It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Soup Season!

Let's pretend I haven't been gone from the blog for four months, shall we?

I've got an easy one for you.

Ridiculously easy.

Five Ingredient Tomato-Basil Soup - that is literally the name of the recipe. Another Pinterest experiment that ended up being a winner. It is perfect for all cycles of the 17 Day Diet and is also Vegetarian. 

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• One 28-oz can crushed tomatoes, preferably local
• 1 handful basil leaves, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Heat a large stock pot or saucepan over medium heat. Add the canola oil and heat through. Add the onion and garlic and saute until translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir frequently, to prevent burning. 

2. Add the crushed tomatoes, and fill the can up with water. Add the water and bring the mixture to a boil. 

3. Reduce to a simmer, add the basil and cook for 20 minutes. 

4. Puree with an immersion blender or in a standing blender.

Serve with hunks of fresh bread or grilled cheese if you have no issue with carbs! A sprinkle of Parmesan might be nice. I may even make this again and toss some mini-meatballs in it!

Do Wagon Wheel Tracks Come out of Clothing?

So, I fell off the wagon.

Not only did I fall off the wagon, I got run over by the wagon.

And dragged behind it.

I don't know if it was the miserable winter we had, or just a general feeling of major disorganization. I just haven't been able to get it together.

Well, here I go again back to square (cycle) one. I'm on Day 3 and finding my way again with the help of my favorite Cycle 1 Italian Egg Drop Soup. And lots of Advil.

Spring break is coming up and I need to be able to put my shorts on without cutting off my circulation.  And then get back to where I was before and go past that point.

I did manage to knock off a few more cookbooks...all of the recipes were super unhealthy and somewhat lowbrow.

I'll share with you ASAP.

In the meantime, I am headed to the kitchen. I have some Eggplant Plop to cook up!

Split Pea Heaven

I was a total slug this weekend.

Between the below zero temperatures, the Valentine's Day gluttony, and the four and a half hours I spent on the couch watching the SNL40 special, I feel like garbage.

Not enough fresh air, too many carbs, and a neglected house.

Time to push the reset button!

I'm like the Very Hungry Caterpillar who needs just one green leaf to feel better. Hopefully that will do the trick!

I did make some soup yesterday that is unbelievably delicious...if you like split pea.

It is incredibly easy to do, and only has a few ingredients. The only one that I wonder about nutritionally are the smoked turkey legs. Obviously there is a salt factor going on, and some other shady ingredients. But...I may have to try with regular turkey legs and see if it still works because this soup is ridiculous.

3 carrots, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 T olive oil
1 cup green split peas
2 medium smoked turkey legs
Pepper
(I am leaving out the salt due to the smoky turkey)

Heat olive oil in stockpot. Sauté carrots, celery, onion and garlic until they begin to sweat. Add split peas and turkey legs. Add water to cover just above the split peas. Cover and simmer for an hour or so.

Remove turkey legs and let cool. Shred meat off the bone, discard skin. Add the meat back into the soup.

That's it, people. It's that easy.

Martha! Martha! Martha!

Oh, Martha!

Once upon a time, you lured me in with your crafty crafts and your culinary delights.

I subscribed to your magazine and tore out every project and recipe I wanted to tackle. I watched your television show and vowed to emulate your highfalutin' ways.

I would be the epitome of domestic fabulousness.

Of course, this never happened.

The closest I came was when I copied this cake:

I crushed up the chocolate wafers to make the dirt, I made pastillage and cut out the picket fence. I dyed and sculpted marzipan into tiny vegetables. I baked a layer of carrot and a layer of zucchini cake and made cream cheese frosting.

Amazingly, I was so successful with this I ended up making it twice. Once for a baby shower and once for a birthday.

Obviously, this was before I had a child.

It was hard enough to follow Martha's multi-step directions for everything when I had no one hanging on me or trying to follow me into the bathroom. Now it was damn near impossible.

I let my magazine subscriptions go, and I let my cookbooks gather dust on the shelf. Ain't nobody got time for Martha.

Until now.
I HAVE to do it.

So, without further ado, I give you

After paging through this and seeing nothing that I wanted to make, I was tempted to do replicate the Salted Edamame recipe.

My darling husband pointed out that steaming some edamame and throwing some salt on it did not really constitute a recipe.

So, I rolled my eyes and chose the least offensive thing in the book:

Butternut Squash with Roasted Garlic

• 1 large butternut squash, halved and seeded 
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme 
• 4 large cloves of roasted garlic
• 1 cup warm chicken stock, or low-sodium canned

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Season the squash with salt and pepper and tuck 2 sprigs of thyme into each cavity. Place, cut side down, on the baking sheet and roast until fork-tender, about 40 minutes.

When the squash is cool enough to handle, discard the thyme; peel the squash and coarsely chop. Combine the squash, garlic and 1/2 cup chicken stock in a food processor and puree until smooth.

Add the remaining stock gradually until the mixture forms a very loose puree. Season the soup with salt and pepper.

Seems pretty basic, right? 

Here's my roasted squash:

And my beautiful roasted garlic:

And the gorgeous finished product:

Beautiful, right?

Yeah.

It tasted like baby food.

That perfectly roasted butternut squash and head of garlic, thyme and broth blended together tasted like a whole lot of NOTHING.

Martha?  Your recipe sucks.

I salted and peppered the hell out of it and it was still ridiculously boring.

Then I grabbed some curry powder. Minimally better.

Added some cayenne. 

Getting there.

A dash of cinnamon.

We may have something tolerable?

And then? I gave up.

Fortunately the husband (who wouldn't let me just make the damn edamame) ate it.

As for cookbook #18 of 99?

Buh-bye, Martha. Your recipe may have been healthy, but it was also tasteless. Something I'm sure you aren't used to hearing about yourself.

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Yoo-hoo! Mrs. Goldberg!

For Chanukah this year I got yet another Jewish cookbook.

I don't know why, but I seem to have a real attachment to these books. I think that I most identify with my religion through cooking. I am not a traditionally observant Jew at all. I don't go to synagogue. I don't observe Shabbat. I don't fast on Yom Kippur.

But when Rosh Hashanah rolls around, I bake challah. When it's Passover, I can lay out a Seder like nobody's business. Come Chanukah time, I make latkes. Good ones. Purim? Hamentaschen.

So maybe the kitchen is my synagogue? I bond with my ancestors there. I have my great-grandmother's rolling pin. I have my grandmother's hand-written recipes. I have my mom's copy of Elegant Essen, a cookbook put together by a local synagogue that she always brought out when company was coming for the holidays.

I also have way too many other Jewish cookery books, including my latest...

If you are under the age of 65, you may not know who Molly Goldberg is. All I knew of her was that she had a television show in the 1950's that my mother had loved. The opening line on each of her shows was "Yoo-hoo! Mrs. Goldberg!"

Oy, is that some big challah!

Actually, before I even knew that she was a celebrity, I thought she was a friend or relative of my grandmother's. In her hand-written recipe collection she had something called Molly Goldberg's Pickled Peppers. I had no clue that she was a groundbreaking icon!

Molly Goldberg's real name was Gertrude Berg.  She was one of the first women to create, write, produce and star in a long-running hit show....The Goldbergs. She won an Emmy and a Tony award. She was a song writer that was recorded by Patsy Cline, and she also had a very famous cookbook!

Amazingly, they are still printing copies of it. It came out in 1955 and was the bible of Ashkenazi Jewish cookery. It has everything from bagels and knishes to brisket and rugelach.

Sticking with my diet, I chose to make Cabbage Soup. Molly had some interesting ideas on how to make this classic....very different from how I've been doing it. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and followed as closely as I could with the exception of rye bread and beef bones. I also subbed a different cut of meat because I wanted to use something leaner and something I cut cut into bite size pieces.

Also, I halved the recipe. Additionally, I had to make a guess with the tomatoes, as I was unsure what the heck a can of #2 1/2 tomatoes would be.

Here's the original recipe, I will note my substitutions:

Cabbage Soup

3 pounds of beef (plate flank, breast flank, or brisket) - I used something called Petite Beef Tender Chuck Filet Steak
Beef Bones (didn't use this)
2 1/2 quarts water
1 can #2 1/2 tomatoes
2 onions, chopped
4 pounds of cabbage, coarsely shredded
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 T sugar (I used 1 packet of Truvia)
1/2 pound sauerkraut, drained (optional...but I tried it!)
2 slices rye bread, trimmed (I left these out too)

Combine the beef, beef bones, water, tomatoes and onion in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Skim the top. Cover and cook over medium heat for one hour.  Add the cabbage, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat for one hour. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and sauerkraut. Cook for 15 minutes.

Soak the bread in water for 5 minutes. Drain and add to the soup. Correct seasoning. The soup should have a more sour than sweet taste. Cook for 15 minutes longer or until the meat is tender.

Serve the soup and the meat at the same time. This makes a complete meal in one dish.

While this didn't knock my socks off, I did like the unexpected addition of the sauerkraut. I think I may stick to my basic cabbage soup recipe with the beef broth and add some of Molly's sauerkraut to the mix.

I'll be keeping cookbook #9 of 99 for sure. I mean, I already thought Molly Goldberg was a relative of my grandmother's anyway...I might as well have her stick around!

Hidden Gem

Cookbook number 4 of 98 just knocked my socks off!

I pulled it off the shelf and figured that this would be one that ended up in the discard pile at the end of this experiment.

Another relic from the late 1990's and the beginning of my relationship with my husband:

The White Dog Cafe Cookbook.

When I was first dating my husband, we were living in New York. He had grown up just outside of Philadelphia and I had never been there before. Being the crazy kids that we were, we decided to get in the car and drive to Philly so he could take me to the White Dog where we would eat nachos and drink Leg Lifter Lager. We literally drove to Philadelphia, looked at the house where he grew up (not telling his parents that we were driving right by) and then went into the city to sightsee and eat.

Ahh, young love. You can stay up all night and do impulsive things and it never seems to take a toll on you. After being married for 15 years I can barely make it until 10:00 before I start falling asleep!

The following year we went back to the White Dog Cafe with my husband's family for Christmas Eve dinner. It was not as good as the beer and nachos night.

As one of our gifts, my future mother-in-law gave us the White Dog Cookbook. I don't recall ever using it. I'm sure I paged through it at the time but it must not have spoken to me, so it sat on the shelf untouched.

Imagine my surprise when I took it out and found myself putting flags on multiple recipes! I guess I needed to grow into the book to appreciate it?

I chose a soup recipe because it is FREEZING here. Literally. It's going to be 0 degrees tonight. Brr.
Making this soup was a bit of a project, but fortunately it was well worth it!

Ratatouille Bisque

This soup was AMAZING. Well worth the effort. It wasn't hard to make, but it was what we call in Yiddish a "patchke." That means it was a bit of a mess. There are multiple roasting pans involved, lots of chopping, using the blender or food processor, etc. This doesn't bother me but I know some people don't care for too many steps and a bunch of pans to wash! Regardless, I think this soup is worthy of the time and mess. It was that good!

I did adapt the recipe just a bit to fit into the 17 Day Diet. I also cut it in half because I didn't want to be stuck with a huge pot of soup that no one liked if it wasn't very good. I'll post my version of the recipe here and just let you know that it can be doubled to make more.

Ratatouille Bisque

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1 small head of garlic, roasted (easy to do...cut off top, pour on a bit of olive oil, wrap in foil and bake for 30 minutes at 375 in the oven. I threw mine in the toaster oven.)
1 large red bell pepper, chopped and seeded
1 large yellow pepper, chopped and seeded
1 sweet onion, peeled and chopped
1 bulb fennel, fronds removed and core cut out, chopped
1 eggplant, sliced lengthwise
6 large, ripe plum tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 1/2 cups water
1 T Balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 packet of Truvia (recipe called for 1 tsp sugar)

Toss peppers, onion and fennel in a bowl with half of the olive oil.
Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast until lightly charred for 45 minutes

Toss the tomatoes with 1 T of the oil and spread on another baking sheet and roast until charred, about 30 minutes.

Rub the eggplant halves with the remaining oil and put them cut side down on baking sheet. Roast until soft, about 20 minutes.

When the vegetables are done, remove and let cool to room temperature.
Remove the eggplant pulp from the skin by scraping out with a large spoon. Discard skins. Squeeze garlic cloves out of their skin.

Puree all of the roasted vegetables in blender or food processor in batches.
In a large, non-reactive saucepan combine vegetables with the remaining ingredients. Taste for seasonings and add more tomato juice or water to thin if needed.

Depending on who is eating it, you can serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese or some crusty bread.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what other treasures this cookbook has in store!

I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie

When I taught Elementary School, one of my favorite books to read at Thanksgiving was I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson. Obviously it's a take-off on the Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly…but with Thanksgiving foods instead of spiders and cats and horses. My kind of gal.

I hadn't thought about this book in a few years…probably since my own son has gotten too old to read it at the holiday and the kids I work with now are all under the age of three.

Wouldn't you know it? The old bag popped into my head as I was getting ready to return home from a Thanksgiving vacation in Florida. Specifically this page:

In where said "Lady" has eaten so much that she becomes a balloon in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I was feeling pretty balloon-ish myself.

Maybe it was the Carvel cake before we left for Florida. Or the stuffing and potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner. It could have been the brisket and carnitas tacos at our favorite Mexican place, El Jefe Luchador. Possibly the two different stops at Menchie's Frozen Yogurt where some incredible genius has invented Cinnabon-flavored yogurt and Cream Cheese Frosting as a squirtable topping. Then there was the night I actually drank…a rarity for me. I had a Strawberry-Rhubarb mojito. And I liked it. A few bialys here, some handfuls of Target Monster Trail Mix there. You get the picture.

By the time I was sitting in the airport waiting for my departing plane, I couldn't even squeeze in my usual "flying chocolate" with my requisite People magazine. It wasn't the big photo of Bill Cosby on the cover making me nauseous…it was all of that food I had over the past week. I made it through the flight without the candy…but somehow made room for the free Popcorners that they passed out.

When I got up the next morning I faced the scale and owned that number on it. I had earned it. Now it was time to make it disappear. I was never so excited to have some cottage cheese and fruit in my whole entire life!

Two days later I have rid myself of two of the (cough-cough) pounds I have seemed to find somewhere between Halloween and Thanksgiving-time. I need to get rid of them before the next holiday rolls around. Ugh, I said rolls.

Unfortunately I have picked up the nasty cold that my husband and son both had last week. I managed to find enough energy to make a pot of my favorite Cycle 1 Italian Egg Drop Soup with Chicken Meatballs. I also had some Eggplant Plop in the freezer and that made the transition to home easier for me. Tomorrow I need to make a turkey breast that I have defrosted, and I was thinking of trying out a new recipe for Balsamic Red Cabbage. I will let you know how it goes, and share it with you over the weekend.

Hopefully I will continue to be the Old Lady Who Swallowed a 17 Day Diet Compliant Fat-Free Unflavored Greek Yogurt. There's a story in there somewhere, right?

Chicken Soup For The Cold

I won't even get into the fact that I haven't posted in almost three months.

So, this happened:

And this happened:

Then there was all of this:

Which all meant I spent a few months giving the finger to the 17 Day Diet:

But now?

I'm back! With a few extra pounds, so it's time to go Cycle 1 again.

I really wanted to change things up this time so I didn't get sick of the usual standbys. I spent some time scouring Pinterest and reviewing the hundreds of 17 Day Diet friendly recipes I had pinned over the past year. I even started to sort them into categories. All I needed to do now was get off my ass and get into the kitchen.

Here in the Northeast, its getting chilly. Soup, stew and chili time. I hadn't really found any Cycle 1 soups that I really loved in the past year, but this time we have a winner!!

Italian Egg Drop Soup with Meatballs

I adapted the recipe from someone who I typically avoid at all costs. I know that there are some people that love her, but I just can't do it. She literally frightens my husband and child. I never made a recipe of hers that was outstanding. I don't even like to say her name. Let's just call her Hachel Hay.

I left out the breadcrumbs to make it C1 appropriate…and it can be eaten at any time on C2 & C3. I changed up some of the amounts of things as well and it worked out nicely. I also switched it from dark meat turkey to chicken breast. Here's my version:

Italian Egg Drop Soup with Chicken Meatballs

1 pound of ground chicken breast

4 large eggs

1/2 cup grated (REAL) Parmesan

salt and pepper

2 T olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

6 cups chicken broth

1 head escarole, coarsely chopped

1 lemon, cut in wedges

In a large bowl, combine chicken, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup parmesan and a 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper. Roll the mixture into 3/4 inch meatballs and set aside.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally until softened and slightly browned, about 8 minutes. Pour in broth and bring to a boil. Add the meatballs, and return to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until meatballs are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Stir in the escarole.

In a small bowl, lightly beat the remaining 2 eggs with 1 tablespoon water and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle egg mixture into the simmering broth, pushing meatballs and escarole aside. Stir in remaining parmesan cheese and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Serve with lemon wedge.

Enjoy!

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