Pumpkin Leek Soup

Fall time always makes me think of soups, and I'm sharing my number one favorite!  It probably isn't one I would have tried on my own, even though it sounded interesting.  I first tried it when my sister made it for a family craft night a few years ago and I fell in love!  She got it from a small restaurant in Salt Lake and it is now a favorite of my family (other than my husband who can't eat dairy - he is really missing out!)  It is quite easy to make.  Serve with a crisp salad and crusty bread for a delicious meal.  Enjoy!

Pumpkin Leek Soup

              4 Tbsp butter                                                       ¼ tsp white pepper

            2 lg leeks, white part only, cleaned                      2 c pumpkin purée

               and thinly sliced                                                4 c chicken broth

            2 tsp dried thyme                                                 2 Tbsp brown sugar

            ½ tsp nutmeg                                                       1-1/2 c half-and-half

            1 tsp salt

           

            Garnish: 

            dollops of sour cream                                   grated Monterey Jack or white Cheddar

            chopped fresh chive                                        cheese

In large saucepan, heat butter and sauté leeks for 8-10 minutes on low heat, stirring often.  Leeks should be soft and lightly golden.  Add thyme, nutmeg, salt, white pepper, pumpkin, chicken broth and brown sugar.  Stir, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Taste for seasoning.  Add half-and-half and simmer another 10 minutes.  Serve with sour cream, fresh chopped chives and/or grated cheese on top.  Serves 6-8.

Kentucky Peach Cobbler

Kentucky Peach Cobbler was one of the favorite desserts my mom made when we were growing up!  We had peach trees and I loved the fall when we got to enjoy peach cobbler and peach ice cream (look under desserts, Granny's Homemade Fruit Ice Cream for the peach variation...yummy!)  Even canning peaches was (kind of) enjoyable.  Lots of good times together.  I'm apologizing in advance for some of the pictures.  They didn't turn out really well - sorry.  I'll see if I can get some hints from my daughter-in-law who is a professional photographer and is coming to visit tomorrow.  Can't wait to see her, my son and my cute little granddaughter!   

Ok, so you probably know the quick way to peel peaches, but just in case you haven't tried this, put peaches in a pan of simmering water for about 15 seconds.  

Remove with slotted spoon or tongs.

Let cool a few seconds or put under cool water and rub peach with fingers and voila!  

The skin comes right off.

Slice the peaches and cover with the sugar.  Set aside.  

Bad picture, but you get the idea.  Put butter in a 9" pan (I doubled my recipe in a 9" x 13" pan because we love this!) and melt butter in the oven or in the microwave.

Combine the remaining ingredients to make the batter.  It will be thin.

Another bad picture...spoon the batter over the butter.  Do Not Stir!

Carefully add the peaches on top and again, Do Not Stir!

Bake about 1 hour until the top is light brown.  I like the edges best because they are nice and crispy.  Serve with ice cream if desired.  Mmmm...enjoy!

Kentucky Peach Cobbler

2 c fresh sliced peaches (or frozen)              2 tsp baking powder

1 c sugar                                                       ½ tsp salt

½ c butter (no substitute)                              1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 c flour                                                         sprinkle nutmeg

 ¾ c sugar                                                     3/4 c milk

Preheat oven to 375º F.  Slice peaches into bowl and cover with 1 c sugar; set aside.  In 9” square pan, melt butter and let cool.  Make a batter from remaining ingredients.  Batter will be thin.  Spoon carefully over melted butter.  Do not stir!  Gently add peaches.  Do not stir!  Bake about 1 hour at 375º  F. until top is light brown.  Can serve with vanilla or peach ice cream.  Blackberries, apples or cherries may be used instead of peaches.

 

Utah Quilt Fest 2012

The Utah Quilt Fest was held in St. George this year, and as usual, was a wonderful event.  I have taken pictures of some quilts in the quilt show and some quilts from 2 of the national teachers and a collection from a fabulous Utah quilter which I will post later.  For now, enjoy the fabulous quilts from the quilt show!

This is by Annie Unrein entitled "My Bed is Like a Little Boat".  It was made as a challenge quilt.  Look at the rules below.  I am so impressed with her creativity and interpretation!

A stunning variation of the New York Beauty by Kaye Evans.

Isn't this a fun quilt, with fantastic quilting by Lea Hardee.

"Bali Wedding Star" by Barbara Walsh.  Gorgeous!

"Autumn Birches" by Sue Gilgen.  Someday I'd like to learn how to do landscapes.  

Amazing work.

"Cinco de Mayo" by Lorna Toone.

A close up of the appliqué border and beautiful hand quilting.

"Primitive Sampler" by Karen Martindale, quilted by Carmen Geddes.

"Dandilions Yellow" by Kaye Evans, quilted by Sue McCarty.  A cute story was posted with this quilt.  It was inspired by her 2 young grandsons who picked bouquets for their mothers.  The oldest bearing flowers and the youngest bringing the stems.

"Halloween Baltimore" by Pat Peters.

Close up of the center block.

Love the bat border and the wonderful hand quilting.

Another quilt by Pat Peters called "Christmas Baltimore".

Closer look of one of the blocks.

Holly border and again, amazing hand quilting.

"Leap of Faith" by Judie Weiss

Close up of the 3 dimensional flowers in the flyinggeese.  Very creative!

"Daisy" by Patti VanOordt and Cory Allender

"Aunt Millie's Garden" by Cathie Purdy

Love the quilting with the yellow thread.

Close up of one of the blocks.  Great use of color!

Hope you enjoyed this look at the quit show.

Basil Broccoli-Cauliflower Salad

Want a little different vegie salad?  This is a great fresh, crisp salad with a wonderful flavor.

In a large salad bowl, mix together the mayo (I use Best Foods Real Mayonaisse - or Helamanns east of the Rockies.  I'm a food snob with certain ingredients and mayo is one of them.  No other brand tastes as good!) sugar, basil and salt.

Cut broccoli and cauliflower.  You can used the pre-cut pieces, but you will need to cut them smaller into bite size pieces.  Stir into the dressing.

If you have never used jicama before, you are in for a pleasant surprise.  It is nice and crispy with a mild flavor.  Try adding them to your veggie trays!  Pick a medium size that is firm and relatively smooth.  Cut in half.

Peeling it can be a little tricky.  Pull back an edge with a small paring knife till you can grab it, then slowly pull.  Sometimes the peel breaks.  Just grab another edge and pull.  Cut off any parts that won't peel.

 

 

                    Julienne the jicima, chop the red onion and add to the salad.

Stir well, cover and refrigerate for a few hours till well chilled.

Cook bacon till crisp.  Cut into small pieces.  Don't stir in until just before serving.

When ready to serve, stir in bacon.  Serve from the bowl, or on individual plates lines with a few leaves of lettuce.  Enjoy!
 

Broccoli Cauliflower Basil Salad

5 c bite-size broccoli florets                               1-1/3 c mayonnaise

3 c bite-size cauliflower florets                           1/4 c sugar

1/2 medium jicama, julienned                            1-1/2 tsp dried sweet basil

1/2 medium red onion, julieened                        1/2 tsp salt

8 slices bacon, crisply cooked & crumbled

In large salad bowl, mix together mayo, sugar, basil & salt.  Add vegetables.  Refrigerate several hours to blend flavors.  Just before serving, add bacon.  Serves 8-10.

White Chocolate Cream with Raspberries

Fresh raspberries are my favorite fruit and when they came on sale, I had to buy a case.  I wanted to make something delicious and creamy with the raspberries.  After looking through my recipes, I just couldn't find quite what I was looking for so I set out to combine four recipes:  White Chocolate Truffles, Bavarian Creme, Nanaimo Bars (you Canucks know what those are) and raspberry sauce.  Okay...it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  Five tries later, I think this combination finally worked.  (Yup, I had to go buy some more raspberries, especially since my husband was eating them as fast as I could rinse them.)  Thanks to my brother and his family for their taste testing and feedback.  Unfortunately, they didn't get to try the final product.  As I was taking the plate out of the frig to run over to them, the frig door hit my arm and kersplat!  It ended up all over the floor.  Sorry bro.  Aren't some days just like that?  Let me know what you think!

 White Chocolate Cream with Raspberries

18 oz raspberries (3 cups)                                          3 c whipping cream

Crust:                                                                        2 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp butter, melted                                                  2 tsp light corn syrup

1/8 c sugar                                                                2 c (12 oz pkg) white chocolate chips

2 Tbsp cocoa                                                             1/2 tsp vanilla (mexican pure is best)

3/4 c graham cracker crumbs                                    Raspberry topping:

1/2 c slivered almonds, slightly crushed                     1/2 c sugar 

1/2 c sweetened & flaked coconut                              1 Tbsp cornstarch

Cream Filling:                                                          1/4 c water

3 tsp Knox unflavored gelatin                                      2 of the 3 c of raspberries

1/4 c cold water 

Carefully rinse raspberries and lay on clean towel or paper towel to dry.  Meantime, mix sugar and cocoa together in small bowl.  Add melted butter and rest of crust ingredients.  Stir to combine and press in bottom of 8" x 8" pan.   Put in frig while making cream filling.

In small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over cold water.  Let sit while combining whipping cream, butter and corn syrup in medium saucepan over medium heat.  After butter melts, add gelatin mixture and bring to a full boil.  Remove from heat and pour in white chocolate chips.  Gently cover with cream but don't stir.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Whisk the mixture till smooth.  Whisk in vanilla.  Put in frig or ice bath until cool.  Carefully spoon over crust and refrigerate 2 - 3 hours until set. 

In small saucepan stir together sugar and cornstarch.  Add water and 2 of the 3 cups of raspberries.  Crush the raspberries and stir over medium heat until sauce thickens.  You can strain the seeds out in a fine mesh strainer if you would like.  I don't mind the seeds, so I left them.  Cool.  Place the 1 cup of fresh raspberries over the top of the set cream filling.  Carefully spoon sauce over raspberries.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Cut into pieces to serve.   Enjoy!

Garden Fresh Italian Marinara Sauce

When my brother and his family lived in Italy, their Italian neighbor taught my sister-in-law how to make real marinara sauce from scratch.  I didn't care much for marinara sauce until I tasted the real stuff!  It was not an exact recipe - the neighbor taught her to just pour olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, add onions, etc.  and that is how my sister-in-law has made it ever since - just throwing in the amount of ingredients that look right.  With a lot of help from her, I have tried to come up with some measurements.  This recipe is very versatile and you can change some ingredients to meet your tastes.

Pour a good quality olive oil into the bottom of a heavy saucepan.  I doubled this recipe, so I used a big pot and froze the extra.  Turn heat onto medium high.  Chop onion into small pieces (I use a food processor).  When oil is hot, add onion and cook till light golden brown.  (5 to 10 minutes)  You can also add minced garlic and/or green peppers at this point.  Or you could leave out the onions and just use garlic if you want. (Garlic cooks faster than onions, so don't cook as long.) 

Add tomatoes, basil and salt.  Don't puree the tomatoes - leave them a little chunky.  You can use any tomatoes you would like, though the preferred tomato is the Roma because it has a lower water content than other tomatoes.  If you use a different kind of tomato or a combination, just let it simmer longer to reduce the water.  Bring the sauce to a simmer and turn the heat down to keep the sauce at a slow simmer for about 30 minutes or until sauce is reduced to the thickness you want.  (It will not be a paste type sauce.)  You may need to simmer for up to 2-3 hours depending on the tomatoes and how thick you like it.   Stir occasionally.  You could also add oregano if you like. 

Your house will smell so good!  Spoon over your favorite pasta or use as a dipping sauce for bread sticks or rolls.  Mmmm.....delizioso!  Enjoy!

Garden Fresh Italian Marinara Sauce

          1/3 c olive oil                                              1 Tbsp salt

          1/2 onion                                                    4-5 basil leaves, chopped

          6 c Roma tomatoes, cut in chunks

Pour oil in heavy medium size pan.  Turn heat to medium high.  Chop onion by hand or in food processor and add to oil when oil is hot.  Cook for 5-10 minutes until onions  are light golden brown.   Put tomatoes in food processor.  Pulse a few times until they are in small pieces.  Don't puree.  Pour into pan.  Add salt and chopped basil leaves.   Bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat to keep at a low simmer.  Simmer, stirring occasionally,  for 30 minutes or until reduced to thickness you like.  Can add garlic and/or green pepper with/or instead of onions.  Can also add oregano if desired.  Any tomato can be used, but simmer longer to reduce the higher water content.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

This is a classic red salsa with a delicious fresh taste.  I prefer a hand food processor so the salsa is still a little chunky.  It is much easier to control the cutting when using a hand food processor.  They sometimes are hard to find in stores, but you can easily find them at Amazon.com.  Try to get one with a curved blade - they cut more easily.

Fresh Tomato Salsa

          1/2 orange, juiced                                 1/2 Tbsp salt

          1/4 lime, juiced                                     1/2 small jalapeno, sliced (remove seeds for mild)

          2 cloves garlic, minced                          1/4 med onion, cut into chunks

          10 sprigs of cilantro                               4 med roma tomatoes, cut in chunks

Place all ingredients except tomatoes in food processor and cut into fine pieces.  Add tomatoes and process until tomatoes are in small pieces, but still chunky.  (If using electric food processor, be careful to just pulse a few short times.)  Serve immediately or refrigerate until  serving.  Also delicious with avocado.  Just cut an avocado into small pieces and stir into salsa by hand.  Enjoy!