Soup to warm the heart and the body

With Fall finally hitting the area (actually it started snowing just as my soup finished cooking), I decided to try creating a soup full of fall flavors. I had an acorn squash, butternut squash, and a banana squash that were delivered in my weekly vegi crate. I also needed to use up a bunch of carrots (baby and heirloom).

I roasted all the vegetables first, to add an additional dimension of flavor, added a bit of heavy cream, and finally some citrus to punch it up a bit.

Roasted 3 Squash and Carrot Soup

1 acorn squash cut in half & seeded

1 butternut squash cut in half & seeded
1 banana squash cut in half & seeded
8 large carrots, peeled and cut into 3 inch sections
1 small bag of baby carrots
1 clove of garlic
1 large onion, peeled and cut into 4ths
1 orange, the juice of
Olive oil
Fresh thyme sprigs
1/2 cup of Heavy Cream
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 soup can water
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 to 1 tsp nutmeg
Heavy shake of ginger
Small shake of chili powder
Small shake of allspice

You must first roast your vegetables, place them on a heavy sheet pan and drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper and thyme and toss.

Roast at 350 degrees for about 1.5 hours, moving veggies occasionally (I had to do it in 2 batches)

Remove and let cool, you can then dig the pulp out of the squash and put it directly into the soup pot with the remaining roasted vegetables.

Add the broth and the can of water, and the spices, go easy at first you can add more later. Puree in a blender our use your handy immersion blender, heat soup up to serving temperature.  Add your orange juice and heavy cream, taste and re-season as you like.

Arganica Farm Club

Thanksgiving Appetizer Recipe Testing

This weekend is supposed to be cold and rainy on the East Coast. We may even get some very lovely snow. So I figured I would get into the cold weather spirit and try out some recipes that I am debating on making for Thanksgiving this year. Thanksgiving is THE food sharing holiday of the year. The holiday is to honor the good-will sharing of food and building relationships with people, which is the whole premise behind my blog. So I am trying out an appetizer recipe today that I think my father will love, Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Chicken Bites. And I am making a squash and carrot soup to keep me warm in this Fall weather. I am currently roasting the squash and carrots in the oven for the soup so I will post that recipe later...once I figure out what I am going to put in it :-) Below please find the recipe for the jalapeno bites.

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Chicken Bites

8 chicken tenders, flattened and cut in two (I prefer breast meat)
3-ounce package softened cream cheese
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
8 slices favorite bacon (mine is peppered bacon but I couldn't find any at the grocery store), cut in half

1. Dab 1/2 teaspoon (more or less) of cream cheese on top of each chicken tender. Sprinkle a scant 1/4 teaspoon of peppers over cream cheese. Fold or roll chicken to enclose cream cheese mixture. Wrap each roll with one piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick.

2. Grill until bacon is brown and crispy on both sides.

 

Casa de Pizza

Today I am not going talk about a place I went to but I am going to try something different and share with you something that I made. As you know I love sharing the world through food. So today I will begin to share some of my world through my cooking. I used a family recipe for pizza dough. If I give you that recipe I will be disowned. So when I am not making my own I use a pre-made pizza dough & my favorite is ordered from Arganica Farms. Add fresh mozzarella, mushrooms, turkey pepperoni, combo of shredded Italian cheese, olives, onions, green pepper, fresh basil, tomato sauce and diced tomatoes and thinly sliced garlic. So easy & yummy.

A Happy Birthday

So I have had a pretty bad history with my birthdays in the recent year. And by bad I mean REALLY bad. I didn't make any plans as I was supposed to be out of the area again this year. Well, unbeknownst to me I was back in the U.S. earlier than I had expected but still made no plans. I was tired and the place I was looking forward to calling home got damaged during the summer's crazy weather. So instead of celebrating my birthday I planned on spending the day cleaning my apartment. A few days before the big day I got a text message from a good friend asking my plans for my big day. When I returned with, "A massage at the spa and then cleaning up my apartment. Why?", I was not surprised when he responded in typical smartass fashion, "that is dumb."

As I was sitting on my couch thinking, "Well no shit it's dumb but I need to get my apartment together and unpack my bags from my last work trip.", my phone rang. It was the smartass...I mean friend. He asked where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do for my big day because he was driving up. I was not shocked that he came the the friend rescue because he has a big heart. But I was caught off guard and surprised (which is probably what he was looking to do). I have barely "lived" in my apartment over the last few years I had no suggestions. He told me not to worry and took the reigns. I told him that I trusted him. I trust few people but after working together while deployed and knowing that he is also an adventurous foodie, I can truly say that I trust this friend.

He pulled off an amazing birthday of food and friendship. We spent dinner at Texas de Brazil catching up and enjoying amazing food. I have never been to a churrascaria before and this was a great introduction. The all you can eat barbequed meat was amazing. There was leg of lamb, bacon wrapped filet mignon, and great variations of chicken.

The desserts were amazing as well. I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted so we decided to share two desserts. 

I am blessed to have friends in my life that are of this caliber. I was able to spend the evening making birthday memories that will make me smile for a lifetime. I wrote in my first posting about being lucky to have people in my life that I can go years without seeing and then be blessed to be welcomed back as if years have not passed. I have not seen this friend in over 2 years. We broke bread (ate lots of meat) and shared shared wine. We made our reunion and my birthday one to remember. And I am thankful for that.

Ben's Chili Bowl

I pride myself in taking in the best of a city's food culture. All the times that I have traveled to Washington DC, I am disappointed to say that I have continually missed eating at Ben's Chili Bowl. The history of Ben's Chili Bowl speaks to the history of Washington DC back when it was truly "Chocolate City".
The U Street corridor (where Ben's Chili Bowl is located) was known as "Black Broadway". Top performers were found playing sets in clubs along the corridor & just hanging out at Ben's enjoying a half-smoke. The greats that frequented Ben's include Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Redd Foxx, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ben's stayed open through riots in DC after the assassination of Dr. King. Ben's remained open in the 70's when the open-air drug market ravaged DC. When the DC Metro Green Line was being built other businesses closed in the area but Ben's fed the Metro workers & regulars through the almost 5yrs of construction.
POTUS Obama ate at Ben's before his swearing in. Ben's has expanded to an online store, upstairs to a gift shop, & into the National's baseball stadium. Most recently Ben's expanded to the area next door & opened a restaurant/bar called "Ben's Next Door."
Whether you enjoy Chili dogs, half-smokes, chili fries or not...visit Ben's for a taste DC history. You won't regret it.

Half-smoke with chips