We have gone through a season of purging our excess belongings, and one of the things that I’ve purged is all my superfluous cookbooks. So I am surprised that one of the few cookbooks left in my library is a simple “Barnes and Nobles” book called Cook’s Encyclopedia to Soup, by Debra Mayhew. I love it because the recipes are simple and straightforward, the book is well organized, and there are pictures with EVERY recipe. You can find my handy little volume for a penny on Amazon. Yay for old editions!

Before I share the recipe (with my adaptations) I want to give you a few pointers:
– Always heat up your stock or water in a separate pot before adding it to the soup pot. You want the stock to be warm when it hits the other ingredients. This preserves flavor.
– When melting the butter (or heating the oil) put a pinch of onion in it. When you hear the onion sizzle, then you know it’s hot enough to add all the onions.
– When you add a new ingredient to fry in the bottom of the pot, always add a pinch of salt. This, too, helps preserve flavor.
– If you want to get the most zing out of your spices, it’s generally best to add them 10 minutes before the soup is finished. If the soup is too spicy, you can always leave it on the burner another 10-30 minutes to mellow out. In this soup, I have the spices added from the outset because I wanted less POW and more of an overall mellow taste.
– The easiest way to peel a butternut squash is with a vegetable peeler
– If you want a smoother soup, peel your potatoes. I don’t.

I like starting this soup earlier in the afternoon so that it has time to cool a little before running it through the food processor.

RECIPE: BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE
(Serves 4)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ large onion, minced
• 3 cups peeled, seeded & cubed butternut squash
• 1 ¼ cups quarts chicken stock
• 1 ½ cups cubed potatoes
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 shakes red pepper flakes
• 1 dash cayenne pepper
• ½ cup whipping cream
• Tabasco sauce, to taste
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 ½ tablespoons snipped fresh chives, plus a few whole chives to garnish

DIRECTIONS:
(1) Melt the butter. Add onions & cook for 5 minutes, or until soft.
(2) Add squash, potatoes, paprika, red pepper flakes, and cayenne. Toss. Cook 2-3 minutes.
(3) Add stock. Bring to boil. Lower heat to low, cover the pan & simmer for about 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft.
(4) Pour soup into food processor or blender and process until smooth. Return the soup to the pan and stir in the cream.
(5) Season with salt, pepper and tabasco sauce. Reheat slowly.
(6) Stir in the chopped chives just before serving. Garnish each serving with a few whole chives.

Enjoy!

^_^ Erin
11-07-2013

Tonight we had soup for dinner. I threw it together based around the zuchini that we received in our CSA this week. It was a simple soup to whip up, and was a particularly tasty meal at the end of the day. I will share the recipe thet I used tonight, as well as some basic principles for cooking soups that I’ve picked up in my (albeit limited) experience:

SUMMER SQUASH SOUP
Quart chicken stock
Bowl of salt (to use for adding frequent pinches)
Olive oil
1 small onion
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
3 small zuchini squash (I used 2 yellow & one green)
1 can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
2 bay leaves
Fresh herbs: I used oregano, thyme & mint

CUTTING THE VEGGIES:
Onion: mince (I like my onion pieces tiny)
Carrots: chop into disks
Celery stalks: chop, reserve the leafy tops
Zuchini squash: chop a little bigger than the carrot pieces, mine were in the shape of semicircles…it’s good for them to be thick because they soften significantly
Spices: for my soup, I minced the oregano & mint, but kept the thyme as little twigs

DIRECTIONS:
(1) You will use two pots. In the smaller pot, warm your chicken broth with the leafy tops of the celery. I typically try to get the pot to boil before it’s time to add the broth to the veggies. This reserves much of your flavor. Adding cold broth to a soup is ok, but not optimal.
(2) Heat olive oil in bottom of soup pot or saucepan. I put a pinch of onions in with the oil. When the onion pieces start to sizzle, add all of the onion with a generous pinch of salt. Stir/coat with olive oil. Turn heat down to low (a 1-3 setting on most stoves). Cook onions until translucent, 3-5 minutes.
(3) Add carrots & celery with a pinch of salt. Stir. Let cook about 5 minutes.
(4) Add squash, kidney beans & bay leaves with a generous pinch of salt. Stir to coat with oils. Let cook about 1-2 minutes.
(5) Add warm broth to main soup pot. Add pepper to taste. Raise burner temperature to boil. Once pot boils, lower temperature again so that pot will simmer, with the lid on or cracked. Soup will be finished cooking in about 20 minutes, but you can cook it for up to 30 minutes without the squash getting too soft.
(6) Add fresh spices 10 minutes before you plan on taking the pot off the burner. Adding spices at the end like this helps bring their flavors out more.
(7) Remove celery tops, bay leaves & any other unchopped spices (such as twigs of rosemary or thyme) before serving.

The soup goes great with a simple bread. I love it with a rustic loaf or sourdough bread. Fresh fruit also makes a dessert-like accompaniment. Tonight we had a galia melon (I bought it thinking it was a cantaloupe…it was a delicious surprise!).

You can use the basic formula for this soup to make any rustic veggie soup. Substitute squash with green beans or peas or corn. Add quinoa or rice to the stock. Switch up the spices. The best elements to keep steady are the onion, carrots, celerey & stock. And the salt. Adding a pinch when you add each new item helps seal in the flavor!

Enjoy!

^_^ Erin
7/31/2013

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Ive been spending a lot of time experimenting with making fuge from scratch. My basic recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (1962 edition), but I’ve started tweaking it. I have not yet arrived at The Ultimate Fudge Technique, yet, but I will share what tips I have under my apron belt.

RECIPE: Old Time Fudge

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa
Pinch salt
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter (plus a little to grease the pan & pot)
1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Grease sides of heavy 2 quart saucepan with butter.

In bowl, combine sugar, cocoa & salt. Stir till blended (its ok if there are little “balls” of cocoa). Add milk. Stir gently to blend milk with sugar; you can even let it sit on the counter a few minutes to let the sugar disolve, but you don’t have to. Stir in corn syrup and oil.

Add entire contents of bowl to saucepan. Since you already blended the ingredients, you only need to stir occasionally. Do not scrape the sides of the pan. Heat over medium heat until boiling. Add thermometer. Cook to soft ball stage (234°), stirring only if necessary.
Immediately remove from heat; add butter and cool without stirring to apx 200°. And vanilla and beat vigorously until fudge becomes very thick and starts to lose its gloss (dont slack off…keep going strong!). Quickly spread in buttered shallow pan. Score when warm, cut when firm.

Ingredients

Boiling

Score

Fudge

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There are two things you must know about me going into this blog post. One: I am a member of my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and pick up foods from my local farm once a week depending on what is in season and what the farm was able to harvest (I blogged for a year about my CSA here). Two: I hate pumpkin pie. I suppose it would be nicer to say “I don’t really like pumpkin pie,” and that’s what I say when I visit someone who is serving it. But what I really want to say when they offer me one of those big orange slabs is “I’d rather clean your toilet than eat that.”

So, last week when we got a sweet pumpkin in our CSA, I wasn’t terribly thrilled. My husband, however, looooooooves pumpkin pies (as do most normal Americans). So I said to myself, “Self! You’re gonna win ‘Best Wife Of the Year’ award by making your husband a fresh pumpkin pie from scratch that he will end up eating all on his own because you find pumpkin pies revolting. Go you!”

The pumpkin looks dark and delicious when mixed with the sugar and spices.

So, I baked the pumpkin, measured it out, realized I had enough for two pies (TWO!!! HELP!!! One yucky pumpkin pie in my house was enough!). I stirred in the spices and sugar for a double recipe, divided it, and stashed half in the freezer for a later date. Then I added the rest of my filling ingredients. Made my crust. Baked the pie. And the house smelled good while the pie cooled for a few hours.

After we watched a little TV, I turned to Matt and gave him the go-ahead for pie cutting. He sliced me a piece to taste, as I warily said, “You’ll eat whatever I don’t finish, right? Which will probably be the entire piece, minus one bite.” He, or course, grinned at the thought of two pieces of pie in one sitting. So we sat. And tasted. And. Oh. My. Goodness. This pie was GOOD! Like REALLY good.

Here it is. The only pumpkin pie I've ever liked.

I asked Matt how he liked it, and his analysis was spot on. Matt, you see, loves pumpkin pies. Period. That means he loves store-bought pies; he loves pies made with canned pumpkins; and he loves fresh pies made completely from scratch. Matt loves all pumpkin pies, so of course he was going to love this one; however, this pie was completely different, because it tasted like it had a real pumpkin in it. The fresh pumpkin is what made it so distinct and different. This fresh pie was creamy and almost fluffy, as opposed to the dense pumpkin pies that he typically eats. The fluffiness was something I particularly liked, as well. And, I might add, he said it was the best pumpkin pie he’d had in awhile. (^_^ And we all know, of course, that he wasn’t just saying that to make me happy.)

So. Without further adieu. Here is the recipe:

PUMPKIN PUREE (From Rustic Fruit Desserts, by Cory Schreiber & Julie Richardson)

Use a small pie pumpkin, also called a sugar pumpkin. Cut it in half and scoop out the stringy guts and seeds. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour 1/4-1/2 cup water into a greased baking pan and lay the pumpkin cut side down in it. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the pumpkin is very soft. Remove from the oven and flip the pumpkin cut side up to rest. Let cool, then scoop the meat into a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl. Allow to strain overnight at room temperature (this allows the pumpkin meat to lose some of its water content). Stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, the pumpkin puree will keep for up to 3 days.

PLAIN PASTRY PIE CRUST (Adapted from the 1962 Edition of Better Homes and Gardens)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups sifted white flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup bacon grease
5-7 tablespoons cold water

DIRECTIONS

• Sift together flour and salt.
• Divide bacon grease in half. Cut in first half till mixture looks like cornmeal. Then cut in remaining half till like small peas. (Dividing it makes the crust extra tender and flaky).
• Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the water over part of the flour-grease mixture. Gently toss with fork; push to one side of bowl.
• Sprinkle next tablespoon water over dry part; mix lightly; push to moistened part at side. Repeat till all is moistened.
• Gather up with fingers; form into a ball.
• On lightly floured surface, flatten ball slightly and roll 1/8 inch thick. If edges split, pinch together. Always roll spoke-fashion, going from center to edge of dough. Use light strokes.
• To transfer pastry, roll it over rolling pin; unroll pastry over pie plate, fitting loosely onto bottom and sides.
• Make sure edges are crimped high, the filling is generous.

This recipe will make much more dough than is needed for one pie shell. Once you have your pie shell ready, roll out the rest of the dough and cut it into strips.Place strips on a baking sheet.  Coast with a little butter and a sprinkle of sugar. Bake for a few minutes (until browned) when you put the pie in the oven. These truly make a tasty treat!

OLD-FASHIONED PUMPKIN PIE (From the 1962 Edition of Better Homes and Gardens)

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
3 slightly beaten eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 6-ounce can evaporated milk*

*Instead of evaporated milk, I used powdered milk. According to the tips on this website it’s cheaper and just and simple and using canned evaporated milk. For this recipe, I substituted with 1/2 cup powdered milk & 9/16 cup water (or: 1/2 cup water + a half-filled 1/8 cup of water). If you are going to use the powdered milk substitute, be sure to dissolve the powder in the water BEFORE adding it to the rest of the recipe.

DIRECTIONS

• Set oven to 400 F.
• Thoroughly combine the pumpkin, sugar, salt and spices.
• Blend in eggs, milk and evaporated milk. (I whisked the ingredients a bit at this point in order to blend them better.)
• Pour into unbaked pastry shell.
• Bake 50 minutes, or until knife inserted halfway between center and outside comes out clean.
• Cool before eating.

I hope you enjoy! This is, seriously, the best pumpkin pie recipe I’ve ever tasted, and the only pumpkin pie I’ve ever liked!

By ekwetzel
2011-11-03

For the longest time, pancakes were a tricky delight to fry up. They seemed simple. Their simplicity taunted me. I wanted to make pancakes from scratch, but would fail time and again. And I would return to the boxed mix for pancakes, because it was somehow superior. Well. Boxes, you have seen your day, for this Mama has figured out some of the secrets to pancake preparation, and I am here to share them with you.

The three main things that you need to consider with pancakes are preparation, quality of ingredients & toppings.

PREPARATION

This is very simple. Mix your batter the night before or the morning before and let it soak. When you let the batter soak, the pancakes will cook more evenly and rise much better. Do you hate a pancake that is not cooked all the way through? Me too. I think it’s really gross. Soaking the batter helps the pancake cook evenly and alleviates a lot of this problem.

You can mix the batter & leave it in the fridge. Or, you can put a towel over the bowl and leave it on the counter. Sometimes, if I want the batter room temperature in the morning but am concerned about it being warm for too long, I’ll fill the bottom of a large bowl with ice and nestle my bowl of batter within it overnight. That way it stays cool most of the night and warms up to room temperature by the morning.

Why do I like the batter at room temperature? I think it cooks up better.

INGREDIENTS

It may seem obvious, but it bears stating: the better the ingredients you use, the better your pancakes will be. Also, the type of ingredients you use will influence the type of pancakes you have. So, if you prefer really fluffy pancakes, you’ll want white or all-purpose flour. If you prefer more substantial pancakes, use whole wheat flour. I like my pancakes made with thick, whole wheat flour, and because I soak the batter for 8-24 hours, there is no problem with the flour being too thick or chunky.

Here is a basic pancake recipe that I nabbed off of AllRecipes.com:

Maple Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions: In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine egg, milk, oil and syrup; stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle; turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Cook until second side is golden brown (pancakes will be thin).

(Source)

I like to play with the recipe a bit, though, and substitute ingredients. With pancakes, substituting ingredients is easy to do. You can even fudge on the measurements. Pancakes won’t really change too much if you add more flour or oil. For instance, if you have more eggs, the pancakes will end up more like crepes (you can see my crepe recipe here). The one measurement you should pay attention to is the baking powder, because that will influence how much the pancakes rise.

Anyways. Back to ingredient substitutes.

After playing around with a few different swaps, here is how I now change my basic Maple Pancake recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour > Whole Wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk > Butter Milk (when available)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil > BACON GREASE!!!
1 tablespoon maple syrup (I love this ingredient and keep it in!)

Yes. You saw right. I use bacon grease. And it is delicious.

I like to prepare my pancake batter the morning before while making bacon, and I’ll pour the hot grease into the batter direct from the skillet. I’ll sort of measure it. Not really. As long as I have at least 2 tablespoons, I figure we’re good.

I also go a little over on the syrup. Because I like things sweet.

As far as the buttermilk goes, I don’t buy that in a store. I make it. From raw milk that I buy at a local farm. When I make my own raw milk butter, I save the buttermilk & it makes for deliciously rich pancakes. For that matter…

TOPPINGS

A lot of people don’t recognize how important a role butter plays in the flavor of your pancakes. Once the pancake is hot, slather it with butter. Good butter. I like to use my raw milk butter. And make sure the butter is salted. After that, the sweet stuff is incidental, in my opinion. Mr. Wetzel likes homemade jam on his pancakes. I prefer honey with whipped cream. Sometimes we’ll use syrup instead. You know. To be traditional and all.

Any leftover batter, I like to grill up in smaller pancakes which I set aside (unbutterred) for an afternoon snack. A bit of peanut butter and a tall glass of milk go superbly with this delicious homemade treat.

I hope my words have been wise…and that they’ve made you super hungry!

By ekwetzel
2011-07-18