Tortilla Soup

This is the best tortilla soup I've ever had. Look at it! It's amazing.

The original recipe is from Rachael Ray, but I've tweaked it a little over the years anyway, so now I'm semi-claiming it as my own. 

Yum Yum! Here we go!


Tortilla Soup

Vegetable oil, for drizzling, plus 2 tablespoons

3 ears corn on the cob
1 red bell pepper, split and seeded
2 or 3 chicken breasts
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
Salt and pepper 
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 medium yellow skinned onion, chopped 
3 cloves garlic, chopped 
1 to 2 chipotle in adobo peppers, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes, 28 ounces
1 can tomato sauce, 8 ounces 
3 cups chicken stock

A note about the ingredients: 

I usually double up on the ingredients to make a huge pot of soup. I would like to say that it freezes well, and I'm sure it does, but ours never lasts long enough to freeze. It's soooo good!
Usually I'm lazy and use frozen corn.

If you don't have any poultry seasoning (I rarely do), you can use McCormick Grill Seasoning or any other salty seasoning mix you like.

A can of chipotle peppers will cost you a couple dollars. Whatever you don't use in this recipe can be frozen in an airtight container forever. One can usually lasts me several recipes. And don't be afraid of the chipotles! If you don't like spicy food, just add one.They add a wonderful deep, smoky flavor.

If I have any tomatoes on my counter that are a little on the soft side, I'll chop those up and throw them in. And sometimes I use a large can of tomato sauce. Because I'm a loner, Dottie, a rebel.

Garnishes (It's ALL about the garnishes BABY!):
Homemade tortilla strips 
Shredded cheddar or pepper jack cheese
Sour cream
Chopped cilantro
Diced avocado
Pickled jalapenos
Brown rice, prepared

A note about the garnishes:

I always make my own tortilla strips for this. Not because I'm awesome, although you know I am! but because they're really easy and super delicious!  You can use regular tortilla strips, but then you might as well add a cup of salt to your soup. The homemade kind are so flavorful and you get to decide how salty you like them. You can see how I make mine here.

A long, long time ago I was a server at The Cheesecake Factory for something like 7 years. I learned a lot about cooking working there! We always served our tortilla soup with a little bit of rice at the bottom of the bowl, so that's how I do it (of course, they used white rice, but that's okay, too). 

Make it:

Heat a grill pan to high and a soup pot to medium high. Drizzle oil on corn and place on grill. Add red pepper to grill with corn. Char vegetables 10 minutes, total, turning occasionally. Remove to cool, 5 minutes. Remove charred skin from the pepper. (Sometimes I skip this step and saute the raw chopped peppers with the other vegetables. And I throw in some frozen corn later on with the tomatoes, tomato sauce and stock.)

While vegetables cook, dice chicken. Add 2 tablespoons oil to hot soup pot. Add chicken to pot. Season with poultry seasoning, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. 

Lightly brown chicken on each side. Add zucchini, onions and garlic and chipotle peppers. Cook vegetables with chicken 5 to 7 minutes to soften. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and stock. Bring soup to a bubble, reduce heat to medium low.

Scrape corn off cob and add to soup. Chop grilled red pepper and stir into soup.


Top with your favorite garnishes.


Do you make your tortilla soup differently? I'd love to hear about it!




Enjoy!

Recipe: Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

While searching MrsGreenes Tutorials I came across this recipe she had posted.
Well it turns out to be pretty good and not too hard to make.
So check out her full recipe HERE

Check out MRSGREENSINFO

Zucchini Nut Bread Cookie Sandwiches

I saw these cookies in Martha Stewart Living and had to try them out.

She had me at Cream Cheese Frosting.

The cookies by themselves are delicious. They're soft, like zucchini bread, and the oats and walnuts add a nice texture. And all that zucchini! I love it! And it makes for a healthier type of cookie. With cookies, I'll take all the help I can get. I might even try using whole wheat flour next time. Or maybe half whole wheat and half regular because I'm a wimp.

I changed her recipe just a little. Hers calls for 1 cup of grated zucchini. The zucchini I had made about 1 1/2 cups worth of grated goodness, and I didn't want to waste, so I put it all in. And I used reduced-fat cream cheese instead of regular. I have a serious aversion to fat-free foods, but reduced-fat I can handle. Also, I don't have a fancy 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop. I used a regular spoon and tried to make them all the same size. They weren't, of course, so I just matched up like sizes the best I could when I assembled them. It worked out fine.

Scrumptious!

• Zucchini Nut Bread Cookie Sandwiches
• 
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Coarse salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup finely grated zucchini
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
• 8 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Beat 1 stick butter and the sugars until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
• 
  
• Beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Mix in zucchini, oats, and walnuts. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
• 
  
• Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop (about 2 tablespoons), drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden, about 17 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
• 
  
• Beat together remaining 1/2 stick butter, the cream cheese, and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread 1 heaping tablespoon filling onto the flat side of 1 cookie, and sandwich with another cookie. Repeat with remaining filling and cookies.
• 
  

Enjoy!

Peanut butter cookie recipe On Card

Lemon Cookie Recipe

Free Recipe Cards For The Red White and Blue

Apple Crostata with Caramel Sauce

PREP TIME
20 Min

TOTAL TIME

1 Hr 25 Min

SERVINGS - 8

 

INGREDIENTSCrust
1 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup firm butter or margarine, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons cold water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla


Filling and Topping
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
4 cups chopped peeled apples (4 medium)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup caramel topping


 In medium bowl, mix 1 1/4 cups flour, 2 tablespoons sugar and the salt. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. In small bowl, mix water and vanilla; sprinkle over flour mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl (up to 1 tablespoon more water can be added if necessary).
2 Gather dough into a ball; shape into flattened 5-inch round on lightly floured surface. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate about 30 minutes or until firm.
3 Heat oven to 400°F. With floured rolling pin, roll pastry into 12-inch round. Place on ungreased large cookie sheet.
4 In large bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons flour. Stir in apples until coated. Mound apple mixture on center of dough round to within 2 inches of edge. Fold edge of dough over apple mixture; crimp edge of dough slightly. In small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle over apples and dough.


5 Bake 27 to 32 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cut into wedges. Serve warm drizzled with caramel topping.
A bettycrockerRepice

Quick Red beans and rice Recipe

A traditional meal in the south typically served on Monday night.

Ingredients:
3/4 Vidalia or otherwise sweet onion
2 cans small red beans
1/4 cup white wine
1 teaspoon powdered sage
1 teapoon powdered thyme
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1-2 tablespoons Cayenne chile powder
3 bay leaves
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon chipotle (goes a loooong way)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)
10-15 button mushrooms (quartered)
1 diced fine green pepper
1 cup white rice
Leave as is for vegetarian or pick your meat of choice.
Serves 4
Start by caramelizing the onions in a cast iron skillet. Once the onions are done,
de-glaze the pan with white wine. Coarsely chop the onions and add them to a large
pot holding the two cans of small red beans with their liquid on low heat. Add diced green peppers Also,
pour the pan de-glazing liquid into the pot of red beans. As the beans are heating, take
a potato masher and crush just a few of the beans in the pot to make for variety of texture.
Then start seasoning the beans and onions with the sage, thyme, two crushed garlic cloves,
chile powder, paprika chipotle flakes, salt, pepper, bay leaves and sugar. Stir the beans and
evenly mix in the spices then add the mushrooms into the bean mixture.
Heat on medium heat until mushrooms are cooked then ladle over cooked rice
(two cups water per cup of rice and cook until tender) and eat or place beans in
refrigerator over night to let the flavors mix. We like to eat our red beans and rice with spiced shrimp.
I cook the large shrimp in a l;arge fry pan with 3 tablespoons of butter ,5 teasppons of hot sauce,1 teaspoon of cayanne pepper a dash of salt and simmer very low .
Turning once as they turn 1/2 way pink. Approx 4 mins.
 Then put them over the top of the beans and rice.

Apple BBQ Sauce REcipe

5 easy Budget Meals

Five easy Budget meals found HERE

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Recipe

CORNED BEEF BRISKET
Ingredients

1 (3-pound) corned beef brisket (uncooked), in brine

10 cups cold water
6 cups dark beer
5 bay leaves crushed
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 whole allspice berries
2 whole cloves 1 large head green cabbage (about 2 pounds), cut into 8 thick wedges
8 small new potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds), halved
4 carrots cut in half
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon pickling spice.

Or

Get the one with the spices already in the package.

How to cook
In a large pot place corn beef, spices ,beer and water and bring to a boil.Then turn down and simmer for 3 hours and 45 mins or until fork slides into meat.
NOTE : Do not boil the meat simmer on low for a fork tender textureTransfer the corned beef to a cutting board and cover tightly with foil to keep warm.
Add the cabbage , potatoes and carrots to the cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Lower the
heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cabbage to a large platter. Slice the corned beef
across the grain of the meat into thin slices. Lay the slices over the cabbage and
surround it with the potatoes. Ladle some of the hot cooking liquid over the
corned beef and season with pepper. Serve immediately with a mustard or horseradish sauce.
Cook's Note: Leftover corned beef makes great corned beef hash.


Horseradish Sauce:

3/4 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons jarred grated horseradish (with liquid)
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper


In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, horseradish,
zest, and 2 teaspoons salt. Season generously with pepper to taste.
Refrigerate the horseradish sauce for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Yield: about 1 3/4 cups

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5.5 x 3.5 printable cards

Revel Recipe on Card

Printable size  7 x 6 inches

Two Sauce Weeknight Lasagna Bowls

This is one of my go-to comfort meals. Really, how can you go wrong with creamy, cheesy pasta topped with a hearty meat sauce? You can't go wrong. 


It's wonderful.

Thank you, Rachael Ray! You can find her original Two Sauce Lasagna Bowl recipe here.  I can just imagine that hers is even better because it has pancetta and ground beef. But even with skipping the good stuff, and substituting healthier ground turkey, it is still soooo delicious!

My kids saw the carrots and they were all, "Ewww! Carrots in pasta?" And then they loved it. After they were finished, I pointed out how they had also just eaten onions. They looked at me like I was crazy. 

Point: Mommy.

Two Sauce Weeknight Lasagna Bowls

1 pound Campanelle pasta

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1  1/4 pounds ground turkey

1 large carrot, finely chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, 2 chopped or grated, 1 peeled

1/2 teaspoon allspice, a couple of pinches

Freshly ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

6 oz can tomato paste

1/2 cup dry red wine

2 cups beef stock

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

Nutmeg, to taste

1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, plus some to pass at table

A handful fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

Heat large pot of water to a boil, salt water and cook pasta to al dente.

While pasta water comes to a boil, heat olive oil in a medium sauce pot over medium-high heat, add ground turkey and break it up as it browns. When the meat has begun to caramelize and develops a nice brown color, 4 to 5 minutes, add carrot, onion, 2 cloves of garlic, allspice, salt and pepper and a bay leaf. Cook 3 to 4 minutes more to soften onions and carrots bits then stir in tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in wine and cook out 1 minute then stir in stock and reduce heat to simmer.

While red sauce cooks, cut remaining whole clove of garlic and rub the inside of a medium sauce pot with it. Melt butter in pot over medium heat. Add in flour and whisk together a minute or so then whisk in milk and bring to a bubble, reduce heat then season sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg, thicken 8 to 10 minutes.

Toss pasta with white sauce and 1/2 cup grated cheese. Serve pasta in individual bowls and top with a ladle of meat sauce in the middle of the bowl for mixing in. Garnish with parsley.

Enjoy!

Buckeyes ?

Recipe Card for ginger Squash



Ten Cake Recipe

Ten Wedding Cake
Looks like a pound cake but tastes much better.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup solid Crisco
4 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
1 cup milk
6 eggs
1 tsp. favorite flavoring


Directions:
Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour and milk alternately, then the flavoring. Pour into a greased and floured tube cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for one hour and 15 minutes or until done. Enjoy. If you use plain flour instead of cake flour take out one tablespoon of flour per cup used for the same results

Recipe card

Meatloaf Parmesan Recipe

Ingredients:
2 lbs. lean hamburger
2 eggs
1 medium onion
3 Tbsp. teriyaki sauce
4 Tbsp. milk
2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup spaghetti sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp. parsley


Directions:
Beat the eggs and mix with hamburger. Add teriyaki sauce and milk, mix well. Grate the onion into the mixture with a cheese grater and blend well. Add bread crumbs and mix. It should just hold together, add more crumbs if needed. Put in a brownie size pan. Top with sauce, spreading to cover. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1/2 hour.
Mix the 2 cheeses together. Remove pan from oven, sprinkle cheese over top covering meatloaf. If you like dishes really cheesy you can add more mozzerella. Sprinkle parsley on top.
Return to oven for 10 minutes or until cheese just starts to turn brown.
Serve with your favorite pasta dish.
Servings: 6
Time: 15 Minutes Preparation Time
40 Minutes Cooking Time

German Apple cake Recipe

Has anyone seen this Show called Mad Hungry.
http://www.madhungry.com/
Wonderful simple recipes and the host is fun to watch.
She enjoys cooking and her love of food comes into the show.
This is the first time I have seen the show and think for a young cook she is easy to follow and learn from.
Her recipe for apple cake looks really good.

German Apple Cake
Ingredients
Makes 1 8-inch square cake

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3 to 4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith, Cortland, or Winesap

Directions
1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter an 8-inch square pan or equivalent-size baking dish.
2.In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of the sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
3.In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/3-cup sugar with the cinnamon. Squeeze lemon juice into a medium bowl. Peel, core, and slice the apples into the bowl. Add the cinnamon-sugar mixture and toss to thoroughly coat each apple slice. Arrange the apple slices on top of the batter in overlapping rows, pressing lightly into the batter. Bake for 45 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

From Mad Hungry, October 2010 .

Shrimp Dip REcipe

Shared from Franklin over on the Forum