New Year Soup

My offering to you this New Year morning is New Year Soup.  To some of us, the New Year means a fresh start, an opportunity for hope and luck, and for some of us, the New Year means a hangover.  The beauty of this soup is that it covers all the bases.

Every culture has its own food traditions to bring prosperity for the New Year, but all have variations on a common theme:  some kind of cooked greens to bring the promise of financial gain; some kind of legume to bring luck; and some form of pork to bring progress. (I always wondered where this idea came from, so I googled it.  A pig moves forward as it roots around for food, as opposed to a chicken or a lobster that moves backward as it searches for food, so don't eat chicken or lobster on New Year's Day or you risk a reversal in fortune!)

The form these New Year foods take varies from family to family.  Even though I am proud to be a G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised in the South for those of you who aren't), my parents were from the Mid-West, so our family traditions combined both traditions.  The usual New Year meal down South contains black-eyed peas, a tradition that came out of the War of Northern Aggression (the Civil War for you Yankees) when the residents of Vicksburg, Mississippi were saved from starving during Grant's siege of the city by eating black-eyed peas.  The typical New Year's Day meal in my momma's kitchen was navy beans (instead of black-eyed peas) cooked with ham hocks and served with spinach and corn bread.  I can still hear Momma saying, "On the farm, we fed black-eyed peas to the cows."  Here in the North, my mother-in-law's meal is sauerkraut cooked with pork and served with mashed potatoes.

My New Year Soup contains ground pork, cabbage, and a can of black-eyed peas.

Of course the other element of New Year's Day is the hangover from New Year's Eve.  

My favorite hangover cure is a greasy breakfast and a Bloody Mary, so my New Year Soup takes care of this as well.  Instead of plain ground pork, I use breakfast sausage, and the liquid base is a large bottle of V-8 juice and a bottle of beer,

seasoned with

So as you can see, this New Year Soup covers all needs:  Prosperity, luck, and a hangover cure all in one crockpot.

Here's the recipe:

New Year Soup

1 lb. ground pork, browned

1 head of cabbage, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 large bottle V-8 juice

1 bottle of beer

1 can of black-eyed peas

Seasoning to taste:  salt and pepper, garlic powder, cumin, rosemary, tabasco sauce

Put all ingredients in a crock pot  and cook on low 6-8 hours.  Serve with cornbread.

New Year's Eve

Matt and I have never been ones to party on New Year's Eve.  We've always been happy staying at home, drinking champagne, watching movies, and spending time together, and this New Year's Eve is no exception.... especially since Matt is getting over the flu.  I thought about inserting a picture of him asleep in his chair as he is right now, but decided not to..... I am well aware that paybacks can be a bitch.

Tonight's menu is all finger food.  In fact, if one wanted, one would not need any utensils at all.

We have garlic stuffed olives, tomato and mozzarella cups, boiled shrimp, sausage balls, and chocolate butterscotch tartlets.  The olives I didn't make nor did I make the tartlet cups.  My philosophy is why make something when its easier to buy it and tastes just as good.  

I have discovered these things in the frozen foods section, and they are amazing!  Already made, already baked.  You just heat them up, and you're good to go.  I used them for the tomato and mozzarella cups and the the chocolate butterscotch tartlets.

For the tomato and mozzarella cups, I just took about 1/2 a box of little tomatoes and cut them into quarters. 

To this I added half a ball of fresh mozzarella cut into chunks about the same size or littler smaller than the tomatoes and added a little salt and pepper.  Sometimes I make my own dressing, but I saw this at the grocery store this morning and decided to give it a try.

I ended up with something that looks like this, 

and then spooned some into each of the tartlet cups.

The other part of tonight's menu that I am excited about is my dessert:  Chocolate Butterscotch Tartlets!  I found this recipe by googling "New Year's Eve desserts."  It is very simple, and from the "Quality Control" samples that I tried a long the way, very tasty.

For this recipe you will need:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate because that is what I had in the pantry)

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 1/2 tsp. Grand Mariner

4 1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

3 pkg frozen miniture phyllo tart shells

Place the chocolate and butterscotch chips in a small bowl.

In a small saucepan bring 1 cup of cream just to a boil.  Pour over chips; whisk until smooth.  Stir in Grand Mariner.  Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.  Refrigerate until chilled and thickened.

In a large bowl, beat remaining cream until it begins to thicken.  Add sugar and vanilla, beat until stiff peaks form.  

Spoon chocolate mixture into tart shells, top with whipped cream, and refrigerate until serving.

 From my family to yours, Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Epic Fail

Ree Drummand, The Pioneer Woman, is my hero.  She is everything I once wanted to be -- Homeschooler, photographer, blogger, and fantastic cook.  I tried homeschooling for two years, and while I wasn't a failure, I wasn't too successful either.  I can't take pictures worth crap; this blogging thing is working out too well, and while I can hold my own in the kitchen, I do have my share of failures.  Where The Pioneer Woman and I differ is that I am going to blog about my most recent failure.

This past week Matt and I spent took some time off and spent 4 days, 3 nights in Las Vegas.

Oh, and to prove my point about my photographic skills.... this is a picture I took of the front of the Gold and Silver Pawn shop, from Pawn Stars.... yes, that is the famous sign.... right there behind the damn rear view mirror of the damn car....

Out last night there, we met Matt's brother Mark for dinner.  Mark took us to his favorite Mexican restaurant, Lindo Michoacan.  It was great!  Great food and great view!  Mark got us a table by the window so we had a wonderful view of the Vegas skyline.

Mark told us that their Carne Asada was the best, so I decided to order Tacos de Carne Asada.  The dinners came with the traditional rice and beans, but also something called fideo soup.  I asked Mark what that was because I had never heard of it before.  He said he didn't know, but it was good.  When the soup came, it turned out to be a Mexican noodle soup.  It had a thin tomato broth and tiny little noodles that looked like the really thin pasta in Rice-A-Roni.  It was delicious!  Too bad it came in a little bowl.

As Matt and I were driving home from the airport last night in the cold rain.  I kept thinking about that soup and how good it would be on a cold rainy night, so I googled the recipe on my phone and entertained myself reading recipes while Matt drove.  This is one I found on the Food Network website.


Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil or 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces fideo, vermicelli or angel hair pasta, broken into 1-inch pieces
3 - 4 dried or canned Morita or Chipotle chiles cut into
2 pounds Italian Roma tomatoes
8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoon salt
6 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 avocado, peeled, seeded and
8 slices, for garnish
1 bunch cilantro, leaves only, chopped, for garnish
Directions
In large saucepan or stockpot heat the oil or butter. Add pasta and saute until golden, stirring frequently and being careful not to burn. Stir in chiles and cook for 2 minutes longer. Meanwhile, combine tomatoes, garlic, onion, water and salt in a blender. Puree until smooth. Add tomato puree and stock to browned pasta. Cook over medium-low heat until the noodles soften and the flavors meld, about 15 minutes. Serve hot with the sliced avocado and cilantro as garnish.

This morning dawned still cold and rainy, so since I had to go to the grocery store I decided to get the ingredients I needed to make the soup for dinner tonight.  Several issues popped up:  I couldn't find the right kind of pasta, so I got thin spaghetti and broke it up; and I wasn't sure what size can of Chipotle chiles to get, so I got a large one.  I also didn't want to buy 2 pounds of Roma tomatoes, so since they were going to be pureed anyway, I bought a large can of tomato sauce.  I figured I would saute` the onions and garlic until they were soft and then put them along with the chipotles in my little food processor and vilola!  This is when another issue came up.

I don't use my little food processor very much, so it is in the back of a cabinet.  I rooted around and found the base and the blade, but no top.  Did you know the damn thing won't work without a top?  Well, it doesn't, so I just chopped up everything as small as I could and told myself it would be fine.  Wrong!

I added the chicken broth and can of tomato sauce to the pot with the onions, garlic, and chipotles.  Now, a word about the chipotles..... Chipotles are smoked jalapeños canned in adobo sauce.  I thought I remembered learning somewhere that chipotles were not as hot as unsmoked jalapeños, so since I didn't have the recipe in front of me,  I decided that  half the large can should be about right.  Wrong!

In case you don't know, let me be the first to inform you that chipotles are indeed as hot as regular jalapeños, so the 7 or 8 that were half the large can were indeed too much.

     
= 

Now, about the pasta.  I will be the first to admit it, I love pasta!  In my word the more noodles, the better.  This however is not true in the world of fideo soup.  Even though I used thin spaghetti and broke it into little bits, I put in too much for the amount of liquid I had in the soup, with left me with this

Gives new meaning to the phrase "Hot Mess" doesn't it?   This is not even close to the wonderfully delicate soup that I had in Vegas.    Matt, bless his heart, ate an whole bowl..... I couldn't .... it was awful!!  

It's Fall, Y'all

I think fall is my favorite season.  I loved fall when I was kid growing up because it meant that school started which meant new clothes and new SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!!  I love school supplies, and that might have to be a topic for another time.  As a kid growing up in Texas, fall meant nice weather, but as I got older, fall meant HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES!  Ah, some fond memories there of a certain #34......  oh well.  And that WON'T be a topic of another time.

After I moved to West Virginia and discovered that there really are four seasons, fall became my favorite because of the beauty.  If you haven't watch a Sugar Maple's leave turn to bright yellow, oranges, and red, you have indeed missed something.



Fall is just now getting started here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, but there is enough that I need to do fall cooking today.  This Sunday evening supper consists of chili and pumpkin pie.  My mom has a wonderful recipe for Dallas Jailhouse Chili. In fact Momma's original handwritten copy is framed and hanging on the wall in Brett's apartment.  I didn't really want to go to all the trouble of measuring out all the ingredients, so I did the next best thing.

I found this stuff is pretty darn close.  I use the entire salt packet and the entire cayenne pepper packet.  I make a few other changes, too. I use a 15oz. can of tomato sauce, only 1/2 a can of water, and my secret ingredient,

 If this surprised you, you don't know me very well.

This pumpkin pie recipe is an old one.  It is the only on my mom ever used.  I'm not even sure how old the original copy is or where it came from.  I know it isn't my mother's handwriting; possibly her mother's.  I just don't know.

Pumpkin Rich Pie
2 eggs (slightly beaten)
2/3 cup sugar (One thing I like about this recipe is that it isn't overly sweet.)
1tsp. allspice (Usually, like today, I don't have this, so I substitute nutmeg)
1tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cup pumpkin (I use one small can)
1/2 cup cream (I always use 1 1/2 cups of half and half instead of the cream and the milk)
1 cup milk
3/4 tsp salt
Combine sugar, salt, and spices.  Add eggs. Mix well, stir in pumpkin. Add milk and cream.  Stir until smooth.  Pour into pastry shell.  Bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes.

As I've said before, I usually don't follow the order that the recipe suggests.  Again, I have an "everyone-in-the-pool" philosophy.

Ok, confession time.  I can't make pie crusts.  My mother could make the best, flakiest, most perfect pie crusts ever.  I can't make a good pie crust to save my life, so I use frozen pie crust.  They aren't as good as my mom's, but they are a hell of a lot better than mine.

Here's a trick to tell if a pumpkin, or any single crust custard pie is done.  Stick a knife in it.  If the knife comes out clean, the pie is done.

Carnivore Tortellini Soup

A little back story on this soup..... Every October Martinsburg hosts the

a fun-filled weekend that starts off with the coronation of Queen Pomona, followed by craft shows, pancake breakfasts, a ball, and a parade - small town living at its best.  One year, I had the honor of being the mother of one of the Apple Harvest Princesses,

but before Princess Brett, there were the parade parties at the Andersons'.  Tom and Beth live a block off the parade route.  The night before the parade, we would all drop our lawn chairs off at their house, and early Saturday morning Tom would take them over and set them up so that we all had great seats from which to watch the festivities.  After the parade we would all go back to the house and Beth would serve wonderful soups, sandwiches, snacks, sweets, and beer.  Some of my fondest memories are of those wonderful fall Saturdays.

One year Beth served Tortellini soup, and we all loved it.  We asked for the recipe and found out she got it from the back of the College Inn Chicken Broth can.  Since that weekend, I have made that soup many times, and over the years I've modified it.  The original recipe is meatless, but since I'm married to a serious carnivore... "It's not a meal unless it has meat in it"..... I've altered the recipe to create Carnivore Tortellini Soup.

1 pkg. mild Italian sausage

1 large can of chicken broth (today I used homemade chicken broth that I had in the freezer, usually I use a large can of chicken broth and a small container of chicken stock.)
1 package frozen tortellini
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, chopped.


First, I brown the sausage and set it aside.  In the same pan, I add a little olive oil and the chopped garlic heated on medium low heat so as to not burn the garlic.  Overcooked garlic tastes bitter.  when the garlic is soft, I add the chicken stock, tomatoes, the tortellini, and half the package of spinach.  I bring everything to a slow boil and then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.

You might be wondering where the sausage is?  Well, there are some days, when meat just doesn't sound good to me.  I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but some days, meat just doesn't cut it.  Today is one of those days.  At this point, I ladled out a bowl of soup for me and two containers for lunch tomorrow and Tuesday, and left the rest on the stove.  I put half of the cooked sausage in a freezer bag to have later for spaghetti sauce of something, and the other half I put in the soup pot. I let the sausage and soup heat together for 5 minutes or so, and then dished some up for my darling carnivore.  I served the soup with cheesy breadsticks and beer, and Sunday supper was complete.

Enjoy!

Sunday Supper

When I was growing up the meal we ate Sunday evening was called Sunday dinner.  It was a big deal.  Usually it consisted of a roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus with cheese sauce, hot rolls, iced tea, and some kind of pie for dessert.  I'm lazier than my mother.  I don't want to work that hard on Sunday.  I would rather read, mess around the house, or on rainy Sunday afternoons watch TV with Matt, so the meal we eat on Sunday is called Sunday supper.  We usually have something easy that either is quick to prepare or cooks in the crockpot all day.  Tonight's menu consists of Taco Chili, cornbread, and cherry/peach cobbler.

The Taco Chili I already had in the freezer.  I got it from a wonderful web site called Baked in the South, Crockpot freezer meals part 3.   The only thing I have to add is that I will not use my crockpot without Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners.  It makes clean up so easy.

Probably one of the things that my mother made that I loved the most was cornbread.  When Matt and I were first married, Momma's cornbread recipe was one of the first ones I copied down and started using.  I still have the original that I wrote out almost 30 years ago.  I've used it so much that the bottom half of the card is missing.

The recipe calls for 
1 cup of flour
1tsp. salt
3tsp. baking powder
2 tbl. sugar ( but I only use one, because cornbread in the South is not supposed to be sweet)
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal (you can use white, but I think it looks weird)
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
(yes, I see the 1/4 cup of melted shortening, but I don't put that in the batter)

A crucial part of a making good cornbread is using a well seasoned cast iron skillet.  

This is mine.  I don't know how old it is.  It was Momma's, and it may have even been her momma's.  I guess Wesley and Brett will have to flip for it when I'm pushing up daises.

Now, remember when I said I didn't put the 1/4 cup of melted shortening in the batter?  Well this is what I do with it instead. This is strictly something that Momma taught me to do. Before I start mixing up the ingredients, I pour just enough canola oil in the cold skillet to cover the bottom and put it in a cold oven.  I turn the oven on to 400 degrees and let the oven, the oil, and the skillet all heat together.  If you don't have a cast iron skillet, any oven-proof baking dish will do.

The official recipe calls for mixing the wet ingredients in one bowl and sifting the dry ingredients together in another bowl and then adding the wet to the dry.  That's too many steps and too many bowls for me.  My method is called "Everyone in the pool together".

When oven has heated to 400 degrees, I leave the skillet in for about 5 more minutes to make sure that the oil is good and hot. Then I take the skillet with the hot oil out of the oven and pour the batter in it.  You should see little bubbles around the edges as the batter hits the hot oil.  This step gives your cornbread a crunchy edge and bottom crust.

Bake the cornbread in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  It should be golden brown when you take it out.

Now for dessert, the cherry/peach cobbler is just something I make up as I go.  You can use any kind of fruit in any form.  I've used cherry or apple pie filling; I've used canned peaches; and I've used fresh peaches. Today I happen to have a package of frozen peaches and a package of frozen cherries in the freezer, so that's what I'm using.  You can also use any kind of cake mix for the topping.  I've used white cake mix, yellow cake mix, butter pecan cake mix, but wouldn't you know it, today I didn't have any cake mix at all.  I didn't want to go to the store, so I looked around in the pantry to see what I could substitute.  I found a package of Snickerdoodle cookie mix, so I used that.

I put the cherries and peaches in a bowl and tossed them with 1/2 a cup of sugar and 2 tbl. of flour and then transferred them to a pyrex baking dish.  Next, I spread the cookie mix on top of the fruit, and since the snickerdoodle mix had this nifty little packet of cinnamon and sugar, I sprinkled that on top too.  

Finally, I melt a stick of butter and pour that over the top.  I cover it with foil and bake it at 375 degrees for about an hour since the fruit was frozen.  If it was fresh or canned, I bake it about 30 minutes.  When the covered baking time is up, the juices should be bubbling up through the topping.  Then I remove the foil and let it back for another 5-10 minutes to get brown.

Enjoy!