Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup

When I was in college, my friend Christina was in love with a local restaurant's creamy chicken soup. Now that we're all graduated and living in different countries, she can't get that soup anymore so she asked me to find her a creamy chicken soup recipe for making her own. So I've been looking online, without much success and finally decided to create my own, based loosely on a chicken pot pie recipe I promise to share another time.

I started my day by making a vegetable chicken stock from veggie scraps I'd been saving in the freezer and a naked chicken carcass leftover from a rotisserie chicken we had on the weekend. You can read more about how to make the stock here. I wasn't completely satisfied with the flavor of the stock, so I only used 2 cups of it and used some chicken stock in a box we had in the fridge for the rest of the stock.

The soup was fairly easy to put together and went amazingly well with fresh buttermilk biscuits. Recipe to follow tomorrow.



Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup
Serves 6 ish
Ingredients
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
6 medium carrots, sliced
1 fairly large onion, diced
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons thyme
1 tsp summer savory
salt & pepper
3 cups chicken stock in a box
2 cups homemade chicken vegetable stock
1 cup white wine (I used Yellow Tail Riesling)
1 1/2 cups half and half
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut down to bite sized pieces
2 rinds from Parmesan cheese (I save these in a baggie in the freezer)
kernels from one ear of corn
6 green beans from our garden, cut into 1" sticks
1 cup egg noodles

Directions:
Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add mushrooms, carrots and onion and cook until tender ~5 mins. I like to season my food in layers as I'm cooking so I threw a little bit of salt and pepper in as these cooked down. Add flour, thyme and summer savory and cook ~ 3 minutes, stirring frequently so the flour doesn't burn. Gradually mix in stocks and wine. Bring soup to a simmer, stirring every so often. Add half and half and simmer about 5 more minutes. Add chicken pieces, parmesan rind, corn kernels and green beans and simmer until chicken is cooked. Taste at this point and see if it needs more seasoning.

At this point, it was only 4:30 and Alex doesn't get home till 6, so I turned off the heat and took it off the burner. When Alex got home, I put it back on the heat and started boiling a second pot of water to cook the egg noodles. I cooked them about 9 minutes, drained them and added them to the soup. Simmer a few more minutes and serve.

Momma's Beef Stew

My mom is an amazing cook. She makes some absolutely heavenly meals. However, growing up, my brother and I didn't like hardly ANY of the same foods. As you can imagine, dinner time was always a struggle. This stew was one of a select few recipes that everyone in the house would enjoy back when we were kids and picky eaters.

Now, its something I love to make on a chilly fall or winter day and goes great with popovers (a future post, I promise). This is also one of those great meals where if you have left overs, you can pop individual (or family) serving size containers into the freezer and on busy nights, just pop in the microwave to reheat.

2lbs stewing beef
flour for coating (i found 1/2 cup plenty)
1 large onion cut in rings
1-2 stalks celery, chopped (the original recipe calls for more, but I can only handle a little celery in my beef stew)
4-5 carrots sliced
4-5 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 turnip (they were all out at the grocery store last time I made this and left it out - didn't miss it)
1-2 parsnips
1 can cream of mushroom soup plus 1/4 can of water
salt and pepper to taste
**note my mom also adds a few handfuls of frozen peas**

Coat the stewing beef in flour and brown in frying pan. Place beef and onion rings in a large casserole dish. Add vegetables. Cover with cream of mushroom soup and 1/4 can of water. Season with salt & pepper. Bake at 250F for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy!

Arugula, Potato and Green Bean Salad

Last week, our square foot garden was bursting with green beans, so when I came across the recipe for Arugula, Potato and Green Bean salad, I knew it was the perfect salad to use up the multitude of green beans.

Arugula, Potato and Green Bean Salad

Makes 8 small salads or 4 larger ones

1/3 cup walnuts
1 lb baby confetti potatoes crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
2 cups green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch segments
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 ounces baby arugula & spinach mix

Preheat oven to 375°. Place walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in oven until fragrant, about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly, then coarsely chop and set aside.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add potatoes, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer potatoes to a colander to drain and cool. Set aside.

Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Return pan of water to a boil. Add green beans, and cook until tender and bright green, about 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Drain.

Whisk together vinegar, yogurt, mustard and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl; season with pepper. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking until emulsified. Set dressing aside.

Arrange arugula, potatoes, and green beans in a large salad bowl. Season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with toasted walnuts; toss to coat.


~Adapted from a recipe by Smitten Kitchen

Blueberry Banana Cookies

Last year, I came across this recipe while I was looking for something to do with brown bananas and it quickly became my favorite way to deal with forgotten bananas. Usually I use chocolate chips instead of blueberries, but as I mentioned in my last post, we have an excess of blueberries around here lately, so I thought I'd experiment with the blueberries. The cookies were good but not great, definitely better with chocolate chips. The cookies themselves are sweet, but the berries were a little tart. It kind of reminded me of biting into a cranberry muffin.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup mashed bananas
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup blueberries (or chocolate chips)

What You'll Do...
1) Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until light and fluffy.

2) Mix the mashed bananas and baking soda in a bowl and let sit for 2 minutes to froth a bit. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which will give the cookies their lift and rise.

3) Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix the flour, salt, and vanilla and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.

4) Fold in the blueberries or chocolate chips. Drop into dollops onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

~note, this time, while baking they took about 15 minutes instead of the usual 11-13

Fresh Blueberry Cheesecake

Last week we went to a blueberry U-Pick and picked 2 whole flats of berries. So let me tell you, we will be seeing lots of blueberry dishes to use up all the berries. We froze some to use this winter, but still have lots to use. The first thing we tried was this amazing cheesecake recipe.


Ingredients:
Crust
2 cups graham crumbs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar

Cheesecake
1 8 oz package of softened cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
zest from 1 lemon
3 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla

Pack graham crumbs, sugar and butter into a 9x13 pan.

In a bowl, cream together cream cheese and sugar. Add salt, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla to cream cheese mixture. Blend in one large tub of Cool Whip and carefully fold in 3 cups of fresh blueberries.

Pour cream cheese mixture over graham crust. Refrigerate a few hours to harden the crust.

Lemon Spaghetti w/ Lemon Chive Noodles

Last night I made one of Mr. Pomegranite Martini's favorite dishes, Lemon Spaghetti. I've been making this recipe for years, and recently we've discovered it's even more fabulous with homemade noodles infused with fresh chives and lemon zest. It's perfect with roasted chicken or a side salad.



Lemon Chive Noodles
2 c flour
4 eggs
zest from 1 lemon
5 or 6 chives finely chopped

Pour flour, lemon zest and chives into a bowl and wisk until incorporated. Make a well in the center of the bowl and drop eggs into well. TAKE OFF RINGS and combine with fingers until a dough forms. Turn out onto well floured surface and knead until the dough becomes smooth. I usually have to add more flour as I knead. When the dough becomes smooth, cut into quarters and roll out one quarter at a time onto a well floured surface as thin as you can get it. Cut with a sharp knife or pizza cutter into thin strips. Cook in well salted water for 2-3 minutes.

Lemon Spaghetti
Salt
Lemon Chive Spaghetti from above
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 3 turns of the pan
4 cloves garlic, grated
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 lemons, zested and juiced
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano
Finely chopped chives for garnish

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and drop the spaghetti into the pot.

Heat a large deep skillet over low heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.

When the pasta has finished cooking, before you drain, reserve a ladle full of pasta cooking water. After draining the pasta, add cooking water, lemon juice, and the cream to the garlic and oil. Raise heat a bit to bring sauce to a bubble.

Add lemon zest and half of the cheese to the cream sauce. Season the sauce with salt, to taste. Add pasta to pan and turn off heat. Toss the pasta with sauce a minute or 2, allowing it time to soak up the sauce.

Top the plates of pasta or platter with remaining cheese and some chopped chives.

Adapted from Lemon Spaghetti recipe by Rachael Ray

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies

I'm determined I'm going to get back into blogging about the things I'm cooking, both as a way to keep track of the recipes I've been making and to share with everyone. These cookies were fairly easy to make and didn't take much time either... I ended up needing to cook these a few minutes longer than the recipe called for but man were they good. :) The lemon zest keeps the lemon flavor subtle but the glaze with fresh lemon juice brings it to the perfect amount of lemon.

Frosted Lemon Poppyseed Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp lemon zest
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp poppyseeds

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Beat in egg.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined, then stir in poppyseeds. Drop by 1-inch balls onto prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are set and just begin to brown at the edges (the bottoms may be lightly browned, but not the top of the cookies)
Cool for 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack to cool before glazing.

Lemon Glaze
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2-3 tbsp lemon juice

Whisk together juice and sugar until icing is a smooth, pourable consistency. Add additional juice if yours is too thick to drizzle easily or additional sugar if it is too thick.
Drizzle over cookies. Cookies should not be hot, but it is ok if they are not completely at room temperature before frosting.
Cookies must be cooled to room temperature before being stored.

Makes 2 dozen.