Mushroom Barley Soup

This soup is one of my winter time staples. It's the time I get to use the turnips Adam grows in our garden, they are so incredibly delicious, they taste like butter. And what really makes this a meal for me is the barley. It's such a hearty grain, so even if you're just eating soup you feel full and satisfied afterwards.

1onion
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 red pepper
2 turnips, diced
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I use baby bellas)
1 clove of garlic
2 carrots, diced
1/2 cup barley
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon sherry or balsamic vinegar
6 cups of water/vegetable broth
teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste

So first start by sauteing the onion, celery, pepper, garlic in a bit of olive oil. Add carrots and mushrooms until mushrooms are cooked through then add the barley, tomato paste and sherry. Stir around so that all the veggies are coated then add the water/broth and spices. Allow to cook on medium heat until all the veggies are soft and the barley is completely cooked (about 1 hour).
Serve with some crusty french bread and enjoy!

Sunday- Rice and Gravy

Sunday dinners are always special, but this past Sunday was one to remember. I had the two best cooks in the world in my kitchen, that would be my mom and my dad! Teaching me how to make steak and rice and gravy -a cajun staple! Meat is not something that makes it's way onto our plate often, especially beef. Adam is a vegetarian and every time I try to cook red meat for me and the kids it turns out to be a pale, tough and chewy mess. So my dad kindly taught me how to brown meat and make a killer gravy. For Adam I pan fried some flounder filets that were pretty yummy as well!

To go along with that we had a delicious salad from our garden topped with golden raisins, toasted walnuts and gargonzola cheese with rasberry lime vinegrette. Yum!!!

Here's to family dinners!

Date Night

This recipe is a bit lengthy, perfect for date nights when the kids are away and you can enjoy the process of putting it all together. Complete with a glass of wine and the Gipsy Kings on Pandora, followed by this heartwrenching romantic movie . So perfect!

Black Bean Empanada's:

Filling:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 red onion

1/2 cup shredded purple cabbage

1 small shredded zuchinni

1 clove crushed garlic

1 can balck beans drained

1/2 cup shredded smoked cheddar cheese

1 tablspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

squeeze of lime juice

handfull cilantro, chopped

Dough:

1 1/4 cup flour

6 tblspoon butter or shortening

1/3 cup COLD water

1 teaspoon salt

Egg wash:
1 egg
1/4 cup water

Pinapple green chile chutney:
1 can crushed pinapple
1 small can of green chiles
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 clove chopped garlic

So first start by making the dough. Mix salt into flour and cut in butter (I like to use a food processor for this), then add water little bit at a time until it resembles dry oats. Put into plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Now after you chop veggies heat olive oil in skillet and add the onions and red pepper. Saute until soft and aromatic then add purple cabbage, garlic and shredded zuchinni and coook down a bit. Add cumin and salt and pepper, black beans and cilantro. Squeeze a bit of lime juice and at the last minute add the shredded cheese. Turn off heat and set aside while you make the chutney.

In your food processor put pinapple, garlic, green chiles, dash of salt and cilantro and puree.

To assemble Empanadas:

Take out the dough and divide into about 10 balls, and on a floured surface roll out each ball to about 1/8" thickness to make a disc. Place all discs onto lightly oiled baking sheet and get your egg wash ready.

Place about one rounded tablspoon onto each disc, brush egg wash onto half of the discs edge, fold over then crimp around the sealed edge with a fork. Brush the top with egg wash and make a slit with a knife to create a vent for the steam.

Bake in oven set to 4oo degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with pinapple chutney. We ended up with quite a bit of left over mix that we used it as a dip with corn chips, but would be really good with rice and use it to stuff peppers. Yum!

There has been lots of culinary goodies here lately, with Emile's birthday and Valentines day and also Mardi Gras you would think I'd have been here everyday with somthing yummy to eat, but as always life takes precedents and blogging takes a back seat, as it should. So here I am back and I am hungry and don't feel like being in the kitchen one bit!

Last night Adam made a DELICIOUS stir fry over noodles with fried tofu. I think I had three helpings! Today Avery made breakfast, frozen waffles. He ate five then threw up. Lovely, huh? Lunch came out of a box with a bunny on it, and dinner tonight was a compilation of what I had in the fridge and pantry thown together so that I could leave hubby with the three kids and go tp yoga (not something I do everyday!) Soooo... needless to say dinner tonight was so not blog worthy. I have ideas, oh yes I do. I just need a kitchen muse or something to get me in there.

I would like to leave you with this recipe. A Hummingbird cake that was delicious! I made this cake with lots of love for Emile's big third birthday party last Saturday. I almost had a complete avalanche while icing the darn thing, but it was gooood!

Chicken Chili Quesadilla

My poor picture really does not do this dish justice at all! I do not claim to be a food photographer and I must admit to having terrible lighting in my kitchen, but it's really all about flavor here anyway.

Chicken Green Chili Quesadillas

3 organic chicken breast

1 can green chopped green chili's

1 tbsp cumin

salt and pepper

olive oil

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup cream cheese(optional)

lime juice

1/4 cup cilantro

shredded Mexican blend cheese- (cheddar & monetary jack)

Whole wheat tortillas

Sweet potatoes

Season chicken on both sides and place in oiled skillet. Brown on both sides, when done place on a clean plate and with a fork shred the chicken and place back into skillet with the chicken broth and the green chili's and cumin. Cook down with the lid on until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add cream cheese (if desired), cilantro, and a bit of lime juice- stir well and set aside.

To assemble the quesadilla:

Turn fire to medium/low heat. In a large skillet add 1 pat of butter or olive oil just to coat the skillet , place one flour tortilla down in hot skillet and on one side of the tortilla sprinkle about 1 tbsp of shredded cheese, then 1 heaping spoonful chicken mixture, then another sprinkle of the cheese. Flip one half of the tortilla over so that you've made a half circle. When cheese starts to melt flip the quesadilla and brown on the other side. Feel free to modify the cheese/chicken ratio to your liking of course.

The baked sweet potatoes with lime, which if you've never tried will probably blow your mind, it did for me who was so used to making sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar or honey. Simply bake sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, slice open and squeeze the lime juice into the warm sweet potato. Yum!!!

Vegetarian option: You can use black beans or shredded zucchini/squash in the place of chicken. Omit chicken broth altogether, you wouldn't need any extra liquid. Saute veggies until soft add cream cheese (or not) and assemble quesadillas.

Guest Chef in the House

Sunday night we decided to bring back an old tradition with my Dad at the stove. As far back as I can remember my grandparents made coush-coush for us, to me it was a special treat for them it was a staple. Coush-coush is basically water and cornmeal and a bit of salt and pepper steamed in a heavy bottom pot to create a nutty flavored dish that is served over a fried egg and on special occasions shrimp stew. The Coush-Coush itself is dry but with the runny egg underneath creates yummy soft lumps of mealy goodness. Sounds odd? For me it's more than comfort food, it's the epitome of nostalgia. I can remember my grandfather giving me my first lesson in how to eat this stuff- always with a tall glass of milk to wash it down. And the best part has to be the crust that forms on the bottom of the pot. My dad talks about how him and his six siblings would fight over the it!

Coush-Coush:

3 cups white cornmeal

salt and pepper(2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper)

water

vegetable oil

cover bottom of pot with oil, making sure to coat the sides of pot with oil. In separate bowl mix cornmeal with salt and pepper and stir n small amounts of water at a time until cornmeal resembles wet sand. Then place mixture in oiled pot and put on low heat. Cover pot to allow steaming. Check on corn meal every 10 minutes, stirring but careful not to scrape bottom pot. Do this until cornmeal is fluffy and loose (abut 45 minutes), some clumping may occur (the lumps were my grandfathers favorite, putting them into his milk)

Pour cornmeal into a separate bowl and invert crust onto separate plate.

Serve this over fried eggs or Shrimp stew with a tall glass of cold milk.