Warming up with a bowl of soup!

Have you noticed HOW MANY people are sick right now?!  It's crazy!!!  You turn the corner and another person is coughing... or sneezing... or... blowing their nose.  We won't be too vivid here, but you get the drift.  And we all know that mom prescribes that bowl of chicken noodle soup for the invalids.  Nature's remedy?   Let's face it... probably not.  But there is certainly merit to the comfort that soup brings when we aren't feeling well.  It does something to warm-up the whole body and soul!  (Why else would there be countless books titled, "Chicken Soup for the _____ Soul?").  Soup can cure any sore throat and stomach ache!  (Or maybe that's really a cup of good tea with some soothing honey...).  Fear not, here's a soup that'll help the sick to feel better or one to warm-up with the chilly wind (or even snow...) that's still in the air!  And the best part?  This recipe is super easy and takes almost no time at all!

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
2 15oz cans of tomatoes (either crushed, chunks, puree - whatever texture you're looking for in your soup!)
1 6 oz can tomato paste
4-6 tbs olive oil
2-4 garlic cloves (minced)
3-4 tbs basil "paste" or pesto
salt and pepper
1/2-1 cup heavy cream

Heat pot over medium-high heat.  Add 3 tbs olive oil, 3-4 tbs basil/pesto, garlic, and a little salt and allow to saute until garlic is cooked down (about 3-4 minutes).  Add tomato paste and 1-3 tbs more olive oil and season with a little more salt and some freshly ground pepper for another 2-3 minutes.  Mix and allow to fully incorporate before adding the canned tomatoes.  Mix all of the ingredients together and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.  Turn down the heat to low or medium-low and slowly add the heavy cream until you reach the creaminess you desire.  You may decide you want even more or less than the 1/2 to 1 cup.  Stir until the cream has fully been incorporated with the tomatoes and no white streaks are evident.  Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes.  Taste test to see if you desire any more salt, pepper, cream, etc.  Allow to simmer for another 15-20 minutes or until ready to serve!

Just like with all soups and chilies, this recipe is always better the second day!  This an easily be made a day or two ahead and reheated to serve.

It's a great starter for a full course meal with guests!  Or just go "plain and simple" and serve with some toasted garlic bread, french bread, or even homemade spanakopita (like pictured here!  Only that recipe will come at a later date...!), or even toss-up a nice green salad and be adventures and grill a ham & cheese or a panini with mozzarella, tomato, and basil or whatever floats your boat!  The options are endless.

Chicken Piccata with Sweet Potato Mashers and Green Beans

Are you tired of the same old dried up chicken dinners?  Looking for pizazz?  Sweet and tangy with a side of AWESOME? Look no further.  This recipe brought to you by lonely without husbands, seeking food.  Luckily, we have each other and don't fall prey to the temptations of ice cream and donuts for dinner when the guys are off for a few nights at a time.  We rise above.  We even eat vegetables!  And like it!

Anna's friend Megan served this chicken dish at a recent dinner party.  So we decided to recreate it. It's moist, tender, and packed with flavor - and easy as pie to cook up in a jiffy!  Whether you're searching for the perfect no-hassle recipe to serve for guests or just want some comfort food to accompany your favorite chair and tv show, this is the recipe for you! Go get em!

Chicken Piccata (adapted from Giada)
2 chicken breasts (butterflied and cut in half)
salt and pepper
flour (for dredging)
4 tbsp butter
3 lemons (juice of three and zest of one)
1/2 cup cooking sherry
1/4 cup capers

To prepare the chicken, salt and pepper both sides of your chicken and then dredge the chicken in the flour, making sure to shake off the excess flour.  Heat skillet over medium-high heat and melt 2 tbs of the butter until nice and bubbly.  Once the butter is melted, place the breasts in the skillet and cook about three minutes on each side until lightly browned.  Remove chicken and place on serving plate.  To the skillet, add the sherry, lemon juice, lemon zest, and capers.  Deglaze the bottom of the pan, bringing to a boil.  Once the sauce has come to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and return chicken to the skillet.  Allow to reheat and finish cooking for about five minutes.  Once fully cooked, remove from the skillet, and place on serving platter.  To skillet, add the remaining 2 tbs butter and whisk until fully incorporated.  Pour over chicken and serve!

(Yields approximately four servings).

Sweet Potato Mash
1 large sweet potato
1/4 orange juice
1-2 tbs butter
salt (for tasting)

Add water to pot and bring to a boil.  Peel and cube sweet potato and add to boiling water.  Cook until tender.  Remove from water, place in mashing bowl and add orange juice, butter, and salt (to desired preference).

(Ratios of ingredients two large or three medium servings.  Adjust according to the number of servings.)

Green Beans with Red Onion
1/3 red onion (thinly sliced)
1 1/2 - 2 cups green beans
1 lemon (juice of)
olive oil
salt and pepper (for tasting)

Heat skillet on medium heat and add olive oil.  Once heated, toss in the red onion, season with a little salt, and cook until tender.  Add green beans, lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper and cook until desired tenderness.

(Ratios are for about 2 large or 3 medium servings).

Veggie Fest

This dinner is packed full of veggies and healthy grains (especially if you use whole wheat couscous)!  It can easily be made vegan (with just a few small substitutes) or made meaty friendly with one small addition!

Couscous is a grain that most people don't tend to use, but will give you a chance to feel like you're branching out without too much effort (and if you buy it from the bulk section, it is very reasonably priced).  With these recipes, you can easily adjust them to meet your personal taste buds.  This is a great meal that's light but filling and won't leave you feeling sluggish or stuffed and will help you bring a little "heat" in doors.




Sweet Curry Couscous
1 1/2 cups couscous
1 tbs butter
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup plain yogurt (or coconut milk)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tbs honey (or sugar)
1 tbs curry powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
15 oz can garbanzo beans
1/2 -3/4 cup golden raisins or currents
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley
1 cup carrot (shredded)
1/4 - 1/2 red onion (diced)
1 bunch green onion (thinly sliced)

Boil water and add melted butter (or place into boiling water to dissolve).  Place couscous in a large bowl (this is the bowl you'll be adding everything to, so make sure it's large enough!).  Pour boiling water (and butter) over couscous and cover bowl tightly.  Allow to sit for at least 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.  During this time, prepare the "sauce."  Whisk together yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, honey, curry, turmeric, salt, and pepper.  Prepare the veggies, garbanzo beans, and raisins.  Once the couscous is done "cooking," combine all of the ingredients into the large bowl and mix!

You may decide that you want to adjust the proportions of the ingredients or (more acidic, less acidic, spicier by using a hot madras curry powder, sweeter with more honey, etc) have more sauce in general.  You can even swap out certain veggies with bell peppers or white onion with red or omit others (such as the raisins if you don't like their flavor or texture in savory dishes).  You could also substitute cilantro for the parsley for a different flair!

Adjust it to your desires!  This always tastes better the next day after all of the flavors have had a chance to mix together.

Vegetable Kabobs marinade
1/3 cup olive oil
2 lemons
1 lime
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
2-3 cloves of garlic
"pinch" of cayenne pepper
"pinch" of paprika
veggies!
skewers


Use whatever vegetables you like best!  Onions, bell peppers, squash, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc...  Whatever you'll enjoy eating.  :)  Make sure to cut the vegetables into about 1" squares, so pieces are roughly the same size and can cook relatively evenly.  With the amount of marinated that was made, there was a nice bath for the 3 bell peppers and one LARGE red onion!  If you want, add about 3/4-1 of beef, chicken, pork, or even lamb of the mix!

Pour all of your veggies/meat and marinade into a one gallon, resealable bag and let it sit for 2+ hours in the fridge.  This will help to season everything in there nice and well.  Overnight is great as well.  Think of easy dinner will be the next night!

If it's too cold outside for a grill and you don't have an inside grill until for your stove-top, a grooved cast iron skillet is a great option.  Heat your "cooking" element while you prepare your skewers.  If you're using a cast iron skillet and are trying to get those nice "grill marks," try not adding any oil to your skillet.  Cook each skewer until veggies are tender (unless you like a little crunchier!) and/or meat is cooked though.

Enjoy!

Balsamic Chicken

This has become a FAVORITE for us and the guys!  (So much for Anna that she has admitted that she makes it for everyone - friends, family, guests, etc...  I don't blame her!  Warning: it's addictive!!!)  About four or five months ago, my husband and I had Anna and Greg over for dinner.  Since Anna and I love cooking so much, and tend to be slightly critical at times..., I was a tad nervous to try out this experiment on her, all knowing, however, she would probably appreciate it.

The two of us watch our fair share of cooking shows, and have a for a while.  We have to admit... it's a great to way detox and let the brain "do nothing."  Oh, and inspire us!  I am pretty sure it was while I was watching "Sara's Weeknight Meals" on PBS that I saw her talking about using grapes in dinners as a "little surprise" or added touch of flavor.  It wasn't something I had ever done, and thought, "heck!  WHY NOT!!"  Somehow... this combination came together.  Oh, and lest I forget to mention - we both can't get over the amazing taste of balsamic, so you may see it a lot in the future.  We tend to use it whenever we can.  Get used to it!  :)

This recipe is fairly simple and doesn't have too many ingredients.  It is quite easy to make for two, with some leftovers, or to double or triple for a larger crowd!  This was the original recipe that fed four with no leftovers.

Balsamic Chicken
2 chicken breasts
1 large red onion or about 6-7 shallots
1 - 1 1/2 cups black grapes (cut into half)
3-4 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
a WHOLE lot of balsamic
olive oil

To prep, cut chicken into cubes about 1 1/2" thick.  Slice your red onion or shallots into thin slices, about a 1/4" thick or a little less.  (Since shallots tend to be about three times the prices of red onions, but have a more similar flavor to red onions than white, yellow, or sweet onions, we suggest that you get red onions if you don't want to spend as much.)  Wash and cut grapes in halves (this way they won't slide across your place as you're trying to eat them!).  Mince garlic.

Heat skillet with about 1-2 tbs olive oil.  Once heated, put chicken in skillet, season with salt and pepper and begin to brown.  After about 4-5 minutes, add garlic and continue to cook.  Once the meat looks almost done, remove from the skillet and place on a plate to rest.  Add a little more olive oil into the skillet and toss your onions in to begin browning.  Add a little more salt and pepper and watch them begin to caramelized.  Once the onions have cooked down, add balsamic.  Determine how much you'd like to use, but we generally use about 3/4 or a cup, at least.  Allow the onions to be "submerged" in the balsamic and continue to reduce.  Add grapes and allow to cook down.  Once the grapes have cooked down, add your chicken back in to "soak up" the new flavors and let simmer for a few minutes or until you're ready to serve!

There are a lot of great sides to serve with this meal!  Try some garlic (or "regular") mashed potatoes, or even oven roasted with some olive oil and fresh herbs would be delicious.  Serve it with butternut squash or sweet potatoes (either decided, mashed, or right out of the skins!).

We will both opening admit that this dish may not be the most physically attractive when plated, but it's sure worth the flavor!  Oh... and one little tip...  Don't stick your head into the skillet to sniff the balsamic while it's cooking...  (enough said...).

Cake Time...!

So one of Anna's best friends, Noel, from childhood happens to be coming though town with his organization, Redeem the Shadows, for a few days.  So, since his birthday was just last week, and Anna promised him a birthday cake, we're surprising him with this new concoction!

While brainstorming during our unsuccessful journey today, we decided on this combination: chocolate... and Kahlua!  How could we go wrong?  The first idea, Amaretto, we didn't have "at the tip of our hands," and instead of taking an extra trip to the store to grab a bottle, we decided to use our resources.  :)  Generally most people don't argue with chocolate, and most don't argue with cake.  And honestly speaking, how many people are going to pass-up a belated birthday celebration?

Must we say... invention is key!  We had to take the "high road."  Why not create our OWN recipe?  For about 45 minutes, intense internet searching took place.  We looked at numerous, numerous recipes, debated which ingredients were the most important for us to incorporate, and then... the brainstorming began.  And so, after comparing three sour cream chocolate cakes recipes, doing some "tricky" mathematics and scientific comparisons, debating, running to my apartment to pick up a few "missing" ingredients, we have rested upon this beauty!

Chocolate Kahlua Cake
1 cup salted butter (softened)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup Kahlua
1 cup hot coffee
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup cocoa
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream (full fat)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy!  (Make sure to keep the wrappers from the sticks of butter for when you butter and flour the cake pans).  Add eggs and mix.  Add Kahlua, coffee, and vanilla and mix well, making sure there are no chunks of the butter mixture present.  In a separate bowl, mix together cocoa, cake flour, baking soda, baking power, and salt.  Slowly mix into wet mixture until incorporated.  Lastly, add sour cream and mix.

Butter and flour two 8" or 9" round cake pans.  (In case you aren't sure how to butter and flour cake pans, here's a little quick tutorial!  Take the reserved wrappers from the cake and grease the bottom and sides of the cake pans.  You could also use Pam or equivalent spray.  Add about 2 tbs of flour to each cake pan.  Thoroughly coat the bottom and sides with flour.  Turn cake pans upside-down and lightly bang the bottom of the cake pan to remove any excess flour.)

Pour batter evenly between the two pans.  Make sure to "slam" down both cake pans to release any bubbles.  This will help to ensure that your cake doesn't dome in the center while baking and allows for an even bake.

Place on rack in center of oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (with a few crumbles on it).

Remove cake from cake pans after about 15-20 minutes and allow to finish cooling on cooling racks.  Once the cake is at room temperature, frost the cake.  We went with a more "traditional" buttercream frosting, but if you're a real chocolate lover, you may want to go with that instead.  :)  The buttercream gave a good balance with the chocolate.  If you want to, you may decide to substitute the layer of frosting from between the two layers and use something like jam.  Or how about Nutella!?  :)  You could omit the center frosting altogether if you desire one "thick" piece of cake.


Buttercream Frosting
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs half-n-half (or heavy cream... or milk...)
3+ cups powdered sugar

Cream butter with vanilla.  Begin by adding some of the powdered sugar in, alternating with the half-n-half, until reaching your desired consistency.  You may decide that you want it a little less "stiff."  If you're going for more of the "commercial" looking in your frosting, then substitute crisco for the frosting.  That's right... crisco...

Decorate the cake sprinkles or garnish it with some chocolate chips or chocolate curls!

Moroccan Chicken with Butternut Squash Puree

We're getting some recipes stored up our sleeves here for you!  Everything from meats to fishes to vegetarian/vegan dishes to desserts and even beverages!  We can hardly wait to see how they all go... and how well we'll be able to keep the pounds off!  (Which is why we'll be limiting our dessert intake to only, hopefully, once a week or so).

But for now, we have got a Moroccan Chicken with Butternut Squash Puree.  We found an excellent deal on some butternut squash that we couldn't pass up!  And as we both happen to be lovers of Fall, bear with us while we stay in this season for a little while longer. After the big Christmas/holiday rush, it's often as though we're off of our "fun food" recipes and back to the "easy, not very time consuming" recipes we go to that we know won't be any hassle to make.  The weather is still relatively cold, so why not stick with the foods that are in full bloom during this time of year?!  There are countless recipes and variations on butternut, acorn, and spaghetti squash, just to name a few, and not to mention... sweet potatoes!!!

After looking up a number of recipes, a new recipe was concocted for the Ras El Hanout spice rub.  There was a little "fudging" that went on, like... substituting equal parts cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves for the allspice and since all of the coriander was used in the making of the wings, that was omitted. 

Ras El Hanout rub
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp coriander
3/4 tsp allspice (I was out, so I substituted equal parts cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg)
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Mix all of the ingredients together.  This yields more than you need for the recipe, but label it and save it for another use!

Moroccan Chicken
2 chicken large breasts
2 tbs butter
1/4 cup water
ras el hanout rub
1/4 cup chopped figs (optional)

Remove fat/gristle from chicken.  Pat dry (with paper towels) to remove excess moisture.  Coat breasts in ras el hanout rub until thoroughly covered.  Adding a rub to a meat adds so much flavor!

Melt 1 tbs butter in heated dutch oven (or other skillet) over medium-high heat (or medium-medium high).  Place chicken in and allow to brown four three-four minutes before turning over and browning the other side.  After both sides look done, remove chicken from heat and add the other tbs of butter plus one tsp ras el hanout mixture and stir until well incorporated.  Add chicken back to dutch oven, add water, figs, and cover to cook chicken until thoroughly done (approximately 6-10 minutes, depending on how thick eat cut is).  Check chicken before removing from heat.

Butternut Squash Puree
4 cups (about 2 lbs) butternut squash (cut into 1/2 inch squares)
2 tbs olive oil (or enough to evenly coat the squash)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs sweetener (sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc)

Combine butternut squash, olive oil, cinnamon, and some salt to flavor, together and pour into a glass baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until done.

Let cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a food processor or blender to mix.  Add salt and sweetener and mix/blend until smooth!

Kick Off!

It's amazing how one event can bring so many people together.  We're not to be counted out of the roughly 100 million people who are sitting in front of their televisions right now (only we're starting our blog and "watching" the game).  What an appropriate event and great opportunity for us to kick-off our blog and try some new recipes out on our good friends!  With the helps of others, some fresh veggies and dip, and homemade chicken enchiladas, we're making the most of this pow-wow.  :)

As the men are stuffing their faces with fresh guacamole accompanied by "Hint of Lime" and blue corn chips, we have diligently been working in the kitchen trying out some new recipes!

Buffalo Wings

Sweet & Spicy Wings

Traditional Buffalo Wings

Sriracha Garlic Hot Wings

with ranch, garlic sauce, and bleu cheese dips

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Okay... so we have to be honest...  these have all been a two day process.  The Buffalo and Sweet & Spicy wings started in the slow cooker yesterday while the Sriracha Garlic Hot wings chilled and marinated in the fridge overnight.

Base for Sweet & Spicy and Buffalo Wings (adapted from America's Test Kitchen)

6 lbs chicken wings

One three inch piece of ginger, chopped

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tbs soy sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

Whisk all of the above and toss to coat wings. Put in slow cooker on low for three to four hours or until wings have cooked through. Remove wings with a slotted spoon to a bowl and toss the juices from the slow cooker. At this point, you can cool them for 20 minutes and refrigerate up to 24 hours - or just cool them in preparation for sauce and broiling.

Sweet & Spicy Sauce

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup ketchup (or tomato paste)

2 tbs soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine above ingredients. Place half of the slow cooked wings in a gallon bag and toss with sauce to coat. These can sit for 30 minutes before broiling.

Buffalo Sauce

4 tbs butter, melted

6 tbs hot sauce (preferably Louisiana style)

1 tbs paprika

Repeat as with the Sweet & Spicy mixture above.

When you're ready to party, heat up the broiler and throw your wings on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes, skin side up. Make sure your rack is 10-12 inches from the broiling unit and keep an eye on them during this process to avoid flaming/scorching. For us, our wings needed 10 on one side and about 5 on the other.

Sriracha Garlic Hot Wings (adapted from Michael Symon)

4 lbs chicken wings

2 tbs ground corriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbs kosher salt

2 1/2 tbs olive oil (we used extra virgin)

Mix the salt, spices, and olive oil together and toss into a bag to marinate with the chicken.  Marinate for a minimum of four hours, but overnight will ensure great flavor!  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven, covered with foil, for 80-90 minutes, or until done.

While the chicken is cooking, get the sauce ready!

Sriracha Garlic Hot Sauce

6 tbs butter, melted

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup sriracha

juice and zest of one lime

Combine all four ingredients into a large bowl.  After wings have cooled slightly, put into the large bowl with the sauce and mix!  Make sure to coat each wing well.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup milk

2 cups heavy cream

pinch of salt

vanilla extract (about 2 tsp)

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 batch of chocolate chip cookie dough

Mix sugar and milk in saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar is dissolved.  Take off heat and add in salt and vanilla.  Let cool completely and then add in heavy cream.

While the mixture is cooling, this is a good time to roll the cookie dough into about dime sized balls (as below in the dough recipe).

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker, following the manufacture's instructions.  Once ice cream is almost done mixing, pour the mini chocolate chips in and let mix for another minute or two.  Remove ice cream from the ice cream maker, place into either your freezing container or another bowl and slowly mix in the cookie dough chunks so they are well incorporated into the ice cream.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

2 sticks butter (room temp or partially melted)

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour

bag of mini chocolate chips

bag of "regular" chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix.  In a separate bowl, combine salt, baking soda, and flour.  Slowly incorporate into wet batter.  Transfer half of the batter into another bowl.  In the original mixing bowl, add half a bag of chocolate chips and mix into batter (careful to not over mix).  In the new bowl, add half a bag of the other chocolate chips and mix into batter.  Cover and refrigerate both batters until firm.

The other batch of cookie dough can be eaten separately or baked and served either warm or room temperature with the ice cream.  There's no reason to avoid going ALL out!  Or make ice cream sandwiches.  :)