Chipotle n' Chicken Chowder

Long time no post, due to a lack of camera and a busy schedule. Here goes ...

I've made this chowder several times during the past few years and it's become a favorite. The chipotle adds a little heat but not too much, adding flavor more than anything else (if you want more heat .. add more chipotle!). Do try this recipe!

You may omit the chicken altogether, use vegetable broth to make it vegetarian. Tofu as a replacement would also be delightful. A nice crusty french bread would pair well with this dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 chipotle chile minced(canned in adobo sauce) and 1 teaspoon of the adobo sauce
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
6 garlic cloves, crushed
Salt and pepper to season (depends on broth purchased; salted versus non-salted)

6 cups chicken broth
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 medium red potatoes (about 12 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup whipping cream (optional)

8 lime wedges
1 Avocado, cut into cubes
1/4 cup sour cream (optional)

What to do:

Place oil in a large heated Dutch oven over medium-heat. Add chopped chile, adobo sauce, onion, carrot, celery, cumin, herbs de Provence, and garlic. Add salt and pepper to season. Cook mixture for approximately 7 minutes or until onion is tender, stir frequently. Next, add broth and bring to a boil. Once a boil is reached, turn the heat down to low-medium, heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Once vegetables are fork tender, remove the pan from heat and let it stand 5 minutes. Place mixture in a blender in several small batches and process until smooth. Return pureed broth mixture to pan. Add potatoes and chicken and bring the chowder to a simmer over medium heat. Let cook, uncovered, at low-medium heat 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add cilantro (and cream if you are adding it)and simmer 5 minutes. Top with a tablespoon of sour cream, cubed avocado, and fresh cilantro for garnish. Serve with lime wedges.

You could also add a few fine chopped tomato bits to add color.

Hi Hat Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes once before for a night of fun and games. This past weekend a friend of my husband and I came to town and I knew this was the perfect occasion to make them again. These are not the type of cupcakes you make on a whim, but for special occasions they are wonderful.

As a guide and recipe for the 'frosting' I used a recipe from one of my cookbooks, Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. For the cupcake base I used a recipe I've tried and loved from Magnolia's Bakery. The Magnolia recipe makes enough for 24 cupcakes and for about 72 mini cupcakes. There will be more cupcakes than the frosting can cover ... I made a peanut butter frosting to top off the rest which resulted in two distinct cupcakes. I also added a split vanilla bean to both recipes for a bit more flavor, but this is optional.

Recipe to come shortly ....

Cherry-Pear Nut Bread Pudding

Long time no post, and part of the reason for this is that our camera broke. So I've been trying to taking pictures blindly as the "lens" is cracked. Please excuse the lack of photos.

And on to the food ...

My husband and I enjoyed lasagna last night and I happen to have some french bread leftover. Not wanting to be wasteful, I thought I should make a bread pudding. One of our friends had been on the other side of the pond lately and if I remember correctly, she had a fantastic looking bread pudding with a whiskey sauce. I didn't have any whiskey, so I had to think something else up. I could have made a basic recipe, nothing but custard and bread, but when I looked around, we had a beautiful organic pear, some cherries (use some frozen if you would like), and some walnuts. Hmmm ... sounds yummy. However, after the bread pudding was in the oven, I decided that something was missing. Taking another look, I found some cream ... more eggs ... and ahhh ... Creme Anglaise would do!


Cherry-Pear Nut Bread Pudding

4 Servings

Ingredients:

4 cups Cubed French Bread (stale is best, dry bread in a 350 degree oven if not stale. Do not brown)
1 medium sized pear, pealed and cut into cubes
1/2 cup pitted cut cherries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 cups Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract (optional)
1 tsp. Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt
Butter for Baking Dish

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350°F

Butter baking dish (8x8 pan or deep pie dish works well)

Whisk together milk and eggs. Add sugar, salt, and spices and whisk well.

Add bread and fruit and nuts (if used) gently turning over with a spoon until the bread is completely and evenly penetrated with the milk.

Pour bread pudding into prepared dish, and bake for 1 hour or until the custard has taken. Serve bread pudding right out of the oven, or if you have patience wait until warm. Serve as is, or with Raspberry Coulis and/or Creme Anglaise. A simple Creme Anglaise and it was divine!

Chicken-Bean Spinach Stew

Yum! I love this recipe so much, it's one of those that I will keep making for years to come. You can omit the bacon if you want, but it doesn't add too many calories because it is a small amount and the flavour is wonderful!

Serves 3 very hungry people, or 4 with a side salad.

Ingredients ....

3-4 roma tomatoes (depending on servings, one for each person)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chicken breasts
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 slice of thick bacon (or two depending on taste)
1 15 oz can drained and rinsed white beans(navy)
2 - 3 cups vegetable or chicken both
2 cups spinach
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon herbes de province (optional)
salt and pepper to taste


What to do ...

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut tomatoes in half, season with salt and pepper and drizzle olive oil on them. Bake for about 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a medium pan and add bacon. Cook bacon until ready, chop and set aside.

Add chopped onions, celery, and carrots to the pan with bacon grease, which shouldn't be too much if you use a good quality bacon which should just coat the pan. Let cook for 4-5 minutes, and set aside for later.

If the pan needs a little oil, add some olive oil to coat, now add the chicken breast. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and herbs de provence, repeat when you flip and cook until done. Place the chicken out of the pan and let rest, then slice into mouth-sized pieces.

Place spinach and garlic in the pan, cook until the spinach is wilted. When the spinach and garlic are ready, add beans, vegetables, chopped chicken, and chopped bacon, cover with broth. Bring to simmering for about 5-7 minutes and season to taste. When spooning into bowls, place two baked Roma tomato halves in each bowl.



Serve and enjoy!

Concord Grape Pie

Yup, you read right, Grape Pie. After seeing a similar creation on a Food Network episode from Napa Valley using whole grapes, I knew I needed to try this concoction. I wanted it without the crunch of the seeds and after several searches I found a great recipe. I did modify it slightly however, using only half as much as the crumble topping it called for. (I made a whole batch and now have some in the freezer for a fruit crumble ... teehee.)

I also used different baking times, wanting a browner crumble. It turned out wonderfully! Serve alone, or with vanilla ice cream. I also think it would be fantastic with a dollop of whipped cream.

Ingredients...

1 Pie Crust

For Filling:

• 1 1/2 lb (4 Cups) of Concord grapes
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1/3 Cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter

For Crumble:

• 1/4 Cup sugar
• 1/4 Cup flour
• 4 Tablespoons of butter

What to do ...

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake pie crust for 10 minutes. Make sure to use weights so the pastry will not puff up, and cover sides with aluminum foil so that the crust will not brown too much.

Using two bowls, separate the grape skins and grape insides. Set the grape skins aside in a different bowl. Heat the grape insides to boiling, then simmer for about 5 minutes.

Grape Insides. Grape Skins.

Blended grape skins.

Meanwhile, use food processor to smooth grape skins.

Using a sieve, separate grape insides and grape seeds. Discard the seeds.

Separating the seeds.

Mix grape insides, blended grape skins, sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt and butter. Place in a par-baked pie shell for around 20 minutes.

Mixing ingredients

Meanwhile, place crumble ingredients, flour, sugar and butter in a bowl. And cut with two knives until it looks like wet sand.

Making crumble.

Take the pie out after 20 minutes and add crumble, cook for an additional 17-18 minutes. Cool.

Cooling whole pie.

And that's it ... Voila! Concord Grape Pie.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

So I wanted to guild the lily ... I had an outing to go to and decided that my maple-nut muffins could be a great base for a cream cheese frosting to make cupcakes. Searching through several recipes, I settled on Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. Most recipes called for 1/2 cup of butter per 8 ounces of cheese, but I halved it and it turned out wonderfully.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces softened cream cheese
• 1/4 cup room temperature butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar

What to do ...

Using a mixer (or good ol' arms) blend cream cheese and butter until blended. Add vanilla and cinnamon, blend. Add sugar, and mix slowly to avoid a huge mess. Spread or pipe on cupcakes, cakes, bread or cinnamon buns. See Maple-Nut Banana Muffins.

Best Eva’ Brownies

There are so many "best brownie" recipes out there, I figured I had to make one as well. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 16 squares

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• ½ cup all-purpose flour or ¼ all-purpose and ¼ wheat flour

What to do ….

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease a 8 or 9 inch square baking pan with butter.

Melt both butter and chocolate over medium heat in a medium sized saucepan. Stirring often, remove from heat when almost completely melted. It will continue to melt once off the heat source.

Whisk eggs, sugar, vanilla, pepper and salt in a large bowl, blend. Add a small amount of melted chocolate to temper the mixture, then the rest of the chocolate. Mix. If putting nuts, add now. Then gently mix in flour until you can no longer see it. Pour into prepared pan and bake.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a tester is entered and two-thirds of the way comes out clean. Cool completely, cut into 16 squares and enjoy!

Optional:

If you like heat, replace black pepper with the same amount of cayenne pepper.

***NOTE***

The brownies pictured were made using more chocolate than the recipe calls for, to make ultra yummy fudge chocolate brownies like those use one 250 gram bag of dark chocolate instead of the two ounces called for.