Last fall, we decided to plant some winter crops and see what would happen.  We weren’t dedicated or organized enough.  We had raised beds, but didn’t cover them.  We did mound up our leaves and grass around the outside of the bed to help keep it warm, but I think we needed the cover.  The only things that survived the winter were the spinach and the garlic.  The spinach languished in the bed.  Never growing a huge amount, just staying a small plant.  At the end of March, the beginning of April - Spring sprung and so did the spinach.

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I didn’t think I would be making soup this late in April but we’ve had a cold snap. I just got home from walking the dog and freezing like an icicle. Time to de-thaw with my favorite soup; I have a pot on the stove right now!

This healthy soup is made up of inexpensive, simple ingredients and relies on spices and herbs for flavor. It’s adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks and has been in my cooking repertoire for years. Read the rest of this entry »

No, I’m not talking about lasagna that’s left over from a few days ago, I’m talking about lasagna made with leftovers. Every now and then I like to make Leftover Lasagna.

Let me explain…

When I make the sauce for my lasagna, I generally use the crockpot. If I’m not making it from scratch, like today, I put a jar or two of the store bought stuff into the crockpot, add some ground beef, sausage and sausage and let simmer for the entire day. During the last couple of hours I throw in some leftovers. For instance, the taco beef from last night? In the sauce. Zucchinis, carrots, and red orange and green peppers from a salad? In the sauce. Spinach? In the sauce. Now my sauce has lots of nutritious veggies and the left overs aren’t going to waste.

In case you’re wondering. I’ve never had a Leftover Lasagna taste bad. The sauce always tastes delicious. I wouldn’t put anything too outlandish in there, somehow though it all just seems to work.

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup chopped Vidalia onions
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 pound shrimp
• 4 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 cup white wine
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 pound potatoes
• Pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup milk
• Green onion tops

Method:

1. Combine the flour and oil in a large nonstick saucepan and whisk until smooth. Over medium heat, stir constantly until the mixture is the color of peanut butter, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. Cook, stirring often, for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the shrimp and cook for another 2 minutes.
4. Add the wine, water, potatoes, old bay, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
5. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are done.
6. Turn off the heat and add the milk, mix it in well.
7. Serve the bisque, garnished green onion tops.

I find myself cutting out cardboard recipes from the sides of boxes, and they just seem to collect in little piles and never get made. I was sorting through one such pile and rediscovered Philadelphia’s black forest cheesecake and just had to try it.

And wow it was good!

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A food blog doesn’t have to be all about people food, does it? Read the rest of this entry »

Oh my goodness.  The.best.spices.evah!  My good friend, Kate, recommended Penzey’s to me a few years ago and I have sung their praises ever since. I’ve shopped on line with them for the longest time and recently I had the opportunity to visit one of their stores.  I was like a kid in a candy store.  I had to buy one of each.

My suggestion would be to buy a bottle of each spice, then when you need to refill, buy in a bag.  The bottles are really nice and sturdy.

My highest recommendations are for the following spices:

• Ground Red Chipotle - I use it for all Mex/Tex-Mex recipes
• Cayenne Pepper - I put cayenne on everything.  Well maybe not fruit, but…
• Granulated Garlic Powder - when you need powder instead of minced
• Oregano (Turkish) - for all Italian and Greek recipes.  I use it in my Matrix sauce and sprinkle it on pizza
• Basil (California Sweet) - the tomato’s best friend.  Matrix and pizza as well
• Oriental Mustard (Powder, Canada Hot) - I mix up a paste with equal part water/mustard powder and a dash of soy sauce for take-out egg rolls.  Even the HMIL would love it.
• Cinnamon - go to the site.  Buy some.  It doesn’t matter what type.  you will love how the smell jumps out of the jar!

Special Blends:

• Bangkok Blend - spicy and sweet all at once.  I use it on steak as a replacement for Montreal seasoning
• Lemon Pepper - great for grilling Buffalo wings - it’s how I prepare my wings [which I do every week in football season].
• Florida Seasoned Pepper - in place of lemon pepper.  It’s got the citrus without the salt. 

Try these spices.  Trust me on this, you will not be disappointed.

Cookerati is happy to participate in the Bloggy Giveaways this week. We hope to have a couple of cool products for you, and here’s the first:

My husband and I enjoy both wine and new gadgets so we were kind of tickled when we received The Wine Holder to review. The Wine Holder is such a simple design, yet it’s so cool everyone will ask where you got it.

In essence The Wine Holder is a piece of wood with a hole on top and a 45 degree angle on either end. These angles allow The Wine Holder to sit on your bar or countertop or dining room table without taking up a lot of room. They’re sturdy enough to hold a full bottle of wine, yet small and lightweight enough to store in your utensil drawer.

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This is a simple barbecue sauce that goes really nicely on smoked meats of all kinds, especially pork and chicken though it’s also great on beef.  It takes all of about 10 minutes to throw together and I promise you, it rules over your KC Masterpiece or other bottled sauce (though I will confess I don’t mind a little KC Masterpiece now and then).  I actually measured the amounts of each ingredient I used; please don’t tell anyone. 

3/4 C Cider Vinegar

1/4 C Tomato Paste

1/4 C Molasses

1/4 C Peach Preserves

1 Ancho Chile, cut into small strips

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 

1 Tblsp Granulated Garlic

1 Tblsp Granulated Onion

1/2 tsp. Cumin

Juice of 1/2 lime

Stir the whole mess together in a small saucepan over low heat.  Cover & let simmer 1/2 hour.  Fish out the ancho chile strips or don’t.  Mop it on your meats near the end of smoking or grilling if that’s your pleasure, or just serve it on the side.

As I type this, my husband is making my favorite salad in the world. It’s also one of the most simple. We take zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, onions and red and green peppers, slice them, brush with a little balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper and put them on the grill. That’s it. Throw them in a bowl and toss them together. I especially enjoy the grilled zucchini and yellow squash. Grilling them brings out their inherent sweetness and that combined with the balsamic vinegar is a flavor that just knocks our socks off. Asparagus and corn on the cob are also terrific grilled.

Today we’re serving the salad with burgers but many summer nights we have this grilled veggie salad by itself. It makes such a nice light meal -especially on hot nights because we cook it outside.

Really, it’s making my mouth water just thinking about it. Try it and see what I mean!

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