Black Bean Soup and Date Square

Today was not the first time I made this slow cooker soup. My friend Michelle sent me the recipe about a year ago and told me I'd love it. I put it on the menu, bought the ingredients and threw it together. Now one thing you may not know about me is that I often don't follow recipes to a tee. I like to change them up, and usually do. Sometimes unintentionally. The first time I made this soup I changed it up unintentionally. It was bad. So very bad. The recipe calls for a tablespoon of finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I, carelessly, read that as a can of peppers. A can! I can't even begin to tell you the kind of spice that soup had. I could not figure out how these friends of ours could handle that kind of spice! I love spice... I really do. But that was purely painful. My poor kids ate a few bites of that soup before I told them to stop. My husband forced himself to eat almost an entire bowl that night, but couldn't handle the leftovers. I sent an email to my friend asking her if it was supposed to be that spicy. I then figured it out. I used the whole dang can of peppers. She called me up and laughed at me. A lot. I also laughed at myself. It's been almost a year now, and I finally got over the nightmare that was the spicy black bean soup. I made it again today and it was delicious. The boys gobbled it up, Rhianna almost finished her bowl, and Kyle had a second helping. Phew! It's much better when you only add 1 tablespoon of chipotle peppers. I did change it up a tiny bit as I always do, but this time they were safe changes.

Slow Cooker Black Bean Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped finely

4 cans black beans, drained and rinsed (I used 2-14oz cans and 2-19oz cans)

6 cups vegetable stock

1 red pepper, chopped

6-8 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp finely chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (for me it was 1 pepper)

3 tbsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 tbsp lime juice

sour cream

green onion, finely sliced

Saute onion in oil until softened.

Add the onion to the slow cooker. Then add the beans, vegetable stock, red pepper, garlic, chipotle pepper, cumin, salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Add the lime juice and mix roughly with an immersion blender. Top each bowl of soup with sour cream and green onion.

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Yesterday I mentioned that I made a date square for my Mum for Mother's Day. This was my first time making the recipe from How it all Vegan!, and I definitely approved. Yummy! I'm glad I sent most of the slice home with her, though, because today I ate 3 pieces of it. So good!

Date Square

Filling:

1 cup water

2 cups pitted dates, chopped

1/2 tsp salt

Crust:

4 cups rolled oats

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup margarine

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water, if needed

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and add the dates and 1/2 tsp salt. Simmer until the dates are soft and will mix easily with the water. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Add the margarine and oil, and stir together until well combined. If the crust is too dry, add the water (I definitely did).

Press half of the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Spread the date mixture over top. Sprinkle with remaining crust mixture.

Cook for 25-40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and tender. The crust will harden as it cools, so cut it into slices before it gets to difficult.

My new favourite soup!

I found the most amazing soup on Eat Me, Delicious. I discovered her blog a while ago, and have found a few recipes on there that I plan on making. She got this recipe from someone else who got it from someone else, etc etc. Whoever originally came up with the recipe is my new best friend because I loved this soup. LOVED! I adore mushrooms, immensely. My daughter, Rhianna, doesn't like mushrooms. No, she loathes mushrooms. She also doesn't really like soup very much. But this soup? She gobbled it up as quick as she could and asked if we could have it on the menu next week. Can you say winning recipe?! I didn't even tweak it too much, either.

I served the soup with a spinach salad topped with roasted garlic honey mustard dressing that I got from the Moosewood Low-Fat cookbook, and half of a sesame Montreal bagel.

Hungarian Mushroom Soup

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 lb white button mushrooms, sliced

1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 tsp dried dill weed

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp Bragg's (but any soy sauce would do)

2 1/2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup milk

3 tbsp all prupose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup sour cream

Melt butter over medium heat with the olive oil in a large pot. Add the mushrooms and onions and cook for about 10 minutes until they have released most of their juices. Add the dill, paprika, Bragg's and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Whisk the milk and flour in a separate bowl. Pour into the soup pot and stir well. Cover and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Add the salt, pepper, lemon juice and sour cream, blend well, and heat through.

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Roasted Garlic Honey Mustard Dressing

2 heads of garlic

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 1/2 tbsp mild honey (I used clover honey and it was great)

3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup unsweetened apple juice

1/4 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

First, preheat the oven to 350. Cut the tops off the two heads of garlic and put them in an unoiled pan. Add a tbsp of water to the bottom of the pan and cover tightly with foil. Cook for about 45 minutes until the cloves are soft.

Once the cloves have cooled a bit, squeeze out the garlic into a blender. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Tightly cover, and it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

I love extra long weekends.

I just love that the Ontario school system honours Easter Monday as a holiday. That made all of us off since Kyle didn't have to go in to work either. This four day long weekend was much needed for all of us. We all slept in pretty late, and basically did the hermit thing for the rest of the day. We played a big game of Catan as a family, and had some time to listen to the rain fall down through the open windows. Tiernan seems to be feeling a bit better, but his energy levels are still on the low side and he's still coughing a lot in the morning and evening. At least he didn't throw up today. Look on the bright side, yes? Haha.

I made dinner, we ate dinner, and Kyle and the kids cleaned up after dinner... all by 5:30pm. So nice to sit under some blankets with Tibbs and Solange on the couch while two kids play Lego, one kid plays Guitar Hero and my husband works on some contract work. My plans for the rest of the evening include menu planning (I've fallen really behind!), grocery list writing, chatting online and watching Dr Who with Kyle. And maybe? Maybe I'll even have a Sarsparilla cooler. Oh yes, I think I just may do that.

So, back to dinner! Seeing as it's Soup Monday, I made an Asian Noodle soup that I found in the Moosewood Low Fat cookbook. I'd never made it before, but had been craving a simple soup and this one seemed perfect. It was very easy to make, and it was a big hit! My daughter isn't the biggest soup fan, and even she liked it. Both of the boys gobbled it up faster than I imagined they would.

Asian Noodle Soup

1 large head garlic

1/4 cup miso

3 cups water

3 cups vegetable broth

1 medium carrot, thinly sliced

1 block tofu, extra firm, cut into small cubes

4 cups shredded bok choy

1/4 lb soba/buckwheat noodles

Preheat oven to 400.

Peel each clove from the garlic head, and place into an un-oiled pie plate. Roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Place the garlic, miso and water into a blender and whir until well mixed.

Add the miso mix and vegetable broth into a large pot. Heat until it's a low boil. Add the carrots and cook for 3 minutes. Add the tofu and bok choy. Bring it back to a simmer. Add the noodles and cook for another 6-8 minutes until the noodles are al dente.

Drive by post!

In honour of our 20C weather today, I made a very sweet soup. Definitely not what you expect when you take your first bite, but good all the same. With it I made the yummiest grilled aged white cheddar and apple sandwiches. No recipe for that one, but definitely something that goes well together. Apple + cheddar = match made in heaven.

Now onto the recipe! I have a boy to get to Tap dance. :)

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Maple Apple Sweet Potato Cream Soup

(Rachael Ray)

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 cup whipping cream

1 cinnamon stick

2 large sweet potatoes, cut into large chunks

2 carrots, peeled and cut into big chunks

1 onion, halved

4 celery stalks, halved

1 bay leaf

1 tsp salt

4 cups vegetable stock

1 cup apple cider

1/4 of a nutmeg, grated

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

a few pinches cayenne pepper

freshly ground black pepper

Place the vegetable and bay leaf into a soup pot and cover with cold water. Add the salt. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15-18 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are tender.

Meanwhile put the maple syrup and cream in a small pot with the cinnamon stick. Heat it until it starts to bubble, and then simmer for about 15 minutes until it's thickened. Remove the cinnamon stick.

Drain the vegetables and get rid of the onion, celery and bay leaf. Put the sweet potatoes and carrots back into the soup pot. Add the stock, apple cider and spices, and puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Cook for 5 minutes until heated through. Add the syrupy cream and stir to combine.

Creativity.

What a very satisfying meal today! For our Soup Monday I made a soup I've made before... Pepper Jack Soup. I got it from my "old" friend Christine (who I've known since elementary school!). The soup is seriously amazing. It's so polished, and yet so easy to make. I won't post the recipe up on here, but go over to this entry of Christine's to make some for yourself. You won't be sorry!

This morning before my doctor's appointment I decided we needed to have a caesar salad with dinner. Typically we buy Annie's Naturals caesar dressing, but I really don't care much for it. I also noticed on their website that it contains anchovies?!! Is this a new thing? Because last time I checked I thought it was fish-free? At any rate - I wanted a caesar salad dressing that didn't have anchovies OR eggs. I browsed online and in cookbooks and didn't really like what I was finding. Most of them were lacking the "creamy" aspect I was looking for. So, I decided to go ahead and throw some ingredients into my food processor and see how it turned out. I tweaked and added and finally came up with something that I thought "would do". As it turns out, it was perfect once mixed in with the romaine, croutons and parmesan cheese. Yum yum! Then I figured I was on a roll, so why not try to come up with a new bun recipe. I wanted a garlicky bread (apparently there wasn't enough garlic in my soup and dressing?! haha! Garlic lover, much?) and they turned out not bad. I may play around with them a bit more, but all in all... yum!

Caesar Salad Dressing

3 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup tahini

5 tbsp olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp vegetarian worcestershire sauce

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp agave nectar

freshly ground black pepper

Throw all the ingredients in a food processor and whir until well blended and smooth. Chill until ready to use.

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Garlicky Buns

Dough:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup warm water

1 tbsp dry active yeast

1 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp olive oil

Garlic Butter:

5 tbsp margarine

2 tsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp oregano

salt and pepper, to taste

Mix warm water, and yeast in a bowl until it dissolves and gets a bit foamy. Add the salt and sugar and dissolve. Add the flours and knead until it makes a soft dough.

Cover with a wet towel and place in a warm area. Let it sit for at least an hour.

While it's sitting, mix up the garlic butter (all ingredients into one bowl), and put in the fridge until later.

After the hour is up, add the olive oil and knead it into the dough. Roll the dough out into a rectangle on a clean surface. Spread the garlic butter you have refrigerated onto the dough. Save a small portion of it for the top of the buns.

Roll the long end of the dough into a spiral, and slice into 6 even pieces. Spray a square pan with some Pam and lay the spirals on the pan. Top with remaining garlic butter. Let the pan sit on the stove while you heat it up to 325. This should help the buns rise a bit more.

Cook for 25 minutes in the 325 oven.

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We finished dinner off with a slice of the Maple Sugar Pie we bought on Saturday at Maple in the County and a dollop of freshly whipped cream. It was incredibly sweet, and I was only able to eat half of my slice before my sugar coma kicked in... Kyle finished off my slice (since he hadn't taken any pie for himself)...



... He completely agreed that it was sickly sweet. ;)

Tiernan never finishes his crusts... but as you can see, a certain someone was VERY happy about that!

Now I'm off to take Tiernan to Tap! Just in time.

Egyptian goodies.

Spring Break is over and Spring is officially here. The weather has been really good around lately - the snow has all melted, the sun has been shining, the birds are all singing. Of course, this morning I woke up to rain which quickly turned into huge snowflakes falling from the sky and staying on the ground. No thank you. It remained rainy and gloomy all day, though the snowflakes melted pretty quickly. Not a day that really felt Spring-like... well, except for when my friend Laura came into the dance studio tonight in the most bright, colourful outfit I've seen yet this season. I just love her! :)

Because of the overcast weather, our Soup Monday felt perfect! My daughter is doing a project in school on Egypt, so I felt it was quite fitting to make a big pot of harira which I served with a carrot orange salad, some savoury cheese biscuits and then a little helping of pretzels and baba ghanouj (store bought). I got both the soup and salad recipes from Moosewood Restaurant's Low Fat Favourites, and didn't alter too much from either of them.

The picture had to be taken outside since the house was dark all day long. Tomorrow is supposed to be better - I sure hope so!

Harira

1 cup onions, chopped

5 cups vegetable stock

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger root

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 cup carrots, diced

1/2 cup celery, diced

1 cup canned diced tomatoes, undrained

1 1/2 cups potatoes, diced

pinch saffron

1 cup cooked lentils (canned will work, drained)

1 cup cooked chickpeas (canned will work, drained)

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a covered soup pot, simmer the chopped onions in 1 cup of vegetable broth for 10 minutes. Combine the cinnamon, turmeric, ginger and cayenne in a small bowl with a few tablespoons of the hot stock and make a paste. Add to the pot along with the celery, carrots and remaining stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and potatoes, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Crumble in the saffron, and then add the lentils, chickpeas, lemon juice and salt and black pepper. Heat through and serve.

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Carrot Orange Salad

3-4 carrots, grated

2 blood oranges, peeled, white removed and chopped into small pieces

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix the honey, lemon juice and cinnamon together. Stir together the carrots, oranges and dressing and chill for a few hours so the flavours can mingle.

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Savoury Cheese Biscuits

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup margarine

1 cup milk

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp basil

1 tbsp sage

1 tbsp thyme

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl to make a soft dough. Form into balls and place on a greased baking sheet. Cook for 12-15 minutes until the bottoms are browned.

The Case Of The Missing Butter!

Seeing as today was the first real day off of Spring Break, I had planned on something super simple to prepare and quick to clean up. Since we don't have a dishwasher, dishes are a huge pain. One day I will remodel my kitchen and you'd better be sure there will be a dishwasher. I've been without one for the last decade, so you'd think I would be used to it by now... but no. Still loathe dishes! It's Soup Mondays (hello, theme days!), so I chose a Taco Soup recipe that I got years ago from my good friend, Amy. My daughter Rhianna isn't a fan of tomatoes, so this really isn't her favourite meal, but at least I can get her to eat half of her dish. Eventually, I know she'll eat the whole bowl just like her brother Tiernan (who also dislikes tomato pieces). I serve this soup with some cheddar cheese grated on top, and a few tortillas to scoop it up.

Taco Soup

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 litre of vegetable broth

1 can diced green chilies

2 large cans of diced tomatoes

1 pack taco seasoning

freshly ground pepper, to taste

Saute onion in vegetable oil in a large pot until soft. Add broth, tomatoes (with juice) and chilies. Add taco seasoning and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer, covered for at least 20 minutes.

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You see that picture of butter? Yeah. I have a little story to tell about that butter. On Saturday I took it out of the fridge to soften for the mushroom turnovers while we headed out to take the kids to their bowling league. I left it at the back of the counter and when we came home, it was gone. No where to be found. We did find a small piece of the foil wrapper on the living room floor, and that seemed like a clear clue pointing at our dog, Tibbs. Boy, was I upset with him. He was put into my bad books for the next few days. No snacks or leftovers or special cuddles. I had to teach him that he just could not go around grabbing things off the counter. He's done it before - with pies! Do not, EVER, leave a pie unattended with Tibby nearby. He is a pie FREAK. Apple, Maple or Veggie - he's not picky. He's gone after all three. All his good dog habits go missing when pies are around.

The point to that ramble is that we blamed our dog. Who else would it be? It was gone! No one else is going to eat a pound of butter AND the foil wrapper. Only Tibbs would be goofy enough to do that. Except... this morning I had the kids clean under their beds and Avery found The Missing Butter! Now, if Tibbs had been the culprit, that butter would be long gone. There would be no hiding the butter for later; I can guarantee that! Our cats, on the other hand? That's a different story. Cats don't eat until the food is gone, they eat what they need. Also, our cat Mirri used to steal Robin's Eggs (similar to Timmies Timbits, or other doughnut holes) and hide them all around the basement for either her or I to find later. This had to be her doing! The only thing is... she could never jump on the counter because she's too... plump. :) So that makes me think it's Solange since she is very spry, and there's no way my old Scooter puss was jumping up there! Does this mean it was Solange AND Mirri? Oh, the mysterious answer to this question is enough to drive me mad. My husband's theory is that the dog took it down off the counter (because it appears that there are teeth marks from both canine and feline species!), and the cats stole it from him. I guess we'll never know! The only thing I know is that I gave Tibbs a dog biscuit out of guilt.

The weather today was downright Spring-like! Above zero, sun shining down all day, snow melting, green grass patches all around, and so many birds singing. It was such a welcome feeling. I officially have Spring Fever and have so many plans lined up to make my little nest an even happier place to live. I am finally coming out of hibernation!

The kids headed over to their friends' house this afternoon to play, so I had some time to myself. I'm not even sure what I did with myself other than walk the dog, do some laundry, chat on the phone and prepare for dinner (which really didn't have much preparing involved!). Either way, it was lovely. Tomorrow we're going to make the most of our beautiful Spring weather (+7C and sunny!) and head out to Kingston for the day. I wish every day was Spring Break.

And for good measure, this is the best picture I've been able to get of my Scootie Wootie Pumpkin Eater. She's my old girl at almost 15 years old and is constantly moving which makes clear photographs an impossibility! She just never sits still. Scooter is the most Zen cat you could ever meet. She's so patient and loving and sweet. I can't even express how beautiful her little soul is. She's beautiful.

Cookies and biscuits and soup, oh my!

Today was a fun day in the kitchen, and when I was finished it was a complete and utter disaster. The good thing is that I have a husband and kids who are quite content to clean up the mess after their tummies are full from the yummy goodness. That's when I sit down, put my feet up and not go back in until it's spotless again. Cause I'm nice like that. Ha!

So what was I up to? Well, first up was my always popular Oatmeal Whatever cookies. Whenever I bring these anywhere, or give them to anyone, they get devoured in minutes. My children are always comparing other cookies to these ones (your cookies are WAY better Mummy! ... aww, thanks kiddos), and know the minute they walk in the door from school that I've baked some. Today was definitely no exception.

My eldest son called me from school today to tell me we won a Pampered Chef cookie tray at a draw they recently had. I zipped down to that school faster than you can say "kaboom", picked up some eggs at the store and came right back home to bake.

The tray worked better than I could have imagined. I am completely sold!

And now for the recipe:

Oatmeal Whatever Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 egg

2 tsp pure vanilla

2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1/4 cup coconut

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups of whatever you want (chocolate chips, mini M&Ms, raisins, seeds, nuts etc)

(add some cinnamon or nutmeg if using raisins!)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Blend in remaining dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. (I often use my hands at this point) Add chocolate chips (etc).

Drop by rounded tsps onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes, cool and enjoy!

Dinner tonight was inspired by two of my friends! I made a Baked Baked Potato Soup which was adapted from Christine's recipe, along with some cheddar biscuits from Jill's blog. I didn't change anything about the biscuits, so I won't repost the recipe, but I'll post the adapted version of the soup. It was delicious and my boys couldn't gobble it up fast enough!

Baked Baked Potato Soup

10 medium potatoes, washed, dried and pierced with a fork

2 tbsp olive oil (divided)

1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt (divided)

3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper (divided)

1/4 cup butter

4 large cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

3 cups vegetable broth

2 cups water

1 tsp ground sage

2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese

sour cream (dallop for each bowl)

3 green onions, chopped

Preheat oven to 425.

Place the potatoes on a large baking sheet. Mix 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp coarse sea salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl. Brush the olive oil mixture over the potatoes. Put the potatoes in the oven and bake for 45 minutes until they pierce easily with a fork.

Once potatoes are cooked and cooled a bit, heat the butter in a large pot. Once the butter is melted, add the garlic and cook for a minute making sure it doesn't brown. Add the 2 tbsp flour and whisk constantly for 1 minute making a roux. Slowly add 1/2 cup of broth until well blended. Add the remaining stock and water.

Chop 5 of the potatoes into bite sized chunks and add to the pot. Then scoop the white insides out of the other 5 potatoes and add that to the pot as well. Add the sage and stir. Simmer on low.

Coarsely chop the remaining potato peels and place them on the baking sheet you used to cook the potatoes. Drizzle with remaining olive oil, coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake them for about 20-25 minutes until they become crispy little potato skin fries.

While the potato skins are crisping up, take an immersion blender and pulse it a few times to smooth the soup out a bit - leaving some chunks of potatoes in the process.

Once the potato skin chips are ready, place the soup into ramekins, top with grated cheddar and broil for a few minutes until the cheese has melted. Remove them from the oven, add some potato skin chips, a dallop of sour cream, some chopped green onions and salt and pepper, to taste.

Delicious!

In other news, I love taking Tiernan to Tap dance on Monday nights. We drive with the music on full blast while singing, dancing and laughing our heads off. We don't get a whole lot of time alone these days, and I really cherish those moments. Hard to believe he's almost 10. When did that even happen?