Soup?!? In the summer?

Oh yes, tonight's fare is all about soup!  Cold soup.  Definitely not hot!  Vichyssoise is one of my favorite soups!  And the only one I can think of that is served cold.  Recipes abound on various websites, just pick what sounds good based on the ingredient list!  My soup has a bacon base, of course! Click here for the recipe.  This can be made to be a vegetarian dish, just omit the bacon and substitute another 2 Tablespoons of butter instead, and use vegetable broth.

Bacon is first, chop into pieces, inch to two inch, as you will be crumbling this later.  Drop it into a stock pot with the butter and brown that bacon!  Once it is crispy remove it with a slotted spoon.

Toss the Leeks and Onion in the bacon butter and saute until golden!  It will be a bit brown because of the bacon drippings.  Just make sure the onion and leeks are cooked all the way through.  You can add the garlic near the end so you don't burn it.

Add the potatoes (I used yellow and red potatoes, peeled) and stock. Don't forget the pepper and Spice Agent Smoked Salt!  Bring to a boil, and cook for 20 minutes.

I have a handy Hamilton Beach stick blender so this is what I use to to blend everything together until creamy!  It's a lot easier than doing it in batches in a regular blender.

Once it is a perfect consistency, taste to confirm the spices then put in the fridge to cool if serving cold.  Before serving add the milk and stir.  This can be made ahead and frozen in serving portions, just don't add the milk until you are ready to eat it!

Garnish with the crumbled bacon, some shredded cheese and some chopped green onion!

Happy Eating!

Oh what to do with Zucchini?

Summer is in full swing, and gardens are popping out loads of fresh vegetables and TONS of zucchini and yellow squash.  So what to do with it all.  Some like it raw, or you can microwave it.  You can even shred zucchini and put it into your baked goods (chocolate cake especially) and you can't taste it at all!

This weekend while at my parent's house we decided to grill up some steak for Sunday Dinner, and for a side I decided to try to grill the zucchini and squash so I sliced it into rounds, nice and thick, put it in a ziplock bag with some Italian dressing (although you can use olive oil and any seasonings you want) and using a straw suck out all the air (seriously)

Sucking out the air helps force the flavors into the veggies...unless you have a professional vacuum sealer...ah a girl can dream right?

Allow the rounds to marinate for a hour, or overnight, then throw them on the grill, turning several times to get those lovely grill marks!

It takes about 10-12 minutes total, to get them just right!

Then serve them up as a meal, or as a side.  It's your call!

Well, that's just nuts!

My neighbor gave me another huge bag of plain almonds :) so I've been researching different recipes for flavoring them up.  Tonight I came across on that allowed for sweet and spice! The specialty spices have the links to the store, make sure you tell them Ms Fish sent you!

1 T Butter
1/4 c Sugar
2 T Corn Syrup
1/2 t McCormick Molasses Bacon Grillmates
1/2 t Garlic powder
1/4 t Applewood Smoke Powder (Spice Agent)
1/4 t Bold Smoked Salt (Spice Agent)
2 cups nuts (I used Almonds of course)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Meanwhile gather all of the ingredients...this goes quick, hence the lack of pictures!  Put all in a heavy sauce pot (except the nuts) and bring to a boil.  Dump in the 2 cups of nuts and stir to mix then put on a silpat mat on a cookie sheet and put in the oven!

Bake 12-15 minutes stirring once.  Once the timer goes off pull the silpat mat off the sheet an put on a wire rack for the nuts to cool, at least 45 minutes.

Then you can break apart the chunks and enjoy!

Sloppy Chicken

Today is a day for experimenting in the kitchen! After my earlier success I decided to push farther and make black pepper and molasses pulled chicken sandwiches. Click here for recipe.  It's an easy recipe, and a quick enough meal.  There is only my DH and I, so I only used two thawed chicken breasts, but this recipe could be doubled, or tripled for a party or office gathering.

Mix the 9 sauce ingredients together in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Add the chicken and stir

 Cover and reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked and tender.

Shred it by hand, or dump into a stand mixer and "mix" on low until the meat is shredded, yes this really works and is sooo much easier than doing it by hand.  although today I did it by hand...

Scoop onto a bun and enjoy!

Yes, I'm going back for seconds!

The things we do for...

Sauerkraut isn't my favorite food.  In fact I prefer to not eat it (yes I've tried it), or cook it, or be near it!  But my DH loves it. So today I am trying a new recipe, to see if there is a way.  I have realized that there is one brand of sauerkraut that isn't near as bad as the rest, the one in a jar, with the bird, that also sells pickles...

Today's meal also consists of polish sausage, brown sugar, onion and carrots.  But carrots don't last in my house because I eat them, so no carrots in my pictures. Click here for the recipe

As always prep the various components so it is easier to get cooking! I have wonderful color coded cutting mats so I don't cut raw meat and veggies on the same surface!  And they are flexible so I can dump the ingredients straight into the pot or pan!

I only used 4T of butter simply because I had 4T of butter in my fridge, no need to cut open another stick!

Mix then onion and potato with the butter and cook

Add the sausage and cook for 10 minutes over medium high heat

Drain the kraut and rinse before adding to the pan!

then add the brown sugar and salt and pepper

Allow to cook an additional 5 minutes then turn to a simmer until ready to serve!

This go-round with sauerkraut makes me ready to take a bite!  Smells delicious!!!

Nuts about bacon!

It's been a while since I created something, so tonight I was thinking about bacon, and nuts.  I've done bacon popcorn so why not bacon almonds?

I started with plain almonds

a bit of chopped bacon

and a cookie sheet covered with a silpat mat

I rendered the bacon down, and got it almost completely done before I added some brown sugar, smoked sea salt, sweet smoked paprika and a bit of garlic powder and of course the almonds!

I mixed it up all good and spread it out on the mat

and put it in the oven at 300, for 20 minutes (stirring every 5)

Once they are done, let them cool, and put in an airtight container, and enjoy!

Sometimes you just want to cook

After what seems like forever since I last made a big meal, tonight I decided to once again, go all out and create a feast. Tonight's menu is BBQ chicken, horseradish scalloped potatoes, mozzarella tomato and basil stuffed baby-bella mushrooms and peppered bacon brussel sprouts.  As I said, I got a hankering to cook.


The BBQ chicken is simple.  Season with your favorite BBQ rub, bake and then smother with your favorite BBQ sauce.

Next I found a recipe for scalloped potatoes, and made it my own.  Click here for the recipe.

I've never made brussle sprouts before, and i didn't feel like finding a recipe, so I decided to brown some black pepper bacon, add a bit of butter then toss the sprouts in and let them "wilt" a bit.  Quite tasty!

Overall dinner was very yummy!  The kitchen is a wreck, but my tummy is happy and full!