Chicken Tortilla Soup

Now that fall has arrived, it seemed like a good idea to make soup.  Here is one that packs a lot of flavor.  It is really not hard to make, but requires some time (about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish) and quite a few ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBL olive oil
• 1 chopped large onion
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 20 roasted garlic cloves
• 1 medium chopped jalapeno pepper
• 1 chopped bell pepper (I used red)
• 2.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cans hominy
• 2 (32 oz) containers of chicken broth
• 2 chipotle chiles
• 2 TBL chipotle sauce
• 2 (14 oz) can's diced tomatles
• 1 (14 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato paste
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 cup masa harina

First, roast about 6 heads of garlic.  To do this just cut off the tops of the heads, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt.  Wrap them in aluminum foil and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour.  To remove cloves just squeeze them out.

Next saute onion, garlic, jalapeno and green pepper with olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven until soft.

Next, add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Wait about 15 minutes and rove the chicken and shred.  I used two forks for this task. 

Return shredded chicken to the pot and simmer for about an hour.

I think the key to this soup is the masa.  It really gives the soup the tortilla flavor while acting as a thickening agent.  This recipe also makes a lot of soup.  I am going to be freezing most of it.

Soft Pretzels

I used Alton Brown's recipe for this one.  These guy's turned out great.  Just make sure you eat them all the day they are made.  Not so great the next day.

On a side note, I want to thank Fresh Market in Brookfield for the pretzel salt.  I checked the shelves of almost every grocery store in town and came up empty.  I asked my wife to stop by Fresh Market on the way home from work.  Although they do not sell it, someone the bakery was kind of enough to give her some at no charge.  Thank you Fresh Market and I hope you caught the chipmunk that was running around your store, in the nuts section according to my wife.

Croque Monsieur Pizza

Hey it works on sandwiches, so why not pizza?  I made this pizza using a bechamel sauce for the base and topped it with gruyere cheese, Canadian bacon, and roasted garlic oil.  Overall it had great flavor, but it was extremely rich.  I would eat it again, but maybe add some pineapple to it to cut the richness.

Mashed Potato Pizza

I took a stab at making a mash potato pizza.  I used Grover for the crust.  My toppings consisted of well mashed potatoes and cheese.  I used a bit of milk and some of the roasted garlic oil I had on hand to make the mashed potatoes and I used provolone for the cheese.  Overall, it was not a bad pie, but I don't know that I would make it again.  I seemed like it was missing something.

Roasted Garlic Oil

Here is a simple but delicious one.  I took a bunch of garlic cloves (see above) and slowly cooked them in olive oil.  In a half hour the garlic become sweet and the oil take on that wonderful flavor.  I cooled the oil, filtered it through some paper towels and saved the oil.  Oh yeah,  my wife and I ate the garlic and had terrific smelling breath for 24 hours.

Soft Serve Find

In August I went to Georgia for a wedding.  After the wedding, I went to the Braves game and found this gem at Turner Field.  This stuff was awesome.  I didn't even care that the Braves lost (at least not too much), I got ice cream!  This ranks up there with some of the best soft serve I have had to date.  I wonder if Mayfield sells this stuff anywhere else.

Update time

Okay it's been way too long.  Here are some of the things I have been up to.

Grilled Pepperonni Pizza with Thick Pizza Sauce

I put Grover to work again.  He sure is good at making pizza dough.  The focus of this post is the pizza sauce.  Here are the cast of characters (first in picture form).











I made a lot. I used what I needed for the pizzas and froze the rest for later consumption.

Ingredients (Note: I have no idea how much of the spices I used.  I just dump what I think is right amount in.):

• Two 29oz can's of tomato sauce
• Two 8oz can's of tomato paste
• 2 tbls sugar
• 2 tbls extra virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves of chopped garlic
• oregeno
• basil
• ground thyme
• marjoram
• red pepper flakes
• 2 bay leafs
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat oil over medium heat.  Add in garlic and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly.  Don't burn the garlic.  Add in all the spices and cook for about 30 seconds.  This helps bring out the flavor in the spices.  Add in tomato products and simmer on low for about an hour stirring every five minutes or so.  That's it.  This is a thick zesty sauce.  Try it out and see what you think, or come over and I will make you some (yes, I am serious).

By the way, the crust was awesome grilled.

America's Test Kitchen Cupcake Test with Peanut Butter Frosting

I planned on making chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting using the same cupcake recipe I posted before, but I changed my mind after watching an episode of the American Test Kitchen on PBS while I was working out on the Arc Trainer at the gym.  I was inspired.  As soon as I got home, I looked up the recipe and got started.

From there website here is the recipe:

From the episode: Chewy Brownies and Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

Use a high quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate for this recipe,
such as one of the test kitchen's favorite baking chocolates,
Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate L-60-40NV or Ghirardelli Bittersweet
Chocolate Baking Bar. Though we highly recommend the ganache filling,
you can omit it for a more traditional cupcake. The cupcakes can be
made up to 24 hours in advance and stored unfrosted in an airtight
container.
Ingredients
Ganache Filling

   * 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine (see note)
   * 1/4 cup heavy cream
   * 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Chocolate Cupcakes

   * 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine (see note)
   * 1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
   * 3/4 cup hot coffee
   * 3/4 cup (4 1/8 ounces) bread flour
   * 3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
   * 1/2 teaspoon table salt
   * 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
   * 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
   * 2 large eggs
   * 2 teaspoons white vinegar
   * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
   * 1 recipe Frosting

Instructions

   *

     1. FOR GANACHE FILLING: Place chocolate, cream, and
confectioners’ sugar in medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat in microwave
on high power until mixture is warm to touch, 20 to 30 seconds. Whisk
until smooth; transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just
chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.
   *

     2. FOR CUPCAKES: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat
oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-size muffin pan (cups have ½-cup
capacity) with baking-cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium
bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in
refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar,
salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
   *

     3. Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled
chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk
until smooth.
   *

     4. Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Place one
slightly rounded teaspoon ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake
until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool
cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about
10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on
wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.
   *

     5. TO FROST: Mound 2 to 3 tablespoons frosting on center of each
cupcake. Using small icing spatula or butter knife, spread frosting to
edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound in center.

America's Test Kitchen

America's Test Kitchen is a 2,500-square-foot kitchen located just
outside of Boston. It is the home of Cook's Country and Cook's
Illustrated magazines and is the workday destination for more than
three dozen test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission
is to test recipes until we understand how and why they work and
arrive at the best version. We also test kitchen equipment and
supermarket ingredients in search of brands that offer the best value
and performance. You can watch us work by tuning in to America's Test
Kitchen (www.americastestkitchen.com) on public television.

My adjustments were that I used all Trader Joe's chocolate and made my own peanut butter frosting.  Otherwise, I followed the directions.  I weighed the ingredients for the frosting.

Ingredients:

• 400g creamy peanut butter (I used JIF)
• 1 stick of butter softened
• 1 tbls vanilla extract
• 690 g confectioners' sugar
• 160 ml cream

Directions:

In a large bowl beat butter and peanut butter together with a hand mixer until well blended.  Add vanilla.  At low speed, gradually add the confectioners' sugar.  Beat at low speed until creamy.  I used a star tip and a pastry bag to pipe the frosting on the cooled cupcakes.

My Review.
They were okay.  I like my other chocolate cupcake recipe better.  I mean with chocolate and peanut butter you really can't go wrong.  But after watching the episode, I had very high expectations and was slightly let down.  I made them to take to a fellowship welcome party for my wife's new job.  Most of them were eaten and I received no complaints.  I also made the Mexican wedding cookies that I have posted before.

Lower Fat? Chocolate muffins

 

I am back with a new recipe.  My chocolate muffins.  For about two weeks I was craving something chocolatey, but at the same time, I did not want something too dense.  I decided a muffin might do the trick.  I did not make these to give away, but a couple did get away,  I made them for purely selfish reasons.  I wanted chocolate, good chocolate.  I did not hold back in my ingredient choices.  I used Extra Brute cocoa powder and Callebaut chocolate.  Were they good?  Let's just say I ate 6 in about 6 hours.  I labeled them low fat because I these did not require a lot of added fat.  Here is my recipe.  I am giving it in metric because it's just the way to go for these.

Ingrients:

•  250g  AP flour
• 67g  cocoa
• 300g sugar
• 1/2t baking soda
• 1t baking powder
• 1/2t salt
• 295g vanilla Kefir
• 1 egg
• 45ml canola oil
• 1t vanilla extract
• a handful of chopped milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Weight flour, cocoa, and sugar in a large bowl.  Add baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Wisk well.  In a medium bowl, weight Kefir, and oil.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Mix well.  Poor wet mixture on dry mixture and stir together with a red large spatula (yes, it must be red).  Do not over mix!  Fold in the chocolate chunks.  Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, fill 14 lined muffin tin's no more than 3/4 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes rotating pan's halfway through.  Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

I actually sprinkled sugar on top of mine before baking, but I don't think that was a good choice.  These did not need it.  Baking in a new oven for the first time, I had to keep a close eye on them.  I  made the mistake of overfilling mine, so some of them got too large and they did not bake quite evenly.

Overall, I will defiantly make these again with the notes I mentioned above.  Hope you enjoy.  Do yourself a favor and use good cocoa powder.

Update

Sorry I have been slacking off lately.  I have been in the process of moving, so I depleted my kitchen supplies before the move.  I will finally be moved in for good later this week.  Hopefully, I will get some new stuff up soon.

Grover In Action

Finally, I put Grover to work.  He is responsible for the pizza pictured above.  I followed the directions from here for the crust.  I made my own sauce.  I used sharp aged provolone and parmigiano reggiano cheese.  The only topping I used was turkey pepperoni.

A note about the cheeses:  I highly recommend spending a little extra money and buying good cheeses.  It makes a huge difference in taste.  I have found the best prices at Sam's Club and Costco.  Per pound, this is the way to go.  You might think you are buying more cheese than you need, but you don't have to use it all right away.  When you get home, cut the cheese in half and freeze half.

I did not write down what all I put in my sauce, maybe I will post that recipe next time. 

As far as what I thought about Grover's performance, I would say he gets a B.  I have made better crusts using the other starter I posted.  I think Grover lacked rise power.  I have not given up on him yet though.  He is currently resting in the refrigerator.  I thought he might need a nap.

Product Review: PB2

I randomly ran across this stuff while roaming around a Rochester grocery store (as I have mentioned, one of my favorite activities).  I was just too curious to pass these buy without buying some.  What is this stuff that is 85% less fat than peanut butter?  I thought surely it can't be that good.  I was wrong.  This stuff is awesome check out there website because they do a better job of explaining their product than I will.

I went through this bottle in less than week.  I just received 4 lbs more today that I ordered off the above website.  I will try it out is some recipes.  I will keep you updated.

Product Review: Late July Milk Chocolate Sandwitch Cookies

I could not resist buying a box of these when I purchased the peanut butter crackers.  These where just as good.  I would like to buy more of these, but I probably won't because I am too likely to eat an entire box at once.

Product Review: Late July Peanut Butter Crackers

If you like the Ritz version and are looking for a healthy alternative, then these do not disappoint. They exceeded my expectations.  The cracker has nice buttery salty flavor and peanut butter is good.  The description on the box does not lie.

Product Review: Chocolate Lucky Charms

It's been a while since my last purchase of this cereal, probably at least 5years ago. I remembered them being awesome.  I would often eat them at night as a desert. They had a good chocolate flavor and an excellent ratio of chocolate cereal to marshmallows.  Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.  They now lack chocolate flavor and there where very few marshmallows in the box.  I did a little research and now I understand why.  The ingredients have changed.  Whereas they use to be made with whole grain oats, they are now made with whole grain corn.

Old Ingredients:

Whole Grain Oats, Sugar, Marshmallows (Sugar, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Gelatin, Calcium Carbonate, Yellow 5&6, Blue 1, Red 40, Artificial Flavor), Corn Meal, Cocoa Processed With Alkali, Caramel and Beet Juice Concentrate Color, Corn Starch, Salt, Canola Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Artificial Flavor, Trisodium Phosphate, Zinc and Iron (Mineral Nutrients), Vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbate), A B Vitamin (Niacinamide), Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamin Mononitrate), Vitamin A (Palmitate), A B Vitamin (Folic Acid), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D. Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols) Added to Preserve Freshness.


New Ingredients:

What a shame.  I will not buy these again!

Intoducing Grover

Meet Grover.  Grover is a the newest addition to my kitchen.  I have watched him grow up.  Above is a picture of him taken when he was just about 5 days old.  Take a look him now. 

He has outgrown his first home and is nice and bubbly.

I decided that I would begin a new starter.  This one only contains 2 ingredients, water and flour.  I followed the advice from here. I followed it exactly up until day 9.  For those that want the short version, basically all I did was was start with about ounce of water and and an ounce of flour and stirred them together.  Everyday since I repeated the process and stirred the jar a few times a day.  Since my apartment is never above 60 degrees, my starter was slow to develop, so Grover had not developed enough to harvest, but now he is ready.  I have continued to feed it one ounce of water and one ounce of flour everyday.  Grover is read for action.  As soon as I use him, I will report the results.  I am excited to try him because I will not use any yeast at all.  With my other starter, I not only used yeast in the starter, but I also added more to the bread recipe.  Not next time.  Grover will do all the work.  Stay tuned.

Mini chocolate cupcakes

I was asked to make mini cupcakes for a three year old's Birthday party.  I was happy to assist.  I adapted an Ina Garten recipe for a chocolate cake.  Of course, I did not follow the recipe.  I tend to kinda make up stuff as I go along.  Here is my version of it.  Also note that if I weight an ingredient I will list the grams.


Ingredientsnocoupons

• 1 3/4 cups (210 g) AP flour
• 2 cups (384 g)  sugar
• 3/4 cups (60 g) cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbl salt
• 1 cup of Cappuccino Kefir (original recipe called for buttermilk, but I did not have any)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot water mixed with 3 tsp's of instant espresso powder

Your first question might be what in the world is Kefir.  Here is a link so you can read up about it. I have tried many of the flavors and they are all good.  I am still searching for the Birthday Cake, so if you know where I can find it let me know.  Anyway, I am getting off subject.  Back to the cupcakes.  The batter is very liquidy, so don't panic.

Directions:

I used a stand mixer to make this, but you really could just use a whisk and two bowls.  First I mixed all the dry ingredients together.  I find it easy to place the bowl of the mixer on a scale and weigh out the first 3 ingredients, then add in the remaining dry ingredients.  Next, combine the Kefir, oil, eggs and vanilla in another bowl and mix them together.  Slowly combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.  Finally, add in the espresso and mix just to combine.  That's it, the batter is complete.

From here you could go in many directions.  I wanted make them standard cupcake size, but since I was asked to make mini one's, I did.  I found the best way to do this was to pour some of the batter into a measuring cup and fill each up about 3/4 of the way full.  I baked them at 375 for 15 minutes.

My next task was deciding what to frost them with.  I was debating between a peanut butter frosting or a ganache.  I choose ganache.  Normally, ganache is made with 2 parts chocolate to 1 part heavy cream.  Well I did not have any heavy cream, so I thought I would give evaporated milk a try.  Turns out it worked pretty well.  To make it all I did was combine 1 cup of evaporated and 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips.  I placed them in a double broiler and stirred until melted.  I then spooned a little ganache on each cupcake.

I thought they turned out really well.  I got many compliments and no complaints, so I say overall the operation was a success.

Paciugo

Here a place you might not have heard of.  They have the best gelato and they let you sample as many flavors as you want.  They usually have like 40 to choose from and they rotate them constantly.  The one pictured was taken last weekend in Madison.  I had eggnog, peanut butter mocha, hazelnut chocolate swirl, and caramel mocha.  Eggnog gelato in March.  You can't beat that!  Check out their website.

Buzzard Billy's

With Mardi Gras ending this week, Leslie and I went to Buzzard Billy's yesterday.  It's the New Orleans of La Crosse.  As always, it did not disappoint.  I had the chicken and sausage gumbo with a side of hush puppy's.  Leslie had her favorite a shrimp po-boy with a side of red beans and rice.  Good stuff.

Feeding Starter

Don't forget to feed your starter about once a week.  Just use or dump out 1 cup of starter and replace with 1 cup of warm water, 1/4 cup of potato flakes and 1/4 cup of sugar.  Mix well and allow starter to sit in a warm place for at least 12 hours.  It should foam back up.  If it doesn't, it has died.  Start a new one.  Place back in the refrigerator.

Bread Starter Use

I have been using the bread starter I posted earlier.  I actually made one dough that I used used part of for a couple of strombolis .  I froze the rest then made this bread with it on Saturday.  It turned out well. The dough recipe is below.

Ingredients:

• 852 g (6 cups) Bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 cup starter
• 2 tbl olive oil

Directions:

Place all ingredients into a mixer with a dough hook.  Kneed for about 15 minutes.  You can do this by hand too, but it takes some work.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to double in size.  This could take 8 hours.  Punch down.  Divide into 3 equal pieces.  I made 2 large strombolis from one of these.  The other two I oiled well and placed in Ziploc bags and refrigerated for a couple days before transferring to the freezer.  When I was ready to use them, I took them out of the freezer the night before and placed back in the refrigerator.  I made two baguettes with them.

Bundt Pan Update

I made a pound cake with my new pan.  Take a look.

Perfect! New pan is a keeper.  I knew it was not the baker last time ;)

Maple Pecan Praline Ice Cream.

What could make the pecan pralines better?  If you answered put them in ice cream, move to the front of the class.  For my last ice cream recipe that I posted here,  I made a healthy ice milk.  This time I went in the opposite direction take a look at these ingredients.


Ingredients:

• 3 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 10 egg yolks
• 90 g (6 tbl) sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups pure grade B maple syrup
• 2 cups broken up pecan pralines

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, bring the milk, cream and maple syrup to the scalding point.  Meanwhile in a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.  While constantly beating gradually poor the hot mixture into the eggs.  You want to temper the eggs.  Poor the custard mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 170 degrees F and coats the back of a spoon. 

Remove from heat and add in the vanilla.  Transfer to a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Make sure the plastic wrap actually touches the custard.  This prevents a film from forming.  Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.  Freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions making sure to add in the pralines during the last couple of minutes of mixing.

Pecan Pralines

This is my take on a Stan Strickland recipe I found online. The most important thing is getting mixture to the soft boil stage, so a good thermometer is imperative.  Also, I made a large quantity because well they taste good, so you might want to cut the recipe in half.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups granulated cane sugar
• 1 cup cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2/3 stick butter
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 4 cups of toasted pecans
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine the first five ingredients in a heavy sauce pan.  Over medium heat stir the mixture until it comes to a boil.  Turn the heat to medium low and continue to stir until it reaches the soft boil stage 238 to 241 degrees F.  Remove from heat and add in the vanilla and pecans.  Continue to stir until the mixture thickens and becomes cloudy.  Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment. to cool.  Store in refrigerator.

Cookie Dough Balls

Like cookies?  Like cookie dough?  This is my spin a Paula Dean recipe for cookie dough truffles.  Caution: these things can be addicting.  Allow at least a couple of hours for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (284g) AP four
• 1 stick (4oz) butter at room temp.
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tsp of vanilla, almond, mint, or whatever extract
• pinch of salt
• chocolate chips
• chocolate for coating

Cream butter, sugar, and salt together.  Add extract.  I used mint for the one's pictured above. Add flour alternatively with condensed milk.  Add chocolate.  I used a combination of semisweet, white, and chopped up Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark.  You can add as little or much as you want.  Nuts work well.  Roll dough into any size balls you wish.  These were on the smaller side.  Place on wax or parchment paper and chill for at least an hour.  Melt chocolate for coating.  Again, be creative and use whatever you want.  I used about a pound and a half of Trader Joe's semisweet chips.  Using two forks dip balls into chocolate to coat and place back on parchment.   Allow chocolate to harden and enjoy.  Store in refrigerator.

Food Find: Gundersen Chili

I found an odd location for some good chili, Gundersen Lutheran Hospital.  Hands down, this the best chili I have had in Wisconsin.  It has a very nice balance of flavors.  Also, at only 210 calories for a 12oz serving, dare I say its healthy.  I have asked the chef for the recipe.  I will post it if I receive a reply.

Sourdough Starter

Here is a unique sourdough starter given to me by my grandmother.  She uses it to make only bread.  I use it for many things including, bread, pizza dough, and pancakes.  It uses potato flakes, a bit unusual.  I have tried to make other starters, but most of them take day's or weeks.  This one is just overnight.  It can be kept alive if it is fed weekly.  It smells so nice.

• 2 cups warm water
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of instant potato flakes
• 1 package of active dry yeast (8g)

Mix ingredients together, loosely cover with a lid and leave overnight.  I use plastic almond container.  It can be used the next day.

Spotlight: Cocoa Powder

I discovered this while working at a bakery.  Since today is Valentine's Day, I had to mention some kind of chocolate.  This stuff is expensive, but trust me, you get what you pay for.