Spinachpalooza

When yearning for pesto without my herb garden in full bloom with basil, and with a lot of spinach on hand that I needed to use up, I thought why not substitute spinach for basil? Tonight's dinner just looked so beautiful, if I do say so myself, to skip blogging about! Here's how I used a whole bag of spinach in one dinner for 2 (well, 2.5... Evan had some!) Salmon with spinach pesto, spinach pesto pasta with peas and tomatoes, sauteed spinach. I used whole leaf spinach, not baby spinach. And I had enough pesto leftover to fill a 3oz baby food container (which should do another batch of pasta).

Pesto (very rough estimates because I eyeballed the whole thing):
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/3 bag of spinach (10oz bag)
1 tbsp lemon juice

Add all ingredients to food processor and blitz until smooth. Taste test and adjust ingredients accordingly.

Salmon:
I seasoned the salmon with salt & pepper on each side. I sauteed 1 clove of chopped garlic in about 1 tbsp olive oil until it started to brown then I added the salmon. After I flipped it, I added about 1 tbsp white cooking wine (optional). Once it was cooked through (they were very thin so it was only a few minutes) I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over them and then topped with some pesto.

Pesto Pasta:
I cooked about 1/3 box (14.5oz box) of elbow noodles in salted water. Both Barilla and Ronzoni make some vitamin and protein packed pasta these days, so I get one of those. After draining the pasta and before returning it to the pan, I add about 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil and about 1/4 cup frozen peas and 15 or so chopped grape tomatoes (just the kind I had on hand today... I've done it before with roma tomatoes) to the pan and cook over low heat until the peas are cooked through. Then add about half the remaining pesto mix and the pasta to the pan and stir until that pasta is the beautiful green color. Top with parmesan cheese.

Spinach:
I used the rest of the spinach, which may be a big portion but it cooks way down, as a vegetable side. I sauteed 1 chopped garlic clove in about 1-2 tbsp olive oil then added the spinach. When it started to wilt, I added a little white cooking wine. Once it was all cooked, I topped with some fresh squeezed lemon juice which is great for flavoring but it will turn the spinach slightly brown where it is concentrated.


As I mentioned before, I had about 3oz of pesto left which can be frozen and used in the future. I also realize that pesto usually has some sort of toasted nut which I've never used before and I still enjoy the taste!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

When I first met Panera about 9 years ago, it was love at first bite. The atmosphere, the paninis, the soups, the breads, the bagels. What more could you want in a bistro/cafe type restaurant? And even better when I discovered it was a chain and I could order my favorites in so many locations. But the recent increase in prices and skimpier portions have caused a strain on our relationship. How was I to fill this broccoli cheddar void in my stomach when they give you but a thimbleful for 3/4 of your life savings? I never even considered making it myself because I figured it was full of artificial ingredients and easy squeeze cheese. I am ashamed that I never thought of making a roux. I don't expect everyone to know what it is, but I've been an avid Food Network watcher for over a year now. It's a thickener made with melted butter, flour and milk or cream.

I barely had to do any research before I found a recipe with raving reviews as to how close it was to the real Panera thing. The soup came out amazing, and truly close to the original but I'd still tweak it in the future. Here are some of my notes:

• The soup came out very intensely cheddar flavored. I realize it's one of the main flavors, but it was pretty strong. I'd either use mild cheddar next time and/or less of it.
• It probably had something to do with the generous portions, but we had a very heavy feeling in our stomachs after eating so I might try milk instead of half and half or a combination next time. I now see that some of the others who commented on the recipe did that and it came out fine.
  
• I didn't use any salt and pepper and it was very flavorful.
• Some of the comments on the recipe page said that Panera listed dijon mustard and hot sauce in their ingredients for this soup. I didn't try it this time, but I'll probably try it next time. They didn't list quantities though!

As you can tell, I'm a little addicted to my breadmaker right now. It's so easy to make the dough! I did bagels twice last week and homemade pizza dough. Today I also made homemade french baguettes. They tasted almost perfect, but a few things I might try next time:

• A little less water in the mix. I've been adding a little extra since the bagel recipe I used recommended it for certain breadmakers. I used 1-1/4 cups water and the dough was ridiculously sticky.
  
• An egg wash on top before going in the oven. They came out nice and crispy from baking with a pan of water underneath for 20 minutes, but they weren't very brown. I'm wondering if that might help. Plus I rolled them out with some flour because the dough was so sticky, so they were very white on top.
  
• I also might try a higher temperature to assist in the browning.

In any case, they still tasted great. Not as chewy or crisp as Panera but still crisp on the outside and soft on the inside with great flavor.

Money saving tip

How have I never thought of this before? Using baby shampoo as eye makeup remover. Little 3oz bottles of eye makeup remover seem to start at around $6 and climb at an alarming rate. While a 20oz bottle of baby shampoo (name brand) is only $4. It's gentle on the eyes and totally works. Just a dab on a cotton ball with some water. Man, I wish I discovered this sooner!

15 months!

Evan had his 15 month checkup this morning. He is up to 25 lbs (he weighed in at 25lbs 2oz while holding lovey... couldn't rip it away from him and the nurse felt bad, so she knocked off 2oz for lovey). And he's 33 1/2 inches tall. He's up to the 58th percentile from the 50th for weight, and up to the 97th percentile from the 90th for height. Tall and skinny kid! Well, he does have a little bit of a belly, but oh so cute! He's been healthy aside from a few sniffles around the holidays and I'm so grateful for that!

He's got a few words that he'll actually share with you when he's not being stubborn. His first was "ball" (or "bah") and he'll use that one a lot. He has said "bath", "tada", "that", "juice", and still says mama and dada but not in reference to Jack or myself. He'll go around the room and point at things and ask "dat?" and we'll tell him what he's pointing to.

He loooves to hide now, in little nooks or forts. His favorite is behind the movie cabinet in the family room. He also hides behind the glider in his room and under the kitchen island behind the stools.



He still loves all balls and anything ball shaped (like clementines and balloons). He loves playing Xbox with Daddy. He even has a preference for the player 1 controller. How does he know? He gets super excited when you're at the top of the stairs and will point downstairs because he knows the Xbox is down there. When you ask him "Do you want to go downstairs?" he'll get all giddy and squeal and bounce up and down in your arms. And the first thing he does when he gets down there is grab the controllers and try to climb up on the couch.



He loves shoes. He tries to put them on himself. He loves to stomp around in them. He loves building blocks now. We got him megablocks for Christmas and he's getting better and better at building towers. We got his bumbo seat back out and he loves climbing in and out of it himself. He loves books. His favorite right now is a 60 page Cars book (Pixar). There is a paragraph on every page and takes about 30 minutes to read through the whole thing but he sits there for all of it! Since he's not much of a snuggler at all anymore, I'll usually read the whole thing to him every night just to get my snuggles.

He's starting to eat more of the food we eat, thank God! He loves stuffed peppers - both the peppers and the filling! He had more than a few bites (which was more than I expected) of our Chicken Divan casserole from the other night. He joins in pizza night with us. We pull up his highchair next to the couch. Some other favorites are chicken tenders, quesadillas, meatballs, PB&J, and fish. Yes, fish! Lemony flaky fish. Oh I love it too, just never expected him to! He still loves yogurt, all fruits, grape tomatoes, whole grain waffles and goldfish. He'll sometimes have peas, and I made spinach pesto pasta which he loves, but other than that we're striking out on vegetables! Hopefully he'll like them more when he gets more teeth and can have them raw.

Well, that's about all that's new with the Bub/the Erv/the Evster/E-man/Skittles... all nicknames we use regularly.

Warm soup belly

There's nothing like warm soup belly on a snowy winter day. Last night I made Red Bell Pepper Soup. I was hoping it would come out like my favorite Roasted Red Pepper Bisque from my waitressing days, but it wasn't quite there. It was a lot thinner than I was expecting but still very tasty.

Ingredients

• 2 red bell peppers
• 5 2/3 cup vegetable stock
• 1 bermuda onion, finely chopped (I couldn't find Bermuda onion at the grocery store, but read that sweet onion can be substituted)
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 3/4 cup peeled, seeded, and chopped cucumber
• scant 1 cup cauliflower florets
• 1 extra large egg yolk (I never buy extra large eggs, so I just used 2 large egg yolks. Seemed fine!)
• 6 tbsp heavy cream
• 3 tbsp dry sherry
• salt & pepper

1. Preheat the broiler. Put the bell peppers on a cookie sheet and broil, turning frequently, for 10 minutes, until blistered and charred. Remove with tongs, put them in a plastic bag and seal (or a bowl covered with plastic wrap). Let stand until cool enough to handle. Don't underestimate the "sweat stage". It will be harder to peel if you go in too quickly. Peel, halve, and seed them, then chop the flesh.

2. Meanwhile, pour the vegetable stock into a pan and bring to a boil. Add the bell peppers, onion, carrots, cucumber, and cauliflower and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool slightly. Transfer the soup to a food processor, in batches if necessary, and process to a puree.

4. Return the soup to the pan. Beat together the egg yolk and cream in a bowl and stir into the soup, season with salt & pepper, and reheat gently, stirring occasionally; do not let the soup boil. Stir in the sherry, ladle into warmed bowls, and serve immediately.


Now, ever since I saw my friend Jen's latest blog post about making her own bagels, I have been dying to make them. And as you can see from the date on the post, that is about 2 days! I was a little intimidated because she put a lot of time into it! I found a shortcut recipe on another blog which uses a bread machine, which we fortunately have! They really weren't too hard at all! Some things I'll probably take into consideration next time -

• Take care when pinching the ends of the bagel together. My seals weren't the greatest and came totally apart at the boiling stage with 3 out of 8 of the bagels.
• I will not use my dutch oven for boiling next time. It takes way too long to boil the water and never really got to a rolling boil.
• The blog recipe says to let sit for 15 minutes before boiling. I read a lot of comments about leaving it to sit a little longer, so I let them sit for 30 minutes.
• I baked for about 25 minutes and they were just starting to brown. I'll probably give them a little more time to crisp up next time.

I made 4 plain and 4 sesame. I'm looking forward to trying others!

Here's our yummy lunch on a cold snowy day. Doesn't get much cozier, right?

Balloon boy

So Evan had a first today. His first menu item at a restaurant. We tagged along with some friends for lunch at Moe's at the last minute after church so we weren't prepared with any lunch food for Evan. Fortunately Moe's has a kids eat free deal on Sundays, so we didn't waste anything trying! Evan had a cheese quesadilla and oatmeal raisin cookie. He even got his own kid cup but didn't use it because he hasn't used a straw yet. He also got a balloon! Thank God for the balloon man. We were pushing it with naptime and attention span and the balloon guy came around and bought us probably another 30 minutes of peace and quiet! He continued to enjoy it at home as you can see below.

up, up and away!

hehe, just kidding!

Too bad the balloon gives away the location of my secret lair!

3 down, 97 to go

I have tackled 3 soups out of my new cookbook. First was Chicken & Leek soup. My first time cooking with leeks. I had seen them prepped several times on Food Network so I wasn't too intimidated. My second was Bacon & Potato soup, which includes a fair amount of cabbage. My first time working with cabbage (aside from cole slaw). This week I made French Onion soup. It is a high favorite of mine and I knew I was going to be pretty critical of it. I know I'll tweak it a bit the next time I make it but I've got a great recipe to start off with. Ok, ok... I'll share it and what I plan to do in the future:

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil (I might use a little more next time, to avoid some burnage on the pan)


• 2 tbsp butter


• 4-5 onions thinly sliced (prepare for your eyes to burn!)


• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped


• 1 tsp sugar


• 8 3/4 cups vegetable stock (I realize they sell it in 4 cup boxes so you could probably get away with 8 cups. I had a little extra leftover from a previous soup)


• 2 tbsp all purpose flour


• 2/3 cup dry white vermouth


• 3 tbsp brandy


• salt and pepper


• day old crusty bread


• provolone cheese slices (the thicker the better)

1. Heat the oil with the butter in a large pan. Add the onions, stir well, cover, and cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Uncover the pan, increase the heat to medium, stir in the garlic, sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt, and cook, stirring frequently, for 30-40 minutes, until the onions are deep golden brown. It's important to make sure they're deep golden brown. I think I gave up too early in the browning... about 15 minutes in.

2. Meanwhile, bring the vegetable stock to a boil in another pan. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Stir in the vermouth and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes, until the alcohol has evaporated, then gradually stir in the hot stock and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 40 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the croutons: cut crusty bread into cubes, drizzle in olive oil and desired spices (I used garlic powder) and bake for 10 minutes at 350.

4. Stir in brandy, remove the pan from the heat, and taste and adjust the seasoning. Ladle into warmed bowls with croutons and top with cheese.

At step #4, the recipe book calls for the extravagant $16/lb gruyere cheese. I chose to substitute the cheaper provolone cheese for the time being until I perfect the recipe someday. I also don't have the earthenware crocks that can go in the oven so I either melt the cheese with the heat of the soup or pop it into the microwave for a little bit. This is not my picture below, but what I'm shooting for in the future. Delicious looking, right?



I'm looking forward to perfecting this one, and also trying so many more from the book. I think the next on my list is something with clams or shrimp bisque.