Zucchini Cilantro Soup

 

 This is the first year I've had success with zucchini in my garden. It wasn't a huge success, but hey, a step in the right direction. It was called a Black Zucchini when I bought the plants, but this looks pretty standard to me. I picked it before it got too big, as I didn't want it to get too seedy.

  

 

 My friend Laura has a more successful garden, and she offered me a recipe she said was really good. She was right! I had to buy some cilantro, and she turned me on to a product that substitutes for buttermilk. It's really hard to find small quantities of buttermilk. Follow the directions on the container.

I made a half recipe because just two of us are at home now, and it was just about right. A little was left over for lunch the next day. If you're feeding more, double the recipe. Although the original recipe called for it to be refrigerated at least 8 hours, we did not. We're not big fans of cold soup (except maybe Gazpacho!) Leave out the chicken broth or use vegetable broth for a vegetarian soup.

Zucchini Cilantro Soup

(serves 2)

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp melted butter

1 largish zucchini, chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth (I used broth seasoning)
1 cup buttermilk, divided
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper

Melt the butter then saute onion in 3 qt pot over medium heat. Add zucchini and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes, until tender. .Remove from heat and cool.

Combine half the zucchini, half the cilantro, and half the buttermilk into a blender or food processor. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the container. Pour into a large bowl.

Combine the other half of the zucchini, cilantro and buttermilk, plus the lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. Process until smooth and pour into the bowl with the rest. Stir to combine flavors.

Enjoy!

(Actually I forgot about the lemon juice, and it was still good.)

Easy Banana Nut Muffins

The other day my husband was pressuring me to eat a banana. There were two left, and they were already getting spotted. Normally I like to blend them into smoothies, but two were too many. And time was short.

So to use them both, I looked up an easy banana muffin recipe. I adapted it from this:
http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-moist-banana-blueberry-muffins-153642  

I had to adapt it since I only had 2 large bananas. Reading the comments, I felt safe reducing the sugar to 1/2 cup, and started with 1 cup flour to see if more was needed. It was perfect.

I also added my new favorite ingredient:  coconut oil! Love it on oatmeal, just love it so much! Thinking that it is good for you, no need to swap out applesauce for oil.

They were easy, only cooked for 20 minutes, and tasted great! Oh, and I added walnuts. Because I could.

I hope you enjoy!

Easy Banana Nut Muffins

makes 10-12

• 2 large ripe bananas
• ^_1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• ¹⁄₃ cup melted coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup walnuts 
• Dash cinnamon

1. Mash bananas in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add sugar and egg.
3. Add coconut oil.
4. Combine dry ingredients and gently stir into banana mixture. 
5. Mix in nuts. Don't over mix batter.
6. Pour into well-greased muffin tin or 10-12 paper muffin cups.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Corned Beef Reprised

One of the things I like best about any holiday is that usually there are sales on the seasonal meal ingredients, as stores compete for our purchases. I usually buy 2 corned beef packages when they go on sale, and freeze one for later.

So one day, a month or so later, we have another corned beef to pop into the crockpot! This year we had a bit left over, so I cooked up a corned beef hash. And it was SO good, and easy too!

Ok, part of the easiness is some new hash brown potatoes I found at Costco. I don't make hash browned potatoes that often, but when I do these are so easy and so good! Frozen would work also. Or shredding potatoes yourself, if you have the tools.

Add water and wait 12 minutes

You could easily add onions (I don't personally like them with eggs), red peppers, or any other vegetable you like. But here is my simple recipe:

Corned Beef Hash

Ingredients

Corned beef
packaged hash browns
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the hash browns until almost brown to your taste. Add the corned beef until it's heated up. Make four "wells" for the eggs and crack an egg into each depression. When the whites are looking white instead of translucent, flip them to cook the whites. Cook to your desired yolk consistency (longer cooking =harder yolks).

So simple! Hope you enjoy!

Corned beef hash with eggs over easy.

Spiced Pear Butter

 

Spiced Pear Butter

Happy Holidays! This year I made some pear butter to give away as gifts. I was given a jar many years ago, along with the recipe, but only lately was I brave enough to try it.

My first batch I made with the Bartlett Pears that the recipe called for, and I think I only added 7 cups of sugar instead of 7.5, and it turned out delicious. The flavor of pear along with the usual Christmas spices makes it taste like the holidays. Delicious!

For the second batch I found a good sale on the large Asian pears at Superking. Asians take their pears very seriously, as they even come with little jackets to keep them from bruising (I assume).

I admit that the reason I wanted to use huge pears is that it meant less peeling, which really was the hardest part of this recipe. I used 3!

A big difference between the types of pears is that the large Asian pears didn't get soft. I kept waiting for them to get soft near the stem, but they didn't within my time frame, so I went ahead and used them. They never got as soft as the Bartlett pears when I was boiling them down, which I see now is the whole point of the Asian pears:  They are crisp! Very crisp, and protected by the little jackets.

But when I put them in the blender they broke down easily after the boiling. I had to boil off some of the water,  and the result was just as delicious as the Bartlett pear batch. If it's possible, it tastes a little crisper!

 I hope you enjoy this recipe and the resulting treat. It makes about 9 half-pints. Happy eating!

Ingredients

7 large Bartlett pears, peeled, cored, and diced to make 2 quarts.
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
7 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 (3-oz.) pouch liquid pectin

Yield: 9 cups

Directions

Combine pears in a large saucepan with lemon juice and water; heat to boiling. Cover and cook for 10 minutes until pears are soft. Uncover and cook over high heat 10 minutes longer, stirring and mashing pears as they cook.

In a blender, puree half the mixture at a time until smooth. This mixture should measure 5 cup: If it measures more, boil it down, if it measures less than 5 cups, add water.

Add sugar and spices and heat to boiling until sugar dissolves. Boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in pectin. Pour into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust caps. 

Process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Lamb for Easter

In 2012 my family visited New York City for Spring Break. We stayed near Central Park

While we were there on our short stay, we noticed a longer than usual line at the food truck nearest the hotel. We walked around the city a bit (Madison Square Garden, Central Park) and didn't see another truck with such a long line. So on our way out of town, we decided to try a gyro from that particular truck and it was DELICIOUS! We speculated as to why these gyros were so delicious, and decided they must contain lamb meat.

Fast forward to last Easter, and I learned that my family was tired of ham! Imagine that. Well, that got me to thinking about Easter and what other kind of dish could I cook, when I thought about the delicious lamb in NYC. And the symbolism of lamb (of God) and Easter somehow appealed to me.

I went online and found this recipe for a lamb dish that I could make in a Dutch Oven. I'm not sure how I found this recipe, but it is credited to J.M. Hirsh, food editor for the AP, and blogger at LunchBoxBlues.com. The name pretty much says it all. It contains lamb, garbanzo beans, rosemary and tomatoes.

I was worried that I wouldn't like the garbanzo beans, as I don't usually like their consistency whole (hummus I love.) I also was afraid the rosemary would be overpowering, but it wasn't, and the garbanzo beans were not firm and waxy, but fell apart in my mouth. I used half as much lamb as the original recipe (2 lbs), but the rest was the same, and the results were tender and delightful.

This recipe is fairly easy. A little chopping, open the cans, and cook it up in about 15 minutes. The hardest part was separating and browning the lamb. Then for 2 hours you can let it cook and take in the aroma of your upcoming meal.

Enjoy!

Rosemary Lamb Tagine with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 head garlic, minced

1 lb ground lamb

2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

15 oz can chopped or diced tomatoes

15 oz can chickpeas, drained

¾ cup chicken broth

salt and ground black pepper

1 lemon, cut into wedges

chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

plain Greek yogurt, to serve

Directions:

In the base of a tagine or large Dutch Oven over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Add the onions and garlic, then saute until tender and lightly browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the lamb and brown on all sides, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the rosemary, tomatoes, chickpeas and broth, then bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to maintain a bare simmer and let cook for 2 hours, or until the lamb is fork tender.

Season with salt and pepper, then divide between serving plates. Squeeze 1 or 2 lemon wedges over each serving, then top with parsley and a dollop of yogurt.