Yes, you will stink after eating this, but it will be very worth it!  Roasted, caramelized garlic and onions seem to make everything all better, then you top it with fresh bread broiled under a slice of cheese and life really starts looking up.

Give yourself plenty of time though… like 3-4 hours.

Starting ingredients:

• 3 bulbs garlic – unpeeled
• 3 medium yellow onions
• 1 purple sweet onion
• 3 Tbsp butter  (unless you are going for vegan, then just use oil)
• 3 Tbsp olive oil (double it if you are leaving out the butter)

Turn on the oven to 450F.  In a large heavy-bottomed dutch oven or roasting pan, drizzle the olive oil and melt the butter by setting the pan in the oven while it is preheating.

Cut across the garlic bulbs so that you have 2 halves – the top & bottom.  Place these cut-side down in the bottom of the pan.  Put this in the oven to roast.

Peel and cut the tops and bottoms of of the onions.  Cut them in half from top to bottom, lay them on their sides and slice them into 1/4-inch slices from top to bottom.  They will taste better this way.  Do NOT cut across the grain of the onion.

After the garlic has roasted for about 30 minutes and all of the onions are sliced, pull the pan out and check the garlic.  It will most likely not be ready to fall out of the skin, so gently push it to one side of the pan and put the onions in the other side.  Put it back into the oven for 30 minutes.  Check the garlic again.  You should be able to pull the skin off of the top halves without any problem, but you will have to dig out the roasted garlic from the bottom half.  I use a fork and a plate.  Place the garlic cut side down on a plate and mash the garlic out from the center.

Stir the pot and put back into the oven for 45 minutes.

Next ingredients list:

• 4 mushrooms
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 Tbsp butter or oil
• whole wheat graham flour (approx 3/4 cup)
• 1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar (I used balsamic fig – it was wonderful)
• 1/4 cup red wine

Pull the pot out of the oven and place onto a burner over med-high heat.  Cut the mushrooms into small chunks and add them to the pot.  Stir the onion mixture around and make an open space in the center.  Place 1 Tbsp. butter (or oil) into the center and melt.  When the butter has started foaming, sprinkle some flour over it to make a roux.  Stir the onions into the roux and let it brown.

Once there are browned bits forming on the bottom of the pan, add 1/2 cup beef broth and deglaze the pan.

Once again, make an opening in the center and melt 1 Tbsp butter and make a roux.  Stir everything together and again allow it to form a brown crust on the bottom.  Deglaze with 1/2 cup beef broth.

Continue stirring, but let the onions brown one more time.  Once there is browning on the bottom again, deglaze with the vinegars and wine.  Cook until the wine evaporates off, about 5 minutes.  Pour in the last cup of beef broth.

Final ingredients:

• 3 cups chicken broth
• herbs (oregano, sage, tarragon, thyme, etc)
• black pepper
• salt

Add the ground herbs and black pepper to the onion-y roux in the pot.  Pour in the chicken broth and let it heat for about 10 minutes.  Once it is warmed through, taste to see how much salt needs added – it shouldn’t take too much.

If you have oven-safe crocks, ladle the soup into them, place a slice of french bread on top and cover with a slice of cheese (gruyere, provolone or muenster all work well).  Place them 4-5 inches below the broiler and cook until the cheese is bubbly.

If you don’t have oven-safe crocks, slice the bread and lay the cheese on it.  Toast under a broiler until the cheese is bubbly.  Ladle the soup into bowls and place the toasted bread on the top.

This is a slightly sweet soup with a lot of flavor.

I must give credit where due – I came across FXcuisine.com’s listing for French Garlic Soup a few months back, and the pictures looked so amazing that I wanted to eat that soup instantly… but never got the chance to make it.  Then there was the email from Cooks Illustrated with the onion soup how-to video.  French Onion is one of my favorite soups – if it is made well.  Real onions, real broth, and a rich flavor – amazing that it all comes out of so few ingredients.

So, I melded the two recipes, and added a bit of my own flavors to it as well.  I hope you enjoy the new soup that we came up with!

Yes, I am happily stinky, but the good news is that the rest of the family is too, so no one notices too much.

Fall had decided to show it’s presence earlier this week, and I was torn between roasted root veggies and soup.  Then I thought, “Why not have both?”

Thus, this soup was born.

There is a lot of yummy flavor in here – a special sweetness that comes from the roasted veggies and the herbs.  If you or someone you know is feeling under the weather, make some of this.

Ingredients:

• 1 small-medium purple sweet onion
• 4 cloves garlic – diced
• 5 small potatoes
• 4 med-small carrots
• 1 2-inch long radish
• 1 small kohlrabi
• 1 zucchini
• olive oil
• dash of salt
• sprinkling of cracked black pepper
• 1/4 cup apple cider
• 1.2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a 9×13″ pan or a shallow corningware baking dish.  Peel and chop the potatoes, carrots, zucchini and kohlrabi, and cut the onion in to chunks.  Slice the radish.  Pile all of these into the baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Pour in the apple cider and vinegar.  Cover loosely with foil.

Bake this in the oven at 350F until the veggies begin to caramelize, about 1-1/2 hours.

This can be done a day or so in advance.

• olive oil
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic – minced
• 2 chicken breasts or 6 chicken tenders
• 1 carton chicken broth
• 1-4″ sprig rosemary – minced
• sage – crushed
• 2-3 cups cooked brown rice

In a dutch oven, drizzle olive oil in the bottom and cook the onions and garlic until translucent.  Brown the chicken and cut into bite-sized chunks.  Add the roasted veggies, rice and chicken broth.  If you need more liquid, you can add some water or more broth.  Add the rosemary and sage to taste, and let it cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes to give the flavors a chance to blend

Serve with thick-cut bread.

This is a thick, hearty stew when it’s all said and done.  The rice absorbs some of the broth, so if you are planning on leftovers, you may need to add more broth the next day.  You can also use barley in place of the rice.  It’s also a great way to hide some veggies from your kids!  If you chop them very fine, you can sneak the zucchini and kohlrabi in without any questions.  Or leave the chicken out and use veggie broth for a vegan stew that is sure to satisfy.

The weather took a turn for the cold this weekend… which is fabulous, because I have been hankering for soup, but it was just too hot!

Since it is cold & rainy today, it was easy to convince the girls that we needed soup. Of course, one of them is always in the mood for potato soup. Always. And that is what I told her this was…

If you have a bit of Summer’s bounty hanging around your house, or even some staples and frozen veggies, this will be a tasty way to use some of it up!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 2 average carrots
• 3 large yellow potatoes (Yukin Golds are perfect)
• 2 small onions – diced
• 2 medium or 1 large leek
• 3 cloves garlic – minced
• olive oil

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 – 32 oz. carton rice milk OR chicken broth
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• seasonings to taste

Preheat your oven to 400F. Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan or 9″x14″ glass baking dish.

Peel the potatoes and carrots and dice them into small chunks. Dice one onion, the garlic and one leek. Put all of this into the roasting dish with the cauliflower florets, breaking them into small pieces. Grind some black pepper over the top, sprinkle a pinch of salt and drizzle slightly with olive oil.

Roast uncovered for 30-45 minutes, or until a majority of the veggies have begun to caramelize.

In a large sauce pan or dutch oven, saute the other onion (diced) and leek until the onion is translucent. Add some seasonings to taste – we like Mrs. Dash, Montreal Steak Seasoning and Emeril’s Essence. Peel and dice the other potato, and add that to the onion. Add the butter and cook for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onion & potatoes and make a basic roux, browning the flour and butter.  Add the roasted veggies and the rice milk. Cook down for about 10 minutes to thicken the milk.

The rice milk has a very watery texture

Add the heavy cream and cook until it is warmed through. If it needs to thicken a bit more, let it boil for a few minutes. For a richer soup, add a bit more cream.

If you want to make this vegan, leave out the butter and cream – it will be a thinner soup, but still very tasty!

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Some other things to add in…

bacon – cook it before the onions. Cut it into small pieces and fry. When it’s almost done add the onions.\

cheese – cheddar, mozzarella, monterey jack, colby… all of these will work well. We add it to the individual bowls, as some like it and others don’t.

sour cream – you can add 1/2 cup to the whole pot, or just add a dollop to the bowls that want it.

Enjoy!

I came across a dilemma today. I picked up a large green tomato at the CSA farm today, and I had no idea what to do with it. Yes, there are the traditional fried green tomatoes, but after the breakfast we had today, that just didn’t seem like the best idea. So, to google I went!

And what I found was amazing…

Over at Seeds Of Knowledge there was a post on green tomatoes, and they had the following recipe – and no, my picture doesn’t do it justice!

Green Tomatoes with Goat Cheese

Here’s an elegant side dish that puts all those extra green tomatoes you have to use. Greek style feta or French style chevres (both goat cheeses) work equally well here.
4 medium green tomatoes
a tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano leaves
1 cup crumbled goat cheese (feta or chevre)
4 teaspoons olive oil
salt and coarsely ground fresh ground black pepper

Serves 4

Cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat a shallow baking dish with oil. Place tomato slices, in a single, overlapping layer, in the bottom of the baking dish.

Sprinkle tomatoes with vinegar and scatter minced oregano over tomatoes. Top with crumbled goat cheese and drizzle with olive oil.

Broil 5-8 inches below a preheated broiler and broil until tomatoes are hot and cheese is just starting to brown, about 7-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

My Tweaks:
we served them up with some Turkish olive paste, and added some fresh basil in with the oregano (my oregano is spicy too… not greek!)

And as someone who doesn’t like tomatoes much, I have to admit that I ate almost HALF OF THE PAN!!!

And since we were having a Mediterranean appetizer/side dish, I needed to have something else to go with it. And I had lots of kale laying around. Lots. So, I made zuppa toscano. Oh yeah. Sausage, potatoes & leafy greens… yum!

Here is the recipe I found over at allrecipes.com and it is a good one!

INGREDIENTS
12 links spicy pork sausage, sliced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 cup diced onion
1 1/4 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chicken broth
4 cups water
2 potatoes, halved and sliced
2 cups sliced kale
1/3 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
Place sausage links on a baking sheet and bake 25 minutes, or until cooked through. Slice into 1/2 inch slices.
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until translucent; add garlic and cook 1 minute.
Stir in broth, water and potatoes; simmer 15 minutes.
Reduce heat to low and add sausage, kale and cream; simmer until heated through and serve.

My Tweaks
I added another cup of water, another potato, a bit more cream, 1 Tbsp. red pepper flakes, and I used 1 small red onion & 1 small onion. And I used ground sausage instead of links… we just fried it in the pan. Yum!

We had a salad on the side, but I’m the only one who ate any… everyone else had lots of tomatoes & 2nds (or 4ths) on the soup.

Thank you google… you have saved another dinner!

I set out to make a pot of potato soup the other night… and it turned into something entirely different, but very tasty!

We had some leftover salmon from the night before, so I added that in with the garlic and leeks. Then I used a buttery sweet corn soup (from Pacific) that I had in the pantry instead of the milk. That made for a very tasty chowder in and of itself… but then I kicked it up another notch! We also had some spicy sour cream leftover from the night before – basically sour cream mixed with cholula pepper sauce & dry cholula seasoning – and a can of fire roasted green chilis. The result was nearly sublime!

I’m calling it Western Seafood Chowder, as it is a melding of Southwestern and Northwestern cooking. It is a great meal starter, or make it the meal!

5 red potatoes – peeled & chopped
5 carrots – peeled and chopped
1/2 cup corn nibblets

seafood options
pre-cooked fish (leftovers are great!)
scallops
clams
fish (salmon, halibut, cod, tilapia, etc)

2 Tbsp. minced leek
1-2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 small can ortega green chilis or jalapenos (depending on the heat you want) or 1 fresh jalapeno, diced and seeded
2 slices peppered bacon – cut into 1/2-inch pieces before frying
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tsp. black pepper OR Montreal Steak Seasoning
1/4 tsp. white pepper
seafood seasoning of your choice

1/2 carton Pacific Buttery Sweet Corn soup
1/2 carton chicken broth
2 Tbsp. heavy cream

Cheddar cheese – shredded
sour cream*

Boil the potatoes and carrots until soft. About 5 minutes before they are done, add the corn (frozen works well).

In a large saucepan melt 2 Tbsp. of butter, add the uncooked bacon pieces and saute the pepper, leeks and garlic until translucent. If you are using uncooked fish, scallops or clams, add them at this time. Add a touch of olive oil if the butter starts to cook off too soon. Add the black and white pepper and the seafood seasoning. If you are using pre-cooked seafood, add it now.

Sprinkle the flour over the garlic mixture and stir quickly to create a roux. Add the rest of the butter, and allow it to brown. If it is too thick, add the heavy cream.

Add some of the corn soup and stir to mix in the roux with no lumps.

Drain the potatoes and add them to the soup base. Add the rest of the corn soup and chicken broth – enough to make the soup slightly thinner that you want it to end up. If you haven’t added the cream yet, add it now.

Let it simmer for 10 minutes or so and taste it to see if it needs any more seasonings.

Sprinkle shredded cheese in the bottom of each bowl – enough to make a small mound. Ladle the chowder into the bowls and add a dollop of sour cream* to the top. Sprinkle with cheese and chives or dill to garnish.

Serve with warm tortillas or crusty sourdough bread.

*for a tasty upgrade to your sour cream, take 1/2 cup sour cream and mix in 1/2 to 1 tsp. hot chili sauce like cholula or tobasco. You can make it as hot as you want it by adding more or less sauce!

This recipe was given to me by a dear friend by request. She made it for our family after my daughter was born and it eas such a hit with everyone! This has a few more ingredients than basic potato soup, but they add another level to the flavor. Very Tasty!

4-5 large baking potatoes
2/3 cup butter (or less)
2/3 cup flour
6 cups milk
¾ tsp. Salt
½ tsp pepper
4 green onions – chopped & divided
8-12 slices cooked bacon – cooled, crumbled & divided
1¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
8 oz sour cream

Bake potatoes at 400°F for 1 hour, or until done. Cool, then scoop out the pulp. Melt butter in heavy saucepan over low heat, add flour & stir until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring until smooth (use a flat whisk). Gradually add milk. Cook over medium heat until thick & bubbly. Add remaining ingredients, saving some of the onions, bacon and cheese for topping.

Enjoy!

1 yam
6 med. Yukon gold potatoes
1 quart vegetable broth

2 Tbsp. Olive oil
1 medium sweet onion – finely diced
6 cloves garlic – crushed
1 leek – minced (up to green leaves)
1 stalk celery – minced
2 carrots – diced
2 strips bacon – cut into small pieces

1 can minced clams* – with liquid
½ lb. Scallops* – with liquid

2 cups milk**and say things to
1 cup whipping cream**

salt & pepper to taste
oregano
rosemary
savory
sage

Peel and dice potatoes and yam. Add them to a large stockpot with the vegetable broth and boil until tender.

While the potatoes are boiling, sauté the onions, garlic, leek, celery and bacon in the olive oil. When they are getting translucent, add the carrots, clams & scallops with their juice and sauté until the liquid reduces.

When the seafood & onions are cooked, pour them into the boiling potatoes along with the herbs, milk & cream. Simmer on medium to medium low for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to combine. At this tie, add the salt & pepper to taste.

Serve hot in a toasted bread bowl or soup crock with buttered & toasted sourdough bread.

If you have the extra time, allow the chowder to sit overnight to really let the flavors meld – it is fabulous the 2nd day!

*For a very tasty potato soup, leave out the clams & scallops – if you aren’t expecting chowder, you will never miss them!

**For a dairy-free chowder, substitute the milk with rice milk and the cream with coconut or cashew milk. It will not have the characteristic white color, but the flavor will be very good. It takes a little bit more rice milk than cow milk – I recommend one quart to start with & add to taste from there.