#15 Tomato Basil Bisque

Tomato Basil Bisque!

Dear Tiffany,
You know those premade soups they have at Safeway?  You know, in the little tupperware, or you can serve it yourself hot?  Someone brought a few of them to Phyllis's birthday dinner the other night, and the tomato basil bisque was amazing.  Everyone kept commenting on it, until there wasn't any left, and I went home determined to find out how to make it myself.  After scouring google, I found this recipe for a lightened up version.  The surprise ingredient?  Butternut squash.




Wait! Don't run away.  Or switch over to facebook and ignore this post.  Butternut squash is actually very simple to work with.  It doesn't have the super tough skin like other winter squashes, and it was easier than I expected to include in this soup.


What is a "bisque?"  (Or "beeeeesk" as someone called it the other night)  A bisque is simply a soup with milk or cream.  Not nearly so complicated as it sounds.  I mostly followed Carol's recipe, but I adapted it for my slow cooker, and went the less healthy route since I had cream from a previous adventure that I needed to use up.  I'll list both the high fat and low fat versions below.


The Basics: 
Prep time: About 30 minutes, plus several hours in the crock pot, OR a little over an hour (stove method)
Good for leftovers: yes.  If there is any left.
servings: 12 1-cup servings
cost: under $10


Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter or extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced (1.5 tsp)
2 (24.5-ounce) can whole tomatoes, with liquid
1 can (6 oz) roasted garlic tomato paste
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2-2 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 to 1 1/4 cups cream OR nonfat half-and-half or nonfat yogurt OR milk
Several dashes of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

Several shakes of red pepper flakes

The Process (Slow-cooker version)

Saute butter or oil, onions, and garlic until the onions and garlic are golden.  Add the butter first and let it warm up while you chop the onions, then add the onions and garlic (if you add the garlic without the onions, its really easy to burn your garlic! yikes!  For some reason the garlic does better at not burning when its not lonely).  Make sure to stir once in awhile!

While the onions and garlic are cooking, prepare your butternut squash.  Cut off the ends, slice it down the middle (if its really long you may want to cut it in half short-ways before slicing down the middle).  Remove the peel with a vegetable peeler, and dice the squash as you would any other veggie.  Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, basil, thyme, butternut squash, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the crock pot, and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4-6.

Puree the soup in a blender (or use an immersion blender).  Return soup to the crock pot, stir in cream or milk, and add Tabasco sauce to taste.  Cover and let it cook until soup is hot.  Serve with Parmesan or fresh basil or parsley as a garnish.

Stove-top Version

Same as above, but saute the garlic and onions in a large saucepan instead of a skillet, and just add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan once the onions are done.  Cover partly and cook for 30-35 minutes until the squash is fork-tender. Puree the soup, add cream or milk and hot sauce, and return to heat and bring just to a boil before serving.

Notes

In the Crock When I doubled this recipe, it filled my 6 quart crock pot.  Make sure your crock is big enough to fit the amount you want to make, before you start!

Freeze! If you made your own chicken broth and froze it, don't worry about thawing it before adding it to the slow cooker.  Just run the bag under warm water to loosen it up a bit, cut it open with scissors or a knife, and drop the entire ice cube in the crock.  It'll be ok, I promise.

To make it vegetarian: just use veggie broth instead of chicken broth.
Don't want to get a skillet dirty? Its probably ok to just dump your butter, onions, and garlic in the pot.  It won't taste quite as good (though still pretty yummy!), and you have to take the time to cut the squash anyways so to me it made more sense to get the skillet dirty.  But that's just me.

You might think this recipe has a lot of prep time, but think about how much you would spend for one of those little containers at Safeway.  You can make a whole bunch, and freeze or refrigerate the containers.

-joy

#14: BBQ Ribs (slow cooker)

Dear Tiffany,
In case you didn't know, barbecue still tastes good in January.  Its just...its cold outside.  And me, I'd rather come home to my house smelling wonderful and barbecuey and dinner ready to eat, than coming home and having to babysit the barbecue in the cold.
I put these ribs in the crock pot before work today, and then I was thinking about them all afternoon.  Mouthwatering.  Imagining the smell that would fill up my nose as I walked in the door.  Ahhh...
Of course, then I got home and reality hit, right after that smell.  See, my newest attempt at creating a good habit is "no Bible, no dinner."  You know, "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:3).  Spiritual food is more important than physical food, right?  The idea is that if I do my Bible reading earlier in the day, I'll be more alert for it and actually be able to absorb what I'm reading.  So today I got home, realized I hadn't done my Bible reading, and spent my time in God's word with my tummy rumbling.  And then, thanked God for providing me with some great food, and sat down to eat my ribs.

I got this idea from Stephanie O'Dea's blog, and I made it her way the first few times, but I like mine with a little more zip so I added more pepper and the chipotle chili pepper to spice it up.  Of course, she has kids so that wouldn't work so well for her!  (when you have a bunch of little Sams and Tiffanys someday you may want to set the pepper to the side and have 
Sam add his own).  The chipotle pepper really gives it a flavor boost, not just a spicy boost.


The Basics: 
Prep time: About 5 minutes, then several hours in the crock pot.
Good for leftovers: yes
servings: 4-6
cost: under $10


Ingredients:
1 bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce
2 lbs beef or pork ribs
1 tsp chipotle chili pepper (or more if you like it spicier!)
1 medium-small onion
2 heaping spoonfuls minced garlic
dash of black pepper (I actually use more like a 1/8 of a teaspoon or something, but I didn't measure it)


The Process:

Arrange your ribs in the crock pot.  Its ok if you haven't thawed them yet.  Chop your onion and add it, along with the garlic, pepper, and chipotle pepper.  Drown everything in Barbecue sauce.  Put the lid on and cook for 5-6 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.  Mix it up really well so all the ribs are coated with sauce before serving- you may want to mix in some salt as well, or just let each person add salt to taste.   It will need it, but I'm kind of a salt-it-yourself person.  Your ribs will be falling off the bone; unless, like mine, they were boneless, in which case they'll just be falling apart.  This goes really great with corn on the cob, baked potatoes, or a yummy bread.  


These are so good, its just kind of ridiculous how easy they are.  You can do the same thing with barbecue chicken; it just absorbs the sauce so well after cooking all day.


Enjoy!
-Joy

#13: Buttermilk Pancakes!

Dear Tiffany,


I'm back from vacation! (Well you already know this, I saw you at church Sunday.  But I'm now back to the blogging world too!)  I figured since this blog is titled "Breakfast at Tiffany's" I should probably eventually post a breakfast recipe, so here you are!  Except, I've rarely made this for actual breakfast time, because I'm kind of silly about breakfast foods.  I don't believe they should be restricted to the AM hours, so these were lunch for Stephanie and I on Monday!

There's nothing wrong with pancakes from a mix...but the thing is, the mix actually doesn't really save you any time, since you still have to mix everything up.  And these just taste better. I borrowed this recipe from somewhere on the web a few years ago...and scribbled it onto a piece of paper that's been stuck to my fridge since then.  But unfortunately, I can't remember where I found it.  So if the owner of this recipe ever reads this blog, please let me know so I can give you credit!


The Basics:
Prep time: About 5-10 minutes to make the batter, then about 5 minutes-ish for each batch you cook.
Good for leftovers: of course!  This recipe makes a LOT, so I'll list some suggestions for how to use the extra at the end of this post.
servings: supposedly 12
cost: less than $5.

Ingredients:
5 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups milk
5 eggs
6 TBL butter or margarine (one stick)
5 cups flour
5 tsp sugar
5 tsp baking soda
5 tsp baking powder
pinch salt


The Process:
Melt the butter.  For me, the easiest way to do this is to unwrap the stick of butter and put in a bowl in the microwave for a minute or so.  Two warnings:  make sure to cover the bowl with plastic wrap so you don't get butter splatters all over your microwave, and be CAREFUL taking that bowl out of the microwave.  It will be very hot.


While the butter is melting, crack your eggs and dump them into a very large mixing bowl, and whisk until lightly beaten.  Add milk, buttermilk, and butter and stir.


Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder) in a separate mixing bowl.  Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients in thirds (by pouring in one third at a time and mixing before adding the next third).  I learned this tip from my friend Jennifer when she was at culinary school, and it makes it much easier to get everything mixed well, without clumps or dry spots. Stir until just blended, but no more- over-stirring will make your pancakes come out flat instead of fluffy.

Can you see the bubbles?

Spray a griddle or flat skillet with non-stick spray and heat it up (If you're using a griddle, set it for about 350 degrees).  Ladle your pancake batter onto the hot surface, each pancake a few inches apart because they will expand. You can make them as big or as small as you want.  In a few minutes, you'll notice the top of each pancake getting bubbly- this means its about time to flip them over.  Cook on the other side until it turns a nice golden-brown color, then remove to a separate plate.  (If it looks like you turned it over too soon, you can flip it back at the end to brown the other side)


Top it off with your favorite syrup, or go IHOP style: whipped cream, fresh fruit, and maybe chocolate syrup!


Leftover Notes:
This recipe serves 12! That's a lot, and if you noticed, its not in measurements that are easy to cut in half.  If you're not feeding an army (or the whole worship team), you have 3 choices.  
1. If you're going to have a chance to make pancakes again in the next few days, just refridgerate your extra batter.  It will keep for 2-3 days at least; when you pull it out you'll need to stir it again.

My cooking buddy, Stephanie T.

2. You can freeze your batter until your next pancake venture, and it will keep for a few months.
3. (My favorite) Go ahead and make the rest of the pancakes, and freeze them in ziplock bags.  Then, next time you need an easy breakfast, pop a few pancakes in the toaster!  My aunt likes to put hers in the microwave.


Variations on a Theme:
Blueberries, sliced bananas, sliced strawberries, or chocolate chips go great mixed in with this pancake batter.  Since the recipe makes so much, separate a smaller bowl full to add extras to, so you have some of the plain stuff just in case.


Enjoy!  (we did.)
-Joy

#12: Quick & Easy Sauteed Shrimp

Dear Tiff,
You won't find me writing about seafood that often, because as much as I love it, my paycheck tends to go away too fast when I buy seafood.  But last week, I was blessed with shrimp by the amazing, wonderful, sometimes outrageous Joey Le, and he bought too much for his shrimp cocktail, so he gave me the rest.  (I think he just didn't want to peel any more).  Well I had taken them out to thaw yesterday before my dinner plans changed, and I realized today I needed to eat them quick!  Not in the mood for anything too laborious, so here's what I did.


1.  Peel your shrimp, devein them if you want to (I'm usually too lazy too since its just an aesthetic thing, you don't have to).
2. Heat some olive oil in a skillet.  throw in some garlic (mine was minced but if yours is whole that's fine), shake in some salt, and stir in your shrimp.
3. cook until the shrimp are pink, turning them over once.  This should only take about 3 minutes.

I made the mistake of adding the garlic at the beginning and then taking too long to peel my shrimp, and as a result, I burned some of the garlic.  You, however, will wait to add the garlic until you're adding your shrimp, and then you won't have burnt-garlic-scented-kitchen.  The shrimp and the pasta I served it over came out great...minus the burned garlic, of course.  Yum. It feels like fancy food.  So if you ever get blessed with shrimp, you'll know what to do with it! :)


Love,
Joy


PS we need to hang out after the holidays.  Its been too long!

201!

Woohoo!  Today, I crossed three milestones with this blog, so I'll be celebrating with some more Martinelli's!  (It will go nicely with some of yesterday's Banana Oat Bread.)


1) I broke 200 pageviews! (Its 201 as I'm writing this)
2) Someone that I've never met left a comment for me today.  That's a first. Its really exciting to see this is reaching more than just my family and my church.
3) that someone I mentioned above?  It was the Crockpot Lady (Stephanie O'Dea) that I love and talk about nearly every time I do a slow cooker recipe.  It was kind of like getting an email from your hero.  Or a celebrity. And knowing that it wasn't spam.  Thank you, Steph!  I know I told you this already, but you totally made my day!


500, here we come!
Now, to figure out what to do for lunch since Plan A turned into today's kitchen fail.

Kitchen Failblog 12/21/2010

Dear Tiffany,
Here's my fail/lesson learned for the day.
I wanted to try out this recipe for Cuban Black Beans and Rice, since I had most of the ingredients on hand and it looks pretty healthy and yummy.  I followed all the directions, except I saved the salt for the end because I know that keeps the beans from softening.  I soaked my beans all day yesterday, and put this in the crockpot last night right before I went to bed.  It should've been cooked in plenty of time for lunch today.  I even remembered to turn the crock pot on, and I woke up to a house smelling of yummy peppers and black beans.  But when I went to eat them....tough and crunchy, not done.  Ick.
     I decided to ask Google a few questions to find the cause of my undercooked beans, and I discovered the answer in several comments on several other recipes and blogs about beans...
     Apparently acidic foods such as the tomatoes I put in my crock pot last night have the same effect as salt.  The beans don't soften :(.  Lesson learned: crock pot beans are very easy, I've done them plenty of times before.  But don't add salt or tomatoes/anything acidic until after the beans have already cooked and softened!
Looks like leftover meatballs for dinner tonight.
-Joy

#11: Banana Oat Bread (oven or slow-cooker)

Banana-Oat Bread

Hi Tiffany,
I had a few bananas left that were getting mushy, and I needed to use them soon, so I made Banana Bread today.  Apparently you can bake in a crock pot!  Who would've known?  I got the idea from the crock pot lady.


Now, why would someone want to bake in a slow cooker, you might ask?  You might want to bake in your slow cooker if:
1) you don't have an oven
2) your oven is broken
3) your oven is already full of other goodies for holiday dinners
4) you don't want to stay near your kitchen while your appliances are at work
5) its too hot to run your oven.
6) you think slow cookers are the bomb.


#1 applies to me.  and #6.
Anyways...I adapted a recipe from cooks.com.  I wanted to try some with orange marmalade, but didn't have orange juice as most of those recipes call for, so I just added a little orange marmalade to this one, along with some chopped walnuts.  


The Basics:
Prep time: About 20 minutes, then 45-50 min. in the oven or about 4 hours in the slow cooker.
Good for leftovers: of course!
servings: about 10 slices
cost: less than $5. I didn't have to go to the store for this recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter/margarine OR 1/2 cup shortening OR about 6 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  But Butter will taste Better.
3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed, plus extra for sprinkling on top
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 to 3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/3 cup old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked, plus extra for sprinkling
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1/3 cup chopped (but still chunky) walnuts, almonds, or pecans (optional)


The Process:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees OR get out your slow cooker.  Grease a bread pan.  If you are using the slow cooker method and don't have a bread pan that will fit inside your slow cooker, you can either use a different pan or just grease your slow-cooker and cook directly inside it, but the cook time will be less (about 2 hours)
Mash your bananas- I sliced mine in a bowl before mashing them with a fork until they were super mushy.  Mix all wet ingredients (eggs, bananas, orange marmalade, milk, and butter/shortening/oil.  Gradually stir in the dry ingredients a little bit at a time.  If you have a mixer, use it and it will be better stirred and won't take so long.  I don't have a mixer so I had to use my strong-woman-muscles to mix mine.
Spoon it all into your pan or crock pot.  Sprinkle a little oatmeal and brown sugar on top.  Cook in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or in the crockpot (pan method) for 4 hours on high, or 2 hours if you're cooking directly in the crock (don't open and check until its been at least 2 hours in the crockpot!).  It's done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Carefully remove the pan and let it cool 10-20 minutes before taking the bread out of the pan.


Its not super sweet, but pretty yummy.  It would have tasted better with real butter, but I didn't have any so I used margarine and vegetable oil instead.  I think I like my mom's banana bread even more, so I will try to find out what recipe she's using and hopefully get that up here as well.  


Notes:

With your Crock Pot: According to Stephanie the Crock pot lady, you're supposed to use something to prop the lid up a little to let the steam out when using a pan inside the crock.  She (and I) used a chopstick.  Others have suggested placing a stack of paper towels over the pan before putting the lid on, but I used the chopstick method and mine turned out fine.