Author: laura k

Light Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Chive-Cayenne Oil

Bowl of Broccoli Soup

When people think of broccoli soup, the ubiquitous casserole-glue cream of broccoli usually comes to mind. I don’t know many people who consider broccoli soup high up on the list of adored foodstuffs. But you see, my love of broccoli knows no bounds. I mean, I even love the stuff on pizza. And while I do have a bit of a weakness for a heavy, creamy bowl of canned badness, I’ve never tried my hand at making my own. Of course, now that I have an immersion blender, broccoli soup had to be one of the first things I introduced it to. (Are you guys sick of hearing about the immersion blender yet? I hope not–I suspect it’s going to be a soupy winter.)

When I started looking for a recipe, though, I found myself shying away from those full of heavy cream and flour and cups upon cups of cheese. I’ve been feeling lackluster from the lack of vitamins in my diet, and my inability to get to the gym on a regular basis probably means that I should limit my intake of heavy creamy dairy just a titch. I wanted to find a recipe that really let the broccoli dominate, but I was worried about producing boring soup. This was such a conundrum, people!

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Tomato and Mushroom Soup with Pasta Dumplings

Tomato Soup with Dumplings

I didn’t actually intend to make pasta dumplings. And frankly, I think this would have been better if the pasta had turned out the way I wanted it to, so I think this recipe needs a little more tweaking. I actually based this soup off a recipe that has been sitting in my overstuffed recipe folder for almost three years: Mark Bittman’s Pasta in Broth recipe from his New York Times column, The Minimalist. His recipe is minimal, all right, and I am decidedly not a minimalist. So I decided to fancy it up just a little.

What intrigued me about the original recipe is that it seemed like a really easy way to have homemade pasta. No pasta maker necessary, no endless rolling out of dough. Bittman writes that you can just pinch small pieces of dough off the ball and throw them into simmering stock. What could be easier? Sadly, it wasn’t as easy as I thought to pinch small pieces. Mine were larger, and resulted not in pasta so much as in doughy, heavy dumplings. It’s not that they were bad, just…unusual.

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Impromptu Buttercup, I mean, Hubbard Squash Soup

Buttercup Squash Soup

This is clearly the season for soup, and thanks to my lovely mother, there will be a lot of it this week. After last week’s not so smooth (yet still delicious) black bean and butternut squash soup, she went and sent me an immersion blender. Isn’t she awesome? In order to ensure that it gets a lot of use, I’ve already planned to make three, yes, three soups this week. And no, that is not a giant bowl of mustard you see above, that is a very simple, yet very delicious buttercup Hubbard squash soup.

I wasn’t planning on squash soup, since it just seemed a little repetitive, but when I saw Hubbard squash at the Roche on Sunday I had to buy it. Oddly, they called it buttercup squash, but as it turns out it was a Hubbard. Or rather, a piece of a Hubbard. A small piece. A piece so small that, much to my surprise, it made a single bowl of soup. Now that is cooking for one.

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Black Bean and Butternut Squash Soup

Squash Bean Soup

What a minute. Am I actually posting something the day after I cook it, instead of waiting for one or two (or three) weeks before I finally find the time to get around to it? How is this happening? Don’t I have other things I should be doing? Well, yes. Yes I do. But this soup was so delicious, and it’s so perfect for fall, and I’m eating the leftovers for lunch right now, so I decided to take some time out of my way-too-busy day to share. But I’m not sharing the leftovers. Those are mine.

I actually stole this recipe, or at least the inspiration for it, from Smitten Kitchen. And I noticed that the lovely Everybody Likes Sandwiches made it, as well. Maybe this soup will become the new No-Knead Bread. On second thought, although it’s clearly very versatile, it’s not nearly as easy as No-Knead Bread. You might have to be pretty dedicated to both squash and beans to take the time for this soup. And I am both.

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Talk about the Old Country: Pierogies with Tomatoes, Browned Onions, and Dill

Oh delicious potato dumplings

Update: Want to see a new and improved version of this recipe? Here ya go.

I have a serious weakness for pierogies. Little pasta pockets filled with mashed potatoes and cheese? What could be better? I usually pan fry them with just a bit of oil and butter, so they are crispy on the outside and warm and creamy on the inside. I have been known to make an entire meal of nothing but pierogies, on those nights when I’m feeling the need for comfort food. So when I saw this recipe on epicurious, I knew I would have to try it. It seems a little easier to justify eating pierogies for dinner when you put tomatoes and stuff on them, at least to me. I’ll take any reason to justify eating things that are really not that good for me. Putting broccoli in macaroni and cheese makes it health food, right?

So one cold day last week, I figured it was time for a pierogie dinner.

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Classic Chicken Enchiladas

Enchiladas

Update: I re-made Chicken Enchiladas last week (October 2008) and with the aid of my new camera ended up with MUCH better pictures. So I decided to swap them out. Enchiladas are still hard to photograph, but if you’re looking at this post for the first time, I promise you these pictures are much more appealing than those that originally appeared.

Monday night I made perhaps the best enchiladas I’ve ever made. I have to credit Dmitri for this. Every time I’ve made enchiladas before, I couldn’t figure out how to roll them without breaking the tortillas, so I went for a layered, lasagna style of enchiladas. Tasty, certainly, but I was never completely taken in and filled with the love that I suspected enchiladas were supposed to instill in one’s soul. Until now.

Dmitri’s trick involves dipping each tortilla, briefly, into hot oil. Just the slightest oily kiss renders frigid corn tortillas pliable and loving. Er. Sorry for the dip into sordid prose, but it was kind of a revelation for me. I had my suspicions when I saw him doing it, and even when I started working the process myself. But these really were the best enchiladas I’ve ever made.

Of course, it could also have to do with the fact that I finally figured out how to spice my shredded chicken properly. And that I put a nice sized bit of lard in my beans, and really let them cook, slowly, over low heat, until they were really thick and creamy. And that I didn’t overdo it with the cheese, but instead allowed everything to come together in some kind of happy enchilada harmony. Whatever it was, it made me so happy, I could easily have eaten the whole pan myself. Which would have been a very, very bad idea.
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Unexpected deliciousness, in casserole form

Yellow Cauliflower

Last week felt like the beginning of casserole season in Boston: Cool, crisp days, leaves falling from trees, and sweaters unearthed from boxes in the back of the closet. My favorite time of year. And what happens? Suddenly, the temperatures shoot back up into the 80s, and turning the oven on starts to sound like less of a good idea. What is up, Boston? Why do you toy with my emotions? Why do you confuse my wardrobe, not to mention by immune system?

No matter. Last week I got in not just one but TWO casseroles, in that brief and glorious 50 degree period. The sad thing I’ve realized about casseroles is that they really don’t photograph well, as evidenced above. That odd monochromatic agglomeration of vegetables belies how absolutely and unexpectedly wonderful it was. I think I can honestly say that was one of the weirdest casseroles I’ve ever made. In fact, I had little faith, as I was tossing the cauliflower and beef together in cheese sauce, that it was even going to be edible. But lo, when I pulled it out of the oven it was a vision of cheesy, crusty, crunchy vegetable goodness. I was shocked. Happily and gluttonously shocked. I’m going to have to be very careful about these kinds of casseroles unless I can figure out how to work gym-going back into my schedule.

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Chicken in Creamy Chive Sauce and Some More Pork

Creamy Chive Chicken

Oy. Once again, time has gotten away from me and I find myself sharing something I cooked a week and a half ago. It was so delicious, though, that I can’t just relegate it to the files of the never posted. And look, Ma, a balanced dinner! I made this for Mr. X and was all worried that it wasn’t going to be that good: I got the recipe from Eating Well, and have found it to be a little hit or miss (my Mediterranean Pasta Bake was kind of bland, even after I added seasoning to the original recipe). This recipe, for Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Creamy Chive Sauce, was a winner.

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Stuffed Squash is Stuffed Goodness

Stuffed Squash

The day after I made this, I brought leftovers to work for lunch. One of my co-workers took one look at it and said “Eating Well magazine?” She had, apparently, made the same thing earlier in the week. But of course, how could anyone not be tempted by acorn squash stuffed with beans and sausage? I am certainly glad I was tempted because this was amazing. It was one of those great dinners, too, that looks incredibly impressive but doesn’t really take much effort.

I’m sorry Miss Crystal wasn’t here to enjoy this. I thought of her and her risotto-stuffed pumpkin the whole time I was eating it. As she would say, stuffed squash is a quintessentially Laura kind of dinner. And yeah, anything with beans and sausage is a pretty Laura kind of dinner, too.

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Study Break Coffee-Break Muffins

Crumbs

The other night, after I finished writing up my portion of a group paper (who the heck invented the group paper, anyway? Can I torture him?), I decided it was time to get out the mixing bowls, turn on the oven, and cook something from my brand new cookbook: Baking: From My Home to Yours. Yes, I finally got my little hands on Dorie Greenspan’s beautiful book, the book Brilynn over at Jumbo Empanadas has been talking up forever. And I am so glad I did. This enormous tome is full of delicious looking things, but the first thing that caught my eye were these Coffee-Break Muffins.

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