Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

Have I mentioned that in my next life I want to be married to Tyler Florence? He's such a doll and I love his recipes. 

Tonight it was chilly outside and I was cold. I decided I needed to make a chicken tortilla soup of some sort.  I took one from Tyler's book called "Eat This Book." Super easy and simple. I made a few adjustments for my own taste, and I was cleaning out the pantry, so here's my version.

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup
Serves: 2

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeno, diced (remove the ribs and seeds if you don't want the heat)
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 chicken breast (this would be a great recipe for left over chicken.  Just shred the chicken and add it in.)
• 1 small potato, peeled and cubed
• 1T chili powder
• 2 cups chicken broth
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 T chopped cilantro
• 1T lime juice

Put some oil in a pot. Sauté the onion, garlic, and jalapeno for 2 minutes...don't burn them so do it over medium heat.

Add your tomatoes. Stir.  Add your chicken broth, chicken, potatoes.

Season with Salt and pepper to taste.  Put in 1T chili powder.  Bring to a boil and cook until chicken and potatoes are done. (about 15 minutes).  Adjust with chili powder to your own liking.

I put chopped cilantro and lime juice from 1/2 of a lime on mine before I ate it.  It was sooo good. And easy.

Steak Milanese

Yum.  This was a great recipe.  I've had it for a couple of years and have wanted to try it so many times.  It just turned out that I had all the ingredients necessary as it wasn't all that different from the Mediterranean Pork Chops I did yesterday.

Milanese us typically referred to for things from Milan - and the food is no different.  Milanese is characterized by dipping the protein in flour, egg, and bread crumbs (sometimes with Parmesan cheese) and then fried.

See that word "fried"? That's what makes this recipe soooooo good.

Steak Milanese
Serves 8 (It can be converted down easily too)

• 1 lb Loin steak, trimmed (traditionally cube steak is used so if you're trying to save $$ feel free)
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups bread crumbs
• 1 cup roma tomatoes, diced
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced
• 3 T Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
• 2 T capers
• 2 T chopped fresh oregano
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 T fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Cut steaks into eight 2 ounce pieces, then pound them to 1/4" thick. (Or do as I did and buy the thin sliced sirloin). Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Place flour, eggs and crumbs into three separate bowls. Dredge first in flour, then egg then crumbs. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet; chill for 30 minutes.

Combine tomatoes, onion, kalamata olives, capers, oregano, olive oil and lemon juice. Set aside.

Heat vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Fry cutlets in batches until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Drain on a paper towel lined plate. Repeat with all cutlets.

Top cutlets with tomato relish and serve with linguine on the side.

What did I put on the side...? My new fake out Alfredo noodles. 

Cook up a desired amount of spaghetti.  Drain it saving some of the pasta water. Toss the spaghetti back into the pan. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese - however much/little you want. Toss in a tablespoon or so of milk and stir...depending on how thin/thick the sauce is, add pasta water.  Add pepper to taste.  Delicious!

Mediterranenan Chops

Pork and I have a challenging relationship. I want to like it and do like it.  My past with pork has left me with a not so happy tummy, so I've scratched pork as the other white meat.

Fast forward 5 years and suddenly pork and I are back to being BFFs.  The body, and age, is a weird thing.

I've had this recipe for about 6 years and am glad I finally made it.  It was good, not great.  It was sweeter than I thought it would be. It also has a strong oregano vibe and I am NOT friends with oregano.  Still, it was a decent recipe and while it has a lot of ingredients it's very easy to put together.

Mediterranean Chops
Serves 4

• 4 Boneless pork chops
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/2 cup onions, sliced
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 2 T garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry Marsala wine
• 1 1/2 cups Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 T sugar
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 cup pimiento stuffed green olives
• 2T capers, drained and crushed
• 2 T chopped fresh parsley
• 1 T lemon zest

Season chops with salt and pepper, dust with flour.

Heat oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the chops and sauté until browned on each side, about 5 minutes; remove from pan.

Add onion and sauté 3 minutes; stir in raisins and garlic, sauté another minute.

Deglaze with the Marsala, scraping up the brown bits form the bottom of the pan.

Stir in tomatoes, broth, vinegar, sugar and oregano, bring to a boil.  Return chops to the pan, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add the olives and capers; simmer until heated through.

Put pork chops on a serving platter and cover with olive sauce.

Frito-Lollies

This past Sunday was Sunday Dinner.  I decided to reach deep into the traditions and pulled out Frito-Lollies.

Traditionally this is our Christmas Eve meal.  I have no idea when it became a tradition, I just know now we make sad faces at mom if she even mentions another meal for Christmas Eve.

What is a Frito-Lollie? And more importantly where's the recipe?

A Frito-Lollie is basically Frito corn chips topped with chili.  Then it's covered with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese and sour cream. 

Some people call them Straw Hats. Others call them Pepper Bellies.  Whatever you call them, I highly recommend them.

Now, about the recipe.  I make chili by "feel".  A few basic ingredients: burger, onions, tomatoes (crushed, diced, and tomato sauce), beans.  Then a few basic seasonings: salt, cumin, chili powder, and cayenne. 

The amounts of any of those I couldn't tell you.  I know my chili is right when it looks right.  I know if I can get a certain chili "look" I know it'll be delicious.  And this past Sunday was no exception.  In fact, Blueberry asked me for the chili recipe.  Sorry, cuz...there isn't one.

Asian Ragu

I wasn't 100% sure how this recipe would turn out. Skeptical of its nature, but I knew I liked all of the ingredients, so I figured it couldn't miss.

And it mostly didn't.

I'm not sure I'd ever make it again. Good, for the most part, but it was lacking something. I think if I ever do this again I'd toss in some water chestnuts.  The meat sauce needed a crunch of some sort.

Asian Ragu
Serves 4

• 2 T Peanut Oil
• 1 cup diced shallots
• 2 T minced garlic
• 2 T minced ginger
• 1-2 tsp red curry paste or garlic chili sauce ( I used red curry paste, but as it cooked it started to smell and taste more like the garlic chili sauce.)
• 1 lb ground beef sirloin
• 3/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2 T Fish sauce or low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tsp light brown sugar
• 1 cup torn basil leaves
• 1 cup torn mint leaves
• Chopped dry roasted peanuts

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add shallots, garlic and ginger root. Saute until shallots are translucent, 3-4 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic, so watch your heat.

Stir in curry sauce until combined with shallot mixture, 1 minute.

Add ground beef. Break apart and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.

Whisk together broth, fish sauce and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir mixture into meat mixture.  Bring mixture a simmer; cook uncovered, until liquid is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Serve ragu over cooked rice or rice noodles. Garnish with basil, mint and peanuts.

German Style Salisbury Steak

I have no idea why this is "German - Style" but I do know it was really good. I got carried away with the salt in the gravy, so just know that if you use beer taste before salting the gravy.

I had to find out about Salisbury steaks and where the heck they came from. Turns out they are named for a doctor who encouraged his patients to eat lots of beef. And Salisbury steaks are nothing more than seasoned ground beef. 

I highly recommend using the dark beer instead of substituting with beef broth.  The alcohol cooks off and therefore you're left with the deep, rich flavor of the dark beer. 

German Style Salisbury Steak

Serves 4

• 4 strips thick sliced bacon
• 1 1/4 lb ground beef chuck
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste

• 2 medium onion, sliced
• 1 package button mushrooms sliced
• 2 T All purpose flour
• 1 can (12 oz) dark beer (or you can use 1/2 cup beef broth)
• 1/2 cup beef broth (yes in addition to the dark beer)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon in a large sauté pan until done. Remove bacon and reserve 1 T bacon grease.  Crumble bacon.

Combine ground beef, minced onion, salt and pepper, parsley into 4 patties about 3/4" thick.

Brown patties in bacon drippings in sauté pan over medium high heat, about 4 minutes per side.  Remove patties from pan. Add onions and mushrooms, sauté for 8 minutes or until onions are tender.

Stir in flour; cook and stir for 1 minute.

Remove pan from heat and add beer, broth, sugar, tomato paste, caraway seeds and garlic. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.  Return pan to heat. Bring liquid to a boil for 1 minute or until liquid is thick.

Put patties back into pan and simmer until meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes.  Top steaks with onion mushroom sauce and bacon.  Oh and save a little bacon piece for the cook.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing

I'm a big fan of chocolate and peanut butter together.  I like both separate, but like both together almost more.  I have tried many, MANY recipes for peanut butter frosting and hadn't found one that was both full of peanut butter flavor and not overly sweet.

A cousin in our family has a killer peanut butter frosting recipe that she WILL NOT share with anyone else. So since she won't we're left with trying to figure out what she puts in it.  I gave up on that and just used another chef's recipe.

The Barefoot Contessa did these cupcakes on her show a couple of weeks ago. I'm not usually a fan of the Barefoot Contessa but the chocolate / peanut butter combo hooked me. I had to watch. And boy am I glad I did.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing
Recipe from the Barefoot Contessa

Makes 14 - 16 cupcakes
Note: I made 4 cupcakes and put the rest of the mix in an 8X8 dish (greased dish) and man was that good.  Thick layer of cake with a thick layer of frosting. Nummers!

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons brewed coffee
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup good cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• Chopped salted peanuts, to decorate, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Lower the speed to medium, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.

Divide the batter among the cupcake pans (1 rounded standard ice cream scoop per cup is the right amount). Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans, and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frost each cupcake with Peanut Butter Icing and sprinkle with chopped peanuts, if desired.



Peanut Butter Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.