White Bean Soup!

This soup was good in a healthy sort of way, has a bit of an earthy taste. It's all beans and veggies so there is nothing unhealthy to give it that delicious flavor pop....like bacon. I liked it, especially with a shot of hot sauce. Mr. Lawyer was not a huge fan I think but is still eating it because it is healthy. It was an interesting change but it doesn't come close to our delicious and favorite tomato-orzo soup!

White Bean Soup

(from epicurious) 

Ingredients:
2 cups dried Great Northern or other small white beans, rinsed and picked over
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only)
1 large tomato, halved, seeded, and chopped
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
8 garlic cloves, chopped
6-8 cups homemade chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth, or more as needed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup half-and-half
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Put the beans in a large pot, add enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches, and let soak overnight. Drain.
2. Heat the olive oil in the same pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, leeks, tomato, carrots, celery, and garlic and sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Add the beans, chicken stock, thyme, and rosemary and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are very tender, about 1 hour.
3. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and add the half-and-half, then add more chicken stock to thin the soup if needed, and reheat the soup if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Hot Pretzels!

Mr. Lawyer and I had a hot Friday night date night at home filled with orange bitters, watching the Avengers, and making hot pretzels. Confession: I have not met a hot pretzel I didn't like but these were a pretty spot on replica of Auntie Anne's. They were a little less greasy (a good thing!) and delicious. For example, the boy ate an ENTIRE tray before I could get the second tray out of the oven. We made original, garlic, and cinnamon sugar. The winners were the garlic. I would recommend sprinkling a little garlic powder on them after you brush on the butter. It was a fun recipe to make together, we got flour every where and had some good laughs! Plus it was a great movie snack.

Like laughing at our ridiculous pretzel shapes. I would recommend making pretzel sticks, they are easier and bake more evenly.

 We switched over to sticks pretty quick.

Perfect Hot Pretzels!

(Pinterest find! from Yammie's Noshery adapted from Food Network)

Ingredients:

2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
6 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons fine salt
1/3 cup baking soda
3 cups warm water
Coarse salt
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Garlic powder

Mustard/Cheese Sauce/Preferred Sipping Sauce
Directions:
1. Warm up the milk in the microwave or on the stove for just about one and a half minutes. It should be about 110º. Stir in the yeast and let it sit for about 3 minutes. Add the butter and sugar. Add the flour about 1 cup at a time and the add the fine salt. Kneed for about 10 minutes with a stand mixer, or by hand. 

2. Put it in a greased bowl and cover with greased cling wrap. Let rise for 1 hour in a moist, warm place until doubled in size. 

3. Preheat the oven to 450º. Punch down dough and divide into 12 balls and roll them all out as thin as you can. Combine the warm water and baking soda in a wide bowl. Form the dough into pretzel shapes or pretzel sticks, then dip in the baking soda water. Place on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt. 

4. Bake for about 7-11 minutes or until browned. Brush each with the melted butter while hot, sprinkle on garlic powder if desired. Serve with a dipping sauce of your choice.

Fancy Ice Cubes

This has been the year of ice cubes! The one and only Sandy has gifted us with Gin & Titanic cubes and large square cubes. After our amazing cocktail experience at the Farmer's Cabinet I added sphere cubes into the mix as part of Mr. Lawyer's bar gift which also included fancy garnish picks, Luxardo cherries, and orange bitters. According to the boy the only "problem" with the square and sphere cubes is you end up drinking more because you finish your first drink and you still have this marvelous ice cube.

Sphere Cube! So. Much. Fun.

 We started to experiment with the orange bitters last night. I thought this gin based drink would be a good starting point because the bitters are not the focus. It was very drinkable. But because it was such a mix we didn't use the good gin or good cherries. Ha.

Abbey Cocktail

Ingredients:

2 ounces gin

2 ounces orange juice

1-2 dashes orange bitters

cherry for garnish

Directions:

1. Shake together gin and juice. Pour over ice. Add orange bitters and garnish with a cherry.

Blueberry Peach Tart!

The Mother Unit sent me this yummy recipe. It was nice way to use up some of the four pounds of blueberries I picked this summer. She had used a mix of blueberries, peaches, and mangos which sounds delicious. While mine was delicious it didn't hold it's form well, or I just suck at taking the pieces out, so it was definitely more on the crumble side of things.

Peach Blueberry Crumble Tart

(from a taste of home)

Ingredients:

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups frozen unsweetened blueberries, thawed
2 cups frozen unsweetened sliced peaches, thawed
1 tablespoon honey
CRUMB TOPPING:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup chopped Diamond of California® Pecans
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Directions:
1. In a small bowl, mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon; stir in butter just until blended. Press onto the bottom and up the side of a 9-in. fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Bake at 350° for 15-20
minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.
2. In a large bowl, combine the blueberries, peaches and honey; toss to coat. In a small bowl, combine the first five topping ingredients; stir in butter.
3. Spoon fruit mixture into crust; sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Homemade Vanilla

I had all these grandiose plans of cooking up a storm and trying new things over vacation but then we were with family eating our faces off and then we came home with a ton of leftovers. I also realized that my paycheck will be pitifully tiny this pay period because of Christmas break so cooking up a storm is not in the cards or in the best interest of our already stuffed fridge. I can't resist the pull of my cute (and newly colorful!) kitchen so when I saw this empty bottle just chilling and then I found some old dried up vanilla beans in the back of my spice cabinet I knew what had to be done! Homemade vanilla extract requires three things: a bottle, vanilla beans, and vodka (one variation is to use bourbon...I'm intrigued). I had the bottle and the beans and we're not big vodka drinkers so I had no problem dipping into our bar to use it for a little project. I'll see how it came out in two months...

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Ingredients:

1 cup vodka

3 vanilla beans, split

1 glass bottle w/stopper or mason jar

Directions:

1. Split the vanilla beans in half lengthwise and put into jar

2. Add vodka and seal the jar

3. Put it in your cupboard and wait at least two excruciatingly long months, shaking periodically. 

Coffee Bar!

I've seen a few cute coffee bar set ups on pinterest. We got a new coffee maker and some fiesta mugs for Christmas....one trip to Ikea later and we have our own little coffee bar! Or hot beverage corner since our snazzy coffee maker also has a separate hot water function for tea and cocoa. It keeps the water hot so you can refill at any time. I had six cups of tea this morning....and then spent all afternoon floating to the bathroom. I was a bit limited by our small apartment and low cabinets but I made it work.  When I have a house/more wall space the coffee mugs will hang higher so there is more room on the counter for cute containers of coffee, more tea, and cocoa toppings.

BEFORE! 

The counter in front of the wine rack was wasted space and pushed the coffee makers close to the sink which interfered with doing the dishes. Also: drab and dark.

 AFTER!

Better use of the corner space the coffee makers slide down (the keurig is on the other side of the big one) which frees up a lot of counter space near the sink for dishes and food prep.

Plus I get to show off my pretty mugs which is wonderful because I'm running out of cabinet space!

The rainbow.

Now I just have to figure out where to put the wine rack...

Nerd Things

Mr. Lawyer's post-Christmas fun involves playing with his new electronics and dvds. My post-Christmas fun involved spending over an hour cleaning and reorganizing my spice cabinet while rocking out to ABBA. Why yes, I did get made fun of for that (someone came home early and caught me in the act!).

Fun present that started the reorganizing! I love that Penzeys uses cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and nutmeg for packing purposes. Any ideas for saffron? I've never used it before!

I have an insane amount of essential oils, extracts, pastes, and emulsions for baking. They are obnoxious little bottles that get knocked over and have a nasty habit of hurtling out of the cabinet towards the floor. I have solved this by putting them into a cute little box for easy access and containment purposes. I don't know why it took me two years to think of this. 

My masterpiece!

Top Row (L to R): various salts and peppercorns, extracts and oil box, jars of nuts and things

Middle Row (L to R): baking ingredients, a row of asian ingredients, a row of sweet things (cinnamon, molasses, corn syrup, etc), a row of vinegars, and a row of oils.

Bottom Row (L to R): heavily used items (olive oil, vanilla, garlic powder) followed by an impressive array of herbs and spices.

Tilapia Scampi

Mr. Lawyer made dinner tonight! He said he wouldn't make it again. It was decent but very mild, no real flavors. We served it up with some broccoli rabe from DiBruno Brothers which overpowered the dish. The gorgonzola cheese spread on bread was amazing!

Tilapia Scampi

(Adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 (6 ounce) tilapia fillets
1 tablespoon dried parsley
Directions:
1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees
2. Combine the butter, lemon juice, and garlic in a microwave-safe bowl; heat in microwave in 10-second increments until the butter is completely melted and the garlic has softened, stirring between each session, about 1 minute total.
3. Arrange the tilapia in the bottom of baking dish; pour the butter mixture over the fillets assuring they are all evenly covered. Sprinkle the parsley over the tilapia.
4. Bake in the preheated oven, turning the fillets every 10-15 minutes, until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve on top of pasta.

A Little Bit Of Gin....

I spied a pretty gin bottle yesterday and some handsome fellow bought it as an early Christmas present (which brings my gin count up to 5 bottles). Plus it's distilled here in Philadelphia! Behold Bluecoat Gin.

It's an American Dry Gin and I felt it was more citrusy than juniper in flavor but not as citrusy as Bulldog Gin but more flavorful than the Citadelle. Nice and clean, decently priced but I'd still put my money towards a bottle of Hendricks. But I do love that blue bottle!

Lentil Sloppy Joes

Confession: I've never actually had a real sloppy joe. This looked like a nice healthy version and I must say I was impressed. It was very filling and had a mild flavor. It would be easily customizable with a squirt of bbq or hot sauce. I loved all the veggies that the recipe sneaked in. Since I was a very picky eater as a small child I look at this as practice for future small children...karma sucks.

Notes: after the lentils cooked it was till very watery so I siphoned off a cup of water/broth. I did not have to add the additional cup of water at the end. I also couldn't find brown lentils so I used red. Supposedly brown lentils have a more "meaty" texture. I swapped out the beef for ground turkey and used almost double the meat on account of Mr. Lawyer. 

Lentil Sloppy Joes

(from the Food Network Magazine)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1/2 bell pepper (red or green), finely chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
8 ounces ground beef (or turkey)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
6 whole-wheat hamburger buns, toasted
6 slices cheddar cheese
Sliced pickles and/or pickled jalapeno peppers, for topping (optional)
Directions:
1. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, bell pepper and 2 tablespoons ketchup and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are slightly soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add the lentils, oregano and 4 cups water; bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the lentils are tender and the water is absorbed, 35 to 40 minutes (add up to 1 more cup water if necessary). Season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until it begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and the remaining 6 tablespoons ketchup and cook, stirring, until combined. Add the lentil mixture and 1 cup water (**I did not need to add the extra water**) and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are soft and the mixture thickens, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Fill the buns with the cheese and lentil mixture. Top with pickles and/or pickled jalapenos.