National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day!

Can you believe it? God's most loving food-gift to mankind was celebrated all across the world yesterday. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Surely one of life's greatest and simplest treasures.

Isn't it funny how particular we are about our pb&j's? For example, do you prefer creamy or crunchy, store-bought or organic peanut butter? And jelly. Are you grape only or do you venture out to other flavors? My personal peculiarity is the assembly of the pb&j. Crust or no crust, more peanut butter than jelly or vice versa? And don't even get me started on all the pb&j knockoffs out there.

In honor of this precious holiday, I searched for an awesome pb&j feast. In doing so I came across an article titled "55 Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes." To my shock and awe, there was a pb&j soup. Yes!

Here is the recipe from buzzfeed.com:

2 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp Onion, grated
1 Stalk Celery, diced
2 Tbsp Flour
3 cups Chicken broth (try low sodium)
1/2 cup Creamy peanut butter (try reduced fat for fewer calories)
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Light cream
2 Tbsp Roasted peanuts, chopped
1/2 cup Grape jelly (can use low sugar or fruit preserves instead)

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add onion and celery and sauté for 5 minutes. Add flour and mix until well blended. Slowly stir in chicken broth and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and strain broth to remove the celery and onions. Next, stir the peanut butter, salt and cream into the strained broth until mixed well. Serve hot. Garnish each serving with a teaspoon of chopped peanuts and a dollop of your favorite jelly.

Make 4 servings.

"Till next time,
Natalie

Hearty Beef and Vegetable Soup

I found this recipe on A Family Feast's blog. Rather than being called Hearty Beef and Vegetable Soup, it should be called Everything but Your Kitchen Sink Beef and Vegetable Soup. If you haven't noticed by the list of ingredients it has almost every vegetable you can imagine. The fun part of this soup was that you can definitely get creative with the ingredients. If you don't like one vegetable then leave it out. If you prefer kale instead of spinach, then substitute it or add it to the recipe. The wine gave the broth a deeper flavor but if your taste buds dislike wine (I can't imagine why they would) then just leave it out and add more V-8 juice and beef stock. You can really make it your own which I loved. It was delicious and definitely hearty. It made for great leftovers and would freeze pretty well. 

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Serves: 12-14 servings

Ingredients:

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 lb. chuck beef, cut into small pieces

1 cup onions, diced

1/2 cup celery, died

1 cup carrots, diced

1/2 cup leeks, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

12 oz V-8 juice

1/2 cup red wine

2 quarts beef stock

2 cups water

1 (14 oz) can diced tomatos

1 cup cabbage, chopped

1 white turnip, diced

1/2 cup green beans, roughly chopped

3 oz baby spinach

1 (11 oz) can corn, drained

1 (14 oz) can white beans, drained & rinsed

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat.

Place beef in oil and sear on all sides. Be sure not to crowd the pot so cook the beef in batches. 

Add onion, celery, carrots, and leeks and saute fore 5 minutes or until the vegetables are slightly tender.

Add garlic and cook an additional minute.

Stir in tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the dried thyme.

Add the V-8 juice and red wine to deglaze the pot. Cook for one more minute while scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot. 

Add the beef stock and water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 40 minutes.

Stir in the green beans and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

Stir i the cabbage, turnip, and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the potatoes, spinach, corn, and white beans and bring back to a boil. Simmer for 5 more minutes or until the potato is cooked. 

Add salt and pepper to taste if needed.

I hope you enjoy this hearty beef and vegetable soup!

'Till next time,

Caroline 

Smoky Black Bean Soup

If I had to pick a favorite type of bean, black beans are definitely up there. They are great in dips, soups, burritos, or on their own. In this soup, they pair perfectly with the smokiness of the bacon and paprika as well as the full bodied flavor that the chili powder brings to the soup. The lime and cilantro also bring a unique acidity and flavor to this soup that takes it from ordinary to unique and delicious.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 8-10 servings

Ingredients:
10 slices of smoked bacon
2 1/2 cups chopped onion (about 2 onions)
6 garlic cloves, diced
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1 3/4 cups canned chopped tomatoes
2 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
2 (26.5 oz) cans black beans, drained
1 lime
1 cup cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream, garnish
green onions, garnish

On a cutting board, chop 2 1/2 cups of onions and dice 6 garlic cloves.

Cut 10 slices of bacon into small 1/2 inch pieces. 

In a large stock pot over medium-high heat, add bacon and cook for 4-7 minutes until bacon begins to release its fat and cook down. 

Stir in the onions and cook an additional 4-6 minutes until onions become translucent.

Add in the garlic and cook an additional minute. 

Once the garlic has cooked and is fragrant, stir in the chicken broth, chili powder, paprika, worcestershire sauce, and tomatoes. 

Stir together, bring to a boil over medium to medium-high heat, and cook for 5 minutes.

While cooking, drain the black beans in a colander over the sink. Drain but do not rinse the beans.

After the soup has cook for 5 minutes, stir in the drained black beans and simmer at a gentle bubble for 10 minuts. 

While the soup is cooking, wash and dry the cilantro. Remove the thick stems and roughly chop the cilantro leaves. 

Stir in the cilantro and the juice from 1/2 a lime to the soup. If you are like me and like all things citrus, feel free to use the whole lime. 

Cook the soup for an additional 10 minutes. 

Ladle the soup into a bowl and garnish with sour cream and sliced green onions.

'Till next time,
Caroline 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Whenever I go to a Mexican restaurant, one of my favorite things to order is Chicken Tortilla Soup. The main ingredients usually involve chicken, fried tortilla strips, a hearty broth, avocados, cilantro, lime, and onion. After that there are a ton of different spins on the recipe ranging from adding corn, black beans, rice, and so on. Here is my spin on this popular Mexican soup. 

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 30-45 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients: 

6 corn tortillas

vegetable cooking spray

2 Tbls. olive oil

1 jalapeno pepper (optional)

1 yellow onion

3/4 cup diced carrots

3 garlic cloves

1/3 cup cilantro

1 Tbls. ground cumin

2 Tbls. chili powder

2 bay leaves

6 cups chicken broth

1 rotisserie chicken

1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes with green chiles

2 avocados

2 limes

1 small red onion

Queso Fresco, crumbled for serving

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Slice the 6 corn tortillas into very thin strips. 

Spread the tortilla strips on a cookie sheet and spray them lightly with vegetable oil cooking spray. Bake the tortilla strips on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes. About every 5 minutes, give the strips a stir to ensure even baking. 

While the tortilla are getting crispy, slice your carrots, yellow onion, and garlic into a small dice. 

In a large stockpot over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Once the oil has heated up, add your chopped onion, carrots and garlic to the stockpot. Remove the the seeds, chop, and add 1/2 to 1 jalapeno at this point if you like a little extra heat. I used 1/2 jalapeno and it was just enough heat.  Saute the vegetables for 5 minutes. 

After about 5 minutes and the vegetables have started to get soft, stir in the cumin, chili powder, and bay leaves. Allow the spices to cook with the vegetables for about 1 minute. 

After you have cooked in the spices for 1 minute, stir in 1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves and cook for an additional minute. 

After the spices and cilantro have become incorporated into the vegetables, stir in the whole can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. 

Stir and cook the tomatoes in for an additional minute. 

Once everything has been incorporated, stir in 6 cups of chicken broth. 

Bring soup up to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. 

While the soup is cooking, remove and discard the skin from the rotisserie chicken. Shred the meat and set it aside. 

After simmering the soup for 5-10 minutes, stir in the chicken and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes. 

After the soup has finished cooking, stir in salt and pepper to taste. 

Garnish soup with diced red onion, cilantro, avocado, a squeeze of lime, crumbled queso fresco, and the toasted tortilla strips. 

Enjoy!!

'Till next time,
Caroline

Cauliflower Soup

Photo credit: Real Simple

I appreciate nothing more then getting straight down to business and cutting the fluff. Sweet Brown says it best..."ain't nobody got time for that." That's my philosphy for cooking, make it as easy and quick (and painless) as possible. Real Simple does just that. They posted this easy recipe for Cauliflower Soup that seems so good and easy to make.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 small head cauliflower

5 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 Tbsp. thyme leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the sliced garlic in the oil in a large pot over medium heat, stirring until golden (2-3 minutes). Remove and reserve the garlic.  Add the chopped cauliflower, chicken broth, thyme, salt and pepper to the pot. Simmer until tender (15-20 minutes). Transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Top with the garlic, and drizzle with olive oil. Add additional thyme if desired before serving.

'Till next time,

Matthew

Chipotle Chicken Soup

Photo Credit: Katrina Runs for Food

When it's cold outside all I want to do is wrap myself in a big cozy blanket, sit next to the fireplace, and eat a hearty bowl of soup. A bowl of soup that warms you from the inside out. You know the kind I am talking about! It has the right amount of heat, is hearty, and makes you want to take a nap after you finish eating. 

Searching for the perfect recipe was quite a challenge. You can't just type in "soup to eat by a fireplace that makes you want to nap" in Google and expect to get a good result. So I headed to my favorite websites when searching for recipes: FoodGawker, Tastespotting, Pinterest, and Foodnetwork. 

I am an extremely visual person when it comes to finding recipes. Food has so many visual components to it and you usually eat with your eyes first. I'll admit that if a recipe doesn't have a picture with it I am usually very hesitant to try it. While on FoodGawker, I found this recipe for Chipotle Chicken Soup. It has the perfect combination of chicken, vegetables, and heat from the chipotle peppers. Check out this fabulous recipe on the blog Katrina Runs for Food. Oh and did I mention it is gluten free! Definitely a plus! 

'Till next time,

Caroline 

Italian Wedding Soup

I've always been intrigued by Italian Wedding Soup but for one reason or another I have never worked up the courage to eat it or make it. Spending close to an hour pouring over recipes, I finally came across Recipe Girl's version of Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup. The soup appeared to have complex flavors yet seemed really simple to make. Also the meatballs looked delicious so I knew I had to give this recipe a try. 

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8 

Ingredients:
Meatballs:
1 lb. ground turkey
1/2 lb. turkey sausage
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup fresh Italian Parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
3 Tbsp. milk
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

Soup:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
10 cups chicken broth
1 cup orzo pasta
8 oz. fresh baby spinach, washed & stemmed 
1/4 cup minced fresh dill (optional)
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
parmesan cheese for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a medium bowl, mix together ground turkey, turkey sausage (casings removed), breadcrumbs, minced garlic cloves, chopped parsley, parmesan cheese, milk, egg, and salt and pepper until combined. 

Roll turkey mixture into 1-inch or smaller meatballs (about 1 tablespoon of turkey mixture). Place meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or non-stick foil. Bake meatballs for 30 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked all the way through. 

While the meatballs are in the oven, dice carrots, onion, and celery and set aside. Add olive oil to a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Add celery, carrots, and onion to oil and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. 

Once vegetables have softened, add chicken broth and if using, white wine (I did not personally care for the flavor that the wine added to the broth but some people love it.) Bring the soup to a boil. Add the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6 - 8 minutes or until the pasta is tender. 

If desired, stir in the chopped fresh dill at this point. I also did not care for the dill flavor in this soup. When I make it again, I will leave out the dill and add 1/2 tsp. oregano to it.  But if you love the flavor of dill, stick to the recipe and add the 1/4 cup chopped dill. 

After adding the dill, stir in the cooked meatballs and spinach. Simmer the meatballs and spinach in the soup for 1 minute until the spinach is just wilted and the meatballs are warm. 

Serve the soup garnished with extra parmesan cheese. 

Keep in mind that this soup makes a lot of delicious meatballs. You can store extra meatballs and use them in dishes such as spaghetti. 

'Till next time,
Caroline

SNOW DAYS!

Southern people and snow DO NOT MIX. As I'm writing this, Matt is propped in his window sill watching for any slight turn in the weather as he gets his weather updates via text. Bless him. Whether it's a rain storm, wind storm, hail storm or "severe" weather storm, he becomes the office forecaster and giddy at any chance we might possible get to leave early or even have a snow day.

Apparently, snow is currently headed this way and potentially some black ice. This has been the talk around the office all week. I wish you could see the attire of people around here.  They are either bundled up like walking teddy bears or look like there's a bus leaving for the Bahamas. The problem is we have no idea what to do with snow. We don't know what to wear, how to prepare, how to drive, how to react so we just prepare in the same way we would if walkers (Walking Dead reference there) start taking over. We buy out our local grocery stores and we load up on fire wood, candles, generators, and flashlights.

Before all of you race out to Kroger, I thought you may enjoy some snow-friendly soup suggestions. Here are some of my favorites from the blog: 

1. Chili con Carne
2. Loaded Baked Potato
3. Cheesy, Turkey Corn Chowder
4. Southwestern White Chicken Chili

Here's another one that looks yummy.
 All-day soup

And a favorite...snow ice cream!

"Till next time, 
Natalie

Buffalo Chicken Soup

Buffalo Chicken is my all time favorite pizza. There's nothing better than chicken and hot sauce.  So why not turn my love of Buffalo Chicken (dip, pizza, etc.) into a soup? So I did. I hope you enjoy this Buffalo Chicken Soup as much as I did.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

4 cups of 2% milk

2 cans of cream of chicken

1 can of cream of onion

1 8oz container of sour cream

1/4 - 1/2 cup of Louisiana's Hot Sauce

3-4 cups of chopped or shredded chicken

Combine all ingredients in a medium to large stock pot.  Stirring occasionally, bring to simmer over medium high heat, reduce to low once simmering.  Cook for 40 minutes.

I used three 9oz frozen chicken packages from Purdue, but you could just as easily use a rotisserie chicken.  I just used skim milk because that is what I had in the fridge, but I would recommend using 2% milk. Since I love hot sauce, I used 1/2 cup, but feel free to just use as little as 1/4 of a cup.

Garnish with cheese and bacon bits.  Serve with tortilla chips. 

You could easily turn this into a slow-cooker recipe.  Combine all ingredients in the crockpot, cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours.

'Till next time,

Matthew

We Went BOWLing!

(Read in your finest country-bumpkin accent for best results)

If bloggin' don't work out then my next job is junkin'.  Yup, we here GA folk love us a yard sell find!  Call em' second hand treasures, rusty ol' throw-aways or lost diamonds in the ruff but if it shimmers, we buy it. Being I'm Matt's only white-trash friend, I felt it was my christian duty to introduce him to the art of shoppin' on a dime.  None of that Pottery Barn nonsense.  Let me tell you somethin', if you wanna buy from a barn, I'll show ya how it's done.

The dream team went out this past Saturday with all the profits from this blog (uh...none) and bought us a treasure or two. Bowls.  Caroline had complained long enough about the lack of 'artistic variety' in our combined soup bowl collection.  So treasure hunting we went.  If the photographer ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

We hit some of my favorite antique and junk stores in Rome and definitely found some interesting bowls.  Here are some of our cool finds.  Keep an eye out for them in upcoming posts.

'Till next time, 
Natalie

Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Mmmm. Olive Garden does a lot of things right but I have to say that their chicken gnocchi soup paired with salad and breadsticks is AWESOME! Thankfully, my family consists of a bunch of Italian wannabe's, so we frequent our local Olive Garden often. This is what I order almost every time. There are many recipes that try to copycat this decadent soup and if I must say so myself, this one here came pretty darn close.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, boiled
4 Tbsp of butter
16 oz. of evaporated milk
4 Tbsp of olive oil
18 oz of chicken broth
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
3 garlic cloves minced
1 medium onion, chopped fine
Carrots (.5 cup if chopped in food processor, 1 cup if shredded)
2 cups of fresh baby spinach chopped
16 oz package of gnocchi
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Let's get started.

Chop your celery.

And now your garlic.

I put my carrots and onion in the food processor to get them very fine.



 

Coarsely chop your spinach.

Take your butter and olive oil to saute your onions and garlic. Once transparent, add your flour and stir for about one minute creating your roux.

Now add your evaporated milk, chicken broth, carrots and celery. Stir occasionally.

I took my kitchen sheers to my boiled chicken to get the right pieces. Not too shredded and not too chunky. I also added salt and pepper before adding to the soup.

Now add your chicken and spinach.

Cook your gnocchi according to package directions, drain and add to your soup base. I bought wheat gnocchi because I was feeling healthy. Olive Garden uses the white and I will probably try that next time.

This soup turned out great. My version was a little thicker than Olive Garden's but I liked that better. If you like a runnier consistency then I would recommend adding more chicken broth or even water. I added a good bit of salt and pepper based on our preferences. I sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and it was the perfect blend! I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

'Till next time,

Natalie