The Feel Better Soup

This soup has made regular appearances in our house this month.  Which is to say...we've been sick a few times.  But fortunately, one of us was always able to muster enough energy to peel & chop a few vegetables.  I like this soup because it's bland enough that it won't aggravate an already upset stomach, but it's not so bland that the non-sick person feels like she's slurping a bowl of salted hot water.  It's also warm & hearty enough to cut through fever-induced chills, à la, the flu.  Now don't get me wrong, this is not the most flavorful soup you'll make this winter.  But it's probably one of the best things for you if you're sick.

The Feel Better Soup

6 cups stock (vegetable, chicken, or whatever you prefer)
2 potatoes, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
2 celery stalks, rinsed
1/2 bag frozen corn
1/2 bag frozen peas
fresh herbs (if you have some)

1.  In a large pot, heat stock to boiling then reduce to a simmer.  (You can add water here if you want more broth & less "stuff" in your soup.)

2.  Chop potatoes, carrots, and celery stalks into bite-size pieces.  Add to pot.  Cook until potatoes & carrots are soft enough to eat, ~12 minutes.

3.  Add corn & peas.  Continue cooking another 3-4 minutes until everything is hot.

4.  Serve.  If you're a non-sick person cooking for & eating with a sick person, add some extra salt & freshly ground black pepper to yours for more flavor.  Fresh herbs are also good to add here.  We had fresh thyme once, & it was a great addition.

Makes 4 large servings.

Tomato Topped Polenta

And on the very last day of January, I squeeze in my second blog post of the month.  New Year's Resolution - so far, so good. 

Anyway, polenta & tomatoes.  To tell you the truth, this dish isn't exactly my favorite.  BUT that's because I'm not the biggest fan of tomatoes.  In fact, unless it's been stewed beyond recognition into a chili or some type of pasta sauce, I can't say that I really even like tomatoes.  And this recipe features tomatoes, looking very much like tomatoes, front & center.  That said, David thought this dish was delicious (because he's one of those people that actually eats raw tomatoes!).  So considering that it only took about 30 minutes to make & requires minimal ingredients, I'll probably make it again.

Tomato Topped Polenta
Polenta cooking instructions adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

2 cups water
1/2 cup milk
salt
1 cup polenta (coarse cornmeal not instant)
1 tablespoon butter
black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 bunch cherry or grape tomatoes, rinsed
freshly grated parmesan

1.  Mix water & milk with a pinch of salt in a large saucepan, & bring to a boil.

2.  When boiling, steadily pour in the polenta, & whisk.  Make sure there are no lumps. 

3.  Turn heat to lowest setting, & cook about 10 minutes, whisking frequently.  The polenta will thicken, & you can tell that it's ready when it's absorbed all the liquid. 

4.  Meanwhile, heat olive oil, garlic, & red pepper flakes in a pan over medium heat.  Before the red pepper flakes start to brown, add the tomatoes & stir to coat.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper.

5.  Cook about 5 minutes or until the tomatoes start to break down.  Remove from heat, & smush any tomatoes that remain whole.

6.  When the polenta is finished, add butter & pepper & stir.

7.  Spoon polenta onto plates.  Top polenta with cooked tomatoes.  Add a drizzle of good olive oil over top along with some freshly grated parmesan.

Makes 2 servings. 

Lemon Broccoli Pasta

So with all of the eggnog & Christmas cookies consumed last month, it seems I had little time to actually record the Christmas season's culinary projects on this blog.  That's not exactly a surprise since I've never been good at updating regularly.  So, my new year's resolution is to make 2 new blog posts a month.  This seems like an achievable goal so I might actually do it.  And it means I'll be trying at least 2 new recipes a month.

To start us off, a super quick & easy pasta recipe.  This is a simple recipe so ingredients are key.  Freshly grated parmesan & good olive oil (we got some for Christmas!) will make a difference.  Other vegetables can be substituted for the broccoli...I'm thinking spinach or asparagus would both be good choices.  And feel free to use whatever type of pasta you have on hand.

Lemon Broccoli Pasta

1/2 pound dried pasta
2 heads broccoli  (or 1 bunch asparagus/spinach)
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves minced garlic (use less if you're not a garlic fan)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes  (use less/none if you don't want the spiciness)
lemon juice
fresh parmesan cheese
salt & fresh black pepper

1.  Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.  While waiting for it to boil, chop broccoli into eat-able size pieces.

2.  Add pasta to boiling water.  When the pasta is about halfway cooked, add the chopped broccoli to the same pot & continue cooking until pasta is fully cooked.  (This will result in broccoli that still has a little crunch to it.  If you're using spinach, rinse it & remove the stems.  Then add the spinach to the pot when the pasta has about a minute left to cook.)

3.  Drain pasta/broccoli, & reserve at least 1 cup of pasta water.

4.  Heat olive oil, minced garlic, & red pepper flakes in a skillet.  Watch this carefully, & remove from heat before garlic or red pepper flakes start to brown.

5.  Drizzle heated olive oil/garlic/red pepper flakes over pasta & mix.  Squirt some lemon juice & grate some parmesan over the mixture.  Add pasta water a little at a time to thicken the dish.  Add salt & pepper & more lemon juice & parmesan to taste. 

(If you want an even easier cleanup, skip step 3 & just drizzle some olive oil over the pasta with the lemon juice & parmesan.  And you'll only have 1 pot to wash.)

Makes 4 servings.

Cabbage & Noodles

So today's blog title may or may not disgust you depending on your feelings about cabbage.  And in all honesty, when my mom would make this for dinner when I was a kid, I carefully picked out all traces of cabbage that could taint the salty, buttery noodle goodness.  But of course, as my mom always predicted, my taste buds changed as I got older, & I can finally fully appreciate this dish in all its cabbage glory.

Cabbage & noodles (or haluski) hails from the lands of my ancestors in eastern Europe.  A Google search revealed its popularity in Polish, Slovak, & Hungarian cultures.  As you can imagine, this is cheap food.  And it's not really the healthiest dish either.  But it is really freakin' easy, & you can always eat it with a side of broccoli for good measure.


Cabbage & Noodles (Haluski)
Cooked from memories of my mom's recipe which has probably never been written down.  I'm sure there are variations, but this is how I remember it.

1/2 bag of egg noodles
1/2 head of green cabbage
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt
freshly ground black pepper

1.  In a large pot, boil water for egg noodles.  Cook noodles until tender, drain, & return to pot.

2.  Roughly chop 1/2 head of cabbage.

3.  Place pot over medium heat.  Add butter & cabbage to noodles.  Season with salt & pepper.

4.  Cook over medium heat until cabbage is wilted & some noodles start to get a little crispy.  Stir just enough so that things don't burn.

5.  Season with extra salt & pepper as you like.

Makes 4 large servings.

Kale & Feta Frittata

Well, now it's finally Fall.  So, in addition to our normal Saturday morning routine of sleeping in & cooking brunch, we add watching college football the list of Saturday habits.  Since we're only lowly grad students here at the University of Colorado, we don't have to care about hasn't-looked-good-since-1990 Buffs football, & instead, are free to dedicate ourselves to teams that actually win more than they lose (& therefore, actually play games that we can watch on TV).

A recent brunch discovery is the frittata, which is like a quiche with less eggs & no crust.  They work well with most greens mixed with tomatoes, onions, or mushrooms (if you like those kinds of things) & topped with plenty of cheese.  They also make good leftovers.

Kale & Feta Frittata
Adapted from Family Meals by Maria Helm Sinskey.

1 bunch of kale (or spinach or swiss chard, etc), stems removed & roughly chopped
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium red onion, chopped
a bunch of cherry tomatoes (I used about 15; you can add, subtract, or eliminate)
handful of basil leaves (about 10-12), rinsed 
salt
pepper
8 eggs
1/2 cup feta cheese (parmesan would also be good)

1.  Preheat oven to 400°F.  Rinse the kale in a colander.

2.  With some water still sticking to the kale, wilt it in a pan over medium heat, tossing occasionally, less than 5 minutes.

3.  In a 10 inch dutch oven (or something approximately that size that can go from the stove to the oven), heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the onion & garlic, & cook about 2 minutes.  Then, add the tomatoes, & cook another 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, & season with salt & pepper.  (You'll be adding feta later which is already salty so add only a little salt here.)

4.  Drain any remaining water from the kale, & chop finely.  Add the kale to the dutch oven.

5.  Roughly tear basil into smaller pieces, & add to the dutch oven.  Stir to combine.

6.  Whisk together the eggs & a sprinkle of salt in a small bowl.  Pour the eggs into the dutch oven, making sure that they're distributed evenly throughout.  Sprinkle feta over top.

7.  Bake about 15 minutes until the top becomes a little puffy.  Add a final grind of pepper over top before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Iced Coffee

Coffee...it is my morning joy and a frequent afternoon friend.  And yet, would you believe that my husband, amazing in so many ways, is defiantly anti-coffee?  In the almost 3 years that we've been together, I have not managed to wear him down.  Until...

Enter iced coffee.  It's all the wonders of coffee in cool, convenient summer form, & it's a form that appears to sneak past David's coffee defenses.

Yes, I know it's turning into fall, and hot mugs of coffee are more suited to the current season.  But the past week here has been sunny & actually kinda hot so iced coffee was clearly called for.

Iced Coffee 
I developed this recipe after consulting various sites around the Internet.  It's a hot-brewed pour-over method, if you're up on all that coffee lingo.


32 ounce (4 cup) glass jar
paper coffee filter
clothes pins
2 cups boiling water
~1 1/2 trays of ice cubes
1/2 cup medium-fine ground coffee


1.  Fill the jar about 3/4 full with ice cubes.

2.  Attach the coffee filter to the top of the glass jar with the clothes pins.  Fill the filter with the ground coffee.

3.  Slowly pour some water over the grounds, making sure that they all get wet.  Then, continue to pour water slowly over the grounds until your jar is full.  Remove the filter.

4.  Fill some glasses with more ice.  Pour in the coffee, add milk & sugar, & stir.

Makes (obviously) 4 cups of iced coffee.  With this method, the coffee is brewed stronger to account for dilution by the melting ice cubes.  The extra will last about 2 days in the fridge. 

Painted Ceramic Trivets

David & I spent Labor Day weekend celebrating the wedding of one of my best friends.  It's always fun going to a wedding.  Marriage is such an awesome gift, & now that I'm married too, it's even more exciting to see someone I love get to have this great gift too.

For a wedding gift, I made these painted ceramic trivets to match the couple's new kitchen.  They are pretty enough to display but fully functional to protect your counter, table, etc from piping hot pots & pans of food.  So you won't be wanting to eat today's post, but you will definitely want to use it while cooking.

Painted Ceramic Trivets
Inspired by this Design Sponge DIY tutorial

6in x 6in white ceramic tiles  (47 cents each from Home Depot)
6in x 6in cork squares  (JoAnn's sells these in a 4 pack)
double-sided tape  (the cork squares came with this included)
contact paper
x-acto knife
scrap cardboard
can of spray paint
can of glossy finish spray

1.  Decide on a design for your tiles.  You'll need something that you can easily cut out.  Feel free to copy my design.  (right-click on the image then click "save as...")

2.  Print out your design directly onto the contact paper.  Make sure that it's formatted to print out in 6in x 6in size.

3.  Cut out the stencil with the x-acto knife.  It's helpful to cut on top of a piece of cardboard.

4.  Adhere the contact paper stencils to your tiles.  Use both the positive and negative images.

5.  Spray paint your tiles.  Do this preferably outside or at least in a well-ventilated area.  Let dry for 30 minutes, & paint another coat.  Let dry again then remove the contact paper.

6.  Spray the tiles with the glossy finish.  Again, do this outside (the fumes are not good for you).  Let dry completely for proceeding.

7.  Adhere the cork squares to the back of your ceramic tiles with double-sided tape.


Makes 2 painted ceramic trivets.