Leek & Bacon Soup

Have you ever made the exact same recipe twice, only to find the results taste almost nothing alike? That happened to me recently. I first made this soup back in December and loved-loved-loved it. I think I ate it for lunch at work and then dinner the same night 2 days in a row. It was super simple to make, not unhealthy and well, it has bacon and leeks. Winner-winner in my book folks! So . . . I made it again just a day or 2 ago. Now keep in mind the only change I made was not peeling the potatoes this time around. I know, I know, I always hear about all that nutrition I lose when I peel 'em, so this time I figured why not leave 'em unpeeled? Heck, it all goes through the blender anyway, so it won't really matter. Well kids, something mattered, and I have no clue what. Maybe it just needs more salt and pepper. It's by no means bad this time around, but it's so different it's scary. Can you say bizarre? Well, here you go. It's your turn to see how you like it.

Leek and Bacon Soup
Adapted from Kraft

8 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 c. chicken broth
2 large leeks (approximately 1 lb.), white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
3 baking potatoes (approximately 1 lb.), chopped
Dash white pepper
1/2 c. skim milk

Bring the broth, leeks, potatoes and pepper to a boil in a medium saucepan and cook 15 - 20 minutes veggies are tender. Remove from heat. Add half the crumbled bacon and the milk to the pot and combine all. Blend in small batches in a blender until smooth; pour into bowls or back into the pot. To serve, top with reserved bacon. 

There, you see, simple enough to make a person really wonder how one could get such different results. It's not a hard recipe! Hmmm, what does that say about me then? Well, we won't go there. Both results are tasty, so I'll just have to make it a 3rd time - 2 out of 3 wins? Then I'll know what to expect? Well, it sounds good in theory at least. Anyway, give it a try and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Homemade Hamburgers + Homemade Buns

As most of you (maybe?) know, I'm not a big hamburger eater. Give me a steak any day and I'll tear it up, but hamburger? Eh. But.......we have over 30 lbs. of the stuff, so I try to make it work for me in a variety of ways. This past week, I decided to make hamburgers that we could grill instead of using it in tacos (like I do 94.68% of the time). Oh yeah, I also felt ambitious enough to make homemade buns, too.

About the buns. I used a recipe from allrecipes.com that had stellar reviews and (I think) 4.5 stars. Lets just say mine didn't come out looking or feeling anything like the reviews or pictures led me to believe they would. They didn't really rise much, which surprised me because the yeast bloomed like crazy. I noticed, though, that when I was rolling them out, they didn't get the "shiny" outside like the recipe said they would. They weren't bad, they were just kind of flat and dense. Not my favorite recipe (and I most likely won't use it again), but they worked for the burgers that night.

The burgers were pretty simple to make. I took 1 lb. of ground beef and added ground black pepper (to taste), 1/2 Tbsp. crushed garlic and peppercorn seasoning, 1/2 Tbsp. garlic salt, several shakes of Worcestershire sauce and 1 large slice of raw onion, very finely minced. I formed this into 3 quarter-pound burgers (for Buppy), then the last 1/4 lb. into 2 eighth-pound burgers for me. Again, it all goes back to me not being big into burgers; I like a thinner patty.

I also sauteed some fresh mushrooms and raw onion in some butter, then added in a splash of beef stock and dry sherry for flavor. Excellent combo for a burger. Oh yeah, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce, too.

At the end of the grilling process, Buppy topped our burgers with Swiss cheese so it'd melt and get all ooey-gooey. I love ooey-gooey cheese, but really, who doesn't? We finished our burgers with green leaf lettuce, and I think Buppy added mayo to his. To round out the meal, we had homemade potato chips. I actually made sure to bike extra long that day so I could splurge. Way to think ahead, right?? We found that the chips are best cut 1/24" thick (with the NEW MANDOLINE Buppy got me for my birthday!), then fried at 375F for 7+/- minutes depending on how full the fryer is (don't overcrowd). We seasoned some with Old Bay, some with Cajun seasoning, some with seasoned salt and fresh cracked black pepper.......they were all pretty good. Homemade potato chips just rock my socks. Well, most chips do, but I like that I can season homemade ones with whatever I want.

One last note: I found that forming the hamburger patties is easy if you take the lid to something like a sour cream container, spray with cooking spray and pat the meat into it. It makes them very uniform and the perfect shape. I used the same size lid when doing both my and Buppy's burgers, so they each fit on the bun pefectly, but his was thicker. Give it a try sometime. Enjoy!

Baked Dijon Salmon

I simply don't eat enough fish. I like some fish, but others? Not so much. Not a huge catfish fan; in my humble opinion (which is really all that matters, right?), it tastes like dirt. And I ate a fair amount of the stuff growing up (dirt, not catfish, although I had to eat some of that too since my dad was a fan), so I would know. Salmon is one of those fish that can be good or bad, depending on how it's made and who prepares it. Smoked salmon . . . well, can't really go wrong there. I love smoked salmon, but I wish it weren't so darn expensive in these parts.

The other day (ok, a while ago), I found a pretty decent deal on individual portions of salmon filets, 4 oz. each. I thought these would be perfect a.) portion control, and b.) for a night when I'm home alone and don't need to make a lot of food. We decided to pull 2 out of the freezer the other night with absolutely no idea how we were going to prepare them. Buppy suggested baking with a little butter and . . . Old Bay, I think. Eh, too boring for me. I decided to peruse allrecipes.com to see what I could find that was a bit more exciting. What I happened upon turned out fantastic, and I'm so glad I took the time to do my little search. Simple, with easy ingredients, and quick --- what's not to love?

Baked Dijon Salmon

Adapted from allrecipes.com

1/8 c. butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

3/4 Tbsp. honey

1/8 c. dry bread crumbs

1/8 c. finely chopped walnuts

2 (4 oz.) salmon filets

Salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat toaster oven to 400F. (Note: we used our toaster oven because we were only doing 2 filets instead of 4 as the original recipe called for. Why not conserve energy, right? But if you don't have a toaster oven, by all means use a regular oven.)

In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard and honey; set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs and walnuts. Brush each salmon filet lightly with honey-mustard mixture, and sprinkle the bread crumb-walnut topping over each filet. Bake salmon 12-15 minutes in the preheated toaster oven, or until it flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

As for the side in the picture --- I took 1 large russet potato, washed it, poked some holes in it and microwaved it until tender (note: you could use the oven to bake it if you wanted to instead). Once tender, I sliced it into rounds and laid them on a plate. I sprinkled with garlic bread powder, onion powder and a small amount of Asiago cheese. I then microwaved them another minute or two, just to slightly melt the cheese. They were lacking a little in the salt department, so season to taste. Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday - July 26, 2010

Menu planning. Hmmm. Have had a hard time following through with things these past few weeks. We'll see if this week is any better.

Monday: Parmigiano & herb chicken tenders, baked sweet potato chips & honeydew melon

Tuesday: cheesy chicken zucchini casserole & green salad

Wednesday: BLTs, baked potato rounds with cheese & raw carrots

Thursday: home alone, so probably leftovers

Friday: Pampered chef party

Saturday lunch: grilled Boca burgers, fresh fruits/veggies on hand
Saturday dinner: grilled chicken breasts & healthified crunchy Asian slaw

Sunday lunch: sloppy Joes & fresh fruit/veggies on hand
Sunday dinner: pizzas & green salad

Those darn chicken tenders have been on our menu plan for 3-4 weeks now, and I'm making them tonight if it kills me [although I must be honest, I'm hoping it doesn't!] The cheesy chicken zucchini casserole is going to be a spin-off of a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, so if it's good, I'll share. If not, you'll never hear about it again! I tried to do things that require minimal effort this week to perhaps help keep me on track better. Here goes nothin' . . .

But where did the leftovers come from?

My most recent post, as you may well know, is about that gosh-darn super-tasty reuben pizza I made last week. It was made with leftover corned beef I'd cooked a night or 2 prior, so today we'll talk about that recipe. I was hunting around on allrecipes to see if one could successfully cook a corned beef brisket in the slow cooker. Now that Buppy went to day work, I wanted something I could come home to, not something I'd have to boil for hours after I got home.

What did I find? A highly reviewed and rated recipe for slow cooked corned beef for sandwiches, which sounded easy enough to throw together in the morning. The flavors added to the brisket are all things we like, so I decided to give it a go. Lucky me, I'm the kinda girl who stocks up on corned beef the day after St. Patty's Day, so I got a slammin' deal on them. Yay for cheap [but tasty] meat! I'm pretty sure the briskets I purchased where somewhere between 50%-75% off the original price. Niiiiiice.

The original recipe can be found here, so I won't bore you with the details. Pop on over and take a look if you have some corned beef in your freezer waiting to be made. I halved the recipe because I only wanted to cook one brisket, although by the time it was cooked and the fat trimmed off, I almost wished I'd have cooked 2. The cooking and fat removal seemed to steal half my brisket away! Boo. Oh well, we got one meal out of it the first night and the pizza out of the leftovers.

Speaking of the first night's meal, we pulled the roast out of the slow cooker and poured the liquid it had cooked in into a pot. We brought that to a boil and added cubed potatoes first, then cabbage after the potatoes had cooked for approximately 10 minutes. Buppy did all this work. Whatever. I put the brisket in the slow cooker, I did my part! All in all, this turned out to be a nice dinner, although next time we'll have to strain out the peppercorns before we add the potatoes and cabbage; they were a little overwhelming.

The recipe here basically adds some beer, bay leaves, the normal spice packet that comes with the brisket, peppercorns and garlic. All things that sound like they'd only enhance corned beef, right?

The verdict? It was good, and cooking it in the slow cooker was a fantastically easy way to make it in the morning and forget about it. Buppy and I both felt that the addition of beer was unnecessary as we couldn't really taste it all that much. Maybe we should chalk that up to using Michelob Ultra Amber [instead of Guinness or something darker], but I think next time I'll keep the spices the same but cook in water [and maybe add a little beef broth]. Very tender, and great for leftover sammys or pizza! Enjoy!

Baked & Seasoned Potato Chips

Remember that darn ol' sweet potato from Thanksgiving that I keep wanting to use up? Well folks, she's finally in a better place now. Ok, maybe not better; she got pitched. I actually attempted to make baked sweet potato chips on Tuesday night, but there was a dark [ok, black] spot that ran all through the potato. While I could have cut that part off, Buppy and I agreed that we'd rather waste the food, the money it cost and the space it's taken up for five months than be sick.

The original recipe using the sweet potato comes from my Taste of Home's Light & Tasty Annual Recipes 2005 cookbook. I know, shocker, right, seeing as how almost every recipe I've blogged about for the past few weeks has come from the same darn book. What can I say? I'm trying to eat better, and their food actually turns out pretty well. Ok, minus the white bean tuna salad. Not a fan. But I digress.

This recipe is super simple to throw together on a busy night, then shove it in the oven and forget it. And even though I'm not big into rosemary [why eat pine? might as well drink gin, I say], I really liked these puppies. So did Buppy. We'll be making these again, fo' sho', and we might even try 'em with sweet potatoes like the recipe calls for. Eh, maybe not. I'd probably buy one or two and they'd sit around for another year or so.

Baked Seasoned Potato Chips
Adapted from Baked Sweet Potato Chips found in Taste of Home's Light & Tasty Annual Recipes 2005

3 medium white potatoes
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1 tsp. dried parsley flakes
3/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground mustard
Dash white pepper
1/2-3/4 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut potatoes into 1/8" slices. In a bowl, combine seasonings and olive oil. Toss gently with potatoes, making sure to evenly coat. Place in a single layer on 2 large baking sheets coated with non-stick cooking spray [we covered the sheets with non-stick foil instead of spraying].
Bake, uncovered, at 400F for 25-30 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown and tender, turning both the pan and the potatoes themselves once.

There ya have it. Super simple, really tasty and not bad for you! What more could you ask for? Enjoy!

Crockpot Horseradish Scalloped Potatoes

I realize I should probably not make this my first food post since, well, let's be honest, it sucked, but all the same, I'll fill you in on the awfulness that was the crockpot horseradish scalloped potatoes.

The recipe seemed simple enough at a glance. The plan was to make them on Tuesday night when Buppy (as my boyfriend is affectionately known) was at work. I wanted them for myself for dinner and figured he could survive with some leftovers. I stopped at the store and got milk just for this recipe! And then I got home to discover that I had roughly 1 1/2 lbs. of potatoes and the recipe called for 3. Oh well, I'll just make half. Good call dear, except that once the potatoes were peeled, I realized they were older than I'd thought and had a lot of bad spots that had to be trimmed off. I wound up with about 1 1/4 lbs. potatoes in the end and decided this just wasn't gonna cut it. I made mashed potatoes out of those, and Buppy so kindly picked me up some potatoes yesterday specifically for this recipe. My status on Facebook talked about my plan to make these delish potatoes. Friends were excited and already asking for the recipe. And now?

Now I have to tell them all it was a bust.

There are only 7 ingredients to the recipe, one being Parmesan cheese as an optional garnish. The other six are potatoes, horseradish, heavy cream (I subbed 1% milk knowing it would affect the creaminess but hoping it wouldn't damage the taste), nutmeg, salt and pepper. As for damaging the taste? There really wasn't much of one. At all. I tried a bite once the potatoes were tender and it tasted like a hot potato, with pretty much no other flavor. It's wasn't like it was horrible and I spit it out, but it was just so . . . blah. I'm not a fan of blah foods and this? This was beyond blah.

Buppy and I will not be making them again. The problem is now we have these potatoes that are cooked that have the potential to be decent if we use them in another recipe. My suggestion was to make them the crust or top layer of some type of casserole. Wish me luck.

*Just an FYI --- usually I take pictures of my food so you'll get to see the good stuff, but this wasn't really worth it.