I don’t usually make hot food in the summer, unless it’s on a bbq. But I had some tomatoes that needed to be used and some chicken breasts to cook. I thought I would make chicken and rice with a tomato stew, but it quickly turned into a beautiful soup. I threw in onions, carrots, mushrooms and some Mexican spices, along with the juice a lemon in for good measure. It was easy and fun to make. I love to let my instinct’s go and see where they take me. I would add cilantro at the end but when I made this I didn’t have any. But I will for the next batch!
I love celery!! The taste, malady the crunch, the smell, yum! I know nutritionally its lacking, but the flavor is undeniable. It adds so much to most dishes that most people probably take it for granted. We use it as an appetizer with cream cheese or peanut butter, as a garnish for color, or to stop the heat from a chicken wing, even adding that crispness to stuffing. Just to name a few. But a celery soup, is a great way to celebrate a sometimes through away vegetable. It’s bursting with flavor and richness that any creamed soup could want. Celery has an important roll in most soups so why not let it shine on its own? I recently had some left over and decided to make my own soup, and I was glad I did. I read up on some recipes and I didn’t have everything they were asking for, so I decided to go with my gut and make my own version. Enjoy!
We are deep in winter, remedy and for me, pharmacy soups are the cornerstone of comfort food. Everyone has their favorites, viagra 100mg be it stew, curry, a roast or a grilled cheese sandwich. But on a cold winter day, just the thought of a cup or bowl of hot soup is enough to warm the body, soul and mind.
This year if you noticed I amped up the soup recipes. I make soups all winter, but always forget to post them, so this year I am making it a point to share my obsession and recipes. I hope you have been enjoying and cooking them. Today we are having, Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. It’s a very simple recipe. Perfect for a weeknight after a busy day at work, or a lazy weekend day when you don’t want to do too much. There’s only a couple ingredients and the hardest part is pealing the butternut squash. But, dont let that stop you from making this amazing simple comforting soup.
Potato leek soup is such a staple in restaurants and kitchens that it seems impossible to improve on it. Most of the time it’s potatoes, shop leeks, stock, cream and buttermilk or just cream. I dont use cream or buttermilk, but add a carrot, celery and garlic. I not sure this is an improvement, but its just way I do it. Like a lot of recipes, it comes from a mistake. I was making a bunch of soups(winter does that to me) and they called for a carrot and celery. So of course I addded them to my potato leek soup. Oops! Not normal. But it was for a dinner party and everyone liked it, so I kept on making it that way, and still do! Of course now I add garlic. Always tweaking the recipe. I can’t help it!
What to do with holiday leftovers is as much a tradition as the holidays themselves. So with that in mind, viagra I decided to go along and add a dish to the leftover tradition. We had ham, as do a lot of people. And like lot’s of people, we had lot’s of it left over. After a few days of eating it I was starting to wonder what else besides sandwiches or frying it up with my morning eggs I could do with it. I thought about for a little while and decided a soup would be good. But what kind? My friend said potato and ham. I thought genius, but it needed something else. I then thought bean with bacon! So I thought use the ham, instead of bacon. And our ham, potato and bean soup was born. This was supposed to be a cream soup, but I couldn’t decide whether to blend just the potato, or the beans, or both. As I was cooking, I realized that if I cut some of the potatoes small, and cooked them long enough, the potatoes would start to break down and create a creamy effect. Thus, solving the problem of what to blend. In the end, what I got was a brothy soup with bit of a creamy texture that is simply divine. Enjoy!
It’s deep in the fall and the weather is unusually warm. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a great soup. And what better one then a classic? This time I will keep it simple but very flavorful. I had some leftover chicken broth from a previous meal and froze it. I decided instead of taking that and making stock out of it I would use it as is to be my base for this soup. It’s basically chicken water but it lended itself beautifully to this recipe. But if you don’t have any lying around regular chicken sock will work. I hope you enjoy it! I did!
With the weather getting chilly and Summer memories fading fast, pharm it’s time to get ready for Fall. This means pulling out the sweaters and light jackets. Getting blankets and comforters out from the top shelf of the linen closet. Watching leave turn colors. Dusting off that slow cooker. Washing the stock pots and digging up those wonderful fall recipes, store or discovering new ones.
Here at House of Zeta it may take us a little time to get used to fall, healing as we tend to be spring and summer people. But once we do, we go all out. Slow cooking pork shoulders or roasts. Baking lasagna’s and sweet pies. Making lots of soups and stocks. Roasting root vegetables as they become available. We start to discover our kitchens again and just like old friends it feels like time never passes.
With the days getting shorter and the nights longer, the farmers markets will have less and less to choose from. The farmers will start to head back upstate and buckle down. The weather will start to turn even colder as the days go by. And we will find ourselves indoors more often, which can only mean one thing. It’s time to enjoy what warm days are left, to grab that mulled wine and simmer it while you slow cook the night away.
This year Jason decided to get our local CSA so we could have farm fresh food. We have been getting our fresh veggies, capsule dairy and meat since early summer, and we have been loving it! So have our friends. We’ve been having what I call CSA BBQ’s and CSA dinner parties. One thing about getting all this fresh food is, it really is a lot. So you have to be very creative and eat a lot! Having friends willing to help is a blessing. One thing we’ve been getting is greens. Lots and lots of greens. We eat them for breakfast with fried or poached eggs on top, lunch and dinner. But one of my favorite things we have been doing is taking our arugula, cilantro and parsley and making pesto out of them. Not only do we use all of these tasty greens, we get to enjoy them at our leisure. You can use them as spreads, in pasta, as pizza sauce or add to soups, even rub on a chicken and roast it! The pesto will keep in the fridge for about two weeks or you can freeze it, which is great way to to make sure it doesn’t go to waste.
Drizzle a small amount of oil on bottom of blender
Add arugula, Parmesan, pine nuts, half of lemon juice, salt and pepper
Start blending and slowly add oil
Blend till you get a good consistency
Taste and add more salt, pepper and rest of the lemon juice if needed.
Notes
I love garlic that's why I added so much. But if that is too much use one clove. For cilantro parsley pesto you just need to switch out a few ingredients 1 cup packed cilantro leaves 1 cup packed parsley 2 tablespoons almonds(some say blanched almonds but I don't think it's necessary) And continue as normal.
Is Pumpkin and Potato soup your new staple for this fall and winter? We think so, and here’s why. Jason and I received an invite to our friends annual pumpkin party this last weekend and were told to make something with pumpkin. It was requested that I make Paula Deens pumpkin gooey cake. No problem. I love it and it’s become a staple in our Thanksgiving meals. It even replaces the pumpkin pie! But we also wanted to bring a savory dish as well. Our first thought was pumpkin and potato mash. A side dish Jason grew up with. But as we cooked every thing and started to put it together we noticed that it was looking and tasting like a great soup. So we added some vegetable stock to thin it out a bit and next thing you know we had an amazing soup! Jason also added a bit of our Home Wrecker hot sauce for a little surprise. At the party people were practically licking their bowls, or was that just us?! We recreated the recipe here. It’s easy and very un-fussy. The hardest part is cutting up the pumpkin. But it’s worth it as you get to roast the seeds! With fall and winter settling in remember your new best friend, pumpkin and potato soup. It’s the perfect starter or side dish with a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich.
It’s hot sauce mania here at The Lab. We have been obsessed you could say. It all started with Christmas and has spilled over. Our latest sauces have been gobbled up by everyone and it seems there is not stopping us or them. I can’t believe it started with just wanting to make something nice for Christmas that wouldn’t break my bank account. We are really honing our skills, patient and what we want out of the sauces. From mild and smokey, order to oh my god get me a bucket of water! Our latest is a smoked red pepper hot sauce that has that sweetness of peppers and heat from some red Jalapeño’s. It was inspired by a restaurant in LA that makes the most amazing yellow pepper dipping sauce. One day I will crack that recipe! Here is one of the new ones, enjoy! Oh and don’t forget the homemade corn chips!!!
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