Rainy Days

What's better on a rainy day than toasty bread and warm soup? Last night, after dinner was on it's way to being done, I decided to start a loaf of Jalapeno Cheddar Bread and a batch of Black Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Soup.

I looked back through my posts and couldn't find anyplace that I had given you the link to my very favorite bread recipe. We've made this Jalapeno Cheddar Bread in the bread machine a bunch of times, but this time it was definitely the best. The peppers I added were ones that we had dehydrated a few weeks ago. Some bites of the bread were pretty spicy - and delicious!

Look at the big hunks of pepper!!

When I made the Cuban Chicken the other night, I had prepared an entire pound of black beans. I didn't even use half of the beans, so I needed to find other things to do with it. I used some today for lunch, in my turkey wrap. Some more went into this Black Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Soup. I changed the recipe a little. I only used 1.5 red peppers and used 2 jalapenos instead of the pobalanos, and I roasted them on the grill. I used the vegetable stock to make a totally vegan soup (until I dropped sour cream in my bowl!)

We topped our soup with some sour cream, avacado, and tomatoes.


This was the first time we bought this large avacado. We stopped at Walmart to pick some up and while we were discussing the difference between the large lighter colored avacado and the small tough skinned darker ones, another shopper was nice enough to tell us the difference and which was better to use in certain recipes. Score one for Walmart shoppers - though that won't convince me to start shopping there again!!


Soup in the pan:

Soup in the bowl, with a side of toasty, buttery bread:


So good!! Even though it was rainy out, which would usually be perfect for the spicy, filling food - we decided to cut back on using the air conditioning, so it was a little warmer in the house than I would have liked for this food. It was still delicious, though!!!

Going to do some reading - time to start Harry Potter 3!!

Good night!

Low Country Boil Chowder

As I told you in my last post, we had lots of leftovers from our Birthday "Stone Soup" seafood boil on Saturday. We figured the best way to finish them up is to create a giant soup that used all that we had left. As promised, here's the recipe!




Low Country Boil Chowder

6-7 slices bacon, cut in tiny pieces
1 med. onion, chopped
1 c. diced celery
4 c. diced potatoes, cooked
1 ½ c. seafood stock (see below)
3 c. milk, warmed
1 (16 oz.) can whole kernel corn, or 4-5 corn scraped from the cob
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper (or more to taste)
1 tbsp. butter
Clams, oysters, crawfish, mussels, shrimp left over from the boil (or fresh, cooked – as much as you want)

STOCK: Place all crab shells (or shrimp, oyster, clam, etc) in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes or so. Strain broth through cheesecloth and discard shells.

In a large heavy saucepan fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and drain on paper towel. Pour off fat except for 2 tablespoons. Add onions to saucepan and saute until transparent, not brown. Add potatoes, celery and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat. Cover pan and simmer for 10 minutes or until celery is tender. Add remaining ingredients and heat just to boiling. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour. The longer it simmers, the better the flavors mix.

If you need to thicken the chowder, I mixed 2 tbsps butter and 2 tbsps flour, added stock until I had a thick mix, and added it to the soup. While cooking, it will thicken.

Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Lucas had his 38th birthday yesterday. For weeks we couldn't decide how to celebrate it, changing the plans from going out, to just spending time on the beach, and maybe a cook out at home in the evening. Last week, we came up with the idea of inviting over all of our friends and doing a Stone Soup kind of dinner, only with seafood and potatoes and corn, in the style of a Low Country Boil. If you don't know the Stone Soup story, it goes like this:

The Story of Stone Soup

Once upon a time, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better keep moving on."

"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

"Ahh," the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat."

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king."

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day. The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

So we asked everyone to each bring a bit of the following: clams, oysters, crab legs, mussels, shrimp, potatoes, corn or sausage. We ended up with more food than we ever imagined! Luckily, one of our friends owned a huge steampot to cook it all in, and brought it along. She even brought the "stone" for the soup - a brick to set the steam basket on! Perfect!!



Yum!!!!!



It was fun watching the guys figure out how to dump the food once it was done!






We ate, drank and were VERY merry through the night, and had a great time with all of our friends. I count it as one of the best get-togethers we have EVER had!!

We had so much food leftover, that I needed to come up with something to do with it. The mystery was solved with a seafood chowder, and an afternoon of crabs and beer today! Around lunch time we covered our coffee table with newspaper and dug right in!




We made a seafood potato corn chowder for dinner, served with a fresh new loaf of the jalapeno bread. I will post the chowder recipe, but in a separate entry, as I don't have it all written out yet.

DOUBLE YUM!!



Another weekend ends with a great dinner, True Blood (SO GOOD TONIGHT!!) and situps - we did 90 tonight!!! Ouch!

The kids start school tomorrow, so I really should already be sleeping! I guess I just am not ready for the weekend to end!

Good night, all!