Feb 26, 2014 | Fashion, Food, Hobbies, kittens |
Last week me and The Other came down with the flu. We still did SOUP-er Fridays, but switched to an easier soup than what was originally planned. We ended up making Cheddar Broccoli soup, which I normally don’t like, but this was good. Better than the Tomatoe Cream soup, but still not as good as the Beef Barley Soup.
Over the weekend I had a cat show. In between selling my own wares I was able to shop for some items for me. The best part of the show was when I found a show that stole silly kitty hats! Everyone who knows me will know how much I love 1. – wearing hats, and 2. – dressing up my cats. It’s the best of both worlds!! I also found another booth that sold human hats so I got one for myself as well (see point #1)
There was another shop that sold embroidered shirts…and embroidered toilet paper. Now there is something you have to buy when you see it. This is something rappers would have in their house – Ridiculous!!
I also found another use for my metal Starbucks card – is there anything that card can’t do!
I ate dinner Saturday night with my cousin and her husband at a Vietnamese restaurant. I had never tried Vietnamese food before but I really liked it. I had the Beef Rice Noodle Soup. The serving was HUGE and I had enough for 3 leftovers.
Feb 18, 2014 | Food |
So I’m a little late in posting this but it was Valentine’s Day! And I may have had a glass or two of wine…….
Regardless – here it is now! The second installment of SOUP-er Fridays! This week we made Creamy Tomato Soup. It was good, I ate it with grilled cheese (duh!) The soup was a little thicker than I like of my tomato soups – almost like eating pasta sauce! For the leftovers, The Other recommended I add more cream and that helped out a bit to make it more soupy and palatable.
And special thanks to Jackie for my Christmas gift of a PlatyPreserve!!! It can hold a full bottle of wine (although this time it only had to hold half). No messing with corks and its doing an awesome job of keeping the slight carbonation in my delicious Moscato.
Feb 8, 2014 | Food |
I found this magazine last time I went to Mariano’s. I really love soup so I picked it up and went home to mark which ones I would like to try. Upon handing the magazine to “The Other” so he could begin preparing me my food he asked if it wouldn’t have been easier just to mark the soups I DIDN’T want to try. Perhaps – but that isn’t my style!
After further discussion in which I told him that every Friday we would cook a soup from the magazine and he rolled his eyes I picked the first soup – Beef Barley Soup. Probably my all time favorite soup.
I had a lot of fun shopping for the ingredients for this soup and couldn’t wait to try it. It was going to be a long soup – especially since we opted to make the stock from scratch rather than buy it in a box/can
The first step was to soften the onions and brown the bones and beef for the stock. It was a long process – especially the bones.
After that you added some more ingredients (red wine, bay leaf, etc) and let the stock simmer for 2 hours!
Once the stock was done, you strained out the onions, beef and bones, keeping the beef aside to add to the soup later. Ideally we would have let the stock cool (at least overnight if not longer) so we could de-fat it. However this was dinner and I was way to excite to care about a little extra fat or a slightly foggy broth.
The other ingredients for the soup were barley (obviously), mushrooms, carrots, onions, diced tomatoes, thyme, and the beef!
The beef was delicious after being slow cooked for 2 hours. Even with little to no seasoning it was fantastic! I can tell you I ate more than a little while prepping the other ingredients. Brutus like it as well.
Once the ingredients went it, it was another hour of simmering until the soup was ready. Luckily I filled up on all that beef during prep 🙂
The final product was delicious. My only complaint was that the beef to vegetable ratio was off (we had added all the beef since we didn’t have another use for it, but you were only supposed to add 2 cups). I know its a silly complaint – too much beef? how can that be? But here we are. I think in the future I am going to serve it over some egg noodles or mashed potatoes. Carbs will help – carbs always help!
Brutus on the other hand had no complaints except that he didn’t get enough beef. Here is him in a sleepy stupor
Jul 14, 2010 | Hobbies |
This is one of the best desserts I have made up with leftovers in my house ever. Basically the idea was hatched after I bought 2 boxes of Sweet N Sara Vegan Marshmallows in anticipation of rice krispie treats. I made a batch and everyone thought they were good but not necessarily good enough for a second batch. Now let me just point out that these marshmallows are delicious and good enough to just eat or make smores with or whatever but I’m trying to be creative so I wanted to up my game.
K threw out some ideas of things that would be good on marshmallows – peanut butter, chocolate – so I tasked him with creating a delicious treat that I could scarf.
sorry for the bad picture, it was taken with an iphone.
So the basic construction is a Sweet N Sara Vegan Marshmallow, dab of peanut butter, with chocolate drizzled over the top. If you want to spice it up you can add a Keebler Town House Flipsides cracker to the bottom but this step is totally optional
These treats are best enjoyed at room temperature and the name (thought up by K) is because they are so delicious they are almost deadly!! (However you absolutely must try them!!)
So the recipe (no exact measurements, its all kinda to taste)
Sweet n Sara Vegan Marshmallows Original Flavor
Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter Creamy
Keebler Town House Flipside Crackers Original Flavor (optional)
On a baking sheet or plate, place the marshmallows separated from each other. (If you want to utilize the crackers, place them under the marshmallows at this point, we did half a cracker per “mushroom”) Place a teaspoon of peanut butter on top of the marshmallow. Put in the refrigerator.
In a small saucepan melt 1 cup of chocolate chips over the stove. You need to stir constantly and watch it close or it will break. You could use a double boiler here if you have one (or stack two pots like we do). You can also add a bit of heavy cream or milk to the mixture (start with a teaspoon, stir, add more if necessary) to help the chips melt.
when the chocolate is melted take the Mushrooms in training out of the fridge. Pour a bit of chocolate (about a tablespoon) over the top of the mushroom so it coats the peanut butter and top of the marshmallow and starts to drip down the side.
Let cool so chocolate hardens before eating and enjoy! For storage keep them in an airtight container and put them in the fridge. Let them warm up a bit before eating them, but slightly chilled is ok (marshmallow should be soft, but chocolate shouldn’t be melting).
I couldn’t tell you how long they last because we ate them all that day…..
Some things we tried we didn’t like
freezing the mushrooms – made them too hard
eating them while they were hot – made them too gooey
Some adjustments we might make the next time
Different peanut butter – chunky was suggested although that is not my favorite
graham crackers
Sweeter chips – I felt the bittersweet chips were a good mix but a sweeter chip may bring out more of the salty in the peanut butter
Let me know if you try them out and what you think. If you make any adjustments to the recipe let me know I’d love to try it out!!
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