Baked Garlic and Onion Cream Soup

 

It’s Fall – time for soup!!  On Sunday, I made two kinds of soup, along with some foccacia and a chocolate sheet cake.  Yep, I have a happy family!!  So, here’s a recipe to warm you up this Fall.

Baked Garlic and Onion Cream Soup

  (Source:  Appleton Post-Crescent Newspaper  By Darryl Kilsdonk)

Ingredients

• 6 large onions, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 2 heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 5 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves (I used ground thyme with good results)
• 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley for garnish

Directions

• Preheat over to 350 degrees.
• Place the onions and garlic in a shallow roasting pan.  Add 3 cups of the chicken stock.  Sprinkle with the thyme, pepper, and salt.  Dot with butter.
• Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir once or twice while it is baking.
• Remove the pan from the oven and use a blender or food processor to puree the onions and garlic with the liquid in batches, until smooth.
• With the motor on, gradually add the remaining 2 cups stock and the cream.  Pour the soup into a large saucepan.
• Adjust the seasonings and slowly heat through.  Do not allow the soup to boil.
• Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.
• Serves 6-8

My modifications

• I don’t have a roasting pan, so I use 2 9x13 glass baking pans and divide the onions and garlic between them.
• I have found that baking the onions for longer than the 1 1/2 hours makes them softer, but also sweeter.  Experiment to see which consistency and flavor you prefer.
• My blender won’t hold all of this soup, so I puree (actually liquefy or grind!) the contents of one baking pan then empty it into the saucepan, then do the contents of the other baking pan and empty it into the saucepan.  I then add the remaining stock (broth) and cream to the saucepan and stir.  I make my soup really smooth, so there’s nothing lost by not having it all in the blender at once.
• I didn’t have enough cream on Sunday, so I used 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of Half and Half with good results.
• This stores well in the fridge for several days.
• I love it with fresh bread – particularly French bread or foccacia.
• This is also a great soup to keep your insides moving, if you know what I mean!!

Here are the other recipes I used Sunday night:

• Pioneer Woman Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe from Serious Eats
• Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe from Big Mama. 
• Focaccia recipe from Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for More Food.

Happy Cooking!!

Check out what others are saying on Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic!!

Potatoes Gratin

Our family LOVES to watch The Next Food Network Star and we were thrilled when Melissa won last week!!!  For the last challenge, Melissa and Jeffrey each had to do a short pilot episode.  Melissa did a chicken dish with a potato gratin.  Last night for dinner, I was making roast, but I had a couple of potatoes, so Rosie Girl and I decided to do a modification of Melissa’s potato gratin.

We sliced 2 large potatoes and grated about a cup of mild cheddar cheese.  We then layered the potatoes and cheese into the cups of a muffin tin which had already been sprayed with baking spray.  We topped each cup with a pat of butter and added a little milk.  It went in the oven for about 30 minutes.  (Melissa’s original recipe called for Swiss cheese instead of cheddar, and cream instead of milk and butter, but I loved the idea of using the muffin tin.)

The potatoes were delicious and perfectly cooked.  The only problem was that the muffin tin could have been sprayed a little more completely so it was an annoyance to wash.  This is definitely a “keeper” of a recipe – quick and easy to make and well-liked by the family.

Check out Blissfully Domestic and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for more great domestic ideas!!

 

Homemade Pizza – TMTT June 29, 2009

So, everybody has some version of homemade pizza.  What’s so special about mine?  Well, it’s mine!  Is that narcissistic or what?!  Anyway, we had homemade pizza the other night and it turned out really well, so I decided to share what we did.  You might like to try some of our ideas.

Ingredients:

• Pizza crust recipe – I adjust this to use bread machine yeast
• Olive oil
• Contadina pizza sauce
• “Fake Alfredo sauce” – it’s “Healthier Cream Sauce” with parmesan cheese added
• Assorted shredded cheeses
• Pepperoni (we usually also have spiced ground beef)
• Diced, sauted chicken
• Diced, sauted garlic (pieces as large or small as you like)
• Olives
• Pickles (for my daughter)
• Spinach (for me)
• Anything else you like

Technique

• One of the nice things about my kids now being 11 and 14 is that they are old enough for things like doing their own pizza crust.  Everyone took their ball of pizza dough and formed it into an eight inch diameter crust.
• My son and I put our pizzas on insulated pans because we don’t like crispy crusts but my daughter and hubby used regular pans.  In a perfect world, we’d have a pizza stone, or at least an unglazed patio stone (per Alton Brown), but we haven’t gotten around to getting one yet.
• Brush the crust with olive oil.
• Spread on sauce – I like white, everyone else likes red.
• Add veggies and meat.
• Add cheeses.
• Put on pan or pizza stone or patio stone and bake for about 10 minutes at 475-500 degrees or until cheeses are melted and crust is browned.
• Eat and enjoy!!!

This is my pizza with white sauce, spinach, chicken, garlic, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese.

 

 

Wild Man’s pepperoni pizza.

 Rosie Girl’s pizza with olives, pepperoni, pickles, and lots of cheese.

 Mr. Math Tutor’s pizza with a little bit of everything covered with a lot of cheese!!

 

So, check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic for more great recipe and domestic ideas.  And, definitely leave any new pizza ideas here in the comments.  It makes me feel loved!!

Blast From The Past – WFMW April 22, 2009

Today’s entry for Works For Me Wednesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic is an oldy but goody: Comet Cleanser.  I’m not sure how old you have to be to remember this stuff.  I used it in high school when I cleaned the bathroom.  It’s a bluish-green powder that cleans like there’s no tomorrow.  The only other cleaners that we ever needed were window cleaner for the mirror and some X-14 for the mildew.

So, why am I mentioning it now?  Being the sophisticated, 21st century mom that I am, I have been using the spray cleaners that cost an arm and a leg.  I have been trying to faithfully shine my porcelain sink (a la FlyLady), but it just doesn’t get all that shiny.  A couple of weeks ago, I saw the Comet Cleanser for just 75 cents at the local grocery store.  75 CENTS!!!!  Not the four dollars for the fancy spray stuff.  I brought the Comet home and proceeded to use it to clean my sink and the bathroom.  Lo and behold, it worked better than anything I’ve used in the last 20 years (and, no, it didn’t scratch).  It doesn’t have any perfumes, so Mr. Math Tutor didn’t have a problem with the smell.  Then, this week, I found the Comet Cleanser on sale for just 2/$1.00.

I get to save money, relive my childhood, and have a shiny sink, all at once!!!!  Does it get any better than this!

Check out Works for Me Wednesday and Blissfully Domestic for more great ideas!!

Non-Oriental Fried Rice

First things first – go to this post to read the review of Clutter-Free Christianity.  Leave a comment and you will automatically be entered in the drawing for a free book to be held on Thursday, April 9.  So, go check it out!!

With my new Gluten-Free diet, I am having to learn new ways to eat.  Last week I wanted to have 40 Cloves and a Chicken, but we always enjoy that with crusty French Bread (which is, of course, made with wheat).  Since I’m not quite ready to try my hand at gluten-free bread, I decided to make a rice dish.  I wanted to do fried rice, but I didn’t have gluten-free soy sauce (most soy sauce has a lot of wheat) and I didn’t really want an Oriental feel to the rice.  I decided, instead, to make a Non-Oriental Fried Rice.  What I have here is not so much a recipe as instructions since I didn’t really measure things out in much detail.  But, my rice turned out delicious, and we had a lovely gluten-free meal.

Non-Oriental Fried Rice

Make 40 Cloves and a Chicken.  As soon as you put it in the oven to cook, start making white rice (about 5-6 cups).  When it is done, put it in the freezer to cool.  Stir the rice several times to help it cool completely.

When you take the chicken out of the oven, take the rice from the freezer.  Ladle 1 Tbsp of olive oil from the chicken into a skillet.  Add a well-whisked egg and swirl to cover the bottom of the pan.  Allow the egg to cook until completely set.  Slide out of the skillet onto a cutting board.  Cut into small pieces.

Ladle 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil from the chicken into the skillet and heat.  Remove most of the garlic pieces from the chicken dish and mix with the rice.  Add the rice and garlic to the oil when it is heated.  As you fry the rice, add the egg and season as desired with sage and thyme.  If you need, you can add more olive oil from the chicken dish.

I served the chicken pieces on a platter, the fried rice in a bowl, and some steamed broccoli on the side.  The rest of the family sopped up the rest of the oil with bread. 

As you can tell, this is some seriously garlicky food!!  But it is yummy.  I hope you enjoy it!

Check out Blissfully Domestic and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for more great recipes and ideas.

 

Teaching a Wiggly Ten Year Old Dyslexic Boy

My son has always been a mover and a shaker.  I first felt him move in utero at 16 weeks – a full 4 weeks earlier than I had felt his sister, and about 2 weeks earlier than expected.  And, I don’t think he’s stopped since then.  He’s also dyslexic which means that his brain doesn’t process language normally.  He has trouble with reading and spelling, in particular.

I’m always looking for strategies to help my wiggly boy with his more “schooly” activities.  For the most part, I try to adapt to his best learning style, which is auditory.  I also try to let him move around when possible and talk to himself out loud when he needs to (often requiring that he be in a room separate from his sister who works best in silence or music).  Spelling is one of the hardest subjects for him.  Not only does he have trouble with the subject itself, but it’s a lesson that has to go at my (the teacher’s) pace, not his.  We use All About Spelling, so he does get to use the magnet board and tiles, but it’s still a challenge.

I read a short article about schools using stability balls instead of chairs for students in classrooms.  The claim was that the students were able let out some of their pent up energy through the ball while they still were able to concentrate on lessons.  In addition, the article claimed that the students showed improvement in posture.

So, I tried it.  I have a stability ball that I use for exercise, so I had Wild Man try it for spelling and Explode the Code.  He absolutely loved it today, but I can’t say yet exactly why it is helping.  He did spend some time today singing while rolling around on the ball, but he also sings while goofing off in the chair.  So, maybe it’s just novelty, but I am optimistic that the stability ball will allow him to keep part of his body moving while working his brain.

I already owned the ball, so there was no cost to trying this out.  I’ll give an update in a week or so and report how he’s doing with regular use of the ball instead of a regular chair.

Check out I Am Blissfully Domestic for more great ideas!!  Also, don’t forget to read my book review and leave a comment to get signed up for a book giveaway.

P.S. Yeah, I know I usually post something to do with food on Tuesdays, but I have a headache and we’ve been seriously overwhelmed with Science Fair projects and not doing much exciting with food, so I don’t have any new recipes to share right now.  And I don’t know if that duck is going to get cooked this week.

Catherine’s Pecan Pie

(First of all, go to this post for the giveaway of Never Say Diet and the Never Say Diet Fitness Trainer.  Just leave a comment to get entered.  The drawing is on Thursday.  Go.  Now.  Before you finish reading this post.  That book is great and you really need it so go leave a comment before you do anything else.  OK, back now?  Good.  Here’s today’s post.)

My husband and my father both love pecan pie.  In fact, there’s a funny story that’s part of the pecan pie lore of our family.  When my dad was in college at LSU many years ago, he would save up his money all week (he wasn’t exactly rolling in dough) so he could go have a slice of Mother Baker’s pie at a local restaurant.  It turns out that Mr. Math Tutor’s father was a waiter at that restaurant during some of the time that my dad was at LSU, so Mr. Math Tutor’s dad may have served my dad some of that wonderful pecan pie so many years ago!

One of the greatest baking compliments that I ever received was when my dad told me that my pecan pie was almost as good as Mother Baker’s.  I felt so honored!!  I made Mr. Math Tutor a pecan pie this week as a belated birthday gift, so I thought I’d share my recipe with you.  This recipe is based on the pecan recipe you can find on the Karo syrup label, but has a few changes that I have made.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dark Karo corn syrup
• 1/2 cup light Karo corn syrup
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup pecans
• 1 unbaked 9-inch deep dish pie crust (I use frozen)

Directions

1. 1. Stir together first five ingredients.
2. 2. Arrange pecans in the pie crust to make a nice design (or just spread on the bottom if you’re in a hurry!)
3. 3. Pour filling over the pecans which will now rise to the top.
4. 4. Bake at 350 F for 50-55 min until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean or internal temp reaches 200 F.  I also find it helpful to bake it on a cookie sheet or pie pan.

Enjoy!!  Now, go Tempt My Tummy Tuesday to see what great ideas other women have posted.  Go.  Now.  Did you hear me?  Oh – you want to write down this recipe?  OK.  Go ahead.  Done, now?  Good.  Go visit that site and get even more great stuff!

Healthier Cream Sauce

I like food with flavor.  I went to school in southern Louisiana and learned to really love Cajun food as well as the traditional Southern food on which I was raised.

I’m trying to eat healthier, but I have no desire to give up yummy food.  So, I get frustrated when I read that eating healthy requires that I eat only plain food without sauces.  I love sauces and gravies.  When I was in med school in New Orleans, Mr. Math Tutor and I would go to Copeland’s and have delicious seafood and pasta with thick, rich cream sauces.

When I cook, though, I don’t make “real” cream sauces.  I’ve learned to modify a basic white sauce to substitute for the rich (and not-so-healthy) cream sauces we enjoy at restaurants.  By my calculations, 1/4 cup of my faux white sauce has about 75 calories, while the same amount of cream sauce has over 200 calories.  Here’s how I do it:

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp white flour
• 2 Tbsp butter or oil – I use butter sometimes, but I like to use olive oil for a pasta sauce.
• 1 cup liquid – The original recipe I use calls for 1 cup milk, but I often use part skim milk and part broth.  Other times, I may use mostly broth with just a splash of milk.

Directions:

• Whisk the flour and butter or oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Do not brown (or you’ll get gravy).
• Slowly add the liquid, whisking until combined.
• Cook until the sauce thickens.

Variations

• Divan sauce – use half broth and half milk for the liquid.  Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese after the sauce is thickened.  If it is too thick, whisk in a little more milk.
• Cheese sauce – when the sauce is done, add 1 cup of shredded cheese.  Usually, I use cheddar cheese, but life can be more interesting with Gruyere or a mixture of Gruyere and smoked Provolone.  Experiment till you find what you like!
• Cajun cream sauce – start by using olive oil.  Add some chopped onion, garlic, and green pepper and cook until they are softened.  Add the flour and whisk well.  Use half milk and half broth for the liquid.  Add cayenne and/or paprika to taste.  Add cheese, if desired.
• Brown gravy – use vegetable oil instead of butter.  Brown the flour until it is pleasantly brown and has a nutty aroma.  You may need to use another tablespoon or so of flour than called for.  Use broth or juices from the meat as the liquid.  Make sure to start adding liquid as soon as the flour is browned so you don’t burn the flour.  (Alton Brown made a roux in the oven the other day on Good Eats.  Seems rather blasphemous to me, but check out his show if you’re interested.)

There it is – my comprehensive guide to sauces that won’t add hundreds of calories to your meals.  Of course, on special occasions, you may want to use a little half-and-half or cream as part of the liquid.  And, to keep the calories under control, watch the portion size.  1/4 cup of sauce should be enough for most meals.  You can vary this recipe endless ways so don’t be afraid to try new things.

Do you have any other great sauce ideas or additions?  Let me know in the comments!  Check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for more great recipes and I Am Blissfully Domestic for hints and helps for the domestic life.

Special thanks go to my mom for teaching me such a versatile skill as making white sauce.

Calendars - Keeping Track of Everything

I have tried just about every calendar system out there over the last twenty years - Daytimer, Palm, family notebook, Outlook.  When keeping track of my own calendar, I could usually make things work pretty well, but keeping track of multiple calendars (mine and Mr. Math Tutor's) has given me fits.  How could we each have calendars that kept up with events that would affect both of us?  If I used a paper calendar, I had to add to it regularly and generally missed things.  Electronics are ideal, but it's hard to coordinate both my and Mr. Math Tutor's schedules.  We have, though come up with something that seems to work - Google Calendar.

Here's how we make it work for us:  Mr. Math Tutor set up his own Google Calendar then gave me permission (in Google) to add to his calendar from my Google account.  When I am in iGoogle (which I usually am), I can see this calendar which contains all family events.  Mr. Math Tutor just got a Blackberry which he can sync directly with Google Calendar.  We have the Google Calendar set up to automatically sync with Outlook.  I use a Palm and HotSync with Outlook every couple of days.  So far, this works for us.  It was a little effort in the setup, but is pretty easy to keep up with.  Now, we can see where the other person is and what they're up to!

 

Rice and Gravy!

Today, you get a twofer - yep, this post is being cross-posted on Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic.  You're seriously getting your money's worth today.

Mr. Math Tutor and I both grew up on good, old-fashioned Southern food, and the favorite for both of us was rice and gravy - as in, roast beef, rice, and gravy; or cubed steak, rice, and gravy; or even "just" rice and gravy.  Ga'hoole Girl clearly has our genetic material as she loves any meal with rice and gravy.  We were concerned, though, about Wild Man until just a month ago.  He would eat meat as long as the gravy was scraped off, and he would eat rice without gravy.  He didn't like gravy.  I tried calling it "sauce" for a while, but he didn't buy it.  About a month ago, though, I made roast beef, rice, and gravy, and he decided to try the gravy.  And, he liked it!!  Two nights ago, I made wild turkey breast (nothing like free meat) with rice and gravy, and he was happy again!  I no longer have to worry that he was switched at birth (although I don't know how he could have been since I was a paranoid new mother and wouldn't let him out of my sight!).  He's really part of the family.

My gravy isn't much different from that of my mother and mother-in-law.  "First you make a roux" as they say in New Orleans.  That means that you mix some oil and flour (start with 2 Tbsp of each) and cook on the stove until lightly brown (actually, you cook till it's as brown as you like - we like it almost burned, but it's taken trial and error (and plenty of thrown out gravy) to regularly get it right).  At this point, Mr. Math Tutor adds a handful of onions and then adds the liquid.  I leave out the onions and start adding liquid.  Start with a small amount of water, broth, or bouillon, stirring till smooth, then gradually adding more until it is as thick as you like.  For 2 Tbsp each of oil and flour, you will need about a cup of liquid.  I like to use canned broth for my gravy so I don't have to worry about whether I've cooked the gravy for long enough in the meat to get a good flavor.  As I've mentioned, Mr. Math Tutor adds onions before the liquid.  I sometimes add onion soup mix or minced onion or garlic after the gravy is made.  Then, you put the gravy and meat together to cook and meld their yummy flavors for 30 minutes or more.  Serve with meat over rice, mashed potatoes, or bread.  Does it get any better than this?

Check out Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and I Am Blissfully Domestic for other great recipes and domestic ideas!!

I Am Blissfully Domestic - Kids in the Kitchen

Today, I'm participating in the "I am Blissfully Domestic" feature at Blissfully Domestic.  This morning, the kids and I watched an episode of "Good Eats" that was about cooking with kids, so I thought I'd share some of our family's kitchen experiences.

Since the kids were little, they have been helping in the kitchen.  They have been setting and clearing the table since they've been able to hold the dishes.  When they expressed interest in cooking, I started to let them help cook.  At first, they poured ingredients that I had measured into the bowl.  Later, they started to do the measuring themselves.  We then moved on to them using the mixer, then later cooking on the stove.  When they were reading, I had them read recipes and follow the recipe directions.  Now, they are both pretty independent in the kitchen.  In fact, Wild Man has been getting very frustrated that I want to help him bake.  He's ready to go it alone.

Over the last few years, I've learned a few thing about letting kids in the kitchen.

1. Safety first!  One of my kids had a bad habit of forgetting to turn the burner off when finished cooking.  We've talked about that as well as having some consequences, so it's not a problem anymore.  Both kids know where the fire extinguisher is as well as how to use it.  They also know how to smother fires if they are ever without a fire extinguisher.  They also have been taught how to use knives, etc.  While some injuries are inevitable, I have done my best to make sure the kids are doing things safely and in an age-appropriate fashion.

2. Clean up!  Basically, if I have to clean up after someone else's cooking, that person doesn't get to cook again for a week or so.  I don't expect them to get everything quite as clean as I do, but I do expect that the ingredients are put away, the dishes are in the dishwasher, and that the counters are wiped off.  Their cooking should not create much extra work for other people.

3. Eat what they cook.  One of my best memories of my teen years is my dad eating chicken and rice that was crunchy since the rice wasn't completely cooked.  And he didn't complain.  Talk about unconditional love!  I try to do the same with my kids.  Unless it's dangerous, I eat it.

4. Be encouraging.  My kids are both rather perfectionistic and they get really uptight if their creations don't measure up to their incredibly high expectations.  I am happy to encourage their efforts and remind them that only God is perfect.  I try to help them see that even failures are a great learning experience.

5. Allow for failure.  When my kids make something that really is not good, they have the freedom to throw it out.  I try to make this possible by having them cook with inexpensive ingredients.  So, if Ga'hoole Girl wants to make something with salmon or shrimp, I'm more likely to supervise than if she's making something with ground beef or venison.  Throwing out $15 worth of food is pretty tough, but I'm happy to call $2 worth of food a learning experience.

6. Hands off.  As my kids have gotten older, they have requested less and less help from me.  Now, they prefer to work completely on their own and kick me out of the kitchen.  It's hard for a control freak like me to let go, but the lessons they learn from working independently are truly worth it.

What do you do in the kitchen with your kids?  Leave a comment below!  Check out Blissfully Domestic for more great domestic ideas.