup.  Discard the fresh rosemary.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve, garnishing with bacon.

Serves 8

Don't be scared by the whole garlic head.  It roasts in the soup and turns nutty and mild.

Recipes from Soup Week

As promised here are the requested soup recipes from our soup week. (As a side note, when I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner this week, Sophie said, "Egg Drop Soup," and everyone groaned. I guess we're still recovering.)

This first recipe is for Hilary. I got it off the Martha Stewart website.

Seared Beef and Noodle Soup

1/2 lb rice noodles (You can also substitute angel hair pasta.)

1 1/4 lbs beef sirloin (about 1 inch thick)

salt and pepper

2 Tbsp olive oil

10 oz white mushrooms, sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

6 c. beef stock

3 Tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp. rice wine vinegar

2 carrots, cut into thin strips

1/2 Napa cabbage, shredded (I used regular cabbage.)

2 scallions, including green parts, thinly sliced

1 c. bean sprouts (I left these out and put in peas instead.)

1. Place rice noodles in a large heatproof bowl; pour boiling water over noodles. Let sit until translucent but still slightly chewy, 5-10 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

2. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Season beef with 1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper and rub with 1 Tbsp oil. Sear beef in pan until golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Sear other side, 3 to 4 minutes more. Remove beef.

3. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining Tbsp of oil, mushrooms, and garlic; cook, scraping up any browned bits, until mushrooms are tender, 3-5 minutes.

4. Add stock, soy sauce, vinegar, and 2 c. water to the pan (I thought the water made the soup weak, so used more stock instead.); bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat; stir in carrots cabbage, scallions, and bean sprouts. (I like my veggies less crunchy, so I simmered them until I thought they were done.)

5. Cut beef diagonally into very thin slices. Ladle the broth and veggies into serving bowls, and place the noodles and sliced beef on top.

Serves 4-6

This next soup is for Tammy. It's a recipe Aaron got in Germany on his mission.

Allgauer Kase Soupe

2 Tbsp butter

2 pieces of bread, cut into cubes

4 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp flour

4 c. chicken stock, hot

125 g. (or so) soft, spreadable cheese

(We like Boursin, but Alluette is nice too. It should have garlic and herbs in it. This is the flavoring of this soup, so get something nice. You can find this kind of cheese in the specialty cheese section of most grocery stores.)

salt and pepper to taste

dash or two nutmeg

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1. Make the croutons. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add the cubes, toss and saute until golden brown. Set aside. (When I make this, I cut up a piece of bread for each person who will be eating-8 for our family-then I melt the butter (4-6 Tbsp. for my family) in the microwave and toss with the bread. Then I spread the bread on a cookie sheet and broil it in the oven until it is golden brown. Toss the croutons and brown on the other side.)

2. Make the soup. Melt the butter in the soup pot. Add the flour and stir and cook for a little bit. You want to make sure it doesn't taste like flour. Whisk in the hot broth until there are no lumps. Cook at a simmer for 7 minutes.

3. Cut the cheese into chunks. Stir the cheese into the soup until it melts. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and parsley. Bring to a simmer.

4. Serve with the croutons on top. Or if you're a purist, with them on the side, you don't want your food to touch.

Serves 4 (I double this for my family and there's usually just one serving left over, which Aaron and I fight about for lunch the next day.)

Soup Week

I always have my kids tell me what they want to eat for the week. It puts some of the meal planning stress off of me. The other week everyone wanted soups. So we decided to have soup week. That's right--a whole week with soup every night for dinner. It was kind of fun and we took pictures of all the delicious soups we ate.

We started out on Friday night with delicious White Bean and Garlic soup. This one was my choice.

It's a great soup because you can make it in the crock pot. The garlic is lovely and mild because it's roasted along with the beans. You also add rosemary. Plus I absolutely adore bean soups and there's bacon. What could be better?

Saturday night was St. Patrick's day so we had Hilary's Irish soup and Brennan's soda bread. I also bought sausage. One time Johnsonville made an Irish sausage. It was lovely, but I haven't been able to find it since. We had bratwurst instead.

The kids loved the bread and the soup. They kept saying how good it was. I used both a leek and cabbage. I really don't like pureed soups, so I only pureed a portion of it.

Sunday night was Cream of Vegetable Soup. I had a mix of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots left over from a fondue dinner we had had earlier in the week and it needed to get used up. I looked up veggie soup recipes and found one that had all three in it. It also had a hint of curry which was a revelation. It made the soup so good. I pureed some of this soup too, but the broccoli didn't puree well and made the soup grainy.

Still, it was a good soup and I served it with cheese.

Monday night I killed three birds with one stone. Hannah wanted grilled cheese--that means tomato soup. Maggie wanted clam chowder and Caleb wanted chicken noodle. I always serve another soup when I make tomato soup because half the kids don't like tomatoes. Good old Campbell's makes the meal do-able.

I had to come up with my own tomato soup recipe when I couldn't find good tomato soup in the canned soup aisle (It was all gone). I also wanted it to be tomato basil soup and somehow could never find the recipe. On a different note, one evening we were eating chicken noodle soup at my mom's house, who really makes the best chicken noodle soup on the face of the planet, and Caleb says, "This is okay, but my mom makes the best chicken noodle soup." I laughed and laughed because the chicken noodle soup I "make" is right out of the can. The clam chowder we had is out of the can too. Aaron was disappointed.

Tuesday night was Aaron's request--Allgauer Kase Soupe.

I burned the croutons. It's a family curse. We always burn the garlic bread. Bread in the oven is tricky. But the soup is totally delicious--creamy and herby with a crunch from the croutons--yum!

Wednesday night was Sophie's night. A little while ago I had watched too many Asian cooking shows and wanted to make a noodle bowl. After a little research, I found a promising recipe on Martha Stewart. Sophie LOVED it. She has requested it many times since. If it weren't for the scarcity of steak in our diet, I'm sure we would have had it more often.

It really looks beautiful in the bowl. The steak is rare and then the hot broth cooks it as you eat. I ate it with a spoon, but really you need chopsticks. Sophie ate all the leftovers the next day--slurping and "mmm"ing all the way through.

Thursday was a soup Caleb wanted, I wrote it down, and then he changed his mind to Chicken Noodle, then when we got to this night, he told me that this was the soup he wanted all along. Funny boy. It was Potato Soup.

I love this soup because it has bacon and sour cream in it. It's super yummy.

So, that was our week of soup. The kids were glad when we were done, proving once again that too much of a good thing isn't so good. Also, we had a hard time keeping spoons and bowls clean. It seems like we spent the whole week wondering where the clean spoons were. And finally, as Aaron pointed out, the problem with soup every night for dinner is that then the next day you have soup leftovers for lunch and then soup for dinner again. It was an interesting experience anyway. If you want me to post any of the recipes for the soups we had, let me know.

Coconut Cake

When I was in CA visiting, somehow we made the Lethal Peppermint Chocolate Cake. Mom, of course, wasn't interested, and the topic turned to coconut cake. This is a recipe is from the side of the Western Family white cake mix.

Super Moist Coconut Cake

1 pkg white cake mix

1/4 c. oil

3 eggs

1 c. sour cream

1 8oz. can cream of coconut*

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. sweetened flake coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, oil, eggs, sour cream, cream of coconut, vanilla, and coconut. Mix until well blended.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely.

Frosting

1/2 c butter, softened

12 oz. cream cheese

1 Tbsp. vanilla

4 c. powdered sugar

1 c. sweetened flake coconut, toasted in the oven until light golden brown

Beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy and free of lumps. Add vanilla and powdered sugar, beat until well blended and fluffy.

Frost cooled cake with frosting.

Sprinkle 1 c. toasted coconut evenly over the frosting.

*Do not buy plain coconut milk. The two are not the same and are not interchangeable. Coconut milk is found in the Asian section and is thinner and not sweetened. Cream of coconut, which you use in this recipe, is thick and sweet. It is found in the drink mixers section of the grocery store. Also, I have never found an 8 oz. can of cream of coconut. I usually pour/scoop the cream of coconut out of the can, mix it together (It's always separated in the can.) and use half of it. The other half I use for pina coladas. Yum!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

These cupcakes are amazing so I had to share! Plus, they are chocolate! I got this recipe out of Relish, a magazine insert in our local newspaper.

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
4 ounces chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1 cup buttermilk (I used a cup of milk plus 1 Tblsp lemon juice that sat for 5 min.)
2 tsp vanilla (oops. I forgot that part!)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 2 6-cup muffin tins or line with papers.
2. Combine peanut butter and powdered sugar, beat until light and fluffy.
3. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda and slat together in a medium bowl.
4. Combine butter and granulated sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add chocolate and beat until combined.
5. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture and beat to combine. Add vanilla and mix well.
6. Fill muffin tins half full with batter. Spoon about 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter mixture on top of batter (don't spread). Spoon remaining batter over peanut butter. Bake 18-20 minutes. Cool and frost with your favorite peanut butter icing.

*Note- the recipe only makes 12 so double if you want more. Mine needed the full 20 minutes to bake through because of the peanut butter center.
*I don't have a favorite pb icing recipe so I used a combination of softened butter, milk powdered sugar and pb. Enjoy!

Hoisin Beef

This recipe came from the Hilo newspaper and we've had it several times. It's yummy and quick with only a few ingredients that you will probably only have to buy once. I believe you can find everything in the Asian section of your grocery store.

Spicy Hoisin Beef with Ginger-Soy Noodles

For the noodles:

18 ounces fresh egg noodles (you can also use spaghetti but I like the squiggly quality of the fresh noodles better, they should be in the produce section near the tofu)

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp minced ginger

red bell pepper sliced into thin strips

3 scallions thinly sliced diagonally

3 Tbsp soy sauce

For the Beef:

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp five-spice powder

1 pound flank steak (or whatever kind of steak you want) cut into thin strips

1/4 c vegetable oil (I never use this much, I just eyeball what I think will look right for cooking)

1/4 c hoisin sauce

1/2 Tbsp chili-garlic sauce (The recipe calls for 2 Tbsp chili-garlic paste but I'm not totally sure what that is and when I used that much of the sauce it was way too spicy for us. You can always play with the amount to fit your family but there is some spiciness to the five-spice powder so don't overdo it.)

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (I use rice vinegar, I think it's the same thing)

To prepare noodles, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Return the saucepan to the stove. Add the sesame oil and heat over medium high. Add the ginger, bell pepper and scallions. Saute for 1 minute then add the noodles and soy sauce and toss well. Cover and set aside.

For the beef, mix the cornstarch and five-spice powder in a ziploc bag. Add the steak strips and toss to coat (this is my preferred method of coating meat). In a deep skillet over high, heat the oil. Saute the steak strips until crispy, browned and cooked through. Drain off any excess oil. Stir in the hoisin, chili-garlic sauce and rice vinegar.

Serve the beef over the noodles and garnish with sesame seeds if you want.

Green Beans and Spaetzle

Growing up, one thing we always had at holiday dinners was Birds Eye brand green beans and spaetzle.It may have been my favorite part of the meal, there never seemed to be enough. Sadly, they don't make it anymore so I had to find another way to have it this year for Christmas dinner. I decided to try and make it myself. It turned out pretty good so I thought I would share what I did.

I found dried spaetzle in the store so I just boiled that like pasta. In the last few minutes of boiling, I added the green beans. I think I even threw in a little bit of chopped garlic that I had left over on the cutting board. Once they were done, I mixed in butter, salt and bacon bits. I used the real bacon that comes in a pouch, not the crunchy bacon bits that go on salads. As I was thinking it through, I thought I would need to put in more of something but it turned out quite yummy. This may need to become a staple.