Green & Red Veggie Soup.....by Shell

I have a love/hate relationship with winter.  While I am enchanted with the beauty, I abhor being cold.  This winter has seen more below zero weather than normal.  My common mantra has become: "She's killing me!", meaning Mother Nature. I'm afraid my face is going to stuck on a grimace, I'm so used to gritting my teeth and bracing my whole body for the blustery bitterness. 

I found the perfect cure for winter!  This wonderful winter soup is so easy and scrumptious, it will warm your soul and make you (almost!) look forward to a lovely cold winter day where you can curl up with a great book and feel nourished inside and out. It is not entirely vegetarian, as it has chicken stock, but substitute your favorite veggie stock and vegetarians celebrate!



Green & Red Veggie Soup

1/2 of a large red onion

1 bunch of celery

1 large bunch of broccoli

4 T. olive oil

2 T. garlic

2 T. parsley

1 T. oregano

2 t. celery salt

4 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 small cans of tomato paste

2 T. Parmesan cheese

1 can of peas or the equivalent in fresh peas

 

Chop up 1/2 a red onion, a whole celery and a large bunch of broccoli.  Saute' in olive oil until tender.  Add 2 T. of garlic for the last couple of minutes.  Then add 2 T. parsley, 1 T. oregano and 2 t. celery salt. 

In a soup pot, mix together 4 1/2 cups of chicken broth, 2 small cans of tomato paste, 2 T. Parmesan cheese and one can of peas.  Bring to a simmer and stir, then add your celery/broccoli/red onion mixture.   

Top with homemade croutons!

Fun With Nutella and Other Mixed Nuts by Shell

 I realized I was in trouble when I was elbows deep in a Sam’s Club sized jar of Nutella and consuming it with a zeal I hadn’t possessed about anything in my life for the past seven years.  What is it about nuts combined with vanilla or chocolate and whipped into submission then put in a jar for consumption?  I could live on this stuff!  Combine it with peanut butter and put in on my all time favorite food of all – the humble toast - and even the pickiest of them will be singing Hallelujah! 

It was at this moment of enlightenment when I simultaneously realized with horror that not only did I have this giant jar of chocolate hazelnut spread, but I also owned a pretty good sized jar of vanilla hazelnut spread from World Market.  How did this end up in my cupboard?  I needed to do something fast!  Running to turn on my oven, I accidentally passed by the mirror and noticed my face was smeared with chocolate….I looked like a crazy person!  I grabbed 3 overripe bananas on the counter and my Mom’s cookbook: “From Blueberries to Wild Roses” and made quick work of an altered recipe:

Put the Spoon Down! Banana Bread with Whipped Nut Spreads

1/2 cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1 stick of butter/softened

3 ripe bananas, smushed

1/3 c. nutella + ¼ c. vanilla hazelnut spread (or whatever you have on hand)

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

1¾ c. flour

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

¾ t. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Combine sugars, butter, bananas, egg, vanilla, nutella and vanilla hazelnut spread.  Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl.   Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix.  Put in a bread pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until center is done.  Cool completely before serving.  This bread is great with some cinnamon sugar toasted pecans on top (if you have them handy). 

Thanks Mom, you’re the best!!!

Food - Life - Food...by Shell

Food has always been a common theme in our family.  From my Mom writing her cookbook, to our family owning a café, to my husband and I running a pizza parlor, great food runs in our veins, nourishes our body and soul and can make a good day turn great. 

I have had a love/hate relationship with food for some of my life in that my body does not require much of it for survival, however; my entire being craves it for its own necessity.

In most careers that I have been in, food is either a theme, main money motivator, or what the whole office revolves around.  The most mundane job I had, in a cubicle processing insurance forms, actually had an entire cafeteria inside of it.  I would look with envy and confusion as my co-workers would down whole turkey dinners and return to work without falling asleep at their desks.  They would munch hot dogs, smothered with cheese and bacon, with a healthy helping of crinkle cut fries without batting a mascaraed eye lash.  I mostly ate fruit salad or soup.  Sometimes I would just have a little packet of oyster crackers and call it good.  However, this cafeteria had one redeeming quality: pita bread that was so pillowy and chewy, it would make you weep.  I would treat myself once a week to this delight, warmed on the grill and filled with roasted veggies or chicken.  The pita bread steamed when pulled apart and was a culinary delight if combined with red peppers, black olives, grilled onions and sometimes chicken. It truly was the one and only highlight of this job.

Along with owning the pizza parlor, I am a technical services librarian at the library in my town.  You would think that pictures of food in cookbooks would be the only food here.  Not so!  The many patrons in our town share their baking adventures with us willingly.  Often we have lots of treats to choose from and not your average sandwich cookie.  Oh, no, we are treated to the likes of thick lemon bars, cinnamon sugar donut bread, white chocolate dipped pretzels and cherry coffee cake among other delights.  We can wash it down with fair trade organic coffee graciously supplied by the Friends of the Library.  If that isn’t enough, soon after I started this job, my boss showed me the “chocolate drawer”.  Yes, we have an entire drawer filled with giant gourmet chocolate bars. 

I think I am destined to a life revolving around food, a fact I actively avoided for some years.  I no longer run away from it, but actively embrace it.  And, if it makes me blue, I can find easy solace in a giant chocolate bar – I know where to find them.

28 layers of delicious

Imagine a delicately sweet cake made of layer after layer of thin crispy crepes, filled between each is a delicious vanilla bean pastry creme.  Just a small piece of this wonderful dessert is all the comfort food I need.

For many years crepes have been our traditional Chrismas day treat, but only recently have I transformed them into a cake.

Preparing this masterpiece requires only some crepe-making skills and the courage to believe that you can sucessfully stack them to create the many layered cake.

Begin with a crepe batter which has been well-chilled.  Heat the skillet over medium high, adding only a small pat of butter.  Pour about 3 tablespoons of batter into the hot skillet and swirl until a thin layer of batter covers the whole bottom of the pan.  Cook until the edges curl in a bit and become a lovely golden brown.  

Flip this thin crepe over and let it toast a little longer.

Repeat until you have 20 to 30 crispy beautiful crepes (the number of crepes you have depends on the size pan used - I used an eight inch pan and made 30 crepes).

To create the cake, simply place a crepe on a plate, spread with the lovely pastry creme and add another crepe.

Continue to stack the crepes, filling with the creme until, magically, you have a cake!

Dust lightly with powdered sugar; chill for a couple of hours...and serve!

Crepes:

6 tablespoons butter

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

3 large eggs

3 cups flour

Heat butter until it begins to turn a light golden brown, remove from heat.

Heat milk (don't let it boil-remove from heat just before boiling).

Combine flour, salt, sugar and eggs.  Mix well.

Combine butter and milk, and pour slowly into flour mixture, stirring.

(I do most of this in the food processor, but it can be done by hand mixing too)

Cool this batter for at least one hour.

To prepare crepes, follow directions above.

September? Apple Pie, of course!

September and apple pie are synonymous to me.  The wonderful aroma of apples, spices, and buttery crust.......mmmmmm.

The pie, cooling, is irresistible.  Happiness!

O 

Pie crust fitted perfectly into my dish.

Apples peeled and sliced, begging to be placed inside that delicious crust.

Just enough apples for a pie and an extra dish of applesauce.

Apples, still on the tree, waiting just for me.

What I Adore About September~by Shell

Even though summer is my favorite time of year, fall is pretty much tied.  Who can resist an autumn day filled with bright colors and wonderful food? 

Best things about September:

·         Back to school.  I think of back to school as the beginning of the year~not Jan. 1^st!  Everything about going back to school is great.  It’s a fresh start. New outfits (love!) and school supplies also top my list on this category. What’s not to adore about a great fashionable ensemble and newly sharpened pencils with brand spanking new notebooks?  As a returning student, I have my online classes to look forward to as well as meeting new classmates. 

Outfit Inspiration Blog: http://suburbly-chic.tumblr.com/ 

·         Hiking and Biking.  The best time of year, in my opinion to hike and bike.  The trails are less crowded and the cool air in your lungs makes for a restorative joyful feeling in your soul! My husband and I love to find new waterfalls in the UP of Michigan, just over our border.

Waterfalls in Michigan:

http://www.gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/maps/statemichigan.shtml 

·         Baking!   As soon as the temperature hits 60 I dust off my cupcake pans and cookie sheets and start pouring over recipes on Pinterest.  I long for apple crisp, granola and, like Ter~anything pumpkin!

 

                  Heather (shesdomestic) on has a whole board on Nutella!

http://www.pinterest.com/shesdomestic/nutella/ 

·         Shorter Hours!  Less work and more time to cuddle up with a great book.  Alas, there are benefits to living in a tourist town!

Spend your down time having fun with this hilarious read:

           “Where’d you go, Bernadette?” By Maria Semple

How do you enjoy September?  Share with us!

SEPTEMBER

September, how do I love thee? ..........

In so many ways, this month is, for me, about love and about color.

This is the month I married my beloved, a short 51 years ago.  In September, my first child was born and I fell in love again.  A second child arrived 3 years later, and he too, stole my heart.

Over the years this month has brought our family so many special occasions-weddings, anniversaries and birthdays...times to cherish each other and time to spend together.

September feels soft, warm and familiar to me- nature's colors pausing to soften from the brilliance and lushness of summer before bursting into the flaming colors of fall.  September is a changeling-part summer, part autumn, letting the deep green pallet of the forest turn softly into lighter, muted greens . She softens the hue of a brilliant blue sky a bit and adds a little more breeze to create playful, darting shadows in the woods, much like the fairies my granddaughters love.

Transition begins in September.....charming me once again, just as those sweet members of my family can charm me into falling in love with them all over again!