It's a typical New England February day- rainy, snowy, cold, and grey. I'm about to say something controversial... this is my favorite kind of day. I live for days where it's socially acceptable to lay on the couch, watch tv, and eat all day. And today... was that day.
On a day like this I get into my day time pjs (it's a thing, don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about) and think about what cozy food I want to make! I've had my heart set on soup for a while now and was waiting for the right moment to make it. I decided on chicken noodle, but I wanted something different. After scouring the internet for the perfect recipe, I settled on a mix of a couple and added my own little tweaks and let me tell you... this is the best soup I've ever made and will definitely be my go to from now on.
-1 tbs butter
-2 tbs olive oil
-2-3 cups chicken (cooked)
-1 can cream of chicken soup (10.5oz)
-6 cups chicken broth
-1 cup whole milk
-2 celery stalks, chopped
-3 carrots, chopped
-2 medium onions, chopped
-1 tsp lemon pepper
-1/2 tsp garlic powder
-1 packet of ranch seasoning (1oz)
-1 cup cheddar cheese (get a block of cheese to shred, the pre shredded stuff won't melt correctly- I like New York sharp)
-4 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
-8 oz pasta (I used spaghetti)
-1 Tbs lemon zest
-salt and pepper
1. Chop the onion, celery, and carrots into bite sized pieces, set aside.
2. Chop or shred the chicken however you like, set aside.
3. Shred the cheese, set aside.
4. In a large stock pot on medium heat, sauté the carrots, onions, and celery in the butter, olive oil, half of the ranch seasoning packet, lemon pepper, garlic powder, salt, and pepper for five minutes or until they start to soften.
5. Once the veggies are good to go, add in the chicken stock, chicken, milk, cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, and the rest of the ranch seasoning packet. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and let simmer for 25 minutes- stirring occasionally. (The soup might look a little funky because of the cream cheese but just stir and break everything up and it will eventually become a creamy consistency.)
6. Bring the soup back to a rolling boil. Once the soup is boiling, add the pasta (I broke mine into smaller pieces) and shredded cheese- stir to combine everything. At this point, you want to be stirring pretty regularly so I suggest staying at the stove until the pasta is fully cooked and you're done!
7. At the very end, mix in the lemon zest.
(Little thing I like to do with soups because I like them a bit thicker- turn the heat off and put the cover on and leave it for 5-10 minutes. Perfect.)
Be VERY careful, this soup is the temperature of the sun and will burn everything in your mouth. I know it looks and smells like heaven, but just wait a few minutes. If I can show self control, you can too! Throw in some crusty bread or saltines and you're golden.
Chicken soup is so many things to so many people: medicine, comfort, love, nostalgia, delicious... they even named a series of "inspirational" books after it! I personally was the proud owner of a few versions... ohhh those teen years.
I know one of the ways I show love is through food, and this soup given to a loved one who is maybe not feeling so hot, going through something, or is just hungry, is probably the perfect use of your energy.
This soup is warm, filling, and oh so comforting so I hope it does your body good on a cold rainy day.
Meaghan
Usually I'm not the biggest fan of meat sauce, but Bolognese has always interested me. My sister always says that she can tell how good a restaurant is by the Bolognese. Is she right? Why is this the control of the experiment? Why is this dish so popular? Veggies and meat cooked down? So many questions! So I thought I'd give it a try and see what all the fuss is about. I'm glad I did...
I've made some adjustments when compared to more classic recipes- I don't use some commonly used spices and I don't use wine, but it all turned out alright! This is a perfect Sunday activity so plan on spending a few hours with this sauce, nothing fast about it.
-1 medium onion
-1 celery stalk
-1 carrot
-3oz pancetta
-1/3 cup tomato paste
-1 lb ground chuck
-2 cloves garlic
-3 cups chicken stock (separated into 1 cup and 2 cups)
-1 cup whole milk
-1 lb pappardelle pasta (I couldn't find this in my store so I used fusilli lunghi because it was fancy, really any pasta will technically do.)
-Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)
1. In a food processor, mince the onion, celery, garlic, and carrot, but don't make it a paste. Set aside.
2. Chop the pancetta, set aside.
3. In a large pot on medium-high heat, warm a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Place the ground chuck into the pot in small chunks (think golf ball). Stir and brown for about 10 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside.
4. Drain the pot of any excess water and fat from the beef and place the chopped pancetta into the pot and cook until crisp (like bacon!). When crisp, remove from the pot and set aside.
5. Keeping the fat in the pot and lowering the heat to medium, throw in the minced veggies, stir and cook until they soften and start to dry out and stick in the pot- around 10 minutes.
6. When the veggies are looking good, add back in the beef, pancetta, and one cup of the stock. Stir to combine everything and start to mash down the little meat nuggets into little bits. Cook for about 10 minutes.
7. Add the tomato paste, stir to combine. Cook for about 5 minutes so that the flavors start to meld.
8. Pour the remaining two cups of stock and the cup of milk into the pot and reduce the heat to low. Stir to combine the ingredients and keep an eye on it now for 2-2 1/2 hours stirring occasionally. You don't want any sort of rapid or consistent boiling going on here, you want the sauce to have a few bubbles here and there... like lava!
9. When the sauce is just about done it should have tightened up, but not dried up. If the sauce seems to be too dry before the time's up, add a half cup of stock at a time.
10. Cook your pasta to your liking- DON'T DRAIN THE WATER! When the pasta is done, place it directly into the pot with the sauce. At this point you want to take some of your pasta water and spoon it into the sauce helping it loosen a little while making it thicker at the same time. Add the water until the sauce is to your liking, I added about a half cup. Looking back I think I should have added a little more- so use your judgement. You want it to resemble a sloppy joe mixture.
11. Once the pasta has been incorporated with the sauce and it's silky, chunky, and beautiful (as I'm often described haha), you're ready to eat! Taste and adjust for seasoning and you're golden. Pour onto a platter or scarf right from the pot : )
This dish is the image of Sunday family dinners: warm, comforting, and tastes like the potential of drama with one wrong look across the table. I know I'll be making it for my family dinners, I hope you make it for yours!
Meaghan
Pasta is my obsession. My love language. My cup of tea.
I’ve always wanted to make fresh pasta, I tried once and failed miserably. This time I was determined. And what do you know, nailed it. The first time I made this was for my roommate and myself. I was insure of the proper cooking technique- "when it floats it’s done". Honey, it floats the second you put it in the water! Anyway, I went along with it. I paired it with a yummy Alfredo sauce and oh my LORD. You will never want to go back to dried boxed pasta again. The fresh stuff is so unbelievably light and fluffy and has a great chew. If it wasn’t such a process, I’d have it every day! Also, in case there are any other fat kids out there- you can eat so much more of the fresh pasta! Because it's so light and just made up of simple ingredients you won't fill up and feel nasty. Before you know it, you’ll feel like you’re at a villa in Tuscany snapping your fingers at Francesco- the scantily clad pool boy, to come fill your glass with prosecco!
I come to you with a wonderful, nay, amazing, recipe for homemade pasta. Trust me when I say, this dish is garunteed to impress. Yes, it takes a couple hours, but when you see your guests display the look of pure nirvana on their faces... it’ll be very worth it. Unfortunately, you will need a pasta attachment for your mixer, a counter pasta crank, or some other contraption to ensure the dough is rolled thin enough (for this recipe I’ll be using the pasta attachment for my KitchenAid mixer- both the flat and spaghetti).
-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-4 eggs
-1 tsp kosher salt
-water as needed
1. Put all ingredients into the mixing bowl.
2. Using the dough hook on the lowest speed, mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated into a soft, slightly sticky dough ball. (Here is where it gets a bit tricky. You'll have to keep using a spatula to help incorporate the mixture. Once everything is kind of together, start dripping in a tablespoon of water at a time until the dough just comes together. If you overwater the dough, just add in a couple dashes of flour to dry it up.)
3. Once the dough is together, let it kneed for a minute or so until it's smooth and bounces back to the touch.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for a half hour.
5. When the dough has firmed up, remove it from the wrap and cut into four equal pieces (makes it much easier to work with).
6. Using lots of flour on the dough, attach the flat roller to the mixer and turn the dial to 1 or the widest setting and slowly feed the dough into the roller.
7. With one pass through, fold the dough in half and roll through the 1 setting a second time.
8. Set the dial to 3 and roll the dough through.
9. Set the dial to 4 and roll the dough through (for spaghetti, I like to stop here. If it's too thin, it'll have trouble cutting).
10. On a floured surface, set the rolled dough aside.
11. Repeat steps 6-10 with the remaining three sections of dough.
12. Once all the dough has been rolled thin, change the attachment on the mixer to the spaghetti cutter.
13. Again, keeping the dough floured, carefully feed each section of dough through the cutter. Setting aside the cut pieces on a floured or cornmeal covered surface.
14. Repeat step 13 for the remaining dough.
15. Once all the pasta is cut you can either let it dry out or cook it right away in a large pot of boiling salted water- if you let the pasta dry a bit, fluff it occasionally to ensure it doesn't stick together. (I like letting it dry a little before cooking, but I definitely suggest cooking it before storing in the fridge. It doesn't last long as a raw dough when being stored).
16. When you're ready to cook, don't overcrowd the pot and I'd let it cook in a large pot of boiling salted water for 3-5 minutes, but test earlier if you feel it may be done.
ENJOY!
Fresh pasta is seriously the best, in my opinion. The taste is so delicious and fresh and even though it takes a little time, it's worth it. Now that you have the basics down, you can do anything! You could add some spinach juice, or beet juice, or any other flavorings and get fancy with it! Whatever you do, just enjoy it : )
Meaghan
Candy them, that's what!
I recently made a pecan pie that I had definitely overestimated the anount of pecans I needed. I'm not a huge of just plain pecans for a snack so I needed something to do with them as to not waste them. Then I remembered a time many moons ago I found the most delicious candied walnuts and there is was. Lightbulb.
You will need...
-4 cups pecans
-1 egg white
-1 Tbs cinnamon
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 tsp salt
1. Preheat your oven to 300°F.
2. In a large bowl, wisk the egg white until a little frothy- about a minute.
3. Into the egg white, dump in the pecans and mix until all of the pecans are coated in the egg white.
4. In a seperate bowl, combine the cinnamon, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and salt.
5. Add half of the dry mixture into the pecans, mix to combine, then add the rest of the dry mixture, mix to combine again. Make sure each pecan is covered for maximum deliciousness.
6. Dump the mixture onto a sheet pan in a single layer. (If you have an oven the size of an easy bake like I do, you may need to use a couple of smaller pans.)
7. Place the pan(s)into the oven for 40 minutes, stirring half way through.
8. Let the nuts cool at room temperature and you're done!
These are seriously unbleivable and a very dangerous snack. If you have self control, good for you. If you're like me and will try to eat them all in about five minutes, these make great little gifts. Give them away! Keep some for yourself, of course, but share the love. Orrrr if you want to scarf them all down, who am I to stop you. You can use all kinds of nuts for this- walnuts will be my next experiment, I am from the north.
Enjoy!
-Meaghan
