Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup

Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup

It's dreary in LA, and I'm assuming if you don't live in LA it's cold where you are too. I love this weather. Our fire is roaring, my son is napping, "Soul Santa" is blasting, and I just made soup. Sigh. Now I feel sleepy, so writing a recipe is out of the question, but here's what I did...

Roasted garlic... 


Sauteed roasted garlic with shallots and thyme...


Added two cans of tomatoes (whatever I had on hand) and 32 oz. vegetable stock. Boiled, simmered for 15...


Pureed. Oh, and I added a touch of cream...


Served with cheesy toast. Of course...

White Chocolate Dipped Strawberries with Citrus Sugar

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
• 6 ounces high-quality white chocolate (such as Lindt or Perugina), chopped
• 16 large ripe strawberries

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preparation

Line baking sheet with foil. Using fingertips, mix sugar and citrus peels in small bowl until sugar is moist. Stir chocolate in small bowl set over saucepan of barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water.

Holding 1 strawberry by stem end, dip 2/3 of berry into chocolate; shake excess back into bowl. Turn berry dipped end up and sprinkle with citrus sugar. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining berries, chocolate, and sugar. Chill until chocolate sets, about 30 minutes.

Tagalongs

Homemade Tagalongs

(also check out my homemade samoas)


I did something remarkable, people. Extraordinary, astounding and supernatural. Here's the story:

About a month ago I bought a box of Tagalongs, my favorite, from some girl wearing a bright green jumpsuit. I opened the box in the car I was so excited, but they didn't taste as good as I remembered. Bummed, I broke off a small piece and gave it to Jack. 5 minutes later he had chocolate covering his body and a grin plastered on his face that I had never seen before. The cookies lasted us a long time in the freezer, as we used them only for dessert or to bribe Jack to do something like sit on the potty or take a shower with mommy (it's the only way I stay clean!). When the cookies were all gone, I searched the usual spots for the girls in green... churches, markets, dark alleys... but nary a Girl Scout I found. I was panicked. I hadn't showered in (4) days. Finally Carson says, why don't you make your own? He is a brilliant man person.

So I spent about an hour researching recipes for shortbread cookies, peanut butter fillings, chocolate coatings, etc. And I developed my own. And I did good. I'm sirious people, these taste exactly like the real thing only so, much, BETTER!! You can taste the buttery, crisp shortbread and the sweet/savory peanut butter and the creamy combo of dark and milk chocolate. Nothing tastes processed, or stale, or like it came from a box. I hear angels singing.

Homemade Tagalongs
(Makes approx. 3 dozen)
Printable Recipe

Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 salt

Filling:
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt

Coating:
6 oz. milk chocolate, chopped
6 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vegetable oil

With an electric mixer, cream butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and almond extract and mix. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and sugar. Slowly add sifted ingredients to butter/sugar and mix until combined. Shape dough into a disc, cover in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.


Preheat oven to 350. Take chilled dough, and roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick.


Using a small circular cookie cutter (also lightly floured), cut out cookies and place on parchment lined baking sheet.


Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges just begin to turn golden. Let cool.


While cookies are cooling, with mixer combine peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt.


Once cookies have cooled, scoop approx. 1/2 tsp of filling on top of each cookie.


Using a knife, place the tip in the middle of the peanut butter, and spread down to the side of cookie.


Repeat that motion as you go around the cookie. It should look slightly domed in the middle.


In a double boiler (or place a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bowl), melt all chopped chocolate. Add vegetable oil and stir until you have a glossy chocolate.


Using 2 forks, dip cookie into chocolate. Make sure to flip over and cover cookie completely. Lift cookie out of chocolate with one fork, using the other to scrape excess chocolate off the bottom. 


Repeat with each cookie and place them on foil or parchment paper.


Let cookies cool at room temp and then peel off paper or foil. 

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Homemade Samoas

This is not an April Fool's Day joke. Nope, by now you people should have learned something about me. All it takes is one teeny little suggestion, a small hint, a nudge if you will - to ignite a ridiculous idea in my brain. After I made Homemade Tagalongs last week, your comments overwhelmed me. "Samoas next! Please make samoas! I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE." And so forth. So instead of doing laundry or showering or playing with my son, I did what you told me to and I made Homemade Samoas. And they are superb. Like seriously, I know I was bragging about the Tagalongs and that's a lot of ego for a two-week span but remember this? Right, so just let me be proud. THESE ARE INSANELY DELICIOUS!!!!

Homemade Samoas
(Makes approx. 3.5 dozen)
Printable Recipe

Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 salt

Coconut Caramel Filling:
2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
Homemade caramel (if you're not feeling this ambitious, use 12-15 oz of wrapped caramels)
1 T milk (if using pre-made caramel, add 2 T of milk and a pinch of salt)

Chocolate:
6 oz. milk chocolate, chopped
6 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp vegetable oil

With an electric mixer, cream butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and almond extract and mix. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and sugar. Slowly add sifted ingredients to butter/sugar and mix until combined. Shape dough into a disc, cover in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 300. While dough is chilling, place coconut on a baking sheet. Toast in oven for around 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Coconut burns easily! 


Set toasted coconut aside and turn oven up to 350. Take chilled dough, and roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Using a small circular cookie cutter (also lightly floured), cut out cookies and place on parchment lined baking sheet. I used the tip of a pastry tube to cut out the inner circle, but if you can't find a small circular shape to use just cut it out by hand with a knife.


Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges begin to SLIGHTLY brown. Set on foil or parchment paper to cool.


I made my own caramel because my split personality is named Martha (however, I cut the salt in half). If you are on the saner side, unwrap 12-15oz of wrapped caramels and place in a pot. Add 2 T of milk and a pinch of salt. Melt together over low heat. I only needed 1 T of milk because the homemade caramel was pretty gooey to begin with. Once melted, stir in toasted coconut and remove from heat.


Once cookies have cooled, spread caramel mixture on top. I found the easiest method was to cover the entire cookie, and then stick the tip of my knife through the hole to remove the caramel in the center. Let topping set for about 20 minutes.


In a double boiler (or place a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the bowl), melt all chopped chocolate. Add vegetable oil and stir until you have a glossy chocolate. Take each cookie and hold between your thumb and pointer finger (right? that's what it's called?) and dip the bottom of each cookie into the chocolate. Set back on foil or parchment paper.


Place remaining chocolate in a piping bag, plastic bag with the corner snipped off, or one of these neat thingies I happen to have. 


Drizzle chocolate on top of each cookie.


And now for the song I promised... to the tune of THIS.

You put the Boaz in the Katy Stuhr and you Paige it all up. She called the Katy and Gretchen'ed her up and said Evie! Is there nothing I can Hillary, Falicia! 

(Wow.)

Grilled Buffalo Bleu Chicken Salad

Grilled Buffalo Bleu Chicken Salad.

Chicken (Baked, pan fried, grilled, rotiserrie)

Lettuce (Spinach, Mixed Greens)

Cucumber

Red Onion

Frank's Red Hot (or Buffalo) Sauce (to taste)

Tomatoes (preferably cherry)

Bleu or Gorgonzola Cheese

Blue Chips (crumbled)

NF Greek Yogurt

Avocado

*Broccoli

*Trader Joe's Marinated Bean Salad

*Grilled Sweet Corn (off-the-cob, obv)

Oil/Vinegar OR Low Cal Ranch, Bleu Cheese

(* = new additions)

Really, prep is quite self explanatory. Slice, dice, and toss!

(Or make it a serve-yourself...)

I personally prefer to shred my chicken before throwing on the sauce. And dallop of greek yogurt adds a little creamy goodness if your opting with vinegar or no dressing. You can even fold your cheese INTO yogurt before the toss. Delish.

THE key to the success, I find, with this CHOP and all others - is dicing every bit of goodness into tiny bite-sized bits.

Cranberry Spice Jam

Cranberry & Spice jam
makes about 3 cups
makes about 3.5 cups, or 28 servings (2T each)
1 bag cranberries, fresh
1/2 c orange juice
2 1 in pieces of cinnamon stick
4 all spice berries
2 cloves
~*~ can substitute 1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice for the whole spices ~*~
3/4 c sugar
pinch of salt

Combine everything in a sauce pan. Stir well. Heat over medium high heat until it starts to boil. Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer over medium low for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. Remove whole spices (if used) before serving.