butternut harvest soup

ummm, hi. hello. sorry i'm late. do you know i've posted 11 times in 2010? yup, blogger FAIL. my bad.

it's not that i haven't cooked... well, i didn't more or less all summer because my darling husband can (and WILL) grill an. y. thing. (nom.) when we moved, we got a new grill to go with our new patio-- a full-height camping grill. beats the one that sits six inches off the ground. and it gets a full-sized propane tank. HOORAY. he also got a cuisinart griddler for our anniversary. so much grilling.

um, yeah, anyway.

lately i don't want to blog without pictures, i guess, so i just don't blog. but while my parents were in paris, france, europe the past couple weeks, we got their csa and i've been cooking some interesting stuff. like butternut harvest soup.

ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash, peeled, gutted and cubed
• 1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and cubed
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
  
• 2 leeks (white and light parts only) cleaned and chopped
• 2 tbs butter
• 6ish cups chicken broth
• salt, pepper, nutmeg
  
• greek yogurt

prep:

• peel, gut, core, chop, cube

actual cooking:

• saute leeks and carrots in butter until tender
• add broth and bring to a boil
• add apple & squash and simmer until squash is easily pierced with a fork
• remove from heat and blend in a food processor or with an immersion blender
  
• season with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg if you like
• stir a heaping tablespoon of greek yogurt into each bowl
  

so, this was the first of 4 soups i made over the course of two weeks. i also have a massive fail (with pictures) to blog and a pretty awesome seat-of-my-pants dinner. i will try very hard to blog them.

recession challenge: dinner for two all week from one ham steak

for my next trick, we'll be enjoying a ham dinner, a ham fritatta, pasta e fagioli and a lovely zucchini risotto.


ingredients:

• i pound ham steak (i paid ~$7)
• 4 potatoes (~$1.60)
• 2 medium/large zucchinis ($3)
• 1 3/4 cup rice (negligible-- pantry staple)
• kidney beans (~$2)
• veggie stock (~$2)
• chicken broth (~$2)
• crushed tomatoes (~$2)
• 4 eggs (like... $1)
• mirepoix (~$3)
• an onion (negligible, $0.69 per pound, i think.)
• butter (pantry staple)
• veggie oil (pantry staple)
• scratch cheese (pantry staple)
• 1/2 pound ditalini or other smallish pasta-- NOT noodles (~$1 a pound)

total here is less than $25! we'll probably add a frozen veggie to meal 3.

prep:

• chop the mirepoix
• divide ham steak in 3 sections for meals 1, 2 & 3 (or 4 for all 4 if it's bigger)
• shred portion of ham for meal 2
• chop portion of ham for meal 3
• slice 1 zucchini
• (butter for baked potatoes?)

actual cooking (meal 1):

• warm the ham through-- do not overcook
• bake potatoes
• saute sliced zucchini

actual cooking (meal 2):

• saute mirepoix in a medium/large pot with veggie oil for about 10 minutes or until golden
• add canned tomato
• add veggie broth and bring to a boil
• add ham
• add well-rinsed kidney beans
• (add water if there's not enough liquid to boil the pasta)
• boil pasta as directed (8 minutes, i think)
• season with salt & pepper to taste

actual cooking (meal 3):

• slice & lightly fry 2 potatoes in veggie oil
• drain
• beat 4 eggs, add ham & season with salt & pepper
• pour eggs & ham into pan over potatoes
• cook, gently pulling back edges with a fork to allow egg to fill in
• (if you have a fritatta pan, you'll close it and flip the fritatta and ta-da! all done. if you're using a cast-iron pan, you can stick it in the oven to cook the top. i've used a pie plate and baked it all the way with little success.)
• once bottom is very well cooked and secure, gently transfer fritatta to a plate
• then transfer it back to the pan upside down to finish cooking

actual cooking (meal 4):

• boil chicken broth
• saute chopped zucchini & onion in 2 tbs butter
• add uncooked rice to the pan, saute briefly
• slowly, 1 cup at a time, add boiling broth to the pan allowing it to completely absorb before adding more (until rice is done to your liking)
• stir in 1 tbs butter & scratch cheese
• (enjoy with ham, if you have some left)

i haven't made the risotto or fritatta yet (i'll edit the recipe if necessary after i do), and we haven't eaten the pasta e fagioli yet, but it looks wonderful. the upshot to this little series is that we're eating really good and for pretty cheap (or, at least, on a budget). next week we'll have sausage, which is cheating because my daddy makes our sausage so i have no idea how much sausage costs. the week after will be turkey breast, which i also have no idea what i paid for because i bought it in november. there's also a pound of bacon in my freezer, so i'm wondering how many different things i could do with that.

edited to add: i missed the scratch cheese in the risotto the first time through! i used two slices of finely chopped asiago. we also put asiago on the pasta e fagioli. we like asiago. bill had the genius idea to add sauteed onion to the fritatta, and it was really perfect. so try that. about 1/2 and onion.

this has been tons of fun so far, which is hysterical because this is, you know, how people ate before convenience became our religion.

recession challenge: dinner for two all week from one chicken

ingredients:

• one whole chicken (i paid ~$9)
• 1 bag frozen veggie blend (i paid ~$2 for tj's organic foursome)
• 3 potatoes (i paid ~$1.15 for huge ones)
• 1 stick butter (negligible, i guess it cost me ~$0.75)
• 1.5 cups flour (negligible)
• splash of milk or cream (whatever you have)
• mirepoix (i paid ~$3, or you could chop up your own onions, carrots & celery)
• 1 pound egg noodles (i paid ~$1)
• vodka (or ice-cold water... you see where this is going right?)
• sea salt & fresh ground pepper

(see, i paid about $20, give or take, for the ingredients to feed us dinner for a week. recession-friendly! we also spend about $20 a week on produce and $15 on lunch-foods.)

prep:

• chill 1/2 the butter and the vodka/water

actual cooking (meal 1):

• roast the chicken, seasoned with s&p and rubbed with butter for 20 minutes per pound at 350*
• cube & boil 2 potatoes, skin on, until softish
• drain potatoes
• add 2-3 tablespoons butter & milk to potatoes, mash
• season to taste with salt & pepper
• nuke 1/3-1/2 the frozen veggies

actual cooking (meal 2):

• heat chicken drippings & 1/2 cup flour on medium heat, whisk until smooth, add hot water to desire thickness
• pick carcass of usable meat, set aside
• use carcass to make broth
• use chilled butter, 1 cup flour and chilled vodka/water to make pie crust
• nuke 1 potato, chill & cube
• combine gravy, frozen veggies, cubed potato, 1/3-1/2 the chicken pieces in a lightly greased casserole
• cover with crust, pierce & bake at 375* until golden brown

actual cooking (meal 3):

• use mirepoix, broth, noodles, remaining chicken & remaining veggies to make soup

meal 1 is a one-shot deal. meal 2 we haven't eaten yet, but we expect it to last 2 or 3 dinners. meal 3 should also last 2 or 3 dinners. of course, this is all dependant on how much you eat. it's not magic, ya know.

editied to add:

with the addition of a very hungry j to our meal 2 dinner, it lasted one night, and i would have known that if i hadn't blogged this meal right before we had the idea to invite him. but... since i hadn't added the rest of the frozen veggies to the soup (because i hadn't thought of it yet) and we had an onion, rice & eggs laying around the house, i managed to squeeze another pantry meal out with some yum veggie fried rice, with frozen egg rolls (also a stock pantry item in my home... don't judge).

chicken noo-noos

this recipe was developed for j, who says that chicken noodle soup is "THE DEVIL" and has some choice things to say about chicken broth in particular, i believe.

ingredients:

• 1-4 chicken breasts, depending on how into meat you are
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• mirepoix
• 1 pound egg noodles, medium or wide, but not small (and, seriously, you can't just throw pasta in there and call them noodles. NOODLES are not PASTA.)
• sea salt & ground pepper
• 1/8 cup cold water
• 1/8 cup cornstarch (or flour, i think flour might work)

prep:

• boil the chicken in broth until past done
• chill until cool to the touch
• (chop up a large onion, a couple carrots and some celery if you didn't buy your prechopped mirepoix from trader joe's)
• shred chicken with fingers or forks

actual cooking:

• lightly saute mirepoix in the bottom of your soup pot
• add broth and bring to a boil
• add chicken & noodles (yup, all of them)
• boil as long as the noodle package says to (8 minutes, i think?)
• season to taste
• mix together cold water & cornstarch (this part is key-- it won't work if you just dump them both in the pot! and make sure it's not lumpy... nobody wants a lump of cornstarch.)
• add water/starch to boiling soup and stir
• boil for at least 2 minutes or until soup reaches desired thickness

this will be even thicker the next day-- more like a casserole than a stew. in fact, i won't blame you if you want to bake it with some breadcrumbs or crushed chips on top. yum.

squash'd tomato flor-n-bean

this soup is one of the varieties i call "veggie sludge." it's thick, flavorful and easy to make. generic veggie sludge is really easy to make, but if i don't feel like thinking about what veggies to use, i go with this insanely simple one.

ingredients:

• 2-3 yellow squashes/zucchinis
• 1 can of tomato paste
• frozen spinach
• 1 can of white kidney beans
• mirepoix (chopped celery, carrots and onions, which i buy prepared from trader joe's because i'm lazy and it's good)
• veggie broth (a quart? or chicken, i guess, or ham would probably be tasty)
• olive oil

prep:

• chop your squash into, eh, chunk-sized chunks
• rinse the beans

actual cooking:

• coat the bottom of your (not huge) pot with olive oil
• add mirepoix and stir
• give that a minute
• add broth
• add spinach, beans, tomato paste and squash
• simmer for 45 minute to an hour, depending on how sludgy you want it (i want to be able to eat it with a fork, so 45 minutes mostly covered and 15-20 uncovered to boil off the extra water)
• salt & pepper to taste

this soup is delicious alone, over chicken, as a pasta sauce, with some grated cheese, with some melted cheese, hot, cold, whatever. it's good.

potatoflower soup

this delicious soup makes a great lunch, and all it takes to convert the recipe to a healthy alternative to mashed potatoes is omitting the water. sweet. and? it's SO EASY. i always thought soups would be hard to make and then last fall: click. i get it. you need one of the following to make this soup: an immersion blender, a huge blender, a potato masher, a big food processor, a hand mixer or a fork and infinite patience.

ingredients:

• 4 large potatoes
• 1 quart chicken (or veggie) broth
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 onion
• water
• sea salt & fresh ground pepper (should we just assume that every savory recipe needs these?)
• a drop (or spritz) of oil

prep:

• cube potatoes (and skin them if you or your eaters are wusses)
• trim cauliflower into florets
• chop onion

actual cooking:

• put a big pot over high heat, spritz with oil
• add onions, stir
• add cauliflower, stir
• add potatoes, stir
• add broth and about 1/2 quart of water
• cover, cook for, oh, you know, a while... until both potatoes and cauliflower are a bit soft
• remove from heat and mash it all together with whatever implement you're working with (i used a potato masher & hand mixer. i bet an immersion blender is freaking AWESOME, but i don't have one.)
• salt & pepper to taste

tada! easiest. recipe. ever.

so, like i said, all you have to do to make this seem just like mashed potatoes is omit the water and maybe add a bit of butter at the end. mmmmmmm.

(by the way-- cauliflower is a cabbage. so it kinda smells. which apparently makes people think it tastes gross. it DOES NOT. it is delicious. and versatile. and potato-like.)