This would have ideally been a “winter soup” type of post -but in my household, any recipes that can be cooked in a slow cooker is a welcome addition any time of the year 
I put this quickly together after I hadn’t gone to the grocery for about two weeks (which is a long time for me!), and I wanted something hearty to serve on the table. The chopped bacon added extra smokiness that I really appreciated to give this soup extra depth of flavors and crunch. However, if you want to make this 100% vegetarian, you can omit the bacon, and substitute the chicken broth with vegetable broth. I liked my soup in the chunky side, so instead of mashing two cups of the cooked potatoes, I just used my hand blender, and blended the soup until I got to the “chunkiness” level that I wanted. This was a perfect dinner to come home to after a long day of weekend errands and chores or weekday’s work: creamy, with bits of crunchy salty bacon, chunks of tender potatoes, and cold celery leaves.
Ingredients
8 ounces bacon, chopped (omit for vegetarian option)
1 onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp flour
4 cups chicken broth
3 pounds russet potatoes
2 cups shredded cheddar
1/2 cup heavy cream
Salt & pepper to taste
3 scallions, sliced thin (I used celery leaves, since I ran out of scallions)
Directions
Cook bacon over medium heat until crisp, 5-7 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towel lined plate. Pour off all but 2 tbsp bacon fat left in skillet.
Add onion, garlic, and thyme to fat in skillet and cook over medium high heat until onion is softened and lightly browned. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of broth, scrapping up any browned bits, transfer to slow cooker.
Stir in remaining 3 cups of broth and potatoes into slow cooker. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender, 4 to 6 hours on low.
Transfer 2 cups cooked potatoes to bowl and mash smooth with potato masher. Stir cheddar into soup until evenly melted, them stir in mashed potatoes and cream. Let soup sit until heated through, about 5 minutes.
Season soup with salt and pepper. Serve with scallions, crisp bacon and additional cheddar.
Note: This soup will thicken when stored in the refrigerator overnight. Thin with broth to your desired consistency before reheating.
Yield: 6-8
Adapted from The Slow Cooker Revolution
I haven’t tried a new bread recipe in a while, since this No Knead Harvest Bread. This time, my husband really wanted to try a rye bread. I was hesitated at first, because I didn’t know how well it would turn out. I was so skeptical that I ended up making a half recipe, since the original recipe states that this will yield two loaves. But what was funny was that while this bread turned out perfectly, it barely filled up my 8×3-pan. The dough was very sticky, so I was almost sure that this will be a flop. I let the dough rise twice per the instruction, and it created this perfect “mini-loaf”. The recipe recommended that this bread be baked free-standing on top a baking sheet without a pan, but I wanted this to look like a loaf for sandwich.
The flavor was very authentic rye, and the aroma filled up the kitchen. We loved this so much that we finished our “mini loaf” for lunch one day, and we enjoyed them toasted and topped them with this cold Creamy Egg Salad. We loved it so much that we ended up making another loaf for the week. According to my hubby, this was the best loaf that we have ever made: easy to slice, made great sandwich breads, moist, and tasted like the type that you can get in New York delis. Last but not least, I am going to submit this post for my bake-along group, What’s Baking. Our theme in April is to bake with yeast! Yeah! Guess who was happy with this theme?? ME!
Ingredients
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups white rye, medium rye or pumpernickel flour (I used medium rye)
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 cup sour cream (low-fat is fine, and I used it in this recipe )
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour or first clear flour (I used the latter)
3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
Directions
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the water, sugar, rye flour and yeast, mixing to form a shaggy dough. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix and knead the dough together — by hand, mixer or bread machine — till it’s fairly smooth. (Remember, the nature of rye dough is to be sticky, so don’t be tempted to add too much flour.) Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Gently deflate the dough, knead it briefly, and shape it into two smooth oval loaves. Place the loaves on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, cover them, and let them rise until they’re almost doubled, about 1 hour. Gently slash the tops of the loaves in two or three places just before baking.
Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 190°F to 200°F. Remove the bread from the oven, and allow it to cool on a wire rack.
Yield: 2 loaves.
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Happy Easter everyone! I thought it would be appropriate for me to post a recipe using eggs today for Easter. I have always loved egg salads. Adding eggs to my menu is a very quick and delicious way to add protein to my meal. I ate a ton of egg salads in my single days, since they are very easy to put together: chop up a few hard-boiled eggs, add a handful chopped celery stalks, and some fat free mayo… and voila! My hubby actually didn’t really care for them, until a couple of years ago, I decided to just make them anyways, and let him make his own meal He ended up trying it and liking them!
When I saw this recipe, I wanted to use try the technique of actually slightly under-cooking the yolks and mashing up the yolks together with the mayonnaise prior to mixing them with the chopped egg whites. It also calls for a little bit of Dijon mustard and lemon juice (which I ended up omitting, because I felt like I had enough acid from the mustard). The egg salad was creamy, has beautiful bright yellow color from the yolks, and I really liked the addition of Dijon mustard. I’d definitely use this method again in the future. I enjoyed these on toasted homemade rye bread (and I will post the recipe for that next week!), which made a heavenly lunch! This is definitely a great way to use up those hard-boiled Easter eggs you have in the house.
Ingredients
10 large eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise (the recipe highly recommends the Hellman’s full-fat mayo, or Light-Mayo, but not fat free).
2/3 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper
1 celery rib, chopped fine
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
Directions
Combine 4 cups water and 4 cups ice cubes in a large bowl and set aside. Place eggs in a large saucepan; add water to cover by 1 inch and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove pan from heat, cover, and let stand for 8 minutes.
Pour off water from saucepan and gently shake pan back and forth to crack eggshells. Transfer eggs to the ice water and cool for 5 minutes.
Peel eggs and halve lengthwise. Transfer egg yolks to a bowl. Using a potato masher, mash yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Whisk mixture until smooth; set aside.
Chop egg whites into 1/4-inch pieces. Fold whites, celery, and chivesinto yolk mixture and refrigerate for 30 minuets. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
Yield: 6-8 servings
Slightly Adapted from The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2012
As much as my family and I love waffles on the weekends (we have homemade waffles at home at least once a month), I just realized that I have only shared one waffle recipe with my readers through the blog. This Pumpkin Nut Belgian Waffles were a big hit at our house last fall, and I have since then tried several other recipes that I have loved as well. Since I have been trying to use more whole wheat flour in my baking, I wanted to try a recipe using 100% whole wheat flour (although you can also use white whole-wheat flour in this recipe, my other fave type of flour). This one from King Arthur was the one that I really fell in love with. I used oil instead of butter, and I think it made them crispier in the outside, to my liking. It was perfect.
I normally get turned off by strong whole wheat flavor, but you can barely taste them on this recipe, which is a good plus. It was just slightly nutty, enough to add some character without overpowering it. I do want to encourage you to try buying a higher end whole wheat flour if you can, because the difference in flavor is significant. I actually tried a new organic whole wheat flour, and really LOVE it. I think this was one of the ingredients that is worth splurging on. In the future, I think I am going to try to add a little bit of vanilla and cinnamon to kick it up even a notch.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
1/3 cup melted butter or vegetable oil (if you prefer a crispier waffles, opt for oil)
Directions
Preheat your iron while you make the waffle batter.
Whisk together all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar) in a medium bowl.
In a separate bowl (a larger one), whisk together the egg, milk, and butter or oil.
Mix together the wet and dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. The batter will be a bit lumpy; that’s OK.
Cook the waffles as directed in the instructions that came with your waffle iron.
Yield: 3 1/2 round Belgian-style (deep-pocket) 7″ waffles.
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
I have my sister forever to thank for a lot of things, but one of them was for introducing me to the wonderful delicious world of Korean cuisine back in college. Our favorite spot was this hole in the wall restaurant with about six tables (they have since then expanded their size!), and they served the most delicious $5 lunch combo. Even after we moved away to new cities, we’d be scouting for Korean restaurants nearby. When I met Red almost six years ago, I asked him if he’d be willing to try a Korean dinner one day, and he agreed. I turned him into a fan as well, and going out to a Korean restaurant became a routine for the three of us. When I moved to Iowa about six years ago, I was really missing the authentic Korean dinners. I was very delighted when I saw this recipe in one of my cookbooks. This recipe really combines my two all-time fave food: fried chicken & anything Korean. We don’t normally fry a lot of things at home, but this one was definitely worth the occasional splurge. Because the chicken pieces were fried twice, I must say that I absolutely love how crispy the skin turned out. My blogger friend Reem posted something similar on her blog (hey, great minds think alike!), and hers turned out browner than mine because of the addition of soy sauce (I may need to do that next time). I was glad to be spending the time covered in oil getting these fried and toss in the sweet and spicy sauce…
Ingredients
Canola oil, for frying
5 cloves garlic
1 1/2-inch piece peeled ginger
3 tbsp, soy sauce
3 tbsp gojujang (Korean Chile Paste)
1-1/2 tbsp Asian sesame oil
1-1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
2/3 cup flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
16 chicken wings or drumettes (~ 1-3/4 lbs)
Directions
Pour oil into 6-qt pot to a depth of 2-inches and heat over medium high heat until a deep fry thermometer reads 350 degrees F.
Mince the garlic and ginger in a food processor. Add the soy sauce, gojujang, vinegar, sesame oil, and honey. Puree everything together. Transfer sauce to a bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, cornstarch and 2/3 cup water in another bowl. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Working in 3-batches, fry the chicken until golden about 6-8 minutes. Drain on paper towel.
Return the oil to 350 degree. Fry the chicken until crisp about 6-8 minutes more. Drain again. Toss the chicken in the sauce and serve.
Yield: 2-4 servings
Adapted from Saveur: The New Comfort Food – Home Cooking from Around the World
I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I apologize that I haven’t posted anything for almost a week since my hubby has been out of the country for work. The cooking still continues, but taking food pictures with an inpatient and curious toddler? Forget it. On the bright side, I finally got to host our “What’s Baking” group for March, therefore it is my turn now to share what everyone else baked with me this month. The theme that I selected was “Bake something to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day”. I really haven’t celebrated this holiday, probably since college… when my friends and I went out for green beers, eggs and ham. But we did have a St.Patrick’s Day themed potluck at work, so I got to celebrate that way. Please scroll down, hold your drools as you check out what everyone came up with this month! Tons of deliciousness in the kitchens of my blogger friends this month.
Jaida from Sweet Beginnings whipped up these cute green velvet cupcakes! You can’t go wrong with red velvet cake, whether it’s red or green
Carrie from Carrie’s Sweet Life baked up these Shamrock Shake Cookies with beautiful frosting on top! That frosting along will be an acceptable dessert for me.
Ange from the Tiny Tyrants Kitchen made these gorgeous Irish Coffee Cupcakes. I love how versatile this recipe can be, you can adjust the flavoring to suit your mood!
Heather from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks also made Green Velvet Cupcakes! I love the gold coins decor! Cute idea Heather!
Lindsey from Peace, Love and French Fries made Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread. This recipe definitely had me at “brown-butter”. I may need to make this before the summer comes around!
Stephanie from Brownies and Blondies submitted her original recipe for Baileys Cream Pie. Her family gobbled it up that she didn’t even have time to take pictures (hey, I thought it only happens to me!) Even without pictures, doesn’t this recipe sound dreamy??
Ammie from Adventures in My Kitchen made these delectable bite-sized Pistachio Pudding Tarts. I love how bright the pastel-green color is. Not only that it is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, I think it would make a welcome dessert in a spring brunch (think of Easter’s or Mother’s Day!).
Nicole from Seven Ate Nine made these Top o’ the Morning Muffins. Full of apple, carrot, raisin, shredded coconut and pineapple… they’d be sure to satisfy your craving for both sweet and maybe even a tad of savory. I may need to make these for breakfast!
And finally I made these Creme de Menthe Brownies. The green and mint in the Andes candies definitely put me and my co-workers in the holiday’s spirit. 
Thanks everyone for baking along with me! Next month’s host will be Lindsey from Peace, Love and French Fries … and she has selected the theme: “Bake something with yeast”.
I had hit a rut with cooking recently and I have been working on getting out of it. Trying to think of new ways to make chicken breasts delicious and exciting has been a challenge. I have been uninspired, and really needed something different to shake up our menu. I remember these Panko-Crusted Fish Sticks that I have made in the past, and they were delicious. I wanted to try this recipe from a new cookbook that I had just gotten because it requires the Panko being browned on the pan prior to baking, which added extra crispiness to the chicken. I have never really done an awesome chicken fingers at home, so I was ready to try this. Cooking them in higher temperature really made these nice and crispy on the outside with juicy tender chicken fillets inside. They were so good that we made them two days in a row. For a time-saving tip: you can prepare the dry flour mixture ahead of time (probably up to two days) and store them in an airtight container. When you’re ready to cook these, you can pre-heat the oven while browning the panko, and slicing the chicken pieces the night before. This meal can easily be done in about 20-minutes or so.
Ingredients
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 large egg whites
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 lb chicken tenderloins (or boneless, skinless breasts cut into 3/4-inch strips)
Directions
Preheat oven to 475 F. Set a wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet and spray the rack with cooking spray.
Combine the breadcrumbs and canola oil in a 12-inch skillet, and cook over medium to medium-high heat, stirring almost constantly, until golden brown.
Transfer the breadcrumbs to a wide, shallow dish and set aside to cool. Mix the flour, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper together in a second wide and shallow dish. Add the egg whites, water, Dijon mustard and thyme to a third dish and whisk vigorously until the egg whites are broken up and the mixture is foamy.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture (shaking to remove excess) then dip in the egg whites coating both sides completely. Finally, place in the toasted breadcrumbs, turning to coat both sides. Transfer to the wire rack and repeat with all chicken.
Spray the chicken lightly with cooking spray then bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook
Happy St. Patrick’s Day my readers!!! I wanted to share a delicious brownie recipe using mint chocolate that is totally out of this world! I had planned on posting this yesterday, but this week has been pretty hectic for me at work. And I just finally got around to writing this post this morning. The brownie itself is very chocolaty and fudgy. The mint chips added a lightness to an otherwise very rich dessert; they helped to cut the weight of the deep chocolate brownies. It is hard to go wrong with brownies, but this one also will put you in the St. Patrick’s Day state of mind!! If you haven’t found a dessert recipe to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, this will be a quick one to put together. I don’t have any big plan for the holiday because my hubby is heading out of the country for work, so it’s just me, the little girl with the dog at home this weekend.
After about two months in the row of forgetting to include this badge of our bake-along What’s Baking group, here is my submission for the month of March. I am actually the host (yipeee!!) and the theme is “Bake something to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day”. I will be posting a round-up of what everyone else has baked this month toward the end of the month.
Ingredients
1 cups (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
11/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 (10-ounce) package Creme de Menthe baking chips (recommended: Andes)
Shaved Creme de Menthe thins (recommended: Andes)
Chocolate frosting
Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/3 cup cocoa
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.
Using an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Gradually stir into butter mixture. Fold in mint chips. Spoon into greased pan. Bake for 35 minutes.
While brownies are baking, prepare frosting. Combine butter, cocoa, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and milk in a large mixing bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until dry ingredients are moistened. Beat at high speed until spreading consistency.
Remove pan from the oven and allow brownies to cool in pan on wire rack. Spread with chocolate frosting. Top with shaved mint thins (optional).
Adapted from Paula Deen via Food Network
A couple of weekends ago, we had a pretty snowy weekend. In addition to being cold and dreary, the wind was enough for me to want to stay in all weekend. I had been spoiled this winter, and sure enough, I was deeply disappointed by the snow. I wanted to take my daughter outside and play in the yard, without having to worry about her little round cheeks turning pink, then red, then cracked from wind-burn. I was also ready to trade in my winter boots with cute flat sandals with bows. I could literally live in flips-flops, but they were frowned upon in my office. So no flips-flops… but I can settle for flats.
I decided to make these cupcakes using up a leftover super-ripened banana on the counter. Nothing makes my days sunnier other than baking. I thought about making this Lighter Banana Bread, but didn’t have enough bananas on hand. So here I was whipping up this cupcake instead. This is a very versatile recipe since it allows you to make a few substitutions; if you are lucky, you can actually whip them up without advance planning and have all of the ingredients on hand. These cupcakes were moist, with tidbits of bananas inside, but they’re definitely on the denser side. Not the fluffy type, like this white/lemon cupcakes that uses egg whites. I brought these into work, and surprisingly went faster than these delightful Carrot Cupcakes, another fave at my household. I was glad to be sharing my sunshine with my co-workers who loved their Monday cupcakes!
Ingredients
2-2/3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 sticks butter
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk or coconut milk can be used here as well)
1 cup shredded coconut (I skipped them since I didn’t have any in hand)
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with a kitchen mixer using paddle attachment. Add sugar and beat for a few minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time while continue to beat at low speed and vanilla. The mixture will be silky smooth – add banana and lower speed.
Mix in the flour and buttermilk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour.
Fill into cupcake pans (fill up about 2/3-full, you should get approximately 18 cupcakes), bake them for about 18-minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Alternatively, you can also bake these as layered cakes, pour into 2 9-inch pans, and bake for 45 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in pan before inverting on wire rack to cool.
The cupcakes can be stored in room temperature for up to 2 days, or they will become dense and unappealing!
Yield: ~18 cupcakes
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Shortly after I graduated from college and actually had a real job that I could afford buying “fancy” breads, I used to frequent a local bakery store that sold a very delicious bread similar to this. It was very hearty with tidbits of dried cranberries, and pieces of walnuts. It had a bit of sweetness, just enough to make it delicious toasted and slathered with jam for breakfast. But it was as perfect tossed inside a bread basket for lunch or dinner. I haven’t been able to find a similar bread anywhere else since then, until I made this bread at home. I was pretty happy with how easy this bread came together, and I baked it using my Le Creuset Dutch oven. I couldn’t believe that it started with a cold oven, who would have thought?! The only challenge that I had with the bread was incorporating all of the dried fruits and nuts into the dough. I ended up with a lot of the fruit and nut pieces on top of the dough, and some of them were burnt. But the bread itself was very delicious and had a beautiful crusty skin. Next time, I may try doing two smaller loaves, but I’d definitely take the time to punch all of the fruit and nut pieces into the dough to improve the appearance of the bread. I must add that a large loaf was pretty impressive as a centerpiece for our Sunday lunch!
Ingredients
3 1/4 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour or White Whole Wheat Flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 3/4 cups cool water
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
Directions
Mix the flours, salt, yeast, and water in a large bowl. Stir, then use your hands to mix and form a sticky dough.
Work the dough just enough to incorporate all the flour, then work in the fruit and nuts.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature overnight, or for at least 8 hours; it’ll become bubbly and rise quite a bit, so use a large bowl.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and form it into a log or round loaf to fit your 14″ to 15″ long lidded stoneware baker; 9″ x 12″ oval deep casserole dish with cover; or 9″ to 10″ round lidded baking crock.
Place the dough in the lightly greased pan, smooth side up.
Cover and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, until it’s become puffy. It should rise noticeably, but it’s not a real high-riser.
Place the lid on the pan, and put the bread in the cold oven. Set the oven temperature to 450°F.
Bake the bread for 45 to 50 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to bake for another 5 to 15 minutes, until it’s deep brown in color, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers about 205°F. Remove the bread from the oven, turn out onto a rack, and cool before slicing.
Adapted from King Arthur’s
