Chicken Soup with Rice

So the pictures of this soup pretty much speak for themselves. There's not much more that I can say, except that this was one of the most comforting, delicious soups I have ever made. This was my first time making chicken soup with rice instead of noodles, and I definitely prefer the rice. Of course, Maura and Rob both said they prefer noodles, so there ya go. Anyway, I loved this soup and plan on making it this way from now on. So there! I decided to go ahead and cook the rice separately. I figured that way the rice would not soak up all the yummy broth.

I normally use boneless skinless chicken breasts in my soup, but I opted for chicken legs and thighs this time. My reason for this was that I was making my own stock, and I used chicken leg quarters to make it. So I just used the meat from making my stock in my soup. I definitely prefer the flavor of the dark meat over the white, and it is so much more affordable. I doubt that I'll ever use white meat in my soups again. It just dries out too quickly.

Chicken Soup with Rice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and cut into coins
2 celery stalks, sliced
4 cups chicken stock (I used homemade. You could definitely use store bought)
3 chicken thighs and 3 chicken legs, cooked and de-boned (You could definitely use pre-roasted chicken here. Or you could use boneless skinless breasts. I just find that the dark meat is juicier and more flavorful)
Thyme, basil, oregano, salt and pepper (I did not measure these at all. Sorry!)

1 cup long grain rice
2 cups water

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions and cook until softened. Add carrots and celery and cook over medium heat for approximately 3-5 minutes, or until vegetables are softened. Add stock, chicken, and herbs and spices. Cook over medium-low heat, testing the seasoning as it cooks, for approximately 45 minutes.

In a separate pot, add rice and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until all of the water is absorbed into the rice and the rice is light and fluffy. Fluff rice with fork and spoon into soup bowls. Ladle soup over rice and enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Frosting

So, apparently, the big pumpkin scare is over. I was worried there for a while that I wouldn't be able to find any canned pumpkin this season, and I have to admit that I was getting kind of anxious about it. I did end up finding a bunch of sugar pumpkins to roast, which kept my anxiety at bay. But now the shelves in the stores seem to have an ample supply of the canned stuff so everyone can stop panicking :-) I grabbed a few small cans at Target last week, and my Mom grabbed me 4 of the big guys. So now I should be set until next year :) I'd also like to thank my good friend Meredith for picking me up a can of pumpkin when she found some at the grocery store. Sorry I had to turn it away Mere, but I just don't know what I'd do with one more can! Thanks for thinking of me anyway!

Now, on to these cookies. I believe I started hearing about these last fall on a cooking message board I used to frequent a lot more often than I do these days. I'm pretty sure I recall these babies being pretty popular and I'm not sure why I never tried them. I guess I just had so many other things to try, they never made it close enough to the top of the list. Well, I am really glad that I decided to give these a whirl because they are really yummy! A note of caution though, the frosting is very rich. I mean, 3 cups of confectioner's sugar will hurt your teeth, and your tummy. The recipe says to frost the cookies generously, but I think just a thin spread would be sufficient. I went ahead and generously frosted mine, and they are very yummy, but maybe a bit too much frosting for me. I think spreading too much frosting on hides the real flavor of the cookies. And these cookies deserve to shine. They are light and cakey with a hint of spice from the cinnamon. I'd even venture to say you could go without the frosting, if you're the kind of person who prefers their cookies frosting-free. Either way, these are a winner, and I'm excited for Maura to test them out when she gets home from school today.


Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Frosting (source: Betty Crocker by way of Carrie's Sweet Life)

2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin ( not pie mix)
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Browned Butter Frosting

3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup butter (do not use margarine or spread; it will burn)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, 3/4 cup butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until well blended. Beat in pumpkin and eggs until well mixed. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. (I always mix my dry ingredients together with a whisk before adding them to my wet mixture. This way, I'm sure that everything is as evenly incorporated as possible.)

On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched in center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 45 minutes.

In medium bowl, place confectioner's sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 3 tablespoons milk. In 1 quart saucepan (I used my 9 inch nonstick skillet and it worked just fine) heat 1/3 cup butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until light brown,

Pour browned butter over powdered sugar mixture. Beat on low speed about 1 minute or until smooth. Gradually add just enough of the remaining tablespoon of milk to make frosting creamy and spreadable. Generously frost cookies. (I did not need to add any additional milk. Three tablespoons was perfect.)

I wanted to add that I think this frosting would pair well with other types of desserts. I'm thinking some kind of spice cake or apple spice cake. Maybe I'll experiment with it a bit...

Dutch Apple-Pumpkin Crisp and the (possible) return of my blog

Fall is officially here. Which means I'm probably going to be doing more baking, much to the chagrin of my bathroom scale. I had to cut back on my baking because we were all eating way too many sweets and no one could fit into their pants. So, now that I have lots of coworkers who are willing to eat all my yummy goodies so I don't have to, I figure I'll bake more and see how it goes. My problem is that when I take the goodies into work, I still have to face them and the temptation that comes along with them. So we'll see.

The other main reason for my complete abandonment of my blog is that I just don't make anything new and exciting. Pretty much the same stuff every week. All stuff that has already been posted here. So obviously, I had no reason to blog.

Well, while shopping over the weekend, my mom and I found one of those wonderful little Betty Crocker "cookbooks" in the checkout aisle at Target. It was full of a ton of really yummy Fall Baking recipes, so we both grabbed one and pored over it when we got back to her house. It was so hard to decide what to make first. A few things stood out to me, but I just couldn't pick something. So with the help of the lovely ladies on The Nest's What's Cooking message board, I decided to go ahead and try the Dutch Apple-Pumpkin Crisp.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about this one. For some reason, the idea of pumpkin and apple together just sounded a little off to me. I don't know that I've ever had them together before now. Well, Betty Crocker sure does know her stuff. Cause this is a seriously delicious dessert. And incredibly easy as well. Chopping the apples is the most complicated part of the whole process. I highly recommend looking for Betty Crocker's Fall Baking mini cookbook in the checkout aisle of your local Target/grocery store. There are some really great looking recipes that I'm sure you'll see featured here in the near future.

Dutch Apple-Pumpkin Crisp (source: Betty Crocker's Fall Baking cookbook)

1 1/2 cups chopped peeled apples (2 small) - I used 2 small apples and didn't measure. But I don't feel like that was quite enough. I"ll probably do 3 small or 2 medium apples next time
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup of milk- I used half and half because all I had was skim milk and I really wanted this to be rich and creamy
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 egg
whipped cream, if desired

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread apples over bottom of 9-inch glass pie plate. Microwave uncovered on high about 4-6 minutes or until apples are crisp-tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, toss 3/4 cup flour, the brown sugar, butter and 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice until crumbly. Set aside.
3. In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients except whipped cream with wire whisk until smooth. Pour over apples. Sprinkle with flour mixture.
4. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and set. Cool 20 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Hummus

I got the inspiration for this hummus from Katie over at Good Things Catered. I will link her recipe here, but type my slightly different version below. I have been wanting to try my hand at some homemade hummus for a long time, and since I finally own a food processor, I decided that would be a great way to use it for the first time. I used 2 cloves of garlic, which worked out fine for me since I love the stuff. But if you're not a fan of lots of garlic, I'd cut it back to maybe just 1 clove. This is such an easy recipe, even for a first timer and I can't wait to dive into it with some pita chips!

Hummus

1 15 oz can of chick peas, drained (reserve the liquid)
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp+ extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp+ tahini
1/4 tsp salt
juice of 1 lemon (I didn't happen to have any lemons today, so I left this out. Don't know how big of a deal it is. It tastes fine to me without it!)

In a blender or food processor, combine chick peas, garlic, olive oil, 1 tsp tahini, salt and half the lemon juice. Process for about 1-2 minutes and check the flavor and consistency. Add more tahini, lemon juice and reserved liquid from the chick peas as needed. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

I found that I ended up needing more olive oil than just 2 tbsp. But that could be because I didn't use the lemon juice? I'm not really sure. I will definitely be playing with this recipe a little and maybe trying some adaptations like adding roasted red peppers or roasted garlic in place of the raw garlic I used today.

First Time's a Charm

So, until today, I had never tried to make chili. As a matter of fact, for a large part of my life I didn't even like chili. I had a huge aversion to beans growing up and avoided eating anything that contained them. Well, as with pretty much everything else I thought I didn't like (don't worry, there wasn't much. I've never been super picky) I've learned after trying them again, that I do, in fact, like beans. My biggest problem with chili is that I love to put cheese and sour cream on mine, but since we keep kosher at home I wouldn't be able to have ground beef in my chili if I wanted to add sour cream and cheese. And I worried that I'd miss the beef. I considered adding fake beef, like the Morningstar Farms crumbles I've used before. But I've never really been a huge fan. They're alright, but I didn't want them in my chili.

I decided that I'd go ahead and look for a vegetarian chili recipe and atleast give it a shot. I don't have a whole lot of patience for searching through recipes and recipe reviews looking for the perfect recipe. Actually, it probably has less to do with patience and more to do with the fact that my 9 year old can be a bit demanding. So I don't always have a ton of time to sit at the computer searching through websites. Anyway, it all worked out perfectly because within about 2 minutes I found what looked to me like the perfect recipe on allrecipes.com. I really wanted a chili recipe that didn't include any seasoning packets and that also looked like it would be easy to adapt to my own liking. The recipe I found turned out to be perfect and I honestly don't think I would change a single thing from the way I made it. The recipe on allrecipes called for tofu, but i decided not to add it. Instead, I added just a little more beans and some frozen corn. It turned out amazing and colorful and I absolutley loved it. I am so happy that I have found my go-to chili recipe on the first try.

I think the one thing that really made me choose this recipe in the first place was the picture on the website. It looked exactly like what I wanted my chili to look like. And although mine came out looking a bit different, it ended up tasting exactly like I wanted my chili to taste. Which is what's really important, right? But it just proves the statement that we eat with our eyes :-) I'll link here to the original recipe here, but will type my adapted version below.



Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

~1/4 cup olive oil
~2 onions, chopped
~1 green pepper and one red pepper, chopped (I happened to have a bag of frozen red, green and yellow pepper slices in my freezer so i chopped those up and used them instead)
~2 cloves garlic, minced
~8 oz frozen corn
~1 29 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (I also added a little bit more from some I had leftover from another black bean dish i made last week. not sure how much more I added though)
~1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes (I didn't actually add the whole can because I was afraid if I added too much it would water down the chili. It would probably be ok to use the whole can though)
~1 tsp salt
~1/4 tsp black pepper
~1 tsp ground cumin
~2 tbsp chili powder (the original recipe called for 6 tbsp, but I did half the recipe and decided not to add 3 tbsp of chili powder. I don't like my chili super spicy)
~1 tbsp oregano
~1 tbsp cider vinegar

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook until soft. Add peppers, garlic and corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender.

Pour beans, crushed tomatoes and seasonings into pot, lower heat to low and simmer on stove top approximately 4 hours. Makes about 6 servings (This is a total guess. The original recipe says it makes 8 servings, but even just making half the recipe made a ton of chili).

Oh, and before I forget, I had an awesome helper in the kitchen today. Maura helped with everything from stirring the chili to baking the cookies. Thanks Maura!

Apple Spice Cookie Bars

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love when the temperature drops and I can start wearing my sweatshirts and jackets again. There is something about the air that I just love this time of year. But another reason I love this season so much is because of all the fall baking I get to do. Luckily, I have lots of friends and family and coworkers to share my goodies with so I don't have to worry about eating them all :-)

We started a new tradition last year of going to the apple orchard and picking apples. We went to a different orchard this year. It was much bigger and they had things besides apples for us to pick. We got a bunch of heads of broccoli and some bunches of fresh spinach. So exciting! I definitely see a quiche in my future...

But we came home with about 15 pounds of apples, and aside from having plenty of apples to snack on, I knew I'd want to bake something new and yummy. So I went blog surfing last night and came up with these tasty looking treats on Katie's blog. They looked amazing so I decided they would be the first thing I made with my apples.

I am so glad that I stumbled across this recipe. It is relatively simple and the taste screams fall. If you're like me and love fall baking, you must try these!

Katie's Apple Spice Cookie Bars (source: Good Things Catered)

2 c. plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
small pinch ground cloves
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 apples, peeled and diced
cinnamon sugar for sprinkling


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 9x13 pan with foil and baking spray. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Whisk to combine well and set aside.

In bowl of stand mixer, combine sugars and butter and beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well to combine. Add vanilla extract and beat to combine. Turn mixer on slow and fold in flour mixture a little at a time until just combined. Fold in apples. Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan and sprinkle top generously with cinnamon sugar.

Place in oven and bake until cooked through, when top slightly bounces back to the touch, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from pan, cutting and serving.

World Day of Bread - Cornbread

I'm back in business! After months of not posting in my beloved blog, I'm back in the blogging world. I have to give some of the credit for getting me back into it to my good friend Chelle. If she hadn't told me about the World Day of Bread, I would have probably gone weeks or months without posting anything. So thanks for being the extra little motivation I needed Chelle! I am so excited to be participating in World Day of Bread. I love the smell of fresh bread baking in my home. And I have, sadly, not had a whole lot of time to do much bread baking lately. So I am going to use this event to help motivate me to make more time for trying different bread recipes in the near future.

My one and only issue was that I was afraid I wouldn't have time to make something and blog it before the deadline. I knew I definitely wouldn't have time to do a yeast bread. And I couldn't come up with any quick breads that I either hadn't tried yet or was interested in making. So I consulted my other good friend, Martha Stewart. Now I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook is a must have if you're as in love with baking as I am. Some of the recipes seem a little intimidating or daunting, but there's really something for everyone in here. And there are pictures for every recipe, which I love. But my favorite thing about this book is the detail. Martha has taken so much time to explain how things work and what tools you'll really need to do what. There is so much attention to detail in this book, that even a novice baker, like myself, would feel comfortable tackling even the most intimidating recipe.

So I went to my Martha Stewart Baking Handbook in search of a relatively simple, no yeast, bread recipe. There were so many options, but I decided on the cornbread. Cornbread is something that I have not mastered yet, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try another recipe. The flavor of this cornbread is amazing. The only thing I may do next time is not use skim milk. I think a little milk fat would add some flavor and moisture. Outside of that, this cornbread recipe is very yummy and I will definitely be making it again.

Cornbread (source: Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook pg 51-52)

1/3 cup vegetable shortening, plus more for pan
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with vegetable shortening; set aside. Melt butter in a medium saute pan over medium-high heat; add corn. Cook, stirring occasionally, until corn has softened and some of the kernels have begun to turn light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the cornmeal. Using a pastry blender, cut shortening into mixture until it resembles coarse meal. Add milk, egg and reserved corn; stir to combine. Do not overmix.

Transfer batter to the prepared pan and bake until the top begins to turn golden and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Martha's Notes: Sauteed corn moistens this cornbread, but you can moit it if you are using the bread in a traditional stuffing. For a spicy variation, add two medium jlapenos, seeded and finely chopped, to the corn before sauteeing. Cornbread is best served the day it is bakes, but it can be kept at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic, for up to 1 day.