Monthly Archives: January 2012

Italian Cabbage Soup and Pinterest!

Posted on January 31, 2012 | 3 Comments

Walking Through the Bible in One Year –
Bringing the Story to Life
This weeks reading plan per day:
Monday (Genesis 1-3) Tuesday (Genesis 4-7) Wednesday (Genesis 8-11) Thursday (Genesis 12-15) Friday (Genesis 16-18) Saturday (Genesis 19-21) Sunday (Genesis 22-24)

Pinterest is a bookmarking site and virtual Pinboard exploding with growth on the internet. Pinterest is a place to organize and share online images that you find interesting or inspiring. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. It took me awhile to get my head wrapped around this concept. But now that I have, I absolutely love seeing what other people find interesting on the net and sharing those things that I find fascinating, beautiful, and meaningful. Here is a look at my current pinboards.
Once uploaded or shared on Pinterest, these images become known as Pins, which the user can place on customized, themed Boards. You can create Boards for any topic imaginable, from favorite recipes to photography, dogs and cats to classic cars to cats driving classic cars! The possibilities are endless.

If you want to check out Pinterest, though, you have to be invited. You can sign up for an invite on the site (prepare for a wait), or chances are you already know a Pinner who will gladly send you an invite. AND if you are reading this then you know ME and I would be glad to send you an invite! Just leave me a comment or send an email (via the contact tab) and I will see that you get an invite.

Come on … let’s start pinning! I am going to “pin” this picture once the blog is posted. A couple weeks ago we had a “soup fellowship lunch” at Community Bible Study. My friend Linda brought Cabbage Soup that was out of this world. One spoonful and I was hooked. I immediately said (to no one’s surprise) “I need this recipe!” True to her word, Linda sent me the recipe and yesterday I made this to take to a friend who had surgery today. I was delighted when I realized the recipe makes a full big pot of soup and I was able to give plenty to my friend and her family, while leaving enough for us to have for supper today!

My family likes soup. Mom and I make a lot of soup in the winter. I have made cabbage soup before. But never have I made a cabbage soup that popped with this much flavor! Both of my culinary consultants repeated throughout supper, “this is good”, “this is really good.” Folks, that’s why I cook. No kidding. I love it when it is really good! The recipe calls for ground beef. I used ground turkey. You can use either. I use the turkey because it has less fat and when the soup simmers there is no oil that rises to the top. Even when I drain the hamburger well, there still is oil I don’t like in the soup. Just a personal preference.
I pushed the “easy” button and used cabbage from a package (slaw mix.) It was on sale at the store and frankly, I don’t really like chopping cabbage.

Now, here is where it gets interesting. V-8 juice, white beans, and Ro*tel tomatoes!

We are cooking now! But before we are ready to simmer this soup we need to add the “secret seasonings.” This is why I am calling it Italian cabbage soup.

Once the seasoning is added and some chicken broth, the soup simmers for as long as you have — well, at least 45 minutes or up to a couple hours (which is what I did.) At this point, if you can cool it, save it and heat it up the next day — the flavors will meld and it will be even better!

Bon Appetite’ and thank you Linda for sharing this awesome soup recipe with us!

Many Blessings and Happy Cooking!

Italian Cabbage Soup

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Serves 10-12

Prep time 15 minutes

Cook time 1 hour

Total time 1 hour, 15 minutes

Healthy soup perfect for a winter's day! This tasty soup is flavored with dry Italian seasonings and is a tad bit spicy from Rotel Tomatoes! Delish!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb Ground Beef or Ground Turkey

1 large white onion, chopped

1 Large Head Chopped Cabbage (or 16 oz. package of slaw mix)

1 Package Good Seasonings Italian Dressing

1 can Rotel Tomatoes

1 can Great Northern White Beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups Chicken Broth

1 can V-8 Juice (32 ounce)

Directions

1
Cook ground meat and onions until fully browned. If cooking beef, drain. If cooking turkey, no need to drain.

2
Add chopped cabbage to the cooked meat/onion mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients.

3
Simmer for a minimum of 45 minutes or up to several hours.

4
Serve with your favorite crackers or crusty Italian bread.

Note

May use ground beef or ground turkey. Ground turkey contains less fat and makes a leaner soup.

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Posted in Main Dish, Soup, Vegetables

Tagged Cabbage, cabbage soup, soup

Roasted Red Pepper and Asiago Cheese Spread

Posted on January 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Walking Through the Bible in One Year –
Bringing the Story to Life
Monday (Genesis 1-3) Tuesday (Genesis 4-7) Wednesday (Genesis 8-11) Thursday (Genesis 12-15) Friday (Genesis 16-18) Saturday (Genesis 19-21) Sunday (Genesis 22-24)

Happy Monday! I am excited to tell you that I am embarking on a wonderful journey to read the Bible from beginning to end over the next year. The church I attend has done an outstanding job of setting up the scriptures to be read in about 15 minutes per day. They have even put together an app for ipads, iphones, ipods, and adroids so that the schedule and the actual scriptures can be read anytime, anywhere! I already have it installed on my ipad and start today. And if that isn’t enough, they have added a feature for those who want to listen instead of read. At the beginning of each blog post I am providing a colorful link to Bible Gateway for each daily reading. I invite you to join me in this life changing endeavor. Additionally, you can find the full program and details at this link www.wochurch.org.

Sunday morning my husband woke me up early and said “you better get your camera, everything is frosted and the sun is coming up!” I jumped out of bed, threw on a robe, grabbed my camera and headed outside, in 20 degree weather! I wasn’t disappointed or too cold as I watched the sun come up bathing the hilltop in golden light while all the world below was frosted in blue ice. These pictures give a whole new meaning to Winter Blues.

January in the hollow …

Now, how about some food for the body? Namely, Roasted Red Pepper and Asiago Cheese Spread. Remember last fall when I received an early Christmas present in the form of an awesome Cuisinart 5 in 1 griddle?
I continue to be hooked on making our lunches into warm, crunchy, delicious Panini sandwiches. I love the flexibility of ingredients that can go into a Panini. I found the apple that went into the Apple Bistro Panini a wonderful way to get our “apple a day”! The apple cooks slightly and yet adds a little crispness within the sandwich. I also like adding a tasty spread to change up the flavors when using our standy-by sometimes boring, sandwich meat – turkey. You can imagine my excitement when I saw a Roasted Red Pepper and Asiago Cheese dip at the grocery store. I scanned the list of ingredients and thought, “I can make this!”

I used a short list of ingredients – cream cheese, asiago cheese, mayo, garlic, and roasted red peppers (from a bottle). This savory blend of Asiago, cheese spread, roasted peppers and garlic is delicious on a toasted baguette or buttery crackers. It can even be warmed and served with tortilla chips. Can you say “Super Bowl Snack?”
Oh my gosh did it make these sandwiches pop! My two culinary consultants didn’t do any consulting on this one, but they both were very surprised at first bite of the Panini. I layered a little apple, thinly sliced Havarti cheese, some package smoked turkey with the crowning touch — Roasted Red Pepper and Asiago Spread! Yum!
I mixed up a little cole slaw and lunch was complete!

Oh yeah, and we did indulge in a slice of Fresh Strawberry Banana Pie before the meal was done

Many Blessings and Happy Cooking!

Roasted Red Pepper and Asiago Cheese Spread

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Serves 12-15

Prep time 25 minutes

Ingredients

1 package cream cheese, softened (8 ounce)

1/2 cup Asiago Cheese, finely shredded

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 cup Roasted red peppers, drained and chopped

1/2 cup Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip Salad Dressing

Directions

1 In a food processor combine cream cheese, Asiago cheese, and garlic. Cover and process until mixture is well combined.

2 Add drained roasted red peppers and mayonnaise. Cover and process with on/off turns until the peppers are chopped and all ingredients are well mixed.

3
At this point the spread can be used on sandwiches or as a dip. If desired, you may transfer to an 8-inch dish or pie plate and either microwave on 70% power for 5 minutes or bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 20 minutes.

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Posted in Appetizers, Everything Else, Main Dish, Vegetables

Weekend Round Up #4

Posted on January 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

Verse of the Day

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”” John 4:24 NIV

End of the week and almost end of January! Whew, where has the time gone? In my mind I am still caught up in Christmas baking I love the winter because it is cool enough in my kitchen to bake anything, any time of the day, anytime I want! I love that! Having the oven on warms up the house and fills it with fragrance you can only get from baking. Since we have been traveling the last week or so I am itching to cook! Don’t get me wrong, I love eating out with the best of them, but at the end of the day being at home and filling the table with the products of my work in the kitchen fills my soul and gives me such contentment. I am also becoming hooked on photographing FOOD! I can burn up a whole lot of time taking pictures these days and it thrills me. I am hoping over the course of this next year you will be able to see the fruits of my journey in the pictures I am taking. After my dear sweet ~~santa~~ husband gifted me with a new camera at Christmas I signed up for a photography class. We meet once a week and I have to travel 168 miles round trip to take the class. I can only hope you and I will both notice a difference in my pictures!
Speaking of pictures (and recipes) this week Brown Eyed Baker posted a recipe for White Russian Milkshakes. I absolutely can’t get this picture out of my head … and that probably means we have milkshakes in our future! You can view the whole recipe here.
I know it is January and we should be ooohing and aahhhhing over soup, but for heavens sake doesn’t this look good?!

The other picture and recipe that really caught my eye this week is from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. This week she posted a recipe and “how to” for Gnocchi. I absolutely adore gnocchi. Potatoes, egg, flour and salt — so simple, yet when combined just right — so incredible!
Although I would like to be the one making these, neither of my two culinary consultants are crazy about gnocchi. I know, I don’t understand it either, but somethings you just can’t explain!~ And, since I know myself only too well, should I make a batch of these little beauties, I would eat them until they were gone from the plate and planted firmly on my hips But don’t feel too sorry for me, since just this last Monday night we enjoyed a delightful evening at Domenico Italian restaurant in Rockledge, Florida. And for me … Gnocchi Carbonara! The gnocchi were soft and tender, filled with flavor and drenched in the carbonara cream sauce. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it! It was that dish that reminded me of the Chicken Carbonara recipe I make at home and prompted the revisit to this dish posted last year. A girls gotta have a little cream from time to time!
Finishing up my week was the Grapefruit Pie and the Strawberry Banana Pie. Both were lots of fun to make and especially adventurous to eat! (Please excuse the purchased graham cracker crust. After all, I technically was on holiday when I made this Grapefruit Pie!)

But I must say, no matter how pretty that pie looks the Strawberry Banana Pie recipe adapted from the Grapefruit Pie gets my vote this week. As a matter of fact, there are three pieces left in the fridge and lunch is just around the corner!

I hope your weekend is filled with sweet moments that are as good as this lovely dessert.

Many Blessings and Happy Cooking!

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Posted in Dessert, Main Dish, Pie

Tagged Dessert, grapefruit pie, milkshake, Pie, strawberry pie

Grapefruit Pie or Strawberry Banana Pie — Your Choice!

Posted on January 27, 2012 | 5 Comments

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Ephesians 6:12-13 NIV

I love the vision in my head of “putting on the full armor of God!” This is one of my favorite scriptures. I like to start (and end) the day thinking about the armor that God gives us to stand against the bad things of this world. Thank you Lord!

You may have noticed I haven’t sent out a blog post since Monday and I can tell you I have been itching to do so! My two culinary consultants and I traveled to Florida this past week to visit friends, Kathy, Phyllis, and Elaine. I always have such good intentions of blogging from the road and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. This time, not so much. We enjoyed the warm Florida sun, ate some amazing food, and had a great time visiting! While visiting with my long-time dear friend Elaine she told us about these “terrific desserts” at Lang Sun Country Groves in Lake Alfred, Florida. After a BBQ lunch we decided to cleanse our palates and headed for Lang Sun Country. We found this cute little grove store and cafe. This is where I first laid eyes on Grapefruit Pie!

I was intrigued when the waitress told me this pie was first developed a couple years ago when there was an unusually large supply of fresh grapefruit. She said it is now their #1 selling pie — and this is ahead of strawberry short cake and coconut cream cake! I found that Epicurious featured this pie recipe back in 2006. I decided I just had to make it for my friends while in Florida. We picked the pink grapefruit fresh off the tree and set off to make the pie. While it was lots of fun and turned out well, we did have mixed reviews. If you like a “sweet and sour” combination – this is perfect! But if your “dessert” needs to be synonymous with “sweetness” then this isn’t the recipe for you. But for those of us who liked the sweet and sourness together — this is a really interesting and fun recipe! However … strawberries are in season and when I got home I just new I could make a good pie recipe — GREAT!

And that is exactly what happened. I can imagine using the filling part of this recipe as a base for many things. It starts out with sugar, cornstarch and water, cooked until it is nice and thick.

Then I added sugar-free Strawberry-Banana Jell-O. Turning this thickened filling into a fantastically sweet and tasty filling.

I used a baked pie crust, but the graham cracker crust for this pie is really good also. Strawberries are just coming into season from California and Florida and for the next few months we can get really great fruit until our own strawberries are ready to produce.

I layered sliced strawberries and
bananas before pouring the cooled, thickened filling over the fresh fruit.

And the best part — when I surprised my two culinary consultants after dinner by bringing this to the table when they had no idea we had DESSERT!!! So whether you are grapefruit fan or you never met a strawberry you didn’t like, these recipes are keepers. I am including both recipes today. Bon Appetite’.