Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

It's raining outside, I'm somewhat cold, and craving vegetables.  Vegetables? Yes, Vegetables....

What's the answer? Roasted Tomato Basil Soup! Tomato soup is one of my favorites, and this particular recipe is so easy to make.  Plus, it tastes great with a basic grilled cheese sandwich.

The below recipe comes from Tyler Florence with a few changes (less butter, no cream).  Tyler Florence, as some people know him, is my "TV boyfriend."  I just love this guy! His recipes are so delicious and trust-worthy.  I remember the first time I saw Tyler Florence on TV--he was roasting vegetables in brass pans, chopping basil really fast, and talking quickly about how "easy" and "delicious" the food he was making was.  And he was right.  

Roasted Tomato Soup
The following recipe can be altered in any number of ways; for a healthier but equally as tasty soup, omit options like butter, excess oil, and cream from the original recipe.  The subsequent recipe will be flavorful and just as hearty as the original recipe.

Ingredients:
* 2 1/2-3 lbs. tomatoes (any will work here--from the cheap oversized red tomatoes to vine tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, etc.)
* one yellow onion
* 4 cups chicken broth
* 6-8 cloves garlic
* Olive oil (1/2 cup - preferred amount)
* Cracked pepper (to taste)
* Tony's Chachere's (to taste)
* 1/2 cup chopped basil (optional)

1.) Set oven at 350 F.  Wash and quarter tomatoes and add them to a roasting pan; chop onion (thinly) and add to pan.

2.) Drizzle tomatoes and onions with olive oil.  Tyler's recipe calls for a half cup of olive oil, but I like to eye ball it in the hopes of saving a few calories.  Crack black pepper and sprinkle Tony's over onions and tomatoes.  Mix to integrate.

3.) Roast tomatoes and onions in oven for 35 minutes, or until tomatoes are slightly blackened on the skin (note: slightly blackened, too much dark on the tomatoes skin will lead to a flavor-disaster, so please, SLIGHTLY blacken the tomatoes).


4.) Separate onions and tomatoes: add onions to a large boiling pot, and place tomatoes in a blender.  Blend the tomatoes on the "puree" setting, but you can use an immersion blender in the actual soup broth to accomplish a similar puree setting.

5.) Mix all of the following ingredients with the onions in the boiling pot: 3 cups chicken broth, pureed tomatoes, garlic cloves (pressed with garlic press, or chopped), and bay leaves.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

6.) Add last 1 cup of chicken broth, as well as any desired seasonings such as 1/2 cup of chopped basil, or cream to the pot.  The original recipe asks for a couple of tablespoons of butter (yum!) and a few tablespoons of cream.  Enjoy!

Cranberry Sauce

During the holidays, it's really tempting to just buy the cranberry sauce in a can and call it a day. Honestly, I agree because I get it--canned cranberry sauce is delicious! It's so sweet, the perfect gelatin consistency, and the manufacturer's are super considerate by creating the places to cut the sauce with the shape of their can. I'm joking, but I really do appreciate canned cranberry sauce for all of its middle-class glory.

However, what producers of canned cranberry sauce don't tell you is that it's incredibly easy to make your own sauce and even TASTIER than the original canned delight. All you have to do is buy a 12 ounce bag of cranberries, add some sugar and water, and boil it all together until bam, cranberry sauce! Don't believe me? Check out the recipe below.

Cranberry Sauce
The below recipe comes from the back of an Ocean Spray 12 ounce cranberry bag, but you can find other online recipes that are similar instantly.  One that I would suggest is the Cranberry Sauce recipe available at Simply Recipes.  It's very similar to the one below, only minus the spices.  YUM!

Ingredients:
* 12 ounces of cranberries
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* cinnamon sticks (optional)
* 1 tablespoon orange peel (optional)
* 1 tablespoon nutmeg/allspice/cloves, or any combination of the three (optional)

1.) Add sugar and water to a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  While heating up, whisk the ingredients together until the sugar has full dissolved.

2.) Wash and add cranberries to the water/sugar mixture.  Bring water back to a boil and reduce heat to medium for the next 10-15 minutes (or, until all of the cranberries have sufficiently "popped" open).

3.) Now, your cranberry sauce will begin to look like a thicker-jelly-based sauce.  At this point, you can add any number of ingredients because your recipe is almost complete.  I like the addition of basic fall seasonings such as cinnamon (sticks), nutmeg, allspice, orange peel, and/or cloves.  However, these ingredients are not necessary for a tasty sauce--you can leave the sauce by itself and it will certainly taste delicious.  Enjoy!

Butter Pie Crust

Time is important, and when it comes to baking foods from scratch, one might as well make the most of their time baking.

Where am I going with this statement? Well, tonight is the evening before Thanksgiving, and boy do I have A LOT of food to make.  But, I don't want to skimp on my recipes in order to save time.  For example, I'm not the kind of cook that buys those pre-made pie crusts in the hopes of creating a flavorful pie.  Instead, I always make my pie crusts from scratch if I can spare the time!

Below is my favorite pie crust recipe of all time--it's great for pies (i.e., apple pies of which the recipe originated at Simply Recipes), or other dishes such as pot pie, or quiche.

I also want to add that what makes this recipe so spectacular is without a doubt the heaping brown sugar you add.  I've never come across a pie crust recipe with this combination, and the hint of flavor makes a wonderful addition to the final recipe.

Butter Pie Crust
I've made several changes to the original recipe; primarily, I have doubled it in hopes of making twice as much pie crust at once (who doesn't want a ton of pie crust?), and I have also ommitted the need for almond flour or finely ground almonds, but these still work.

Ingredients
*5 cups flour (all purpose works great here)
*4 sticks of unsalted butter
*2 teaspoons salt (I prefer kosher)
*2 heaping teaspoons of brown sugar
*6-12 tablespoons ice cold water

1.) Combine all flours, salt, and brown sugar.  If using a food processor, pulse 6-10 times to mix thoroughly, if mixing by hand (which is what I do), sift ingredients.

2.) Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes and combine with flour.  If using a food processor, mix until mixture resembles course meal.  If using your hands, like me, mix by mashing up the butter with your hands.  You'll probably need to go through the butter lumps to pull apart butter in the forms of pea-sized balls before moving onto the next step.  The idea you want to keep in mind is that the butter should be no bigger than a pea-sized balls before adding the water.


3.) Add the ice cold water several tablespoons at a time.  Since you're doing such a large batch, don't be afraid to add a good bit of butter when you first begin this process.

4.) Mix water into flour/butter mixture until a dough ball forms.  Once the dough starts to stick together when you pinch it together, the ball is almost done.  Flour a clean work surface and move the dough ball to that surface.


5.) Work dough ball into two large spheres.  This way, you can save one dough ball for the freezer (future pies, yay!), and use one for the big festivities tomorrow.

6.) Finally, cut both dough balls in half for a total of four dough balls.  Shape into spheres, or discs and cover in plastic wrap or seal in sandwich bags.  Regridgerate dough balls until you are ready to roll them (preferrably in the time frame of 2 hours - 24 hours).  It's very important that you don't over-knead the dough.  Also, if you see bits of butter in the dough, tha'ts okay--these bits will lead to a flakier crust. 

Vanilla Cupcakes

Tonight, I made the annual end-of-semester cupcake treat that I bake for my students.  Many of my peers often look at my funny when they realize that I, yes, "bake" for my students.  My logic is this one: by the time Thanksgiving break, or Spring break rolls around, many students are exhausted and need a little sugary boost to make it through their exams.  The answer? CUPCAKES!

For this particular batch, I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe courtesy of Paula Deen.  Many foodies know Paula as that sweet-as-pie Southern lady who uses tons of butter and sugar to make the yummiest of American comfort foods.  I love Paula as a TV personality, but have often butted heads with her recipes.  Something always goes wrong when I make a Paula recipe! Case in point: disaster key lime pie incident of 2009.  Enough said.

Thus, one might imagine my hesitation when I found this recipe, and subsequent delight when I finally tasted it.  THESE CUPCAKES ARE DELICIOUS! They're very simple, but exactly what one would want in a batch of universally pleasing vanilla cupcakes.  Add that to a simple buttercream frosting and sprinkles, and you have a real crowd pleaser!

Vanilla Cupcakes, or Paula's "Old-Fashioned Cupcakes" Recipe
Recipe courtesy of Food Network and can be found here.

Paula's original recipe calls for a mixture of cake flour with regular all-purpose flour.  For those of you who don't have cake flour on hand, I am happy to report that regular all-purpose flour works just as well.  Granted, the cupcakes don't have that cakey-density that cake flour offers, but are still light, fluffy, and vanilly-delicious!

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Old Fashioned Frosting, recipe follows

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.  Set aside.

2.) Combine the following ingredients in a bowl: flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add 2 sticks of butter in one inch cubes and mix with hand mixer.

3.) Then, add the wet ingredients starting with the eggs.  Add eggs one at a time, then combine milk and vanilla extract with the batter.  Mix thoroughly.  My batch was particularly lumpy with butter, so if you have this same problem and just can't get the butter to even out, don't worry, the butter will melt and combine during the baking process!


4.) Scoop batter into cupcake liners until they are about 2/3 full.  Put in oven and cook for 17-20 minutes.  If you are using a gas stove, you'll want to watch the golden-color of the cupcakes.  If the tops of the cupcakes are just beginning to turn golden brown, pull them out, because they are done! However, if the tops are golden brown, there is a very good chance you have burned bottoms (this happened with my first batch, so I made sure to pull out the cupcakes when they were just beginning to finish baking/turn golden colored.  This change made for perfect gold brown bottoms, not burnt bottoms!). Ahh...that sounds funny!

5.) Finally, wait until the cupcakes are completely cooled to decorate.  I used a spray butter cream frosting from the store, but Paula suggests you use her "Old-Fashioned Frosting" which is essentially butter cream (milk, vanilla, butter, and confectioner's sugar).  You can find the Old-Fashioned frosting on the same website as the cupcake recipe listed above.  Add frosting and sprinkle with cupcakes.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Recipe Preview

For Thanksgiving, I'm doing all of the staples: turkey (fried!), mashed potatoes, sweet potato soufflé, biscuits, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc.

You get the picture, yes?

In the following week, I will (hopefully) be posting a listing for all of the above items. Until then, I thought I'd share the original recipes with you below. As always, I will be making my own changes to the following recipes.

Turkey (Fried) courtesy of Alton Brown
Mashed Potatoes courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Sweet Potato Soufflé courtesy of Enita Estroff
Cranberry Sauce courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Green Bean Casserole courtesy of Paula Deen
Pumpkin Pie courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes
Apple Pie courtesy of Elise Bauer on Simply Recipes

Meatloaf

Tonight, I'm making my friend Joe's favorite food--MEATLOAF. Joe has spent the entire day "playing army" whilst doing a field training exercise known as "FTX" in the rain and chilly weather. Needless to say, when Joe told me he was coming back, I thought, "What better comfort food is there to serve a hard working army man?" After much meditation, I heard the gods say, "MEATLOAF."

So, here is the best recipe for the best meatloaf I've ever made. I've tried tons--many from the Food Network (of which cooks, I won't mention here) and many that have been given to me from family and friends. Thus, when I came across the below entry, I was intrigued--spicy pork sausage and ground chuck versus regular old 3 pounds of beef? FASCINATING! This combination is both flavorful and not too far from your original beef-based meatloaf recipe.

For tonight's recipe, I have used 1.5 pounds of spicy turkey meat (of which you can substitute spicy pork), and 3/4 of a pound of ground chuck.

Finally, the original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of fresh chopped parsley. Unfortunately, I always forget to buy this item when making meatloaf. Fortunately, the output is still flavorful and delicious. Thanks again, as always to Elise Bauer and her meatloaf recipe on Simply Recipes. Have I mentioned that I'm possibly Elise's biggest fan?

Also, two very useful notes from my friend Joe: one, when we were sauteing the vegetables, Joe asked if we had put any butter in our vegetables.  Actually, I had.  The recipe below calls for 2 tablespoons of butter when sauteing the vegetables, but after 5-7 minutes, the vegetables needed more lubrication and were starting to blacken, not brown (this occurred possibly because I was using a gas stove, which, in all cases, is always hotter than an electric stove).  Finally, once we started combining these sauteed vegetables with the other ingredients, Joe had the brilliant idea of using a potato masher.  This addition was really useful--the mixture was consistently combined (which you will see in the photos below).

Classic Meatloaf Recipe

Elise notes that many meatloaf recipes call for ground veal or pork in addition to ground beef.  Elise continues that "You might want to experiment with a third each of beef, pork, and veal."  However, I would like to note that ground turkey is an equally good option here, so please try the above combinations with turkey.  You won't be disappointed.  Furthermore, if you don't have access to spicy ground pork or Italian sausage (which, for those of us who shop at Walmart, it is indeed hard to fine), add "a pinch of fennel seeds and a half teaspoon of hot sauce to regular ground pork."


Preparation time: 20-30 minutes to prep, 1 hour to cook (possibly 50 minutes in a gas stove)
Ingredients

* 1 cup of finely chopped onion
* 1 celery rib, chopped fine
* 1 Tbsp minced garlic (or, 5 small-medium size cloves)
* 1 carrot, chopped fine
* 1/2 cup of finely chopped scallions (can substitute onion)
* 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (you may need more when using the butter to saute the vegetables)
* 2 teaspoon salt (use 1 1/2 teaspoons if using Italian sausage)
* 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
* 2 tsp Worscestershire sauce
* 2/3 cup ketchup
* 1 1/2 pounds of ground chuck
* 3/4 pound of spicy ground pork sausage or Italian sausage (a mix of sweet and hot if you are using links); again, ground turkey, or regular pork sausage works well here (just add the above spices to get the same effect)
* 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
* 2 large eggs, beaten slightly
* 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (optional)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2 In a large heavy skillet saute onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and scallions/onions in 2 tablespoons of butter (you may need to add more halfway through), over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Cover (or not) the skillet and stir occassionally until the carrots are tender, about 5 more minutes. Stir in salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/3 a cup of ketchup. Cook for 1 more minute, or until carrots are tender.


3 In a large bowl, combine the meats, eggs, vegetables, bread crumbs, and parsley using either your hand, or a potato masher. Form into a loaf and put into a rectangular baking pan with 2-inch high sides; a traditional loaf pan works well for this process. Cover the loaf with remaining ketchup & spread with a culinary brush.


4 Bake the meatloaf in the oven for 1 hour, or 50 minutes in a gas stove.

Serves 4 to 6, with plenty for leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches.

Pumpkin Spice Bread

I first found this recipe last year when, in the hopes of satiating my friend John Browning's desires for something delicious and pumpkiny, I turned to the Elise Bauer blog, Simply Recipes.

Since making this bread this time last year, I have probably baked this recipe 12-20 times. This number is not an inflation: so many people love this bread that I am often requested to make it again, again, and again, and asked for the recipe.

However, I cannot by any means take any credit for this recipe. In its current form, it's damn near perfect: the recipe calls for a olive oil instead of butter (a minor ingredient that leads to the moistest, tastiest pumpkin spice bread you've ever had), and also calls for a decent handful of spices (i.e., nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, etc.) that give you that perfect Fall feel. Furthermore, the recipe asks that you add a bit of water to add to the recipe's moistness. Trust me, if sweet, melt-in-your-mouth pumpkiny flavour is what you're looking for, this bread is exactly that concoction.

Here is the recipe courtesy of Simply Recipes. You can find the official recipe here.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (210g) flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (1/4 L) pumpkin purée*
1/2 cup (1 dL) olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup (1 dL) chopped walnuts

* To make pumpkin purée, cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lie face down on a foil or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use. Or, if you are working with pumpkin pieces, roast or boil them until tender, then remove and discard the skin.

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda should be sifted together.

2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.

3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.

Makes one loaf. Can easily double the recipe.

Pre-Thanksgiving Recipe Search

For the second year in a row, I am preparing my Thanksgiving dinner list: cranberry sauce, turkey, pumpkin pie (heck, pumpkin anything!), apple pie, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potato soufflé, and the list goes on and on.

This year, I'm turning to my favorite food blog for the best of these basic recipes: Simply Recipes run by Elise Bauer.  Many of you who know me, know that any time I share a recipe with ANYONE, I mention Elise's blog.  My promo for Elise's blog goes something like, "Oh, you liked that recipe? No wonder...it's an Elise recipe.  Yeah, Elise is great.  She puts all of her tried and true recipes online once they've been perfected by her, her family, and her friends.  Anything you make by her is guaranteed to be delicious."  And, I don't lie.  Elise's recipes are so good that any time I need a recipe for anything, I check her website first (then, Food Network, but with a significantly lower success rate).  The thing that makes Elise's website so fanatastic is that she will only blog about a food once she knows for certain that it's perfect, or something she'll attach her name to. 

Thus, everything Elise posts to her blog is near perfection.  For this blog, "Clearly Delicious," I intend to accomplish a similar goal: foods that are easy for me to make, and equally as delicious.

The catch: I'm a grad student.  Money, well, let's just say that I'm not made of it, but I have a serious love of foods that are both nutritiously delicious (CLEARLY!) and fun to make.  Sometimes, I even buy wine that costs more than $10 to accompany said delicious meal. 

For this weekend, I'll let you know what's clearly delicious and worth drinking.   See you Saturday....