Italian Alphabet Soup

    One of my treasured recipes from my Aunt Donna is her Italian Stew.  When I was little, I used to love being at her cozy farmhouse in the winter when she would make this soup.  My favorite part of the soup were the little alphabet pastas she would add at the end.  I always loved the thought of that alphabet soup in a can but never liked it once it was opened so with Aunt Donna's recipe, I could have the little ABCs but in a wonderful, homemade soup.

   Recently my friend Gloria shared her recipe for what she calls Spaghetti Soup with me.  Not only did she share the recipe, though; she also brought me a bowl of it for lunch during a very busy week at work!  I was so grateful for the warm soup and am also grateful for her recipe as I ended up making it this weekend.  I followed Gloria's advice and used fresh vegetables as opposed to the frozen ones the recipe originally called for.  It didn't take much longer and the results are well worth it.  You can certainly substitute the fresh carrots and green beans for a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, but I can't promise your soup will taste as good as mine or Gloria's did!

   Never one to leave recipes alone, I decided to merge Aunt Donna's recipe with Gloria's.  Instead of the spaghetti that Gloria's calls for, I used the alphabet pasta of my childhood.  It reminds me of Aunt Donna and also makes my own two girls really happy.  In fact, my 3 year-old and I ended up sitting down and playing with some of the dried ones.  The recipe calls for just throwing the pasta in at the end, but I really don't like the extra starch you get when you do that so I always boil my pasta separately for a little less time than the box calls for, drainin the pasta, and then add it in after I have completely finished the soup.  If the starch doesn't bother you, you can just skip this step.

  I have made pasta e fagioli in the past and love the addition of the parmesan rind as a last step.  I keep a bag of leftover rinds in my freezer just for this purpose.  Any time I finish a wedge of parmesan, I just throw it in the freezer so that I have it for soup.  I decided this would be perfect for my Italian Alphabet Soup.  You could also just grate some parmesan on the top if you don't have any leftover rinds.  As always, I recommend using Sartori parmesan from the fine cheese section of your grocery store.  It's my very favorite!

   While it's still cold outside, give this soup a try!  My 8 year-old deemed it the best meal she has ever had!

Italian Alphabet Soup (click on title for a printable version)

1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 t. minced garlic

2 14.5 oz. cans of petite diced tomatoes
2 cans French onion soup
5 cups of water
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1 t. sugar

4 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 lb. stringless green beans, broken into 1/2" pieces

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used Barilla marinara sauce)

1/2 c. dried alphabet pasta

parmesan rinds or grated parmesan (I always use Sartori brand)


Brown ground beef, onions, and garlic in a large pot.  Drain grease.

Add tomatoes, French Onion soup, water, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and sugar.  Bring to a boil.  Add vegetables.  Cover and simmer for 1/2 an hour.

Add spaghetti sauce and parmesan rinds if using.  Simmer for 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, boil alphabet pasta for about 4 minutes (a little less than the package calls for).  Rinse with cold water to remove extra starch and drain well.  Add to soup.

Antipasto Salad

    When I was growing up, every time I saw my mom making this salad, I knew it meant company was coming!  As a grown-up, I find myself turning to this recipe all the time when we have invited friends over for dinner.  The salad is so big that it seems silly to make it for just our small family given that my husband and I are the only ones who eat it.  My hope is that one day my own two girls will make this recipe one of their own go-tos for entertaining but first they have to learn to eat odd things like mushrooms, black olives, and pepperoncinis!

   Our New Year's Day tradition is to invite our friends, the Irvines, over for dinner.  We rarely do anything on New Year's Eve but I so look forward to our traditional meal with our friends.  I always make Italian Rice Balls (at some point I might share this recipe with you but it's pretty involved and I'm not ready to scare you off yet!) and some other Italianish appetizer so this salad goes perfectly with that theme.

   Make sure that you give yourself enough time to prepare this salad because the magic of this recipe is really in the marinated mushrooms and peppers and they need at least 12 hours to soak in all the flavors.  I usually prepare that part the night before so it's easier to prepare the the next day.  You can find my super easy directions for roasting the red pepper on my post for Fried Green Tomatoes with Roasted Red Pepper Remoulade.

  The assembly of the salad takes a little time, so if I know I am going to be rushed before my company arrives, I prepare all of the ingredients ahead of time and store them separately.

  Now, all you need to do is invite a couple of friends over and share this salad!  My amounts are just suggestions; adjust quantity of vegetables to your liking.

Antipasto Salad (click on title for a printable version)

1 large bunch of leaf lettuce (green, red, or romaine lettuce) washed, dried, and torn
matchstick or shredded carrots (I use about 1/2 a bag)
2 cucumbers
1 small can black olives, chilled
about 8 - 10 pepperoncinis, chilled
10 thinly cut slices salami (I prefer Boar's Head Italian Dry)
10 thinly cut slices provolone cheese
8 oz. sliced, washed white mushrooms
2 tsp. minced garlic
olive oil
1 red pepper, roasted
red wine vinegar
2 roma tomatoes
finely shredded Parmesan (my favorite is Sartori brand)
croutons
Italian dressing of your choice

The night before, or at least 12 hours in advance, cook mushrooms and garlic in olive oil in a small skillet until mushrooms are tender but not overly cooked.  Place in a bowl and top with sliced, roasted red pepper.  Pour red wine vinegar over mushrooms and peppers until they are nearly covered.  Stir and refrigerate until ready to use in salad.

Place lettuce over the bottom of a large platter.  It helps if the platter has some depth to it.  Depending on how big the bunch of lettuce is, you may not need all of it.  Be sure to leave room for the other veggies.

Scatter carrots over the top.

Add cucumbers next.  I peel them and run the fork tines down them before slicing.  It makes them prettier but isn't necessary.

Add chilled black olives and pepperoncinis.

Around the perimeter of the salad, alternate rolled up salami and rolled up provolone.

Drain mushrooms and red peppers and discard liquid.  Scatter mushrooms and red peppers over the top.

Place sliced Romas around the top of the salad.

Top the whole salad with finely grated parmesan cheese.

Scatter croutons on the top.

Serve with Italian dressing on the side.

Winter Guacamole

    I know.  I get it.  You don't want to hear ANYTHING about ANYTHING that has to do with winter anymore this year.  Give me a chance with this recipe, though, and I promise any cold, gray, heavy-clouded day will be instantly brighter.

   As I am sitting here typing this, I am watching the snow pour down on my little Tennessee yard and listening the forecast of several more inches by morning.  We don't often get snows of this depth here, so my family and I are all prepared to enjoy a good old-fashioned sledding and snowman construction party tomorrow!

   Yesterday as I was making my snowy forecast grocery list, I had to laugh at myself a little bit given that the chances anyone would be fighting me over the items I had written down were pretty slim.  Snow days for me mean lots of baking and cooking, especially things I often don't have time to prepare.  This time I had the recipe for winter guacamole on my mind and I was in search of pomegranates.

  I attended a party at a friend's house last Sunday night and was so happy to see that my daughter's teacher, Carolyn, was one of the guests. She truly is the life of any party and I always have so much fun when I get to hang out with her.  Right now, my 8 year-old loves it that I am friends with her teacher . . . let's see how she feels about that when she gets a little older!  I was even happier still to discover the fantastic appetizer Carolyn had brought to the party.  From the beginning of the year, I have been sending Carolyn baked goodies and had no idea what a fabulous cook she herself is.  After trying her guacamole, I can't wait to get my hands on some of her other recipes.  I also couldn't wait to make this one right away.

  Back to the pomegranates.  To me, these are what make this recipe really special.  Not only does the slight tartness add such great flavor to the dip, but the color of the little arils brightens it up, too.  Look at me with my fancy knowledge of what pomegranate innards are called!  Now, go forth and impress your own friends with this word.

   Actually, let's talk about those little arils for a moment.  Ideally, you want to do what Carolyn does and just buy a container of the arils which have been removed from the skin.  She buys them at Trader Joe's but our local Publix carries them as well.  I couldn't find them in my part of town, so I ended up buying the whole pomegranate and pulling the arils out.  I found directions on several websites that suggested separating the arils in a bowl filled with water.  This worked great for me and afterwards, I just placed them in a colander and let them dry really well.

   Carolyn found this recipe in a fabulous Jr. League of Houston cookbook entitled Peace Meals.

Winter Guacamole (click on title for a printable version)

4 ripe avocados
3 T. fresh lime juice
1 t. coarse salt (I use Kosher)
1/3 cup minced onion (I use red onion)
3 minced serrano peppers (including seeds)
1 C. red grapes, halved
1 C. finely diced, fresh pear (I use a green d'anjou)
1/2 C. pomegranate arils plus a few to sprinkle on the top


Peel and cut avocados.  Mash slightly with a pastry blender or a fork being careful not to mash all the chunks out.  Mix in lime juice and salt.  Add onion, serrano pepper, grapes, pear, and pomegranate arils.  Sprinkle arils on top and serve with tortilla chips.

No Mixer Needed Chocolate Chip Cookies

   

   About a week and a half ago my mixer died.  My Classic white KitchenAid mixer that I bought 14 years ago out of desperation one night when I was tackling dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies finally gave up the ghost.  I guess when you use them about 5 times a week for that many years, they just get tired.

   There was no question about whether or not to replace it.  When I first bought it, I was still fairly young, single, and living in an apartment. At the time, it seemed like such an extravagant purchase.  Now, it's simply a necessity in the baking world I live in.  I opted for a beautiful Liquid Graphite Artisan this time which gives me a slightly bigger bowl and more engine power.  The engine power part kind of cracks me up.

   During the time when I was waiting for the arrival of my new mixer, my family and I found ourselves snowed in for a couple of days.  Snowed in with NO MIXER!  Baking and cooking are my favorite snowy day activities so I was truly at a loss.  I ended up surviving, but I tell you, it was really roughing it around here!

   After the mixer arrived, my cousin Mary Alice posted a picture of a jar of beautiful cookies on her Facebook wall and commented that they did not require a mixer at all.  Now, I sure wish I had known about her magical recipe while we were snowed in!  Every recipe for chocolate chip cookies I have ever used requires me to thoroughly beat the ingredients so  I was intrigued by this recipe.

  I thoroughly trust Mary Alice's judgement on baking because not only did I sample many of her delicious dishes and treats growing up, I also happen to know she learned from the masters, my grandmother and my Aunt Argie.  I treasure the memories I have of her working alongside Aunt Argie in our family's farmhouse to prepare the midday meal and can still picture her in her aprons. Mary Alice must have taken a great deal of mental notes and paid careful attention when she was in the kitchen because she is now a fount of knowledge for me as I attempt to duplicate many of our family recipes.  I am so grateful that she is willing to share so many tips with me and that we are able to bond over our recipes.  I am also thankful for the new images I have of her baking for her two sweet granddaughters and passing along our family's love of cooking to a new generation.

  Tomorrow the PTA at my daughter's school is hosting a luncheon for the teachers so  I thought this would be the perfect time to try out Mary Alice's cookie recipe.  Mary Alice suggested adding 3 T. of cocoa to the dough and replacing some of the chocolate chips with butterscotch chips.  I decided to try it without the modifications this time but used half regular chocolate chips and half mini-chips.  Next time, I think I will experiment with her suggestions but for this time around, I couldn't have been happier with how the cookies turned out!  Hopefully my daughter's teachers will love them, too.

   One of the things I loved about this recipe was that it called for dark brown sugar and while I have always used only light brown in chocolate chip cookies, I really, really loved the dark in these.  I think it added a little more depth to the base.  I would definitely suggest that you follow that part of the recipe if you have dark brown sugar on hand.  I am sure the light would work fine, too, but I will definitely be using the dark from now on.

 Mary Alice's notes on the cookies indicate that she found these from The Food Network and you can find the original recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies on the site.  My only modification was to use replace half the chocolate chips with mini ones and to use salted butter in place of the unsalted.  This is just a matter of taste, though.

No Mixer Needed Chocolate Chip Cookies (click on the title for a printable version)

1 stick of salted butter (1/2 C.)
3/4 C. dark brown sugar
3/4 C. granulated white sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 1/4 C. all-purpose flour (I only use White Lily in my cookies)
3/4 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer Hershey's)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Melt butter in a microwaveable bowl.  Allow to cool slightly.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together melted butter, both sugars, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until combined and no streaks of flour remain.

Gently fold in chocolate chips.

Using a small cookie scoop or a tablespoon, place balls of cookie dough on baking sheets.  Roll into balls.

Bake for 12 -14 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool on baking racks.

Quiche Your Way

    Behold, readers, a recipe that will serve you well any time you need something for breakfast, lunch, or dinner . . . quiche!  I have sampled many a quiche in my lifetime and will always contest that this is by far the best recipe I have ever tasted.  The base is extremely simple to put together and makes for a fabulous weeknight dinner.

    I take a great deal of pride in this recipe because it was the very first recipe I ever found on my own that my grandmother and my mom began to make as well.  I first discovered it in Seventeen magazine when I was just 16 and for some reason thought that I wanted to learn to make it by myself.  I must have done ok with it because we all three fell in love with it right away and have continued to pass it on to many friends and family through the years.

   As always, I suggest that you start with a homemade crust.  Remember how I provided you with my favorite pie crust recipe and step by step directions many months ago?  Remember how I challenged you months and months ago to try making your own and stockpiling them in your freezer?  Remember how I told you that those store bought ones just don't measure up?  Now is the time to perfect that crust!  If you really must, grab one of those from the freezer aisle, but as always, don't blame me if your version is a little lacking!

   My original recipe called only for onions, cheddar cheese, and bacon as the add-ins and often this is how I still make it.  Recently, though, I decided to shake things up a bit and add some other flavors in.  Part of the reason for this was because after I posted my recipe for Prosciutto Wrapped Parmesan and Pears and recommended that you use Sartori  Parmesan, Rachel from the Sartori Family sent me a lovely gift box with all kinds of samples of their cheeses along with a wonderful folder packed with information about the company.  I already knew I loved their cheeses, but I was so impressed with the company after reading their literature!  I am always drawn to food companies that are based on family traditions and are dedicated to farm to table.  Sartori embodies both of those traits and I am proud to support them on my blog.  Pick up any of their cheeses in the fine cheese section at your grocery store and be prepared to fall in love!

   One of the cheeses Rachel included in my gift box was a Rosemary & Olive Oil Asiago and so I decided to swap my normal cheddar for this in the quiche.

    This proved to be a fantastic decision!  I decided to build on these Italian flavors by adding a Rosemary Sundried Tomato Ham from Boar's Head.  I am quite picky about my deli meat (and many, many, many other things in life) and generally only buy Boar's Head.  This is another great company!  I also added some sundried tomatoes and red pepper to the quiche.  Just be careful to not add in too much of the other ingredients because you need room for the filling.

   I was so pleased with the end result of these changes that I don't think I can go back to making my plain quiche for quite awhile.  I already tracked down the Rosemary & Olive Oil Asiago at my local Earthfare and can't wait to make another one with it!

   I am including the ingredients for the traditional quiche in the recipe below, but feel free to swap out and add in as you see fit.  If you do nothing else, though, I would suggest trying this with the Sartori cheese!

*****Disclaimer --- Although the cheese was provided to me courtesy of Sartori, all thoughts, opinions, and recipes are my own******

Quiche Your Way (click on title for a printable version)

1 9-inch pie crust, deep dish works best  (again, I ALWAYS use a homemade crust)
6 eggs
1 C. milk (I use 2%)
1/4 t. dried thyme
1/4 t. dried parsley
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. black pepper
3/4 C. grated cheese (cheddar, swiss, asiago, etc.)
3/4 C. diced onions
1 C. cooked and chopped bacon or chopped ham
Other add-ins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Press pie crust into pan or use prepared crust.  Place pie pan on a baking sheet lined with foil to catch spills.

Sprinkle cheese, meat, and vegetables in the bottom of the pie shell.  Place Set aside.

Mix together eggs, milk, and spices with a whisk, mixer, or blender until thoroughly combined and frothy.  Pour mixture into prepared shell very carefully.  Do not overfill.

Bake for 45 - 60 minutes or until golden brown and filling is set.

Allow quiche to rest for 5 - 10 minutes before cutting and serving.