French Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup is one of the dishes my son Justin says he remembers from childhood. I was happy to hear this is a dish he often cooks now as an adult. I haven't made lentil soup in years. As I think back on it, I think the last time probably was when Justin was still living at home.

When I mentioned to Tim I was going to make lentil soup, I received the look. The look that says, where's the meat? I said it's okay, lentils are a great substitute for meat.

I found this recipe over at Tomatoes on the Vine. Velva has a great blog. If you haven't been there, stop by. You'll find some great recipes and an occasional special cocktail! I love the spice combinations in this soup. Lentils need spice or the soup can be too bland. This is a perfect soup for cold winter day.



French Lentil Rice Soup
Courtesy of Tomatoes on the Vine
Serves 4
Ingredients:
6 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
2 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely diced
3 tablespoons uncooked white rice
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence or dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white or black pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream or sour cream, divided (optional)
1/4 cup chopped parsley, divided (optional)


Directions:
Stir together broth, lentils, carrots, onion, celery, rice, garlic, herbs de provence, salt and pepper in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours.

Remove 1-1/2 cups soup and puree in a food processor or blender until almost smooth. Stir pureed soup back into the slow cooker.

Divide soup evenly among 4 serving bowls, garnishing each with 1 tablespoon cream and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, if desired.

I am linking this to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum and Souper Sunday's at Kahakai Kitchen.

Peppermint Whoopie Pies

If you have a Trader Joe's in your area, did you have the Candy Cane Joe Joe's cookies this holiday season? If so, you know how delicious they are. These cookies were my inspiration for Christmas Eve dessert, Peppermint Whoopie Pies. When I shared with people I'd be making Whoppie Pies, most people didn't know what Whoopie Pies were. They'd say are they like Moon Pies? Funny after I decided to make them, I received my Bon Appetit with an article discussing whether Whoopie Pies or Macarons are the new cupcake. My vote would be for Whoopie Pies, Bon Apetite chose Macarons.

These were were fun and easy to put together. I used a medium cookie scoop and it worked perfectly. Although, mine weren't all a unfiform size. These are like little cake tops filled with delicious marshmallow frosting. If you haven't tried Whoopie Pies yet and are looking for a new dessert, give these a try.



Peppermint Crunch Whoopie Pies
Recipe Courtesy of Paula Deen
Prep. Time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes/batch of cookies
Level: Intermediate
Yield: 18-21 large whoopie pies or 33-38 medium

For Cookies
Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
6.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two half-sheet pans with Silpats or lightly grease.

In a large (at least 5 quart) bowl of stand mixer, cream sugar and butter with paddle attachment for 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, beating well after each. Add vegetable oil and vanilla and beat.

In a large separate bowl, sift dry ingredients together.

With mixer on very low speed, gradually add half of the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Blend well. With mixer running on low, add 1 1/2 cups of the milk. Mix until blended. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients and milk.

Using a standard 1/4-cup ice cream scoop, place batter on baking sheets, spacing 2-3” apart. Bake 12 minutes, rotating pans (move lower pan to top level and top level to lower level) after the first 6 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and transfer to cooling racks. Repeat with remaining batter. Don’t worry if some are a little cracked on the top – that’s normal! Cool completely prior to filling.

For Filling
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2cups vegetable shortening
9 cups confectioners’ sugar
4 cups marshmallow creme
4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 lb hard peppermint candies

Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl of mixer and beat until fluffy with paddle attachment.

Place peppermints in heavy plastic bag and crush with hammer or flat side of meat tenderizer. Sift crushed mints through fine sieve to separate dust from bits of candy. Fold ½ of candy bits plus “dust” into the filling. Reserve other half of candy pieces for garnish.

ASSEMBLY: Place a scoop of filling on the flat side of one cookie. Place another cookie, flat side down on top, pressing down gently. Roll edges of icing in remaining crushed peppermints.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday's, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Tuesday's at The Table.

A Winner and Little Bit of Everything in 2011

Happy New Year!! The winner of my CSN Stores Giveaway is Debbie of Debbie Does Dinner Healthy. Thanks to everyone for entering and congratulations, Debbie!!

As 2010 came to a close, I took a look back at my blogging goals. My goals were to participate in Adopt a Blogger, create more recipes on my own, take a cake decorating class, bake more homemade bread and make better use of my cookbooks and my mom's recipes.

How did I do? Adopt a Blogger, Cake Decoating check! One of my homemade bread recipes produced a funny loaf of bread. Mom's recipe, Dorothy Mackey's Apple Dapple Cake delivered one of my favorite dessert recipes of the year. All in all, not too bad. The only real failure was using my cookbooks more. I really need to work on that one. What do I do? I just keeping buying more cookbooks.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been jotting down my 2011 food and blogging related goals.

Entertain More - I love to entertain. In 2011, in addition to having friends over for dinner, I'd like to host a wine and cheese tasting party.

Read My Recipes Well - I tend to glance over the recipes. I think I understand prep or pre cooking times. When I start preparing, I realize I didn't understand and the recipe takes longer than the time I'd allotted.

Advance Prep - To help reduce the time it takes to cook a recipe and have healthier snacks in the fridge, wash and prep fruits and veggies when I bring them home from the store!

My Top 50 - Continue to focus on the recipes on this list.

What are your 2011 blogging goals?

Happy New Year and Pink Saturday!!

Countdown to 2011 - Dessert

Thanks to SnoWhite of Finding Joy in My Kitchen for hosting Countdown to 2011 this week. I have really enjoyed looking back through my recipes and finding my favorites.

It's no secret, I love dessert. Finding my favorite in this category wasn't easy. I could have chosen Dorothy Mackey's Apple Dapple Cake, Plum Clafoutis, Chocolate Banana Trifle or Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Torte. My favorite dessert, Creme Brulee Cheescake Bars, was first posted by my blogging pal Gnee of Singing with Birds. Gnee's desserts are the best!!

Happy New Year to everyone and here's to 2011's recipes!!!

I am linking this to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum! Also, there's still time to enter my giveaway here!! The winner will be announced tomorrow!

Chocolate Pecan Tart - Chocolate With Francois

Am I the only one who's on sweet overload? All of these holiday treats, it's no wonder everyone's New Year's resoltution is to lose weight! This month's CWF recipe, Chocolate Pecan Tart was chosen by the talented baker and blogger, Susan of Baking with Susan! You can find the recipe on her site.

Pecan is Tim's favorite pie. Knowing we didn't need an entire tart, I decided to make 1/4 of the recipe and ended up with one mini tart. Many of the recipes we've made from Payard's book have been really difficult. This is one of the first recipes we've made that I would consider a "normal" recipe. A novice baker could make this recipe. By the standards set in Payard's book, this recipe was almost "easy". Even though I made the tart for Tim, I had to at least try it so I could write about it. This tart is so DELICIOUS, a perfect balance of chocolate and pecans. I will be making this recipe again.

You can find the links to the other CWF bakers tarts here.

Countdown to 2011 - Main Dishes

Two more days remaining in SnoWhite's Countdown to 2011. Today's feature is Main Dishes!

One of the things I enjoy the most about blogging is trying new recipes. Besides all of the cookbooks in my library, there's all of my fellow bloggers fabulous recipes. My favorite 2010 Main Dish recipe, Penne With Sausage and Leek Sauce, is one of those recipes. This recipe came from Mary at One Perfect Bite. Mary provides us with wonderful stories and amazing recipes. I was intrigued by this recipe. After making it, I love the flavor combination of the leeks and sausage.

There's still time to enter my giveaway here!