black bean soup

First things first.  I am very much a soup person.  Soup is just so versatile!  You can make thousands of versions of just black bean soup alone.  I am a huge fan of soups where you dump whatever you have in your kitchen into a pot.  Nothing is easier, and somehow ALWAYS delicious.  I'm pretty sure I've only made soup once or twice in my life that I didn't really care for.  And that says a lot given my sometimes wild experimentation.  This particular soup can be pureed ( as I did) or not, if you instead dice your veggies.  It just depends on your mood.  I just find pureed soup lends itself much easier to having bread dipped in it.  Yum.  I used the bread from the previous post.

Cut up your veggies and place them in an oven safe bowl.  Roast them in the oven for 45 minutes, until they are tender but not browned.

Add all your ingredients into your pot and cook until everything has softened, and your kitchen smells heavenly.  Use a blender or immersion blender to puree your soup.  Simmer a bit longer if you like your soup thicker.  It will also thicken more when eaten as leftovers.

I'm still trying to figure out the color filters on the food setting of my camera, so bear with me.  The color in these pictures is not true.  They are both a bit too bright.


ingredients:
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 C tomato slices
2 carrots, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 28 oz. carton chicken broth (or substitute veggie broth)
2 cans black beans
2 tsp garlic
2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 tsp cornstarch (optional)
directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Chop the veggies and place them in a oven safe dish tossed with the olive oil.  Roast for 45 minutes.
2. If pureeing, place all ingredients in blender, and blend, or use an immersion blender.  Otherwise dump everything into a pot.  Heat on medium until hot.  If you prefer thicker soup add a little cornstarch mixed into 1/4 cup water, and combine into the soup.  Serves 4-6.

the best bread

This bread is magic.  I swear.  If you have a stand mixer it is the easiest thing to make, and so worth it.  This bread looks like bread you would buy in a bakery and tastes even better.  It doesn't tend to last long at our house (though what does?) and lends itself well to dipping in soup, making sandwiches, or just eating with oil and vinegar.  Don't get discouraged because there are several steps to this bread.  It really is easy to make.  Although make sure you have the time.  Between starting this and pulling it out of the oven you'll need 4 hours.

Once your bread is mixed and has

Although I generally use cups to measure ingredients, this recipe turns out better I think when measured by weight instead.  Don't get me wrong, it turns out great using cups too, this is just a personal preference.  I know many people don't have scales in their kitchens though, so I'll give measurements both ways.  Oh, and the pictures show the bread with 2/3 AP flour, 1/3 whole wheat flour.  Any more whole wheat flour and the texture and consistency loses its soft smooth wonderfulness (yes, that's totally a word...).  But I'm giving the recipe out with just AP flour.  Also feel free to add in any desired bits.  Cheese, herbs, etc. work really well added into this bread.

ingredients:
20 oz. AP flour (4 C)
12 oz. warm water (1.4 C)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast

directions:
1. Combine water and yeast in the bowl and let them sit 10 minutes to bloom.
2.  Add the flour and salt and mix well.
3.  If using a stand mixture change paddle to dough hook and knead the dough for 10 minutes.  If you don't have a stand mixture then, sorry, you have to do this by hand.
4.  Cover the dough in the bowl loosely with a towel and let it sit out for 2-4 hours depending on the temperature of the kitchen.
5. Knead the dough for a minute to evenly distribute everything.  Then roll the dough into a tight ball with your hands.
6. Spritz the bottom of a cast iron le creuset style pot lightly with oil and set the dough in it.  Put the lid on and let the dough rise for 45 minutes.
7. About 20 minutes into the rising set your oven for 450 degrees F.
8. Take the lid off, brush some olive oil onto the top of the bread, score it with a #, sprinkle it liberally with salt, put the lid back on, and slide the bread into the oven.
9. Set the timer for 30 minutes.  When the timer goes off, take the lid, and change the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.  Bake for another 15 minutes.
10. Take the bread out and let cool for a few minutes.  Eat this warm or cold.

scones

I love scones.  They taste amazing.  Especially with chocolate chips (like these) or fruit in them.  The whole family loves them.  If I make them with whole wheat flour I can lie to myself that they are healthy.  Plus, they are sooo easy to make.  I really don't think it is humanly possible to screw these up.  I mean, unless you are a total spaz and switched the sugar out with salt by accident or something...

This is my all time favorite scone recipe.  It is fool proof and always gets compliments.  All you need is milk, salt, baking powder, flour, vanilla, butter, sugar, and eggs.

Mix all your ingredients together at once.  This is one of the only recipes I mix by hand instead of using my beloved stand mixer.  The stand mixer makes the scones light and fluffy, and mixing by hand makes them denser and, well, more scone like.

You can leave them plain as vanilla scones, or mix in chocolate chips once the other ingredients are fully incorporated.  Yum!

I looove my cast iron scone pan, but it isn't necessary.  You can always use a cookie scoop on a prepped cookie pan.

Bake 8-12 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden.  The smell delicious!

ingredients:

2 C AP flour (or whole wheat, or half AP-whole wheat)

1/4 C granulated sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/2 C chocolate chips (or fruit), optional

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 milk

2 eggs

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2.  Seriously just dump everything but the chocolate chips together in a medium sized bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until just mixed.  Then stir in chocolate chips.  You don't want to over mix this.  This is pretty much the only recipe I have requiring stirring that I do in a standard bowl instead of my kitchenaid.  They just turn out better this way.

3.  There are a few options for baking the scones.  You can use a prepared scone pan like me (yeah, I'm probably one of the only people on the planet who use one, but I loove mine!), use a cookie scoop to place individual scones on a prepared cookie sheet, or place the dough in an 8" circle on a prepared cookie sheet and cut into 8 wedges and separate. Makes 8-16 scones depending on which method you bake them.

4. Bake 8-12 minutes, or until tops are lightly golden.

These are great to eat warm or cold.  

Any recipes that says to use vanilla I use this vanilla paste.  Seriously, its so fantastic you could eat it with a spoon.  It isn't actually so much a paste as a syrup, and it gives your food those little french vanilla black specks.  Also, this doesn't have that nasty alcoholic scent that some cheap vanilla extracts have.  If you try this, you will never want to go back to using extract (you use the same amount of each, tsp for tsp).  The only downside is that this costs a bit more.  I personally think it is worth it.  I buy most of my dry baking supplies in WinCos bulk section, so I figure the cost evens out anyway.  

If you do want to use this paste, you can usually find it at fancy kitchen stores like Williams-Sonoma, or even on amazon.com.

baked steak fries

These are so simple and tasty.  Wash and dry the potatoes.  Cut into wedges, spread on a parchment lined baking sheet, and sprinkle with olive oil and seasonings.

These baked fries are great if you really want carb-y french fry goodness, but don't want all the guilt of eating greasy food that goes with it.  Also, these are super easy to make.

I personally like my fries really thick, so I cut mine like steak fries (and I leave the skins on because I like the taste, and that's where a lot of the nutrients are) but you can always peel yours or slice them thin.

ingredients:
russet potatoes, sliced
        (I cut about 2-3 very small potatoes per person)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp oregano
1-2 tbsp olive oil (depending how many potatoes you use)

directions:
1. preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. toss all ingredients in a freezer bag, seal, shake well to combine.
3. empty bag contents onto baking sheets covered with parchment paper.  If you don't have parchment paper, it's ok.  I just like to use it because otherwise the potatoes can stick to the baking sheet and be harder to remove.
4. bake for 40 minutes.  Then turn oven to broil for 2 minutes to give the fries a nice crisp.
5. remove from oven and serve immediately.

note: you can substitute peeled yams for the russets potatoes and keep the rest of the recipe the same.
So good!

BBQ chicken pizza

I never buy pizza anymore.  Why bother when the pizza I make at home is way cheaper, tastes better, and is super easy.  Unless I desperately need pizza in under an hour, I make it.

The secret is good crust.  Pizza needs a solid foundation.  If the dough sucks, the pizza can only be OK, not awesome.  You can make whatever thickness you want, but I personally like my crust to be thick enough to support my massive amount of toppings, while still being crispy and chewy.

My favorite pizza dough recipe isn't actually mine.  It belongs to The Pioneer Woman.  BTW, she and her recipes are amazing.  I have 2 of her cookbooks.
Check her out at the pioneer woman.

Also, as you might have noticed, I'm a bit of a novice at taking pictures of food.  I'll figure it out eventually.  I hope.  :)

 Bake chicken breasts and dice to put on pizza

All the ingredients you'll need: dough ball, BBQ sauce, mozzarella, gouda, chicken

When the crust has browned and the cheese has melted your pizza is done.  Let it sit on the counter for a few minutes so the cheese can firm up a bit.  This will make cutting into the pizza much easier.  Don't worry, pizza retains its heat quite well.  It will still be hot.


pizza dough
ingredients:
1 1/2 C warm water
1 tsp dry yeast
4 C AP flour
1 tsp salt
1/3 C extra virgin olive oil

directions:
1. combine water and yeast to combine.  Let sit about 10 minutes, until bubbly.
2. in a stand mixer combine flour and salt.  Slowly add in olive oil, then yeast mixture.  Mix on low until the dough forms a ball.
3. Cover mixing bowl and let the dough sit 1-2 hours, or until doubled.  If you want to make the dough ahead of time it can really sit out all day.
4. preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  Divide the dough in half and using your hands or a rolling pin roll the dough out onto a baking sheet covered in non-stick spray.  Each pizza will be about the size of a commercial large unless you want really thick crust.
5. add toppings and bake for 12 minutes.  Enjoy.  Makes for great leftovers eaten cold, if any leftovers exist. They might not.  Wouldn't surprise me.


BBQ chicken pizza

ingredients:
chicken breasts (I use 2 small breasts for each pizza)
2 C mozzarella
1 C gouda
1 C BBQ sauce, divided

directions:
1. defrost chicken breasts if necessary.  Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes with 1/4 cup BBQ sauce brushed over them.
2.  Let chicken cool and dice.  Mix the pieces with an additional 1/4 cup BBQ sauce.
3.  after rolling out dough stab all with a fork to keep the dough from rising and puffing up too much.  Spread the last 1/2 cup BBQ sauce over dough.  Cover in both cheeses.  Spread chicken on top.  Bake at 500 degrees for 12-15 minutes until the edges of the crust are very lightly golden.
4. if you can, wait a minute or so for the cheese to firm up before cutting.  Then enjoy!

My pizzas normally aren't pretty because I'm never able to roll them out perfectly round, but really, who cares?  Besides, the finished product tastes so yummy that the pizza disappears in about a minute anyway.

green smoothie

This is currently my favorite smoothie.  It's just so good!  It has a bunch of nutrients, the color is gorgeous, it takes about 2 minutes to make (and that includes the prep and clean up!), and the whole family thinks it tastes great.  Win.  This is a good breakfast for kids to help make.  Liam loves to help me load up the blender, and (with supervision) he works the blender for this all by himself.  He thinks he's hot stuff.  :)

Liam decided to be my Vanna White and point out the ingredients.  You'll need milk, yogurt, bananas, apples, spinach, and lime-aid concentrate.

Nice try kiddo.  You have your own smoothie.  Don't steal mine!


ingredients:
2 small granny smith apples
2 small bananas
2 large handfuls of spinach
3/4 C vanilla yogurt (I prefer Greek yogurt, but regular will work fine too)
1/4 C milk (or more if you want to thin your smoothie out a bit)
2 tsp lime-ade concentrate*

*I thawed out a can of limeade concentrate that I keep in tupperware in the fridge just for smoothies.  If you don't want to bother just substitute a squirt of lime juice and a little sugar)

directions:
1. chop up the apples and add to your blender.
2. Throw in the rest of the ingredients.  If you want a thicker or colder smoothie use a frozen banana instead of adding ice, that dilutes the flavor too much.
3. Blend until smooth.  Make sure you have pureed the spinach completely.  it isn't an issue for me because my blender is awesome (I've got a vitamix), but you really don't want teeny pieces of spinach in your smoothie.
4.  Pour into cups and enjoy!  I've got to drink mine right away or a certain 2 year old tries to steal mine...

Serves 2

future baker

This is my son Liam's way of telling me that he wants to make muffins.  I woke up one morning and he had already pulled out the muffin pan and was putting liners in it.  He is a muffin addict.  He makes a good guinea pig to try new flavors on!  He definitely has my sweet tooth though.  Once I asked him what flavor of muffins he wanted to help me make.  He responded hopefully, "cupcake muffins?"

start with a classic- chocolate chip cookies

This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever!  I've tried a whole bunch, but this is the only one that tastes great and look so pretty people might think you cheated and bought them.  These are soft in the middle and puffy, and don't spread out too much on the cookie sheet.  Normally I'd give you more pictures of the process, but I'm not actually making these today, I just happened to take a picture of the finished product from when I made them last week.  They were just so pretty!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

ingredients:
3/4 C unsalted butter, softened
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C AP flour (if you want to be healthy and sub whole wheat flour, the cookies turn out just as good)
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C bittersweet chocolate chips

directions:
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and mix.
3. mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.  Stir in chocolate chips.
4. use a cookie scoop (this makes nice uniform cookies) and drop cookie dough blobs onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-12 minutes (depending on the size of your scoop) until golden around edges.  Do not wait until the tops brown to take cookies out or they will be very crunchy.
5.  let cookies cool for 5 minutes.  Makes around 2 dozen large cookies.

Welcome!

Hello.  Welcome to my little experiment.  I'm going to see how much spare time I really have to write this, and see how many new recipes I can try.  Generally my two rather active boys (almost 3, and 4 months) keep me rather busy.  I plan on putting all my future mentioned recipes here fairly orderly, so they can be found easily, and now I have an excuse to use the food setting on my camera.  (Random tangent: how cool/ random is it that the food setting is seemingly standard on cameras now?  Right?)  Hopefully this blog is also a good excuse to try more interesting desserts.  I love my husband to death, but he favors rather boring flavor combinations.  Come back soon for actual recipes.  Don't be a stranger.  :)