Chicken and Dumplings Soup

Chicken and Dumplings Soup

Ingredients:

For the Soup:

• 1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into 1/2 cubes
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 4 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 half stick (2 tbsp.) butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp. ground mustard
• 1/8 tsp ground  turmeric (for color)
• 1 bay leaf
• 64 oz. low-sodium chicken stock
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh  parsley
• Pepper to taste

Dumplings:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3 Tb. grated parmesan cheese
• 1 Tb fresh thyme leaves, finely minced
• 1/2 tsp. fresh rosemary, finely minced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground pepper
• 3/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. In a large sauce pot, melt the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for about 3-4minutes. Add celery and carrots. Cook for another 7-8 minutes. Stir occasionally.
2. Add the mustard,  turmeric, bay leaf and chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Stir in the chicken. Then cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes
3. Meanwhile, put the ingredients for the dumplings in a medium bowl. Mix with a fork until a wet doughy consistency is reached.
4. Once the soup base has cooked down, bring the  temperature  back up to a boil. Then use a spoon to drop scant 1/2-teaspoon  lumps of dough into the soup. Simmer 5 minutes, until the chicken and dumplings are cooked through. Remove the bay leaf and serve warm.

Fall Garden Vegetable Soup

Fall Garden Vegetable Soup

With this being the end of the season, we're doing lots of harvesting of our veggies and putting them to good use. I'm particularly fond of garden veggie soup. This week's soup includes vegetables from our garden and my inlaws' garden: green pepper leaves, tomatoes, butternut, eggplant, zucchini, 2 serrano peppers and from the store: onions, garlic and carrots.

Ingredientes:
1/2 eggplant cubed
1 large zucchini cubed
2 medium carrots chopped
1 large onion cubed
garlic to taste (2-3 cloves is good, minced or sliced thinly)
3 medium tomatoes, diced
2 serrano peppers minced
1c cooked, mashed butternut squash
2-3 handfuls whole green pepper leaves (plucked right off of the plant, top tender leaves are best)
2c chicken broth
In a large heavy bottom stockpot, heat 3 tbsp olive oil. Mix together eggplant, zucchini, carrots, onions, serrano and garlic. Heat until veggies are tender (about 5-7minutes), stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, heat and stir about 5min. Add broth, squash and leaves. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30min. Serve with fresh bread. Great leftover too or with meat (shrimp is delightful) or chickpeas would be a good protein addition.

Garden Chickpea Salad

Garden Chickpea Salad

2 small cucumbers, diced

2 medium slicing tomatoes, diced

1 small zucchini

1 medium green pepper, diced

2T chopped chives

1 can chickpeas, drained

Vinegarette:

2T balsamic vinegar

4T olive oil

1t dried basil or fresh (to taste)

pinch of salt

Whisk vinegar, olive oil, basil and salt together into an emulsification. Toss cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers, chives and chickpeas together in a medium bowl. Drizzle the vinegarette in and toss. Serve over fresh spring greens, romain or green leaf lettuce.

Sweet Potato Kale and Sausage Hash

Sweet Potato Kale and Sausage Hash

Ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into a fine 1/4" dice
• 1 medium onion, finely sliced
• 2 - 3 cups fresh kale ( ribs and stems removed, roughly chopped leaves)
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Salt
• Ground black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Ring of keilbasa, smoked sausage or turkey sausage (chopped)

Instructions
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium-high skillet, toss chopped keilbasa in and cook about 5minutes, stirring. Until golden. Remove from pan and set aside. 
 
Heat 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add in the finely diced sweet potatoes, onion, cumin, paprika and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 
 
Cook mixture, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are cooked through and tender, about 15minutes. Add keilbasa back into the skillet, toss. 
 
Add kale into the skillet approximately during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Taste the hash and season with additional salt or pepper if needed. 
 
Optional: boost of protein, add a fried or poached egg to the top.

Katie and I got to "crash" a wedding this past weekend.  We danced our booties off and did some of our favorite songs with the bride and groom and their guests.  We think the DJ felt like we were ruining his show...  oh well!  We have another one planned for early 2014!  So exciting!

This marks the first day of Make Every Bite Count (more on that later this week).  This morning's breakfast was banana nut pancakes topped with plain yogurt and berries with a side of bacon and some milky sweet tea!  Yummy!

Perfect fuel for our very first R.I.P.P.E.D class which we rolled out this morning to a very willing audience of 15.  It rocked!!!

Make Every Bite Count Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini Fritters (from Smitten Kitchen)

Adapted a bit from Simply Recipes

Yield: About 10 2 ½ inch fritters

1 pound (about 2 medium) zucchini

1 tsp coarse or Kosher salt, plus extra to taste

2 scallions, split lengthwise and sliced thin

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Freshly ground black pepper

½ cup all-purpose flour (Emily's note – or substitute with a nut flour for a less processed option)

½ tsp. Baking powder

olive or another oil of your choice, for frying (Emily's note – try something that is the least processed)

To serve (optional)

1 cup sour cream or plain, full-fat yogurt

1 to 2 TBSP lemon juice

¼ tsp lemon zest

pinches of salt

1 small minced or crushed clove of garlic

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Have a baking sheet ready.

Trim ends off zucchini and grate them either on the large holes of a box grater or, if you have one, using the shredding blade of a food processor. The latter is my favorite as I’m convinced it creates the coarsest and most rope-like strands and frankly, I like my fritters to look like mops.

In a large bowl, toss zucchini with 1 teaspoon coarse salt and set aside for 10 minutes. Wring out the zucchini in one of the following ways: pressing it against the holes of a colander with a wooden spoon to extract the water, squeezing out small handfuls at a time, or wrapping it up in a clean dishtowel or piece of cheese cloth and wringing away. You’ll be shocked (I was!) by the amount of liquid you’ll lose, but this is a good thing as it will save the fritters from sogginess.

Return deflated mass of zucchini shreds to bowl. Taste and if you think it could benefit from more salt (most rinses down the drain), add a little bit more; we found 1/4 teaspoon more just right. Stir in scallions, egg and some freshly ground black pepper. In a tiny dish, stir together flour and baking powder, then stir the mixture into the zucchini batter.

In a large heavy skillet — cast iron is dreamy here — heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Drop small bunches of the zucchini mixture onto the skillet only a few at a time so they don’t become crowded and lightly nudge them flatter with the back of your spatula. Cook the fritters over moderately high heat until the edges underneath are golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. If you find this happening too quickly, reduce the heat to medium. Flip the fritters and fry them on the other side until browned underneath again, about 2 to 3 minutes more. Drain briefly on paper towels then transfer to baking sheet and then into the warm oven until needed. Repeat process, keeping the pan well-oiled, with remaining batter. I like to make sure that the fritters have at least 10 minutes in the oven to finish setting and getting extra crisp.

For the topping, if using, stir together the sour cream, lemon juice, zest, salt and garlic and adjust the flavors to your taste. Dollop on each fritter before serving. These fritters are also delicious topped with a poached or fried egg, or strips of seared steak, trust me.

Do ahead: These fritters keep well, either chilled in the fridge for the better part of a week and or frozen in a well-sealed package for months. When you’re ready to use them, simply spread them out on a tray in a 325 degree oven until they’re hot and crisp again.