Facebook Food

Of all of the things on Facebook right now my favorite to see are the various recipes.  I have several friends that love sharing the yummy treats they see...my stomach says yes, my hips say no...I have pinned several of them on my Pinterest boards including the Shepherd's Pie Potato Skins!

Photo from Tip Hero

Hobbit Stew

I have several friends that are really good cooks, at least their pictures of food look AMAZING!  And sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a recipe! Today is one of those days!  My friend Derek has made this stew before and I'm pretty sure I drooled on my phone and begged for the recipe....yesterday he wrote it out and tagged me in the post!  So tonight we are eating Hobbit Stew!

When will I ever learn to follow a recipe exactly?

My brother and sister-in-law are headed home for a short stay.  Super excited to see him, and hopefully share some meals...between the two of us meal planning can be difficult, see I'm very much a meat eater, and he and his wife are veggies...and not only are they veggies, but he is allergic to nightshades...so no tomatoes, potatoes, peppers (spicy or otherwise) or paprika and many other ingredients...and I don't like tofu.  Most of the vegetarian meat alternatives have tomatoes in them...ugh!  Fortunately I found a recipe for Minestrone soup, that I will have to tweak to rid of the nightshades.  Ridding a recipe of the tomatoes is difficult, but doable.  You can double the other veggies to replace the bulk of the tomatoes, and add more water to replace the liquid of a can of tomatoes.

I was going to cook this in my large cast iron dutch oven, but alas, I cannot because even cooking near potatoes is enough to spark an allergic reaction, so my handy stainless steel stock pot will work.

Heat the oil, then sauté the onion, celery, carrots and garlic until soft,

Add the Celery Root or Jicima , zucchini, butternut squash (or pumpkin), and broth, and pasta.

Ensure the mixture is covered by liquid by at least 1 to 2 inches, adding water to cover if needed.

Bring to a boil, and then cook for about 20 to 30 minutes over low heat until vegetables are tender.

Add the parsley, basil, salt and pepper and mix well. I also added some thyme and oregano.

Add the kidney beans, Boca crumbles, and chopped greens, cover and simmer an additional 15 minutes.

Serve warm, with a drizzle of the pesto oil mixture on top.  It's the perfect meal for a cold night!
You can also make this non veggie by using chicken or beef stock, and adding cooked crumbled Italian sausage.  Which is what I did for pot #2, because I didn't measure the ingredients and ended up with a TON of soup!  Good thing I can bag this up and freeze it!!!

A NEW, New Year's Tradition

There is a recipe in my family, from my dad's side of the family. Ham Bone Soup. I can't think of a time I didn't just absolutely love this milk based soup...so after Christmas, with the leftover spiral ham, I have decided to start the tradition of having Ham Bone Soup to welcome in the new year.  Of course this year it's a few days after the actual new year, but it's all good.  It's cold outside, and this is a perfect day for this simple and delicious soup!

Summer Savory is the only spice in this soup.  

I keep it on hand strictly for this recipe. 

No other uses for me, yet...  

It was a bit difficult to find a few years ago, but I found it with the help of my parents. The cost is on the higher side as far as seasonings go, but it is well worth it as nothing compares, or can be substituted.

When I use the word recipe for this particular meal, it really is more of a list of stuff, with no real measurements.  But that's all good, it makes this an easy recipe to follow exactly.  Which I'm not gonna do because the only recipe I follow exactly is when baking, and I'm not baking.

To start this soup you need a ham bone, with meat on it of course.

The flavors from the ham and bone will be the flavors of the soup.  My ham is of course from Christmas, and I did a copycat recipe for Honeybaked ham.  Turned out goooooood. So carefully cut the chunks of meat away from the bone, and chunk them up, put them in your soup pot with the hambone.

Then cover the ham pieces and hambone with water, and this is when you get a spice bag or fill your own teabag and put the summer savory in the bag.

Toss that on top and bring it to a boil.  This is going to simmer for a good length of time.  Because you want to make sure all of the marrow, and other goodness found in the ham bone has had a chance to seep out and into the water and ham pieces.

While the yumminess is boiling (don't leave it on high, just let it simmer) it's time to dice up the rest of the soup ingredients!  So two can's of Green beans (I'm a cheater I know, but fresh is sooo hard to find this time of year) some carrots and some potatoes. 

A few weeks ago my MIL made a potato soup that had bacon and browned onions.  So I'm gonna add some bacon browned onions to this soup, at least this time around.

Peel and cube the potatoes, and the carrots.  Plop them in a bowl of cold water because you won't add these until a half hour before you are ready to eat.

Then cut up the bacon fat, and render that out in a skillet, remove the chunks of fat and then add the onions.

A half hour before you are ready to eat, fish out the bone and finish removing whatever meat was stuck to it.  Put the bones back in the water then toss the potatoes and carrots in.  These will take about 20 minutes to cook.

Then drain off about half of the water, and remove the savory bag.

Add the onions, and green beans (drained), then add milk to give the liquid volume you desire.  This needs to sit on low heat until warmed up.  Trust me you don't want to boil the milk. Yuck!

Serve warm and enjoy!

Almost the last meal of the year

The weather is officially cold, and most of the time the house is too.  At least I think it is!  Today I decided to make gumbo.  I used to make this all the time, when I used a box mix...tee hee.  Several years ago a friend gave me an authentic New Orleans recipe.  So now I only make this once or twice a year, it takes a long time to prep, and make.  Seriously, prepare to stand in the kitchen chopping for half an hour, and over the stove stirring for an hour, and then you are still not done...I didn't follow the recipe exactly, I never do!  And I realize that I have blogged this before, but it is so fun!

Prep the chicken, season and stick in the refrigerator

Then prep the vegetables and sausage, topping with the seasonings that belong with each step, garlic with the onions, and salt and peppers with the sausage and bay.

Then it's time to start the roux, this takes the longest!

Oil and flour in a pot

stir

when it's brown like chocolate (20-30 minutes later) 

add the vegetables! (watch for the steam!!!!)

Cook for 4 minutes

Then....add the sausage, salt, seasonings and bay leaf

Another 3 minutes

then time to add the water and whisk like crazy to get the roux dissolved!

Bring to a boil then reduce to medium low for 1 hour, stirring occasionally!

Once the hour is up, you can add the chicken, and cook for another 2 hours then skim off any fat that has come to the surface.  Remove the bay leaf.  In the meantime, chop the green onion and parsley.

Remove from heat and stir in the file, parsley, green onion and okra (if you are using this, and oh yes I am!)

You also add the shrimp right now...otherwise it can overcook...Cover, and in 7 minutes this is ready to serve over rice! You can also add some hot sauce if it doesn't already have enough kick!

Enjoy!

The big day is upon us!

Happy Turkey day!!  It's almost 9 am...and the coffee is brewing!  Time to make a quick breakfast for my DH then I'm going to start on the prep work for the Stuffing. If I had more room in my refrigerator I would have done some last night...cause this is gonna take a lot of work!!!

Ok, in re-reading the recipe for the stuffing....wow...maybe I should have gotten up at 7...oh well no turning back time...let's dive in...

Cube the sourdough,

Chop 6 cups of onion

Chop 2 cups of celery

3 pounds of granny smith apples (peeled cored and cubed of course)

2 pounds of parsnips peeled and cubed

Now to start cooking everything!

Toast the bread in the oven, cook the sausage, saute the veggies, then saute the apples, and then more butter and the parsnips...more butter and the fresh sage!  Then mix it all together!

Stuff the turkey (after patting it dry, and finding the giblet bag...SO THAT's where it is! hee hee)

Put the rest in a buttered dish (glad I have another dinner to go to...cause this made a LOT!)

Then we started the gravy,

and the turkey glaze!

While that was cooking I finished up the cranberry relish!  My dad says it's just like what his mom used to make!  Best compliment ever!!!

Then before we knew it an hour had passed and it was time to glaze the turkey!

And then it's time for a short break....when we return it will be time for prepping the cauliflower, carrots and potatoes!


Of course during that little break my mom took Fergus on a walk...and while she was gone the turkey was done...heee hee....so I got to chopping again and got the cauliflower

Garlic...yum!

Salt, pepper and the garlic with rosemary all mixed together!

And the carrots going

And of course I forgot to start the potatoes...

Luckily I always cube my potatoes instead of just quartering...so they were ready a lot faster than we thought!  And then there was the "we forgot the rolls" moment...but mom got those rolled out and rising!

Once everything was in the oven I started the gravy with the all important Applejack Brandy...and had a bit of an accident...lets just say that roux burns really badly when you splash it (think hot marshmallows that doesn't come off) on your face, chest and hand...a quick douse in the sink, and a bit of first aid from my DH and I was back to cooking.   

All in all it was a long, wonderful day in the kitchen!

I did THIS!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, from my family, to yours!