Welcome back, Me!

OK, so I really have been Missing in Action for awhile.  It must be the winter blues and our human instinct to cook to fatten ourselves up in the cold.  Or it might just be because I was re-inspired by my friend Becky Denslow's blog as she cooks through the Joy of Cooking.  Whatever the reason, I am back, baby!

So, today, after a playdate at the best children's science museum ever, I am spending the afternoon baking to my heart's content. Up first are homemade French Baguettes to go with delicious beef and barley stew, a perfect combo for a 20 degree wintery day in New Hampshire.  Now, I know it is not Sunday Soup day, but tomorrow is the Superbowl, and I plan on eating junk, junk, and more junk, so for this rare occasion, we are having a Saturday Soup.

I also have homemade English muffin bread rising...one of my best friends in my favorite new cooking magazine, Cook's Country.  I will post pics and recipes shortly.  I hope your mouths are starting to water as much as mine!

Missing in Action

It has been more than a year since I have posted to this blog, and in reading my previous posts, I realize that I have actually missed it! In the time since my absence I have created another most precious WORKS OF HEART and gave birth to my second child, a daughter this time. Her name is Sophie, and she is a wonderful addition to my family. Of course, she is in the unfortunate phase at 3 months old where she never wants to be put down. This puts a cramp in my cooking and crafting style, naturally. I have, however, been working on adorable paper Christmas ornaments for my son's daycare friends; this, though, has taken me 3 days instead of the 3 hours it would have taken BK (before kids). Sigh.

The tradition of Sunday Soup began 8 years ago B.C. (before child) when my house was a revolving door of guests. Chez Paquette opened for business every Friday evening as snowboarders and friends came over for drinks, food, and a floor to crash on, and it closed Sunday evening as those same snowboarders and friends headed home for another work week. I needed something easy and satisfying to feed anywhere from 2-10 cold and hungry people just coming off of the ski slopes before driving home. So, I would leave the mountain myself at noon (it actually was a good excuse to let my tired, unathletic legs rest) to create a new week's concoction.

All of those years later, the guests don't come by as regularly--who are we kidding? We all have kids now, and snowboarding has taken a back seat. However, I still make soup. In fact, Dave starts asking for Sunday Soup on the first cool day of the season. That day is today.

Today's soup: Hearty Beef Stew in the slow cooker
I made my broth from scratch this time. A few words on that topic: not sure it was worth the time, not pleased that I couldn't leave my house for 8 hours yesterday while it simmered, feeling good about being frugal and using the beef soup bone that I had in my freezer from the bulk meat purchase that we did this week (see next note).

Now a note about beef: last year, thanks to my mom, we started buying meat in bulk from a local farmer in Maine. I was skeptical at first, but after eating that first steak, it is quite obvious how much the quality is so different than what we would get at the grocery store. The cows are grass fed, Angus, and I will NEVER buy steak at the grocery store again. It's not overly pricey, especially if you can split a side of beef with someone. Well worth it and now my freezer is stocked!

Recipe:
2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teas. salt
1/2 teas. ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teas. paprika
1 teas. Worchestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 - 2 cups of beef broth (I use two)
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
(A note: the amount of veggies is totally up to your preference. I like more veggies in my soup, and I also adhere to the "that doesn't look like enough" rule. Veggies will produce their own water while cooking, so adjust the beef broth throughout the cooking. If you need more, go ahead and add it.)

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir ot coat meat with flour mixture. (A note: to really hold the juiciness of the meat, you may want to brown the meat coated in flour in a skillet with a little bit of oil before putting it in the slow cooker.)
Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worchester sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.

2. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10-12 hours or on High setting for 4-6 (A note: I would recommend using a low setting. The flavors have longer to meld together and the meat doesn't cook as quickly.) About an hour before you are going to serve, check to see how thick the liquid is. If it is not thick enough for your taste (I find this recipe can be a bit watery), take some flour--3-4 tablespoons--and mix it with some cold water until it forms a paste. Add this flour mixture SLOWLY to the stew, stirring it in. The flour may form little "dumplings" in the stew which means that it cooked too quickly before the flour was able to disperse. This is not a huge deal. The flour that does disperse will help to thicken the liquid.
Enjoy!

Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa Verde

So it is 900 degrees outside, and I was NOT looking forward to cooking ANYTHING! Until...I found this recipe in Cooking Light. It was perfect for a hot day. Give it a try. (Dave's comment, "It was good enough for Jehovah!" a shoutout to Monty Python, I suppose.)

Salsa:

1/2 cup chopped peeled mango (about 1 medium/large one)

1/2 cup chopped green tomato (I used red because I did not have a green one on hand)

2 tbls finely chopped red onion

4 teas chopped fresh cilantro

1 teas fresh lemon juice (I just used some from a jar not because I didn't have lemons but because it was too hot to exert the energy to squeeze the lemon.)

1/4 teas black pepper (I used less, to be honest.)

1/4 teas chili powder

Directions for Salsa: combine the ingredients in a bowl and toss well. (OK, a note about mangos. Cutting them is a bitch. There, I said it. I have found the trick, though. Stand the mango on one end and cut pieces off the edge, cutting as far into the mango as you can until you hit the seed. Once you have the pieces cut off of the seed, score them from the "meat" until you get to the skin of the mango. Once scored, you can peel the "meat" back and using a paring knife, cut off/peel off the mango.)

Tacos:

1 lb tilapia fillets

cooking spray

taco seasoning (can use some from pre-made packages or make some of your own.)

whole-wheat tortillas

mixed salad greens

Directions: The recipe from Cooking Light suggests broiling the fish; I, however, did not want to heat up the house any more than it already was. So, I decided to coat the fish in olive oil and taco seasoning, wrap it loosely in tin foil, then grill it in the foil, on a low flame for 5 minutes. That seemed to work well. Whatever you decide to do, make sure the fish is cooked and flakey before serving. Once the fish is cooked, heat up a skillet on medium high; coat both sides of the tortilla with cooking spray, and cook on the skillet until golden brown and a bit crunchy.

Assemble the tacos by layering fish, salsa, and mixed salad greens, then roll up. Flavorful, but not pretentious, this meal is perfect for a hot summer day.

So my hubby is doing a weird 3-day diet which requires him to eat strange combinations of food: 1 cup of beets and 1/2 cup of cauliflower and 1/2 cup of ice cream. He swears by it, and the jerk has lost 7 pounds in two days. I did this strange diet once and gained 3 pounds because I kept trying to eat normal food! What is it with guys and their insane ability to lose weight quickly?! Paquette's Pet-Peeve #345.

Because he didn't eat dinner with us, I was cooking for just myself (and my 2 year old who really only wants to eat chicken nuggets). I hate cooking for one. No matter how many people are in the house, cooking for one feels so lonely.

So I found a recipe for a spinach frittata, for one! Convenient. Of course, since I hate cooking for one, I doubled it. It smelled so good while cooking and was quite tasty! The jerk who lost 7 pounds in two days had the audacity to complain that I never make frittatas for him. Dude. I told him to go stuff his frittatas somewhere else, preferably wherever he put those 7 pounds.

Here's the recipe for one (but it is easily doubled):

Place a 1-cup ovenproof baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven. (I "stole" the best ramikins when I used to work at Peter Christian's, but for the life of me, I couldn't find them. Small pyrex bowls work ok too.) Preheat oven to 450. While oven is heating, whisk together 1 large egg plus 2 large egg whites, 1 tablesppon of grated aged cheese (I used Gruyere),, 2 teaspoons of milk, 1/4 teas salt, and a pinch of pepper. In a small skillet, heat olive oil; add 1/2 small shallott and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups baby spinach to the pan and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir spinach into egg mixture.

Take heated dish from oven and coat with cooking spray. Pour in egg mixture and top with more grated cheese. Bake until fritatta is puffed up and golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Serve with a side salad or a meat protein (I used baked salmon.) Enjoy!

These are the cards from the most recent Stamp Camp class. Enjoy!

I think that this one is my favorite!

OK, so I needed a dessert-kind of item for a party that I was having yesterday and completely forgot! I rummaged through the fridge, and luckily, I found blueberries and refrigerated crescent rolls (They were tucked waaaay in the back of the fridge. Luckily, they hadn't expired yet! The rolls, I mean. The blueberries were fresh.) Add some powdered sugar and a drop or two of lemon juice, roll them up, bake for 12 minutes at 375 degrees, sprinkle more powdered sugar on top, and TA-DA! Instant dessert! Actually, they were quite good. I will actually keep more crescent rolls on hand because this would be a yummy addition to Sunday morning breakfast!