Blogger Secret Ingredient - Hot Sauce

I just ran across a fun blogging event, My Bizzy Kitchen's, Blogger Secret Ingredient (BSI) . This week's host is Debbie of Debbie Does Dinner Healthy. Debbie chose the perfect ingredient for Super Bowl week, Hot Sauce! If you're interested in joining in, check out the details on Debbie's blog.



My favorite recipe using hot sauce, totally Super Bowl appropriate is Hooter's Buffalo Wings. Here's a link to my post for these from Super Bowl Sunday 2010.

Kielbassa and White Beans

Do you shop at a warehouse club, you know Costco, Sam's, BJ's? At my house, we're Costco shoppers. One of the main reasons, their wine selection is fantastic! Of course, a lot of the things you buy are in larger quantities. Perfect if you have a big family. Since it's just Tim and I, sometimes I find myself trying to figure out what to do with something I have in large quantities. This summer we bought a package of kielbasa, perfect for summer grilling. I wanted to find a winter recipe for kielbasa. I found this recipe several months ago, bookmarked it but kept passing it over when planning the weekly menu. Tim's not a big fan of dishes with cooked tomatoes, so I was concerned he wouldn't like this one. With the kielbasa still in the freezer, I decided to give it a try. Tim said he really liked this recipe, the rosemary is delicious with the sausage.

I made the recipe as written below. Next time, I would not use any additional oil to brown the sausage. I would just add a little olive oil, if needed, to the pan before browning the onions or garlic. I used Great Northern Beans but any of those beans or even a mixture, would be delicious!



Recipe courtesy of Food.com
1 -2 tablespoon oil or 1 -2 tablespoon butter
1 lb smoked kielbasa, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can peeled diced tomatoes
1 (16 ounce) can great northern beans or 1 (16 ounce) can navy beans or 1 (16 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained
Change Measurements: US | Metric
Directions:
Prep Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 35 mins
1 Heat oil or butter in a large skillet, add Kielbasa and cook over medium high heat until lightly browned, remove with slotted spoon.
2 Reduce heat to medium, add onions and cook until transparent.
3 Reduce heat to low, add garlic and herbs and cook 1 minute.
4 Add kielbasa, tomatoes and white beans, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's.

Chocolate Nut Loaf - Chocolate With Francois

Most of the recipes we've made so far from Chocolate With Francois have been shall we say a little challenging. I was thrilled when I read this month's recipe. The recipe read like a basic quick bread recipe and except for the almond paste, I had all of the ingredients on hand.

I decided to make my own almond paste, of sorts. I combined the "dust" from the almonds I had chopped for the bread, with a teaspoon of almond extract and a little powdered sugar. As well, I substituted macadamia nuts for the hazelnuts. The baking time for this recipe is 50 - 60 minutes. When I checked my bread at 45 minutes, the butter was bubbling around the sides of the pan and had run over in the oven. Fortunately, I use an oven liner. If you don't have one, I strongly recommend buying one!!! After the bread cooled, most of the butter seemed to absorb back into the bread. It did create an interesting crisp edge around the bread. I decided to skip glazing the bread. The bread was moist and the combination of nuts were delicious.


Thanks to Leslie of Lethally Delicious for hosting this month. You can find the recipe on her blog. The links to the other Chocolate With Francois Bakers can be found here!

Pink Saturday - Vacation Anticipation

I am not very good at taking pictures to have on hand for Pink Saturday posts. Instead of borrowing one from the internet, I try to find one in my own picture library. There's lots of shades of pink and many interpretations of color. To me these buildings have pink roofs, so work with me on this one! This picture was taken from our cabin, before we sailed away from St. Martin on our 2008 Caribbean cruise.



There's nothing better than a warm weather winter vacation, it helps the long winter seem a little more bearable and go a little faster. We leave in a week for warm weather and sunshine. I can't wait!

I am linking this to Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound!

Tomato Chickpea Soup

Do you watch Doctor Oz? He's one of those television figures like Oprah or Dr. Phil that everyone has an opinion about. I work with a girl who's a die hard Dr. Oz fan, almost every day she says you know Dr. Oz says you should have this or that. Last week she told me he had a show on Super Foods, funny I was thinking I'd just watched a Dr. Oz show on Super Foods. So I said, he said blueberries, right? I know that's what he said on the show I watched. She said, no he said Chickpeas!

This was a day or two after I bookmarked this recipe. Regardless of whether or not you like or believe Dr. Oz, give this soup a try. It's a delicious version of tomato soup. The rosemary adds a nice earthy fragrance to the tomatoes and the chickpeas give it some substance. I brought my rosemary plant in for the winter and so far it's doing pretty well. I've found the fastest way to chop rosemary is to snip it with kitchen shears, much quicker than trying to chop with a knife. I almost always have some homemade chicken stock in the freezer, so I used it in place of the veggie stock.

I loved this soup and will be making it again, for me. Much as I tried to convince Tim the chickpeas were the "meat" in this soup, he said the chickpeas just weren't working for him.

Tomato Chickpea Soup with Rosemary

Courtesy of the Taste Space

3 cups cooked chickpeas (around 2 15-ounce cans, rinsed)
3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 3-inch sprigs fresh rosemary, needles removed from stem and finely chopped (dried rosemary would be fine, too – 1 tsp or so)
2 cans tomatoes (whole, diced, or crushed, with juice), one 28-ounce and one 14.5-ounce
A pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2.5 cups vegetable broth (I used chicken broth)

1. Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-low heat, and add the garlic and rosemary. Cook for a minute or two, and then add the tomatoes, sugar, salt, a few grinds of pepper, roughly half of the chickpeas, and the stock. Bring to a boil over high heat; then reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes.

2. Remove the soup from the heat to purée. If using an immersion blender, purée the soup directly in the pot. Otherwise, wait a few minutes, until the soup cools; then purée it in batches in a blender or food processor and return it to the pot. Add the remaining chickpeas, and warm the soup over medium heat. Serve warm.

Serves 6.

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

From The Good Life - Snow Ice Cream

Last winter in Omaha, we had at least an inch of snow on the ground for almost 90 days. We had some amazing snow storms (snow "events" as the forecasters call them) and a total snowfall of 45 inches. The amazing thing, I never made Snow Ice Cream.

Saturday night when the snow started to fall, I said to Tim we should make Snow Ice Cream. Tim said he'd never had it before. Seriously, he's from snowy Minnesota and he's never had Snow Ice Cream? Snow Ice Cream is such a fun childhood memory for me. I am not sure the recipe we used but I am pretty sure it involved raw eggs. Like most people today, I am a little leery of using raw eggs. I searched and found a couple of recipes for snow ice cream. Most recipes used either regular milk or a can of sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and sugar. Here's my recipe. Next time, I'd like to try making it with honey.

What's your favorite recipe for snow ice cream?

Julie's Snow Ice Cream

8 cups of fresh snow
1/2 cup of milk or cream
1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste
1/3 cup sugar

When it starts snowing, place a large bowl out in the snow. When the bowl is full, you can make ice cream, using whatever quantities you need. Before bringing in the snow, mix together the milk, sugar and vanilla. Stir in the snow a cup or two at a time. Add more milk to create the texture of ice cream you prefer. You can also mix in some cocoa with the sugar for chocolate ice cream.

Madame's Chicken

Do you own a Le Creuset Dutch Oven or as they call it a French Oven? I've been eying them for a year or so but couldn't bring myself to spend the money for one. I found a Kirkland brand one at Costco. The reviews were very good and it was one fourth the price. I love the beautiful red color , it browns and cooks meats perfectly. Since my purchase, I've been watching for recipes just so I can use it more. When I saw this recipe over at one of my favorite blogs, There's Always Thyme to Cook, I bookmarked it for a Sunday dinner sometime soon!

I am giving you the recipe as Carol posted it. I used all thighs. Also, so I would have a one pot meal, I added potatoes and carrots.

Mme. Lascourrèges Chicken with Shallots
Source: The French Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Herrmann Loomis
posted by bubbeskitchen (Renee Ascher)
Courtesy of There's Always Time in the Kitchen


3 tablespoons olive oil
1 chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds; 1 3/4 to 2 kg), cut into 8 pieces (2 breast pieces, 2 wings with portion of breast attached, 2 legs, 2 thighs)
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 large shallots, peeled and minced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley leaves

Preheat the oven to 425°F

Drizzle the oil into an ovenproof baking dish that is large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. Add the chicken pieces and turn them so they are thoroughly coated with oil. Drizzle the vinegar over the chicken, and sprinkle with the shallots. Turn the chicken so the shallots are evenly distributed over and under the pieces. With all the pieces skin side up, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Place the dish in the center of the oven and roast until the chicken begins to turn golden, about 20 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven, turn the chicken pieces over, and season with salt and pepper. Return the dish to the oven and continue roasting until the chicken is thoroughly cooked ( the juices should run clear when the flesh is pricked with the tip of a sharp knife), 17 to 20 minutes. Mince the parsley.

Remove the chicken from the oven, sprinkle the parsley over it, and turn the pieces so the parsley is mixed evenly throughout. Let sit for 10 minutes, and then serve.

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