October 8, 2011

Potato Soup and Pumpkin Pie.

This meal screams comfort food. It was very delicious!

Allana's Excellent Potato Soup

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of celery soup
  • seasonings of your choice
  • garlic
  • bacon!
Directions
  1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, sautee onions and garlic in the butter, until the onions are translucent. Stir in the mustard, then pour in the chicken broth. Add potatoes, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender.
  2. While the potatoes are cooking, it's time for your bacon. Cook it long enough so it's really crispy, enough to make it crumble. When it's done cooking, set aside on a plate covered with a paper towel.
  3. Combine the milk and cream of celery soup, and add to the saucepan. Season to taste with your choice of seasonings. Heat through, but do not boil. When you are ready to serve, top with crumbled bacon.


When I wanted to make a potato soup, I was expecting something a little more creamier. But even though it wasn't what I expected, it was still delicious. Instead of using diced ham like the original recipe called for, I used bacon because if I had leftover bacon I wouldn't mind, but I didn't want to have leftover ham. I just got the cheapest bacon I could find. The seasonings I put in were rosemary, parsley, a little bit of salt and a lot of pepper, garlic salt, and a little bit of Mrs. Dash garlic and herb.

This is definitely a recipe I want to try again. Next time I try it I want to leave the bacon and chicken stock out, and replace with veggie stock. I also think that adding peas and/or leeks would taste wonderful, and maybe top it off with cheese.


Ingredients: 
  •  1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
  • 1 (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 (9 in) unbaked pie crust
  • heavy whipping cream
  • vanilla 
  • sugar
Directions:
  1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices, and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
  2. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. 
  3. While the pie is baking, chill a mixing bowl bowl and beaters in the fridge. Right before you are ready to serve, take the bowl out of the fridge. Pour cream into the bowl and beat it until it begins to thicken. Add sugar and vanilla, and beat until soft peaks from.
  4. Serve pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Store any leftovers in the fridge.
The pie turned out quite delicious! When I made the pie though, not all of my pumpkin was mixed in with everything else, so I ended up having a few small chunks of pumpkin. Make sure to mix everything in! 

When making whipped cream, the amount you make is up to you. Instead of measuring things out, I just poured the cream into my bowl until I thought it looked like it was going to be enough. The amount of sugar and vanilla you add is also up to how you want it to taste. Mine came out with a little more vanilla flavor than I had wanted because I accidentally poured in too much, but it was still delicious. I also added a little bit of cinnamon to it.

What is your favorite fall comfort food?

October 7, 2011

Acorn squash soup.

For those of you who know me, you know that I love fall. I love the holidays, the weather, and most definitely the food. So when I came across this, I was super excited to try it out. The only way I've really had acorn squash was how my mom cooked it, and that's baking it, and then putting brown sugar and butter on top. This was a little different, but definitely just as yummy! Plus, it's also just as easy.

The first thing you need to do is cook the squash. Cut it open in half and take the seeds out. Place the squash face down in a cooking dish, and add just enough water so that the bottom of the dish is completely covered. I baked mine in the oven on 350 degrees for about an hour. You know when it's done when you can poke through it easily. Then, let it cool. (The recipe I used said to just let it cool until you can touch it, but I let it cool completely.)

Isn't it pretty?
When the squash is completely cooled down, cut half an onion. Throw it into a saucepan with either butter or olive oil. You can also add some garlic here, but I didn't think about that until after. Cook the onions until they are translucent and tender.


Next, remove the flesh of the squash with a spoon and add the squash plus the cooked onion to a blender or food processor. Pulse until it gets as smooth as you would like. I added some milk to make it a little creamy, plus about 3/4 of a can of chicken stock to make it a little more thin.


 Again, isn't it pretty?

After you have the squash at a consistency you like, bring it to the pot that the onions were cooked in. Add seasonings. I added salt and pepper, plus some Mrs. Dash garlic and herb. I also added some butter.



All in all, I really liked this soup. When eating it right after I made it, I thought it was missing something, but I couldn't tell what that could be. It tasted better the next day, and even better the day after that. This is definitely something I could see myself making more often. Next time I make it I want to add fresh garlic, and possibly some potatoes.

Enjoy!

October 1, 2011

Playing with food can be fun.

So I really wanted to try this  recipe but I didn't quite like how that would have turned out so I decided to experiment with the ingredients listed.

The first thing I did was cook up some chicken breasts. Make sure they are completely cooked, and then shred them. My chicken was frozen, so I heated up some olive oil in a frying pan, and then cooked them.

Next, cook your broccoli. I sauteed mine with some butter and garlic. Add some salt and pepper for taste. I like pepper, so I added a ton of pepper and only a little salt. Yum! I think it would also taste good if you add onions, but I didn't think about that so my dish is going to be onion less. When the broccoli is done cooking, add one can of celery soup (or any "cream of" soup). Then add milk. I didn't measure the milk out, instead I just used the can from the soup. Stir to make sure that there are no clumps of soup, and then add the chicken to the pan.

While that is sitting, cook the biscuits. I just used Bisquick and followed the directions, but I did add seasoning so the biscuits weren't plain. Make sure to not make your biscuits too big.

After the biscuits are done, assemble! You can either just pour the broccoli mixture in a bowl and top with a biscuit, or you can add rice or pasta. I had leftover rice so I used that. I also topped mine with cheese, because you can't go wrong with that. Enjoy!

Here is the final product. Sorry for the bad quality. I was using my webcam which isn't all that great.