beef stroganoff

 I have a confession to make:  I do not like beef stroganoff.  Why am I making it, and then advertising it, then?  My family is obsessed with it.  My husband, my mom, my kids, they all love the stuff.  I have a hard time stomaching the idea of making a sauce out of sour cream...blarg.  Sorry guys.  We also have struggled over the years making one that's comparable to a true stroganoff but dairy free for Nik, so we just don't have it very often.  It's the "what do we do with all of the leftovers?" meal.

That's where today's dreamy stroganoff comes from.  Let me tell you, as someone who has never liked the stuff much before, this recipe could convert me.  (It's probably the lack of hot melted sour cream sauce.  BLARG.)

Ingredient List:
- ground beef
- onions or shallots (I used shallots)
- mushrooms
- coconut milk
- vinegar
- wide ribbon noodles (I used egg-free, pictured below)
- bay leaves
- thyme
- salt
- pepper
- stock (I used chicken stock that I made, you can use any stock you prefer)
- worcestershire sauce
- Just Mayo (You could use any mayo you want...you're using very little.  Just May is egg-free.)

I almost never measure when I cook, so I'm sorry.  I'll tell you how to make it, and estimate amounts as I do so.

 

First, you'll want to saute your aromatics: shallots/onions & garlic.  I added the mushrooms right away too, then the beef.  You could use steak or some other form of beef, whatever you have on hand or like.  We had an extra huge hamburger patty left over from a few nights ago, so I broke it up and used it.  Saute until browned. 

As your're browning your meat and aromatics, put about 1 cup of non-dairy milk of your choice into a cup, and add roughly 1 T of vinegar, then let it sit.  This will make it sour.  If you use white vinegar, this is a pretty good measurement.  If you use red wine vinegar, use a little less as the flavor will be more overpowering.  Balsamic vinegar is probably not right for this purpose, but hey, if you want...throw caution to the wind. 

Once browned, add the coconut milk mixture and about 1 cup of your stock of choice.  Add spices and bay leaves.  Salt & pepper to taste.  Then you'll let it simmer for about 15 minutes, it'll start to thicken up and become like a gravy.  Add worcestershire sauce once it's thickened so you don't cook out all of the flavor, it's kind of the punch you'll be looking for. 

Start boiling your noodles as it thickens up.  When the noodles are done, drain and set aside for just a minute.  Reduce your temp to low, and add 1 tablespoon of mayo to the sauce and watch it turn into stroganoff magically before your eyes.  Mix that in, and then add your noodles.  Now you have a magical dairy free bowl of stroganoff!  Right before you serve, add some parsley in for color and BAM.  Watch your three-year-old plow through THREE helpings of it. 

turkey enchiladas (dairy free)

So, Tex-Mex is pretty darn hard to do without cheese.  I'm going to put that out there right now.  The flavor profiles really need to be adapted and intensified to make up for the lack of rich, ooey gooey cheese.  I am not usually very thrilled with the outcome when I make many dishes.  They just feel thin and weary.  These enchiladas are the very first success I've had in 4 years of dairy free home cooking.  And you know what the best part is?  They don't use a cheese substitute, either.  They are filling and rich. 

In my head as I was making them, I was calling them "garbage enchiladas", not because of their flavor, but because of what I put in them.  If you've been reading any length of time you'll notice that many times I build my dinners around food items that are needing to be used up before they're wasted.  This meal was the perfect outlet for that!  So, I'll give you a list of items I used, but you can take it in a different direction and still follow the general idea.  You could also double the recipe easily, if you're feeding a bigger family.  This fed a family of four with about two servings left over, and everyone had second helpings.

For the filling I used:
- 1/2 can jalapeno corn
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- about 1/2 cup leftover cooked turkey breast, cut into small pieces but shredded would work too
- 1/2 onion
- 1/2 can black beans
- shredded cabbage
- cilantro

Mix all of this in a bowl.  Add 1/2 can of green enchilada sauce (I used Market Pantry brand, it's dairy free), then add salt & pepper to taste.  I tossed in a dash of oregano and a dash of cayenne for good measure, but if you're not a fan of the spicy foods, it's not necessary.

Fill your tortillas with the mixture.  I overfilled because I ended up with not enough tortillas and extra filling.  Roll them up and add to your baking dish of choice.

Add the remainder of filling (if any) to the top, then dump the other half of the can of sauce on top.  Now, if you want a little more richness, you could make a quick white gravy or bechamel sauce.  I did, just to give it the extra creaminess, but it's totally not necessary.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

 The gravy, which was very simple, gave it the look of enchiladas when it came out of the oven.  If you want to make the gravy, here's how:

Make a roux with flour and olive oil, then whisk in the non-dairy milk of your choice until it's the texture of a thin gravy.  I don't often use measurements when I make gravies and sauces, I just wing it.  Add onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  If you wanted this to mimic the umami of cheese, you could add some nutritional yeast, but I didn't find it necessary.  This gravy will give it a savory flavor, but not over powering.  I did throw in a dash of chipotle Tabasco, but that's totally optional. 

Ta-da!  Dairy free enchiladas without a vegan cheese substitute.  Enjoy!

cold brew coffee

Have you had cold brew coffee?  I think it's all the rage right now.  I'm not exactly up on a ton of trends, but I have seen cold brew coffee at Trader Joes in the dairy section, so it must be trendy.  I'm ok with that, because cold brew coffee is so good.  I don't like hot drinks particularly, so when I have a cup of coffee in the morning I usually let it sit forever until it's cooled...then I drink half and forget about it.  But with cold brew coffee, it's a different story.

So, you can buy it.  It's a concentrate, and fairly reasonably priced if you go to Trader Joes, but I'm a DIYer.  I think we've established that already, haven't we?  So, you need 3 things to make it.

You need:
Coffee grounds
Water
A glass jar

I use a large mason jar, and add about a cup of ground coffee to the bottom.  Then I fill the jar with water and shake, shake, shake.  Place it in the fridge, and 24 hours later you have coffee concentrate.  Strain out the grounds and store it in a glass jar in the fridge.  Make an iced coffee by pouring some in your cup and then adding milk and sweetener.  You may want to dilute it with some water, it's pretty heavily concentrated coffee, but that's up to you.  You can also use it to make Ca Phe Sua Da (Vietnamese Coffee) which is my favorite coffee drink in the world.

When you're brewing it, you can also add things to it.  You could add a cinnamon stick in to infuse it with that flavor, or some vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean, if you were so inclined) like I did to get some vanilla coffee.  Play around, find what you like, and get your caffeine with a smile.  

So what's the deal with cold brew anyway?  Well, I'm no coffee enthusiast, so I can't say I know really except it's good.  It's a little sweeter, it has less bite to it than hot brew coffee.  I've read that not using heat reduces the acidity, but I can't vouch for that.  Let's just go with...it tastes better to me.  It'll last ages in your fridge...not that it'll take long to go through it.  If you get started now, you could be having some this time tomorrow. 

lemon chicken broth

Sometimes I like to get a little crazy in the kitchen.  I like to think of my kitchen as party central.  And chicken broth...well it can be anything but a party if it's just chicken and water, am I right?  I mean, sure, it'll be good enough.  But do we really want our soups to be good enough?  No.  No we don't.  We want some Bang Bang!  We want some Firework!  We want a loud and proud soup full of flavor!  So, next time you're making a boring old chicken broth, try throwing in some parsley and a lemon.  BAM.  Now that's what I call flavor. 

Oh, and if you're so inclined, pump up some jams and dance while you're doing it.  Except don't dance while you slice the lemon, ok?  Let's not dance with knives.  We're partying, but were not reckless.  Right?  Right.

monday sweet tooth

A little flashback to Christmas baking for your Monday morning.  These cookies!  Oh, these cookies.  They were supposed to be lime meltaways, but I let them get a little big so I used them instead as sugar cookies.  Let me tell you something, ok?  I may never make sugar cookies again.  These tasted UNBELIEVABLE, and they looked ok too.  And they were totally vegan, so Nikola got to enjoy them as well.  And he certainly enjoyed his fair share of them, let me tell you. 

granola

Do you buy granola?  Stop it.  It's so expensive!  Ok, I know, not everyone has time to make everything...I get it.  But seriously.  Oats are SO CHEAP, and all you have to do is toast them.  You can add any spices, flavors, nuts, grains, etc...and it'll still be so much less expensive than store bought granola.  And forget it if you're looking for store bought granola that is safe for people with peanut allergy...that's like, impossible. 

What do you need to make granola?  Oats, a small amount of oil, seasonings and about 10 minutes.  You can do it on the stove top, or in the oven.  I heated up a tablespoon of coconut oil until melted, stirred it into 2 cups of oats, added some brown sugar and cinnamon, and baked for 10 minutes at 350.  Let it sit out for just a little while to cool so it gets that crunch, then store in an airtight contained.  It'll keep for quite a while.  Ours doesn't last long, so I can't say exactly. 

The cost difference is enough to sell me alone, but the flavor is spot on.  It's customized to whatever you want!  And my kids LOVE to have it in their yogurt for breakfast.  Sometimes we add raisins or craisins to the granola, sometimes we toast coconut with it (add that with only about 5 minutes left to toast, otherwise it'll burn). Enjoy!

baked potato + broccoli + ham

Here's just a simple idea.  I'm in a potato phase.  I love a good baked potato.  Russet, Yukon Gold, Sweet Potato...doesn't matter.  I want them all.  Some nights, I throw a few potatoes wrapped in foil into the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour, then I just whip up some quick toppings.  I dream of cheese and sour cream, sure.  But that's not an option for us currently, so I search the fridge for something that will be flavorful and fun.  Some nights it's leftover soup or chili, some nights I just like to chop up mushrooms and red onion with a little truffle salt (my FAVE), and some nights I get crazy.  Like this night.  I had some broccoli, and a few slices of some Applegate Farms ham, which I had been using for sandwiches all week.  I tossed them both in the cast iron skillet with a little salt and pepper, and added some thyme and garlic and BAM.  Simple, flavorful, healthy.  The kids love broccoli, so they gobbled theirs up fast and it took a little longer for them to eat the potato...that they're not a huge fan of.  I drizzled some truffle oil (from Trader Joes) and truffle salt over the top of mine.  YUM.

from where i stand

My next post will be sharing the recipe (or how-to) for the meal I was cooking here, but I wanted to share a quick picture of what I have going on, even when making a SUPER simple dinner.  Because we're a single income family with multiple food allergies, we do best when we have very little waste and make our own...well, just about everything.  So, while I made our dinner (the topping for the baked potato), I was also making vegetable broth out of random freezer bags full of vegetable scraps, plus the scraps from the broccoli we had with dinner, and I was making some sweetened condensed milk (will share later as well) for coffee.  Never a dull moment around here!  I can't afford the time to spend all day in the kitchen, so I get as many things rocking at one time and hope for the best.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it's an epic fail.

cheater chow mein

So the holidays sure were busy, huh?  Sorry about that.  We've got a lot of birthdays mixed in with the holiday season, so things just get...well, you know the drill, I'm sure.  And we're still in the thick of it.  But I don't need to make excuses.  Back to the food, ok?  Because I've got some cool things in the works around here.  I started out my new year by jumping head first into fermentation!  More on that another day...but let me tell you, I'm loving it.

Here is something quick and easy.  I threw it together today for lunch, and though the boys hesitated a little...they cleared their plates.  We have a soy allergy in the house.  A supposed one, anyway.  See, it's positive (and highly so) on the blood tests, but he presents with no symptoms when eating soy of any kind.  Our allergist advised us to avoid it, just to see if it helped his skin any (he's also got terrible eczema) but it didn't.  We've since deduced that his eczema is related primarily to weather and emotion, not food.  That's neither here nor there...back to the soy.  So we went off of soy, but when we realized it made no difference, we reintroduced tiny amounts of soy here and there, primarily in the form of soybean oil/soy lecithin, because his diet is so limited already that cutting out all foods that contained those items really made it almost impossible to shop for him.  Still, we avoid it if we can, and choose other oils over soybean for cooking in our house.  So, while this meal isn't TOTALLY soy free (there is soybean and/or canola oil in the noodles), it's primiarly soy free.  We still stay away from soy sauce, tofu, soy flour, etc. 

This lunch was easy.  I mean, so easy.


You will need:

Vegetables (I used green cabbage, shallot, celery, carrot, mushroom, green onion)
Meat, if desired
Plum sauce, about 2 tablespoons is what I used, but just eyeball it and add to taste
Salt & Pepper
Chow Mein noodles, crispy (but you could use rice, rice noodles, or omit entirely if you desire)
Optional: sweet chili sauce, garlic chili sauce, sriracha, etc
Oil, I used about a tablespoon of olive oil just for sauteeing

I chopped a bunch of veggies and sauteed in a bit of olive oil.  I used cabbage, mushrooms, celery, carrots, shallots and green onions.  Use whatever you have on hand.  It's a stir fry over chow mein noodles, lots of room for you to play around with what you have.  I had a rotisserie chicken on hand from when my grandmother came over earlier this week (she brings a chicken, a veggie tray and oranges just about every time she comes, just for the kids), so I shredded some of the breast into the stir fry.  Use what you have on hand, use things that are about to turn, this is a very forgiving entree to make.  Once the veggies were soft and wilted in the pan, and the chicken was heated through, I added a dash of salt & pepper (how is that for technical?), and some plum sauce for flavor.  Check your labels, always.  I have yet to find a plum sauce that has soy in it, but you never know!  For mine, I also added a healthy dollop of sweet chili sauce and sriracha, but the kids were ok with just the plum sauce. 

It's not real chow mein, but it's good.  You could use rice instead of the noodles and make it gluten free, or avoid it all together and just go no carb.  I promise it'll still be great!  And best of all, even with prep time, it came together in about 20 minutes.  Now that's a great lunch!  And I won't feel so guilty, too, if I happen to give the kids popcorn for dinner tonight.  It's Friday!  Don't judge. 

[This post linked up at Sunflower Supper Club Weekend PotLuck.]

swai fillet with rice pilaf and steamed veggies

I feel like I've been baking day and night lately.  It might be the holidays, it might be adjusting to staying home all day, I'm not sure.  But I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of flour, sugar and measuring cups.  Let's take a little detour for a minute, ok?  I try to feed my family healthy dishes that are not lacking in flavor.  Because of Nik's allergies, we have to get creative often.  Thankfully, the kids both like fish quite a bit, so it's a protein I enjoy cooking with.  Buying fish can be scary, there are so many varying opinions on which fish to eat and which to avoid.  I can't keep up.  Anyway.  This dish was so simple, I threw it together in 30 minutes.  I had Swai on hand, which is a variety of catfish, so it's just a really light, slightly sweet white fish.  You could use any white fish you may have on hand. 

For the rice pilaf, I toasted the orzo and rice in a cast iron skillet for a few minutes, tossing it every so often.  Once it was a golden brown, I put it into my slow cooker with chicken broth, a small amount of chicken fat (yeah, I keep the fat that renders out when I make stock, it has great flavor), some herbs, salt and pepper.  Then I let my rice cooker do it's thing.

Then I took my Swai fillets, put them into my baking dish and drizzled them with olive oil and lemon juice.  Then I sliced up 3 cloves of garlic, dashed some parsley on top, and baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 

I piled the rice and fish on top of steamed veggies, and done!  Simple, healthy, inexpensive.  YUM.

pumpkin chocolate bread

This bread is to die for.  Take everything you think a pumpkin bread should taste like, and just throw it out the window right now.  It's better, it's so much better.  Don't believe me?  My husband, who doesn't like pumpkin, ate about 3/4 of the bread himself.  It's all in the orange juice.  (And the gutsy lack of pumpkin pie spices!)

The recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction, which hasn't failed me yet.  I just made a few changes to suit our dietary needs, and followed her instructions to a T.  You guys!  

I used chia seeds as the egg, and we didn't have chocolate chips on hand so I tossed a dairy-free dark chocolate bar into the food processor and pulsed for a few seconds.  When I make this again for the Christmas party this weekend, I will be using Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips, which I'm sure will make the bread even BETTER.  

Try it, you won't be disappointed.  Just look at how dense it is.  I shoveled a piece into my mouth while it was still hot. It was even better the next day, though.  Enjoy!

cornbread

Let's talk about cornbread for a minute.  It's one of my favorites.  You too?  Some people love it, some people totally hate it.  I know some of these people.  I get it.  But not really, because it's so good. 

So, I adapted this cornbread from this Paula Deen recipe.  I mean, ok, Paula Deen.  Let's not talk about that, ok?  Let's keep this about the food here.  Obviously I couldn't use the recipe as is, so I modified it, and for the first time in FOREVER (great, now I'm singing 'Frozen' jams in my head) the whole dish disappeared by the next day. 

My modifications were totally simple, too.  I try to keep things uncomplicated.  Instead of butter, I used sunflower oil, because Alton Brown says to use oil instead of butter in cakes so I figured he would approve.  I used my chia seed concoction for the 2 eggs, I'm sure you can tell from the photo.  (2 T chia seeds, 6 T water, in case you missed my previous post.)  Last, I of course couldn't use buttermilk, so I created my own.  I used 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (the kind you would pour on cereal, not the kind from a can) and added a splash of distilled white vinegar to it and let it sit for about 5 minutes on the counter.  Ba-da-bing. 

So the verdict?  It was fantastic.  It wasn't sweet at all (if you look at the recipe, it called for very little sugar), so it was totally the kind that you slather in butter and honey.  We're having chilli for a family Christmas party this weekend and I'm tempted to make another batch just in time for that. 

what's for dinner? how about bratwurst with roasted sweet potatoes & fennel

Here's a meal idea for you!  I don't need to work this up like it's a fancy recipe, it is so simple, I'll just give you some photos and put the idea in your head.  (Go, buy some fennel, give it a try!)

This whole meal came from Trader Joes and took about 30 minutes to get on the table.  I sauteed the bratwurst and mushrooms together, and roasted the sweet potatoes and fennel together (just a little olive oil, salt & pepper at 400 degrees for 30 minutes). 

I threw the scraps from the fennel into a small pot of water and brought it to a boil to make a really simple broth, which I will use in a soup later this week, but also used about 1/2 cup as cooking liquid for the sausages.  It brought the fennel flavor through the whole dish and really unified everything.  The rest of the broth went into a jar in my fridge, and I'll come up with some kind of soup to make out of it.  Living on one income, you really have to find ways to be frugal (or cheap, let's just say it) and one of those ways is to simply not waste.  Why spend a few dollars on vegetable stock or meat stock at the store when I can make it myself out of scraps from the meal I'm serving now?  And then I can control the amount of fat and sodium in it, as well as the types of ingredients they're made from.  On a side note, there are canned stocks/broths on the shelves that contain dairy, so if you're on a dairy-free diet, beware!  Always read the ingredient labels.

Look at that fennel!  It was just as tasty as it looks. 

Can I just have a moment to encourage the moms out there?  Kids aren't very adventurous when it comes to food, and I know that getting kids to eat anything green (among other things) can be a battle most people just don't want to wage.  And I've been asked on many occasions how I can serve these meals to my kids, do my kids actually eat them?  Yes, they do.  We have two kids, ages 3 and 4, and both eat their veggies. Please don't think I mean they jump for joy at the sight of them, they totally don't.  There are nights that we battle it out, but as long as we keep the amounts small and appealing, the kids will eat it.  Sometimes Nik has to sit at the table 20 minutes longer than everyone else staring at them before he starts eating, sometimes we have to serve the veggies first and then the rest of the meal, but you know what?  Sometimes Aaron devours his salad and asks for seconds of it, and sometimes Nik will ask for a handful of baby carrots as a snack instead of a cookie.  They will not fight you forever and always!  I always tell Nikola that he already has too many dietary restrictions, he can't afford to be a picky eater too!  All of that to say, be patient with them.  Keep at it.  Always serve it, even if they just don't eat it.  You can't force it down their throats, but if they're hungry, and it looks good...you might be surprised.  And take heart.  What they hate today, they may love tomorrow. 

dairy-free white russian

Do you love The Big Lebowski?  I do.  And I can't even think of this drink without thinking about Lebowski. 

I'm not usually one for cream-based drinks of any kind.  In fact, if I order a mixed drink of any kind, it's almost always a gin martini (stirred, not shaken, sorry 007), or a gin and tonic.  Because gin.  So why am I talking about a creamy drink, then?  Well, I had half a pot of extra dark brewed coffee that was going to go to waste, and less than half a fifth of vodka left from our Halloween party, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and mix them.  They were about equal parts.  I then made up about 1/2 cup of quick simple syrup and poured it into the jar with the coffee and vodka, put the lid on, and shook it up.

Well, then I thought about what I was actually going to do with it.  I mean, like I said earlier, I'm just not a creamy drink person.  But for those of you who are, you'll want to take note, because this even impressed me.  Now, you don't have to make your own Kahlua-esque liqueur for this.  The drink is so simple.  I poured my desired amount of coffee liqueur into a small mason jar (use a glass, don't be like me), and used canned coconut milk for the cream instead of dairy, just splashing it on top until it looked good.  Talk about YUM, and easy.  If you're the sort of person who is responsible, and actually has ice cubes on hand in your freezer, put those in your glass first (or last if you want to live on the edge).  Don't ever come to my house expecting ice cubes...I'm not that responsible.  I'm sorry in advance for that.  But I'll make you this drink if you want, and I hope that will be ok.  Happy Saturday, folks! 

carrot coconut soup

We came home from Thanksgiving with a few huge bags of carrots, and I'm still trying to make my way through them.  I decided I would either need to start juicing them, or make a big pot of carrot soup.  The soup won.

I was inspired by this amazing soup by Shutterbean, one of my favorite bloggers.  She's totally amazing.  You can go there for the recipe, I'm just here to tell you how I put my spin on it, and managed to get a 4 year old and a 3 year old to not only eat it, but eat TWO helpings of it.

I used olive oil, in place of the butter, and vegetable broth (hello, I made three batches the other day...use what you have) instead of chicken broth.  As a bonus, I used the 3rd batch of the broth, which was a little weak...until I added ginger and whole garlic, so this had a very Thai taste just using the broth.  I added a pinch of cumin and a pinch of cinnamon, very tiny amounts.  We omitted the cilantro, though we do all like it, but I didn't have any on hand.  To get that "green" flavor, I added about 2 tablespoons of lime juice and a lime leaf (we buy ours at the Asian markets and keep them in the freezer, we like to eat a lot of curries) and let it all sit in the slow cooker on low heat until I was ready to serve.  You guys?  It tasted almost like a Thai panang curry, without any curry in it whatsoever. 

So, first we ate it as a soup with some croutons I made out of the ends of the loaf of bread I made earlier this week.  It was totally amazing.  And then Aaron said "Mommy, can I have rice with this?"  YES YOU CAN.  So I let them take an intermission from dinner, tossed some rice in the rice cooker, then served seconds over rice like a curry.  I can't even decide how I liked it better.  You make it and decide.  It's amazing either way!

chia seeds, briefly

Can we just talk for a minute about chia seeds?  Yes, the very same seeds that made chia pets famous.  But let's talk about them as an egg replacer.  They are AMAZING.  (Here is a little science relating to chia seeds, if you want to know what they are all about.)

So, I'm not here to advocate for them as a diet food or a "superfood", though they are pretty great for you.  I am here to talk about using them as a binding agent in your baked goods.  I use many items as an egg replacement, depending on the item I'm making:  Ener-G Egg Replacer, applesauce, flax seed meal (not whole seeds), cornstarch, and chia seeds.  More and more I find myself just reaching for the chia seeds, unless the recipe needs to look pretty and not have tiny seeds all over in it (ie - sugar cookies) but sometimes I'll even use them if I just don't want to take a chance that they won't turn out.

So how do you do it?  So easy.  1 tablespoon of chia seeds in 3 tablespoons of water = 1 egg.  I put mine in a small glass jar, put the lid on, and shake it up.  I do this first when I know I'll need an egg, you have to give them time to activate and gel with the water.  Shake it up a few times, until you need it.  It should look like the photo below when its ready.  This was a two egg recipe I was making (recipe soon).  You can see how thick the  mixture is, and how it's almost like a gel. 

 
Chia seeds.  They're a beautiful thing.  Sometimes I'll fill this small jar and keep it in the fridge, I bake a lot so I know I'll need it.  I use it in baked goods, pancakes, waffles, meat loaf, you name it.  And, though they may alter the look of some things (like sugar cookies), they will not alter the flavor at all that I've noticed.  Bonus!  Now, get in the kitchen! 

sausage and kale soup

Do you ever get into a food funk?  I do.  Especially after Thanksgiving, it seems like everything tastes like Thanksgiving for weeks after.  You know?  Anyway.  Thanksgiving is not my favorite meal, by a long shot.  I don't particularly enjoy it.  I hate to admit it...but I sort of agree with Zooey Deschanel when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner.  So anyway, there were tons of leftovers and we ate them all people, because wasting food just sucks.  So now we get to turn over a new leaf, eat something without turkey and mashed potatoes involved!   And it feels SO GOOD!

But first, I need to say that I'm not good at prep photos.  And I only have a phone for a camera until we can buy a new one, since mine decided to break down.  So I'm going to do us all a favor and get better at finished product photos and forget trying to do prep photos.  You're welcome.

Anyway!  The soup.  Fall and winter, to me, just scream soup.  And you know what one HUGE perk to soup for dinner is?  The cleanup is so easy.  Your whole meal prep dish mess can be cleaned up before you even serve your finished product.  That's my favorite.  If I can clean up dinner before serving it, I know the rest of the night is going to be GOOD. 

This soup was kind of involved, but it doesn't have to be, and it's so easy to customize.  I'll tell you what you need, first.

So, here's where I made it complicated, but you don't have to.  I made my own vegetable broth, because I'm cheap and I hate throwing out scraps.  All of my vegetable scraps get tossed into a ziplock bag and put in the freezer, so when I need to make stock, I toss them under the broiler for a few minutes to loosen up those juices and then simmer them for a while on the stovetop.  Same goes for meat, when bones are involved, just make broth out of the scraps once you've eaten the meat.  It's so easy, and you control what goes into it.  If you don't have the time or inclination to do that, by all means, just buy your broth.  It's not going to hurt this or any soup you make.  And I totally won't judge you.  I promise. So, when I made my vegetable stock, I used scraps from garlic, carrots, onion, celery, tomato and lettuce.  I added a few sprigs of rosemary from my little potted plant, along with a bay leaf and some thyme, and simmered for a few hours.  The rosemary was very potent.  If you don't do this on your own, just add rosemary when you simmer your soup. 

Now that we have that out of the way, the soup is EASY.  Chop your onions and garlic, and saute them in a few tablespoons of your oil of choice.  Don't burn your garlic, don't brown your onions.  You're just releasing their flavors here, the onions should get a little soft and clear and that's it.  Add your mushrooms and sausage at this point.  I used fully cooked chicken sausage from Trader Joes, so I just had to heat it through.  If you use uncooked sausage, this part will take longer.  Once your meat is cooked, add a cup of water, and then your broth.  I used 1 cup of water and 2 cups of broth.  Eyeball it if you need to - we need enough liquid to cook our pasta in, and have a little broth to spare.  It's a thick soup.  Add your herbs and spices to taste.  My soup was heavy on an earthy, mushroom note - I used a lot of rosemary and thyme, and a tiny sprinkle of truffle salt to finish.  Add your bay leaves (I used 2) at the end and stir it all in. 

Bring the soup to a boil, and then add your macaroni.  Here is another place you could customize to suit your family or diet.  It would work just as well to use diced up potato, rice, or any other pasta you desire.  Or leave it out if you don't want a starch.  You'll add your kale at this point, too, so it doesn't disintegrate.   Keep it at a rolling boil until your starch is cooked, if you added it.

Remove your bay leaves and serve once your pasta is cooked through.  I served with some crispy bread and devoured it.  Happy eating! 

a dusting of snow

The other day, I was throwing dinner in the oven and looked outside to see that it had started snowing.  The boys had just gotten up from their afternoon rest, and I decided to surprise them so I told them to get ready to go for a walk.  When we got outside, they could hardly contain themselves.  I suppose snow isn't so bad, if it can bring this much joy, right?  We hung out with Olaf, tracked a polar bear, and sang the Mr. Grinch song about a hundred times. 

Kids provide a pretty great change of perspective on a daily basis.  I need it constantly. 

thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a really great, relaxing Thanksgiving.  Ours was not super relaxing, but it was nice.  We host Thanksgiving at the school my husband works in (the school supplies the room, we supply all of the food and labor, it's still totally a family event), which allows us to not only accommodate our very large family, but also any students who do not have host families to spend the holiday with.  This year we had 32 people for dinner!  And you know what?  We STILL ended up with more leftovers than we knew what to do with.  Like, seriously, how does that even happen?  We donated most of the good leftovers to a local organization that feeds and shelters homeless teenagers, so they went somewhere useful at least, instead of perishing in my fridge.  But I still ended up with pounds of mashed potatoes, bags of unused carrots, roasted vegetables and a whole turkey carcass.

We played a rousing game of Bingo, wrote on our Thanksgiving tree, drank wine (OK, maybe only two of us drank wine...who is counting anyway?), and served an entirely delicious meal free of dairy and eggs.  BAM.  No one even knew.  Well, except we told them, and they could see that Nikola was eating everything, but you know what I mean.  No one missed the butter.  That's what I mean.

Sometimes I miss the comfort of doing the holiday in our home, because there is a lot of clean up afterward that you wouldn't have in your own home.  (Like I said, this is a family event, so we have to break everything down, wash all the dishes, return the facility back to its original state.)   But the amazing trade off is getting to welcome more people to our table than our home could, and isn't that what it's about? 

Until next year, Thanksgiving!