My neighborhood

This evening while Matt was studying and our dinner was cooking, I decided to go for a walk.  The weather was perfect for a short stroll around the block.  While strolling, I took these photos.  Being able to focus in on such small details is really so much fun.  I hope you enjoy!

A very basic chicken (or chickenless) soup

Today at 1:15pm I got a phone call from my sweet husband telling me that he was leaving school early because he was sick.  Between yesterday afternoon and today, he had caught some sort of cold in which he could not stop sneezing.  His co-teacher actually told him to go home because the sneezing was that bad (or annoying-we aren't sure which).

My mother has always taught me that if you have a cold, you need to have plenty of liquids to fight it off.  Therefore, after I got home and settled in, I asked Matt if he would be interested in having chicken noodle soup for dinner.  After discussing the benefits of a broth-filled dinner, he agreed to this dinner plan.

Below is my quick recipe for a very basic chicken noodle soup.  We had almost all the ingredients at our house so the only thing I had to run out and buy was a box of noodles.  However, in case you don't have noodles, rice would have been a perfectly acceptable replacement.  Unfortunately for us, we were out of rice too.  I don't eat chicken so I added the chicken only to Matt's portion of the soup.  This soup was really good for how basic the ingredients are.  Even Matt, who was eating the soup between sneezes and sniffles, agreed that it was mighty fine for such a quick, simple dinner.  Our house smells so warm and seasoned right now from cooking this dinner.  That only adds to the enjoyment of making it!

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Basic Chicken Soup

2 bay leaves
2 chicken breasts or tenderloins
7-8 cups of fat free chicken broth
1 box noodles (we used tri-colored spiral noodles)
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Heat a large pot of salted water.  This pot will be for your spiral noodles.  Cook according to the directions on the noodle box.

Place 2 bay leaves and 2 frozen chicken breasts in a pot of salted water over medium heat.  Once chicken is cooked through, take chicken out of water and cut into small bite sized pieces.  Add to the boiling chicken broth and vegetables.

While chicken is cooking, chop the celery and carrots.  Place chopped vegetables in a large pot filled with the chicken broth, Kosher salt, garlic powder, and black pepper.  Bring to a boil and then cook for approximately 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender on a medium heat.

Once your chicken has been added to the broth and the noodles have been cooked according to the directions, take the big pan of chicken broth off the heat.  Add noodles to the broth according to how many noodles you want in the soup.  Some people like their chicken soup with lots of noodles while others like it more brothy.  If you have extra noodles leftover, save them for another meal making adventure later in the week!

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Late night hummus

This weekend our friend Steve is back in town for a wedding.  We went to dinner last night at one of our favorite restaurants in Atlanta called West Egg Cafe.  At West Egg, they have a fabulous butterbean hummus which we get almost every time we go.  As we were enjoying it last night, I realized there was a pretty good chance that I could make a hummus similar to that one.  Not a definite chance but I thought I would give it a try.

While Matt and Steve were off seeing a movie, I ran to Publix looking for a can of butterbeans.  After much looking to no avail, I decided to check the frozen section.  This is where I found what I was looking for.  A frozen bag of buttepeas (which I assumed where the same as butterbeans)!  On the way home, I began imagining what exactly I would put in my butterpea hummus.  Below is what I came up with.  This recipe took about 5 minutes to make and produced probably a little less than 2 cups of hummus.  Quite a success in my book! In the Slye household, we recently began eating our hummus with pretzels.  It is quite a nice change from the traditional pita chip.  I hope you enjoy!

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Slightly Spicy Butterpea Hummus

16 oz bag of frozen butterpeas, thawed
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayanne pepper (or a little more if you like really spicy hummus)
5 tablespoons olive oil, added one at a time while food processor is blending the beans.

Combine all ingredients into a food processor.  Pulse until the desired consistency is reached.  Drizzle with a little olive oil.  Serve with pretzels, pita chips, vegetables, or whatever your heart desires.

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Two "Real Simple" days in a row

Today's recipe is called "Cheese Tortellini with Spinach, Peas, and Brown Butter" by Real Simple (August 2012).  Although Matt and I don't have a regular rotation for what our meals will be, once I find a recipe I love that recipe tends to pop up on our dinner list quite regularly.  By regularly, I mean I have made today's recipe about three times since the middle of August.  That averages out to about once a month or so.  Pretty regular in my standards.

One reason why I haven't made this recipe by Real Simple more often is because tortellini at Publix costs about $7.00 a pound.  $7.00 seems kind of steep to me for only one part of a meal.  However, the other day when shopping at the DeKalb Farmer's Market, I saw they had a pound of homemade tortellini for less than $5.00.  "Heck's yes!" I thought to myself.  "We are going to be having that delicious Real Simple tortellini recipe again sometime soon!"  So this week I added the dinner to our weekly dinner list.

Below is the link to the original recipe.  It is a seriously good recipe so I highly recommend you try it.  The first two times I made the recipe, I left out the tomatoes because I thought they seemed like a weird addition.  This time I added them and I kind of wish I hadn't.  Matt and I both picked them all out of our servings.  If you love tomatoes, you might love the addition.  If you aren't a huge tomato fan, please know if you leave them out, you will still have a delicious dish. Enjoy!

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/cheese-tortellin-brown-butter-00100000085424/index.html

Lamb chops with braised escarole and chickpeas: a "Real Simple" masterpiece

I love food magazines. Real Simple. Food Network. Cooking Light.  You name the magazine, I bet you I will love it.  When I saw the recipe below in the October issue of Real Simple, I knew I wanted to try it.  First reason: it looked so easy! Second reason: what in the world is an escarole?  

After reading over the recipe and looking at the picture, I figured out escarole must be some sort of leafy, greeny thing (which could very easily be discovered when looking at the picture).  I was thinking the flavor might be a mix between lettuce and collard greens.  I also thought I would most likely be able to buy this leafy thing at the DeKalb Farmer's Market.  Both thoughts were right on.  Escarole is slightly bitter like collards and I was able to find it at the farmer's market.  That DeKalb Farmer's Market just doesn't let me down.  

When I was making this recipe, I only cooked one lamb chop and did not have any wine which is one of the called for ingredients.  I used chicken broth instead to add flavor to the escarole.  Even with this small substitution, this recipe was very good.  On the weeknights, I like to cook recipes that are simple.  This recipe is definitely that as well as delicious.  Matt gave it rave reviews and ate the leftover escarole and chickpeas the next day in his lunch.  Because I don't eat meat, I put the escarole on a baked potato and added some parmesan cheese.  Eating it that way was mighty tasty as well! If you get to try this recipe, I hope you enjoy it too.

Below is the original recipe by Real Simple.  It can be found in their magazine or online at this link: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/lamb-chops-braised-escarole-00100000086795/index.html 

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Lamb Chops with Braised Escarole and Chickpeas

(serves 4. Ready in 30 minutes)

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 small head escarole, leaves torn (about 13 cups)

4 cloves garlic, peeling and smashed

1/4 cup dry white wine

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed

8 small rib or loin lamb chops (1 inch think; about 2 3/4 pounds total)

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the escarole, garlic, wine, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook, covered, tossing occasionally, until very tender, 8 to 10 minutes.  Add the chickpeas and cook until warmed through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Season the lamb with the oregano and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper.  In 2 batches, cook the lamb, 2 to 3 minutes per side for medium-rare.  Serve with escarole.  

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My last apple recipe...for now

I have now officially used up our apples from apple-picking.  The recipe below is going to probably be the last apple recipe I make for quite a while.  I am not saying that because I have not enjoyed cooking with apples.  I really really have!  It wasn't the apples, it was me.  I need to try new things, experiment with new foods, have new adventures... I think I just broke up with apples.

Anyway, below is a recipe that I found in the Food Network magazine.  They had a pull-out section in their October magazine entitled, "50 Things to Make with Apples."  This little pull-out is actually where my obsessions with apples began.  Therefore, it seems very appropriate that I would end my rash of apple recipes with one from my original inspiration piece.  

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Apple Cake by Food Network

Cake

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 apple

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 stick butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon juice

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Shred apple and squeeze dry, then whisk with eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla.  Fold into the flour mixture. Bake in a buttered 9-inch-round pan for 20 minutes. Cool. Beat cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt.  Spread on the cake. 

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I took this Apple Cake to small group and I think it went over pretty well.  On the way home, Matt said he would give it 4.5 chicken wings out of 5.  I take that as a very good indicator of this recipe's success.  I think if I bake it again I will try to make some healthier substitutions such as using only egg whites and applesauce instead of oil.  When making it this time, I did half the icing recipe and still found I had plenty of icing for the entire cake.

I would highly recommend this recipe if you have some extra apples lying around.  It was quick, easy, and very comforting.  It is like a taste of fall in every bite!

Just a couple photos

One of my favorite things about writing this blog is getting to take photos for it.  I have loved getting to experiment with my angles and lens when taking photos of food and the outdoors.  Below are some photos I took this evening.  

I noticed the woolly worm outside our door when we were heading in after work.  Winter is coming.

The pumpkin was a gift to Matt from one of his students.  

The succulent sits outside our front door.  If you ever need an easy plant that loves light and doesn't hold it against you when you forget to water it, you need to get a succulent.  They are simply the best.

Thanks for looking at my photos.  I hope you enjoy!

Bourbon Apple Crunch: a dessert for adults only

Here is another apple dessert I made this past weekend.  I am still working with all the apples from our apple picking spectacular.  I actually love having so many apples around because if I mess up one recipe, I have plenty of them lying around to continue my recipe experimenting.  

Below is a recipe I came up with this weekend. I am calling it Bourbon Apple Crunch but the bourbon ingredient is totally optional.  I hope if you get to make it, you enjoy it as much as Matt and I did.  

Just as a side note, this dessert is best served cooled.  I tried ours when right out of the oven and after it had sat out for about an hour.  It was actually better when it had cooled off some.  Also, vanilla ice cream or cool whip would be a wonderful addition to top this whole dessert off.  Enjoy!

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Bourbon Apple Crunch

(serves 4)

topping

1/4 cup oats (quick cooking or old fashion)

1/2 tablespoon white sugar

1/4 cup of whole pecans, chopped

1/2 tablespoon butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

apple base

3 apples, medium sized

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons bourbon

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Taking a small bowl, measure out and mix all of the topping ingredients listed above.  Set aside.  Core and cut apples into bite sized pieces.  Set aside.  In a large skillet, melt apple base's butter.  Add brown sugar and cinnamon.  Stir until mixed completely.  Add bourbon, continuing to stir.  Add apples.  Coat apples and let cook for 5-7 minutes or until soft.  Do not cover the skillet while the apples are cooking. Once apples are soft, add cornstarch to the mixture.  Stir in cornstarch.  Pour apple mixture into an oven safe dish.  Add your topping to the top of apple mixture.  Bake for 15-18 minutes.  Let cool for 30-60 minutes before serving.

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