Stew and Soup to Warm You Up!

I’m back! It’s been busy around these parts, so I haven’t really had time to blog about my cooking. I HAVE been cooking and it seems to be going better. I wonder if that has anything to do with the no blogging. Maybe it’s less pressure or maybe I’ve just been cooking easy things.

It’s my favorite and yet least favorite time of the year. I love the holidays! The decorations, the music, the togetherness, and the food all make me happy. Unfortunately I live in Upstate NY, so along with all the cheer and festivities we have snow. The madness has started intensely this year. I don’t think we normally have the amount of snow we are getting right now until January or February. The cold, the wet, the driving…bah humbug!

Taking into account the snowy weather I decided to make a stew and a soup. Both are super easy to make so I wanted to share them with you in case you are also knee deep in snow and need heating up.

The stew was just a basic chicken stew. You take a pound of chicken breast and cut it into ½ inch cubes. I browned it with ½ of a chopped onion. Then you add whatever vegetables you want. I put in some celery, carrots, and peas. The recipe calls for a 16oz bag of frozen stew vegetables. I didn’t see that at Wegman’s, so I added fresh veggies except for the peas, they were frozen. You are supposed to add one jar of gravy. I forgot to buy that so Anthony made some from scratch. He used the juices from the browned chicken, flour, water, butter, and salt (I think that’s it). Last I added some rubbed sage, dried thyme, and ground black pepper. Let that simmer on the stove for 15-20 minutes.

Final Product:
It was quite tasty and it just felt really comforting to eat. Anthony’s home made gravy was much better than the jarred kind. I’m glad I forgot to buy it. I will definitely make this again and maybe add some potatoes next time.

Soup is wonderful. I just love it. I could probably eat it every day as long as I was given a variety. I saw a recipe for Refried Bean Soup on a blog recently that looked delicious and as I was browsing my cook books I found a recipe for it. I’m not sure if the blog recipe was more complicated than the one I found, but I was happy to see how simple this soup is too make. Take a big can (28 oz) of crushed tomato and 1 small chopped onion and bring that to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. After that you add refried beans (I used two 15 oz cans), 1 can of chicken broth, and some spices. The recipe just calls for cilantro, but we don’t use that in our house so I added chili powder and parsley. You stir that together and let it simmer for 15 minutes. That’s it people! It’s that simple. If you would like some crunch; take some corn tortillas and cut them into strips. Bake them at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Top with whatever other garnishes you want. We used sour cream and Monterey jack cheese.

Final Product:
This is a very hearty soup. You probably won’t want to have grilled cheese or anything with it. We just had sourdough bread with both of the recipes (Anthony loves sourdough bread!). I’m going to find the other recipe for this soup and see what the differences are, but this was satisfying and I would have it again.

I’m cooking one more time this week and maybe again on the weekend. I plan on posting my holiday cookie making too! I missed blogging! This is fun!

Milanese Gnocchi and Vegetable Stew

Day 15-First let me discuss the reality shows I viewed this week. One non-cooking show that I have to complain about is The Real Housewives of NJ. Joe’s story about how he got into his car accident and that he drank right after the accident happened before the police came not while driving. Really?! Do you really think anyone believes you Joe?! And seriously could Teresa and Joe’s children been any more annoying. Every time they were screaming or running or doing who knows what last night I was cringing. Holy cow, if I were Caroline and Albert I would have said no way to babysitting on the cruise. Poor people, I wouldn’t be able to tolerate those children.

Onto the Next Food Network Star. I say thank goodness for Aria finally leaving! I’ve never like her and her stupid family style point of view. I’m pulling for Aarti or Tom to win this thing. Although lately Aarti has really been screwing up, so maybe Tom deserves it more. Hell’s Kitchen update and spoiler alert: Holli won! Yay! I was pulling for either of them, but her son is so dang cute and for that I wanted her to win a little bit more. Holli have fun in London! Lucky duck! MasterChef was much better this week, with the contestants being challenged to slice and dice a ton of onions perfectly. I noticed some contestants struggling with their onions like I do, and for that they were kicked off the show! The egg challenge was next. They each got one egg and had to cook a dish with the egg being the star. I would have failed at that since I don’t eat eggs and have only cooked eggs once or twice. The woman with the same issue ended up baking her egg perfectly though, and she made it through. Poaching is the way to go, and I think I’m going to have to challenging myself with poaching some eggs. I’ll be blogging about the challenge after my vacation.

And then there was me. The minute I got into the kitchen to cook, I checked to make sure all my produce looked okay. Luckily it did. Whew, sigh of relief. Another mold sighting and I would have completely lost my mind. Looking at the page in the cookbook that the recipe was on, I knew I was going to have an easy night. This recipe said that if you eat one bowl of this stew you become 4.7 days younger. I guess that’s better then nothing. None of the other recipes I've made have claimed something like this.

Simple, simple, simple. You heat some olive oil (from the jar of sun dried tomatoes) in a pan with garlic. Add 3 cups of chicken or veggie broth; I used chicken. Bring it to a boil, add your prepackaged gnocchi (you didn’t think I actually made it did you?) and sun dried tomatoes. Cook until the gnocchi are done, which is when they are floating to the top. Stir in 2 cups of escarole, and cook another minute. Stir in diced plum tomatoes and serve in bowls. Top with gorgonzola cheese (we used feta), sage, and hot red pepper flakes.

Final Product:

Loved it! I thought it was super. I will definitely be making this recipe again. I figure if I eat enough of it I could be 30 again in another year! (It’s a joke people; the book claims that you decrease your RealAge by eating this meal.) Anthony seemed to like it too, so it’s a keeper. No changes needed to the recipe, unless you also don’t like gorgonzola.

The blog isn’t a long one today. I’m too tired to write. I think all of the ranting yesterday exhausted all of my energy. Tonight I’m making sliders with chipotle mayo and wedge potatoes. Hoping it’s as yum as it sounds. Think I’ll pull some carrots from the garden and cook them up too.