Oh, just gaze at those. Merely looking at the photo makes my mouth water. These scones (or rich biscuits) are just the cat’s meow. The bestest. The most tender scones I’ve ever made, for sure. And they are just a pairing from heaven with some hot soup. Like cream of tomato? I made them to serve with one of my favorite recipes – Italian Sausage and Tomato Soup. 

The recipe came from a recent cooking class with Phillis Carey. And as she explained at the class, it’s very unusual to see eggs IN scones. Used as a glaze on top, yes, but rarely do you see any recipe with eggs in the dough. These scones (biscuits) are going onto my favorites list, if that’s any indication how good they were (are).

These are incredibly easy to make. You combine the dry ingredients and lightly fluff them with a fork so the salt and baking soda don’t clump in one spot. Then you add the cold-cold butter that’s been cut into little cubes. I use a pastry fork, and then sometimes I dig in with my fingers, since that’s fairly easy to do. The trick to this is leaving some of the butter in tiny little shreds. But in this case, the eggs provide additional leavening to the batter too. This one has fresh herbs in it, but you can vary which ones you use – don’t like rosemary? – just use dill or thyme. The cheese also adds a nice taste to them.

The dough makes a big chunk, so you cut it in half and shape each half into a circle, an inch thick. Don’t use any more hand-power than necessary – the less the better. I used a sharp knife to cut the scones into 6 wedges, then I carefully scrunched them back into the circle – barely touching. If you like all the edges to be more crisp, separate the wedges. If you want just 6 biscuits, halve the recipe below. When they’re shaped up and ready, use a pastry brush or silicone brush with some additional heavy cream to glaze the top, then sprinkle more herbs and cheese on top.

The end result is a very, very tender scone – almost like a light cake in texture. For years I’ve been making scones from a recipe I acquired back in the 1980s, and it’s been my go-to recipe – it’s also on my favorites list – Buttermilk Scones – and they’re just very different from these. The others are more like a biscuit, a southern biscuit, I suppose.

These are scrumptious with soup. I served them the other night, as I mentioned above, with another of Phillis’ recipes, the Italian Sausage, Tomato and Orzo Soup. We had 6 of us for dinner, and I had 4 scones left over – a few people took 2nds on both soup and scones. I wrapped each scone in plastic wrap and edged them into a freezer ziploc bag and they’ll be perfect for a later soup dinner.

What’s GOOD: oh gosh. Everything about them is good – texture, taste, tenderness, even the savory aspect  (the cheese and herbs). They’re very light in texture, which I like a lot. You’ll not be sorry if you try them.
What’s NOT: nothing, other than they’re fairly high in calorie. If you serve them with soup, perhaps the meal balances out, right?

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It’s fun being a teacher in the kitchen. All of our 3 children know how to cook, and during their growing-up years they helped in the kitchen. For a year or so during the teens, each kid had to cook a meal for everyone once a week. Skip forward 25 years, and now our various grandchildren are visiting from time and time. I’ve spent patient hours in the kitchen with each of them, helping them to master a recipe or two. Mostly it’s seemed to be cookies, because that’s what they wanted to make. Fine with me. This time, it was our oldest grandson’s [girl] friend Mary’s turn. She’s never cooked, so with coaching from me, she made dinner!

Logan had asked for salmon. I chose a recipe I’ve been wanting to make anyway, and with a couple of exceptions, I had all the ingredients. I had lemons, not limes, and I didn’t have any fresh dill. But this recipe was delicious enough as is – but yes, next time I try it I’ll buy limes and dill.

There’s Mary listening to me explain about something. I talked to her about Sichuan pepper, what a “pinch” was, and how to drizzle. Also how to use a mortar and pestle, grate fresh ginger, chop and sauté mushrooms in butter, make rice (she’d done that before). She was a very good student – I demonstrated some of the things and she quickly tried it and did it all very well.

We used a rice cooker, did the mushrooms separately, and combined them at the end. The salmon was prepped with some fresh ginger spread on each piece, salt, the Sichuan pepper, red peppercorns, a bit of oil, then they were baked in foil packets – about 10+ minutes. Mary made a green salad – I already had some of my Molasses Honey Vinaigrette in the refrigerator, so Mary just had to chop up the salad.

It was a lovely dinner. Mary did a superb job of getting everything done and the dinner came together well. And the salmon? It was really, really good. I think we all liked the crunch of the red peppercorns, and the amount of heat from the Sichuan pepper was just right.  The little crunch from fleur de sel on top was an added, nice crunch. As I mentioned, with Mary’s help, we made a rice cooker batch of basmati rice with mushrooms that was fabulous. I’ve included it in the recipe below. It was so good I made the rice again some days later for an Indian chicken dinner, which I’ll write up in a few days.

What’s GOOD: the salmon was cooked perfectly (almost under-done, but it was cooked through) and we all liked the seasonings a lot. The foil packet made it so simple with an easy clean-up. I’d definitely make this again, and it’s nice enough to make for guests too. The little drizzle of cream on the salmon at the end (just before serving) gave it a little lusciousness, although almost once poured you couldn’t see it – it was only a teaspoon per serving. I’d definitely make this again. I don’t guarantee the flavors if you use anything but the red peppercorns. Black ones would be oh-too strong, for sure.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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An altogether different (for me anyway) way to use left over turkey. And it will likely become a favorite. Made especially easy because I was able to use our Thanksgiving turkey meat, and left over mashed potatoes too, which were taking up space in my refrigerator.

Not knowing anything about the history of the French word Parmentier, I looked it up online, only to find that, in culinary terms it means a potato on top, almost like a shepherd’s pie, or a cottage pie. The dish is named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French pharmacist, nutritionist, and inventor who, in the late 18th century, was instrumental in the promotion of the potato as an edible crop. So, that’s why (per wikipedia). The hachis part means chopped meat.

I read the recipe over at Susan Herrmann Loomis’ blog, On Rue Tatin. If you don’t know about her, you should. She’s an American, but went to live in France a long time ago now, wrote a book about her culinary experiences (very cute) including meeting her husband (I see that she doesn’t mention her husband on her About page, so perhaps she’s divorced now . . . don’t know . . . but she does have a couple of children). She lives in Normandy in the little town of Louviers, gives English-speaking cooking classes regularly if you’re interested and has written about 12 cookbooks.

My version of this – from the picture above – is a much more wet casserole – not exactly soupy, but certainly it oozed all over the plate. My mashed potatoes were very soft to begin with. But that made no difference to the flavor.

One of the things that stood out in my mind as I was reading Susan’s blog, was her little quip that “ . . . . sprinkling Gruyere cheese on almost everything that goes in the oven is a French custom. . .”  Having visited the Gruyere cheese factory (a very small place considering the volume of cheese sold ‘round the world with its name on it – hence I always buy the imported, the “real” Gruyere), and since I had a chunk of the cheese in my refrigerator already, it was a no-brainer I’d make this.

It took about 10 minutes to create the casserole: first I sautéed the onion (Susan used a red onion, I used a yellow) in a bit of oil and butter. While that cooked briefly I shredded the turkey meat and shredded the Gruyere. Into the casserole dish went the mostly cooked onion with a tiny sprinkling of cheese (I was remembering Susan’s comment about the cheese). I sprinkled the top with a little bit of salt, pepper and a light dusting of powdered bay leaf. Then I added all the turkey meat, with another light sprinkling of cheese. I drizzled the cream on top of that and added the little bit of turkey gravy (her recipe has you add stock – I used the gravy because I had a bunch in the refrigerator and never seem to know what to do with it except in reheated left over Thanksgiving dinner). Then using my hands to mush and squish the cold mashed potatoes, I gently placed the potatoes on top and tried to cover it barely and completely. I wanted a solid potato covering, but I didn’t want it to be thick, so I gently pushed and shoved the potatoes so it would be a solid slate of them. If you have youngsters to feed, you’ll likely want a much deeper potato layer, which is fine! The bulk of the grated cheese goes on top of the potatoes. Make sure the casserole is deep enough that the potatoes aren’t heaped above the edge or you’ll have a bit of bubbling overflow. Fortunately I put the casserole on another pan so the drips didn’t burn up in the oven!

We had pan-roasted Brussels sprouts with this, but any green veg would be fine, or even a salad. You could – I’m sure – use some left over veg inside this dish (like peas or broccoli) but I wanted to make it as true to Susan’s recipe as I could. I did make a few changes, but I hope they did nothing but enhance the flavors rather than detract from them!

One little caveat: I used the best-est turkey chunks (both breast and dark meat) from our kosher bird, which was super-moist and tender; I used the left over mashed potatoes which contained cream cheese, so they were rich-rich already. I used ample cheese (maybe more than Susan did – I didn’t weigh it – she used 2 ounces for a larger casserole, I think). I did use heavy cream, although I just added it into the meat section (not used in the potatoes as she did). Just know that it’s rich in fat grams.  Oh, I’d make it again in a second! But then, shepherd’s pie, which is so very similar to this, is also a particular favorite flavor-taste for me.

What’s GOOD: oh gosh, was this ever fantastic. For me – it’s all about the CHEESE. It absolutely “makes” this dish, in my opinion. Gruyere has such a unique flavor – it’s not a straight eating kind of cheese (at least not to me) but has a kind of sharp, yet deep nutty quality to it. I use some Gruyere or Emmental in my cheese fondue  recipe because it’s just the best combo for flavor. Anyway, the flavor in this dish is over-the-top delicious! This is going to go onto my list of Carolyn’s favs, and will be added to my usual Thanksgiving roundup under the section of left overs.
What’s NOT: not a single, solitary thing. It IS rich. Decadent, I suppose. A splurge in the calorie department.

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Pork Tenderloin is such a versatile meat and is also very quick and easy to prepare. We needed to eat dinner by 6pm (to leave to go to a concert) and I started dinner at 5 and everything was done at exactly 6:00. This version is quite simple and very tasty.

This time I searched at Eat Your Books to find a pork tenderloin recipe that would be (1) easy; and (2) quick. Success on both counts. I have Barbara Kafka’s book that’s all about roasting any kind of meat. It’s one I refer to whenever I’m doing some hunk of meat, so when her book popped up on the list, I looked at the ingredients needed – oh good – I had them all. If you’re at all tentative about the process of roasting, you might consider having her book in your repertoire: Roasting: A Simple Art.

This recipe required no more than combining a simple rub that went on first, then I gently rubbed olive oil into the meat as well. The spices are Moroccan in culture – hence the Tangiers in the title, but the spices are available everywhere. Nothing all that exotic – the recipe called for salt, cinnamon and cardamom. I added some turmeric and smoked pepper. Into a roasting pan it went, into a hot oven and in 20 minutes flat it was out of the oven and cooked perfectly. I tented the meat with foil and while the meat rested, I made a very simple sauce from the few pan drippings, adding some white wine and stock, and lastly adding in just a little bit of butter. So very easy. We’re trying to eat less and less red meat (although pork tenderloin is really, really lean to begin with), so this one tenderloin actually provided enough for us for 3 dinners. I sliced the meat thinly and widely diagonal, so we had the illusion of eating big pieces of meat, but it really wasn’t. Each serving had just a tiny bit of the sauce drizzled on top.

What’s GOOD: how quick and easy it was to make. Including the sauce at the end. I got everything ready so when the meat came out of the oven everything was right there to whisk together the sauce on the stove top. I quick-like made a vegetable and a salad, and dinner was ready. Love it when that happens. Taste was nice – this isn’t an off-the-charts kind of dinner, but it was good for sure.
What’s NOT: nothing, really.

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You know pudding cake, right? That mysterious chemistry that happens when you combine certain baking ingredients and it makes its own sauce – like magic! I’ve had chocolate pudding cake and lemon pudding cake (here on my blog it’s called a Lemon Sponge Pudding), and count them as favorites of mine, but oh, this one. Wait till you try it.

Since it’s October, my thoughts turn to Fall. I love Fall. Here in Southern California, though, it comes late and doesn’t last long. My physical calendar says yes, October is Fall, but real Fall doesn’t arrive here, usually, until November. As I write this we’ve had a couple of beautiful cooler days, but we’re anticipating Santa Ana winds which usually come with very high heat (winds blow in from the hot deserts). Most people dread them – they blow like hell. They wreak all kinds of minor havoc. Light weight things get tossed around back yards, into pools, get hung up in trees. And leaves and debris blow just everywhere. Weak limbs on trees and even whole trees can fall and block roads and down power lines. Often my internet connection is shaky. Why that should be I don’t know since the cable is underground. But it happens almost every time. And no, none of this is related to a hurricane – there is no water/rain associated with the Santa Ana winds. Here where we live, on a western-facing hill, the winds come roaring up and over the peak of the hill behind us, then create a twist and roll back to our yard and particularly our side patio. Birds hunker down and try to hold on. I don’t know how they manage to eat when we have the winds. Our awnings are pulled in, all our summer umbrellas are stowed, our rolling cart that lives on our patio is tied down. We keep towels on our patio, covering cushions to protect them from sun damage – if we didn’t take those in they’d all be flying up the road, off to neighbors’ yards, or caught in bushes. It’s crazy. We get these winds during the Fall and Spring mostly. And now is the season. We’ve been told we’ll have 3 days of winds – that’s a long one. If we’re lucky they last just one day. Not this time, I hear.

But it’s a good day to stay inside and bake, if you’re so inclined! I am going to bake bread today (one of those overnight no-knead types that I mixed up a couple of days ago). If it’s successful, I’ll post it. It’s a whole wheat rye loaf.

We expected a big crowd for our bible study group last week when I made this. We had 9 people, I think it was, and am so glad I made a double batch of this – that way we did have a bit of left overs. A couple of conscientious people decided not to have any. I couldn’t resist. I made some sweetened whipped cream to put on top, but didn’t take the time to photograph one, so I created a photo-worthy version the next day with some cream poured over.

The recipe comes from fellow blogger (and friend) Marie Rayner, who lives in England. I started reading her blog many years ago, A Year from Oak Cottage. Some years ago when we visited England, we visited Marie and her husband Todd (and their adorable then-puppy Mitzie) and went out to dinner together. Marie’s recipes are posted at her 2nd blog, The English Kitchen. Marie loves pudding cakes and explains on the blog post about this recipe about several of her other pudding cakes. When I made this I didn’t have enough milk, but I did have buttermilk, so I adapted the recipe. That meant I reduced the amount of baking powder and added baking soda – I also added just a tetch more fluid – I had to do that because the initial batter was so thick it couldn’t hardly hold all the flour. Hence I added more buttermilk.

Now, let’s get to this pudding cake. I am very long-winded this morning . . . this dessert is SO easy to make. You create a cake batter first (it’s just a bit on the stiff side), then you create the sauce part (a lot of brown sugar, water and butter). The batter is spread into a pan, the sauce part is poured over, then you dot the top with fresh chopped apples and walnuts. That’s it. Into the oven to bake for nearly an hour and it’s done.

Here at left you can see the different steps. The top photo shows the fairly stiff batter in the pan. The liquid was poured in after that and when you do that the batter starts to separate some. Blobs of batter float to the top. Don’t be dismayed by the appearance (I should have taken a picture of it at that point). Just persevere. The 2nd photo shows it ready to go in the oven, then below that that finished cake. At first – when I snapped the photo of that step, you could not see or feel the pudding part.

The cake cools for awhile and when I scooped into the pan to serve it, there is all that delicious, brown sugary caramel-like sauce in the bottom. Do spoon some of that sauce over each portion.

What’s GOOD: oh my goodness, everything about it. I just loved this dessert. Do note that a 8×8 pan only contains 2 T. of butter – so it’s very VERY low fat. It’s not low sugar, however. I should have made it with some Splenda, but often the first time I make things I want to make it according to the recipe. Since this is one of those mysterious chemistry things, I was afraid to change it much.

What’s NOT: gosh, nothing. Definitely a keeper.

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Hearty, comforting and healthy soup. There’s no cream in it – the broccoli provides the creamy texture. I know that sounds strange, but it’s true. Read on . . .

Rarely do I watch The Chew. The show is so fast-paced (frantic almost, like The View which I refuse to watch at all because they all talk over each other) and loud that I will only watch it on occasion and rarely do I ever try one of the recipes. A few over the years . . . but I know the show is well liked by many. When we were on our trip I happened to turn on TV and I tuned in to the program and Stacy London [a TV fashionista and co-host of the show What Not to Wear, another show I don’t watch] was making a soup. She had someone come to her home to cook for her and this recipe was borne of that professional relationship, as I understood it. Apparently, she had leftovers of both a healthy pureed broccoli soup and one with white beans and sausage and Stacy decided to combine the two. She loves it so much that she learned to make it herself and eats it by the gallon.

It’s no secret around here that I love soups. Not only for their ease (a meal in one pot) but soups are comforting and provide infinite variety. And often I add a little jot of cream to soups. This soup looked like it had cream in it, but it doesn’t. Nary a bit of cream or dairy at all. Basically you make 2 soups – a broccoli soup in one pot (which gets pureed and becomes the liquid in the other soup) and the spicy sausage and cannellini bean soup in the other. Once the broccoli soup is cooked through (takes no time at all) it’s whizzed up in the blender and then that’s added to the other. Because I had some mushrooms on hand, I added them, and I think I added some zucchini too, though neither of those were in the recipe.

The only fat in the entire soup is a tablespoon or two of olive oil to sauté the onions, the same for the chicken sausage soup plus whatever intrinsic fat is in chicken broth and the chicken sausage (not much, in other words).

Adapting the recipe a little, I added some fresh mushrooms and zucchini to the soup. Why not, I said? I wanted more veggies and texture since the broccoli is completely pureed. The recipes serves 8, and that’s about right – we had 2 dinners and 2 or 3 lunches out of the one preparation. I’m sure it would freeze well also.

What’s GOOD: I like that it’s a very healthy soup. I really had to work at it to taste the broccoli (and I like broccoli) since it’s pureed. You honestly think it’s a cream soup! My DH liked it a lot and told me each time I served it that it was really good. I felt the same way. A keeper. It’s not gourmet. It’s not over-the-top with flavor, but it’s just wholesome and good. It’s thick – you can see that from the photo. If you wanted a lighter soup, add more chicken broth and thin it some.
What’s NOT: nothing at all that I can think of.

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Don’t we all welcome an easy and tasty chicken dish you can cook in less than about 30 minutes? This isn’t going onto any taste hall of fame, but it’s good and hearty.

We ate a lot of fish on our travels to the Pacific Northwest. So much so that when we got home I wasn’t craving anything fishy at all, but wanted chicken. I do get tired of it sometimes too, but our first night home I wanted some fowl. We visited Costco for a new stash of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and I bought some fresh mushrooms. Everything else was in the kitchen pantry.

The recipe came from an Oprah show some years ago, when Cat Cora visited the program. What makes this preparation Greek is really just the cinnamon. The Greeks do eat pasta, though, so it’s kind of a cross between Italian and Greek. The original recipe suggests using orzo pasta, which the Greeks do love – almost more so than the Italians. My changes to the recipe were: (1) I added mushrooms just because; (2) I had some Pecorino-Romano cheese that needed using up, so I mixed it along with the freshly grated Parmigiano; and (3) I added some crumbled Feta cheese. I must say that of those changes, it was the Feta cheese (because of the saltiness, I think) that made this dish taste so good. I also added just a tetch more cinnamon too.

The original recipe called for chicken pieces (which probably is more traditionally Greek). I used chicken breasts, so I’ve changed the directions as breasts cook so much faster, of course. If I had chicken pieces, I’d just cook it longer with a lid on to help develop some good flavor in the sauce. Chicken breasts without bones don’t impart a lot of character/flavor to anything, unfortunately. But it was what I had, so that’s what I did. I was too lazy to hunt in my pasta stash for orzo, so I grabbed thin linguine (my go-to favorite pasta, actually). My DH was so happy to have some pasta – we eat very little of it – maybe once a month at most. And yes, it did taste good!

My only caution: don’t over cook the chicken – since it’s cut into strips, it doesn’t take long to cook through. Every minute cooked after that just makes chicken breast meat more dry. Keep that in mind as you brown the pieces, then simmer in the sauce for a short time. Meanwhile make the pasta and combine. Don’t forget that Feta cheese.

When I entered this recipe into MasterCook, it shows a very high sodium content. It must be the tomato paste. I buy a very low sodium brand (Hunt’s I think). The Feta cheese and both Italian cheese add sodium to the dish as well. Watch how much extra salt you add, that’s all.

What’s GOOD: how quick it was to make – it was a satisfying dish. Comforting. As I mentioned at top, since this sauce is based on tomato paste, it’s not overwhelming in other, good flavors. Next time I make it I’m going to use chicken broth instead of water.
What’s NOT: this isn’t going to win any flavor contests, but remember, this is a quick, easy dinner to make in a short time. Your family will be happy.

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Does this cake look like it’s sitting on a mirror? It isn’t really – it just mounded high in my bundt pan and sits awkwardly on it’s top/bottom and it happens that the chocolate swirl just looks quite reflective. Anyway, this is one of those easy cake-mix concoctions, and a winner it is. Read on . . .

If I’d ever heard of this cake before, I don’t recall it. But I was intrigued after reading Bonny Wolf’s book, Talking with My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Stories. I wrote up a post about it – I loved the book. Loved Bonny Wolf’s creative writing and the fun, witty and interesting stories she writes. Included in the book were a smattering of recipes. As I searched the internet for info about this cake I discovered than the genesis of it was a Pillsbury bake-off for that tunnel of fudge cake. Remember that? This is reminiscent of that cake, but it does not have the lava cake oozing in the middle as the bake-off recipe did. That cake called for a buttercream frosting packaged mix that Pillsbury no longer produces. So bakers have devised other recipes. This definitely isn’t one of those, so don’t be confused here. This cake is just a chocolate pistachio swirl cake.

A couple of days ago I gave you the recipe for the chocolate syrup. Oh, what a revelation that was! Home made chocolate syrup. I used 2/3 cup of it in this cake. The yellow (or white) cake mix batter is mixed with a pkg of instant pistachio pudding (the dry stuff, makes the batter quite green), then you add in orange juice (that was a bit different), oil, eggs, water, etc. Part is poured into the pan, then the remaining is mixed with the chocolate syrup, poured on top, swirled with a knife and baked. The finished cake has virtually no green tint to it – maybe the heat baked out the color, but I’ll tell you, when I started, the batter was definitely green!

Not wanting to over bake it, I researched the internal temp of baked cake – 190°. (Across the internet, recommendations varied between 190° and 214°, but the one suggesting the high temp was for a pound cake – I decided to go for the low temp.) So, with my oven at 350°, the cake took 55 minutes for me. I let it rest for 15 minutes, then inverted it. The recipe indicated to dust with powdered sugar. I didn’t do that part, as I was serving the cake at an outdoor music event (our local symphony performing music from Pixar movies) and we eat dessert at intermission, sitting in our seats along with cups of coffee and Bailey’s. Trying to dust with sugar at that point just would be too difficult. All 6 of us who had the cake raved about it though, with or without the sugar!

What’s GOOD: the cake is incredibly moist. The kind of moist that is hard to get outside of using a cake mix. It was quite easy to make. I did make the chocolate syrup (but you don’t have to) as well. The cake kept very well for several days. The chocolate flavor will depend entirely on the brand and type of cocoa you use. Mine was a higher fat Natural Dutch Process cocoa (24%) from Penzey’s. Or use Hershey’s Special Dark. Everyone liked the chocolaty flavor.
What’s NOT: nothing other than I don’t keep instant pistachio pudding on hand, so a trip to the market was required!

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Well, the pan wasn’t quite dry, but almost. Just a little dab of butter was used to pan roast these delicious little beauties. It can’t get much easier than these.

Catching up on all the blogs I read is a steady, ongoing thing for me – I read so many, and if I let it get away from me, I’ll have over a thousand to read. Definitely over the top, and almost depressing to me – makes me feel like I can’t ever catch up! I can power-read occasionally – because it’s something I don’t like, or don’t think I’ll like, or it’s a subject not-dear to my heart. But when I read the Food52 blog pieces, generally I’m clicking over to the actual story and recipe on nearly every post. And they post several a day.

Perhaps you’ve already done these beans before – I never had, and it boggles my mind that you can actually cook green beans in nearly a dry skillet. Yup! The recipe is Spanish in origin, and a simpler method could hardly be found! Penelope Casas posted it on Food 52 recently. Mine, in the photo up top there, got a tad overdone, but they were still so tasty that my DH ate every single one on his plate before I could blink an eye, just about. And I finished off mine in a jiffy as well, before I even took a bite of the pork chops. And talk about easy.

Melt a little bit of butter, heat the pan to medium-high, toss in a bunch of cleaned, stem-trimmed green beans (dry them off well if you’ve washed them) and stir them around. In a few minutes they’ll begin to brown – you want those toasted brown spots on them. Not black, but several little strips of dark brown is just how you want them to be. Then, put a lid on it and turn down the heat. The instructions are specific – resist the temptation to add water, or anything at all. Just turn down the heat and cover, and cook them for about 15 minutes (depending on the size of the beans – if they’re those tiny haricot verts, less time will be needed). The moisture from the beans themselves will steam them done. Really. Yes. It works. Trust me. Then you toss them with the garlic and salt, and they’re ready to serve. Just like that.

What’s GOOD: How incredibly easy they were to make, and yes, I did want to put a little bit of water in that pan, but could hear the directive in my head – resist the temptation, the voice said. Delicious. I almost dare you not to like them! And yes, I’ll definitely be making them again. Sooner rather than later, if that tells you anything.

What’s NOT: Nothing at all – maybe just being careful about the heat levels – not too hot when you’re browning them (no burning) and then much lower when you’re cooking them (no burning then, either).

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The phone rang . . .

“Hi Carolyn, this is Cherrie. [we chatted, then] Do you have a good recipe for a broccoli cheese soup that I could make to take on our camping trip?”

At first, I said I didn’t, but then a light bulb went off . . .oh yes, I do. But I haven’t made it in years and years. I went to my computer to look at my MasterCook recipe files, and yes, there it was. Hiding in my soup section, lost and forlorn. It was old enough that I didn’t have a photo of it (I really only started taking food photos about 10-12 years ago).

When I tell you this recipe is EASY, trust me. Someone in my office, back in the early 90’s made this one day for a potluck Thanksgiving lunch we did. She brought it in in her crockpot and just let it sit on warm until lunchtime and we all had some. Everybody loved it, and once I got the recipe, I realized how incredibly easy it is to make. You can use frozen chopped broccoli (the original recipe did), but I use fresh. You can find lots of variations on the theme all over the internet. Some people use garlic powder, some use different kinds of milk or milk powder, others have little or no onion, some use American cheese (which is really a lot like Velveeta, which is what the recipe calls for). This is a first here on my blog – the Velveeta cheese. Not something I ever – EVER – have on my pantry shelf! It contains a little bit of trans-fats. Not so good, but that cheese is just what you want in this soup. I’ve never tried it with any other kind of cheese – Fontina is a good melting – and disbursing – kind of cheese. If you don’t want to use Velveeta, try Fontina. Don’t use cheddar, as it doesn’t melt well. Don’t use mozzarella either. So many cheeses do melt, but then clump. Not what you want. If you want to upscale it, Gruyere probably would work also as a melting cheese, since it’s a frequent cheese used in fondue.

Here’s what you do – melt some butter, add chopped onion and cook 3-4 minutes, adding a clove of garlic at the last. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add the egg noodles (original recipe called for more noodles, I prefer less) and cook 3-4 minutes. Then add the chopped broccoli stems; a couple minutes later the chopped broccoli tops. Cook that a couple minutes, then add milk (original called for 6 cups, I use 4) and cheese. Stir constantly until it’s smooth and all the cheese has melted. (The photo above I took just after adding the cheese which hasn’t melted yet.) Done. Serve. This soup comes together in about 20 minutes tops. If you want, serve with a piece of cheese toast, a roll, an English muffin.

What’s GOOD: how EASY it is. Very tasty and relatively low calorie too, although with the cheese, it does have some fat. Texture is not thick, but it’s not thin, either. Just right. The night I made this, it was a cool summer evening and the soup was perfect. My DH loved it. Obviously I did too. The recipe makes a lot of soup.
What’s NOT: gee whiz, nothing. Easy to make. Tasty. A transfat cheese may not be what you want to eat, so substitute Fontina. I’ve never frozen this soup – it might be just fine. Let me know if you try it.

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MasterCook 5 file and MasterCook 14 file

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