Roasted Vegetable Soup

Our baby is already eating solids and I make his food at home. It's pretty simple and I know exactly what goes into it. He's already had a few things and most have been a success so I was ready to start mixing things. I came across a recipe that was absolutely perfect for him AND us. With just a tiny bit of planning, I could kill two birds with one stone. This way I could introduce something new (shallots and garlic), feed ourselves and feed him all with one meal. Score!




Roasted Vegetable Soup

1 sweet potato, about 12 oz
1 acorn squash
4 shallots
olive oil
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 regular whipping cream
ground grains of paradise (or ground black pepper)
salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Cut the sweet potato, squash and shallots in half lengthwise, through the stem end. Scoop the seeds out of the squash. Brush the cut sides of the vegetables with olive oil.

Put the vegetables cut side down on a baking sheet or shallow roasting pan. Add the garlic cloves. Roast in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, until tender. Set aside to cool.

When cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh from the potato and the squash and put in a saucepan. Remove the peel from the shallots and garlic and add the soft insides to the other vegetables.

Add the broth and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are very tender.

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Transfer the soup to a food processor or blender and process until smooth, working in batches. If you will be feeding a baby that cannot eat dairy yet, reserve some of the pureed soup now. Return the soup to the rinsed out saucepan and stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and grains of paradise. Simmer for a couple of minutes.

Serves 6




This was the best vegetable I've ever had. We all loved it, including the baby. He just couldn't get enough! I reserved just over one cup of the pureed soup before adding the cream. I left two baby servings in the fridge for today and tomorrow and froze the rest. There wasn't any left with the cream to freeze for us...it's all gone. Delicious!

Quick Dinner

We have been eating out a lot lately because the baby does not give me a chance to make dinner. As you can imagine, this is getting really expensive so it was just a matter of time before we had to find another solution to the dinner problem. I can't let the kiddo scream while I cook so we decided it would be best to find quick things I can make once my husband gets home from work and watches the baby. Great idea. We only started yesterday so ask me how it's going in a couple of weeks.

Just because things have to be quick, does not mean they have to lack in the quality and flavor departments. For this reason, I picked Chicken with a Pan Sauce for the first dinner. I paired it with good old mashed potatoes and it was a success.




Chicken with Pan Sauce

2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
salt
ground grains of paradise (black pepper will do in a pinch)
2/3 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 tbsp whipping cream
5 tbsp butter, cold

Place each chicken breast between two sheets of plastic wrap. With the flat side of a meat mallet, pound the chicken until it's an even thickness of about 1/4 inch. Remove plastic wrap and season with salt and grains of paradise.

In a 10 inch skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the chicken for 6 to 8 minutes or until no longer pink, turning once. Transfer the chicken to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add the wine, chicken broth and shallots to the skillet. To deglaze the skillet, stir and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spatula. Bring to the boil. Boil gently for 10 to 15 minutes or until the liquid has reduced to 1/4 cup. Reduce the heat to low.

Stir in the cream. Add the remaining butter, one tablespoon at a time, stirring well after each addition until the butter melts. The sauce should be slightly thickened. Season to taste with additional salt and grains of paradise. Spoon over the chicken and serve.

Serves 2




For this, as with any other pan sauce, you cannot use a nonstick pan. Pan sauces rely on stuck bits and there is no such thing on a nonstick pan. As for the wine, I have found that the four packs of the little bottles (the ones that are supposed to be one glass) works best for cooking. The quality is not excellent but they are not bad either and the best part is that no wine goes to waste because they are so small. Of course, if you drink wine with your meals then it shouldn't matter as it probably wouldn't go to waste.

This is a simple, relative fast and definitely good recipe. The best part? It's MUCH cheaper than eating out!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have to admit that I have always dreaded Valentine's Days. Well, not always, just when I've been alone. I'm convinced this holiday was created to make single people feel miserable the world over. Why else would it be??? Hallmark makes who knows how much out this so called holiday alone. It's all about making money, then again, so is Christmas these days. So, while the rational part of me believes this, there romantic at heart in me gets a little sparkle in her eyes thinking about all the romantic, cheesy, cliche things going on in the world today. Everything from red roses to walks on the beach, to romantic dinners to champagne and chocolate covered strawberries by candle light. Hey, I AM a girl after all!

Even with all my Valentine's Day cynicism, I couldn't resist baking cupcakes with pink icing. I admit, it was just an excuse to get in the kitchen because I haven't done in so long. What used to be an almost daily occurrence is now a sporadic thing. These days I take any opportunity to at least try to bake something....anything.

I've wanted to try the Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe for a long time. I figured this occasion was as good as any. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about the Magnolia Bakery and their cupcakes. In case you have been living under the proverbial rock, the Magnolia Bakery is a small bakery in New York that has one of the best cupcakes in the entire city, if not the country. The lines for this bakery, which is take out only, can be ridiculously long AND they have a 12 cupcake per customer limit due to their popularity. The Magnolia Bakery cupcakes have been featured in Sex and the City, The Devil Wears Prada, etc. The owners have also released at least two books, one of which contains this recipe.




In all honesty, I don't understand why they have decided to share the most popular recipe. True, they are probably not losing much business since they are not a country wide chain and thus anyone outside of the NYC area are not really their target demographics but still...the competition could very well use it against them. At any rate, I'm glad they've decided to share because had it not been for this recipe, I would have probably never tried a Magnolia cupcake. The recipe is all over the internet right now and I guess I'm just jumping on the bandwagon. The recipe also comes with an icing recipe but I used a different recipe since I don't like buttercream that is just butter and powder sugar.

Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing

1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Line two 12 whole muffin tins with cupcake liners.

In a small bowl, mix the flours and set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until soft. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the the ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until all the ingredients are combined but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.


For the buttercream:

2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 a cup vanilla sugar
6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

Combine the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a mixer or in a metal bowl and whisk together. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water. Insert a thermometer in the bowl and whisk until the mixture reaches 100°F (warm to the touch). Remove the bowl from the saucepan and place on the mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer. Beat on high speed until the egg whites form soft, shiny peaks.

Make sure the butter is soft and lump free. Add to the meringue a tablespoon at a time while beating at high speed. Continue to beat on high speed until the mixture looks smooth. Use right right away by spreading the buttercream on the cupcakes.




The cupcake part, the part that comes from the Magnolia Bakery, is absolutely delicious It is one of the best vanilla cupcakes I have ever had. The icing, which is a slight modification of the buttercream found in "Desserts by the Yard" by Sherry Yard is also one of the best I've had. Over all, these cupcakes are excellent, even my picky husband loved them