French Onion Soup

Who doesn't like French Onion Soup? I could do without the crying but the end result was so good!

Ingredients
2 Tbl Olive Oil
2 pounds onions thinly sliced
1 small clove garlic chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tbl white wine vinegar
2 cups beef broth
1 cup water
1/2 French baguette cubed
cooking spray
Kosher or Sea Salt
Shredded Swiss cheese

1. In saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, salt and pepper, lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring, until the onions are golden, about 15 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, beef broth, and water. Reduce the heat to low and cover the saucepan.

2. Cut French bread into cubes and place on sheet pan. Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with course grain salt. (Kosher or Sea Salt) Toast at 350 degrees until brown.

3. Place a handful of toasted bread in bowls and ladle soup over bread. Top with grated swiss cheese.

Teriyaki Beef Soup

This is a soup that costs very little and goes a long way. Serve with egg rolls for a perfect meal.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces boneless beef sirloin steak
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 14-ounce cans lower-sodium beef broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup bite-size strips carrot (2 medium)
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups coarsely chopped broccoli
• 2 cups Udon noodles
• 1/4 cup sliced green onion (2)
• 1 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions

1. Trim fat from beef. Cut beef into bite-size strips. In a large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef in hot oil for 2 to 3 minutes or until beef is brown.

2. Add broth, water, carrot, ginger, and garlic. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 15 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

3. Stir in Udon, broccoli, green onion, teriyaki sauce, sesame oil, and red pepper. Simmer, covered, for 3 minutes.

Note: I made this soup again with left over pork that we grilled for fajitas and it was even better!

Sesame Catfish and Miso Salad

This was an amazing meal! I simply patted some large catfish fillets with flour and cooked in a nonstick skillet with a little vegetable oil and sesame oil. Once the fish was browned I poured in a high quality sesame sauce. I turned the fish a couple of times to coat and heat sauce and added a handful of sliced green onions. I served the fish with a green salad with sugar snap peas and low fat, low cholesterol Miso dressing.

MMM Soup Season

This fall has inspired a soup revolution in our home.

In the past two weeks, I have made Broccoli Cheese Soup, Greek Meatball Soup, Matza Ball Soup and the following incredible Tortilla Soup!

This soup was so easy! It took only 10 minutes and tasted better than any I have had in a restaurant. (recipe follows)


Simple Tortilla Soup

1/2 onion (diced)
1 large can Enchilada Sauce
1 can Tomato Sauce
2 cans Chicken Broth
2 Cups Chopped Frozen Ready to Eat Chicken Fajita Strips
1 can Black Beans
1 can Hominy
Salt and Pepper to taste

Toppings
Cheese
Avacado
Cilantro
Green Onion
Crispy Tortilla Strips

Simply brown onion in soup pot then add all other soup ingredients and bring to boil. Spoon into large soup bowls and top generously. Enjoy!!!

Warning - this soup was so good, we nearly made ourselves sick eating so much.

Happy Halloween

This year we carved our pumpkins on Halloween Eve. Riley picked out two beautiful big pumpkins and we cut and scraped and scraped and cut and carved and rested and carved some more. Whew! That was alot of work and for some reason I didn't take a picture of the finished masterpieces so just imagine the most elaborate, wonderful carvings ever. :)

I did manage to save and roast the seeds this year which came out pretty good but didn't seem to hold the fresh cracked sea salt very well. I think maybe a finer salt would be better.



We also made giant chewy chocolate brownies with chocolate frosting, candy corn and orange colored white chocolate drizzle for Riley to hand out to her favorite peeps on Halloween. (At some point I will discuss my crappy camera and how I hope Santa is bringing me a new one - but that is a different post all together)

This year Riley dressed up in 50's attire. Her Nama made a fantastic Poodle skirt in pink. (oh, and the dog was dressed up too.)

Oh, The pleasures of Fall!

Fall is in the air and this season is marked not only with the falling leaves and dead grass but with an annual phone message from my Rita in which she sings to me "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". This is also the time of year for my highly sought after caramel apples. I make these from the first of October through New Years each year. I have a few pregnant coworkers that have been begging for them since September so I promptly started making them October 1st. I had to limit the orders Wednesday and Friday now that they are so popular. I typically make about 15 - 20 apples twice a week.

These apples are large and tart. They are dipped in a hot caramel bath then topped with a variety of candies and chocolate.