Lentil Potpie

This is an older recipe of mine that I use so often that I thought I would share another version of it. I usually make these with leftovers, like chili, but this time I made a quick lentil soup instead. You can use pie crust or puff pastry whichever you have on hand; they are both yummy and quick.

I used chimichurri salsa to season my soup, but you can use fresh parsley if you have it.

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb lentils
• 4 large carrots, chopped
• 4 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 can diced toms
• 4 sliced of bacon, diced
• Fresh parley or 1tbls chimichurri salsa
• Fresh Sage leaves
• Salt/pepper
• ½ cup White wine
• 32 ozs of stock, chicken or veggie
• Puff pastry sheets

Directions:

• Sauté in large pot the bacon, onion, carrots and celery until the the onions are translucent.
• Add all the remaining ingredients and simmer until the lentils are tender and ½ or more of the liquid has reduced.
• Cool, spoon into individual bowls and top with puff pastry dough.
• Cut slits in the top to ventilate.
• Bake at 375 until the dough is golden brown and the soup bubbling.

Sausage Bolognese with Penne

After our holiday eating and recovering from some kind of stomach flu we have been working on eating healthier. I think for the most part we have a good diet but there is always room for improvement. I found this recipe in Family Circle and it seemed like the perfect meal to work into our weekly menu. Lots of veggies and still very taste too. The only MAJOR change I made was to use mini Penne instead of Linguine. I didn’t really use exact measurements but very close. Anyway, this is a great dish, easy to make, fast with a processor and low cal too. I included the nutritional facts just so you could see how low cal it truly is.

Adapted from Family Circle, Jan 2010

Ingredients

• 3 medium-size carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 package (20 ounces) sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 box (13.25 ounces) low-carb linguine (such as Dreamfields)
• Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

1. Pulse carrots, celery and onion in a food processor until finely chopped.

2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add vegetable mixture and cook, stirring, 6 minutes. Rinse food processor bowl; set aside. Crumble sausage into skillet and cook for 3 minutes.

3. Add wine to skillet; bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Drain tomatoes and save the liquid. Add tomatoes to food processor bowl; pulse until finely chopped. Add tomatoes and their liquid to skillet; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium; cook for 30 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in milk and cook another 8 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions in salted boiling water, about 12 minutes. Serve pasta with sauce, and Parmesan, if desired. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition Facts

Servings Per Recipe 8 servings

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• Amount Per Serving
• Calories 289
• Total Fat (g) 6
• Saturated Fat (g) 1
• Cholesterol (mg) 38
• Sodium (mg) 536
• Carbohydrate (g) 39
• Fiber (g) 3
• Protein (g) 17

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Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

English Toffee Take 2

Even though our first attempt to make toffee ended so terrible, we were not ready to throw in the towel. We received some insider tips from Mrs. Fowler and other tips from our loyal readers. What we walked away with is that our heat was too low and it should take less than 30 minutes to make. Oh, I almost forgot mention that we were able to sample Mrs. Fowler's toffee. You know how it is, you need a sample so you’ll have a benchmark. This toffee is SOOO O good. I actually had to hide it from myself so that I could save it for Anthony to enjoy! Anyway, armed with this information, we tried again. This time our results were MUCH better. We still need some practice. I think that I got scared and took it off the heat a touch too soon. It’s very yummy and has the right texture but Mrs. Fowler's was still a little more brittle than ours. We’ll try again soon but this batch will go into our bellies and not our trash can, so we’ll count it a success

Mrs. Fowler’s English Toffee.

Ingredients:

• 1lb Real Butter
• 1 T. Water
• ½ t. Vanilla
• 2 C Granulated Sugar
• ½ lb Slivered Almonds (we used Pecans)
  
• Dash of Cinnamon

Directions:

• Melt butter in heavy kettle.
• Add sugar, stirring briskly with a large spoon.
• Add water, cinnamon and almonds, stirring constantly.
• Add Vanilla.
• Mixture will thicken and fall way from the sides of the kettle when nearly done.
• Cook until it turns a toffee tan.
• Pour onto well-buttered tray and spread to a thin layer.
• When cooled, break into pieces

Butter Homemade!

My favorite friend came over yesterday, bringing with her a fun recipe for making homemade butter with the kids. The recipe is incredible easy and very, very fun. I’m not sure who had more fun, the kids or us. We used the buttermilk to make Buttermilk bread.
I hope you give it a try. It is so much fun. If you don’t want to use the jar method as we did with the kids, you can use your mixer instead. We used the mixer on the other half of our quart and it worked the same, although not as much fun.

Recipe from Emeril Lagasse

• 1 pint heavy cream, very cold
• Pinch salt, optional
  

Directions

Find a large jar with a tight-fitting lid that will hold the cream about half full. Refrigerate the jar for at least 1 hour. Pour the cream into the cold jar. Tightly secure the lid and shake as hard as possible until chunks of butter start to form, 15 to 30 minutes. Pour into a strainer set over a bowl. The chunks in the strainer are butter, and the liquid in the bowl is buttermilk.

Pour the buttermilk into a clean container, cover, refrigerate, and reserve for another use. Turn the butter into a clean bowl and cover with very cold water. Pour into a strainer, discarding the liquid. Continue rinsing the butter with very cold water until the water runs clear. (The cloudy water is buttermilk which will make the butter turn sour.) When the butter is clean, work with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to press out any remaining liquid. Discard this liquid. If desired, add salt to the butter. (Salted butter will keep longer.)

Transfer the butter to a clean container for keeping, pressing with a wooden spoon or spatula to dispel any air bubbles. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Black-Eyed Pea Dip

I’d love to call this hummus but really it's not. Whatever it is, it is truly very yummy and not so bad for you either. It would be great on a sandwich too.

Ingredients:

• Fresh Black-eyed Peas
• Garlic
• Green Onion
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Dash of Cumin
• Sprinkle of Paprika
• 1 tsp Red Pepper flakes
• 6 ozs of plain homemade Yogurt (can substitute with store bought if you must)

Directions:

• Boil Peas until they are tender.
• Combine all ingredients, except the yogurt, in a food process and blend until creamy.
• Add more oil if you think it is still too thick.
• When it's the consistency you like, add the yogurt and blend until fully combined.

Cauliflower Soup

If you are having a day like this…

Then you need a warm and healthy soup like this!

Recipe adapted from Experience Life Magazine, Jan/Feb issue.

You can read their version here.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 tsp. olive oil
  
• 1 cup diced onion
• 3 or 4 strip of bacon
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1 tsp. minced fresh garlic
• 4 cups cauliflower florets and stems
• 2 cups diced Yukon Gold potatoes
• Several leaves of fresh Sage
• ¼ bundle of fresh Parsley
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 2 quarts vegetable stock

Heat a large stockpot over high heat and add olive oil. Stir in the bacon, onions, celery, garlic and cauliflower. Sauté until the onions are translucent, about three to five minutes.

Stir in the potatoes, spices and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes and cauliflower are tender.

For a thicker soup you could blend or mash it but I loved all the pieces of potatoes and cauliflower.

HELP! English Toffee

Hey all and Happy New Year!

I trust that everyone had as blessed a Christmas as we did. I thought I would share a few of our gifts with you today.

My Brother and Sister in Law gave us a Flip Video Recorder, which we are having loads of fun with. Also our friend, and favorite first grade teacher, gave us a copy of the elementary school’s cookbook, which by the way has her famous English Toffee recipe in it. I thought it would be fun to combine both gifts and to show off our young chef in his first cooking video.

Today we finally made the toffee that Anthony has been begging to make since Christmas morning.

Joy, All I can say is my hat is off to you. After more than an hour of stirring we gave up well… I gave up. Anthony wanted to keep going but my back and my arm gave a strong protest. So in the end we are less a pound of butter and still have not had a taste of the famous toffee.

Mrs. Fowler and all my blogger friends, PLEASE send your toffee hints and tips our way. Did I stir too long, not long enough?? Anthony’s ready to try again and I’ll pump some extra iron at the gym this week to get myself in shape for round two!

Mrs. Fowler’s English Toffee

Ingredients:

• 1lb Real Butter
• 1 T. Water
• ½ t. Vanilla
• 2 C Granulated Sugar
• ½ lb Slivered Almonds
• Dash of Cinnamon
  

Directions:

• Melt butter in heavy kettle.
• Add sugar, stirring briskly with a large spoon.
• Add water, cinnamon and almonds, stirring constantly.
• Add Vanilla.
• Mixture will thicken and fall way from the sides of the kettle when nearly done.
• Cook until it turns a toffee tan.
• Pour onto well-buttered tray and spread to a thin layer.
• When cooled, break into pieces.